1) What is angel investment?
Angel investments are investments into startup companies, made in a very early stage of a company, sometimes even pre-revenue. It is called angel investments since the investors act like angels. Investing in early stage companies shows lots of confidence in the company and higher risks are involved compared to investing in established companies.
2) What is the difference between angels and venture capitals?
Venture Capital funds (VC’s) also provide financial capital to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. They often invest in companies which have shown traction and revenue, while angel investors even invest in companies who only have a business plan. Additionally, the amount of funding provided by VC’s is often larger than the amount angel investors provide.
3) What is often the amount angel investors put into startups and what is the amount Crystal Horse often fund?
The amount is in the 5 or 6 digits, the exact amount of funding depends on the nature and the stage of the business.
4) What does Crystal Horse mean with providing free services?
Crystal Horse helps the startups with various business related activities that typically includes legal, accounting, marketing, strategic and technical areas. Crystal Horse never charges the startups for its services.
5) What kind of company is Crystal Horse looking for?
As a rule of thumb, we invest in everything that we can understand and where we can add value. Most of our investments are in the internet/web/mobile space.
6) Apart from funding and the services that Crystal Horse offer to its startups, what kind of value can Crystal Horse further add?
There is a certain synergy between the companies in our portfolio that we can leverage on. Besides funding and mentoring, we also help our startups to grow and scale through the sharing of experiences and contacts with one another.
7) Does Crystal Horse apply for funding as well?
Due to the close connections that Crystal Horse has with various government agencies and departments in Singapore and around SEA, we are aware of the different funding schemes provided by the government for startups. When a company is in the stage of applying for a grant, Crystal Horse will assist in fulfilling this process.
8) What happens if I need more funding than Crystal Horse usually funds?
Apart from assisting in applying for grants, Crystal Horse has a regional network of genuine Angels and Venture Capital funds. If we are interested in the company and more funding is needed to bring the company to the next stage, Crystal Horse will tap into its contacts of investors.
9) How much equity Crystal Horse often require?
The amount of equity Crystal Horse looks for differs from case to case. We don’t take a too large share of a company, simply because we want the founders to stay motivated and drive their businesses! As we are one of the official iJam incubators, we do not take more than 30% of the equity in a company that has been successfully granted fundings from the iJam Reload Scheme offered by MDA.