Ovinto: Preparing for a series a venture capital investment round

Abstract

Late 2018, Frederick Ronse, founder and CEO of Ovinto, was going over the options to finance the next development stage of his scale-up. Ovinto is active in big data analytics and IoT in the rail freight industry. It had now gained traction and had lined up some highly visible customers. Its recent partnership with SAP, the global software solutions company, was also a major step forward. Now was the time to push the company on a high growth trajectory, but some EUR5 million to EUR10 million was needed to achieve this. Important questions crossed his mind. How much should Ovinto try to raise? What would a reasonable valuation be, that would be agreeable to his current investors - and himself - but that would not scare off potential investors? And who might be interested investors, that could add value to his scale-up? Frederick understood that raising professional venture capital was not only a financial decision, but a highly strategic decision as well.

This case won the Entrepreneurship category at The Case Centre Awards and Competitions 2023.