Improving cost efficiency and ensuring safety in the logistics field. A company seeking to access the capital of the Catapult investment fund, created on Wednesday by the business consulting firm MVD Consulting and the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII), will have to respond to some of these two characteristics, which is aimed at highly mature ventures.
In this first phase, the fund has already committed some US$ 450,000, but the two-year perspective - the duration of the agreement between MVD Consulting and ANII - is to raise the amount to US$ 1 million, said Mario Tucci, partner and co-founder of the consultancy firm.
According to Tucci, a third of the capital to be invested comes from MVD Consulting (80% from its clients) and the rest from ANII. According to Tucci, they are still in the process of finding investors, so he estimates that the figure will grow during the period of the agreement.
Start-ups must not only be up and running, but they must have a scalable solution with an international outlook. "They have to aim to expand their market, get new customers or go international. We believe there is a lot to do in logistics; above all, there is room for innovation. Uruguay has immovable natural attractions and a pending inefficiency; routes in poor condition, problems in distribution, delivery that delivers with danger, and so on. We believe that there is room for improvement in services with disintermediation, in delivering a better logistics experience that is traceable, accurate and reliable. Most of them are technology-based, but this is not exclusive," he clarified.
The project submission process is open and interested parties have already registered. The first pitch to investors and the ANII will take place between February and March 2018 and the selected company will receive around US$ 100,000, plus a possible second investment of 50% of the amount, depending on pre-agreed milestones. "Entrepreneurs will be able to choose where to invest and we expect the return on investment to double in three to five years".
In the style of an accelerator, MVD Consulting will also use its resources as a business consultancy to help the projects grow. "We will help by providing advice and what we call third-party expertise, i.e. our know-how that we have acquired over the years with our clients. The objective is that the companies make the best use of the money to grow their business", the executive remarked.
Although the entrepreneurs who will participate as investors will not be part of the consultancy process, they will be consulted on a case-by-case basis to assist in the selection of ventures.
Source: El País
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