When was the last time you saw a Funder Manager push the boundary of what’s possible?
Innovation of fund management is a conversation rarely discussed amongst managers as they’re typically the ones investing in the ones innovating.
At Haatch, we believe that innovating as a fund is in our DNA; after all, we’re all entrepreneurs and operators, so here is our 2023 year in review.
Market Innovation
Being the first to market in several substantial areas this year shows our commitment to offering a differentiated product and driving outsized returns for our investors.
Benefiting From Legislation
We became the first SEIS fund to fundraise and invest SEIS capital under the new SEIS limits, which were announced in September 2022 and were valid from April 6th 2023.
We moved quickly; our SEIS Fund opened for fundraising in October 2022, just days following the budget announcement and our very first investment under the new limits was made into Quester, alongside Supernode Global, completing on 6th April 2023 – the first day this was legally possible!
This meant investors could invest up to £200,000 per year, and companies could raise £250,000 for the first time. Our pre-seed investment size increased from £150,000 to £310,000 “overnight”, when coupled with our British Business Investments £10,000,000 commitment.
Bigger cheques mean we take more meaningful ownership, can lead larger rounds, fulfil our role as a lead investor and ensure companies have at least 18 months’ runway at the point of our pre-seed investment.
Scaling Fund Operations
Our job is simple: to generate outsized returns for our investors. This means we need to focus as much of our time as possible on sourcing, assessing and performing diligence on investment opportunities as well as supporting them post-investment.
To do this, we optimise every aspect of our business. So the opportunity, through a partnership that has been 3 years in the making, to work with Further to build and launch the leading VC operating system and become the first live client was something we were very proud of when we launched back in May.
Through our partnership with Further, we can deliver world-class investor onboarding, management & updates efficiently, timely and in engaging formats.
The Further platform extends much deeper into the operations of the Fund, it’s our operating system and without it, we would have needed to add dedicated resources to the team to manage the operations of the fund, instead, we’ve continued to invest resources in supporting our portfolio.
Democratisation & Access
Democratising access to venture capital is something, as a fund, we’re passionate about, but in the regulated environment we operate, not something that is always easy.
This year, we became the first-ever SEIS fund to launch on Crowdcube at a 5x lower minimum investment level than anywhere else in the market. This means more (suitable & eligible) investors than ever could invest alongside us in our 2024/25 tax year SEIS Fund.
The results were incredible, welcoming over 230 new investors to Haatch.
Providing a new opportunity for Crowdcube’s membership, outside of the (typically) Consumer EIS investment opportunities, increasing diversification and providing a managed portfolio is something which has never been done before – keep a look out for our EIS Fund in the future!
The Haatch Up
To provide our Investors with more insight into the wider Haatch portfolio, market conditions, how we make decisions and what our plans are, we partnered with portfolio company Auddy to launch our exclusive investor podcast.
Delivered to our investors every month, we’ve now completed and published 4 episodes since going live in September, on a range of topics;
- Episode One – Refined investment strategy
- Episode Two – Portfolio support, banking crisis and not investing in buzzwords
- Episode Three – GTM, sales and being a revenue leader
- Episode Four – End-to-end investment process
Delivering Performance
Innovation and exceptional execution start at the fund level and then move to portfolio companies. Our incredible founders have navigated increasingly tough market conditions to deliver a phenomenal year.
At the top level, we’ve seen many companies raise rounds this year at higher valuations. Our cash AUM, ie the amount of money invested into the fund, has had a record year. The Haatch portfolio now stands at 73 companies, up from 54 this time last year and there have been 0 failures in the Haatch portfolio this year.
This year, we’ve invested alongside world-class VCs, including but not limited to;
On a company-by-company basis, there is too much to talk through in this post, so here are just a few examples we’re excited by;
- AeroCloud – $12.6m Series A led by Stage 2 Capital
- Trumpet – 400% YOY Growth
- Denturly – Delivering a 6.6x uplift on our original investment
- CareLineLive – Acquiring UDMS
- Financielle – Expanded to over 180 countries
- Bodyswaps – Hosting Sir Nick Clegg
- Toothfairy – Flagship partnership with Canada Life
- Thingtrax – Blockbuster £4.3m Seed Round
Brand & Investment Strategy
We announced our refreshed investment strategy following 4 years of active investing and 70+ investments with many learnings in the process. The right time followed what felt like a reset in the venture ecosystem impacting fellow investors, underlying investors and what it took to succeed as a business.
Historically, our mandate was investing in businesses driving digital transformation which led to successes like Iterate AI, Veritonic, Deazy & Re-Flow. Our strategy evolved into investing in B2B software companies solving deep pains in the present and/or creating a significant opportunity for businesses, which we believe was a better articulation of what we were already investing in.
Our role following our investment also expanded to helping companies reach £1m of revenue through all things sales support.
To do this, we’ve continued to deliver on our GTM network, on-boarding and scaling it, as we say; We accelerate Pre-Seed B2B SaaS companies to their first £1m ARR and build the infrastructure to get to £10m+.
The Future
This isn’t a financial promotion, so we’re not going to hit you with a bunch of marketing messages asking you to review our IM however what we can say is 2024 is shaping up to be a very interesting year, with 3 core themes;
- Liquidity
- Expansion
- Diffrentation
Today, Haatch is known to investors for managing tax-efficient SEIS & EIS Funds, by the end of 2024 Haatch will be known for managing a magnitude of funds, which include, but are not limited to tax-efficient funds – our first announcement on the future of Haatch is due before the end of Q1.
For entrepreneurs, we want to continue to be known as great B2B SaaS Pre-Seed and Seed investors, who never charge portfolio companies a fee, and provide unrivalled support on the journey to their first £1m ARR and build the infrastructure to get to £10m+.
2024 will continue to be a year where Haatch drives innovation at the fund manager level – expect many more firsts in the market, some that we shout about and some that we don’t.