Mobilus Labs’ $2.7m raise | Let’s talk about portfolio fundraising support

In the spirit of successful fundraising, we wanted to share with you:

• Mobilus Labs — who they are, what they do & what’s to come
• How we offer fundraising support through Wayraise & why it works
• In-house fundraisers — why they should be in every portfolio manager’s toolbox
• How Mountside Ventures do fundraising differently

👋 Meet Mobilus Labs — pioneering new and safe means of communication in extreme environments

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Mobilus Labs is reinventing voice communications, making it safer, clearer, and more reliable in the toughest environments across construction, manufacturing, and the energy sectors.

In January, it raised $2.7m with Chevron Technology Ventures, Vinci VC, Ascension Ventures, Schox VC, Entrepreneur First, and members of the UK Stanford Angels.

The funds will drive the next chapter of the company’s impressive story, penciled to scale the development of its Industry 4.0 voice communication platform, as well as its international deployment & industry expansion. Target geographies are the United States and Europe in the energy, construction, chemicals, and manufacturing sectors.

Alongside scaling its global footprint, Mobilus Labs is also scaling its team in a big way, with open roles across software engineering, hardware, commercial, and product management. Visit its job page here.

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Mobilus are making big moves in the coming year — watch their space!

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💸 Wayraise — our funding readiness programme

For those that are a little confused as to what “Wayraise” is, it’s a fundraising readiness programme created to increase the support we offer our portfolio companies throughout their fundraising journey.

As we’ve grown over the last decade, so have our companies and their needs. Last year, we decided to refresh the support we offer our portfolio, aligning it with their current needs. Where we couldn’t support in-house, we brought in strategic partners like Mountside Ventures, and thus, the Wayraise programme was born.

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✅ Why Wayraise works

We could list out a number of reasons as to why having an in-house fundraiser and a funding-readiness programme may make sense for you and your founders, but it’s probably best to hear straight from a founder who joined the programme and raised a round.

“The whole programme was excellent, to be honest. A key value of the programme for me was digging a bit more into some of the psychology of investors, how they’re making decisions, and how I can structure a fundraising campaign that leverages this understanding to maximize getting an investment.

I also found the learning received to be very actionable. The biggest takeaway however was understanding the level of preparedness that is needed BEFORE fundraising and more importantly why that preparation needs to be there in order to demonstrate that we’re running a serious campaign.

Finally, the insights and direct advice on our financial projections and a structure that makes it easy for investors and associates to digest was also extremely beneficial.” — Jordan McRae, CEO & Founder of Mobilus Labs

Jordan’s happy, we’re happy — now over to you to think about the kind of fundraising support you want to offer to your portfolio ;)

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⚡ Mountside Ventures — how they do fundraising differently

“Over the course of our 6-week programme, we focus on equipping the founders and their teams with the tools they need to run a successful fundraising campaign.

This includes outlining a typical process — what’s involved, who the key players are and how to succeed.

Dissecting the funding landscape helps founders understand how different investors work and think, why some VCs would be more suited to their company than others, and the best ways to get in front of them.

To be as dynamic as possible, on top of the workshops we also provided 1–2–1 support to cater to different companies’ needs — this usually involves anything from critiquing and challenging them on their documents, ensuring they are fit-for-purpose, to working with them on articulating their value and investor propositions.” — Alex Reed, Partner at Mountside Ventures

Interested in working with Mountside Ventures? Get in touch with them here.

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💬 From our Head of Portfolio to yours

Wayraise was born in 2021 and we have already had two full fundraising programmes. It has become a very relevant and valued part of the post investment support we offer our portfolio companies, with their “next” round consistently being one of the biggest challenges they face as they scale. We expect great results as our companies go through their future fundraising cycles with this additional support. Look out for more successful round updates from our companies! — Victoria Navazo Morrondo, Head of Finance and Portfolio at Wayra UK

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🏁 Ready, set, fundraise!

So there you have it, a snapshot into our fantastic company Mobilus Labs, and our approach to offering fundraising support to our portfolio.

We hope it helps!

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If you made it to the end, thank you for reading, I hope it was useful :)

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