Ready, set, funded! A practical roadmap to securing business finance

Entrepreneurs and aspiring founders took part in the workshop “Getting Funded: A Practical Guide to Securing Financing” facilitated by Hannah Acquah of TKC Africa at the Vienna Business Agency.

The workshop brought together experts from Austria’s startup, legal and funding ecosystem to provide entrepreneurs with practical insights into raising capital, becoming investment ready, accessing grants and public funding, choosing the right financing instruments, protecting intellectual property and exploring alternative financing such as crowdfunding.

A central message emerged throughout the event: access to finance is rarely just about finding someone willing to provide money. Founders must first build businesses that are ready to receive it.

Becoming investment-ready before approaching investors

Kambis Kohansal Vajargah, Head of Startup-Services and Deputy Head of Founder-Services at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ), addressed this challenge in his presentation, “Fundraising, Done Right.”

Drawing on more than 15 years of experience founding and advising startups, he structured his intervention around four areas: becoming investment-ready, understanding what investors examine, selecting an appropriate financing instrument, and managing the fundraising process itself.

His presentation made clear that fundraising begins long before an entrepreneur enters a room to pitch.

The underlying structure of a company matters. Among other issues, founders need to consider their legal form, ownership structure, intellectual property and regulatory obligations. Kohansal Vajargah contrasted Austria’s GmbH with the newer FlexCo structure, noting features of the latter that can make it attractive to startups and growth companies, including greater flexibility around employee participation and share transfers.

He also cautioned against complicated ownership structures. A messy capitalisation table can introduce friction during investment due diligence, while unresolved intellectual-property questions can create problems precisely when a founder is trying to close a deal.

But legal structure alone does not make a business investable. Investors also examine the people and opportunity behind the company. His presentation placed particular emphasis on the team and market, alongside the business model, competitive advantage and traction.

Fundraising, he argued, should be approached systematically rather than as an occasional search for money. Founders should develop an investor pipeline based on fit, seek warm introductions where possible, expect the process to take months, and maintain relationships even when an investor initially says no.

There is no single “ideal” source of finance

Markus Weiss, Managing Partner at MINTED and a specialist in grants and startup financing, widened the conversation beyond venture capital.

His presentation challenged a common assumption among founders: that there is one ideal financing route. Instead, the appropriate financing mix depends on factors including the product or project, the costs that need financing, the company’s development stage and the characteristics of the applicant. Possible sources can include revenue, grants, loans, business angels and crowd investment.

That distinction is particularly important for early-stage companies.

For example, Weiss illustrated how an early-stage research and development project could potentially have a substantial part of eligible project costs supported by grants, with the remainder coming from equity. Crucially, grant support relates to the project, rather than simply providing unrestricted funding for the company.

He also showed that funding opportunities change as a company moves through its lifecycle. Programmes and instruments suitable during ideation or R&D may be different from those available during scaling or internationalisation.

For founders, the implication is significant: the financing question should not simply be “Where can I get money?” but rather “What type of capital is appropriate for what I am trying to finance at this particular stage?”

Weiss also encouraged entrepreneurs to think beyond an investor’s cheque. The right investor can bring industry knowledge, networks, infrastructure, customer access and connections to future investors. His presentation advised founders to research investors carefully, tailor their approach and begin building relationships well before the money is urgently needed.

Legal readiness is part of fundraising readiness

Attorney Miriam Imarhiagbe of nova*legal brought another essential dimension to the discussion: founders must understand exactly what investors are investing in.

Her presentation, “Legal Readiness for Raising Capital,” began with a deceptively simple question: Who owns this? That question extends from the company itself to its contracts and intellectual property.

The legal form chosen by an entrepreneur can have important implications for liability and the ability to receive equity investment. Her comparison of sole proprietorships, partnerships and GmbH/FlexCo structures highlighted the different characteristics founders should consider when building a company intended to attract outside capital.

Intellectual property was another recurring issue. Logos, websites, software, photographs, designs, databases and content can all represent intellectual property, while patents, trademarks and designs may involve registration and copyright receives protection differently.

For investors, clarity matters. Who owns the technology? Who owns the brand? Have founders transferred relevant rights to the company? Are agreements among founders properly documented?

The presentation illustrated what a more investment-ready answer could look like: a company able to explain its ownership structure, identify its intellectual property, demonstrate that relevant rights belong to the company, and state clearly how much capital it seeks and what equity it proposes in exchange.

Imarhiagbe also distinguished between different investment vehicles — including loans, equity and convertible instruments — underscoring that receiving capital can create very different legal and financial relationships depending on the instrument selected.

Crowdfunding and alternative routes to capital

International funding specialist Dr Klaus Tritscher, founder of Entri consulting, focused on alternative routes to raising capital, including crowdfunding.

Tritscher argued that conventional bank financing can be difficult for projects considered risky and presented crowdfunding as one possible route through which entrepreneurs can mobilise their own networks of supporters, customers, suppliers, friends and other backers.

His presentation distinguished among crowd-donating, crowd-lending and crowd-investing, each serving different purposes and creating different relationships between a venture and those providing the money.

But crowdfunding should not be mistaken for easy money.

According to Tritscher’s presentation, a campaign still requires careful project preparation, a business plan, an appropriate legal entity and a platform to administer the process. And while a platform may provide infrastructure and access to a wider network, attracting investors and communicating the project remains fundamentally the entrepreneur’s responsibility.

More broadly, he identified project preparation, a credible business plan, an entrepreneur’s own financial contribution, alignment with funding requirements, an experienced team and credible potential customers or off-takers as important elements of funding readiness.

Of particular relevance to the audience, Tritscher stated that businesses legally registered in Austria have access to the same funding programmes regardless of whether their founders come from the diaspora. His presentation noted that there are no separate funding programmes specifically for diaspora entrepreneurs, but that the programmes available to Austrian businesses are also accessible to diaspora-founded businesses that meet the applicable conditions.

From presentations to the pitch floor

Then Hannah Acquah moved the event beyond presentations by giving participating entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their businesses and receive live feedback.

That practical component brought many of the day’s lessons together. A compelling idea alone is not enough: founders need to articulate the problem they are solving, demonstrate who will pay for the solution, explain the size and attractiveness of the market, present a credible team and show clearly what they are asking from potential investors or partners.

Another participant who pitched his business also had an impromptu discussion with Kambis after the workshop about potential investment in his business. For Hannah, these are exactly the kinds of practical outcomes we want from these sessions – not simply providing information, but giving entrepreneurs tools they can immediately use.

Finance, networks and preparation go together