6 Reasons Why Late-Stage Private Equity is the Right Opportunity for me Right Now

After 4 years of working within startups, it is time for me to rejoin the venture capital community. I met the ID Fund team last year thanks to an introduction by a friend and mentor, Trey Taylor. Their vision and approach is NEXUS all grown up.

ID stands for Investor Directed. ID Fund was created to provide qualified investors access to high-growth, late-stage private companies on a deal by deal basis. We invest in businesses we believe can create returns for investors in 12 to 24 months. Videos and information for each deal are located on a centralized online portal with the ability to invest with the click of a button.

The ID Fund has invested over $200MM into 25 different companies. Thus far, we have had 4 exits: MeiraGTX came public on the NASDAQ in 2018 through Bank of America, Acreage came public in 2018 on the CSE through Canaccord Genuity, Topgolf was purchased in 2021 by Callaway which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, and Profitero was purchased in 2022 for cash by Publicis which trades publicly in France.

Examples from Portfolio:

• ID Fund provided access for investors to participate in VidMob’s Series D led by Shamrock Capital. VidMob arms brands and marketers with actionable insights and world class talent to measure and optimize creative performance to significantly improve return on ad spend and click-through rates. 70% of the results from digital advertising are driven by the creative. Watch these quick videos from L’Oreal, Johnson & Johnson, and Marriott to see how VidMob’s Intelligent Creative platform is changing their businesses. VidMob Gives leverages the combined power of their creator community and Creative Intelligence tool to create videos with maximum impact for non-profits closely aligned to the UN’s sustainable development goals.
• Another phenomenal company that our investors accessed through the ID Fund is Zipline. Zipline delivers critical and lifesaving products precisely where and when they are needed, safely and reliably, every day, across multiple countries. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart and enabling leading healthcare providers to bring care into the home in the US, Zipline is transforming the way goods move. This Time 200 Best Inventions of 2022 honoree is leading the transition to clean, electric, instant logistics that can decarbonize delivery, decrease road congestion, and reduce fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access for billions of people. Zipline’s plane-style drone is in league of its own with FAA approval to fly beyond the viewing range of the operator as well as over people. It has already proven itself in nearly 500,000 commercial deliveries worldwide since 2016. One commercial delivery is completed every two minutes. Take a few minutes to watch this TED Talk from Zipline’s CEO, Keller Rinaudo; it brought tears to my eyes.

As you can ascertain from our portfolio, these are not startups.

6 reasons why the ID Fund is the right opportunity for me right now: 

1) Stage. You probably think of me as a Florida Startup advocate. I still am. My career has been focused on surviving to successfully raise a Series A. In today’s crazy market, I feel that now is the time to work with companies raising their Series C and D rounds.

Companies are staying private longer. In 1999, the average private company would stay private 4.5 years before having to access the public market for capital; that time has now extended to 12 years in 2020.* Many investors do not want their capital locked up for that long.

Angel investors need a way to complement their early-stage portfolio with investments with a high chance of extraordinary returns in a short period of time. This will recharge their available liquid capital for startup investments.

2) Self-Directed. Investors want control over where their money is invested. Part of the fun is learning about companies with outstanding YoY growth redefining an industry or creating a new category. Private companies create the innovations that change the world. We are investing in what’s next; these are the companies we believe will lead the next bull market.

3) Access to Private Company Deal Flow. The ID Fund’s network of personal relationships includes everyone from the owners of sports franchises, to top NY-based investment bankers, and the team behind Oxford Science Enterprises. Their network built over three decades on long relationships and mutual respect gets the ID Fund into unique opportunities.

The steepest part of the growth curve happens while most companies are private. We are agnostic to industry, but as our co-founder would say, “we do not speculate on hope.” We invest in companies with promising YoY growth that will have a lot of options that we strongly believe will create liquidity and returns for our investors within 12 to 24 months.

4) Founders Trust Us. We follow other smart investors and fill out the rest of the team’s round without bothering them. We are able to collect all the information we need very quickly to populate the deal room on the portal, and the founders can focus on scaling their team and growing their business.

If a portfolio company needs a bridge round or a team wants to do a secondary offering, they turn to us. Which gives our investors access to deploy more capital into companies that have already demonstrated success.

5) The Portal. Some of you may remember the NEXUS portal; the ID Fund’s portal is a fully transactional realization of that dream. Investors can click the green Invest button to confirm the investment amount and sign remotely. Videos, deal documents, K1s, quarterly updates and audited financials are all accessible at your fingertips. And we are just getting started. New versions of the online portal and app will be released this year.

At the end of the day, the most important resource for all of us is time. The portal was built with that in mind to make it easy and efficient. We invite a limited number of people onto our portal to view our deals to allow access for those who are interested. The portal’s sign up process is quick. Contact me if you are interested in reviewing current and upcoming deals.

6) Working from Home. I am loving every mom moment! The ID Fund is based in Boca Raton, but I’ll be able to speak with investors from our home in Lake Mary. Don’t be surprised if you hear some giggles or squeaks from 6 month old Ms. Quinn. I’ll be visiting South Florida periodically to work with the team in person.

Categorized in: Work

This post was written by Elevate, Inc.