{"id":42167,"date":"2023-10-20T15:19:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/safetyculture-ceo-luke-anear-shares-three-fundraising-tips-for-startups-after-closing-a-30-million-series-b-round-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:19:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:19:14","slug":"safetyculture-ceo-luke-anear-shares-three-fundraising-tips-for-startups-after-closing-a-30-million-series-b-round-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/safetyculture-ceo-luke-anear-shares-three-fundraising-tips-for-startups-after-closing-a-30-million-series-b-round-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"SafetyCulture CEO Luke Anear shares three fundraising tips for startups after closing a $30 million series B round – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SafetyCulture<\/div>\n

This month Queensland-founded startup SafetyCulture closed one of the biggest high-growth venture investment rounds of the year, with $30 million in the bank from a prominent group of global VCs including Index Ventures.<\/p>\n

On closing the series B<\/a> round, SafetyCutlure founder Luke Anear says the startup hadn\u2019t initially been trying to raise capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never even had a pitch deck,\u201d Anear tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, it all started when a new US connection got so excited by the startup that he opened a floodgate for investment opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce he got involved, everything changed,\u201d says Anear.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was kind of like this rainmaker. All of a sudden we had US VCs flying to the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a pivotal moment for SafetyCulture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat forced us to really consider whether or not it would be wise to take funding,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Always ask: do you really need it?<\/h3>\n

Without jumping straight in for quick money, Anear says the SatefyCulture team took a mature and carefully considered approach to ensure the startup continues in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what, we\u2019ve stayed focused on building something that can change the world and investors want to be a part of that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Knowing the business could benefit greatly by building up capabilities in product development and making some key hires in strategy and authorisation to transition SafetyCulture from startup phase to a more formalised company, Anear decided to take on new investment.<\/p>\n

Be weary of investors rushing to close<\/h3>\n

Anear says it\u2019s critical to get to know investors and their intentions before signing them up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to be weary of investors that are pushing to close,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a marriage that you can\u2019t get out of. Look to a range of different investors and consider other options to increase revenue before considering investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

With investors like Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, Anear says SafetyCulture has gained incredible support, in addition to capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s consistently providing a lot of direction and support for myself and the team,\u201d says Anear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to find VCs that either are or have been operators because their advice is so much more relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of rushing into a deal with their newest investment partners Index Ventures, Anear says the startup spent a good eight months really getting to know them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best ones will help you even if there\u2019s not guarantee of an investment happening,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gravitate towards people we respect and admire. We live and die by the core user experience of our app, we needed a partner that understood that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep it simple<\/h3>\n

When bringing on new investors, Anear says it\u2019s important to keep the terms simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time you taken on funding you\u2019re resetting the expectations of new investors,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep terms simple. Advocate for terms to be very vanilla and not complex at all so any future rounds can remain simple as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn and iTunes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month Queensland-founded startup SafetyCulture closed one of the biggest high-growth venture investment rounds of the year, with $30 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}