StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe don\u2019t necessarily follow the classic model where you need to have significant US-based money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spotlight Reporting\u2019s software draws data from Xero, Quickbooks and other accounting servies to create reports, forecasts and dashboards.<\/p>\n
Since raising the seed money in mid-2014, Francis says the startup has enjoyed 250% year-on-year growth and its five-person team has grown to 31 employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had nice, steady growth and we\u2019re growing really strongly in New Zealand and Australia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Thanks to this, Spotlight Reporting got a place in the 2015 Deloitte Tech 500 and the Fast 50 Rising Stars.<\/p>\n
With a headquarters in Wellington, Spotlight Reporting now has offices in Australia, the UK and the US, and the recent capital injection will go towards building out these product teams around the world.<\/p>\n
Francis says that while venture capital in the APAC region has rapidly increased, it\u2019s important for founders to take the time to find an investor that is also the right strategic fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most significant learning from this funding round was that strategic capital is harder to come by, even though Australasian VC funds are better capitalised now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to have good numbers and a great team to attract the right talent. And you have to assume it\u2019s going to take twice as long as you think.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long process for any entrepreneur to get the right money. There\u2019s always capital available but you want smart capital that can open doors for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn and SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand-based startup Spotlight Reporting has closed a $5 million Series A round as it looks to become a market<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60317,"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\/42454"}],"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=42454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}