INVESTMENT & GROWTH PROGRAM
What is Holt Xchange?
Holt Xchange is a global venture capital fund investing in early/seed stage entrepreneurs across the globe. Holt invests in fintech applications including digital banking, digital lending, payments, digital ID, real estate tech / proptech, regtech, cybersecurity, wealthtech, data analytics, infrastructure platforms, etc.
Holt Xchange invests via its virtual investment & portfolio growth program, held once every year during July-Sept.
Over the last 4 years, Holt has backed 39 companies across 10 countries.
BENEFITS INCLUDE
CAPITAL
Up to $135,000 in equity financing from Holt Fund, as well as the potential to unlock further follow-on investment via SPVs / angel network.
NETWORK
Direct access to over 600+ Holt Advisors that represent external Angels and Series A investors, Financial Institutions, and tech/product experts.
SUPPORT
Weekly support from our Holt staff regarding key company focus areas, and any team expansion requirements, navigating regulator barriers, hiring at the executive & advisory level, supporting hiring funding grants (+$100K), etc..
SERVICE PROVIDERS
30+ service providers for +$200K worth of credits or discounts.
investment criteria
Holt backs passionate and domain experienced entrepreneurs solving critical business problems in the fintech domain, targeting a large market.
Some of the key parameters we look at:
- Strong team with domain expertise and complementary skill-set
- Post-revenue seed-stage / pre-series A, with or without some angel/pre-seed funding
- Targeting fintech business applications, preferably B2B / B2B2C
- Can be registered / based out of any location but targeting large markets
- Must be open to our 3-round investment grading process
- Must be keen to leverage our virtual investment & portfolio growth program
investment grading process
Holt is a value-add investor and takes pride in its 600+ global advisory network through which it adds significant value to its portfolio companies. To ensure that Holt can add value, it follows a 3-round grading process to screen, evaluate and match with Holt’s investment focus and advisory network’s skills.
The 3-round process is as follow:
Round 1 – Initial screening
- Entrepreneurs apply on F6S by providing a few details via our investment review form
- Top 100 shortlisted entrepreneurs move to Round 2
- All entrepreneurs (including the not-shortlisted ones) receive screening feedback for Round 1
Round 2 – Video Interview
- Entrepreneurs are matched with our global advisory pool and 1-2 advisors are paired with each entrepreneur
- 45-minute video interview with an interview panel comprising the advisors & 1 Holt investment team member
- Interview panel shares feedback which is collated and reviewed
- Top 30 shortlisted entrepreneurs (that agree to Holt’s investment structure) move to Round 3
- All entrepreneurs (including the not-shortlisted ones) receive interview feedback for Round 2
Round 3 – Selection Day
- 2-day speed dating event
- There are 16 panels with each panel comprising 4-6 advisors
- Each entrepreneur pitches to each panel, followed by Q&A, thus ~100+ interactions for each entrepreneur
- Each panel provides feedback on each entrepreneur
- Collated feedback is reviewed along with internal analysis
- Top 15 entrepreneurs are invited for alignment on investment terms
- Top 1% entrepreneurs (who are aligned on the investment terms) are invited for the accelerated legal due-diligence & business hygiene checks
- All cleared entrepreneurs receive the investment letter and invitation to growth program
TIMELINE FOR HOLT'S investment & growth program
After Round 3 (Selection Day), Top 1% companies make it to the program.
Holt invests up to CAD$135k as follow:
Equity for CAD$35k cash subjective to valuation based on the stage of your company and discounted for the value of the program
- Evaluate the entrepreneur performance /milestones achieved towards the end of the program
- Another cash investment of up to CAD$ 100k, subject to milestone achievement & due-diligence
3-Month Virtual Growth Program
- Alignment on the business milestones the entrepreneur wants to achieve to best achieve growth (Revenue and funding)
- 1 hour weekly meetings for 12 weeks
- Each meeting is absolutely customized as per the entrepreneur’s business objectives with focus on business development, fund-raising, tech & product refinement, global expansion, etc.
- Weekly curated one-on-one introduction to Holt’s 500+ global advisory network for specific business objectives and Holt participates to push for output from these meetings
- Software credits worth CAD$ 200k+ from global providers including HubSpot, Brex, AWS, etc.
In-Person in Montreal
- Each portfolio company is invited to our global Fintech Show comprising speed dating, demo day, and networking activities with our global advisory network
- Check out the recap from last year’s in-person Fintech Show
FOLLOW-ON FUNDING
After portfolio companies obtain their initial investment and complete our value added due diligence program, we assess fit for follow-on investment in which we would co-Lead the Seed and the Series A rounds.