Early-stage businesses that succeed
have a marketing strategy as brilliant as their product

Strategic Marketing Advice and Investment for Early-Stage High Growth Companies.

CFSG Ventures is the venture capital arm of the Concept Financial Services Group.

Our focus is on providing start-ups and early-stage companies with capital as well as the strategic marketing advice they need to rapidly and cost-effectively acquire and retain customers. We refer to this as building a marketing growth engine – a logical, lean and scalable method that a business uses to grow its customer base.

While many promising companies have the skills to build exciting products, they often lack the key ingredient needed for success, a profitable user base. This is where we make a difference.

CFSG Ventures is an innovative, multi-disciplinary approach, one that merges finance experience with creative flair gained within some of the world’s leading marketing and communications companies.

The  team includes experienced company founders, corporate finance professionals and marketing specialists, and we look to become actively engaged in the companies that we invests in. CFSG Ventures are not passive investors.

In addition to providing capital and strategic marketing advice, CFSG has significant experience helping young and ambitious companies raise capital as well as complete initial public offerings and merger & acquisition transactions as they continue to grow.

For a detailed case study of CFSG working with a high-growth start-up company all the way through to a $100m-plus exit, please click here

Contact Us

 

 

Some Recent CFSG Ventures Investments

  • Australia’s No.1 specialty barista staffing solution for cafes, restaurants and venues.
  • Predicting the outcome of sporting events through advanced machine learning.
  • Authentic temporary tattoos. Made in Australia. Worn by the world.
  •             Fully managed, end-to-end services that build better learning experiences.

What We Look For

CFSG Ventures typically looks to invest an initial tranche of between $50,000 to $150,000 into a company that meets the following criteria:

  • High growth industry: companies operating in industries and sectors that are leveraging clear technological &/or societal trends. These companies may also have realistic global expansion plans but that is not essential.
  • Existing customer base: companies that have a product in-market, existing customers and that are earning some level of revenue. This is essential ‘proof of concept.’
  • Customer acquisition focus: where companies are intending to allocate all, or at least most, of the capital provided towards customer acquisition activities rather than product development.
  • Exceptional people: company founders and/or a team made up of passionate, committed and knowledgeable people who are open to collaborating to achieve success.

How We Work

CFSG Ventures does not have a pre-determined minimum equity stake for its investments and does not necessarily insist on securing a board seat. However, we do seek to become actively involved in the companies we invest in, particularly in terms of helping investee companies build out marketing growth engines. It’s something we have a lot of experience with.

We typically commence any discussion with a no-obligation discovery session where we seek to gain an overview of a prospective investment’s business and to also provide an overview of our approach. If we remain mutually interested at that point, we will assemble a detailed questionnaire that will probe the business in detail. If it remains of interest, we will put forward a proposal.

Once we agree to the terms, we will initiate formal due diligence and look to complete our investment as quickly as possible.

 

Our Approach To Marketing

As experienced founders ourselves, we know what most marketing agencies are like. They recommend what’s in their comfort zone, they focus on every metric other than sales and they typically slink off when results don’t materialise.

Why? Because agencies have no ‘skin in the game’. You are just an account. One of many. Replaceable.

At CFSG Ventures, our success is your success. We are investors and marketers in equal measure, which means we aim to collaboratively build real business success, not just superficial clicks and likes.

We work collaboratively with each company and follow a rigorous and systematic process to build a bespoke solution for each. This marketing growth engine will serve as a company’s central platform for future growth.

Let’s Talk

At CFSG Ventures we only want to engage with businesses where we can genuinely help to accelerate their growth. Our goal isn’t to earn short-term fees on a marketing campaign that doesn’t fire but rather to potentially receive a significant long-term return on our investment of both time and capital.

If you would like to learn more about CFSG Ventures or if you have a relevant opportunity for which you are seeking funding and advice, we invite you to contact us.