FIRM offers at matchmaking expo
Entrepreneurs secured more than $1 billion in investment at the Financial Information and Real-time Matchmaking (FIRM) expo on Saturday, according to Joseph Cox, executive director of the Growth Secretariat at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
“Over 75 per cent of the entrepreneurs who made pitches were successful in securing investments,” said Cox.
The expo was designed to alleviate some of the problems associated with accessing financing, and gave 26 local entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their business plans to a panel of potential investors.
At the end of each pitch, the investors were required to complete a ‘review sheet’ which indicated if there was a ‘definite match’, ‘need for further talks’, or ‘no interest’.
Once a match was identified or interest indicated, contingent on further talks, then the matter became a third-party issue between the investor and the pitcher, Cox told the Business Observer.
Initially, over 48 entrepreneurs had registered online to participate, with the final number of businesses that made their pitches being selected after a series of capacity-building workshops.
“After participating in the workshops, a number of them [businesses] also opted to differ their pitch, in an effort to further refine their business plans,” Cox said.
Noting that FIRM is not only geared towards start-ups and small businesses, Cox said that some pitchers have made requests for investments upwards of $750 million.
Citing confidential agreements which protect against the disclosure of the pitchers and investors, Cox said that the panel typically consists of a maximum of five members, which include private investors, venture capitalists, along with representatives from financial institutions.
The panel is rotated based on the areas of interest expressed by the investor, in an effort to create multi-level matching of information, expertise and finances between investors and businesses.
The success of the FIRM expo must be considered in the context that the investments represented Kingston alone, Cox said.
Starting December, the PIOJ is hoping to host a number of expos across the island, using the same model.
While a schedule is still to be finalised, St Catherine seems to be the next likely stop on the tour.
“Currently, domestic credit in Jamaica is less than 35 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is well below international benchmarks. This points to difficulty in accessing credit and is reflective of inadequate funding for investments and entrepreneurial activities, which, in part, is occasioned by an information deficit,” Cox said at the launch.
FIRM is a collaborative effort between the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) and the PIOJ, and aims to assist people with viable business ideas, or existing businesses that are under-funded and lack the requisite collateral or market information to access financing for their ventures.