Fundraise readiness is the work completed before an investor process opens: the operating model, the narrative and materials, the data room and the target list. Zenith builds all four and sequences the outreach, so the raise runs to a timetable rather than to whichever investor replies first.
Teams raising institutional equity for the first time against a metric set investors will define for them.
Profitable companies raising externally for the first time, where the accounts were never built to be read by an investor.
Teams whose last round closed despite the process rather than because of it.
Companies that should be running grant, venture debt or strategic capital in parallel with the equity, not after it.
Phase
Phase
Phase
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Typical duration | Preparation 4 – 8 weeks; process 8 – 16 weeks to term sheet |
| Who embeds | Fundraise readiness lead plus a modelling analyst |
| Raise size | USD 1m – 30m |
| Reporting cadence | Weekly pipeline review through the live process |
| Deliverables | Operating model, deck, data room, target list, FAQ, term sheet analysis |
| Handover point | Signed term sheet, with diligence support scoped separately |
Commercial model
A fixed preparation fee, with an optional monthly fee to run the process. Where the mandate extends into a placement, that is documented separately and subject to local licensing.
Equity and debt investors read the same cohort data. Building it once, properly, is what lets a company run both processes without contradicting itself.
Translating a technical programme into a financeable plan: milestone-linked use of proceeds, dilution scenarios, and a data room that answers the second question as well as the first.
Model, materials and channel evidence assembled so the raise runs on numbers a buyer would recognise.
Development-stage raises where the model, the risk allocation map and the permitting timetable have to agree before the first investor meeting.
Getting credit for equity already in the ground: capex spent, plant commissioned and contracts signed, presented as de-risking rather than as sunk cost.
Equity for acquisition programmes, where the pipeline, the financing plan and the return maths need to be one document rather than three.
Consolidating a cross-jurisdiction group ahead of a pilot plant equity raise
Equity raise financial model and group financial preparation for a pilot coated spherical graphite processing plant with associated upstream mining operations
USD 45,000,000
pre-money valuation
Rebuilding the finance function underneath a Series A extension
Equity round with a parallel non-dilutive debt workstream
Resizing a seed round from the roadmap to the milestone
103-item diligence tracker, data room build, and a resized seed raise following indication prioritisation
Nine months. Below six the negotiating position is visibly weaker and the terms reflect it, regardless of how good the business is.
We build the target list and sequence the outreach, and use relationships where they exist. The process is designed to work without depending on any single introduction.
The model. The deck gets the first meeting; the model decides the second one, and an inconsistency between the two ends the process quietly.
Usually yes. Grant, venture debt and strategic capital take longer to arrive, so starting them after the equity closes wastes the window in which they were most useful.
Cohort data with stable definitions, a reconciliation from the management accounts to the model, and a clean cap table with the option pool already modelled.
We say it. A company that raises six months too early on a metric set it cannot yet support spends the next round explaining the last one.
Tell us the transaction and the timetable. If it is not something we should run, we will say so.
