Nova Founders Capital

Nova Founders Capital adopted the Intralinks Virtual Data Room (VDR) to improve the due diligence experience for investors, enabling the company to consistently raise funds for multiple successful Internet startups worldwide.

The company builds and invests in sustainable large-scale business models, with a strong focus on innovative financial technology services. The team behind Nova Founders Capital has created more than 30 successful large-scale Internet companies globally.

Situation

Nova Founders Capital is working regularly on funding and investment processes for its portfolio companies. “It is important for both the investors and ourselves to have a highly professional platform on which to present our companies and our business,” says Martin Baumann, the company’s Chief Financial Officer. The VDR has to be secure, with a user-friendly interface, and should feel familiar to investors who know such data rooms from investment banks in other M&A processes. 

Solution

Baumann`s team evaluated eight different VDR service providers before selecting Intralinks. “Although there were less costly VDRs than Intralinks, many of our required services were not satisfactory. In terms of functionality, Intralinks had everything,” says Baumann.

Additionally, he — like many of the investors — was familiar with Intralinks, and was comfortable using it. He wanted a VDR that would demonstrate his firm’s competence and business acumen. “Bottom line, Intralinks was the most professional of the VDRs,” says Baumann.

Benefits

Nova Founders Capital appreciated that the Intralinks VDR interface is well structured, consistently clean, and easy to navigate. “A due diligence process is like a first meeting in private,” says Baumann. “You want to make sure your home is clean and in order when you open the door and invite your guests home for a dinner. The same counts for investors: You want to make sure they get a good first impression when they log into your data room.”

The Intralinks management and configuration tools are streamlined. It’s simple to assign users access rights — allowing them to view, print, and save documents as needed. All pages can be watermarked for security, as well. There is a bulk document uploading capability, which helps to save time for the team working on the project.

The data room can be prolonged on a limited, read-only basis. After the deal was closed, Intralinks created a compliance archive that contains a record of all VDR interactions for Nova Founders Capital. Additionally, Intralinks support proved exceptional. “Typically, I dislike support hotlines,” says Baumann. “But Intralinks provided proper help whenever my team had a question. We could call at any time day or night and receive proper assistance. We’d go for Intralinks again.”