What it takes to secure overseas investment with Fuel50
The CEO of Fuel50, the fastest-growing employee experience platform in the world, knows what it takes to grow overseas, and fast. Anne Fulton and her team have been raising capital for growth since 2011, and recently secured another NZ$21 million, led by Silicon Valley’s PeakSpan Capital.
The AI-powered career mobility technology company helps employees gain a visible career path, enables leaders to engage and motivate their teams and delivers powerful talent insights to HR leaders. An award-winning game-changer, Fuel50 now has six offices, including Auckland and New York, where more than 50 ‘fuellies’ transform employee career experiences in companies such as Mastercard, EBay and Pepsi.
Anne Fulton talks us through her overseas investment journey, explains who to connect with before entering the US market, and how Fuel50 will be using its latest cash injection.
Anne, tell us, what is the most important consideration for New Zealand businesses looking to expand overseas?
It’s never just one thing, but in our case it was really valuable to have US and Australian clients before we set up in those locations. Having a referenceable story, in our case, CitiGroup and Westpac, was invaluable in getting offshore traction.
The second best thing we did was secure angel investment to support our establishment. Ice Angels led that for us with Enterprise, Flying Kiwis, Arc Angels, NZ Venture Investment Fund and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) all being active supporters of our growth. Having this breadth of support was invaluable because we had a wide reaching community of growth experts we could tap into, and still do today. We are incredibly grateful for that. Our relationship with PwC, as our outsourced finance partner for a global finance function for an entrepreneurial venture, was also critical. Working with PwC has been a really good decision for us, as we scale globally. Their input has been crucial at so many inflection points along this journey.
How did you develop partnerships with BonfireVC in LA and then PeakSpan Capital in San Francisco?
I have to thank NZTE for introducing us to BonfireVC, who we met at a conference they sponsored us to attend. Coincidentally, our fantastic NZTE representative also road-showed our Board Chairman and one other board member, when they were on the Silicon Valley VC hunt with a previous venture. So the stars aligned, we kept in contact and it ended with a happy partnership. It was a similar story with PeakSpan, where we were introduced by a mutual industry contact.
We knew both VCs for about two years before we were successfully partnering with them. Trust and delivering on promise was really important, which of course is a team effort, so by the time we secured the funding, there were a lot of ‘fuellies’ to thank for their contribution to our success.
How important is overseas capital in helping New Zealand businesses grow?
I think overseas capital has a role to play in the growth trajectory, and becomes an endorsement of success and an invaluable asset to scaling. This was definitely the case with our VC partnerships - they’ve been a huge support as we have scaled and matured.
What do US investors look for that differs from New Zealand investors?
There is a level of sophistication that US investors expect. There is a well-worn road to funding in the US and investors expect us to know how to play it. Coaching from our LA-based venture capital investors has been really helpful in our success. I think the other critical thing, that’s in play anywhere in the world, is a well articulated story about growth. You need tangible revenues, sales pipelines, client stories and a carefully crafted growth plan that is both aspirational and defensible.
What advice would you give anyone in New Zealand looking for overseas capital?
Get great advisors around you. The NZ Angel Association do great educational programmes for entrepreneurs and there are so many experienced people in that community you can tap into. Having the support of PwC and NZTE advisors has also been very helpful. Use these resources to help you prepare as best you can. NZTE has people who are dedicated to assisting across the globe and they are very willing to help.
What will the new capital in Fuel50 help your business achieve?
Faster growth! Everything is about making the boat go faster. We are accelerating product and hiring a bigger team in New Zealand to assist with game-changing talent analytics and AI to continue to stay ahead of the competition. We are also scaling our sales team globally, particularly as we grow in Europe and build out a channel strategy. Other teams are also being strengthened because we have added so many new clients in the last two quarters. It is like “the snake that swallowed the elephant” so we are hiring additional project managers globally, and New Zealand-based teams of career architects and IO psychologists. We’re also onboarding consultants to continue to deliver an amazing experience to our clients, without any hiccups.
How can Kiwi businesses best prepare for fast growth, once investment is achieved?
Get your hands on a copy of the book, The Start-Up J Curve by Howard Love!
We think of scaling across all the business dimensions, and relentlessly championing the business values as we scale. My personal business mantras are around 5 ‘A’s. Build Aspiration, Alignment, Amplify the Positive and ensure our culture is focused on both Achievement and Appreciation.
Anne Fulton
CEO, Fuel50