A Note from iSelect CEO Carter Williams: 2017 Year in Review

As of the end of 2017, iSelect had invested in more than 30 startup companies, created more than 300 new jobs, our portfolio companies raised more than $160 million and the total value of our portfolio companies exceeded $300 million. We were also one of only 21 VCs in the country to have two startups or more named to CB Insights’ Game Changing Startups 2018 list, including Benson Hill Biosystems and Neuros Medical. iSelect also had two startups, Benson Hill and Agrible, named to the Thrive Top 50. In addition, Benson Hill was named to the AI Top 100, while Indalo was named to the Top 20 Startups to Watch in 2018.

It was a very successful year for us, and for all of our investors, but we aren’t done yet.

As we look ahead to the next 12 months (and beyond), we understand the importance of the work we’re doing to support entrepreneurs in underserved, but critical businesses, while providing broad access to the venture asset class for the first time.

For investors: Regulations, uncertain markets, monetary policy, and a thousand other factors are making it ever harder for financial advisors to offer their clients reliable investment strategies to meet their retirement goals. Retirees are watching retirement savings dwindle. Millennials don’t believe the S&P 500 is reliable. Few people trust Social Security to provide meaningful retirement benefits. It has become difficult for financial advisors to provide clients with solutions that offer real long-term returns. iSelect is working to solve this problem.

For entrepreneurs: It is getting more and more difficult for founders to raise early capital, and God help you if you’re starting a business in something unsexy like agriculture or B2B software. But at the same time, all net new job creation in this country is attributable to companies less than five years old. We all need startup companies to be able to grow and thrive, and at iSelect we’re dedicated to filling the void for early-stage startups by connecting them with like-minded investors.

For the world: iSelect has deliberately focused on investments and companies that can make a positive impact on our society, as well as on the bottom line. We simply do not feel particularly impassioned to back the latest app or consumer entertainment product. Our companies are attempting to save lives, save our food supply and positively impact our environment.

Looking back, 2017 was an exciting year but there is so much more to come in 2018. We continue to be amazed by the reach and impact that this community has, by investing in startups, mentoring startups and buying from startups. Together, we have backed the entrepreneurs who will change the world, developing revolutionary new technologies while creating thousands of new jobs. We’re looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish in 2018.

Consideration

With 2021 well underway and with public markets still strong, we think it is an important time to highlight some of the key private market, venture investment themes that iSelect fund has identified for the year. We believe technologies transforming the Agriculture, Food and Wellness markets will flourish, with a focus on four areas: technologies that enable better food choices to drive better health outcomes, technologies that drive better, more profitable farm operations, technologies that drive the Consumerization of Healthcare, and biome-based treatment technologies. At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We offer qualified investors access to emerging growth companies through our national venture capital strategy. Our unique structure allows our investors to continue to invest in these companies as they develop.

Timing

Why is now the right time for venture? The answer is that now is not explicitly the right time. Venture is something we need in our economy at all times. Now is not better than any other particular time. The question is, why ever stop? When we look at the challenges we’re facing in food and healthcare the reality is there is someone, somewhere who has an insight about how to build a product that will solve those problems. And if they put the right resources to it, they will succeed. As long as we need new technology to make life better or make our lives more enjoyable, we need venture capital to help fuel those entrepreneurs.

What is iSelect as a product?

iSelect is a very unique product, but when you break it into its parts it’s fairly easy to understand. On the front end we’re a traditional venture capital fund. We have a diligence process. We have an investment process. We have categories of industries where we have focus and real expertise, and we invest in companies in those areas that meet requirements for the fund. On the back end we’re unique in that we don’t raise a large amount of capital at one time and deploy it over the life of our fund. Each deal that we bring onto the fund, our investors have to prove and determine to invest in that deal. We have to constantly prove our diligence standards. It’s accessible, transparent and easy for investors to come in and see our comprehensive process.

What is the ideal iSelect company?

We are looking for founders that are passionate and we want the problem they’re trying to solve to be big, real, and painful. We want the solution to be revolutionary and we want our capital to be able to help them solve that problem. We want to know that they have customers involved and that the solution they’ve come up with actually meets those customers’ and market needs. And we want the team to be capital efficient with the money they’re spending.

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

We’re looking for a company that has an opportunity to have a 10x return to our investment or greater in a period of three to seven years. What excites us at iSelect are companies that are solving big problems. We want companies that are going to be the Monsantos of the future. Not just in the size and the scope, but the impact they have on people’s lives. We want to create positive impacts on people’s lives, so we invest in areas like agricultural production and areas like producing healthy foods for our kids. They are problems that impact real people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s what we’re trying to do at iSelect. We’re trying to solve the big problems out there. Find ways to bring capital to the entrepreneurs who are the real heroes out there getting up every morning, beating away at these things that are problems that you and me and everyone else faces in their everyday lives.

What is iSelect?

iSelect is a venture capital firm. What that means is we look at hundreds and hundreds of different companies and we apply tough diligence standards to each of them, looking at whether the team has a good plan for growing the business, whether the team is qualified and credible, and more. We do that to resolve the few who provide the best opportunities for investors. And then iSelect takes that smaller set of investments and goes to investors who are interested in venture capital and provides a way for them to invest in these companies, either individually or all at once. We co-invest alongside other venture capitalists. We source transactions through to an exit where the company would become public or get bought. And we manage that whole investment process on behalf of our investors.