case studies

Visa Everywhere Initiative Logo

“Nir’s focus not only helped us create a more attractive story in our pitch but also to provide a broader vision for our startup, allowing us to understand our clients’ problems better and finding more innovative ways to solve them.”

Joaquin Gonzales – Co-Founder and CRO of Reworth

 

Background

With almost 130 Million inhabitants, Mexico’s startup’s eco-system has seen an increase in entrepreneurial activity to provide more Mexican with access to banking, insurance, medical solutions, and more. As a result, investors turn to Mexico and other Latin American countries. 

For many entrepreneurs, this is an excellent opportunity. However, while the fundraising process can be a defining point in the trajectory of a startup, it is not an easy task. For one, companies need to condense their essence and value in a time-constrained pitch deck to potentially captivate investors, all considering that the chances of succeeding are slim. VCs are exposed to 1,000 companies a year and invest in 4; moreover, only 0.05% of startups raise their target capital.

Funded in 2020, Reworth is a Mexico-based startup that seeks to help financial institutions deliver better benefits to their customers by connecting them with relevant merchants through cash rewards. “We started the business because we realized that a lot of fintechs and banks have a problem engaging with their customers,” Raphael Kappeler, the company’s CEO, said.

Challenge

The company works at the intersection of financial institutions, merchants, and end customers. Upon embarking on their seed round of fundraising, the challenge, as described by Kappeler, was to explain a complex model clearly and cohesively and transmit the company’s vision while building a robust pitch deck.

The Artian’s Solution

There is no “one size fits all” in building a robust pitch, and each startup has its own requirements, needs, and challenges. That is why our team workes closely with members of the founding team – in this case, CEO Raphael Kappeler and CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) Joaquin Gonzalez.

Our work goes beyond storytelling and is defined as investment readiness; as Gonzalez said: “the work helps us not only to develop a better pitch but to think about the business from a different point of view.”

In our work, we deliver hands-on coaching and training so founders will learn how to think about their business and tell its story in the future – without any help. This close working style revealed insights that led to strategic recommendations spanning the business model, vision, go-to-market, and other aspects. 

Our approach emphasizes the importance of four main working stages across the repetition of three levels of work – allowing all the teachings to be absorbed in every working plane. The first level of work relates to the pitch story and the business components; the second level, the pitch and visual alignment. The final level places particular importance on the pitchers’ communication and delivery skills.

To support the fundraising efforts and to reinforce learning, digital information and our toolkit were provided.

Results

In July 2021, and three weeks after our last working session, the company closed its seed round – landing 2.8M USD.

The round was led by the Latin American VC firm ALLVP, with the participation of New York-based FJ Labs and Gilgamesh; and the San-Francisco based Soma Capital. This new round brings Reworth’s total raised to date to about 3.2 million USD.

In internal analysis, Keppler and Gonzalez indicate that their pitch deck improved by 120% and that they felt 95% more investor-ready.

When asked about our work, Keppler said, “he[Nir] has been a driving force behind our fundraising success, and every second is worth it”.

 

What can we create together?