Ignite workshop brings businesses, investors together

Many Caribbean businesses seeking funding do not have access to large-scale international funding from venture capitalists and angel investors because they are not large enough.

Caribbean Dragons co-founder Andrew Seepersad said the organisation’s inaugural summit is designed to bring investors together with businesses to exchange ideas.

The inaugural event of the summit was the invitation-only investor workshop, which saw venture capital funds, small and medium business owners, investors, entrepreneurship lecturers, and students participating in lectures and interactive workshop sessions to contribute to the development of a Caribbean ecosystem for investment.

Speaking to Newsday during the event, held at the TT Chamber of Commerce and Industry conference room on Wednesday, Seepersad said one of the problems TT and the region face is that when approached by Caribbean businesses for investment, investors will look at market size and ability to grow to scale.

“We can’t compete as individual islands on a global scale, as our resource base, in terms of people and money, is not big enough as individual countries.

"But if we can operate as a region, then through the power of collective, we can. That’s the core DNA of Caribbean Dragons: if we come together and operate from scale, we can effect change.

“There’s high creativity and imagination in terms of coming up with ideas, but there’s not a whole lot of support and follow-on infrastructure, the ecosystems to support the follow-on in developing the ideas.”

Seepersad said globally, traditional angel investing and venture capital funding in particular had had a ten per cent success rate.

“Because we in the Caribbean are at the start line, or now crossing the starting line for the first leg of the race, why would we not learn from mistakes of others? We’re not so far entrenched into the system that we can’t stop and say, 'Hey, these things work, these things don’t.'

“As a Caribbean people, we love to mash up ting and customise it for ourselves, so why not be deliberate about it? Let’s be deliberate about how we mash up and customise, and work with intentionality and do it with an understanding of our capabilities and needs. Why would we take a colonised view of something else?”

He said the purpose of Wednesday’s workshop was to bring together diverse voices.

“When you take a bunch of VC (venture capital) people and you design everything for them, embedded in that is that colonial mindset. This discussion applies to SMEs because it creates the ecosystem to which they can go for funding.

"That’s why I’m super-thrilled there are students in here, because what we build now, they will be able to step into this environment in a few years’ time, so I hope they speak and say, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

He said drawing from his experience as a theatre producer, there was a general dependency on getting funding from people, and this led to a lack of innovation.

“As someone who straddles both sides, the investors have to be informed as to what people need, but the investors have to be able to say, 'This is what I need from you, because at the end of the day I’m putting my money on the line. I’m not going to do that because I’m generous and a nice guy.'

"That’s business. As an investor, I’m not just going to give people a paycheque to live; there has to be a value exchange.

“I need you to understand, maybe financial returns aren’t my thing, but there must be a very clear social impact, or educational impact, because that’s what is important to me as an investor.”

Chamber president Kiran Maharaj said the chamber was pleased to host the event, as 70 per cent of its members were small businesses.

“This morning is very significant to us. We have a number of players, and this room is very diverse. This is where a lot of the experience today is going to make sense. Because one of the things we do not get to do is come together from diverse backgrounds to hear what the challenges are, what the concerns are and what the vision is for the future. And so a day like today is allowing us to have opportunity so that we can grow from it.

“We have the mindset that it is not just about advocating for certain things, it is about supporting the players in those sectors. So the ability to raise capital and to look for alternative financing means while providing guidance and mentorship, it has to be part of the success recipe.”

The Ignite Startup Summit will take at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre on July 25 and 26. For more information, go to https://www.caribbeandragons.org/refreshed-ignite