Services & Methodology |
What We Look For |
Entrepreneur: a person who habitually creates and innovates to build something of recognized value around perceived opportunities.
In this definition, all words are key words:
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'Entrepreneur' – can be an individual entrepreneur, but also an entrepreneurial team or even entrepreneurial organization. |
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'A person' – emphasizes a personality rather than a system |
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'Habitually' - just cannot stop being an entrepreneur |
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'Creates' – starts from scratch and brings into being something that was not there before. |
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'Innovates' – able to overcome obstacles that would stop most people; turns problems and risks into opportunities; delivers - sees ideas through to final application
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'Builds something' – describes the output of the creation and innovation process |
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'Of recognized value' – encompasses economic, commercial, social, or aesthetic value |
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'Perceived opportunities' – spotting the opportunity to exploit an idea that may or may not be original to the entrepreneur; seeing something other miss or only see in retrospect.
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Entrepreneurship is first and foremost a mindset. It is the art of finding profitable solutions to problems. Every successful entrepreneur, every successful businessperson has been someone who's been able to identify a problem and come up with a solution to it before somebody else did.
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What we look for in a Business Partner
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Fit within our overall culture of trust and informal relationships |
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Have both domain expertise in the category they are pursuing, as well as a track record of success building or managing a business. |
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Bicoleurs (Harvard Business School term) people who do what works, no matter what it takes. |
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Ambition to grow |
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Contribute to a positive environment at Sofico. |
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Open to suggestions and advice from Sofico |
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Committed to continuous improvement of business activities and in achieving business plan |
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Transparency in communicating results and in updating Sofico with their performance |
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Ethical behavior and business practices |
What we look for in Business Opportunities
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An innovative Idea. |
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Fits within the overall growth of the economy, has true economic benefits and potential. |
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Have a clearly defined target consumer for the project or product |
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Have a large and growing market |
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Strong & Dedicated Management Team |
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Investment Ticket Size: Up to EGP 20 Million |
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Sofico targets closing 2 or 3 deals each year |
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High gross margins |
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Annual profits up to 10million L.E within five to seven years |
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Entry Stages:
- Seed: When there is no real product or service and/or the company is still not fully established. This stage may also involve research and development. Should have a ROI 50% TO 100%
- Startup: To assist a business to complete its product and to begin initial marketing. Should have a ROI 50% TO 100%
- Early: Where the business has completed its product and initial marketing but has no or little revenue. Should have a ROI 30% TO 50%
- Expansion: To provide working capital or to finance the expansion of the business. Should have a ROI 30% TO 50%
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Potential to create significant value to customers, employees, and the community |
Our Investment Strategy
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Does the proposed project fit within our portfolio of investments in terms of risk and return. |
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Majority Stake |
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Min 2 board seats |
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We invest with the objective of exiting within a time span of 5 – 8 years |
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We don’t fund any competitors to our current partners |
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Small and Medium enterprises |
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Who will buy from us, Ability to Exit |