Our Mission
Vital Financial’s mission is to use our talents, insights, knowledge and experience to find, analyze and structure private equity and venture capital investments in companies so as to provide significantly above-market returns on our own capital and on the funds that co-investors’ entrust to our stewardship. Our hope is that a meaningful portion of this capital will be used to better the lives of others and improve our world.
Company History
Vital Financial, LLC was formed in 2007 under a predecessor name to invest in Certicom, Inc., a publicly-traded encryption software company based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Certicom possessed a unique market postion in elliptic curve encryption technology and had a highly valuable international portfolio of related patents. Vital Financial became one of the largest shareholders of Certicom and interacted with both Certicom management and other large shareholders. Vital Financial completed a successful exit of its Certicom investment in early 2009 through its sale to Research in Motion Limited.
In early 2009 the firm adopted the name “Vital Financial” and formally began to seek additional venture capital investments. We now consist of five principal investors, with offices in: Avon, CT; Bethesda, MD; Newark, DE; Philadelphia, PA; Naples, FL; and Lincolnshire, IL. The Principals’ own funds constitute the majority of each Vital Financial investment. The firm also has a number of individual and institutional co-investors that join Vital Financial in its investments.
Vital Investment Principles
Vital Financial will invest in businesses that we understand in fields where we have high level of knowledge and experience. These currently include software, selected technology segments, financial services, and businesses with patents that we can value.
We exclusively make investments that:
- Provide growth capital to companies led by managers who are incented by equity as opposed to high salaries
- Provide some degree of investment loss protection through both (a) a preferred capital position and (b) the underlying value of either tangible assets or intellectual property
- Are structured with a mandated exit provision that Vital Financial may exercise at its discretion
- Provide a significant probability of generating returns in excess of 25% and a reasonable potential to more than triple the initial investment over 3-5 years
Earlier-stage companies:
- We typically seek firms with existing revenues but will consider exceptional pre-revenue situations
- The potential future size of the firm’s target market should exceed revenues of $100 million
- The strength and track record of management is of paramount importance
Later-stage firms:
- We look for relatively stable customers
- Recurring revenue approaches are preferred
- A clearly delineated and sustainable competitive advantage must be evident
We prefer businesses that we can make better in areas such as:
- Improved management
- Improved marketing and sales process
- Product-to-market, market development and strategic market alliances
- Software version upgrades that can lead to increased pricing
- Conversion to software as a service (“SAAS”) revenue model