Company: Visibuild Pty Ltd
Project title: Validating the Visibuild Quality Assurance Software Platform in Field Trials
Category: Construction Technology
The company
Visibuild offers revolutionary software products to the construction industry. The company offers a software platform created by seasoned industry professionals to simplify, streamline and broadly improve quality assurance (QA) processes by providing Developers, Builders, Consultants and other project stakeholders with a central resource for QA data and real-time insights.
In an industry in which “tick and flick” culture and corner-cutting can quickly erode profit margins — a staggering 10-15% of profits can be lost to rectifying defects post-completion — Visibuild’s software is a truly game-changing offering.
The project
Like most startups, Visibuild required additional cashflow to turn its innovative technology into a sustainable commercial offering. The founding team had support from an angel investor, but part-way into the Visibuild journey, it became apparent that to create a commercially viable platform would require more capital than was available.
While exploring alternative sources of cash — which included considering potentially risky loans and VC funding — Visibuild was introduced to GrantHelper. We quickly identified synergies between the company’s construction technology offering and the Accelerating Commercialisation (AC) grant.
We saw a great opportunity to secure an impactful investment with attractive terms but acknowledged that winning the prize would require a bulletproof business case and an outstanding grant submission. Both parties agreed the opportunity on the table was worth the significant investments of time, resources and effort, and GrantHelper was engaged to guide Visibuild through the application process.
The challenge
In Accelerating Commercialisation, we had found the best grant opportunity for Visibuild; the program offers up to $1 million in co-contributions to support novel or game-changing innovations.
But the AC program is also notoriously difficult to taste success, with AC grant submissions considered the most complex and time- consuming. This is because the applicant’s chance to win is tied to a myriad of variables, including: the IP position, ability to co-contribute, the project’s value to industry and the level of confidence in the people heading up the organisation — to name just a few of the many success factors.
This is a grant program with a success rate of around 10%. So we knew that when 9 out of 10 applicants would be destined to fail, our submission needed to be of the highest quality to claim the prize. An enormous amount of patience and effort would be required.
The specific challenge for this application was to demonstrate how the funding body’s support would help to realise Visibuild’s grand vision that contributed to a better construction industry. Then we also needed to show how Visibuild’s goal of greatly enhancing project controls translated to a great investment. Further, we would need to break down complex topics in layman’s terms.
Our solutions
Crafting this submission was an extensive process requiring our full skillset, from collating information, to engaging multiple stakeholders, to creating the budget, writing the responses and much more. We worked closely with each member of the Visibuild founding team to gather all the necessary documentation and build a compelling business case.
Our first task was to quickly build the necessary understanding of all the relevant concepts and lodge the Expression of Interest, which we were successful with, opening a dialogue with the program administrators and being invited to lodge a detailed application.
We then immediately established a detailed project budget, one of the make-or-break factors in any grant submission. The budget itemised all the various activities and costs which would be associated with creating a commercial offering.
With the budget in place, we set to work on formulating the submission, which included articulating the need for funding, summarising the market opportunity, and clearly showing how Visibuild’s solution was highly differentiated from the competition.
We also needed to roadmap the future of Visibuild’s software platform, obtain letters of endorsement from key industry developers (who were willing to implement an untrialed service), complete revenue modelling, build out a detailed cashflow and team member profiling, summarise the business model and finally, confirm additional angel contribution to match the AC funds.
When crafting the application, we shaped our responses so they would showcase the project’s key value drivers as seen through different lenses, including economic and commercial impacts, benefits to industry and job creation.
Outcomes
After pulling together all 31 supporting documents, investing many hours meticulously crafting and honing our responses with a mix of acumen, clarity and flair, we had produced a submission that clearly communicated the project circumstances and value, even to the uninformed.
Submitted on time as always, we were thrilled to receive the news that the application was successful and Visibuild was to be awarded $484,000 in grant support.
This vital funding will help to ensure Visibuild is able to create a revenue-generating, commercialised offering.
And unlike a traditional loan, this grant also allows Visibuild to retain its original equity structure without dilution or needing to compromise its organisational integrity. This should help to enhance the company’s attractiveness as an investment prospect in future.
And most importantly, with the Accelerating Commercialisation program support, the Visibuild team can focus on doing what they do best — creating better ways to manage project controls — without worrying about how to keep the company afloat.
“We engaged Steve and the GrantHelper team to assist us with the management and submission of our Accelerating Commercialisation Grant submission in 2022. With Steve’s expert guidance we were successful in our application. His manner of clearly explaining and keeping track of requirements keep us on track and ensured we didn’t miss anything. There is no way we could have pulled this submission together without the assistance of Steve and the team there at GrantHelper; their professionalism and thoroughness were a key factor in our success.”
Damien Quinn – Cofounder and CEO, Visibuild
What made this grant project unique?
Visibuild’s platform stands alone in the construction industry in terms of offering a comprehensive tech-driven QA solution. The software addresses a long-standing industry issue and adds 21st century responsiveness — near-instantaneous fault identification.
A truly innovative offering, a dedicated team of industry professionals backed up by GrantHelper’s expertise and thoroughness gave the assessors the confidence to back this startup in one of Australia’s most challenging and exclusive funding opportunities.
Is your organisation eligible for an Accelerating Commercialisation grant?
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