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ffVC streamlines its Capital Formation and IR pipeline with DocSend VDR

As a leading venture firm, ffVC uses DocSend Virtual Data Rooms to engage potential investors and securely share confidential information at scale in seconds.

Key Challenge

Managing a high-volume capital formation and investor relations pipeline securely. ffVC needed an efficient way to share sensitive information with prospective partners and investors, while tracking engagement and maintaining control over access.

Key Results

A streamlined process that keeps investor opportunities moving. With DocSend VDR, ffVC streamlined its entire capital formation and fundraising investor relations process through seamless file sharing, advanced security controls, NDA management, and engagement analytics.

Scattered sharing and security processes stall investor momentum

Operating in a fiercely competitive market, ffVC prides itself on maintaining close relationships and providing hands-on support to the technology companies it invests in. The same holds true for the limited partners (LP’s) it engages with during a capital formation campaign and through the investor relations function at the firm. 

The key to ffVC’s capital formation and IR approach is its high-intensity, targeted investor outreach and relationship building process. This rigorous approach requires sharing large volumes of sensitive financial information with prospective investors across multiple segments in the instutitutional, endowment and foundation, family office and high-net-worth investor spaces. Carrying out comprehensive campaigns tailored to and appropriately targeting each segment is easier said than done.

ffVC's existing methods for distributing this information relied on emailing out materials or sharing them in an outdated, rudimentary VDR with minimal capabilities that did not match the needs of the firm, its security requirements, or its capital raising objectives. It was also hugely time-consuming. "Sending what amounts to gigabytes of data out to thousands of investors, and then repeating that for each additional inbound data request is incredibly inefficient, especially if its being done via email," explained Avery Ersztein, Head of Investor Relations & Capital Formation at ffVC. 

 “Beyond the productivity drain, sharing important fund data over email left the door open to security vulnerabilities. "Once you email something to somebody, you have no control over what happens to that data, where that information is then forwarded," said Avery. "You don't have any disclosure, disclaimer, or NDA-type control over access to the information. And you don't have any watermarking capability, unless you watermark materials individually. But that’s an extremely time-intensive process."

With the risk of missing an opportunity to engage with an interested investor or limited partner, and confidential financial data at stake, ffVC went looking for a virtual data room to securely share investor information at scale. And that’s when they found DocSend Virtual Data Rooms.

DocSend gives us unprecedented visibility into our capital formation and IR fundraising pipeline. We spend far less time on admin and can focus on driving engagement with high-interest-interest investor and limited partners.
 Avery Ersztein
Avery Ersztein

Securely sharing information at scale with DocSend VDR

To overcome the inefficiencies and security limitations of sharing fund data via email, ffVC uploads and organizes all its sensitive files into secure data rooms with DocSend.  This means the firm not only consolidates all its critical information in a protected repository for more efficient management, but it makes it easy to share with a single link. 

Once safely housed, ffVC then uses DocSend’s granular permissioning to define separate levels of access for different investor groups — right down to the individual file level if needed. Some groups are restricted to just viewing specific files, while others can see everything and also download content or even upload documents themselves into the data room. 

Not only can ffVC fine-tune how different parties interact with and consume sensitive materials, but it can also ensure that information is legally protected when sharing. “There are multiple tiers of data that we share. I can send links out to any potential investor, because to access the information, there's now an authentication component," explains Avery. “DocSend’s e-signatures allow us to require NDAs before granting data room access as an extra layer of security. That means we can share materials confidently, knowing they are legally protected from unauthorized parties.”

Just as vital as securing confidential data is visibility into how people are consuming that information. Using DocSend's real-time analytics, ffVC pinpoints which specific folders and files potential investors spent the most time viewing. From here, the firm can prioritize the most engaged first to accelerate evaluations and approvals. As Avery explained, "Once I share a document, I can see when somebody's visiting and interacting with my data. It’s incredibly helpful because when I follow up, I can dive into questions around the content they were most interested in and fill in gaps if they haven’t read something.”

With multiple tiers of shared data, we needed a way to granularly control access permissions. DocSend lets us know exactly who is looking at our data and easily toggle access depending on what we are sharing.
 Avery Ersztein
Avery Ersztein

Driving capital raising forward with insights and efficiency

Engagement insights to prioritize follow-ups

Detailed analytics reveal how investors are interacting with documents, allowing ffVC to focus follow-up efforts on high-priority prospects more likely to convert to a limited partner.

Controlled information sharing

Granular permissions, locked external sharing options, and robust security controls enable ffVC to safely disseminate sensitive data throughout the deal process.

Advanced security and compliance

With NDA protection, watermarking, and audit logs, ffVC can collaborate on highly sensitive data with confidence it would not be compromised. 

A streamlined due diligence workflow

By consolidating all of its fund due diligence data into secure DocSend data rooms, ffVC eliminated the inefficiencies and security risks of fragmented emails and attachments. Now, prospective investors can easily access large volumes of data for accelerated and seamless collaboration.

DocSend gives us greater control and visibility over the entire due diligence process, which helps us stay organized, build trust, and utimately close subscriptions to the fund, faster.
 Avery Ersztein
Avery Ersztein

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