“The advice, support and experience from Newfound and their advisers has been fundamental to our successful entry and acceleration into the UK marketplace. They continue in this capacity as trusted partners and now friends.”

BEN GLEISNER | CHIEF EXECUTIVE, COGO

CoGo is a world-first technology platform that connects consumers and ethical businesses for the good of people and the planet. Founded in New Zealand in 2016, CoGo has scaled fast and is expanding internationally.

MARKET ENTRY SERVICES

Newfound’s team worked with CoGo CEO Ben Gleisner in 2018, providing market-entry services to help his business relocate to London then expand UK-wide. Ben and his board of directors had already identified the UK as a target market - they now needed a strategy and connections to help it deliver.

Following this planning phase, Newfound helped CoGo execute its go-to-market strategy. Ben was relocating to London and wanted the business to raise capital via the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), form a UK advisory board and make key commercial staff hires.

Over three months, we introduced Ben to professional services providers in legal, banking, accounting and PR. On arrival in the UK, CoGo was able to open an investment seed round which was oversubscribed.

LEVERAGING A TRUSTED NETWORK

Leveraging our trusted tech advisor/investor network, Newfound’s directors sourced, introduced and directly contributed over £200,000 of new capital to CoGo’s funding. CoGo was additionally funded a 2019 £1m seed round to execute a UK national growth plan that would lead to a Series A investment round in 2020.

Finding local talent is crucial to any new market entrants success. We led the search for and recruitment of CoGo’s UK managing director, whose responsibility it was to build a two-sided marketplace and traction in the UK. Newfound director Peter Gillingwater also joined the CoGo advisory board and worked closely with CoGo directors on its strategy for 2019 and beyond.