The Calida Group has raised over $14 million from the PWM Summit
“We have raised USD 14 million from five new investors we met at the Summit. That will double as we continue building those relationships. The Summit is a one-stop-shop for us, after a single event we can walk away with over 15 new investor relationships that we had never interacted with before,” said Chris Leggee, Capital Markets, The Calida Group, a real estate development and investment firm at the Marcus Evans Private Wealth Management Summit.
"The Summit is a one-stop-shop for us."
Tell us about your experiences with the Private Wealth Management Summit.
The Summit is a very good environment for meeting potential new investors, and people we can network with. It has been very powerful. At this point, we have gained five new investors from just one and a half years of taking part. I expect that to grow over time, as we continue building those relationships, and investors introduce us to their peers. The tree will continue to grow. Raising capital is all about relationships, and it’s a long game. We will continue to go to the Summits to source new relationships.
Had you heard of or approached those investors before?
We had not met or interacted with most of those investors.
If you had approached them directly, would they have led to any investments?
The hit ratio would have been much lower. A cold call or email is typically less successful than a warm introduction. Marcus Evans does a great job of connecting investors with sponsors or industries they are interested in investing in. The Summit setup and meeting curation is what allows us to have success in building relationships more quickly.
Did the Summit help speed up the process?
Yes. It is like a one-stop-shop for us. We now have over 75 warm introductions we did not have before. At least five more are likely to invest over the next two years.
How does the Summit compare with your other capital raising activities?
We go to other events, talk to existing investors, try to get referrals, but the Summit makes everything more efficient as we can meet many groups in two days. The value is in the efficiency. To meet 15 investors we would need to go to five or ten different cities, which would take more time and money. Also, the meetings Marcus Evans sets up are curated to groups we want to meet that also want to meet us. That matchmaking is a very important part of what Marcus Evans does.
Any comments on the Marcus Evans team?
Our account manager gets an “A” for customer service, and making sure we get the most out of our time at a Summit.
Find out more about the upcoming Private Wealth Management Summit.
