If you're a business owner with revenue of $500K and above per year, you might be wondering: How do I raise capital to further accelerate business growth?

Raising capital is extremely key for the growth of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and it is a perennial challenge for businesses today, next to attracting and retaining talent.

Ways to potentially raise millions

There are many ways an entrepreneur can raise growth capital, other than a bank loan or government grant:

1. Angel investors

These are individual investors who invest in early stage startups. They are known as the "triple Fs (Friends, Family and Fools)," or sophisticated investors who may be successful businessmen or senior corporate executives.

The advantage of angel investors is that they are usually people who know you personally and thus immediately accessible. Angel investors typically would not want to acquire significant stakes in the startup and leave the strategy and operations of the startup to the founders.

An angel investor typically invests about US$20,000 to US$50,000 in pre-seed or seed rounds, raising typically a few hundred thousand dollars.

2. Online crowdfunding

Online crowdfunding leverages on technology to connect investors and businesses. It enables investors to find deals easily and improves access to capital for businesses.

Crowdfunding raises the monies from a lot more investors, allowing each investor to put in a smaller amount of monies for each deal. Most crowdfunding investors in Singapore prefer to invest in loans, rather than equity.

3. Venture capitalists (VCs)

These are corporate investors who have pooled monies from individual investors with a mandate to invest in promising early stage businesses.

VCs deal sizes are typically above US$1 million. VCs have structured investment processes to identify and evaluate startups against a set of stringent requirements. Some VCs value-add by connecting the startup to their network of industry contacts. Often, VCs participate actively as a board member, which may result in love-hate relationships playing out in boardroom dramas.

Get help from experts

If you are a start-up or SME with a growth story, and would like to learn the secrets of raising capital to super-charge your business, attend the Business Funding Masterclass conducted by GEX Ventures.

During the exclusive three-hour Masterclass, the company's panel of entrepreneurs and practitioners will share innovative ideas on raising capital and reveal the "mystery" behind:

In the exclusive three-hour live consultative masterclass, learn a game-changing architecture on how to raise capital and hear real-life experience of how experienced entrepreneurs raised millions of dollars from investors and successfully achieved IPO with their own companies.

They will discuss topics such as how to potentially get publicly listed at virtually no cost and the differences between private and public venture capitalists.

GEX Ventures' head honcho is Dr Patrick Liew, an award-winning entrepreneur who has participated in the public listing of 3 different companies, in 3 different jurisdictions, on 3 different stock exchanges. Dr Jong Hee Sen, CEO of GEX Ventures, was ex-GIC and had personally listed two companies on SGX. Panel of speakers are partners of the firm, including Mr Willy Lim, co-founder of a leading mobile app developer in the region that has filed for an IPO in the United States; Mr Rex Fong, a specialist in valuation, financial & management accounting and working capital management, with more than six years of experience with a top 10 international accounting firm; and Mr Daniels Ng, a business consultant who has worked with EDB and Australia-Canberra government to groom SMEs for public listing.

The masterclass also offers a great networking opportunity to interact with 30 like-minded business owners.

Business Funding Masterclass by GEX Ventures (worth $388)

Learn how to potentially raise millions of capital and scale your business quickly throughout Asia within a few years. Sign up for the exclusive consultative masterclass to learn from experienced entrepreneurs and network with like-minded business owners at no cost.

High-tea and refreshments are provided.

Where: 238A Thomson Road, #13-08/09/10 Novena Square Tower A, Singapore 307684 When: July 31 & August 2, 2.30pm to 5.30pm (Please select either one of the dates)

Register for the Business Funding Masterclass at bit.ly/gcmbranded today. Limited seats available.

Helping businesses to grow

GEX Ventures provides training, consultancy and mentorship services. It assists entrepreneurs in transforming their business models by strengthening their competitive edge and bottom line, and globalising their businesses.

It also offers other services such as business consultancy, corporate restructuring, cross-border listing, venture capital, and mergers and acquisitions.

By formulating global capital market strategies with entrepreneurs to raise capital, the company helps start-ups to become publicly traded global companies.