Bridging the supply-demand gap for successful partnering, investing and funding

Bridging the supply-demand gap for successful partnering, investing and funding

Dear all

While there is a noticeable gap between the continuous flow of "demand" for investments/funds through this group and the "supply" - if any - of such funds/investments, there seems to be a much bigger gap that is holding such process from taking place.

I have been studying this phenomenon for a while, and I have been present and active in this field in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other GCC/MENA countries for over 30 years now. Accordingly and in light of my personal observation/articulation, I can confirm there is a much bigger gap and this is the "gap of trust" that is holding such transactions from taking place.

I know the level of demand for partnership/investment/funding coming through is huge, but I also know that there are investors all around looking for "good" investment opportunities that they can trust and put their money into. The show stopper has been so far a mix of 

1. Lack of awareness of these "good" opportunities
2. Poor, incomplete and/or inaccurate details of such opportunities
3. Lack of confidence/trust in the credentials (capabilities and sincerity) of the sequesters of such funds/investments

I have been briefly in discussion about this situation with few colleagues  who maintained their  position that they are not in a position to supply such investment/fund/partnership and insisted on their own "comfort zone" being out of this mess. While this is could be an "accurate" and "safe" description of the situation, it is still a "passive" position that falls short of the expectations of many colleagues facing this situation and expecting help from us.

I have also come across other colleagues who share my view that we could do something about this situation and make something out of it.  Let me explain.

What I am proposing here is that we can spin off a special entity that can take specific situations and work on them actively to bridge the gap and ensure better processing between the "demand" side and "supply" side of the equation.

I do not want to raise "false" hopes, this model if approved and executed, will work on specific cases that we can "qualify" for such process on case-by-case basis. There will be costs involved and a payback that both sides of the equation have to be prepared to pay for such involvement. This could be a fixed fee, a range of applicable fees depending on the specifics and/or a percentage of the total value of the deal.

Such fee structure will cater for 

1. The efforts involved in this process
2. Actual expenses that could involve travel, meetings, hotels, ... etc
3. Business case preparation in professional way
4. Getting accurate information from both sides to enable execution of the deal
5. Business risk & liability factors involved in this process.

If there is enough consensus/appreciation of this model, I would invite members who can contribute in this proposed entity to come forward and share the 'proposed' role(s) they can take in this process.

and let us go from here and see if this idea can work out or not