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Episode 06 The Investor Series
Mario Grigorov on how World Solver Syndicate backs 2% of the deals it sees
Mario Grigorov of World Solver Syndicate (WSS), a Dubai based investor syndicate, on its focus on deep tech, fintech and health, tickets of 1M to 1.5M as a follow on investor, a month long diligence that backs around 2% of companies, and why the syndicate is built around community.
The mandate
Deep tech, fintech and health, as a follow on investor
Mario built a company to a scale some would call Series B without raising outside capital, exited, and moved into real estate and venture, advising family offices on direct deals, funds and public portfolios. Friends who wanted access to the same deals became World Solver Syndicate. In two years WSS has backed 45 companies, most of them around Series A, with some earlier stage and pre IPO deals. Green tech has been dropped from the thesis. Today the focus is deep tech (robotics, AI, hardware and defence), fintech and health.
in two years
ticket today
around 10M
get backed each year
We actually invest only in 2% of the companies we look at a year, which is, I think, pretty selective.Mario Grigorov, World Solver Syndicate
Key takeaways
How WSS decides
Where the thesis sits now, how cheques are sized, and why diligence takes a month.
A thesis that has narrowed
WSS started with some green tech and has removed it completely, as capital for it has dried up. What remains is deep tech, from robotics and AI to hardware and defence, fintech across lending, wealth management and cards, and health, where WSS has strong distribution partners it can put to work for portfolio companies.
Bigger cheques, never the lead
Tickets started at a couple of hundred thousand and now average 1M to 1.5M. WSS does not like to lead, so as a follow on investor it looks for rounds above 5M, typically around 10M.
A month of diligence, not a forward to the network
Many syndicates push a deal to their network as soon as there are well known investors or revenue. WSS takes about a month: financials, cap table, competitors, contracts, IP, conversations with the other investors and customer reference calls, with every member of a team of five bringing their expertise. Around 2% of the companies it looks at in a year get backed.
Community comes first
Mario is often asked when he will build again, or when WSS will become a fund. Neither is the priority. The plan is to grow the network, raise the quality of the startups it backs even further, and run more events: London in Mayfair and New York so far, Serbia in the coming weeks, then Abu Dhabi.
The biggest win so far is Phlo, a UK digital pharmacy in health tech with both a B2B and a B2C angle and very good margins. Mario first invested personally more than five years ago and again through WSS once the syndicate started. It was recently named among the fastest growing businesses in Europe, and Mario expects it may pass 100 million in recurring revenue this year.
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