I’ve shared some stories about how we worked to develop Nexus to ensure survival and then long-term success.
In my columns I have told you
- how Nexus initially was fragmented in its offering based on many acquisitions with limited synergy
- how we formulated our “Why” (as an important start for the next chapter in the Nexus-book). The “Why” was all about securing society by enabling trusted identities.
- how we used this guiding principle to create an increasingly coherent offering that enables identity management in a lifecycle perspective.
- how we started to win the trust of demanding customers based on this strong offering.
- how we hired many new employees who actively chose to come in to be part of this exciting journey.
However, the acquisitions – all of which came with different products – had cost a lot of money. As a result, the company’s cash position was constan challenging.
In the process of securing funding, we spoke to many potential investors. The dilemma is that when you really need to strengthen your financial position by seeking new financiers, the uphill battle is also most tangible.
One of the established players in the financial industry said to me “Lars, why should we spend time on Nexus when we barely have time to process all our opportunities to invest in fast-growing companies with good profitability and positive cashflow …? Conducting these meetings and then leaving them empty-handed is really painful..
We had heard about the European Investment Bank. That the bank had a programme to help ambitious European companies with long-term financing. Could this be something for us at Nexus?
I was confident in our ability to deliver professional solutions, I believed in our power to constantly innovate and I was convinced that we could stand up to the tough competition.
So we decided to apply to the EIB loan in order to achieve the long-term stability that was the remaining piece of the puzzle to really put Nexus on solid ground.
This year, 2000 companies applied to the EIB for support – and only a few were accepted. One of them was … Nexus.
It was an amazing feeling to be able to invite a delegation from the EIB to Nexus HQ in Stockholm on December 18, 2017 to sign the necessary documents. The EIB team that came to Stockholm was led by the current President of Finland, Alexander Stubb. Alexander was at the time one of the EIB’s top executives.
A big thank you to CFO Anders Berg and CTO Magnus Malmström who, together with myself, managed to push this challenging project to the finish line. And many thanks to our friends at the EIB who believed in us and our ability.
The picture is showing me, CFO Anders Berg and Alexander Stubb from EIB shaking hands.