Business Development and
Investor Relations Internship – Advisory
Pre-Series A, Series A Funding
Q2 – 2022 – Canada, UK, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa

This internship offers an exciting opportunity for a motivated individual who’s looking for a stepping stone to get into private equity, venture capital, impact investing, business development, investor relations and/or strategy/management consulting.

Gain experience and in-sight into working with entrepreneurial companies in emerging markets, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, who are in a dynamic and rapid phase of growth.

About Us:
Supivaa is a play on words. “Support” + “Vivre” (to live) thus “supporting life” in Franglais (French/English) – which are the two languages of Canada and the majority of African countries. It dawned on us… Supivaa = “Supporting the Divas!” Thus, Supivaa was born.

Supivaa is an impact investment advisory firm rooted in agriculture, renewable energy and health, within a strong focus in gender-lens investing and SDG 5 gender equity. With a network of global experts and consultants, we offer business development services, supporting entrepreneurs and business leaders through their key stages of development whether it be first starting or scaling up.

We also work with investors looking to identify impactful opportunities in emerging markets and with well-experienced impact investors and funders (VCs, institutional investors, foundations, funds, DFIs, government-entities, family offices, and HNWI) by supporting the development, management and deployment of their impact initiatives inline with their investment thesis. We are a Canadian firm with a global outlook spanning from Vancouver to Toronto, Washington DC, London, Paris, Nairobi, Lagos and Johannesburg. Supivaa’s founders and collaborators set out to support entrepreneurs in their next phase of their business growth and ensure that these businesses get the backing they need.

About the Internship:
The Business Development/Investor Relations Internship offers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a highly entrepreneurial environment as our clients seek to enter into their next stage in growth. As an BD/IR intern, you will be part of the advisory team to assess the client’s business strategy, create recommendations for growth, operational efficiency and/or improvement, develop the investment narrative and undergo the investor outreach where necessary.

As a BD/IR intern you will be part of the growth of an impact advisory firm that helps companies improve the lives of the neediest people around the world. We help companies grow, scale, become established, and attract funding. Our proprietary model focuses on understanding underlying operational fundamentals and raising grant and impact funding, which helps preserve the company’s autonomy and the founders’ equity. With a special focus on gender lens, many of our clients our women-led companies or focus on improving the lives of women in the communities they serve.

Clients are typically in their pre-Series A and Series A funding rounds. If the client is in capital raise, the intern would also be involved in identifying funding opportunities from a wide variety of investors and funders including VC funds, angel investors, impact investors, foundations, private equity funds and other institutional investors.

We are looking for motivated and talented individuals who want to work with our clients and support their next stage of exciting and impactful growth. At Supivaa, we encourage our interns to take an initiative in how they want to best leverage their skills and what skills they want to learn. Responsibilities in this role will include, but are not limited to, building relationships with clients and research:

Client Facing Roles:

• Communicate with the client and stakeholders, analyze and assess the company’s commercial viability and impact, and provide recommendations for development
• Organize meetings with the clients and actively engage the client in order to establish a long term relationship
• Support the advisory team throughout client engagements whether it be operational set-up (acting as “in-house” COO), business facilitation support, or corporate strategy development
• Assist in the fundraising processing, including investor management, due diligence documentation, and respective data analysis
• Develop an Impact Investment focused collateral to target the impact investment/blended finance community

Research & Analysis:

• Identify investment and funding leads that would be relevant for the growth of Supivaa and its various clients. These leads can include VC Funds, Angel Investors, Impact Investors, Family Offices, Foundations etc. Clients in particular will need a combination of debt and equity investment, as well as grants/technical assistance facilities
• Develop the investor outreach collateral which may include preparation of pitch decks, teasers, on-going applications (grant, loan, etc.) and business plans specific to an investor needs
• Impact investment due diligence to vet and assess a company’s commercial viability and its impact on the community they serve.

You should be:

• Motivated, entrepreneurial, innovative
• Wanting to get into entrepreneurship and/or impact investing and/or venture capital
• Strong writing, verbal communication, and organization skills
• Ability to multitask and meet critical deadlines in a fast paced environment
• Experience in finance, entrepreneurship, gender-lens investing and/or Africa a bonus, but not necessary
• Interest/Experience in one of the industry we work in: Agriculture, Renewable Energy or Health
• Studying/completing Masters-level in Business, Finance or MBA
• If you are studying a Bachelor’s from a top-tier university and have at least 3-5 years of previous work experience, we also welcome your application.

Location: Our clients are in Sub-Saharan Africa, UK, Europe and Canada while our HQ is inVancouver, Canada. We work in a fully remote environment in order to be geographically flexible for our clients. Our interns do have an option to work from wherever they like, as long as they can adapt to time zones. They are not required to work from the Vancouver HQ. Our team is spread out throughout the world from Vancouver, Toronto, London, Dubai, Nairobi and South Africa.

Please send through a cover letter and CV to careers@supivaa.com to apply.