BeingIconic, which transitions businesses through their scale-up journey through strategic marketing, network expansion, and commercial and operational expertise, has closed a pre-seed capital raise with investments from leading Australian and Asian media, marketing and creative investors.
Founded by partners Peter Brocklebank, chairman of UK creative services agency bbp; former Red Bull head of brand and Samsung head of marketing, Ian Bell; Steven Arnold, founder and creative director at Iconika Venture Brands and Kay Trippner, CFO and CCO at biotech company Headsafe, BeingIconic is an Australian growth consultancy supporting companies to scale outside of existing internal capabilities.
Following successful collaborations with over 50 scale-ups, BeingIconic has closed a $1 million pre-seed friends and family capital raise to expand operations to Asia and the UK, build-out strategy and client services teams, and invest in marketing and business development.
The first round of shareholders also includes BeingIconic non-executive director and strategic advisor, Mike Wilson, who launched and was chairman and CEO of Havas Media Australia and co-founder of Naked Communications; James Neale, former Clemenger Group board director and national CEO of Traffik Marketing; Jack Byrne, founder and managing director of award-winning independent media agency Hatched and Simon Porter, head of retail at Hatched; and Jason P Ross, investor and former head of creative at JWT. Ross’s investment portfolio includes a creative innovation platform, Exceptional Alien.
Singapore-based Avyan Holdings, part of Avyan Global, a creative human experience design-led collective, is a major investor in BeingIconic. Avyan is led by Vishnu Mohan, the former group chair and CEO of Havas in South East Asia, India, Japan and Korea.
Peter Brocklebank, partner and managing director, BeingIconic, said: “Since launching two years ago, we have taken a deliberate and staged approach to validate the proposition to ensure it delivers for companies ready for their scale-up journey.
“Scale-ups typically don’t fail because they don’t have a great product, they fail because they only have a great product. BeingIconic brings deep insights, expertise and networks to fuel the next phase of growth by becoming an integral part of their teams through expert guidance across marketing, operations and finance functions.
“Our new investors not only enable us to expand the BeingIconic offer to Asia, UK and beyond, they are a collective of partners who intrinsically understand the ecosystem and can support us with their own insights, experience and connections.”
Steven Arnold, partner and creative director at BeingIconic, said: “The ability to bring true design, creative and brand thinking to shape a business during its scale-up cycle drives value and is the foundation of future success.
“Having already helped build out brands across categories, we are excited to bring the deep experience of the BeingIconic team and that of our partner networks to even more Australian scale-ups.”
Industry and category agnostic, BeingIconic has worked or is currently partnering with scale-ups including espresso Displays, award-winning creators of the world’s thinnest portable monitor; UK-based CrowdProperty, on the Australian launch of the UK-based fintech business and technology innovation company Olinqua.
In addition to collaborating with scale-ups directly, BeingIconic works with established capital raising partners and their clients, including OnMarket, Australia’s largest equity raising platform and Microsoft For Startups, the corporate venture capital subsidiary of Microsoft, amongst others.
Ian Bell, partner and chief innovation officer, BeingIconic said: “There are significant opportunities to take the product and service innovations of Australian businesses and expand them out to new markets.
“BeingIconic’s mission is to grow these entrepreneurial scale-ups beyond their internal potential, be a trusted partner and help them realise their ambitions. The founders and our new shareholders are experienced in doing just that. Now we are bringing this combined experience, and that of our wider team, to even more Australian scale-ups and those in Asia and the UK as well.”
