Rokoko’s $3M strategic extension deck • TechCrunch

There are occasions within the lifetime of a startup while you don’t really need or want to boost cash, however a chance comes alongside that’s so good that you simply create a model new spherical simply to have the ability to herald a strategic investor.

That was the scenario Danish animation and movement seize firm Rokoko discovered itself in over the summer season. I wrote about its $3 million strategic round that valued the corporate at $80 million — a spherical pulled collectively particularly to let Zepeto purchase its approach onto Rokoko’s cap desk.

When that form of factor occurs, you sometimes don’t want an in-depth deck; the investor is already fairly certain they need to make investments, and also you’re fairly certain you need the investor. Apart from, if the deal doesn’t occur … whatevz, you didn’t want the cash anyway.

After I talked with Rokoko, I discovered myself questioning: What have been they utilizing as a deck on this very particular circumstance? Fortunately, the corporate’s CEO was glad to share the deck with me. So for this week’s pitch deck teardown, I’ve acquired one thing barely uncommon: a strategic extension deck!

Let’s take a better look.

We’re on the lookout for extra distinctive pitch decks to tear down, so if you wish to submit your personal, here’s how you can do that. 

Slides on this deck

1. Cowl slide
2. Downside slide
3. Answer slide
4. Product highway map slide
5. Market dimension slide
6. Market trajectory slide
7. “Business Flywheel” — enterprise mannequin slide
8. “The Rokoko Platform in 2 years” — product highway map slide (redacted)
9. “Conquering new verticals, beginning with well being” — market alternative/enlargement slide
10.   Workforce slide
11.   “We transfer on the world’s strongest dataset of human movement” — market trajectory slide
12.   “Firm background”  — metrics and progress slide (redacted)
13.   Monetary projections (redacted)
14.   “Rokoko at a look” — KPI slide
15.   “Fundraising historical past” — fundraising journey slide, with valuations
16.   Closing slide

Three issues to like

In the event you’re constructing an organization within the creator area, you’d greatest have a fantastic deck. And oh my precise goodness does Rokoko ship on that entrance.

Utter readability

[Slide 2] Downside slide. Picture Credit: Rokoko

The crew at Rokoko is all about movement and the capturing thereof. How the ever-loving hell do you seize that in a still-frame slide deck? Nicely, Slide 2 offers you the reply. This slide is an absolute masterpiece of storytelling. By contextualizing a human in movement subsequent to a digital counterpart, Rokoko shows in a single side-by-side what it does.

The {photograph} is nice, after all, and it evokes movement and motion. Anybody who’s ever tried animating one thing by hand is aware of how exhausting it’s to get motion to look pure. The 2 photos go a good distance, and the textual content additional rams dwelling the purpose: We live in a universe the place a variety of movement must be captured as a way to make animators’ lives simpler. It’s not exhausting to think about that that’s true for video games, animated films and far more. I really like the simplicity of this slide and the way a lot work it does. It’s a good way to determine the dialog.

A giant market with large adjoining markets

You realize all that reward I simply heaped on Rokoko above? It will get higher. I’m already satisfied that it is a good alternative, however then they go and inform us that there’s an enormous quantity of extra alternatives as effectively:

[Slide 4] Adjoining markets. Picture Credit: Rokoko

It is sensible that creators — particularly low and midbudget video games and animation producers — are a giant and rising market. Seeing that Rokoko has thought of (and is executing towards) a market enlargement is strictly what traders need to see.

For lots of corporations, I might push again at this level, saying that that is fragmentation and lack of focus, however I actually like how Rokoko tells the story on this occasion: They’re desirous about well being and life sciences, web3, sports activities and different use circumstances, however they’re not making a giant deal out of it. It reveals that they’re preserving tabs on issues with out actually diverting too many assets. Not less than, that’s what I’m hoping. If I have been seeking to make investments, I’d ask them what number of assets they’re utilizing, however given how this slide is designed and worded, I’m assured that they’re operating some pilots/early exams.

The outlier is “Robotics and Automotive,” the place the corporate casually drops the truth that they’ve Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Ford and Mercedes as present clients. That’s underplaying what’s happening, but it surely’s a good way to inform this a part of the story. Sure, there’s a flurry of questions instantly leaping to thoughts: How are they utilizing your product? What are the contracts value? How did you get them? What are you able to do to develop your presence there? How are you going to choose up much more robotics and automotive shoppers? However so far as the storytelling goes, it hints at a strong core market (creators) and a plethora of probably profitable market extensions. It’s a terrific place to be as a startup.

Oh and about these creators …

The primary time I clicked by means of Rokoko’s deck, I used to be confused in regards to the ordering; I might have switched slides 4 and 5. However desirous about it extra intently, I see what they’re doing. As an alternative of doing a “that is our core and listed here are the opposite alternatives,” they’re doing it the opposite approach round. Slide 4 reveals the lay of the land after which Slide 5 drills deeper on the core audiences, exhibiting that there’s an enormous development alternative.

[Slide 5] About these creators … Picture Credit: Rokoko

This slide tells such an essential a part of Rokoko’s story — Slide 4 coated the general panorama, and right here the corporate double-clicks on the creator financial system; the extra context reveals the place beginner and low-end professional producers are placing their content material. And it’s encouraging to see that the corporate has area to develop into extra high-end content material, too, produced by the likes of Disney+, Apple TV+, Hulu, HBO Max, Prime Video and Netflix. It reveals the width and breadth of the shoppers who’re utilizing these providers.

This spherical is all about bringing in an investor who already needs to be concerned, so I’ll forgive Rokoko for this, but when this have been a extra normal VC spherical, I’d invite them to speak extra about what that “robust development” seems to be like in numbers.

In the remainder of this teardown, we’ll check out three issues Rokoko may have improved or carried out in another way, together with its full pitch deck!