Kicking off the season with Motorsport for LIFE

On 24 April, this year’s first race in the Danish Thundersport Championship (DTC) will take place on Jyllandsringen, which also means that it is this time of year, where Motorsport for LIFE brings children with chronical illnesses to the racetracks. Motorsport for LIFE is a charity organisation, which organises car events, primarily at Danish hospitals and at DTC races, in order to give chronically ill children a break in an otherwise challenging daily life. Motorsport for Life is supported by Omnia Foundation.

EXCITING SEASON AHEAD

This season marks the long-awaited launch of a bus, which Omnia Foundation is the main sponsor of. With the bus, which will be completely redesigned on the inside to fit the needs of chronically ill children, Motorsport for LIFE will be able to bring more children to the racetracks, and thereby organise more events for the children. It has been quite a challenge, much bigger than expected, to rebuild the bus, but now the bus is almost ready, and at OMNIA, we are very excited about seeing the final result and how big a difference it will make for the children.

DOING THINGS THEIR WAY

At Motorsport for LIFE, they are brilliant at thinking outside the box – an aspect we can relate to at OMNIA, and which makes Motorsport for LIFE and Omnia Foundation such a great match. 2016 has two events ahead, which are great examples of this and how Motorsport for LIFE is brilliant at doing things their way.
In order to spread the message of Motorsport for LIFE, they will participate in this year’s Carbage Run: ”The ultimate five-days road trip through Europe in an old car”. It is a requirement that the car is at least 15 years old, and the car must be turned into a creative, festive and original version of itself, and Motorsport for LIFE will participate with an old Volvo Limousine. It will be possible to follow the car on its adventurous trip through Europe via live streaming and chats with the purpose of collecting money to the organisation and not the least to attract attention to Motorsport for LIFE.
You can read more about Carbage Run here.

Not the least, Motorsport for LIFE will participate in the soapbox car race at the Classic Race in Aarhus, Denmark – Northern Europe’s best racing festival from 27-29 May. Together with Aarhus Tech, which also worked on the bus, Motorsport for LIFE has built four soapbox cars to be driven by four children from Motorsport for LIFE. Of course, OMNIA will be present at this great event, and we are looking forward to seeing Motorsport for LIFE and the children being part of the race.
You can read more about Classic Race here.

INSPIRING FIERY SOULS

At OMNIA, we are excited about the coming season, and we are very happy to continue being proud sponsors of Motorsport for LIFE. Motorsport for LIFE is an organisation driven by fiery souls, who spend countless hours on making a difference for the children, and who believe that all children have the right to have fun – no matter what diagnosis they have.
Follow Motorsport for LIFE on Facebook for more information and updates on events.

For more information about Omnia Foundation, please click here.

Building brand value quicker than ever

With a long list of celebrities signing deals with sneaker companies and creating their own line of sneakers, it seems like endorsement deals only work with this product. Two of the most prominent deals are those between Rihanna and Puma, and Kanye West and Adidas:

• In 2014, Puma signed Rihanna as creative director in a USD 1m, multi-year contract. However, Puma most likely did not expect it to become the success it did: Rihanna’s collaboration with Puma helped the brand earn USD 975m in the last quarter of 2015, which is a 17.1% increase in average sales! Source
• In 2013, Kanye West revealed that he was leaving Nike as endorser, after Nike refused to pay him royalties on his sneaker sales. Instead, he signed a deal with Adidas worth an estimated USD 10m, and the Yeezy Boost collection from Adidas by Kanye West has become a massive success. In this era of social media, proof of success can be measured by other means than earnings and sales: In the number of Instagram likes! Today, the success of celebrity endorsement deals lie in the celebrities success on social media. In 2015, Adidas received a total number of likes of almost 80m, number 2 on the sneaker brand list was Vans with a bit more than 40m likes, whereas Kanye West’s enemy, Nike, received less than 30m likes. Source
  

FINDING THE RIGHT MATCH

However, it is not only in relation to sneaker companies that celebrity endorsers can be a huge success! It is only a matter of time before we see this trend explode to other lines of products, and it has already begun.

The former boxing champ, George Foreman, has earned more than USD 200m for endorsing the Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine! Charlize Theron has earned an estimated USD 55m for being the face of Dior’s J’adore perfume. In 2012, Beyonce Knowles signed a 10-year USD 50m spokesperson contract with Pepsi. Since 2005, George Clooney has earned USD 5m per year for his affiliation with Nespresso. And the list goes on and on and….

NOT YOUR CLASSIC ENDORSEMENT DEAL

But imagine what these endorsement deals would have given these celebrities if part of the deals had been stock warrants! At OMNIA Entertainment LLC, we offer a different take on endorsement deals, as we seek influencers and endorsers to brands and companies that we are taking public through OMNIA Private Equity AG. As the endorser, a celebrity will receive stocks in the company that they endorse, meaning that they will be paid in stocks before the actual IPO. We all remember how 50 Cent made USD 150m with his endorsement deal with Vitamin Water. Our goal is to make all our endorsers part of an upside at this level.

SMALLER BRANDS – HIGHER VALUE

We believe that such an upside is possible by using the right endorser to a smaller but growing brand. It is easier to create a 100% growth in company value and sales with a smaller company than doubling the sales and company value of Nike!

With the power of social media, any small brand can become highly valuable quicker than ever before. Together with taking a company public, the power of social media can highly increase the value of these deals, and the companies become highly valuable as well as liquid.

We are living in exciting times, and at OMNIA, we love building companies and brands for the world to enjoy.

Increasing interest in pre-ipo investments

Usually, investment fortunes come from diversified private equity and venture capital investments where the companies are listed on the stock exchange at a later point. As the price of shares is lower, it attracts large investments by private equity or hedge funds. However, for private investors, getting access to just one company at pre-IPO price is difficult, and to spread the risk over several different companies and industries is virtually impossible.

WHY PRE-IPOS ARE ATTRACTIVE

Pre-IPO investments are when a portion of an IPO is placed with private investors right before the IPO is scheduled to hit the market. Typically, these private investors in a pre-IPO placement are large private equity or hedge funds that are willing to buy a large stake in the company. The size of the investment means that the price paid for shares in a pre-IPO placement is usually less than the prospective IPO price.

There are some great examples of highly profitable pre-IPO investments. Investors who bought shares of ReWalk Robotics at the IPO made 116%, whereas investors who got in before the IPO made 381%. Also, public investors in Facebook lost money on the IPO day, while private investors cashed in big: Bono, U2’s lead singer, made a whopping USD 43 million from his pre-IPO shares.

Due to the above-mentioned examples, some private investors specialise in pre-IPO investing, but unfortunately, getting access to these deals is very challenging: They have sky-high valuations and demand, so normally only the most prominent venture capitalists and celebrities can access them.

THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY-ACCESS AND DIVERSIFYING

In 2014, 275 companies went public in the U.S., and thereby it was the most active year since 2000. The average IPO performance was 21% for 2014, which was above the ten-year mean, but well below the average return in 2013 of 41%. Source: Renaissance Capital IPO Intelligence

According to The Kauffman Foundation, the average return for a portfolio of early-stage investments was an astonishing 260%. Compare that to the stock market having a 12% average annual return since the Depression. These types of gains do not come from a single investment – they come from a portfolio of investments. When it comes to investing in early-stage companies, the key is to diversify – to invest in several promising private equity opportunities, rather than putting every penny into one company.

PRE-IPOS AS CROWD FUNDING FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR

At OMNIA, we find this development of more IPOs and more focus on pre-IPO investments for others than huge pension funds, hedge funds and high net worth individuals interesting and worth noticing, as it also decreases the risk of the investments.

Pre-IPOs are a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to raise capital as a form of crowd funding – a kind of Kickstarter for IPOs, due to the impressive performance for investors. However, for this to take place, we need to have easier access for the general public to pre-IPOs rather than it being an exclusive club for pension funds and high net worth individuals. At OMNIA, we are following this development with huge interest.

If you would like to read more about IPO investments and returns, you can find more information on Nasdaq.

Caged No More premiered at LA Femme Film Festival

CAGED NO MORE

At this weekend’s LA Femme Film Festival, Joey Paul Jensen, President of OMNIA Entertainment LLC, was invited to the premiere of Caged No More, as Joey casted the actors in the film. The film stars Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, Soul Surfer), Madison De La Garza (Desperate Housewives) and Loretta Devine (Crash, Boston Public), among others.

SUPPORTING WOMEN IN THE FILM INDUSTRY

LA Femme Film Festival is a premier festival that focuses on platforming women filmmakers “by women, for everyone”. The Festival was created in 2005, as there was a need to enhance women behind the camera as Directors, Producers and Writers. Since Caged No More is written, directed and produced by Lisa Arnold it was an obvious choice for the Festival.

Read more about LA Femme Film Festival here.

FOCUS ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Caged No More is about Aggie Prejean, a 67-year-old Cajun woman, who discovers that her two goddaughters have disappeared and the only clue that she possesses is a forgotten laptop. Lacking in means, Aggie risks everything to cross paths with Richard and Lottie DuLonde, two of the wealthiest and most connected people in New Orleans. Even with their help, no one can foresee the dangers that lie ahead in the dark world of trafficking. 

Caged No More will be in theaters in January 2016.

Empowering content creators

EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF THE FILM INDUSTRY

OMNIA Entertainment LLC was present at the Entertainment and Technology Summit to be a part of the dialogue on the current trends in these two combined industries. With so many new distribution outlets, OMNIA Entertainment LLC will also be creating its own entertainment platforms and solidly compete, and our goal is to work with creators who are already working across all the new platforms.

The insight at the summit articulates all the new opportunities, develops brand awareness and exposes how companies like Facebook, Snapchat, GoPro, DC Comics, Awesomeness, Buzzfeed and Full Screen, which were all represented at the summit, are similar or different in their efforts. By observing and understanding the strategies and behaviour of these companies, OMNIA Entertainment LLC can easily identify the best places to be in the market in order to capitalise on it. As Diane Nelson, President of DC Entertainment and WB Consumer Products stated, “It’s ultimately about the depth of the industry”.

NEW WAYS OF ENGAGING AUDIENCES

Success in the entertainment industry is based on distribution, and great content is important for sustainability. However, without the driving mechanism of using all possible distribution outlets, it is not possible to compete on a large scale. The experience added the specifics of the players, their strategies and how they are experimenting to discover the best combination of vertical platforms. All these platforms begin with the ideas; the stories to be told. The end game is to reach the consumer in a multitude of ways: Publishing, gaming, streaming, online interactive, immersive, mobile devices and consumer products.

The best news of all is that entertainment companies have multiple ways to make money on-going and do not necessarily have to rely on the big studios in order to do so. This includes the notion that some of the companies out there and their ideas got started from crowd funding. The giant studio system of Hollywood is shrinking, and more success will come to creators who can think in a multi-medium kind of way.

PROMINENT AND EXPERIENCED SPEAKERS

The 30 speakers at the summit are some of the best in the field and many have been in the industry for 20-30 years. The networking of all these executives being in one place at the same time was a perfect opportunity to listen to the heartbeat of the new trends and how the industry is changing. Years ago, it was daunting to pursue the entertainment market due to the power of the studios, as the studio system is very difficult to penetrate. The big change is that the studios have to compete with all these new platforms in order to stay competitive, and the little creator does not necessarily need a big studio to create a successful business.

Ted Zagat, head of brand awareness for Facebook, told that they are planning to start their own original content. Facebook wants to capitalise on mobile advertising, and on how consumers connect to businesses they want. Nick Beel said the same thing with creating content for his company Snapchat. Snapchat is very producer-friendly with fewer guidelines on what the entertainment needs to be.

Furthermore, Adi Sideman talked about his new company YouNow, which is a live social video piece. Fans and audience can call in and have interaction right away with their shows and hosts, and they get 150 million users a month. Currently, social video is not add content, but is still a multi billion dollar business.

BEING PART OF THE DEVELOPMENT

Technology and Entertainment are two of the biggest industries in the world. Being able to see how these two industries intersect gave us our own insight, and it develops our own instincts about the projects and products that we will invest in.
It is part of OMNIA Entertainment’s vision to be creative, entrepreneurial and at the forefront of industry, and participating and being “in the know” with this summit was as exciting as it gets.
This is a very exciting time in the entertainment industry due to all the above-mentioned developments, and at OMNIA Entertainment LLC, we are going to be a part of it.

Sponsoring water heaters for dog shelters

THE PERFECT MATCH

Kessel Solar is a unique project driven by entrepreneurial people, and it is therefore the perfect match for Omnia Foundation. The water heaters are cheap and easy for the shelters to have, and not only does the warm water provide comfortable baths for homeless dogs, but it also soothing for dogs with arthritis to get warm baths. Therefore, the water heaters are able to make a huge difference at the shelters and for the dogs.

FINDING THE RIGHT SHELTERS

Right now, Kessel Solar is reaching out to dog shelters all over Mexico on their Facebook page by encouraging all shelters that are interested in the heaters to announce themselves. Afterwards, Kessel Solar will carefully select the shelters that will the benefit the most from the heaters, and they will each receive a free water heater including installation.

ABOUT KESSEL SOLAR

Kessel Solar aims to make sure everybody has affordable access to clean technology solutions en route to a more sustainable society, and the company puts effort into the development of residential autonomous energy solutions for local implementation.

Their first product, the Kessel, is the most innovative and cost-efficient residential water heating system in the world. Kessel is easy to install, highly durable and does not require any maintenance. Most importantly, Kessel reduces the energy costs for residential water heating by up to 80%.

At Omnia Foundation, we are proud to be part of this project and to be able to spread the word of the great work at Kessel Solar.

You can read more about Kessel Solar here and on their Facebook page “Kessel Solar”.

For more information about Omnia Foundation, go to omniafoundation.ch

Sponsored bus for Motorsport for LIFE

BRINGING OUT SMILES

At this season’s sixth DTC race (Danish Thundersport Championship) on Jyllandsringen in Silkeborg, Denmark, OMNIA attended the presentation of a redecorated bus, which Omnia Foundation is the main sponsor of, together with Motorsport for LIFE and children with chronic illnesses. With the bus, which will be completely redesigned on the inside to fit the needs of chronically ill children, Motorsport for LIFE will be able to bring more children to the racetracks, and thereby organise more events for the children.

CONNECTING CHILDREN AND DRIVERS

Motorsport for LIFE is the result of many voluntary souls who organise the events, but is also based on the participation of the professional drivers. At the event on Jyllandsringen, the entire Motorsport for LIFE team, including the children and OMNIA, were invited to meet the drivers, get autographs and pictures and not the least to see the race cars – a great experience for all.

AT THE RACE

The Motorsport for LIFE children were invited to be part of the race. They each got a flag representing a driver, and then stood next to their cars on the racetrack. Afterwards, when the race began, they were watching the race from the inner circle – which also meant they had front row seats to the driver, Casper Elgaard’s dramatic crash that ended the race. Luckily, Casper Elgaard was able to get out of the car walking despite his car being completely damaged.

MOTORSPORT FOR LIFE

Motorsport for LIFE is a charity organisation fulfilling the dreams of chronically ill children. With the help from Danish motor sport and other helpful people they organise car events at Danish hospitals and at professional motor sport races, in order to give children and their families a break in an otherwise challenging daily life.

To read more about Motorsport for LIFE, please follow them on Facebook.

For more information about Omnia Foundation go to omniafoundation.ch

OMNIA launches omniafoundation.ch

OMNIA has been doing charity work for years, and now we are launching a platform to spread the philosophy of the inspiring projects we get involved in. On omniafoundation.ch, we tell the stories about each project and we launch news on a regular basis.

ABOUT OMNIA FOUNDATION

Omnia Foundation was established as a spin-off from OMNIA to enable the charitable distribution of all the proceeds from operating OMNIA and its subsidiaries. The mission for Omnia Foundation is to give back where we can make a perceptible difference, and where we can have a personal relation, genuine dedication and, ideally, a direct involvement in the projects.

HOW WE WORK

Omnia Foundation is focused on supporting smaller projects and organisations, and particularly those run by like-minded people: True, passionate entrepreneurs with a mission to make a difference.

By intelligently leveraging the financial tools and models, which we have developed and adopted in OMNIA to serve our international clients, Omnia Foundation optimises the deployment of our funds to maximise output.

We simply employ the possibilities of the global financial scene to achieve a higher yield in our charitable endeavours.

BE INSPIRED

For more inspiration, please go to omniafoundation.ch

Creative networking

I have noticed that the people I do good business with are people that I also have a lot of fun with. My perception of being “an entrepreneur” has never been running a company towards a specific goal written in a business plan that you never read after you have written it. My perception is that being an entrepreneur is about enjoying a journey that you never know where will end.

A journey that starts off in one direction, and a perception of reality that constantly changes. It’s all about whom you bump into, where the market is going, and which path is the most enjoyable.

I have never liked the traditional network meetings where the question “so what do you do” echoes endlessly in the room. I usually go, if ever, to these events with people that I already know, and consider it to be an excuse to have some good wine and to tell a few stories. My best “networking events” have been random situations out and about travelling the world.

I do business with people, not with companies, so I like to know whom I am dealing with, and I am always anxious to see what I can learn from the people I meet. If everyone asked what his/her passion is instead of what he/she does, I would be a lot more interested. So when I am asked what I do, I always answer what my passion is, and funnily enough that interests people a lot more.

In the Western world where I live, we are taught to go through life a certain way, and there are a billion unwritten as well as written rules to follow. As negative as I feel that is, it is also a blessing for those who step out of that system, those who choose their own path and follow their passion, ignoring all the nay sayers and pessimists that fill the surface of the planet, as we are the ones who have followers.

People actually want to follow their passion if they know how to do it. In most cases, they just need a tiny push and good energy. The ones that have good energy and are following their passion should bump into as many people as possible to change the world for the better, as it is the people that can make that happen.

The world can be a playground if you let it. Get out there and enjoy yourself – you will meet the right people, and you will get to learn a whole lot more about the real person behind the business card when people are enjoying themselves and are in an environment that excites them. It is also a great excuse to get out of the boardroom and enjoy life being “an entrepreneur”.

“Always remember to have fun as an entrepreneur – you can’t be sure that you will succeed in your venture – but you would have had fun trying” 

Daniel Hansen, Founder & CEO, OMNIA Global

Modball 2015

For the second time, Daniel Hansen participated in the Modball Rally racing from London to Barcelona.

You can read more about Modball here.

OMNIA Private Equity AG

OMNIA Private Equity AG is a natural extension of our business, and although related to OMNIA Capital Ltd., it deserves its own focus and a platform for sharing the companies that we invest in through OMNIA Private Equity AG.

ABOUT OMNIA PRIVATE EQUITY

OMNIA Private Equity AG invests in unlisted privately held companies run by the right people. Put in another way, we invest in people, as the business area of the companies is less important. We invest in companies with only a few private equity and/or venture capital fund investors on board already.

We use the public market to raise capital and hedge our risk, not to dilute the entrepreneur after we get on board, and we always let the entrepreneur have full control of his/her company.

Ultimately, it is about believing in the companies that we invest in – that the strategy, budgets and management have what it takes to make it. Then we will be the final investor with the same entrepreneurial mindset as the entrepreneur.