December 23, 2025 | Rhiannon Day
When looking to secure investment, it can be tempting to focus wholly on your bottom-line business fundamentals. And that’s understandable. Metrics like net income, EBITDA, or customer lifetime value are key pieces of the puzzle that analysts and investors will use to value your organisation.
However, your brand and narrative are also important parts of your company that can have a significant impact on how investors see and value you – and whether they decide to invest. They are both central ‘intangible assets’, directly contributing to your long-term profitability and valuation. And they also have persuasive force over investors, similar to how they do over your regular customers.
Reputation, risk, and brand value
When investors back a company, or a buyer acquires it, they’re doing more than putting large sums of money on the line. Critically, their own careers and reputation are at stake. The risks can be enormous: a wrong decision can threaten major projects, squander a limited budget, and potentially put jobs at risk. In this high-stakes environment, a strong and trusted brand offers investors confidence in the strength and capabilities of the business they’re backing.
Investors and backers are swayed by a powerful brand when they assess the reliability and quality of your offer and what that might mean for their returns. A strong, positive brand perception can lubricate the entire investment process, reducing friction, building trust, and shortening decision timelines.
Communicating progression
Potential investors also want to see stories of growth and sustained progression. To demonstrate your direction of travel, you need to get your company out there, highlighting growth stories such as successful trials, new customers and new projects – the type of relevant wins that investors will appreciate.
The hype cycle and market presence
Nobody wants to just be the next big thing. That can backfire on companies, investors, and in the worst cases, whole markets. However, the right amount of targeted, strategic visibility – backed up with working tech and good fundamentals – could make a difference to how attractive your company is. Imagine two roughly identical start-ups:
Firm A has an excellent product and decent sales figures but maintains a low profile.
Firm B has the same product and sales, but it invests in solid messaging and strategic PR. This effort ensures it is consistently getting noticed, positioned as a thought leader, and featured in influential trade publications and the investment press.
It’s not difficult to picture which is in a better position. Firm B is perceived as less risky and more visible, and this perception creates a strong advantage: it could have a better chance of securing investment at a higher valuation, or becoming an attractive target for an acquisition by a larger company looking to buy market presence.
Buyer beware: many investors actively seek undervalued companies. Your market presence must, therefore, clearly connect to a future tangible benefit or return for your investors. If your company appears overvalued or overhyped, it will inevitably deter ‘value investors’. This is why targeted PR is key. It avoids overhyping your company by substantiating your true value proposition and gets you in credible trade and financial outlets that help you build an informed narrative around your company.
The narrative beyond the numbers
It’s crucial to realise that investors are looking beyond the numbers at the narrative. Nobody can predict the future, but investors aim to make informed guesses about the market’s development, and the future role and place of your company.
Will you progress, or will you fall back? Are you well placed to benefit from – or even drive – the tailwinds of change? Investment professionals will form their own opinions, but you can influence them with your own story of change and where you sit within it.
For tech start-ups and scale-ups, getting your message out there with a strong story that places you in the bigger picture helps you get noticed. By establishing a narrative that highlights how your tech is indispensable, for example, you’re far more likely to be recognised for the critical role you play, boosting your appeal to investors.
Indispensable investments: as hydrogen grows worldwide, those companies essential to its success will prove to be sound investments. Latent Drive developed a technology that can produce green hydrogen under the $2 per kilo tipping point, and won Innovation UK funding for its trials. We created focused messaging, and undertook a public relations sprint to raise Latent Drive’s profile with investors – ultimately securing 29 pieces of coverage and reaching an audience of 400,000.
Building your people
Alongside assessing your financials and your franchise, investors want to know about the quality of your people. They know that market cycles are inevitable, so they look to companies with good leadership that will help them weather the inevitable storms, and exploit any opportunities during the upturn.
PR, especially thought leadership, is an effective way to build the profile of key team members. It’s an opportunity for them to show:
- Deep sector expertise – By publishing insightful articles, speaking at major conferences, or being quoted in tier-one publications, your leaders and team can demonstrate a deep understanding of sector challenges and future trends.
- Strategic vision – Thought leadership lets leaders voice how they plan to adapt to market changes and drive growth, proving they have a roadmap for the long-term financial trajectory of your company.
- Culture and stability – Consistent and high-quality thought leadership signals a stable, well-managed organisation with a strong culture and smart people. This boosts your brand and reduces perceived risk for investors.
Music to your ears?
As Mark Twain said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. Good PR helps investors see the rhythm within the rhyme, providing the context to confidently chart your company’s course through the historical market and buy into its role in the emerging future. So, beyond the numbers, it’s the narrative that counts – and good PR can build your narrative and your brand.
If you want to know more, get in touch.
