April 15th VC related events, news, articles for investors
Hello friends,
Happy Passover! Enjoy the weekend with family and friends.
Scroll down to view the news, upcoming events, and VC reads.
VNTR COMMUNITY NEWS
We hosted our first VNTR Breakfast in Tel-Aviv on April 12th, the second VNTR Breakfast in New Delhi on April 14th, and the second VNTR Brunch Tbilisi will be hosted tomorrow.
We are launching a series of VNTR Investment Committees where we will curate startups from community members who are in the process of raising their new rounds of funding and invite the best startups to present their companies to the VNTR Community. VNTR Syndicate will invest in the best companies and allow community members to co-invest. Join us on April 21st.
On April 27th we will host a VNTR Expert Session where we will learn about investments in Longevity startups with Garri Zmudze, General Manager at LongeVC.
Want to participate in our upcoming events, connect with other investors, and co-invest?
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 16 - VNTR Brunch Tbilisi
April 18 - 22 - New York FinTech Week
April 21 - VNTR Investment Committee
April 21 - July 14 - Trans-Atlantic Angel Conference, Learn Angel Investing by doing
April 22 - 24 - ETH Amsterdam
April 25-27 - VON3, from Web2 to Web3
April 27 - VNTR Expert Session - Investments In Longevity Startups (Zoom)
April 27-29 - TechChill 2022, Riga, Latvia
May 12-13 - EU Startups Summit 2022, Spain
June 7-9 - Money 20/20 Europe
June 9-12 - Central Asian Venture Forum, Almaty, Kazakhstan
June 8-10 - South Summit. Madrid, Spain (30% partner discount)
June 20-23 - Collision, Toronto, Canada
Check out VNTR's upcoming events
Want to co-host VC-related events, share events, or sponsor reach out to yuri@vntr.vc or Telegram @byuric to discuss the opportunities.
VC READS
Yes, Crypto Is Cool. But How About Starting With More User-Friendly Tools?
Many people believe that crypto will increase access to financial services for underbanked communities. These crypto proponents say that the abundance of mobile devices will allow people to skip banks altogether and use crypto instead. More than five billion people in the world – nearly 70% – currently own a cell phone, according to the international mobile technology trade organization GSMA, and a large portion come from underserved areas with little if any access to banking services. The crypto believers say that crypto, particularly some of the latest Web 3 innovations, offers hope for the underbanked and that serving the underbanked is where crypto can be most useful. They add that traditional financial institutions’ slothlike services can’t compete with cryptocurrency technology.
Gaingels, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Most Active Investors In US Market In March
Although venture funding has hit a dip in North America—and globally—several big-name firms stayed active in the U.S. market in March. Seven firms took part in a dozen or more funding deals to U.S.-based startups in March, including big names such as Tiger Global, Andreessen Horowitz, and Insight Partners. While that seems like a significant number, it is off from 13 firms participating in a dozen or more deals in March 2021.
New York-based Gaingels has been as busy as any firm when it comes to investing in domestic startups. For the third straight month, it led the way while investing in more than 20 companies.
Q1 '22 European VC fundraising note
The first quarter of '22 didn't disappoint, with €4.8B raised by 33 new funds. It's the strongest start of the year since 2016 when we started tracking all this, and the 3rd biggest quarter on our records. It's just not slowing down, is it? I have a hunch that we'll top €20B in 2022, but what do we know. Of the approximately €80B that we have recorded so far, we reckon about €30B is yet undeployed (i.e. dry powder), so more fun(d) times ahead for euro startups!
VC distributions are down 90% in Q1, says Industry Ventures, an LP in 450 funds
If you’re trying to get a pulse on what’s happening in the venture market right now, you could do worse than talk with Hans Swildens, founder of the 22-year-old investment firm Industry Ventures. Industry Ventures is now managing $5 billion in assets – nearly $1 billion of it raised last year - across numerous strategies and vehicles. The firm makes both direct investments and invests in venture funds. It participates in smaller tech buyouts. It’s a limited partner in others’ buyout funds. And it has a vibrant secondaries business, so it knows when people are open to selling stakes in companies when they aren’t, and where the market is pricing pretty much everything.
Why Diversity is Necessary To Make Venture Capital Future-Ready
Venture capital needs to set the example on how to continue a positive momentum and evolve the approach toward increasing diversity in investment management.
In the old model, VCs went to the same schools, lived in Silicon Valley, hung out in the same circles, and invested in the same opportunities. Funds look to other VCs and LPs who are invested in deals and funds for validation, instead of thinking for themselves. This homogeneity in experience reduces the aperture of the opportunities funded, leading to a particularly negative impact on newer and diverse founders and fund managers.
Private market investing gains traction among family offices, UHNIs in India
There are an estimated 8,000 ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNIs) in India, and the country is rapidly adding more to its ranks. Given this, it is not surprising to see a strong emerging trend towards allocation to private markets among family offices and UHNIs. As per a report, 40% of Indian family offices have doubled their allocation to private markets in the last five years. In large part, the interest in private markets is driven by high valuations of global equity markets, a prolonged low-interest-rate environment, low bond yields, and recognition that the bulk of valuations are now being created in private markets before the security enters the public market.
3 Things VCs Should Do To Protect Founders’ Mental Health
Being a startup founder is hard. There’s an enormous amount of pressure, long hours, sleepless nights, and myriad unexpected challenges that no human could ever be entirely prepared for.
All of that takes a serious toll on one’s mental health. We see it firsthand as investors and partners to these founders. A few great tips that often go a long way in preserving, protecting, and enriching the mental health of startup founders.
Your Pitch Deck is Your Tinder Profile
There are hundreds of pitch deck templates available on the internet. We’ve all seen them and, more often than not, we reference them in conversation. But the reality is that there is no perfect, one-size-fits-all approach. There are, however, some things that are often overlooked when creating a deck. Remember, your pitch deck is the first picture an investor will get of you, your team, and your company. And first impressions matter.
The best way to demonstrate this is to compare your pitch deck to your Tinder profile.
Central Bank of Portugal Grants Country’s First Crypto License to a Bank
Bison Bank, a Portugal-based financial institution, has received a license from the Portuguese central bank (Banco de Portugal) to operate as a virtual asset service provider (VASP), Banco de Portugal announced Thursday. Bison Bank will create a special business division, Bison Digital Assets, to operate as a virtual asset exchange, according to Portuguese media outlet Sapo. The division is the first entity in Portugal owned by a bank to be authorized by Banco de Portugal to offer custodian and crypto trading services. Bison Bank provides wealth management, depositary, and investment banking services to individuals and institutional clients, according to its website. It is owned by a Hong Kong-based Chinese private capital group.
Venture Capital Is in the Dumps, But the Money Keeps Rolling In
Venture capital has downshifted lately, with fewer initial public offerings and declines in private valuations. But investors’ ardor for venture, as seen by VC fundraising totals lately, has hardly ebbed and indeed flourished. In this year’s rocky first quarter, U.S. venture capital funds raked in more than $70 billion in commitments, according to PitchBook data. That sum is more than 50% higher than the asset class’s entire fundraising take last year, which was a record.
This recent torrent of investing dollars should keep VC funds afloat for a long time, the research house notes in a report. The huge new influx of dry powder (readily available cash) by itself is sufficient to fund any foreseeable needs over the next 2.5 to 3.5 years, the report finds. That will include both new companies and existing investments.
Stop trying to raise a debut venture fund — go for the SPV instead
ou have social capital in your industry and access to hot startups. You know top investors. You’re smart, have a hustle, and know what it takes. It’s almost inevitable, and maybe even your destiny: You are going to be a VC. And so you ask the VCs you know: How do I raise my first fund? You ask me, Caterina Fake, and my answer is counterintuitive: Don’t.
Don’t start by raising a fund. Start with SPVs. SPVs – special purpose vehicles – are an underappreciated and overlooked way to break into venture investing. SPVs are much faster to raise than a fund, easy to set up, and, best of all, generate returns faster, because fees and carry are paid out deal by deal. Good for companies, good for investors, and good for you, the future VC.
These VCs and CVCs are diving into Industry 4.0 and you?
The post-pandemic world is seeing an increase in investment in industrial and supply chain technologies. Induced by the pandemic and other factors, the drive for supply chain resilience has prompted more funds to look into the sector. Some venture capitals, such as Siemens' Next47 and Eclipse Ventures, have already been active in the sector, but the latest revival of interest in industrial technologies is drawing in other funds previously absent in industrial technology investment.
VC giant Sequoia Capital names Roelof Botha as a new global leader
Storied venture firm Sequoia Capital has named a new leader. Roelof Botha, 48, will become the senior steward of the firm. Botha’s “keen instinct for innovation has made its mark on our partnership and on our industry,” Sequoia’s current chief Doug Leone wrote in a Twitter message on Monday. He also said that Botha will “set the overall tone and oversee the global centralized functions” of the firm, including its finance and culture, and that Botha will continue to lead Sequoia’s U.S. and Europe business as a managing partner. Leone, 64, said he will remain a general partner in the firm’s existing funds and will keep his board seats.
Decentralization for Web3 Builders: Principles, Models, How
The promise of decentralization has been heavily discussed and debated, from why it matters to the bigger question of who will control the software that powers the internet. These questions are critical, because as we have seen when control is held in the hands of a very few, encroachments on personal freedom, choice, and privacy are inherent. “Don’t be evil” is very different than “can’t be evil” when a CEO decides on one course or another.
Asia Venture Funding Falls After Record 2021
The venture market in Asia is not immune to the decline in funding seen globally. Venture funding in the continent declined to $36.3 billion in the first quarter, a 7 percent drop compared to the same quarter last year—and a much more dramatic 31 percent dip compared to the last quarter of 2021, according to Crunchbase data. On one hand, the numbers are not shocking considering the decline in global and North America venture dollars. On the other, like most of the world, Asia is coming off a record year of venture funding of $174.4 billion last year.
What does the VC boom mean for early-stage investing?
Venture capital investing has been on a tear. In 2021, a record $330 billion poured into promising tech startups around the country across all funding stages. The massive influx of venture capital is not only creating more competition among investors seeking favorable deals, it is creating opportunities for entrepreneurs to expand their funding rounds at more attractive valuations. According to PitchBook, the median valuation for U.S. seed-stage investments in 2021 exceeded $9 million, more than double what it was a decade ago. Similarly, the median size of a seed round has also doubled over the past decade to nearly $3 million. In short, seed-stage funding rounds are bigger and reflect higher valuations than ever. Even as world events create economic volatility, with so much capital available and so many technology-driven opportunities to innovate, the decade-long climb in investing activity is not likely to lose long-term momentum.
A VC Insider-Turned-Founder’s Top Tips for Fundraising
After spending several years at Greylock Partners and raising multiple rounds as a startup founder, I can tell you that VC is very much an insider’s game. Here are my tips to give you an edge. Because of the inside nature of VC, you need to know what you’re doing before ever making contact. I’ve talked to many first-time founders as they’ve started their fundraising process, and I am continually surprised by the information asymmetry between these entrepreneurs and VCs. A VC friend of mine described this gap, saying, “I think the industry is intentionally designed this way as a test for founders. VCs want to see if entrepreneurs can be resourceful enough to figure out how the game is played.”
Chinese Tech Rout Offers Opportunity for Investors, VC Head Says
There are “signs of hope” in the U.S.-China relationship, especially when it comes to health care and deep technology such as artificial intelligence, according to venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee. “Deep tech is an area China is committed to making work,” the chief executive officer of Beijing-based Sinovation Ventures said Thursday at the Bloomberg Wealth Summit in New York. “Now is a window of opportunity.’The Chinese capital market is open to U.S. investors, he said in a panel moderated by Bloomberg Television’s Caroline Hyde. His venture capital firm -- one of the first from China to have a presence in the U.S. -- is able to invest in almost any Chinese company, and he thinks Beijing would like many of the nation’s firms to be listed in the U.S.
Canadian VC disbursements reach a record high of $13.58 billion in 2021
Canadian venture capital (VC) disbursements reached a record high of $13.58 billion across 716 financings, according to analysis from research firm CPE Media. The record-setting VC investment in Canada was driven by the US and foreign investors, with foreign capital accounting for 72% of total disbursements. US investors represented 56% of total disbursements, at $7.6 billion. Canadian investors fell to 28% of disbursements in 2021, down from a pandemic-induced high of 48% in 2020. US VC firms, US hedge funds, and Canadian VC firms were the top investors, at $3.51 billion (26%), $1.43 billion (11%), and $1.20 billion (9%) respectively.
The Power of the DAO
With the advent of blockchain technologies infiltrating mainstream technological and societal use, one aspect is becoming more and more popularized and that is the DAO. DAO (which stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization) is a collective that works without barriers or bureaucracy toward the progress of a common goal.
Common uses so far include a community, collective, group, or organization which has banded together to co-govern a web protocol/app, create and manage investment opportunities, perform activism or advocacy within a particular field, or to produce/manage Media or creative content.
Can venture capital attract human capital? The role of investors' reputations
As startup founders know all too well, attracting employees is a key challenge facing young companies. “The high risk of failure in the startup world makes job seekers reluctant to take a chance on early-stage firms,” said Darden Professor Ting Xu, an expert in entrepreneurial finance. “So, how do you convince talented employees, most of whom may already have a great job, to work for a company with a little track record?” The answer lies in their investors’ reputations. “When startups attract top-tier venture capitalists who invest in them,” said Xu, “they win an important stamp of approval, which can mitigate the uncertainty surrounding early-stage companies and facilitate recruiting.”
Most Active Investors In The Indian Startup Ecosystem In Q1 2022
After an outstanding 2021, with $42 Bn in startup funding and 1583 deals, the growth momentum for the Indian startup ecosystem has been intact so far till the first quarter of 2022. According to an Inc42 report, 506 startup funding deals were recorded in Q1 2022 in the Indian startup ecosystem, thus, marking the highest number of funding deals in the last few years on a YoY basis. Over $11.8 Bn was raised by Indian startups in this quarter, 186% higher than the funds raised in Q1 2021.
North American Startup Investment Fell 11% In Q1 In First Quarterly Decline In Nearly 2 Years
Apparently, venture investment doesn’t always go up. That’s the key finding from our tally of North American startup investment in the first quarter. Altogether, investors put $82.8 billion into seed through growth-stage technology investments in the first quarter of 2022—down 11 percent from Q4 of 2021. It’s the first quarter-over-quarter decline in nearly two years. And while the total is still historically high—the fourth-biggest on record—it does suggest that the red-hot startup investment climate of recent quarters is cooling down some.
PE and VC-backed companies created over 103,000 jobs in Europe in 2020, report finds
European companies owned by private equity and venture capital grew their workforces by 2% in 2020 in a year when the Covid pandemic led to the overall European workforce contracting by 1.6%. That was the key finding of a new report, Private Equity at Work, from Invest Europe, the pan-European trade body for the PE, VC, and infrastructure sectors. The third edition of the annual report found that PE and VC-backed companies created over 103,000 jobs in 2020, particularly in the technology, fintech and finance, and biotech and healthcare sectors. Just short of 10m jobs in Europe in 2020 were with 24,663 PE or VC-backed companies, equivalent to 4.3% of the total European workforce.
8 Notable AI Companies in Clinical Research to Watch in 2022
The clinical trial is a critical stage of drug development workflow, with an estimated average success rate of about 11% for drug candidates moving from Phase 1 towards approval. Even if the drug candidate is safe and efficacious, clinical trials might fail due to the lack of financing, insufficient enrollment, or poor study design.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly perceived as a source of opportunities to improve the operational efficiency of clinical trials and minimize clinical development costs. Typically AI vendors offer their services and expertise in the three main areas. AI start-ups in the first area help to unlock information from disparate data sources, such as scientific papers, medical records, disease registries, and even medical claims by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP). This can support patient recruitment and stratification, site selection, and improve clinical study design and understanding of disease mechanisms. As an example, about 18 % of clinical studies fail due to insufficient recruitment, as a 2015 study reported.
CB Insights finds VC funding is dropping, but it’s not all bad news
Despite global venture capital funding cooling in the first quarter of this year, it was still the fourth-best quarter on record, according to the latest CB Insights State of Venture Capital funding report released today. The quarterly CB Insights report found that global venture capital funding dropped to $142.9 billion in the quarter, the lowest since the same quarter of last year. The figure was down 19% from the previous quarter, the largest percentage fall since the third quarter of 2012. The report found that 49% of all global venture capital funding was in the U.S., with a quarterly total of $71.2 billion. Though that’s a solid figure, it was a five-quarter low. U.S.-based startups drove a significant portion of the deal activity, accounting for 37% of all deals in the first quarter.