July 23rd News, Events, VC Reads, VNTR Capital Village and Retreat
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VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
VNTR Capital is launching its first VC Village in South Portugal to provide a platform and venue for VC & Crypto investors, startup founders, digital nomads, and the broader startup community to live, work, and connect.
VC Village offers 56 villas, a clubhouse, concierge, pools, recreational areas, bar, restaurant, and conference rooms, an ideal place to stay long-term or for a few days. We will host conferences, retreats, social mixers, and parties that will allow our community members to build relationships and develop ventures. We chose Portugal as the best place to launch our first Village because of the growing crypto community, favorable policies towards crypto, and the spectacular weather and beautiful surroundings.
Learn more about the VC Village at www.vntr.vc/village
We are launching a VNTR Capital Village DAO that will provide the following benefits:
1. NFTs representing ownership in the Village: Full Title NFTs (qualified for Golden Visa in Portugal), Fractional Ownership NFTs (as little as 1 ETH). The NFTs will provide voting power in the Village owners association, the ability to stay in the Village for free based on the ownership of properties (days per year), attend Village events, and receive rental income based on the time spent versus the number of days properties were rented out as a resort to the broader community. Members can easily transfer their NFTs (ownership) to someone else who will enjoy the benefits of the Village membership.
2. VC utility tokens will provide benefits, an easy way to pay for services in the Village, and a loyalty program. The Village will support all the other currencies, but the rewards will be given using VC tokens.
3. Revenue share from rental income and the revenue generated from conferences, events, and sponsorships. The revenue share is distributed in USDT or VC Tokens.
4. Partner benefits in Portugal and globally: special access and discounts to golf clubs, restaurants, wineries, experiences, partner brands, and service providers.
Join the VC Village DAO Whitelist
Join us at VNTR Capital Summer Camp in Algarve, Portugal, in 3 weeks (Aug 15 to 19, 2022). We will travel with other active investors, explore the region, and enjoy the various unique experiences. You can review the planned program and RSVP at https://www.vntr.vc/camp.
We have options to join us for 5 days or a flexible program for 1/2/3 days
Thank you, CoinsPaid and CoinsPaid Media, for helping to produce the VC Camp.
Here is the schedule of our upcoming events:
July 27 VNTR Capital Breakfast Miami, USA (Supported by TWO12)
You can see the updated list of VNTR Capital events at www.vntr.vc/events
Want to co-host VC-related events, partner, or sponsor, please respond to this email or Telegram @byuric to discuss collaboration opportunities.
RSVP to Upcoming VNTR Capital Events
The VNTR Capital Investors Community is growing and has 240+ vetted active investors as active members: VCs, Crypto Funds, angel investors and family offices.
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UPCOMING VC EVENTS
July 25-29 - Web3 Growth Summit, Virtual
July 27-29 - Blockchain Economy Istanbul Summit
Aug 5 - LetsIgnite, Bengaluru, India
Aug 7-14 - Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul, South Korea
Aug 15-19 - VNTR Capital Camp, Algarve, Portugal
Aug 15-21 - LA Tech Week, LA, USA
Aug 22-25 - AIBC Balkans, Belgrade, Serbia
Aug 24-26 - Startup Day 2022, Tartu, Estonia
Sep 6-7 - Pirate Summit, Cologne, Germany
Sep 7-8 - YC Demo Day Summer 2022
Sep 6-11 - XPO.CRYPTO, Medellín, Columbia
Sep 12-13 - MetaWeek 2022, Dubai, UAE
Sep 11-14 - NEARCON, Lisbon, Portugal
Sep 13 - VNTR Capital Breakfast, Dubai UAE
Sep 26-Oct 2 - Asia Crypto Week, Singapore
Sep 26 - 29 - Oslo Innovation Week, Oslo, Norway
Sep 28 - VNTR Capital Breakfast, Singapore
Sep 28-29 - Token2049, Singapore
Oct 8-14 - Wow Summit, Dubai, UAE
Oct 11-13 - Take Off Istanbul, Turkey
Oct 5-6 - Sifted Summit, London, UK
Oct 18-20 - TechCrunch Disrupt, San Francisco, USA
Oct 20-21 - Future Innovation Summit, Dubai, UAE
Oct 21-22 - Wolves Summit, Vienna, Austria
Nov 1-4 - Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 1-3 - Wow Summit, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 9-10 - Token2049, London, UK
Nov 10 - VNTR Capital Breakfast, London, UK
Nov 14-18 - AIBC Europe, Malta
Nov 15 - VNTR Capital Breakfast Malta
Nov 17-18 - SLUSH 202, Helsinki, Finland
Nov 23-24 - Next Block Expo, Berlin, Germany
Dec 6-7 - NOAH Zurich 2022, Switzerlan
Want to submit VC-related events, please respond to this email or Telegram @byuric
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Check out VNTR Capital upcoming events
VC READS
Meet The 32 New Unicorns That Joined The Board In June 2022
Despite ongoing concerns about overvalued private companies, and a stymied public market for new debuts, new billion-dollar valued companies are still joining The Crunchbase Unicorn Board. Thirty-two companies joined the board in June, around three companies every two working days. Of the companies that joined the Unicorn Board last month, London-based payments company SumUp leads the pack with the largest funding raise, $623 million, and the highest valuation, $8.5 billion. Collectively, this batch of 32 companies raised $4.5 billion last month.
Christie’s Launches Venture-Capital Arm Focused on Tech in Art, Crypto
The investing outlook for tech startups may be more mottled than a Claude Monet—but Christie’s said it sees a way forward. It’s launching a venture-capital arm. On Monday, the London-based auction house said it is starting its in-house investing firm, Christie’s Ventures. The entity will aim to supply seed funding to young companies whose technologies could ultimately help collectors buy and sell more art, digital or otherwise. Christie’s move comes as the recent crash in crypto and the broader selloff in tech stocks have compelled traditional venture-capital firms to pull back from risky bets on startups. Funding for startups altogether fell 23%, to $109 billion, in the second quarter compared to the first three months of the year. That’s the second-largest quarterly funding drop in a decade, according to data firm CB Insights.
What do Gen Z founders really want from VCs?
Members of Gen Z — those born after 1996, generally — are self-aware, persistent and innovative; they’re digital natives, care deeply about their own wellbeing and that of the planet; and they’re more culturally diverse and socioeconomically vulnerable than older generations. But how does that affect Gen Z founders’ relationship with VCs?
Fintech and Cleantech Win as Global Venture Capital Investments Become More Focused
As investors become more selective, fintech, cyber, supply chain and alternative energy opportunities remain hot and key beneficiaries of global VC funding, reaching $120.2 billion during Q2’22. Investors increased focus on profitability while the Americas and Europe show the most resilience, attracting $66.2 billion and $27.3 billion in VC funding, respectively, in Q2’22.
Global fundraising reached $158.6 billion at mid-year: a record pace despite market uncertainty
Against a backdrop of geopolitical, supply chain and economic uncertainty, overall global VC investment is falling, but several sectors, including fintech and cleantech, are beneficiaries of more selective investments.
How much do investors get paid? An inside look at compensation trends
Investor pay packages have become more generous in the past five years in terms of cash and carried interest, although the picture varies across roles, according to a recent J.Thelander-PitchBook survey. Filtering the data into two buckets—investment firms with either less or more than $1 billion in assets under management—revealed the following changes since 2017. At firms managing less than $1 billion in assets, the most senior roles saw significant increases in carried interest compensation. Cash increases were more modest, with the exception of managing directors and partners, whose pay rose from $255,000 to $375,000 between 2017 and 2021. Firms with $1 billion or more in AUM, only the most senior roles saw an increase in carried interest compensation. The largest cash increases in this cohort of firms went to senior managing directors, managing directors, and partners.
Charts: Global State of Venture Capital Q2 2022
According to a new “State of Venture” report by CB Insights, during Q2 2022, $108.5 billion in global venture capital funding was raised across 7,651 deals, representing the largest quarterly percentage decline in deals (and the second-highest decline in funding) in a decade. Retail technology refers to the digital tools and innovations utilized by merchants — brick-and-mortar and ecommerce — for in-store and supply chain operations. According to the CB Insights report, retail tech funding in Q2 2022 fell 43% from the previous quarter to $13.2 billion.
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Whatnot Goes Big; TAE Powers Up With $250M
Rounds raised by U.S.-based startups were big this week, with three topping $200 million. No one category stood out, as investors wrote checks for anything ranging from livestream shopping to biotech to ways to develop clean drinking water. After a slow start to the month, large rounds have come back into play for some startups.
Web3 dominates venture capital interest in the blockchain industry in Q2 2022
When looking at the aggregate total amount invested into the crypto industry in the second quarter, it will tell one story. However, a deeper dive into the data tells another tale. From a high level, the $14.67 billion invested in Q2 is about flat with the $14.66 invested in Q1. But, the largest chunk of that investment was in April, before the last two months of a large slump in global markets, which made even the most bullish crypto investor admit the bear market has arrived. The good news is that even though this did happen, funds like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) closed a $4.5 billion crypto fund, and investment continued to flow into different sectors of the crypto industry. The Cointelegraph Research Terminal has a VC database that contains comprehensive details on deals, mergers and acquisition activity, investors, crypto companies, funds, and more. Using this database, Cointelegraph Research analyzes the numbers to find the important trends in the industry.
Klarna’s Fall From Grace Calls Into Question Unicorn Board Valuations
The explosive growth in value and funding for startups on The Crunchbase Unicorn Board appears to be leveling off as 32 companies joined in June, adding $49 billion in value and $7.7 billion in funding to the board. In addition, payment fintech Klarna’s massive down round this month calls into question the board’s $4.6 trillion value in June, as Klarna is now poised to topple from its heady No. 6 spot. Klarna shed $39 billion in value from the board with its most recent $800 million funding that valued the company at $6.7 billion. Klarna is now valued below Europe-based online payments integrators Checkout.com, Rapyd and point of sale payments SumUp, but valued above payments integrator Mollie. This 86% drop also calls into question many highly valued unicorns on the board.
Crypto Carbon Credits: Slapping Lipstick on a Pig
It might be a surprise that one of crypto’s biggest “use cases” has been combating climate change, considering the overall sentiment around blockchain’s environmental footprint and heavy energy consumption. In just the last three months of 2021, some $3 billion worth of tokenized carbon credits were traded, accounting for hundreds of millions of metric tons of greenhouse gas, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing KlimaDAO data. In the first six months of this year, at least 23 million carbon credits were moved on-chain from centralized registries, representing about a quarter of credits listed at the time, according to data provider Trove Research. Then there are the $423 million venture capitalists invested in crypto-based carbon tracking initiatives over the past 18 months.
In 2018 at Saastr, Jason Lemkin & I talked about private equity becoming an increasingly aggressive buyer of venture-backed software companies. Last year, private equity firms inhaled $29 billion dollars’ worth of startups - a twenty-year record and 50% more than the previous peak.
Tesla dumped 75% of its Bitcoin holdings
Elon Musk isn’t trying to hodl Tesla’s bitcoin during a crypto winter. During the company’s Q2 earnings report, the electric car company revealed it had sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings this quarter. The company sold the coins for $963 million. Tesla said the value of its remaining “digital assets” is $218 million. In February of last year, the company announced it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency with its balance sheet capital and would soon accept Bitcoin as payment for its vehicles. That announcement sent the crypto markets into a frenzy driving a number of cryptocurrency prices up and cementing Musk as a de facto crypto leader. Later, when he suddenly announced that they were abandoning plans to accept crypto payments, much of that goodwill with the community was reversed.
It’s complicated: The venture fund & startup relationship: Why it’s hard for VCs to sniff out financial irregularities and how they can do better
Recent reports of financial irregularities at startups have generated several debates around rethinking corporate governance at startups, with many calling on venture funds to be more diligent and vigilant. We would be remiss to undermine today’s venture funds' role in the startup ecosystem. But, in this context, it is important to reiterate what that role is. Investors take high risk for high rewards: Venture funds back early-stage companies with untested business models and teams. Nine out of ten startups fail within five years. That itself makes this more Las Vegas than Wall Street. That statistic should deter all but the most adventurous. Not making any value judgments, but capital is scarce and not meant to be splashed around. 2. In this brave new world, there is no guarantee of profits.
Psychedelics Provide New Frontier For Venture Funding, But Nuances Prevail
When investor Brom Rector started Empath Ventures in September 2021, the biotech world buzzed with excitement about the potential of psychedelics. Months earlier, two of the largest psychedelics companies in the world, Compass Pathways, and MindMed, went public. They also began working with drug regulatory industries worldwide to develop a better pharma candidate for depression and anxiety than the antidepressants based on science from the 1950s. This move effectively legitimized a set of drugs, some of which the U.S. considers more dangerous than cocaine, for potential medical use. It was a sharp turn from the mindset that drove the U.S. to criminalize psychedelics during the War on Drugs in the 1970s. This, along with how clinical trials were conducted, shuttered early research into psychedelics as a treatment for depression and alcoholism.
Venture Capital investments in Saudi Arabia record SAR 2.19bn
The funding deployed to Saudi Arabian startups grew by 244 percent to a record-high of SAR2.19bn in H1 2022 compared to H1 2021 According to the ‘H1 2022 Saudi Arabia Venture Capital Report,’ this figure surpassed the total amount deployed in 2021. Although 2021 was a positive year for venture funding in the kingdom, H1 2022 witnessed unprecedented VC deployment, setting a new record in the amount of VC funding, according to the report published by the venture data platform MAGNiTT and sponsored by the Saudi Venture Capital (SVC).
The kingdom advanced to become the second-most active VC market in MENA by the number of deals, which rose by 36 percent to 79 deals in H1 2022 versus H1 2021 while maintaining its position as the second-most funded market in MENA over H1 2022. According to the Saudi Press Agency, a record-high of 88 investors participated in deals closed by Saudi startups in H1 2022, up 126 percent versus H1 2021, where 42 percent of the investors were from outside the Kingdom.
The US Is Slowly Transitioning From The Great Resignation To The Great Return
The Great Resignation describes how employees have been taking ownership of their careers and aspirations by reassessing their company’s culture and mission. This has led to many people leaving well-paying, secure jobs to pursue more social ventures that are better aligned with their personal values. Companies are also responding to the easing of pandemic restrictions and changes to social distancing mandates. There’s a lot of discussion and debate about what in-person/remote working looks like in 2022. This has been deemed the Great Return. A new poll found that 61% of Americans working remotely would choose to keep doing so if given the option. Fifty-three percent of U.S. companies consider themselves either “fully office” or “mostly office” workplaces, while 78% of knowledge workers want “location flexibility,” and 72% are unhappy about their company’s current level of flexibility.
US VC exit activity retracts to pre-pandemic levels
Venture-backed exit value in the US reached $48.8 billion in the first half of 2022 amid a stock market rout, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. That number marks a steep drop from the record highs of 2021 and amounts to roughly 6% of 2021's exit totals.If the public market liquidity gap persists for the rest of this year, analysts expect to see more flat and down rounds as startups return to private markets. Additionally, there may be some cause for concern for a cohort of highly valued startups that could struggle to find much-needed liquidity. Public listings fell to a 13-year quarterly low in Q2, and tougher conditions for SPAC mergers have led to abandoned or canceled deals. However, acquisitions maintained a steady deal count and drove exit value back to the levels of 2019 to 2021.
Why Mobility Startups Should Take A Hard Look At Japan
When it comes to innovative mobility solutions, Japan might not immediately spring to mind. Norway tops the global statistics for electric vehicles. Uber and Lyft in the U.S. have charted the course for ride-hailing. DiDi in China is the world’s largest transportation platform, with a wide range of app-based services across Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa, and Russia. But there’s a sleeping giant in the mobility space: Japan. It is a massive market, with the micro-mobility subsegment expected to witness a 78.7% CAGR from 2021-2030 to reach approximately $11.7 billion, according to P&S Intelligence. Japan’s shrinking population and workforce are spurring a decrease in new vehicle sales and ownership, and other macrotrends are influencing mobility in Japan and around the world. As a result of increasing urgency to tackle climate change, automobile original equipment manufacturers are moving to electric vehicles, and public transport is switching to fuel cell vehicles. Many companies are entering mobility as a service space with autonomous vehicles, micro-mobility in metropolises, and new forms of ground transportation.
In the past few months, Stripe and Instacart have updated their internal valuations in a 409A appraisal process. The startups saw their valuations being slashed by 28% and 38%, respectively, due to the appraisals. What do these re-pricings signal to other late-stage, pandemic-spurred startups? And how seriously should we be taking them? We spoke to Carta, AngelList, EquityZen, and others to better understand the 409A process and why tech companies might actually want a lower valuation in this moment. 409A appraisals have become commonplace throughout the tech industry since the Enron scandal sparked their creation. In response to some of Enron executives’ misdeeds, Congress passed Section 409A of the IRS tax code to govern how companies issue stock options to their employees. While it’s not mandatory for companies to receive 409A appraisals, the IRS has made them compulsory for private, venture-backed companies. Kevin Swan, co-head of global private markets within Morgan Stanley’s workplace solutions division, told TechCrunch. Swan’s team regularly conducts 409A valuations for companies, providing services such as cap table management and startup compensation data.
SoftBank, Sequoia, other VCs push ONDC to portfolio firms
Big tech investors such as Japan’s SoftBank and Sequoia Capital India have advised their portfolio firms to join the government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), multiple people briefed on the matter said. This follows multiple conversations with ONDC executives to understand its potential impact on ecommerce in India, the people said. Sources said senior executives at these funds have over the past few weeks interacted with ONDC executives, including chief executive T Koshy, several times and advised portfolio entities to integrate with the network. “They (top funds) have had sessions to understand exactly how things will work out with ONDC and its potential. Of course, investors like SoftBank have some of the largest companies in the portfolio in ecommerce in India across shopping, logistics and others. They are supporting the network,” a person briefed on the matter said.
'Race to zero': Buy now, pay later suffers under widespread reset
Once a darling of the VC industry, consumer-focused buy now, pay later companies are facing shrinking investor interest as macroeconomic conditions threaten their business models. Klarna, once Europe's most valuable VC-backed company, has confirmed an 85% valuation cut from $45.6 billion to just $6.7 billion following an $800 million round that included investors such as Sequoia, Silver Lake, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Klarna blamed wider market conditions for the drop, with Sequoia partner Michael Moritz commenting in a statement that the cut is "entirely due to investors suddenly voting in the opposite manner to the way they voted for the past few years." But Klarna's massive haircut is also indicative of the challenges facing the BNPL space. Public companies like US-based Affirm and Australia's Zip have seen their share prices plummet—over 77% and 89%, respectively year to date.
Venture capital is hard–and it’s supposed to be
It may be blockbuster season at the movies, but over in the fintech investment space, the season for mega deals has passed. After yet another year of record-breaking funding—2021 saw $621 billion in global venture capital financing, easily doubling the previous high—the easy money of boom days is gone. That said, smart, disciplined venture capital investment is still available for the best companies. A hands-on, prescriptive investment approach is not easy. It requires in-depth knowledge of the market and significant resources combined with a disciplined and rigorous decision-making process. We believe in this approach in all cycles, and that its impact may become even clearer in a challenging market. We are coming off a banner year in the tech investment space. Startups across several industries took advantage of record-breaking investment numbers to raise tons of capital at founder-friendly valuations. Portage portfolio companies alone raised almost $1.2 billion of capital in the last 12 months from investors.
Crypto firms facing insolvency ‘forgot the basics of risk management’
Department heads at Coinbase have weighed in on the market downturn amid solvency concerns surrounding Three Arrows Capital, Celsius Network, and Voyager Digital, saying the crypto exchange had “no financing exposure” to these companies. In a Wednesday blog post, head of Coinbase Institutional Brett Tejpaul, head of prime finance Matt Boyd, and head of credit and market risk Caroline Tarnok said Coinbase had not engaged in the “types of risky lending practices” exhibited by Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and Voyager, claiming the firms utilized “insufficient risk controls.” According to the three co-authors of the post, crypto companies faced the possibility of insolvency caused by “unhedged bets,” large investments in Terra, and overleveraging with venture capital firms. “The issues here were foreseeable and actually credit specific, not crypto specific in nature,” said Tejpaul, Boyd, and Tarnok. “Many of these firms were overleveraged with short-term liabilities mismatched against longer duration illiquid assets. We believe these market participants were caught up in the frenzy of a crypto bull market and forgot the basics of risk management.”