VNTR Capital News April 14, 2024 – News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – April 14 News, Events, and VC Reads
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
VNTR Capital Newsletter is delivered to 80k+ investors weekly to share the latest news, events, and articles from the global VC and startup ecosystem.
Scroll down for VNTR Capital Community News, Upcoming Events, and VC News/Reads.
VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Spotlight
VNTR Supercars Rally Dubai: This is the last chance to join us for the VNTR Rally in Dubai on April 19-21, a road trip with VNTR Club members. Travel from Dubai to RAK to Fujairah, enjoy bonding activities, and build relationships with VNTR members. Apply to join (limited number of spots available). Learn about VNTR Club membership.
Paris and Munich Chapters: This week, we launched our chapters in Paris and Munich by hosting VNTR Roundtable Paris on April 10 as a side event to Paris Blockchain Week and VNTR Investors Breakfast on April 12 in Munich. We are launching VNTR chapters in all major tech hubs. Join VNTR as a Chapter Director.
New Sponsor at VNTR Roundtable Dubai Token2049: Alpinx has joined us as a sponsor at the Dubai Token2049 Investors Roundtable on April 19th. Alpinx is a revolutionary player in the cryptocurrency industry with its groundbreaking ecosystem centered around the Exchange. It offers a seamless entry into the digital currency world, emphasizing simplicity and compliance, enriched by real-time data analytics and the AI-driven recommendation engine, "Dahu." AlpinX's Full Self-Custody Exchange ensures maximum security, allowing users to maintain complete control over their assets in on-chain wallets. The Universal Wallet transforms crypto asset management, providing a seamless experience across various protocols.
VNTR Club Corporate Membership: Over the last two years, we mainly expanded VNTR through sponsorships at our offline events. We noticed that many companies couldn't attend our events or missed the chance to sponsor them. To address this, we introduced VNTR Club Corporate Membership, designed specifically for Corporate VCs or companies offering services or products to investors or their portfolio companies. With this membership, companies can now access the VNTR platform, utilize our introduction and matchmaking services, collaborate with the global VC community, and find companies for their corporate development needs. Contact Lukas if you want to join as a sponsor or Corporate Member.
VNTR Club: There are 15 spots available for VNTR Club in April; 7 have been taken. Book your introduction call with our membership team.
Coming 2 weeks:
Rio De Janeiro: April 17 VNTR Investors Dinner Rio will gather investors visiting Web Summit Rio for a private dinner to explore the new trends in the LATAM VC community.
Riga: April 18 VNTR Investors Roundtable Riga will gather investors during TechChill (20% Discount using VNTRxTechChill24). This is our first event in the Baltics in the past 2 years and the launch of the VNTR Baltic chapter.
Dubai: We are hosting 3 official side events for Token2049 Dubai (sold out):
April 18 VNTR Family Office Workshop, Insights into investments into Digital Assets and trends.
April 19 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai, our flagship event in partnership with Stellar Enterprise Fund.
April 19-21 VNTR Supercars Rally Dubai, a 2-day road trip with VNTR Club members.
Miami: April 19 VNTR Investors Roundtable Miami, a side event to eMerge Americas in partnership with E-PR. We are recruiting a Chapter Co-Director to help us grow the VNTR Club in Miami and Florida.
Silicon Valley: April 22 VNTR Investors Roundtable Silicon Valley will serve as the opening gathering for investors attending Startup Grind 2024 (20% discount using VNTR)
New York: April 22 Earth Day Celebration - VNTR is pleased to be a media partner for this important event, produced by our friends/partners at Let's Disrupt Digital/When Worlds Collide, In partnership with Manhattan Borough, OMMM, and Good News Corporation.
12-hour global broadcast via the UNITE Network.Bangkok: On April 24, the VNTR Investors Roundtable Bangkok, a side event to Money 20/20 Asia, will gather global FinTech investors to launch the VNTR Bangkok Chapter.
Lisbon: April 24 VNTR Investors Roundtable Lisbon will be cohosted with Nova Blockchain Club during the Lisbon Blockchain Conference.
Bali: April 28 VNTR Investors Roundtable Bali will gather VNTR Bali chapter members and visiting investors at Uncofernece Bali.
Thank you to our Partners:
The Stellar Enterprise Fund is a venture-style fund that expands the open-source Stellar network. We at the Stellar Development Foundation invest in companies transforming the future of everyday financial services through Web3 innovation. We are fierce advocates of blockchain technology potential.
Perfect is a Personal Lifestyle app that helps you Book your flights, hotels, and supercars for the VNTR Rally. Empower your routine with integrated GPT technology for seamless access to luxury services and an effortless lifestyle. Enjoy personalized assistance with tasks, errands, and reservations, freeing time for what truly matters. Join Perfect using "VNTR" code to get special discounts and VNTR experiences. Use Perfect via iOS, Android, WhatsApp or Telegram.
Upcoming VNTR Events:
April 30 VNTR Investor Breakfast London
May 7 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai (Dubai FinTech Summit 10% discount using VNTR10 or investors with IDFS24VNTR registration code)
May 16 VNTR Investors Roundtable Jakarta (World Finance Forum)
May 21 VNTR Investors Roundtable Auckland (New Zealand Techweek)
May 23 VNTR Investors Roundtable Paris (Viva Technology Paris, 30% discount)
May 30 VNTR Investors Roundtable Paris (CC Forum)
June 7 VNTR Investors Roundtable Madrid (South Summit Madrid)
More events available on the VNTR Platform
Reach out to Lukas to sponsor VNTR events or join VNTR Corporate Membership.
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.
UPCOMING VC EVENTS
April 15-16 Blockchain Life, Dubai, UAE (10% Discount using VNTR)
April 15-18 Web Summit Rio, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
April 16-17 Global Blockchain Show, Dubai, UAE
April 16-18 0100 Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands
April 17-19 TechChill, Riga, Latvia (20% Discount using VNTRxTechChill24)
April 18-19 Token2049, Dubai, UAE (10% Discount using VNTR10)
April 18-19 EmergeAmericas, Miami, USA
April 19-21 VNTR Supercars Rally Dubai
April 23-25 Money 20/20 Asia, Bangkok, Thailand
April 23-24 Startup Grind Conference, Redwood City, USA (20% Discount using VNTR)
April 25-26 VC Weekend, Dubai, UAE
April 27-28 Unconference Bali, Indonesia
April 29-30 AIM Summit, London, UK
May 6-7 Dubai FinTech Summit, Dubai, UAE (10% Discount using VNTR10 or investors with IDFS24VNTR registration code)
May 7-9 FinTech Americas, Miami, USA
May 9-10 EU Startups Summit, Malta
May 13-15 Podim 2024, Maribor, Slovenia
May 15-16 Next Block Expo
May 15-16 Echelon by E27, Singapore
May 15-16 SusHi Tech Tokyo, Japan
May 20-21 SALT iConnections New York, USA
May 20-26 New Zealand Tech Week, Auckland, NZ
May 22-25 Viva Technology, Paris, France (30% Discount using the link)
May 22-24 Beyond Summit, Newport Beach, USA
May 27-31 CC Forum, Paris, France (20% Discount using CCFPVNTR20VIP, or free using CCFPVNTRSTANDARD)
May 29-31 Consensus, Austin, UAE
May 29 -31 Gitex Africa, Morocco (Complimentary for approved investors)
June 5-7 South Summit, Madrid, Spain
June 5-11 WEB3FEST, Zurich/Zug, Switzerland
June 17-20 Collision Conf, Toronto, Canada
June 22-23 DeGameFi, Tbilisi, Georgia
If you would like to submit VC-related events, please respond to this email or Telegram @byuric
Check out VNTR Capital upcoming events
VC Reads and News
View curated VC news and articles on the VNTR Platform
VC fund returns uptick signals sunnier skies in 2024
US venture fund returns remain negative but are trending up once again, a hopeful sign for a struggling fundraising market after a sustained period of portfolio markdowns. One-year rolling IRR bottomed out in Q4 2022 at -17.9% before rising to -9.1% in Q2 2023, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. The rolling internal rate of return is a pooled metric of US VC funds that tracks aggregated unrealized returns data. It entered the red in late 2022 for the first time since 2016 as tech valuations took a hammering. Late-stage and growth-stage venture firms were particularly hard-hit by the downturn in valuations of comparable public companies in 2022, according to PitchBook venture capital analyst Kaidi Gao.
Y Combinator’s latest cohort had only one LatAm startup in large part because of AI
Brazilian startup Salvy, a mobile carrier for businesses, was the only company based in Latin America in Y Combinator’s latest batch, the accelerator confirmed to TechCrunch. That’s a significant drop compared to cohorts that went through the accelerator during COVID when it was remote, but also more recent classes: There were 33 Latin American companies in Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 batch, 16 in summer 2022 and 10 in winter 2023. One caveat to the stark Winter 2024 group data point is that the directory is not exhaustive; some companies prefer to remain in stealth mode.
Ranked: Most Attractive Countries To Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Hedge Fund Investors, 2024
CEOWORLD Magazine’s latest Global Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Hedge Funds Attractiveness Index has ranked the United States as the most attractive country for private businesses among 125 economies, representing 95% of the world’s population and 99% of the Gross Domestic Product. The study indicates that despite facing operational challenges, the US is a more desirable place for private businesses compared to any other country in the world. The report pointed out that although the United States encounters problems in various governance-related areas, the relatively well-performing social responsibility and governance pillars reflect a level of trust within society that is often assumed to be much better in comparative countries.
The United States remains the most attractive country for investors, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and Germany to complete the top five. Regarding regions, North America, Asia, and Western Europe are the most appealing for capital investments. Out of 125 countries studied, 33 have a high attractiveness (26.4%), 29 have a medium-high attractiveness (23.2%), 43 have a medium-low attractiveness (34.4%), and the remaining 20 have a low attractiveness (16%).
Leaping over the valley of death: The critical need - and opportunity for - late-stage impact investing
European startups are tackling some of the world's most pressing issues, from climate change to resource scarcity. But a €6.6bn funding gap in Germany alone threatens to leave these inarguably important and thriving early-stage companies stranded in the so-called Valley of Death. A staggering 91% of 142 founders we surveyed for our recent climate hardware playbook – developed in collaboration with Speedinvest, Planet A and Net Zero Insights – reported difficulty securing growth capital, compared to just 32% for early-stage funding. The gap between early and growth stage has become even starker as investors have hesitated to back companies with higher CAPEX requirements (due to higher interest rates) and longer time to revenues (as these companies usually require quite some R&D before hitting the market).
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Cyera And Monad Labs Raise Massive Rounds In Big Week
At this point it’s fair to say the big, nine-figure round is back. Since February, this list has been made up of typically six or seven such rounds after months with usually just a couple such rounds every week. This week, there are eight $100 million-or-more rounds (almost nine!), including some massive raises. Investors are not afraid to write the big check right now for the right startup.
A16z Leads Most-Active Q1 Venture Investors
The venture firms that once ranked as the most active dealmakers have since cut back sharply, Crunchbase data shows. Almost across the board, they’re backing fewer rounds, particularly very large late-stage deals. In this camp is Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which is making a run for the title of most-active venture investor of the post-peak era.
Per Crunchbase data, a16z participated in 27 post-seed rounds in the first quarter of 2024 — more than any other venture investor.
Runners-up for most active include Y Combinator, which backed 18 known post-seed deals (in addition to many more seed rounds) and General Catalyst, with 15 rounds.
Circle enables USDC transfers for BlackRock’s first tokenized fund
Circle, the issuer of major stablecoin USDC has enabled transfers of BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) shares to its stablecoin. Circle officially announced on April 11 a new smart contract functionality that would allow BUIDL holders to transfer their shares to Circle for USDC. Circle’s smart contract functionality enables the frictionless transfer of BUIDL shares in exchange for USDC to Circle on the secondary market. According to the announcement, the smart contract will enable “near-instant” BUIDL off-ramp that serves investors 24/7.
6 Ways the Halving Will Impact Bitcoin Mining
Contrary to popular belief, this halving will likely not cause a major decrease in the network's hashrate. After Bitcoin’s first three halvings, the hashrate plummeted by 25%, 11%, and 25%, and it appears many analysts and miners are expecting (or hoping for?) a similar hashrate reduction this time.
North American Startup Investment Perked Up A Bit In Q1
After many months of tightening their purse strings, North American startup investors loosened them up a bit in the first quarter. Altogether, venture funding in American and Canadian companies totaled $35.2 billion in Q1 of 2024, per Crunchbase data. That’s a gain of 14% from Q4, which was the slowest quarter in years. But while funding was up sequentially, investment is still down year over year. Late-stage funding in particular remains well below year-ago levels, while early stage has held up better. For perspective, we compared funding totals, color-coded by stage, over the past 13 quarters below.
Most-Active US Investors: General Catalyst Tops March’s List
No one investor truly dominated the month of March, as not one firm could break double digits when it came to the number of investments in U.S.-based startups.
However, a dozen firms and accelerators made at least a half-dozen deals each, so checks were being written and U.S. startups were raising cash.
In the end, General Catalyst took the top spot with nine deals, as several big-name firms followed only one or two behind.
A comeback for VC gaming investments?
Gaming startups have seen a sharp fall in venture capital dealmaking, but the outlook for 2024 is looking more optimistic. Only 882 VC deals worth a combined $3.5 billion were completed last year in the gaming vertical, according to PitchBook data, down from 1,476 rounds totaling $12.3 billion the year before. Slowing demand post-pandemic and a general pullback in VC dealmaking caused both deal count and value to drop.
Asia Venture Funding Continues to Struggle, Hits Lowest Level Since 2016
Although the global venture market saw a small uptick in the first quarter from the previous one, the Asia region continued to see declines in startup funding as late-stage and growth rounds tanked. Total venture funding in the region fell to $17.3 billion in Q1, a drop of 4% from Q4 2023 and an 8% decline year to year, Crunchbase data shows. The total represents the lowest amount of funding in the Asia region in a single quarter since Q4 2016. Deal volume made an even worse showing in the quarter, with only 1,615 deals announced in Q1, down 8% from the previous quarter and a whopping 22% decline from Q1 2023 when deal volume totaled 2,064.
Crypto Funding Report Q1 2024: Venture Capitalists Show Increased Interest Following Bitcoin’s New ATH
In the first quarter of 2024, the crypto market began a notable upward trajectory, approaching a total market capitalization of $3 trillion. By the first quarter, the market experienced a significant surge, surpassing the peak prices of 2021, which rewarded the long-standing patience of investors and holders. The introduction of spot Bitcoin ETF trading and a substantial increase in investment inflows triggered greater institutional adoption. As a result, the cryptocurrency funding ecosystem is witnessing a jump, due to mainstream acceptance globally.
A mega-year for Europe’s PE mega-funds
For most European private equity managers, 2023 will be remembered as a terrible year for fundraising, but for the select few raising mega-funds, the opposite is true. European mega-funds—vehicles of €1 billion or larger—secured record amounts of capital last year, according to PitchBook’s latest analyst note. Among the giant fund closes were CVC Capital Partners’ €26 billion (about $28 billion at today’s conversion rate) buyout fund—a global record—and Permira’s eighth flagship fund, which reached €16.7 billion.
How dealmaking fared in Q1
For all that VCs tell Sifted reporters that things are picking up, it hasn’t quite shown up in the data yet. There were 1,379 equity funding rounds in the first quarter of this year, according to Sifted data (which includes undisclosed rounds and excludes deals with grants or a debt component). Across those deals, startups raised €12.3bn in Q1.
That figure is down from last quarter, with roughly €13.8bn worth of deals in Q4, based on Dealroom data.
Outdated, terrible comparison and painfully cringe: The issue with a European Silicon Valley
Nothing quite riles tech people up over here like saying some city or country in Europe is “the next Silicon Valley” — as I learned through the flood in my inbox over the last couple of weeks. After asking readers to share their thoughts on the comparison we often make on this side of the Atlantic to the Californian tech hub, a few words and phrases kept popping up: “outdated,” “terrible comparison,” and “painfully cringe”. While that may sound a tad dramatic, the reasoning behind why there is no European Silicon Valley — or, perhaps, why there shouldn’t be one — is pretty compelling. It sets the continent up for failure, while overlooking the European tech ecosystem’s strong points.
How Can VCs Create Community At A Time Of Division?
Today’s social divisions are as palpable as ever, and on the receiving end are often people from marginalized communities, immigrants and refugees. As investors, we know many founders who have recently arrived to the U.S. from countries suffering humanitarian crises, or whose teams are stuck in war zones. The challenges they face in everyday life — let alone finding success as an entrepreneur — are unimaginable to many. VCs have disproportionate power in determining the fate of founders, and in times like these we should be using that power to create a community that’s bigger than a firm, company or capital.
Beyond fitness trackers: Where Web3, AI and wellness intersect
The wellness industry generated $950 million in revenue, with 56 million active users in 2023. While the global health and wellness market is projected to rocket to $111.49 billion by 2030, the current landscape remains congested. It often falls short in sustaining user engagement and safeguarding data privacy. The blockchain-based Web3 ecosystem presents a promising solution with its capabilities for fostering sustainable engagement and ensuring robust data protection. Yet, the integration of Web3 within the wellness app sector remains largely unexplored, highlighting a critical absence of a bridge to this space.
Megarounds make a comeback in Europe
Forty-two equity, debt and grant rounds of $100m+ were announced in Q1, according to Sifted data — the busiest quarter for so-called megarounds since Q2 2022 when checked against Dealroom data. The surge was led by climate tech startups, which accounted for 43% of those rounds and boasted 13 of the biggest 20 fundraises last quarter. The quarter’s 42 megarounds totalled €17.4bn — €5bn of which belonged to equity-based deals — and represented a big climb on the 17 megarounds recorded in the same period last year. Rounds over $100m, though no longer rare in Europe, have hardly been routine lately, with the tech scene making a painful adjustment to leaner times. Investors participated in 101 European megarounds overall last year, says Dealroom.
Global Venture Funding Drops 30% as China Helps Drag Market Down
Global venture capital funding declined 30% in the first quarter, continuing its slump as investors remain cautious amid sputtering economies and a sluggish market for stock-market debuts. China’s 40% decrease helped pull the market down, while the US saw a 29% drop, according to data collected by research firm Preqin. The overall worldwide haul by startups shrank to $57.8 billion in the first three months.
Investors see a test for loss-making startups in Rubrik’s IPO
For investors, the upcoming IPO of cloud data security unicorn Rubrik is a test of whether the old rules of growth-over-profitability still apply. The Bay Area startup is increasingly unprofitable: Its losses widened from $277.7 million to $354.2 million despite generating $627.9 million in revenue in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2024. This follows the well-received IPOs of Astera Labs and Reddit, which are also unprofitable, albeit with narrowing losses. Rubrik transitioned its business model in 2019 to replace licensing with subscriptions. That change shifted how it recognizes revenue, influencing the company’s losses, but it also powered growth. In 2023, Rubrik grew its subscription annualized recurring revenue 47% from the previous year, increasing from $532.9 million to $784 million.
European Venture Spending Settles Around $12B In Q1 As Early-Stage Investment Holds Steady
Funding to European startups reached $11.8 billion in the first quarter of 2024, up marginally from Q4 2023 and down less than 10% from Q1 2023, Crunchbase data shows. Overall, European venture funding in the most recent quarter was slightly lower than the average quarter in 2023. Around 18% of global venture capital was allocated to European startups in the first quarter, while North America represented just over 50% of quarterly venture funding.
Startups Still See A Future In Familiar Foods Made With Weird Ingredients
Food shoppers today are quite familiar with traditional foods made from nontraditional ingredients. For evidence, go to most American grocery stores and you’ll see shelves stocked with stuff like oat milk, cashew yogurt and cauliflower pizza crusts. But judging from the ranks of funded food startups, this trend is far from over. If anything, the pipeline of new ingredients poised to hit store shelves is going to get much broader — and weirder. How strange? In the not-too-distant future, you might be spreading bread with fossil fuel-derived butter or alga-derived mayo. The bread itself, meanwhile, might be made with flour from coffee cherry pulp.
Building Modern Enterprise Architecture: How To Turn An Elephant Into A Streak Of Cheetahs
You have an amazing idea for a company. Now it’s time to build the platform. Will you take a monolithic approach to building, like most enterprise-focused companies adopt? Or will you embrace change? Most enterprise applications are built like elephants: Giant databases, high CPU machines, an inside data center, blocking architecture, heavy contracts and more. In short, they are big, slow and clunky for the sake of functionality.
Europe can be a world leader in quantum, says EIC head
The European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Europe’s most active deeptech investor, is now doing two deals a week, says its head, Michiel Scheffer. 339 startups have been backed by the EIC Fund since 2021, to the tune of €391.6m. The EIC Fund, which has €3.5bn to invest over seven years, struggled with a payment backlog when it launched — leaving several startups short on cash while they waited for promised funding to arrive — but that has now been resolved, says Scheffer.
Kauffman Fellows Sentiment Survey Says Venture Investors Plan To Spend More In 2024
It’s time for founders to take out their pitch decks,” said Fernando Fabre, CEO of Kauffman Fellows, as he previewed the results of the almost 30-year-old organization’s first venture sentiment survey. Around 53% of investors surveyed predicted that 2024 will pick up in terms of investment pace compared to 2023, while 6% expect to do fewer deals. However, the bar for founders to raise capital is higher. Founders will need to show growth alongside reaching break-even, said Fabre.
Crypto Does Not Have an Illicit Finance Problem, Bad Actors Do
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo’s April 9 testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee is set to provide a veritable state of the union address on illicit finance, and crypto will undoubtedly feature prominently at the hearing. This is especially true, as headlines of Russia’s use of “crypto” to evade sanctions or traffic arms are making the rounds. Notwithstanding crypto’s checkered scorecard over the last few years, which saw record losses, market manipulation, fraud and clear examples of highly traceable illicit finance (albeit comparatively small), the media’s use of the word “crypto” as a catchall is disingenuous. Most often, it is named single products, blockchains and platforms such as Tornado Cash or Terra-Luna that create a nexus of bad activity. The digital assets industry, like banking, is not monolithic.