VNTR Capital News July 16, 2023 – News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – July 16 News, Events, and VC Reads
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
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VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Spotlight
VNTR Events Registration — We moved all VNTR events registration to the VNTR Platform, allowing you to register for VNTR events with one click. Create your investor account on the VNTR Platform today and join future VNTR events.
VNTR Singapore and Seoul Chapters — We are launching Seoul Chapter on Sep 6 and Singapore Chapter on Sep 14.
VNTR Chapter Director program — Join our team to build VNTR Investors Membership in major hubs, Premier Community for VCs, angel investors, family offices, and crypto investors. You can learn more about the VNTR Chapter Director role and apply here.
VNTR PRO Membership — We offer two types of subscriptions (STARTER – limited and free) and (PRO – full-access paid membership). Here is the list of benefits available to PRO members only (view presentation):
Full access to Member's directory and extended member profiles
Request intro to a member by the VNTR team
Connections and Matchmaking Concierge via VNTR support channels
Direct messages and emails to members
Submit deals for co-investment or feedback
Make help requests to the VNTR community
Attend bi-weekly PRO Masterminds
Access PRO Members only events and experiences
Access to PRO Members only Telegram group
Get Investor Conference passes
Get PRO Members partner offers
Access to Academy content with recordings of expert sessions and workshops
Create your VNTR Platform Account
Featured Founding PRO Members
Dmitri Laush — Co-founder Admiral Markets, Founder Perfect Live, Angel Investor.
Rita Vilas-Boas — Co-Founder Iberian Gourmet Co., Founder member of the first liberal party in Portugal, Angel Investor, and Advisor
Wasim Fukase — Partner Helion Ventures, CEP at HorizonX, Managing Partner at Diverse Management, Angel Investor
Dariia Vasylieva — Founding Partner at FD CAPITAL, Founder at Founders to Founders
Last Week
Algarve — Lisbon/Cascais chapter hosted the second offsite VNTR Roundtable Algarve in Vilamoura's beach town (view photos).
London — London chapter hosted VNTR Investors Dinner to build deeper relationships between members (view photos).
Upcoming
Paris — We will host VNTR Investors Dinner Paris on July 18 to provide a place for investors to connect during ETHCC.
Masterminds — This week, we will host 3 PRO Members Masterminds on July 18, 19, and 20, where members share their progress and challenges to grow faster by getting support from peers.
Tokyo — The first VNTR Roundtable in Tokyo on July 26 will gather investors from Japan and South East Asia who are attending WebX. (VNTR PRO members get complimentary passes to the conference)
Santa Cruz Bolivia — We partnered with VCiLAT to bring active VCs and angels in LATAM to the conference and host them at VNTR Roundtable Santa Cruz on Aug 16.
Los Angeles— Next Casting for Crypto Hunters Adventure Reality Show will be held in Los Angeles. Don't miss your chance to be part of this epic adventure — Apply for LA Casting!
Thank you to our Partners:
Crypto Hunters is a new futuristic reality adventure TV show and immersive mobile game utilizing augmented reality (AR), with the primary objective of promoting widespread adoption and educating the general public about Crypto, Blockchain, NFTs, and Web3. The show aims to engage large audiences globally and increase their understanding of these concepts through captivating challenges and rewards. Currently, Crypto Hunters is in the process of recruiting 20 candidates (10 teams of 2) who will compete across 10 episodes for a chance to win the grand prize of $1 million. The show intends to reach a staggering audience of 500 million viewers, granting them the opportunity to participate in the immersive AR game associated with Crypto Hunters. Viewers can compete for rewards and cash prizes by engaging in various challenges and games. This synergistic relationship between the show and the game will create an extensive ecosystem and a vibrant community of Crypto Hunters token (CRH) holders. The tokens will serve as a means for community members to partake in games, purchase NFTs, merchandise, and more. With its multi-season format, the show plans to propel the adoption of cryptocurrencies further and foster one of the largest crypto communities globally.
Join the Crypto Hunters Telegram community. Contact HK to learn more.EHP is the only three-phase heat transfer technology that contains nanoparticles and a miraculous way to reduce energy consumption. EHP Technology (watch video) is the world's first and only known 5th-generation heat transfer technology, the world's fastest, most affordable, and most efficient heat transfer technology. EHP is the first recycling technology that can reduce up to 70% of our world's global waste heat to go to the air, saving up to 40% of the world's global energy problem. You can contact Anil to learn more.
Upcoming VNTR Capital events:
July 18 VNTR Mastermind Group A (Online)
July 18 VNTR Investors Dinner Paris (During ETHCC)
July 19 VNTR Mastermind Group B (Online)
July 20 VNTR Mastermind Group C (Online)
July 26 VNTR Investors Roundtable Tokyo (During WebX Asia)
Aug 16 VNTR Investors Roundtable Santa Cruz, Bolivia (During VCiLat)
Aug 16 VNTR Investors Roundtable Toronto (During Blockchain Futurist Conference)
Sep 6 VNTR Investors Roundtable Seoul (During Korea Blockchain Week)
Sep 14 VNTR Investors Roundtable Singapore (During Token2049)
Sep 20 VNTR Investors Roundtable San Francisco (During TechCrunch Disrupt)
RSVP to Upcoming VNTR Capital Events
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UPCOMING VC EVENTS
July 25-26 WebX Asia, Tokyo, Japan (VNTR PRO members get complimentary passes)
July 26 Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit, Singapore (VNTR PRO Members delegate access)
Aug 16-18 VCiLat, Santa Cruz De La Sierra, Bolivia
Aug 24-25 Coinfest Asia 2023, Bali
Sep 1-5 IFA Berlin. Germany
Sep 4-5 Seamless, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Sep 6-7 DLD, Munich, Germany
Sep 12-14 Dreamforce, San Francisco, USA
Sep 12-19 Berlin Blockchain Week, Berlin, Germany
Sep 12-13 MoneyLive Asia, Singapore
Sep 13-14 Token2049 Asia, Singapore
Sep 18-19 IPEM Paris, France
Sep 19-21 TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
Sep 20-21 DMEXCO, Cologne, Germany
Sep 21-22 Metaverse Summit, Paris, France
Sep 21-23 TechSparks 2023, Bengaluru, India
Sep 24-26 Bits and Pretzels, Munich, Germany
Sep 26-28 Mobile World Congress, Las Vegas, USA
Sep 27-30 Monaco Yacht Show, Monaco
Oct 3-4 CV Summit, Zug, Switzerland
Oct 4-5 Sifted Summit, London, UK
Oct 5-6 Zebu Live, London, UK
Oct 7-8 DeGameFi, Tbilisi, Georgia
Oct 8-9 Wow Summit, Dubai, UAE
Oct 15-18 Expand North Star Dubai Harbour, UAE
Oct 16-20 GITEX Global, Dubai, UAE
Oct 16-22 NY Tech Week, New York, USA
Oct 20-23 Plan B Forum, Lugano, Switzerland
Oct 22-24 Money 20/20, Las Vegas, USA
Oct 24-25 Blockchain Life 2023, Dubai, UAE
Oct 26-27 World Blockchain Summit, Dubai, UAE
Oct 30-Nov 5 Hong Kong FinTech Week, Hong Kong
Nov 7-10 Nearcon, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 13-16 Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 13-17 AIBC Europe, Malta
Nov 14-16 SALT iConnections Asia, Singapore
Nov 15-17 Singapore Fintech Festival, Singapore
Nov 30-Dec1 SLUSH, Helsinki, Finland
Dec 8-10 Art Basel, Miami, USA
If you would like to submit VC-related events, please respond to this email or Telegram @byuric
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.
Check out VNTR Capital upcoming events
VC Reads
Most Active Investors Pare Dealmaking In First Half Of 2023
The money and deal counts required to rank among the most active startup investors have come down dramatically in the past couple years.
For the first half of 2023, the seven busiest global venture investors collectively led 80 rounds, per Crunchbase data. That’s a decline of 78% from the year-ago period, when the seven most active firms led 364 rounds.
Crossing the Desert - Global venture ecosystems are deep in the fundraising desert.
Our “Weather Report” measures the supply of Venture Capital relative to the demand. Our indicator suggests we are about 1/3 of the way through the desert, where we expect maximum restructuring (strategy, capital, and talent) to hit in 12-18 months.
We estimate that there is currently an annualized funding deficit of $100B+ in USA Series A-C, and roughly 5x that figure globally.
Fewer founders will fail than you think, even with a massive shortage of capital that dwarfs any in the past. In fact history would tell you that typically failure rates only increase 4-5% from typical levels.
Global Venture Capital Deals Sputter as Economy Slows
The global venture capital deal-making machine is sputtering. For the first six months of the year, the dollar value of venture capital deals fell by nearly half to $173.9 billion from $331.1 billion in the comparable period of 2022, according to PitchBook, the research firm which tracks such investments. The total number of deals fell as well, by more than 35% to 17,908 for the first half of 2023, compared with 27,826 in the first half of 2022. The current half-year deal count was the lowest since 2017, according to PitchBook data. For example, the figures include $6.5 billion that was raised for payment processing company Stripe earlier this year from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Thrive Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Temasek. That financing round valued the company at $50 billion, down from $95 billion two years ago. The numbers reflect the downturn in the technology industry’s fortunes that saw shares of publicly traded companies collapse last year.
Silicon Valley start-ups explore sales as funding runs dry
Wave of consolidation expected across tech as cash-strapped companies seek buyers or risk going out of business Cash-strapped tech start-ups are exploring sales to bigger companies in order to survive a funding crunch, as a series of takeovers of artificial intelligence companies lure buyers back to Silicon Valley.
In recent weeks, software group Databricks acquired generative AI start-up MosaicML for $1.3bn, Thomson Reuters paid $650mn for legal services AI group Casetext, Robinhood bought credit card start-up X1 for $95mn, and finance automation company Ramp acquired Cohere.io, a start-up that built an AI-powered customer support tool.
Asia Startup Funding In First Half Of 2023 Falls 50% As Late Stage Continues Decline
Funding to startups in Asia in the first half of 2023 dropped 50% from the previous year — spurred on by fewer large, late rounds, and mirroring the global venture market. Funding in the region dropped from more than $73 billion in the first half of 2022 to only $36.3 billion for H1 this year, Crunchbase data shows. Deal volume also slowed, dropping 40% from 5,402 deals in H1 2022 to only 3,237 for this year’s first half. For the second quarter, funding in the region dropped 44% from the same quarter last year — from $32.8 billion to $18.5 billion. Deal flow dropped a similar amount year to year, falling from 2,508 to 1,564 — a 38% decline, according to Crunchbase data. However, the second quarter actually realized a slight uptick from Q1 in terms of dollars. The second-quarter dollar figure was actually a 4% increase from Q1. Dealmaking, however, dropped 7% from the 1,673 deals announced in Q1.
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Biotech Dominates As Septerna Raises $150M
Investors turned their attention to biotech and health, as more than half the big rounds this week fell into that bucket. Biotech was the big winner, getting three rounds in the top five and four all told on the list. In general, it was a pretty slow week, but that is not out of the ordinary for this time of year.
Asset managers tap top talent to reach private wealth channel
Private market asset managers and service providers are snapping up talent in their push into private wealth's fundraising channels. The most active recruiters of private-wealth capital-raising talent last year were Apollo, Blackstone, Ares, KKR and EQT, according to data from Jensen Partners, an executive search firm. The data also showed a 115% year-over-year increase in the hiring of capital-raising private wealth professionals at alternative asset managers from 2021 to 2022. On Tuesday, Carlyle appointed Franklin Templeton alumnus Shane Clifford to head the firm's private wealth strategy. Clifford is tasked with growing Carlyle's private wealth business in private equity, credit and investment solutions; in particular, he is responsible for identifying capital-raising opportunities in private wealth. With typical institutional dollars becoming more limited, asset managers are tapping into private wealth and other alternative pools of capital. In 2021, Blackstone announced plans to double its private wealth solutions business, and in May of this year, Apollo launched Apollo Private Markets SICAV, two semi-liquid funds that offer its private wealth clients private market exposure.
Yes, investors will sign an NDA, but only in this specific circumstance
If you’ve tried to get an investor to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) before you pitch them, you’ll often be waved off with something like, “We don’t do that.” That is somewhat sensible: Investors talk to a lot of startups, so signing an NDA could open them up to liabilities in many ways. For example, an investor could agree to not share anything you’ve disclosed, but it’s possible they heard another startup doing exactly what you do, with exactly your approach a couple of weeks before they spoke to you. That puts them in an awkward position. This practice is therefore so widespread it’s become something of a rule. There are times when you should push back against such conventions, though: When you’re discussing the details of your technology. If an investor says they don’t sign NDAs, here’s what you should do: Take the meeting anyway but move the slides that talk about your technology to another part of the presentation deck, behind an interstitial slide saying, “Beyond this point, an NDA is required.”
Carbon Capture And Storage Is A Bustling Sector For Startup Funding
While most startup sectors have seen diminished funding in recent quarters, carbon capture- and storage-focused companies look like a notable exception. This past year, over half a billion dollars has gone to dozens of upstarts working on technologies to reduce industrial carbon emissions, store captured CO2, and navigate the complex landscape of carbon credits. It’s a global cohort, with financings in six continents spanning from São Paulo to Stockholm. The past few weeks have been particularly busy. On Tuesday, CarbonCure Technologies, a Nova Scotia-based carbon removal startup focused on the concrete industry, announced it raised $80 million. A few weeks before that, Charm Industrial, a San Francisco startup that uses plant matter and bio-oil to sequester carbon, picked up $100 million in Series B funding. On the software side, meanwhile, Supercritical, a London-based operator of a carbon removal offsets marketplace, landed $13 million in a June Series A.
Five H1 European tech myths debunked
Forget the UK, France is the new home of tech! Hardware is a VC desert! Gen AI will save us all! We’re all guilty of making occasional sweeping claims about what’s happening in European tech. But what are the numbers really telling us? As part of our mythbusting series, Sifted Intelligence has examined some of the narratives we’ve heard again and again this year to see if they bear out in the numbers. However, things haven't been so rosy on French soil since the beginning of 2023, with startup investment in H1 falling to its lowest since the second half of 2020 — and less than half of the total raised in the first half of 2022. That’s despite state-backed Bpifrance being the most active investor in Europe, according to our analysis. Only 44 raises over $25m were announced, compared to 86 in H1 last year. The only French tech company to go public in 2023 so far is online driving school Lepermislibre (though that's not a unique problem — the global IPO market is in the gutter).
Crypto will transcend international currencies — BlackRock CEO
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has delivered fresh remarks supporting cryptocurrencies’ role in democratizing investing worldwide, pointing to growing interest among the companys clients in digital assets. “More and more of our global investors are asking us about crypto,” Fink said during an interview with CNBC’s Squawk on the Street on July 14. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with over $8 trillion in assets spanning all types of investment products. In Fink's view, cryptocurrencies have a “differentiating value versus other asset classes” in helping diversify portfolios. “It’s so international it’s going to transcend any one currency,” noted the executive. “We are working with our regulators because, as in any new market, if BlackRock’s name is going to be on it, we’re going to make sure that it’s safe and sound and protected,” Fink added.
Exploring The Signs Of Recovery: A Closer Look at Tech M&A And Revenue Multipliers
At that time, we witnessed an alarming surge in revenue multipliers, with a median of 34 and an average of 72. However, the tides have turned, and a different narrative is emerging. The global economic downturn — combined with high-interest rates, growing inflation, and geopolitical unrest — has caused a drastic decline in revenue multipliers within the software sector. In an effort to shed light on this shift, I conducted an analysis of 5,413 software-related M&A deals published on Crunchbase that transpired between Q3 2021 and Q2 2023 in the U.S., EU, and Israel.
Real Estate Startup Investment Falters, Even As Housing Demand Stays Hot
Real estate is one of those startup investment categories where it’s easy to come up with a great-sounding business plan. Who wouldn’t want a cool, 3D-printed home, a fully appointed guest cottage that unfolds in an hour, or a rental apartment building that also manages to “enhance the lives of its residents?” Trouble is, delivering on a concept tends to be exceedingly hard — a dilemma not lost on real estate startup investors. “A lot of stuff in construction and real estate is very relatable,” said Raja Ghawi, partner at Era Ventures, a VC firm focused on the built environment. “And there’s infinite demand.” But while crafting a compelling pitch may be straightforward, Ghawi said, the operational challenges are anything but. Investors also have a history of bold bets in real estate, he noted, sometimes giving entrepreneurs “incentive to go from zero to 100 very fast.” This may explain why real estate and proptech are sectors with a history of famous hits and misses. On the miss side, well-known names include Katerra, a former unicorn out to disrupt the construction industry, and WeWork, the coworking pioneer that went from unicorn to penny stock. On the hit side, companies like Procore Technologies, Nest and Airbnb have generated big returns for early backers.
Visa Acquired Pismo For $1 Billion, Highlighting The Startup Renaissance In Emerging Markets
Innovation has globalized. Over 100 startup ecosystems have spawned a unicorn (and this is rising fast). Many of these are entirely new business models that have spawned global categories.
And they are leading to real exits. Just look at Pismo’s $1b sale to Visa, the largest announced M&A of the year so far anywhere.
Yet, technology’s myopic focus on Silicon Valley has not adapted to this new reality. Just look at CNBC’s disruptor 50 list. Less than a small handful were from the emerging world.
China sets wide-ranging rules for $2.9 trln private investment funds
China published regulations on Sunday for the country's $2.9 trillion private investment fund sector, seeking to better protect investors and promote innovation. The new rules, signed by Premier Li Qiang and effective on Sept. 1, create a chapter specifically for venture capital funds, as policymakers encourage investment into innovative technology start-ups, said a statement from China's securities regulator and the justice ministry. The statement addressed media questions on the new rules. The wide-ranging rules apply to private investment funds with different organisational forms such as contract, company and partnership. Private investment funds in China can invest in private equity or publicly traded securities. Core rules cover the obligations of fund managers and custodians, fund raising, identifying risk levels, supervision of venture capital funds, and overall supervision and management.
Cyber Leak? Cybersecurity Funding Falls 63% In Q2
In 2021, venture funding in the red-hot cybersecurity market topped $23 billion. Two years later, it seems like a security startup will be lucky to raise just one-third of that. Venture funding for cybersecurity dropped to just slightly more than $1.6 billion in the just completed second quarter — a 63% drop from the same quarter last year when startups saw nearly $4.3 billion, per Crunchbase data The number marks its lowest point since the last quarter of 2019, when startups raised just under $1.6 billion. The numbers for the first half of the year are also a stark contrast to just one year ago. For the first six months this year, cyber startups raised only $4.3 billion, a drop of 60% from the $10.8 billion raised in the first half last year. It also is more than $2 billion less than the $6.4 billion raised in the second half of 2022. These numbers are just the latest reminder of how dramatically the venture capital environment has changed in just 24 months.
5 big trends shaping VC investing today
US startups have progressed precariously through 2023, and several signs point to more trouble ahead if dealmaking and fundraising conditions continue to tighten and exit markets remain closed, according to the Q2 2023 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. While sharp declines in both deal value and count have stabilized somewhat in recent quarters, factors including the loss of crossover investors and dismal fund performance are reminders that investors and LPs may continue to look elsewhere for returns. The flood of IPOs in 2021 was far larger than any in the past decade. And the subsequent drought has been much longer than usual, leading to a backlog of IPOs for US VC-backed companies. For 17 months running, the number of IPOs has fallen far short of what would be expected based on long-term trends. But VCs still need liquidity, which has contributed to acquisition activity—now the source of most exits both in terms of the number of deals and the value generated for investors. The median VC-backed acquisition has climbed to $69.5 million, a four-year high, more evidence of the liquidity push. For corporations, the current environment is a prime opportunity to acquire discounted startups.
Welcome to the new venture normal
The U.S. venture capital market has seemingly found a new normal: Trends around the number of deals and amount of dollars invested in startups so far this year appear to be stabilizing. For every quarter in 2023, the U.S. market saw just over 4,000 deals being closed, and the total value of funding rounds settled around the $40 billion to $45 billion range, according to data from PitchBook and NVCA. While these numbers pale in comparison to the records set in 2021 and 2022, we’re at least seeing signs of settling into a new routine this year. But what does that routine look like? This morning, we’ll map out what appear to be the key trends of the venture capital market for startups in the U.S. (If you are located elsewhere in the world, don’t worry. We have notes coming on other regions.)
Energy, healthcare prove resilient amid Europe's VC downturn
Healthcare and energy ranked among the most resilient sectors as venture capital investment declined in Europe throughout the first half of the year. Europe recorded only 4,495 VC rounds in H1 2023, a 38.5% decline when compared to the same period last year, according to PitchBook data. While no sector has been spared, industries that are traditionally more resilient to macro headwinds have seen a smaller drop-off. The materials and resources sector saw the smallest decrease in funding, with an only 21% decline in deal value between H1 2022 and H1 2023, accompanied by a 16% decline in deal count. Meanwhile, climate change and food insecurity increased VC interest in industries like agtech, which helped keep the sector's deal count relatively stable. Energy and healthcare proved more resilient than other sectors, with deal value falling 34% and 32%, respectively, and deal count declining 10% and 30% from H1 2022.
Could the Ripple Ruling Spell the End of Regulation by Enforcement?
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently had a no-good, very bad day because of a district judge’s ruling in the SEC’s action against Ripple’s XRP token. Despite issuing a statement filled with bravado and the kind of detachment from reality that might make even Donald Trump think twice before pressing send, the SEC likely knows how serious of a rebuke its overall approach to crypto received in a federal court. If the ruling holds, we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of SEC Chair Gensler’s regulation-by-enforcement approach to crypto assets, and the end will be messy for those who oppose crypto. Who could have seen that coming? It was entirely predictable to many, except for a tiny cauldron of activists in Washington, D.C. who adopted the view that “all tokens are securities” with a religious fervor.
PE's portfolio markdowns show no signs of letting up
Private equity firms are continuing to mark down the value of their portfolios in the second half of 2023. Even as public markets experience a bull run, PitchBook's 2023 US Private Equity Outlook: H1 Follow-Up shows that US PE firms are continuing a slow campaign of markdowns amid persistent financing challenges and dwindling exit opportunities. A markdown occurs when a PE fund manager decreases the projected valuation of its portfolio. In Q1 2023, the six largest public PE managers generated a median quarterly return of 2.4%, lagging the S&P 500 by 5.1 percentage points. PE funds have experienced record-breaking outperformance relative to the public markets in recent years. From Q2 2020 to Q2 2022, PitchBook's US PE buyout fund benchmark posted a cumulative gain of 98%, beating the S&P 500 by 46.3 percentage points and generating the most extreme outperformance since at least 2000. But bouts of underperformance tend to trail these periods of extreme gains, and this stretch was no exception: PE funds began to mark down portfolios in the second half of 2022, according to the report.
Is the Metaverse a 'Global Panopticon'?
Without question, new and advanced technologies such as emotion detection and affect recognition technologies, neurotechnologies, and XR and other metaversal technologies, among others, raise significant privacy-related concerns. Each new category of technology penetrates a layer deeper into our personal space, threatening to erode the boundaries of our inner lives and inner selves. Moreover, the rendering and datafication of these activities into digital information raises traditional and novel data protection concerns, despite the inadequacies of existing laws that pertain to personal data and frequently require the identifiability of individuals. And whereas conventional legal frameworks typically regard privacy as an individualistic concern, new and emerging technologies increasingly have implications for individuals, groups and society as a whole too.
How the VC CV formula is holding back diversity
There's no shortage of aspiring and advancing talent keen to secure roles in the industry, which means VCs can afford to be selective when it comes to hiring. But as well as being selective, the data in the article also shows they’re being prescriptive. And with that comes a huge blow to diversity. It’s no secret that VC has a long way to go in terms of representation. Though firms like Dawn Capital, LocalGlobe and Bethnal Green Ventures show diversity can be improved, the demographics of venture can’t fully evolve if hiring frameworks remain rigid. The data in the article shows that engineering and computer science degrees are highly prized by VCs. A whopping 42% of job adverts for VC internships specifically mentioned engineering degrees and 20% expressed a preference for computer science. However, a recent report from EngineeringUK showed that only 18% of those studying undergraduate engineering degrees in the UK are women.
It's Not Your Fault, But It's Your Problem
One of my earliest mentors in venture told me that founders would have to deal with problems that were not of their making and it's never been truer than it is today.
Early in my venture career, I worked with someone who gave me a lot of great advice about how to think about being an entrepreneur and an investor who supports entrepreneurs. We had just finished meeting with a founder who was dealing with a tough set of circumstances and was trying to figure out how to overcome his challenges. When I asked for advice, my mentor told me a simple but powerful thing that I still think about to this day and find myself repeating a lot in the current environment: "Sometimes it’s not your fault, but it’s still your problem."
Venture Capital — We’re Still Not Normal
One graph from our proprietary dataset has consistently received the most interest over the years. Some of our VC peers have requested it for their LP communications, universities have requested it for research and course materials, and it’s been published in several books.
We most recently published this graph in a 2019 blog post called “Venture Capital — No, We’re Not Normal.” Particularly given the changes that have occurred in U.S. venture in the past few years, we thought it would be helpful to provide an updated version.
United Kingdom’s digital pound meets public backlash — Why?
British society is both civil and democratic, so it wasn’t unexpected that the government of the United Kingdom would “consult” the public before signing off on a digital version of the British pound. The response it received may have been surprising, though. The public canvassing conducted jointly by His Majesty’s Treasury and the Bank of England between February and June of 2023 drew some 50,000 responses, and it unleashed a “public backlash,” according to The Telegraph — a U.K. newspaper — with “widespread public concern about privacy as well as anger over the possible consequences for cash.” Not only could a digital pound, dubbed “Britcoin” be used to surveil U.K. citizens, respondents feared, but it could also potentially destabilize the U.K. financial system because the digital pound would be easier for depositors to move out of commercial banks in times of crisis, promoting bank runs.
Corporate venturing squads: Teaming up with other corporations to innovate with startups
When corporations partner up to unlock innovation, all can benefit.
Corporate venturing has been described as a David-and-Goliath cooperation in the business world. Established companies seek innovation by partnering up with agile startups via a range of mechanisms, including scouting missions, hackathons, venture clients, corporate incubators and accelerators.
These partnerships have the potential to yield breakthrough innovation quickly and at a relatively low cost, and in recent years, such efforts have become one of the mainstays of the innovation landscape.