VNTR Capital News July 2, 2023 – News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – July 2 News, Events, and VC Reads
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
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Scroll down for VNTR Capital Community News, Upcoming Events, and VC News/Reads.
VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Spotlight
Join VNTR as a Founding Member – We invite you to become a Founding Member of the VNTR Platform and Membership — a space for connection, collaboration, co-investments, and growth. As a Founding Member: connect with fellow investors, share deals, seek assistance, and stay informed about VNTR activities and events.
Get Intro Service — Introducing our new warm introductions service exclusively available to PRO Members. Instead of reaching out through impersonal messages or emails, you can now request introductions to other members on the platform. Our dedicated team will skillfully match and facilitate these introductions, ensuring a more personalized and effective networking experience.
Deals Sharing — Our platform enables members to collaborate on co-investment opportunities, where high-value check investors can directly participate, while smaller investors can join through VNTR Syndicate SPVs. We have curated a diverse range of featured deals available for exploration:
Series B investment opportunity in a prominent L1 blockchain solution designed for enterprise applications.
Seed investment opportunity in a Neobank specifically tailored for small and medium-sized businesses in the UK and Europe.
Seed extension investment in an EdTech AI venture teaching more than ~2M children to speak English.
Furthermore, we have deals currently undergoing the VNTR vetting process, soon to be unveiled on the platform.
Create your VNTR Platform Account
Featured Founding PRO Members
Lloyd Purser — Partner at FunFair Ventures, Funding Early Stage Web3 Projects
Andrey Kostyuk — founder and CEO of Taurus Aurum Group and as co-founder and CEO of AAlchemy Ventures
Eric Benz — Partner at Mynt.vc Family Office invests in Web3, impact and real estate
Joachim Rittfeldt Hofvenschiöld – Partner at Ubit.vc investing in early stage tech startups and building the software needed to scale.
Eugene Malobrodsky — Partner at One Way Ventures focuses on finding the best founders in B2B SaaS, Cyber Security, and AI/ML companies.
Last Week
Toronto — We launched VNTR Chapter Toronto on June 27 to scale VNTR Membership to Canada (view photos), where we will host monthly recurring events and experiences for active investment decision-makers. Thank you to Coinchange.io for sponsoring the event. The next event is scheduled on Aug 16.
Singapore — We started recruiting VNTR Chapter Director for Singapore Chapter, which will launch on Sep 14th during VNTR Roundtable. The primary responsibility of VNTR Chapter Directors is to represent VNTR in their respective cities, organize local events to facilitate networking among engaged investors, foster community growth, and serve as vital connectors within the venture capital ecosystem of their hometowns.
New Chapters — Join us as Chapter Director to build a top investors community and membership together. Apply as a Chapter Director.
Upcoming
Storytelling Workshop — We are hosting an interactive workshop on July 6 aimed at helping you distinguish yourself from other fundraisers through the power of storytelling with the master of Storytelling, Donna Griffit. In today's competitive investment landscape, the ability to captivate and engage potential investors is paramount. We will delve into the art of compelling storytelling specifically tailored for raising funds from family offices and institutional LPs. Check out Donna's book, "Sticking to My Story: The Alchemy of Storytelling for Startups.".
Lisbon/Cascais/Algarve — Our Lisbon Chapter will host two Summer events on July 7, VNTR Roundtable Cascais, and on July 12, VNTR Roundtable Algarve, during Blockdown Festival Algarve July 10-12. (Get 50% OFF using VNTR50 discount code)
Tokyo — We partnered with WebX Asia to host our first VNTR Roundtable in Tokyo on July 26 as an official side event for investors. (VNTR PRO members get complimentary passes to the conference)
London/Toronto/Dubai — Our Chapter Directors are working with our team to schedule a series of recurring events to connect and service the local VC community.
Los Angeles— Next Casting for Crypto Hunters Adventure Reality Show will be held in Los Angeles in July 2023. 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. You can apply for the next casting in Los Angeles. For those who can't make it to the casting events, we invite you to join the Crypto Hunters Telegram community. Contact HK to learn more.
Coinchange.io is a prominent platform in the DeFi market that generates yield through carefully crafted quantitative and systematic strategies. These strategies are combined into diversified portfolios, each with a unique risk-reward profile. Coinchange portfolios are distributed through direct-to-business and direct-to-consumer applications, utilizing APIs for partnerships and offering separately managed accounts for our institutional clients. Additionally, we operate an OTC desk, servicing institutional clients, crypto miners, and other entities in the blockchain and payment business sectors. Contact Max Galash 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 6 VNTR Workshop with Donna Griffit - Storytelling for VCs (Online)
July 11 VNTR Investors Roundtable Algarve (During Block Down Festival)
July 25 VNTR Investors Roundtable London (During Global Blockchain Congress)
July 26 VNTR Investors Roundtable Tokyo (During WebX Asia)
Aug 16 VNTR Investors Roundtable Toronto (During Blockchain Futurist Conference)
RSVP to Upcoming VNTR Capital Events
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.
UPCOMING VC EVENTS
July 10-12 Block Down Portugal 2023, Algarve, Portugal (50% discount using VNTR50)
July 25-26 WebX Asia, Tokyo, Japan (VNTR PRO members get complimentary passes)
July 26 Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit, Singapore (with VNTR Members 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 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 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 22-24 Money 20/20, Las Vegas, USA
Oct 24-24 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 15-17 Singapore Fintech Festival, Singapore
Nov 30-Dec1 SLUSH, Helsinki, Finland
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
Cash Is Drying Up in the Late-Stage VC Market
Companies seeking Series C and D round funding are likely to experience a down round in the second half of 2023, according to PitchBook.
The second half of the year looks bleak for companies backed by venture capital firms, especially for later-stage companies.
The companies that are most starved for capital are those that are currently in Series C and D round fundraising. These are most likely to raise at lower valuations compared to their previous funding rounds, according to PitchBook’s latest VC outlook. For such companies, which are defined as late-stage companies by PitchBook, the current demand for capital exceeds the available supply by approximately 2.8 times. In the second quarter, 12.3 percent of late-stage companies that raised funds experienced a down round, up from 8.5 percent in the first quarter.
“And when we studied how we could contribute, we landed on venture capital…because the inequity is so stark in this community and the stakes are so high.” In a video address, Melinda French Gates, one of the most powerful women in the world, spoke about how and why she came into venture capital: a move that led her to found her own firm, Pivotal Ventures.
Her remarks kicked off the annual Bridge Flagship Conference: a Bridge Funding Global event that brings together female GPs (general partners or those managing venture capital firms) and LPs (limited partners or those investing in GPs) to help address this “stark” inequity and these “high” stakes.
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Another Inflection Point For AI? Investors Pour More Money Into The Space
Once again, the week can be summed up in two words we’ve heard all year — artificial intelligence. Investors went crazy again — led mainly by large corporations or their VC arms — dumping big sums of cash into everything AI. That included a huge round of more than $1 billion.
Delaware is the VC Domicile of Choice
Over 60% of new venture capital managers are choosing Delaware as the domicile for their firms and funds. As Europe becomes more regulated and expensive, the UK faces Brexit-related isolation, and traditional tax havens like the Caymans grow costly due to new Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, Delaware shines. Its clear regulatory framework, cost-effectiveness, and stability make it the preferred choice for venture capitalists globally.
From IBM to Databricks, It’s Been A Big Week For Tech M&A
Sometimes, no one is buying. Other times, everyone is spending big. This week clearly belongs in the latter category for tech and life sciences M&A. Acquirers shelled out nearly $8 billion in disclosed-price acquisitions in industries from generative AI to payments to legaltech. Several deals exceeded the billion-dollar mark. This includes the biggest buyer, IBM, which is paying $4.6 billion to purchase Apptio, a provider of financial and operational IT management software, from private equity owner Vista Equity Partners. Next up is Databricks, which is acquiring MosaicML, a provider of generative AI tools for developers, in a transaction valued at around $1.3 billion. It’s a particularly big number considering San Francisco-based MosaicML emerged from stealth less than two years ago. The other 10-figure deal was Visa’s purchase of Pismo, a digital banking technology platform, for $1 billion in cash. Pismo, which has operations in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe, previously raised at least $118 million from backers including SoftBank, Amazon and Accel.
America has less than a decade to turn itself around
From the time the US government managed to sign the debt ceiling resolution, it took just thirteen days for the national debt to soar by nearly $600 billion.
At that pace, they added over $500,000 to the national debt every second.
The US national debt has now breached $32 trillion… meaning America’s debt-to-GDP ratio is now 121%. Historically, advanced nations tend to get into trouble when debt-to-GDP reaches around 90%. The US is way past that threshold — but I’ll return to that point in a moment.
Corporate Insights: Starting a Start-Up? Here’s One More Thing You Need to Know: The 83(b) Election
Many people are forming start-up entities, especially in the Boston and Worcester areas, and for some, it becomes a great success story. For others, it does not. As an attorney who assists many start-ups and investors, I see some sticky situations. One thing some founders forget about is the very important 83(b) election.
What is an 83(b) election? An 83(b) election is made under a provision of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) that gives start-up founders the option to pay taxes on the total fair market value of restricted stock at the time the stock is issued, rather than when the restrictions lapse. This means the founder can limit the associated tax liability substantially by one single filing.
Web3 and Environmental Sustainability: How Does Blockchain Technology Help Save the Environment
Environmental sustainability is one of the most pressing challenges of the modern world. It is related to environmental degradation, the extinction of species, air and water pollution, climate change, and other environmental problems.
There are a myriad of different initiatives aimed at addressing environmental sustainability issues. Web3 technologies are also being used to help solve these issues, offering new approaches to optimize resource use, conserve biodiversity, or mitigate climate change.
Let’s understand how Web3 technologies contribute to environmental conservation.
Big Tech corporate venture capital generative AI startups
As the race to build generative AI tools for the enterprise devolves into a battle royale, Big Tech companies are busy wielding their most powerful weapons: checkbooks. Earlier today, Typeface raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, mere months after a $65 million round in February. It’s something to think about considering the company was founded in 2022. But even though we are once again seeing rapid-fire venture rounds at unicorn valuations, the investor list in Typeface’s round is worth noting. Salesforce Ventures led the round. The CRM and cloud giant recently launched a $500 million fund to invest in generative AI startups, so its presence in this deal is not a complete shock, but the SaaS pioneer had company: Both Alphabet (through its GV investing arm) and Microsoft (through its M12 investing effort) invested in Typeface.
India’s largest venture fund is now Indian
Whether or not you have a direct connect with the startup ecosystem, you probably heard about the rebrand and regroup at Sequoia Capital and India business finding itself a new name and new independent structure as Peak XV. Sequoia is a privately held fund that invests privately held Limited Partner Capital in companies that are private (until they go public of course) and really owes no explanation to you, me or average joe on the street, the move is massive from an India macro vantage point. The reason this is significant is to begin with Sequoia’s legacy is iconic and seeded in the growth of venture and startups globally. The India business, the youngest of the lot, has over 400 companies, 50 unicorns, 13 dedicated funds and $ 9.2 billion assets under management. They also have $2.5 billion of dry powder to invest in India & Southeast Asian startups. What is audacious and welcome is the move by the team at Peak XV to build an independent India franchise.
Why Do VCs Love Electric Car Batteries As Much As Joe Biden Does?
It seems like the U.S. tech industry, which has made leaps in smartphone technology, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, now wants to conquer something new: batteries. Specifically, batteries for electric vehicles. Amid all the hullabaloo around generative AI, the fall of crypto, and the head-scratching discourse around Web3, somehow, electric vehicle batteries are seeing steady — and favorable — funding in the past few years, per Crunchbase data. Despite a 43% decrease in funding between 2021 and 2022, electric vehicle battery manufacturing still saw more funding in 2022 than it did in 2020. Last year was the sector’s second-best funding year since 2014. What’s even more interesting is how much of this funding is flowing to the U.S., despite the fact that China dominates the global battery manufacturing sector. In 2020, only around 20% of all funding to the sector went toward U.S.-based companies. But in 2021, 64% of all funding to the sector was funneled into U.S.-based companies, per Crunchbase data. In 2022, that number rose to 70%.
Venture Capital Funding for Climate Tech Dips 40% in First Half of 2023
Climate tech has been an investing bright spot since 2021 in an otherwise dismal venture capital ecosystem, raking in deals as other sectors stagnated. But the first half of 2023 saw a decrease in climate venture funding, according to a new report from Climate Tech VC (CTVC), which tracks venture capital funding for climate tech across seven categories and over 60 subsectors. Funding during the first six months of the year totaled $13.1 billion. That marked a 40% decrease compared to the same period last year, according to the report. That change reflects an overall slowdown in venture capital investments, driven by larger macroeconomic forces like higher interest rates as well as sector-specific issues. In its report, CTVC noted that while “other market observers may promote larger climate market sizes,” it excludes state-backed and private equity investors as well as post-IPO, grant and other types of funding from its analysis.
Startups Get Hip To Hypnotherapy
It’s long seemed like our connected devices are conspiring to hypnotize us. They goad us into wasting untold time scrolling through mindless content, keep us hooked on shows that always deviously end on a cliffhanger, and ply us with listings of stately homes we can’t afford but keep looking at anyway. This raises the question: If they’re so effective, why can’t our devices hypnotize us in a good way? You know, get us to quit smoking and drinking, exercise, eat well and embrace positive thinking. And while we’re at it, maybe they should get us off our screens. Turns out, a number of hypnotherapy-focused startups think there’s merit to at least some of this idea. Investors do too. Over the past couple years, they’ve backed seed- and early-stage rounds for multiple startups offering tech-enabled hypnosis and hypnotherapy platforms. Two of the larger funding rounds came this year. Mindset Health, a Melbourne, Australia-based provider of digital hypnotherapy programs, picked up $12 million in Series A financing in March. And Oneleaf, a French startup offering an assortment of self-hypnosis tools, landed a $5.1 million seed round in January.
Crypto VC is struggling only from a North American perspective — Animoca Brands CEO
The crypto space has been in an uneven state around the world, with Web3 startups flourishing in the Middle East and Asia, while North American crypto entrepreneurs face challenges under tough macroeconomic and regulatory conditions, according to Animoca Brands CEO Yat Siu. Speaking with Cointelegraph at the Collision conference in Toronto, Siu highlighted the main differences between the environment for crypto businesses worldwide, stressing that it is not “as bad as it sounds.” According to him, Web3 startups can still raise funding from venture firms, but current conditions like higher interest rates across the globe along with a downturn in crypto asset prices have raised the bar for newcomers.
Startups, VCs swarm Capitol Hill in generative AI lobbying push
OpenAI founder Sam Altman has become a familiar face on Capitol Hill. He took the spotlight in a highly publicized hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month. The evening before, he had hosted a closed-door dinner with some 60 lawmakers, several of whom were quick to praise his demonstrations of generative AI's capabilities. Much more quietly, several other AI startups—as well as some major US VCs—are stretching their muscles on Capitol Hill, buoyed by the wave of legislators' scrutiny of generative AI. Just last week, two leading generative AI startups—Stability AI, the company behind the text-to-image tool Stable Diffusion, which is reportedly raising a Series A at a $4 billion valuation, and Hugging Face, which is angling to become the “GitHub of AI”—disclosed new contracts with Washington, D.C., lobbying firms. Franklin Square is advising Stability AI and Invariant is advising Hugging Face, according to lobbying disclosures.
Will Europe’s Digital Euro Really Protect Privacy?
Someone needs to remind the European Commission that it can’t have its cake and eat it too. An EC proposal this week for regulating a future central bank digital currency (CBDC) insisted that it must “protect privacy,” describing a system of NFC chip-based offline payments in which “nobody would be able to see what people are paying for.” This recognizes European citizens’ civil liberties, as politicians are wont to do. But you can be forgiven for seeing it as mere lip service. A review of the proposal’s explicit record-keeping provisions for payment service providers challenges those intentions, especially in light of recent European government crackdowns on cryptographic privacy.
FTC may require PE funds to disclose LPs
Private equity firms could soon be required to disclose the names of their LPs in regulatory filings—an added hurdle for the asset class amid financing and fundraising challenges. The Federal Trade Commission proposed a number of amendments Tuesday to its HSR form and associated instructions, requiring parties to disclose more details to the FTC and the Department of Justice ahead of larger mergers and acquisitions. While the proposal covers M&A transactions across public and private asset classes, its implementation could have acute impacts on the PE industry, including an exposed LP base, higher legal costs and extended deal timelines.
Sustainability Funding Sees Only Modest Decline As Urgency Trumps Frugality
Catastrophic climate change projections are only getting more pronounced. And across the globe, overall startup investment is on the decline. These two trajectories don’t fundamentally have anything to do with each other. The planet doesn’t check startup funding data before deciding how many record heat waves and hurricanes to unleash. And the venture pullback, a comedown from a cyclical bubble, has nothing to do with climate dynamics. Nonetheless, the chronological overlap of these otherwise unrelated phenomena may help explain why sustainability-focused startup investment has declined this year, but less sharply than in most other sectors. Urgency is higher, but investors’ willingness to spend remains constrained.
Why Tokenized Assets Are Safer During a Banking Crisis
Maybe I’m a grim reaper of banking crises, because I’ve lived through three of them in the last decade. I’m used to banks saying some version of “actually, we’ve lost your money and that’s just a number you see on your screen….it’s not really there.” Born and raised in Greece to Lebanese parents, and now living in Cyprus, I’ve paid for the failed risk governance of banks on this island (2013), the 2016 capital controls in Greece limiting people to 20 euros a day, and the hyperinflation and value-loss of having my dollar deposits turned to “Lollars” in Lebanon. Yes, I’ve racked up plenty of air miles travelling through Athens, Larnaca and Beirut. None of these crises were predicted. The Lebanese Central Bank governor, now with an outstanding arrest warrant by Interpol, was once revered as one of the best “financial engineers” in the world. Cyprus has been an outstanding financial services and tax efficient hub for several decades.
Angel investors vs venture capital: Which is better for starting a business?
Taking an investment from an angel investor or a venture capital (VC) lender is a very popular way of kick-starting a business or new idea. However, despite sharing many similarities, angel investors and VCs differ in several fundamental ways that can shape the way you develop your business. Depending on the type of business you’re trying to launch, and how you plan to run it, choosing the right funding model will be fundamental to achieving your goals. You may find that you are able to secure a satisfying level of investment, but at the cost of giving up more control than you would like. Equally, you may find that your investor does not provide enough vital early support that many fledgling businesses require. To help you on your journey, we’ve compared the various ways angel investors and VCs will interact with your business, and what they look for when it comes to funding opportunities.
From AI To SVB And Everything In Between — A Quick Look Back At The First Half Of 2023
After a bumpy 2022, there was little reason to believe 2023 would be any smoother in the realm of tech, startups and venture capital. Through the first six months, the new year has done anything but disappoint on that front. From crypto contagion to mass layoffs to a banking crisis to — yes — the neverending AI craze, the first half of the year has been a winding ride for venture and startups. The year started with many folks still trying to wrap their heads around one of the greatest startup implosions of all time: That of crypto exchange FTX. Company founder Sam Bankman-Fried was already facing criminal charges — including fraud — in the collapse of the highly valued company. FTX and FTX US, its U.S.-based exchange, were valued at $32 billion and $8 billion, respectively, and backed by some of of the biggest names in venture — including Sequoia Capital, NEA, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund, Thoma Bravo, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Coinbase Ventures.
North American GPs look East for fundraising oasis
The fundraising slowdown in the US has prompted some alternative asset managers to chase investors in Asia-Pacific. "When an original channel or market is difficult for fundraising, you have to look for new avenues and channels to raise money," said Chris Lerner, the chair of Asia Heritage, a Singapore-based fund-of-funds investor. Lerner's firm recently partnered with US GP-stakes investor Bonaccord Capital Partners to help a few North American and European middle-market alternative asset managers in Bonaccord's portfolio to expand their reach to limited partners in Asia. Bonaccord also plans to use the partnership to cultivate relationships with Asian investors who could back its future funds, according to Lerner. Bonaccord isn't the first to fix its sights on Asia's pool of capital.
Silicon Valley braces for the worst as funding dries up
Clear evidence of just how tough venture capital land is getting emerged this month with setbacks for two high-profile industry firms.
After almost a year of marketing new, multibillion-dollar funds, both Insight Partners and Tiger Global have failed to reach anywhere near their targets. After an already dismal year, it was a particularly painful augury for venture capital and start-ups.
As one Silicon Valley veteran put it: “It was the first real sign that existing investors are saying ‘no más’.” Insight, considered one of the highest-rated venture capital managers, has delivered an average net internal rate of return of 22 per cent over time, according to one person familiar with the matter. But investors have committed just $2bn of a planned $20bn fund. That is a sharp fall from the $20bn that Insight raised in 2022.
What LPs want to see from first-time VC fund pitch decks
Across Europe there have been a flurry of emerging managers who have raised first-time funds by convincing limited partners (LPs) to part with their cash with the promise of a USP that’ll generate good returns. “Raising your first fund is always a challenge, but we got some very good advice which was just get in the game,” says Helga Valfells, founding partner of Reykjavík-based Crowberry Capital, a seed and early-stage fund focusing on the Nordics, which launched its first fund of $40m in 2017 and its second of $90m — Iceland’s largest at the time — in 2021. To do that means starting with the basics — the pitch deck. For Francesco Perticarari, former engineer and founder of Silicon Roundabout Ventures, a UK-based deeptech fund which launched in February this year, a pitch deck is two things: a tool to collect the metrics that LPs want to see in one place and an instrument to build and hone your narrative as a general partner (GP) — someone who manages a VC fund.
AI frenzy has taken hold in venture capital report reveals
The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to impact vast areas of our lives has not gone unnoticed in the venture capital world. Investment in AI by venture capitalists (VCs) is widespread with almost three quarters of respondents to a Pitchbook poll saying they have invested recently. A caveat: the survey was conducted at this week’s Collision event in Toronto, one of the world’s largest and important tech deal-making events, so you would expect these VCs to be into the hottest technology assets. Two thirds of respondents said AI and machine learning has the potential to be the most disruptive technology in the next five to 10 years, with this dominating investment ahead of fintech, blockchain, climate tech, and digital health-tech also prominent. Almost 100 VCs responded to the survey which also highlights that VC activity is subdued.
LPs' demand for liquidity drives VCs to secondary markets
A limited partner at a public pension recently walked me through his private markets investment model. Despite having allocations to some of the top venture managers, he wasn't thrilled with the asset class's performance. VC has not behaved at all as expected, he said. Funds were deployed too quickly. Valuations of portfolio companies ballooned to unrealistic levels. But his biggest grievance is that cash distributions from venture funds have been nowhere near as high as PE and growth equity funds. Getting cash back has become so important that the pension plan decided not to recommit to several brand name firms who didn't provide enough liquidity from their older funds. The pressure to send money to LPs is driving some VCs to sell portfolio company stakes on the secondary markets, but they're finding that buyers are interested only in the best assets. Meanwhile, less attractive companies are not generating much demand, even at big discounts.
THE EUROPEAN EXPANSION REPORT - How US Software Companies Win (and Lose) In Europe 2023
In 2020 we published our first European Expansion Report, where we studied the expansions of nearly 200 US software startups over the previous 15 years. We analyzed over 300,000 data points, from hiring patterns to HQ selection and go-to-market strategies. The rapid rise of the European startup ecosystem over the last few years has made European expansion an urgent priority for top-tier founders, and an attractive growth lever in a challenging economic climate. Given the amount of change, we decided it was time to revisit our analysis to understand what aspects of European expansion are the same and what has evolved.
Backing your schoolmates: The alumni funds investing in Europe's university founders
When investor Cécile Tharaud was chatting with a group of wannabe entrepreneurs at the French engineering school École Polytechnique, she asked them what they’d be looking for if they were ever to raise investment. They wanted financing from “within the family” of École Polytechnique, she says. “Not just friends or family or angels, but people who know the downstream steps of financing a business, all the pitfalls and things that can happen while building a company.” It’s exactly for these entrepreneurs that Tharaud built Polytechnique Ventures — a VC to back very early-stage companies founded by alumni of one of France’s prestigious specialised higher education institutions, the grandes écoles. The firm’s first fund of €36m is backed by 160 alumni.
New report from ESG_VC and BVCA finds environmental agenda is lagging in startups
How the early-stage companies implement ESG within their work, and what are their strengths and weaknesses in this area, were just a few of the topics covered in the analyses conducted by ESG_VC and BVCA. The report titled “2023 Research and Trends – Turning Intention into Action” was created using the data provided by 450 startups backed by 16 venture capital firms including Lakestar, Baldeton, Molten Ventures, Highland, Beringea, and MMC.
The AI revolution just ratcheted up the speed bar for startups. You think you’re moving fast enough. You’re not.
You are living in a unique moment. A transition period. And you’re running out of time.
So much of what we think of as human is going to be newly located and enabled by software and silicon. This is a transition that will sweep across software, bio, and every other industry. Moments like this only come around every 14 years or so, and it’s a privilege to be here to see it.
But most Founders will squander it: They’ll move too damn slow.
The US Senate Wants to Rein In AI. Good Luck With That
AI IS DEFINING the future, even as many US senators struggle to understand it in the present.
“It would have been better if it had been held in a room where the acoustics were better,” Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, says of a much-anticipated—if overdue—All-Senators AI briefing orchestrated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier this month.