VNTR Capital News June 4, 2023 - News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity - June 4 News, Events, and VC Reads
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
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VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Highlights
VNTR Platform Launch — We started onboarding VNTR members to the VNTR Platform, which serves as the place for VNTR Community to connect, share deals, help each other with requests, register for VNTR events, and enjoy partner offers. Active investors are welcome to activate their accounts on the platform. Each account goes through a vetting and enrichment process by the VNTR team. Those who are applying to VNTR Membership will go through an intro call to personalize the experience. Registering for VNTR events is a matter of one click once you set up your investor profile on the platform. We shared the first 4 deals for co-investment and feedback on the platform.
Marrakesh — We hosted our first investors roundtable in Africa this week on June 1 as an official side event to GITEX Africa, the largest tech event in Africa with 20k+ guests. We learned about the investment trends from our peers who focus their investments in Africa. (Check out photos)
Amsterdam — Join us in Amsterdam on June 7 at our Inaugural Investors Roundtable, where we will create a premier meeting for FinTech investors as a side event to Money20/20 Europe Annual Conference (€200 discount using VTN200 code).
Lisbon — This week, Lisbon will become the hub for Web3, Crypto, and NFT enthusiasts visiting the Epic Web3 and Nonfungibale Conference. Lisbon Chapter members and visiting investors will gather at VNTR Investors Roundtable on June 8 (20% discount using VNTRCAPITAL code).
London — Crypto Hunters is hosting London Casting for the upcoming Crypto Adventure Reality Show on June 12-14. Apply for the casting and potentially secure a spot at the show, competing for the coveted grand prize of $1 million. VNTR will co-host the Investors Roundtable on June 13 and the Investors Party at Crypto Hunters Casting Party on June 14. These events will be official side events to London Tech Week, promising a week filled with tech innovation and networking.
Paris — We will return to Paris for VivaTech (30% discount using FP3UHDUJ4 code), Europe's largest startup and tech event, taking place from June 14th to 17th. We will host VNTR Investors Roundtable Paris on June 15, marking our second event in Paris for 2023.
Toronto — Our 1st Investors Roundtable in Canada will take place on June 27 as a side event for Collision 2023.
VNTR Membership — We are opening our 3rd Mastermind Group to serve our growing membership and provide a place to share your progress, get support and grow as an active investor. Learn more about VNTR Membership benefits. Active PRO members can use VNTR connections concierge via Telegram or WhatsApp, submit a request, and our team will introduce you to relevant members/partners.
Thank you to our partners:
Crypto Hunters TV Show is an innovative adventure-reality series that uniquely explores cryptocurrency and blockchain. The show provides an exciting combination of action, education, and entertainment as contestants embark on a thrilling global adventure to uncover the secrets of the crypto world. With a focus on accessibility and entertainment, the show aims to make the excitement of cryptocurrency accessible to a broader audience. You can apply for casting in London on June 12-14 here. For those who can't make it to the casting events, we invite you to join the Crypto Hunters Telegram community. You can contact HK.
Partner with VNTR to achieve your goals
Upcoming VNTR Capital events:
Jun 7 VNTR Investors Roundtable Amsterdam (During Money 20/20 Europe)
Jun 8 VNTR Investors Roundtable Lisbon (During Epic Web3 Conference)
Jun 13 VNTR Investors Roundtable London (During London Tech Week)
Jun 14 VNTR Investors Party London (During Crypto Hunters Casting Party)
Jun 15 VNTR Investors Roundtable Paris (During Viva Technology)
Jun 27 VNTR Investors Roundtable Toronto (During Collision)
Jul 7 VNTR Investors Roundtable Lisbon (During Block 3000)
Jul 11 VNTR Investors Roundtable Algarve (During Block Down Festival)
RSVP to Upcoming VNTR Capital Events
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UPCOMING VC EVENTS
Jun 5-Jun 11 LA Tech Week, Los Angeles, US
Jun 6-8 Money20/20 Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands (€200 discount using VTN200)
Jun 7-9 South Summit, Madrid, Spain
Jun 9 Epic Web3, Lisbon, Portugal (20% discount using VNTRCAPITAL)
June 10-11 Web3 Berlin, Germany
Jun 12-13 SIGEF2023, Women Summit, Malta
Jun 13-14 Bloomberg New Economy Forum, Morocco
Jun 14-17 Viva Technology, Paris (30% discount using FP3UHDUJ4)
Jun 15-18 Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Jun 19-23 Cannes Lions, Cannes, France
Jun 22 Global Innovation Ventures Summit, Mountain View, CA, USA
Jun 25-26 Silicon Valley Comes to Tel-Aviv
Jun 26-29 Collision, Toronto, Canada
Jun 28-30 Blockchance, Hamburg, Germany (20% discount using BC23_VNCR)
July 6-7 Block3000, Lisbon, Portugal (reach out for complimentary investor pass)
July 10-12 Block Down Portugal 2023, Algarve, Portugal (50% discount using VNTR50)
July 25-26 WebX, Tokyo, Japan
July 26 Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit, Singapore (with VNTR Members access)
Sep 13-14 Token2049 Asia, Singapore
Sep 19-21 TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
Sep 20-21 DMEXCO, Cologne, Germany
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
Nov 13-16 Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal
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
Filings reveal PE and VC returns amid escalating write-downs
Some high-profile venture capital and private equity firms are slashing the valuation of their holdings, causing billions in apparent profits to evaporate as the economic downturn undermines the sustained growth of the last 13 years.
The California Pension System, the largest pension system in the U.S. whose investments are sprinkled across the globe, injected $368.8 million into Silver Lake Partners’ 2015 V fund. In the quarter ending September 2021, the value on that return stood at $668.3 million. However, by the same quarter in 2022, this figure was reduced by $100 million, according to documents released by the pension firm in response to a request for public records made by TechCrunch.
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: CoreWeave Goes Big Again, Strive Nabs $166M For Kidney Health
Two AI startups take two of the top three spots again this week. OK, they are more AI-adjacent companies, but being related to what is the hottest space among startups likely helped both companies see nine-figure raises. In general, it was a smaller week than the previous few, but there was a holiday thrown in, so that may be a part of it.
Downturns Recover In Years. Popped Bubbles Take Decades
When we look at recent declines in tech valuations, it’s tempting to turn to prior down markets for guidance on how a recovery might play out. Over the past 25 years, two historic downturns stand out as possible comps. One is the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The other is the dot-com bubble, which popped in 2000 and 2001. For tech investors wishing the current cycle would reverse, a repeat of the financial crisis doesn’t sound too bad. Tech stocks bottomed in early 2009, and by 2011, the tech-focused Nasdaq 100 index was back at its highest point in five years. After that, tech valuations went mostly straight up for the next 10 years. A replay of the dot-com bubble, on the other hand, looks more worrisome. After peaking in March 2000, it took the Nasdaq 15 years to get back to that level. Even the most enduring brands were slow to recover. Qualcomm stock took 20 years to get back to where it was in early 2000. It took Microsoft roughly 15 years. Cisco Systems has never retraced its bubble-era highs.
AI Helps VC Firms Cut Costs and Improve Funding Process Efficiency
From healthcare to finance and spend management, artificial intelligence (AI) continues to disrupt industries, enabling firms to cut costs, increase efficiency and unlock new growth opportunities. And it’s no different in the venture space, says Mattias Ljungman, founder at U.K.-based Moonfire Ventures. In fact, beyond the AI-related investment opportunities catching VCs’ eye, Ljungman told PYMNTS that the technology has been a “source of significant technical disruption” across the entire venture capital (VC) value chain, enabling firms to automate and improve funding decision-making by merging AI and machine learning efficiency with human insight. “It makes us a bit more effective at identifying good opportunities,” Mike Arpaia, a partner at the firm, added. “It’s also just a fun and an interesting way to participate in an emerging technology which is going to be very transformative.” To that end, Moonfire, which recently raised $115 million to support AI-centric early-stage European startups, can filter through between 50,000 and 60,000 funding applications per week, narrowing it down to about 100 opportunities that fit its general investment thesis.
Co-Founder Equity Split
If you’re starting a games company with a few friends, this is the best time to read through this article and then to take a look at our equity split calculator.
When a company gets started, the co-founders will split the 100% of shares between themselves. There are two types of co-founder equity splits. The “fair split,” which is either 50/50, or every founder gets 33, or 25, etc.
An optional approach is that you have the unequal division of shares. But the unequal doesn’t need to mean that it’s “unequal” per se.
Memecoins the next catalyst for crypto adoption
Gherghelas believes we are in a memecoin era. From her perspective, when you mention Web3 or cryptocurrencies in 2023, many people will associate the terms with memecoins. Gherghelas says there have been multiple memecoin cycles in the cryptocurrency space, but this time is different because the trend has been sustained for a more extended period. The blockchain analyst associates the trend with the popularity of memecoins on social media and the creation of tight-knit communities that people want to be a part of. What’s more, the price action of memecoins in this cycle has attracted a large crowd of traders looking to make returns, according to Gherghelas. She also adds that memecoins are more accessible and inclusive due to their low barrier of entry.
JPMorgan is developing a ChatGPT-like A.I. service that gives investment advice
JPMorgan Chase is developing a ChatGPT-like software service that leans on a disruptive form of artificial intelligence to select investments for customers, CNBC has learned.
The company applied to trademark a product called IndexGPT this month, according to a filing from the New York-based bank.
The 10 fastest growing startups in the UK
Across a chaotic 2022, scores of UK tech companies laid off staff as they scrambled to balance the books — the challenges have continued into 2023, with funding into UK startups on a downward trajectory after Q1. But a number of UK startups are weathering the storm and still have their sights set on scaling. Sifted has tracked down the 10 fastest-growing tech companies in the UK over the past 12 months. Climate tech companies — one of the few sectors in European tech to raise more in 2022 than 2021 — dominate the list. Two fintechs also made the cut alongside a healthtech. Using data from Dealroom, Sifted measured headcount growth rate over the past year. All the companies featured were founded after 2005 and, to avoid the results being skewed by small businesses making lots of hires, startups needed to have raised $50m or more to be considered.
What’s Your Outlook For The Second Half Of 2023?
We’re approaching the halfway point of 2023, and few predictions from the beginning of the year have fully panned out. The global economy thankfully hasn’t slipped into a recession
But it hasn’t exactly rebounded either. Tech layoffs continue to pile up, even as the rest of the labor market remains hot. The IPO pipeline remains frozen solid despite a long list of well-funded startups that would dearly like to graduate to the public markets. Venture funding is scarce. There have been some big, unexpected twists and turns. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in spectacular fashion in the span of a few days, marking the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history and the first since the financial crisis. And artificial intelligence has moved forward in incredible leaps and bounds. Of the 20 largest venture funding rounds to U.S. startups so far this year, six have gone to companies in the AI space, including the biggest of them all: Microsoft-backed OpenAI. This week, the AI boom minted Nvidia as the world’s first trillion-dollar chipmaker.
Europe's PE-backed companies brave bankruptcy storm
Despite fears of a global spike in bankruptcies, given rising interest rates and a generally more hostile economic environment, private equity portfolio companies in Europe seem to be managing the challenging climate well. So far this year, 27 European PE-backed companies have filed for bankruptcy protection, according to PitchBook data. At the current pace, the total number of PE-backed bankruptcies is likely to fall well short of the levels seen during the pandemic. The largest bankruptcy this year was Altera, a UK-based supplier of infrastructure to the offshore energy sector. The company emerged from a Chapter 11 process in the US, having restructured its debt obligations with the assistance of its backers, including Brookfield Business Partners. But it's the B2C sector that has been the most troubled this year, accounting for nearly 60% of bankruptcies. One prime example of the types of companies facing difficulties is stationery retailer Paperchase. Once owned by Aspen Phoenix, the company was bought by a consortium in August but entered into administration at the start of this year. Tesco bought the intellectual property but not the shops.
Europe kicks off new support measures to help (future) deep tech innovators scale up their businesses
The European Commission kicked into gear a fresh initiative on Thursday to help 100 unicorns scale up to become Europe's deep tech champions and help achieve the EU's digital and green objectives.
In a speech delivered to an audience of deep tech entrepreneurs and investors in Stockholm, EVP Margrethe Vestager started by highlighting the progress (to be) made with 'The New European Innovation Agenda'.
Silicon Valley Venture Capital Survey – First Quarter 2023
Fenwick survey analyzed the terms of 177 venture financings closed in the first quarter of 2023 by companies headquartered in Silicon Valley.
A House Bill Would Make It Harder for the SEC to Argue Crypto Tokens Are Securities
A new bill introduced in the House would clarify that a digital asset that is sold as part of an "investment contract" does not necessarily become a security. If passed, the Securities Clarity Act would help settle one of the most debated legal questions in the crypto space and make it more difficult for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to argue that many existing tokens are unregistered securities. In 2018, Bill Hinman, then director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, the agency’s unit that handles securities registration and disclosure, gave his now-infamous speech on how the securities laws apply to digital assets. He suggested that if the network on which a particular token functions was “sufficiently decentralized” to the point where “purchasers would no longer reasonably expect a person or group to carry out essential managerial or entrepreneurial efforts,” then the “digital asset transaction may no longer represent a security offering.”
Rocket Internet backs away from start-up investing in tech downturn
Oliver Samwer, one of Europe’s leading tech investors, once told entrepreneurs to adopt “blitzkrieg” tactics to rapidly win market share: “I am the most aggressive guy on internet on the planet,” he wrote in an email to colleagues more than a decade ago. “I will die to win and I expect the same from you!”
His Berlin-based firm Rocket Internet went on to back groups like meal-kit maker HelloFresh and online retailer Zalando that later held initial public offerings at multibillion valuations.
Over recent years, however, Samwer’s firm has quietly left its roots as an early investor in the continent’s hottest start-ups. Instead, Rocket has morphed into something more diverse but, potentially, more lucrative: a complex investment house that manages various types of capital, from debt to public stocks.
AI Investing Boom Is Not New To Tech Giants (At Least Not Their VC Arms)
Last week, tech titans including Nvidia and Microsoft made some big AI announcements.
Nvidia’s shares jumped on guidance for second-quarter revenue that would be more than 50% above estimates, while Microsoft announced several AI-related tidbits at its Microsoft Build conference. In addition, Google and Salesforce’s venture arm — Salesforce Ventures — took part in the largest round of the week, Anthropic’s $450 million Series C. However, while AI’s dominance of the new cycle may seem recent, for tech’s biggest software developers, chipmakers and hyperscalers, artificial intelligence has had their attention — and money — for years, according to Crunchbase data. Those tech giants have been placing a few AI bets for some time — although those bets have become significantly more expensive in recent years — while their venture arms have planted cash across dozens of startups through that time. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest players and how much they’re pouring into AI startups.
How to Manage Risk When Trading Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are often considered to be volatile and trading them can sometimes be risky. The crypto market has also been known to experience price swings, and like every other investment, there is the chance your investment may sink in value, irrespective of how sure-shot things may seem. That said, risk management is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of investing in cryptocurrencies. Here are some ways to manage crypto risk. As with any investment, you should never invest more than you can afford to lose. This rule applies to all markets and even more so to cryptocurrencies, which can experience double-digit losses in a span of hours. There’s no doubt that cryptocurrencies have turned several early investors into millionaires. But at the other end of the spectrum, they have left a number of novice investors in financial peril. Apart from the fact that these assets can quickly lose their value in response to ever-changing government policies, crypto trading platforms can fall victim to a hack or shutdown operations.
French oil giant TotalEnergies sells entire climate tech portfolio
French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies has closed its CVC arm, TotalEnergies Ventures, and sold its portfolio of climate tech startups to Paris-based VC firm Aster. Founded in 2008, TotalEnergies Ventures invested in climate tech companies in Europe, Africa and the US. The CVC decided to stop activities around the start of last year, Aster managing partner Jean-Marc Bally tells Sifted, and then underwent a bidding process to sell off its portfolio as secondaries. The move goes against the trend of rising appetite from oil and gas companies in backing climate tech startups. Data from Dealroom suggests that the six largest fossil fuel companies in the world, which includes TotalEnergies, participated in venture deals worth a record $1.3bn in 2022 — up from $746m five years prior. Aster, a VC firm which has invested in around 100 companies since it launched in 2000, will take on TotalEnergies’ entire portfolio of 18 companies, Bally said. Aster’s existing portfolio includes solar power provider Zola and US SaaS unicorn Docker. TotalEnergies Ventures portfolio includes companies like smart meter company Tado, hydrogen startup Sunfire and EV subscription service Onto. It launched a $400m fund in 2019, designed to be deployed across five years.
Should you consider venture assets as an alternative investment?
2022 was a turbulent year for financial markets, with stocks and bonds shedding more than $30 trillion in value after accounting for inflation as tighter monetary policy and geopolitical tensions spooked investors. As a result, investors are seeking alternative types of investment to generate returns and diversify their portfolios beyond traditional stocks and bonds. An asset class that is increasingly popular is venture capital. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund asked for a rule change at the start of 2023 to allow it to invest in unlisted equities to boost long-term returns. This follows on the heels of Icelandic authorities which agreed in May 2020 to allow pension funds to own up to 1% of their assets in venture capital funds. And since January 2022, Swiss pensions funds have also been able to invest up to 5% of their assets in venture capital. What are venture assets and how do they compare to traditional asset classes? Despite the changing regulatory landscape, venture capital remains a mystery for a number of investors. Venture capital (VC) is a type of private equity financing that is typically provided to early-stage, high-potential, and high-risk companies with the potential for significant growth. Investing in venture capital funds is a common way to invest in venture assets as it provides exposure to a portfolio of startups, thereby reducing risk compared to investing in a single startup. However, this typically comes at a higher cost in terms of fees.
Hourly Workers Are In High Demand, As Are Some Startups Catering To Them
Few people get rich working short-term and hourly wage jobs. However, it is how most of us make a living. In the U.S. for instance, over 76 million workers were paid at hourly rates last year, representing over 55% of all wage and salary recipients. Millions more earn freelance and gig work income calculated using other methods. Given that so many of us are working hourly and gig-based jobs, it’s not surprising to see startups scaling up to address the market. Globally, such companies have raised billions in venture and growth funding over the past couple of years, per an analysis of Crunchbase data. And investment continues to flow to the space. Just last week, for example, Instawork, a platform for connecting businesses with skilled hourly workers, raised $60 million in a Series D funding led by TCV. The San Francisco-based company counts major retailers, sports stadiums and light industrial employers among its users.
5 charts: Signs of recovery for French VC are Q1 bright spot in Europe
Unlike many European peers, French venture capital had a favorable first quarter, with dealmaking showing signs of recovery. Five key charts from our 2023 France Private Capital Breakdown showcase the major trends that impacted the country's venture market. Deal count was stong, with an estimated 453 rounds closing, the highest quarterly number in more than a decade. At €2.5 billion (about $2.69 billion), deal value remained lower than previous peaks, yet it marked the first quarter-over-quarter increase since the beginning of 2022: 38.9%. Late-stage deals accounted for the largest share of deal value in France at roughly 60%. The biggest round of the year so far was crypto startup Ledger's €460.8 million Series C in March. The early stages lost some of their share of deal value—20% in Q1 compared to 50% in Q4 2022. Still, half of France's largest Q1 deals belonged to this segment, including healthtech startup Companion Spine's €56.4 million Series A.
These 3 Charts Show It’s Not Easy Being A Seed Startup These Days
U.S. seed startups have been the least affected by the venture funding downturn. But these companies are competing in a more crowded field than ever for investor attention and will likely have to wait longer to raise their Series A rounds — if they’re able to at all — an analysis of Crunchbase data shows.To paint a clearer picture of the state of the U.S. seed market, let’s break it down into three charts. Quarterly seed funding peaked in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2022, Crunchbase data shows. It took the better part of that year for the slowdown to reach seed. By the third quarter of 2022, seed amounts were flat year over year — still high since seed was up in 2021 — and then slowed in the fourth quarter from 2021 heights, and dipped further in Q1 2023. Despite the slow quarter-over-quarter downward roll since the Q1 2022 peak, seed funding is still above 2020 amounts and has weathered the downturn better than all other stages.
Qatar slammed for not taking enough action against crypto companies
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has slammed Qatar Central Bank (QCB) for making little effort to enforce its own regulations prohibiting virtual asset service providers. In a report published on May 31, the global money-laundering and terrorist financing watchdog highlighted that Qatar needs to advance its capabilities to effectively combat evolving forms of criminal activity, including sanctioning virtual asset service providers. “It needs to improve understanding of more complex forms of money laundering and terrorist financing,” it stated. The regulatory authority warned at the time that penalties would be imposed in accordance with the QFCRA’s rights and obligations to any firm that provides or facilitates the provision or exchange of crypto assets. According to FATF’s recent report, while Qatar has made “positive and sustained progress” in gathering beneficial ownership information for its near-complete unified register — a consolidation of data on its citizens — there is still more work to be done.
Many startups are built off research, so why don’t more scientists become founders?
Many founders start their companies because they’re looking to build a career around finding a solution to a problem or pain point. Scientists are no different, and yet, you don’t see as many scientists becoming founders as you would engineers or operators. It’s common to see biotech firms started by scientists and researchers, but many other fields have companies that utilize and base their work on research done by scientists who are unlikely to become entrepreneurs. So why is it so common to see outsiders bringing research out of the lab and not the scientists themselves? Sure, some scientists would rather focus all of their time on research, but bringing the fruits of that work into the real world is generally the only way to apply them to the problems all that labor was meant to solve in the first place. It’s a complex knot to unravel. First off, there is the stigma in the startup ecosystem that scientists generally don’t make for good founders. This opinion seems to largely exist because they often hail from academia, which can be a pretty isolated field with very different structures and nuances than startups or most businesses. That gives rise to the notion that they wouldn’t have the skills needed for the job.
Proficorn is the buzzword as investors up the ante in India’s startup world
There was a unicorn born every week back in 2021 and the Indian start-up ecosystem was thriving over a funding spree. Fast forward 2023, the scenario has changed drastically. The ecosystem is currently fragile with rampant layoffs as VCs tighten their purse strings in the backdrop of a funding winter. Startup founders have been under tremendous pressure from investors to chart out a path to profitability with no options left. India, touted to be the third largest startup ecosystem in the world behind the US and China, struggles on the profitability front. According to a Tracxn report, only 17 unicorns in India are profitable out of 80 whose data is publicly available. However, India has more than 100 unicorns. "If you look at the profitability curve of any company, it's a J-shaped curve. That's generally the nature of any tech business and a tech company being unprofitable is not wrong because for months or years initially it is going to be inherently unprofitable till it crosses the hump," Gupshup's founder and CEO Beerud Sheth said.
Does size matter? Why correctly sizing your target market is crucial for raising venture capital
Startups had a great 2021. Venture capitalists were writing checks at a rate that had rarely been seen. The result: $634 billion raised by 37,669 startups.
After this high, 2022 appeared to bring some sort of reckoning. Many startups that might have easily closed rounds in the previous year struggled to generate investor interest. Term sheets were repeatedly pulled, and simply slapping blockchain, fintech, or Web3 raised more eyebrows than interest.
That has continued into 2023, and a look at the home page of startup-focused publications shows the irregularity of funding announcements.
Despite the reluctance of many venture capitalists to open their wallets, startups still need capital to fund their operations.
GITEX Africa 2023 Looks to Unlock Morocco’s Tech Potential
GITEX‘s inaugural event in Africa made its debut in Marrakech, Morocco on 31 May to 2 June. Tens of thousands of attendees from across the continent and beyond attended to visit over 900 exhibiting companies, over 250 conference speakers and 30 government delegates from African countries. At the event, we found out how Morocco is taking advantage of becoming a hub for African progress.
Why diversity, data and compliance are more critical than ever for venture capitalists
Contrary to common belief, 2008’s global financial crisis (GFC) did not significantly change the venture industry like it changed the rest of the financial services. Most funds that continued to invest through the GFC did so in already commercially profitable companies. Since then, investor risk appetite to venture has only grown, but now the industry faces a second crisis wave — that of valuations, an urgent need to fix the lack of transparency, and the need for a truly systemic approach.
The next generation of investors has different priorities and requirements than their predecessors and is set to change the venture landscape, just as their retail counterparts did to stock exchanges at the end of the 20th century.