VNTR Capital News March 31, 2024 – News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – March 31 News, Events, and VC Reads
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
VNTR Capital Newsletter is delivered to 80k+ investors weekly to share the latest news, events, and articles from the global VC and startup ecosystem.
Scroll down for VNTR Capital Community News, Upcoming Events, and VC News/Reads.
VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Spotlight
Q1 — We hosted 30 offline events, including investor roundtables/LP roundtables/breakfasts, plus 28 online VNTR PRO masterminds/expert sessions/workshops/LP roundtables/speed networking events. We enabled 1000s of new connections between investment decision-makers in just 3 months. We grew our team to 12 core team members and onboarded 30+ chapter directors/venture partners and ambassadors. Join us as a Chapter Director in your region and grow the VNTR Investors Community locally.
VNTR Supercars Road Trip Dubai — We are 19 days away from the VNTR Rally in Dubai in partnership with Perfect (use "VNTR" to activate your membership). Join us on April 19-21 in Dubai for a road trip with VNTR PRO members. We will travel together from Dubai to RAK to Fujairah, enjoy interactive bonding activities, and create strong relationships with VNTR members. Apply to join (limited number of spots available). Learn about VNTR PRO membership.
VNTR Academy — Join us at our next VNTR Expert Session on April 2 with VNTR PRO Member Niko Leon, who will show us how to use custom chatbots to automate your investment process. Apply on VNTR
VNTR GP Membership — We are pleased to invite 3 additional seasoned GPs raising their new VC funds to join the VNTR GP membership program. We will accept only 3 GPs in April and begin scaling the service delivery. To secure your fund's spot in VNTR GP membership program or to learn more about the benefits and offerings, please contact Julie, Head of GP Membership. Active Limited Partners can join the VNTR platform, and access curated VC funds.
VNTR Summit — We plan to host our global community VNTR Summit in Lisbon on November 13. Reach out to Lukas if you would like to join as a sponsor or Corporate Member.
VNTR Syndicate — We announced a new secondary deal available to VNTR members who can join the growth stage companies and top VC funds with small checks from $10k. Join the VNTR syndicate via the VNTR Platform.
Coming 2 weeks:
VNTR PRO Masterminds — April 3 VNTR PRO AI Mastermind will gather VNTR PRO members to discuss AI trends and share knowledge with peers.
VNTR PRO Roundtable — April 4 VNTR PRO Members Roundtable will connect with global peers to learn about each others interests and start collaborating.
New York — April 5 VNTR Investors Roundtable New York will gather investors visiting NFT NYC in partnership with When Worlds Collide
Paris — April 10 VNTR Investors Roundtable Paris, an official side event to Paris Blockchain Week (get 15% off using VNTR15) in partnership with Stellar Foundation.
VNTR Academy — April 11 VNTR PRO Expert Session with VNTR PRO member Gillian Muessig: "Moneyball: The Evolution of Venture Capital"
Munich — April 12 VNTR Investors Breakfast Munich will gather our Munich chapter members.
Thank you to our Partners:
Stellar is a decentralized, fast, scalable, and uniquely sustainable network for financial products and services. It is both a cross-currency transaction system and a platform for digital asset issuance, designed to connect the world’s financial infrastructure. Financial institutions worldwide issue assets and settle payments on the Stellar network, which has grown to over 7 million accounts. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source network that connects the world’s financial infrastructure.
Perfect is a Personal Lifestyle app that helps you Book your flights, hotels, and supercars for the VNTR Rally. Empower your routine with integrated GPT technology for seamless access to luxury services and an effortless lifestyle. Enjoy personalized assistance with tasks, errands, and reservations, freeing time for what truly matters. Join Perfect using "VNTR" code to get special discounts and VNTR experiences. Use Perfect via iOS, Android, WhatsApp or Telegram.
Upcoming VNTR Events:
April 17 VNTR Investors Roundtable Rio De Janeiro (Web Summit Rio)
April 18 VNTR Family Office Workshop Dubai
April 18 VNTR Investors Roundtable Riga (TechChill)
April 19 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai (Token2049 Dubai)
April 19-21 VNTR Supercars Rally Dubai (Token2049 Dubai)
April 19 VNTR Investors Roundtable Miami (eMerge Americas)
April 22 VNTR Investors Roundtable Silicon Valley (Startup Grind Conference)
April 24 VNTR Investors Roundtable Bangkok (Money 20/20 Asia)
April 28 VNTR Investors Roundtable Bali (Uncoference Bali)
May 7 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai (Dubai FinTech Summit)
May 16 VNTR Investors Roundtable Jakarta (World Finance Forum)
May 21 VNTR Investors Roundtable Auckland (New Zealand Techweek)
May 23 VNTR Investors Roundtable Paris (Viva Technology Paris)
More events available on the VNTR Platform
Reach out to Lukas to sponsor VNTR events our join VNTR Corporate Membership.
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.
UPCOMING VC EVENTS
April 3-5 NY NFT, New York, USA
April 6-9 Web3 Festival, Hong Kong
April 8-12 Paris Blockchain Week, Paris, France (15% Discount using VNTR15)
April 10 Empire Fintech Conference, NY, USA
April 15-16 Blockchain Life, Dubai, UAE (10% Discount using VNTR)
April 15-18 Web Summit Rio, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
April 16-17 Global Blockchain Show, Dubai, UAE
April 16-18 0100 Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands
April 17-19 TechChill, Riga, Latvia (20% Discount using VNTRxTechChill24)
April 18-19 Token2049, Dubai, UAE (10% Discount using VNTR10)
April 18-19 EmergeAmericas, Miami, USA
April 19-21 VNTR Supercars Rally Dubai
April 23-25 Money 20/20 Asia, Bangkok, Thailand
April 23-24 Startup Grind Conference, Redwood City, USA (20% Discount using VNTR)
April 27-28 Unconference Bali, Indonesia
April 29-30 AIM Summit, London, UK
May 6-7 Dubai FinTech Summit, Dubai, UAE
May 7-9 FinTech Americas, Miami, USA
May 9-10 EU Startups Summit, Malta
May 13-15 Podim 2024, Maribor, Slovenia
May 15-16 Next Block Expo
May 15-16 Echelon by E27, Singapore
May 15-16 SusHi Tech Tokyo, Japan
May 20-21 SALT iConnections New York, USA
May 20-26 New Zealand Tech Week, Auckland, NZ
May 22-25 Viva Technology, Paris, France
May 27-31 CC Forum, Paris, France
May 29-31 Consensus, Austin, UAE
May 29 -31 Gitex Africa, Morocco (Free for VNTR investors)
June 5-7 South Summit, Madrid, Spain
June 5-11 WEB3FEST, Zurich/Zug, Switzerland
June 17-20 Collision Conf, Toronto, Canada
June 22-23 DeGameFi, Tbilisi, Georgia
July 10-11 World Business Forum, Singapore
If you would like to submit VC-related events, please respond to this email or Telegram @byuric
Check out VNTR Capital upcoming events
VC Reads and News
View curated VC news and articles on the VNTR Platform
The 10 most active CVC investors in European startups
Corporate venture capital investors started 2024 European dealmaking off slowly, extending from two consecutive years of declines. With Q1 nearly over, the total deal count with CVC participation appears likely to hit its lowest point since the pandemic at 385 transactions as of Thursday, about 100 deals short of Q2 2020. According to PitchBook data, CVCs featured in 2,153 rounds last year worth €27.8 billion (about $30.03 billion), declines of about 26% and 43%, respectively, from 2022. Over the past two years, CVCs have pulled back on dealmaking as economic uncertainty fueled by rising inflation and geopolitical instability increased pressure on their parent companies’ balance sheets.
New study of unicorn founders finds most are ‘underdogs,’ and female founders are rising
A new study that zeros-in on the founders of so-called “unicorns” — companies worth over a billion dollars — has found most have “underdog” founders who are often drawn from the top 10 universities. There’s also a rising female founder make-up, and no obvious monopoly at seed stage of funding for VCs.
The study (“Unicorn Founder DNA Report”) by Defiance Capital of 845 unicorns and 2,018 unicorn founders set out to look at the “DNA” of unicorn founders, concentrating on the U.S. and U.K. (no EU/European) from 2013 to 2023, to define the common traits of these kinds of founders.
Secondary Market Seeing Rebound After Slowdown
Payments giant Stripe turned a few heads late last month when it announced it had a secondary deal with investors to buy current and former employees shares through a tender offer that valued the company at $65 billion. The valuation was a 30% uptick from its previous funding round and seemed to show the robustness of a secondary market that had its own stumbles as venture capital fundraising tumbled last year. “It is picking up,” said Kevin Swan, head of private markets solutions for Morgan Stanley. “There’s an increase in activity after a lull as the spread on valuations have improved.”
Blackstone’s big bet on burgeoning India
India’s private markets have had a remarkable trajectory of late, and Blackstone’s plan to pump an extra $25 billion into the market over the next five years underscores that investor appetite. In an interview with Bloomberg, the firm’s Asia private equity head Amit Dixit also said it plans to add 20 investment professionals to its growing Mumbai office. Blackstone has a long history of investing in India, having set up an office in the country in 2005. Jonathan Gray, the firm’s president and chief operations officer, said early last year that the country is its biggest market in Asia, and one of its best-performing overall.
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Celestial AI Tops List Of Large Raises
This March certainly did not go out like a lamb, with seven rounds hitting $100 million or more in the final week. While there were no huge rounds like last week, money was again spread around from AI to biotech to marketing and more. Let’s see if April can continue the trend of a growing amount of large raises.
How to Automate Startup Screening?
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” also holds true for VC success. Although we have been observing a shift from a pure financial return perspective to a more holistic ESG-centered one, the majority of GPs still operate with return on investment (ROI) top of their minds.
On a portfolio level, early-stage VC returns are distributed based on a Power-law, whereas later-stage and private equity (PE) returns follow a normal distribution. In line with the most well-known Power-law distribution, the Pareto Principle (or “80-20-rule”), early-stage VC returns are driven by a high alpha coefficient that leads to oftentimes only 10% or less of the portfolio delivering 90%+ of the returns.
Should You Invest In AI Startups In 2024? Sure, But Here’s A Piece Of Advice
Last year, AI-related startups raised nearly $50 billion. But if we look at who received that money, we’ll see that a significant portion of this sum went to investments in technology giants. For example, Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI, funding that accounts for a fifth of the total investment in the sector. We are witnessing a serious battle among technology giants for a leading position in the AI market. The simple times related to AI are gone. More areas have become the domain of these market leaders. Today, if a company solely focuses on making an AI interface, it stands no chance for a normal multiplier.
Infrastructure debt embraces fundraising boom
Private credit lenders raising infrastructure debt funds had a stellar year for fundraising in 2023, underscoring the asset class’s growing popularity. Last year, infrastructure debt funds that concluded fundraising collected $19.5 billion, the largest annual sum on record, according to PitchBook’s 2023 Annual Global Private Debt Report.
Which European startups have hit unicorn status in 2024?
Last year was a very quiet year for new unicorns in Europe — but things are looking a little brighter in 2024.
Just seven startups hit the golden $1bn valuation last year — the lowest figure since 2017 and a huge drop from the 47 the year before, according to Sifted data.
As we approach the end of the first quarter of 2024, four European startups have become unicorns. And more could be on the way.
The femtech sector is at an inflection point, but there are complicated dynamics at play that startups operating in the space need to contend with. There are two major challenges that block — but also inspire the potential for — big outcomes in the femtech startup space, which encompasses startups working on various aspects of women’s health and wellness. First, data is more limited for femtech startups than companies in most other industries. Ari Wright, a principal investor at Bison VenturesAri Wright, a principal investor at Bison Ventures Female biology is more complex to study given its cyclical nature and its precious creative potential.
Check up on the 10 most active VCs in digital health
The digital health vertical—a darling during the pandemic—is settling into a new normal. Despite deal value ticking upward in Q4 2023 to $1.1 billion, the overall picture is murky: Startups raised only $4.6 billion in 2023, a marked decrease from 2021’s total of $17.7 billion generated from 595 deals. Investors are still bullish on select companies. Teletherapy startup Headway raised a $125 million Series C in October from high-profile investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital and Accel. Forward, a telehealth startup, raised a $100 million growth round in November from Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund and SoftBank.
FTX Founder Bankman-Fried Sentenced To 25 Years For Fraud, Conspiracy
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday on seven criminal charges — two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy — related to the collapse of his crypto exchange and related hedge fund. The sentence was significantly less than the 110-year maximum he faced and the 40 to 50 years prosecutors were seeking. Nevertheless, it is substantially more than the handful of years Bankman-Fried’s attorneys were seeking.
Stablecoin delistings in Europe spell change for crypto exchanges, issuers
When the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange delists its leading stablecoin for an entire continent, it raises eyebrows. But this may just be a harbinger of things to come. Expect more disruptions as Europe’s path-breaking Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) regulatory regime takes effect at the end of June. Off-shore stablecoins, in particular, may face challenges. But in the long run, MiCA should provide a safer, stronger eco-system for stablecoin issuers and users, sources told Cointelegraph recently.
How To Leverage An Advisory Board To Accelerate Business Growth
Advisory boards can be a decisive competitive advantage for a company, but too often they fail to deliver on their potential. The typical life cycle of many advisory boards follows a familiar pattern: Initial excitement surrounding the creation of the board. Initial meetings discussing potential ways to help the company. Scheduling issues leading to a loss of momentum and interest. Disillusionment from senior management regarding the board’s value.
The Data-Driven Investor Of Today And Tomorrow
The term "data-driven investor" might sound pedestrian—it’s hard to point to an industry that hasn’t become more data-driven over the past two decades. But in recent years, the private capital industry’s adoption of data-driven insights represents a very real and material shift in how firms are now operating.
As a proxy, one can look at the hedge fund industry for a historic example of this strategic shift. Up until the 1980s, hedge funds were mostly run by Wall Street veterans who used their intuition and connections to make investment decisions. But as more data became available, a new breed of funds emerged that combined quantitative models with human judgment to drive better decisions and reduce cognitive biases. Venture capital and private equity are at a similar inflection point right now.
The Benefits of Assets Tokenization
At a time when the prices of many cryptocurrencies are rallying strongly, one big, recent development is underappreciated. Tokenization of “real world assets” has also been surging. To understand what this development means and the potential benefits of tokenizing these assets, we need to reframe how we view the digital assets ecosystem.
Accel rethinks early-stage startup investing in India
By any benchmark, Accel is among the top venture firms in India. With nearly two dozen Indian unicorn startups, including several category leaders, Accel’s track record speaks for itself. Yet the partners leading the firm’s early-stage accelerator program, called Atoms, are uncharacteristically introspective about their learnings and the changes they have been implementing to improve the odds of success. “One fundamental belief we have is that at some point in time, all VC firms look the same to a founder. It’s just money,” said Prayank Swaroop, a partner at Accel, in an interview.
How to Use ChatGPT to Learn Data Driven Investing?
Data-driven investing is a strategy that relies on statistical analysis, algorithms, and various data sources to make investment decisions.
With the rise of artificial intelligence, particularly language models like ChatGPT, investors now have access to a powerful tool that can assist them in navigating the complexities of data-driven investing.
Truth Social Inspires A Trip Down SPAC Memory Lane As shares of former President Donald
Trump’s Trump Media climbed to lofty heights this week following its completed merger with a shell company, the market’s enthusiasm triggered a sense of deja vu. For market watchers, however, the deal was not reminiscent of Trump’s presidential term so much as the year it ended. That was 2021, the peak of the SPAC boom — a time when scores of deeply unprofitable companies with scant or nonexistent revenue briefly garnered market caps in the multiple billions.
How A Product Video Can Increase Your Chances Of Raising Pre-Seed Investment
Midjourney is a self-funded company with 11 full-time employees. Mailchimp started as a side project — originally meant to be a support tool for the web design services the founders were offering clients. Startups like these have inspired us, showing that it’s possible to start building revenue at an early stage. This eliminates the need to immediately jump into fundraising your pre-seed round, which by itself has become more challenging. A few years ago, a simple prototype would have sufficed to raise money. Now, it is key to provide tangible evidence of a successful application of the product, and a clear path forward.
These Are Lean Times For Fitness Startups — And Not In a Good Way
There are few drawbacks to getting fit. Investing in fitness companies, however, comes with plenty of downside risks. Over the past four years, as the pandemic boom in home workouts slowly gave way to a return to the gym, investors in fitness companies can attest. Valuations for both public and private companies have declined, investment is down, and fitness-related consumer spending remains tough to forecast. Changing circumstances are reflected in startup funding. In 2023, global seed through growth-stage funding reported in the Crunchbase fitness category hit the lowest point in years.
Is This the End of Bitcoin's 4-Year Bull/Bear Market Cycle?
With Bitcoin's halving event just around the corner, it certainly seems like we're on the cusp of something big. While everyone's eyes are glued to the skyrocketing bitcoin (BTC) price and the possibility of record-breaking highs, the ripple effects are far-reaching. They will touch every corner of the crypto market, and could even signal an end to crypto’s four-year bull/bear cycle. Yet, it's not just about the numbers; it's about the potential for a seismic shift in how we perceive and interact with digital currency. Brace yourself — this could be the beginning of a whole new era for crypto.
Non-sexy industries can appeal to investors too
This week, we’re looking at some hot fintech startups in Africa, how Mint’s closure has been Copilot’s gain and why VCs have doubled down on a particular expense management startup. While venture funding in Africa (like everywhere else in the world) has dropped in recent times, this past week was a good one for the region’s fintech ecosystem.
If the emails I get these days are any indication, the VC world is enamoured with Munich. As we’ve recently reported, the southern German city has long been vying to become a startup capital, with Bavaria minister president Markus Söder recently branding it as the “California of Europe”. Hot startups like AI defence firm Helsing and HR tech unicorn Personio count Munich as their home base, while the city’s famous Technical University of Munich is churning out deeptech companies. And local industry giants — like Siemens and SAP — are deep-pocketed potential clients for them.