VNTR Capital News May 19, 2024 – News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – News, Events, and VC Reads
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
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VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Spotlight
VNTR Podcast: The first episode of the VNTR Podcast is live. Join us in exploring the World of Venture Capital with top VCs and capital allocators. Each episode will contain valuable insights and stories to help you learn and grow as an investor. A special thank you to Carl Szantyr, Founder at Blockstone Capital, who joined us as a first guest speaker on the podcast, and Niko Leon, who joined as a co-host and helped produce the podcast. Upcoming Guest Speakers:
Tim Draper, Founding Partner at Draper Associates
Lou Kerner, Founder of CryptoOracle Collective, CryptoMondays, Partner at Blockchain Coinvestors
VNTR Academy: This week, we hosted a VNTR Expert session with VNTR Club member Gillian Muessig, Managing Director at Masters Fund, Moneyball | The Evolution of Venture Capital. The recording is available at VNTR Academy. Join upcoming expert sessions:
VNTR Summit: The VNTR global community is rapidly expanding by hosting regional side events at major tech conferences, providing a secure environment for active investment decision-makers to connect. We are excited to announce the VNTR Summit, which will gather our global community in Lisbon on November 13 during the Web Summit. The VNTR Summit will feature keynotes, panel discussions, and roundtables, offering opportunities to share insights, learn, network, and collaborate with investors worldwide. Registration will open soon on the VNTR platform. Companies interested in connecting with investors can apply for sponsorship or reach out to Lukas.
Coming 2 weeks:
Paris: May 21 Female Founders & Investors Networking Dinner hosted by Thousand Faces
Cascais: May 22 VNTR Investors Padel and Networking hosted by Yuri.
Paris: May 23 VNTR Investors Roundtable during Viva Technology. Get a 30% discount on event passes for regular Startup, Attendee, and Investors VivaTech passes.
Tallinn: May 23 VNTR Investors Roundtable during Latitude59 co-hosted with Perfect (use VNTR to activate Perfect). Thank you, Admiral Markets, for hosting.
Cannes: May 23 Dunhill Nightcap Cannes - Hosted by Dunhill Family Office and Sentience. (Partner event)
San Francisco: May 23 TradFi and Crypto VC Dinner - Hosted by TDeFi and TDX (Partner event)
Barcelona: May 24 VNTR Investors Breakfast will gather Barcelona chapter members.
Auckland: May 24 VNTR Investors Roundtable during Techweek. Thank you, Gembot, for hosting.
Monaco: May 25 Sunset SuperYacht Soiree trackside @ F1 Monaco Grand Prix (Partner event)
Marrakesh: May 30 VNTR Investors Roundtable, an official part of the program at GITEX Africa hosted by Yuri.
Austin: May 30 VNTR Investors Roundtable during Consensus. Thank you, Stellar, for sponsoring.
Paris: May 30 VNTR Investors Roundtable, an official part of the program at CC Forum (20% Discount using CCFPVNTR20VIP, or free using CCFPVNTRSTANDARD)
Thank you to our Partners:
Whitebridge is an AI-powered digital identity research tool that finds, verifies, and analyzes publicly collected data about someone and structures it into an insightful report. P.S. Reports are not free, as they require considerable resources to generate. Use the VNTR30 coupon to get a 30% discount.
Stellar Entreprise Fund is a venture-style fund that expands the open-source Stellar Network. At the Stellar Development Fund, investment in companies can transform the future of everyday finantial services through Web3 Innovation. Stellar advocates for Blockchain Technology potential.
Perfect is a Personal Lifestyle app that helps you Book your flights and hotels and manage your 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.
Upcoming VNTR Events:
June 4 VNTR Investors Roundtable Vienna (ViennaUp)
June 5 VNTR Investors Roundtable Amsterdam (Money20/20 Europe)
June 7 VNTR Investors Roundtable Madrid (South Summit Madrid)
June 11 VNTR Investors Luncheon Barcelona (Chapter gathering)
June 16 VNTR Investors Roundtable Tbilisi (DeGameFi)
June 18 VNTR Investors Roundtable Toronto (Collision)
June 27 VNTR Investors Roundtable Clug (Techsylvania)
July 9 VNTR Investors Roundtable Brussels (ETHCC)
More events available on the VNTR Platform
Reach out to Lukas to sponsor VNTR events or join VNTR Corporate Membership.
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.
UPCOMING VC EVENTS
May 20-21 Crypto Expo, Dubai, UAE
May 20-21 SALT iConnections New York, USA
May 21-22 London Blockchain Conference, London, UK
May 20-26 New Zealand Tech Week, Auckland, NZ
May 22-25 Viva Technology, Paris, France (30% Discount using the link)
May 22-24 Beyond Summit, Newport Beach, USA
May 22-24 Latitude59, Tallinn, Estonia
May 22-24 NextTech Week, Tokyo, Japan
May 27-31 CC Forum, Paris, France (20% Discount using CCFPVNTR20VIP, or free using CCFPVNTRSTANDARD)
May 29-30 Dublin Tech Summit, Dublin, Ireland
May 29-31 Consensus, Austin, UAE
May 29 -31 Gitex Africa, Morocco (Complimentary for approved investors, 25% Discount using COMNSGA25)
June 3-9 NY Tech Week, New York, USA
June 3-9 ViennaUp, Vienna, Austria
June 4-6 Hamptons Tech Week, USA
June 5-6 Blockchain Expo, Santa Clara, USA
June 5-7 South Summit, Madrid, Spain
June 5-11 Swiss WEB3FEST, Zurich/Zug, Switzerland
June 10-14 London Tech Week, London, UK
June 15-16 DeGameFi, Tbilisi, Georgia
June 17-21 Cannes Lions, Cannes, France
June 17-20 Collision Conf, Toronto, Canada
June 26-27 FinTech Summit Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
June 26-28 Mobile World Congress, Shanghai, China
July 25-27 Bitcoin2024, Nashville, USA
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
Want to Live Longer? Change Your Mind About Aging
If we think life is over in old age, it will be.
There is no shortage of supposed methods for increasing lifespan. Typing in “longevity” into Amazon reveals over 40,000 books on the topic. Each author purports their own cure, typically involving a special diet, miracle supplement, or painful practice.
What’s usually left out is how much extra life one can expect to gain by following these often difficult, frequently expensive, and rarely scientifically-backed routines.
Most Used Startup Databases & How to Find the Best Provider
According to 50% of DDVCs, the biggest pain point in the process of becoming more data-driven is finding the right tools. To overcome this hurdle, we’ve been building and testing “VC Tool Finder” in closed beta and plan to publicly launch it soon.
The second biggest pain point in becoming more data-driven, as stated by 46% of respondents, is finding the right data sources. To tackle this headache, we published a comprehensive database benchmarking study in 2020 where we compared original startup data with its representation across the most prominent commercial databases including CBInsights, Crunchbase, Dealroom, and Pitchbook.
AI, Web3 And E-Commerce Led For New Unicorns In April 2024
Eleven companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in April 2024 — a big jump up from the six companies that joined in April 2023 but still a fraction of the 40 added to the board in April 2022.
The AI, Web3 and e-commerce sectors each added two companies to the board, Crunchbase data shows.
Of the 11 new unicorns created last month, six are U.S.-based, with one each from Germany, France, Brazil, Cayman Islands and Australia.
The largest round among the new unicorns was raised by Xaira Therapeutics, which announced an initial funding of $1 billion as it launched out of stealth.
Two of the new April unicorn companies were valued at a billion in their first year: Xaira Therapeutics and Cognition.
A reckoning is coming for emerging venture funds, and that, VCs say, is a good thing
Thousands of new venture capital funds have launched over the past few years, each hoping to carve out a long-term, lucrative place for themselves. PitchBook is tracking over 10,000 funds currently trying to raise money, and 45% of them are emerging fund managers, defined as a firm with less than three funds. Those funds are duking it out for a mere 16% of the total capital that limited partner investors will spend on venture capital, according to PitchBook, down from about 23% for the decade that ended in 2019, before the pandemic-era VC frenzy years. More funds fighting for fewer dollars means a challenging landscape. We took the pulse of emerging fund managers about what it’s been like for them during these post-ZERP, venture-capital-winter years. For the most part, things seem to be shaking out quite nicely for emerging managers despite the economic headwinds.
How Venture Capital (Ab)Uses Revenue Multiples
The deeper you get into venture capital, or equity investment generally, the more familiar you will become with the concept of “multiples” as a tool for quickly analyzing company value. However, there is a divergence of views about the role multiples play in venture capital investment decisions. A generational divide opened up over the past decade, with a younger cohort of investors using multiples more aggressively. So, what is the purpose of multiples, and how should investors apply them?
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Uniquity Bio And Vercel Lead Another Huge Week
It was again not a bad week for raising big. Two rounds to U.S.-based startups this week hit a quarter-of-a-billion dollars or more, and there were eight rounds of $100 million or more. Once again, biotech made up nearly a third of the list while some other sectors that don’t usually make the list — developer platform and analytics — were represented.
The SF Bay Area Has Become The Undisputed Leader In AI Tech And Funding Dollars
There’s been much talk of a resurgent San Francisco with the new technology wave of artificial intelligence washing over the software world. Indeed, Crunchbase funding data as well as interviews with startup investors and real estate industry professionals show the San Francisco Bay Area has become the undisputed epicenter of artificial intelligence. Last year, more than 50% of all global venture funding for AI-related startups went to companies headquartered in the Bay Area, Crunchbase data shows, as a cluster of talent congregates in the region.
Rising up: Q1 European VC valuations in 5 charts
Europe has seen a strong start to the year for venture capital valuations with almost all stages posting an increase from last year. Take a look at five charts from PitchBook’s Q1 2024 European VC Valuations Report that highlight the current state of valuations for European startups. While the median early-stage deal size fell for the whole of last year, it was much higher at the start of this year, reaching €2 million in Q1. This was partly driven by a handful of outsized deals in the first three months of the year including Paris-based EV network provider Electra’s €304 million Series B.
4 Things To Consider If You Want To Raise Startup Funds From Retail Investors
Despite some revitalization in the investment landscape in Q1 2024, securing investments, especially at the very early stages, remains challenging. That said, there is a growing category of investors that is still not considered by many founders as a potential source of funding — retail investors. By this, I mean nonaccredited investors who face many restrictions when investing in startups but are often ready to fund projects they find interesting.
Hoards of European VCs are hunting for Gulf LPs
It’s no secret that LP cheques are not as freely flowing as they once were. Funding raised by European VCs almost halved last year, dropping from €24.5bn in 2022 to €14.2bn in 2023, according to Invest Europe. VCs are also having to work harder for each commitment; according to a 2023 survey of 111 VCs investing in Europe, carried out by Sifted, 51% have spoken to over 100 LPs in the past two years in aid of their fundraising efforts. But — while European LPs batten down the hatches — the lure of markets outside the continent is growing. In Dubai, ecosystem players report an influx of European VCs hunting for LP cheques.
Venture orgs form alliance to standardize data collection
Seven venture capital and startup organizations focused on diversity within tech have announced the Diversity Data Alliance, a commitment to standardizing the way that data is collected and shared. Data transparency remains a pressing issue within venture for people looking to better track where and to whom money is allocated. Many firms already privately compile background information on their founders, but that data can be skewed when publicly shared without insight into how the data was collected.
Big miners pose a growing existential threat to Bitcoin
Bitcoin mining is now in the hands of the few. Well-known mining pools have seized overwhelming power, which poses an existential threat to the world’s first digital asset. It’s the logical outcome of a design flaw by Satoshi Nakamoto. Unfortunately, Bitcoin mining has always tended towards centralization. Bitcoin miners could once mine blocks with CPUs on personal computers due to fewer miners and therefore a lower overall hash rate. That evolved into GPUs around 2010 and into application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners in 2012. ASICs ultimately gave rise to massive mining companies that filled warehouses with hundreds or thousands of rigs.
Can AI turn us all into Warren Buffet?
When ChatGPT hit the market in 2022, people’s imaginations ran wild with the idea that large AI models — trained on more data and information than any human could ever consume — could be turned into money-printing machines. Initially, we saw viral social media experiments like HustleGPT, where a language model was tasked with running an e-commerce business. Today entrepreneurs are promising that, before long, we’ll see profitable, zero-employee companies where AIs do the work.
Public PE firms tap varied sources for inflow
Private equity’s US-listed giants continued to explore several avenues of growth in Q1 2024 and shared expectations for an uptick in deal activity. “Equity volatility is under long-term averages, and interest rates and inflation have generally stabilized,” said The Carlyle Group CEO and director Harvey Schwartz, during the firm’s Q1 earnings call. “These are clear improvements from this time last year ... and if sentiment continues to improve, we expect a higher level of deal activity.”
Hydrogen Energy Is Getting A Heavy Infusion Of VC Funding
"Startups tied to the planet’s lightest element are seeing some heavy funding lately.
Over the past four months, developers of technology to produce and distribute low-emission hydrogen have raised more than $1 billion in venture investment, per Crunchbase data. That’s already more than two-thirds the total raised in all of last year. The tally includes multiple extra-large early-stage rounds. The latest was last week’s Series B for Hysata, which picked up $110 million in a financing co-led by BP Ventures and Templewater."
Bill Gates' investments: A look at his European startups portfolio
American billionaire Bill Gates met with German politicians last week in Berlin to share his wisdom on scaling climate tech ventures. Elsewhere at the conference, an idea was floated to launch a fund to supply project finance to climate techs to help them build their first large-scale plants (known as first-of-a-kind facilities, or FOAKs). The news comes as Gates’ VC firm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures — which closed a $555m fund in January this year — also ramps up its focus on Europe. The VC primarily backs climate tech companies.
Eye On AI: Huge AI Valuation Jumps Are Here Again
Here we go again with valuations in the AI startup space. While the first quarter saw only a single $1 billion round and a few big valuation jumps, this month has certainly brought both back to the forefront and shown that investors are still willing to say yes to a deal no matter the cost. Just a few weeks ago, AI cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave locked up a $1.1 billion round led by Coatue that values the company at $19 billion, per The Wall Street Journal. The new value represented an almost threefold increase from the company’s valuation just five months ago, when it was valued at $7 billion following a secondary sale, and nearly a 10x jump from its $2 billion valuation in a Series B extension last May.
DePIN’s Solution to AI’s Biggest Blind Spot
It’s the year 2030 and you’ve sent your humanoid robot to go buy ketchup at the grocery store. It’s a capable walker, it has dexterous hands, and it can carry more groceries than any parent. High-resolution cameras, gyroscopes and pressure sensors help the robot move quietly through the aisles with such grace that you almost forget that it is hopelessly lost. Like its human counterparts, it is doomed to wander aimlessly around the store taking bets on if this is the kind of store that keeps the ketchup in the condiments or sauces aisle.
Healthcare court win for PE bolsters roll-up strategies
A Texas federal judge threw out a healthcare-sector lawsuit that could have disrupted private equity’s bread-and-butter roll-up strategy. In a win for the PE industry against antitrust regulators on Tuesday, US District Judge Kenneth Hoyt dismissed a lawsuit against Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe after the Federal Trade Commission alleged the PE firm was suppressing competition in the Texas anesthesiology market as a result of its roll-up strategy. In 2012, WCAS acquired US Anesthesia Partners and began an aggressive acquisition strategy, buying up the largest practice in Houston and three other practices in the area, according to court documents.
LLMs Can’t Save The Old Internet; But They Can Create A New One
From a consumer perspective, there’s never been a worse time to be online. I’m far from the first to write about this — it’s a phenomenon dubbed “Enshittification” by Cory Doctorow and written about at length by folks like Ed Zitron and others. The premise is simple. The quality of your experience as an internet user relies on user-generated content, or UGC. Whether you’re looking for information, entertainment or something in the middle, the vast bulk of content you’ll engage with is created by someone else, for free.
‘There’s A Lot Of Noise’ — VCs Trying To Find Clarity In Cluttered Cyber AI Landscape
The annual RSA Conference concerning all things cyber barreled into San Francisco last week with a lot of startups, crowds, parties and all the other surrounding hoopla one would expect from a massive tech conference. However, it seemed like what most of the folks who invest big-money in those same cybersecurity startups really wanted was some quiet from all the noise that surrounds AI. “There’s a lot of noise out there,” said one investor. “It’s getting harder and harder to cut through much of it.” The general consensus among VCs at the conference was that while they are listening to a lot of pitches from startups that use AI or help secure its development — such as data protection, identity and third-party risk — many are taking their time to invest.