VNTR Capital News May 7, 2023 - News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity - May 7 News, Events, and VC Reads
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Happy Sunday!
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VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Weekly Highlights
Crypto Hunters Show — On May 4, we had the pleasure of hosting the casting for the highly-anticipated Crypto Hunters adventure reality TV show in Dubai. We were blown away by the talent and passion of the candidates who showed up, and we're excited to announce that we've identified some incredibly strong contenders for the 20 spots available in 10 teams.
Our next casting locations will be in London in June and Los Angeles in July, so if you're interested in joining the show and competing for the grand prize of $1 million, now is your chance. Apply today to secure your spot and participate in the adventure of a lifetime!
For those who can't make it to the casting events, we invite you to join the Crypto Hunters Telegram community.Dubai — On May 9, we will host VNTR Investors Breakfast to bring together active investment decision-makers for a networking and knowledge-sharing session. Then, on May 10, we will host an unforgettable VNTR Investors Party within the VVIP zone of the Crypto Hunters Casting Party Dubai. Approved Investors will get complimentary VVIP passes. Side events Crypto 306 and CryptoVSummit.
Miami — The highly anticipated Bitcoin Miami conference is just around the corner, and it's already shaping up to be the biggest event of the year for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
With a line-up of top-notch speakers, including Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman at MicroStrategy, David Marcus, Chief Executive Officer at Lightspark, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent US Presidential Candidate, attendees can expect to gain valuable insights into the latest developments and trends in the world of Bitcoin and beyond. We will host VNTR Investors Roundtable Miami on May 19 to provide a unique opportunity for active investors to network and connect.Bucharest — On May 28, we'll be hosting VNTR Investors Roundtable Bucharest to celebrate the launch of the VNTR Romania Chapter, aimed at cultivating and growing the community of active investors in the region.
Marrakesh — We are hosting our first VNTR Investors Roundtable in Africa on June 1- an official side event for Gitex Africa. Approved VNTR Investors will get a complimentary investor pass to Gitex by Applying here.
June-July events — Join us at planned events in Amsterdam, Madrid, Lisbon, London, Paris, Toronto, and Algarve.
VNTR Weekend Summer Retreats — We're organizing 3-day weekend retreats in top European beach destinations so our community can come together and have fun. Apply to join
Featured new VNTR members:
Rita Vilas-Boas — Partner at Ground Capital https://www.linkedin.com/company/groundcapital focusing on Venture Investment in early-stage European startups. Angel investor, Founding member of the first liberal party in Portugal.
Arjan ten Buuren — Founder at Blockstart Investments https://blockstart.investments, Angel investor with a wide range of investments, focused on blockchain projects developing real-world solutions for business and life.
Thank you to our partners:
Crypto Hunters TV Show is an innovative adventure-reality series that uniquely explores cryptocurrency and the blockchain world. 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. To complement their strategy for untapped markets, the Crypto Hunters Mobile Game App will also be available. The game will be directly connected to the Crypto Hunters TV show and advertised prominently. You can learn more and contact HK.
Changex is a unique personal finance mobile app that connects crypto and DeFi to the real world via in-wallet banking. The non-custodial wallet is live and the company continues building a swiss knife financial solutions by providing access to multi-chain crypto trading, fiat on/off ramp, proprietary products such as Leveraged Staking to leverage any POS asset, an IBAN account, and a Crypto Debit Card for unprecedented utility. You can learn more and contact Gary.
Paypolitan offers an all-in-one payment app: users can add various wallets or existing bank accounts to the app and pay. Paypolitan is a non-custodial solution aggregating existing sources of funding. The users’ funds stay where they are, and the Paypolitan app initiates the payment from the funding source to the destination account. Paypolitan uses Open Banking APIs (EU directive PSD2 compliant) and is one of the first movers adopting it in Europe. Learn more and Contact Marco.
Upcoming VNTR Capital events:
May 9 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai (During Crypto 306)
May 10 VNTR Investors Party Dubai (During CryptoVSummit)
May 19 VNTR Investors Roundtable Miami (During Bitcoin 2023 Miami)
May 28 VNTR Investors Roundtable Bucharest (During Bitcoin Bucharest 2023)
Jun 1 VNTR Investors Roundtable Marrakech (During GITEX Africa)
Jun 7 VNTR Investors Roundtable Amsterdam (During Money 20/20 Europe)
Jun 8 VNTR Investors Roundtable Madrid (During South Summit)
Jun 8 VNTR Investors Roundtable Lisbon (During Epic Web3 Conference)
Jun 13 VNTR Investors Roundtable London (During London Tech Week)
Jun 15 VNTR Investors Roundtable Paris (During Viva Technology)
Jun 27 VNTR Investors Roundtable Toronto (During Collision)
RSVP to Upcoming VNTR Capital Events
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UPCOMING VC EVENTS
May 8-9 Dubai Fintech Summit, Dubai, UAE
May 8-10 AIM Congress, Abu Dhabi, UAE
May 9 Bloomberg Wealth Asia Summit, Hong Kong (with VNTR Members access)
May 9-10 OMR Festival 2023, Hamburg, Germany
May 8-9 Crypto 306, Dubai, UAE (Apply for VNTR Complimentary Passes)
May 10 CryptoVSummit, Dubai, UAE (email Mena for complimentary VNTR pass mena@cryptovsummit.com)
Ma 12-14 TMRW Belgrade, Serbia
May 16-18 SALT New York
May 16-18 ACA 2023 - The Summit of Angel Investing
May 16-27 Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France
May 18-20 Bitcoin, Miami, USA
May 19-20 Glitch Korea, Seoul, South Korea
May 24-25 Next Block Expo, Warsaw, Poland
May 25-28 Monaco Grand Prix, Monaco
Mat 27-28 Bitcoin Bucharest 2023
May 28-29 Emerge Dubai, UAE
May 30-Jun 4 Tech Week San Francisco, US
May 30-Jun 2 Innovex, Taipei, Taiwan
May 31-Jun 2 GITEX Africa, Morocco (Apply for Investor Pass)
May 31-Jun 1 Dublin Tech Summit, Dublin, Ireland
Jun 5-Jun 11 LA Tech Week, Los Angeles, US
Jun 7-9 South Summit, Madrid, Spain
Jun 14-17 Viva Technology, Paris (30% discount with FP3UHDUJ4)
Jun 25-25 Silicon Valley Comes to Tel-Aviv
Jun 26-29 Collision, Toronto, Canada
July 6-7 Block3000, Lisbon, Portugal
July 10-12 Block Down Portugal 2023, Algarve, Portugal
July 26 Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit, Singapore (with VNTR Members access)
Oct 7-8 DeGameFi, Tbilisi, Georgia
Oct 15-18 Expand North Star Dubai Harbour, UAE
Oct 16-20 GITEX Global, Dubai, UAE
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, and Twitter.
Check out VNTR Capital upcoming events
VC READS
Series D Hits Lowest Point In Years. What Does That Mean?
By the time a startup gets to Series D stage, backers are done asking questions about product-market fit and what inspires founders. At this point, it’s all about scale. And while an IPO or acquisition might still be a few years away, executives better be able to present compelling options for big returns. The lack of large exits lately, combined with falling tech valuations and slower startup investment, has made the case for funding a Series D round much harder in recent months. These factors have contributed to pushing U.S. investment at this stage to its lowest point in years. How low? Using Crunchbase data, we charted out total Series D investment for the past eight quarters below. As you can see, deal-making is down sharply from its former peak.
Dealmakers prepare to fight antitrust regulators
A perfect storm has obstructed exit paths for many VC-backed companies. IPO markets are shut tight, strategic acquirers are cautious amid the possibility of a recession, and otherwise eager PE buyers are hindered by a lack of inexpensive financing from syndicated bank loans. Adding to the list of obstacles, Biden administration regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are pursuing the most stringent antitrust policy in decades. While elevated antitrust risk has deflated M&A activity, potential acquirers are increasingly willing to fight the government in court after watching some buyers prevail by litigating deal blocks.
How Silicon Valley’s troubles are reshaping venture capital
These aren’t the best of times in Greater Silicon Valley — the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas and some surrounding counties. Large employers in what locals call the Bay Area have been laying off workers left and right. The region’s second- and third-largest banks, First Republic Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, have failed. San Francisco’s downtown, booming before COVID-19, is now one of the nation’s most troubled. Home prices are falling. The population of the region’s six core counties has declined by an estimated 234,697 people, or 3.5 percent, since April 2020. Silicon Valley has been through deep cyclical downturns before, and critics have been predicting its downfall for decades, to no avail. But the remote-work revolution unleashed by the pandemic has emboldened the detractors and made their claims seem more plausible.
Corporate VCs Take Bigger Role As Other Investors Pull Back
As overall startup investment declines, the share of funding done by corporate venture backers appears to be on the rise. So far in 2023, several of the most active corporate investors are leading or co-leading a larger share of rounds compared to last year. They’re also leading a number of the year’s largest financings. Per an analysis of Crunchbase data, roughly a quarter of U.S. rounds of $100 million and up this year listed a corporate investor as lead or co-lead backer. This includes the largest financing by a long shot: Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI. Several other jumbo-sized deals this year count Google or its venture firm, GV, as lead backer. This includes a $300 million Google investment into AI platform Anthropic, as well as GV-led Series B rounds for genetic medicine startups Aera Therapeutics and Chroma Medicine of $193 million and $135 million, respectively.
Uncertainty makes fundraising challenging – but not impossible
What a difference a year makes. After reaching a peak of over $200bn in the opening three months of last year, global venture capital (VC) funding fell in each subsequent quarter, according to our latest Venture Pulse report. From January to March this year, total VC investment globally was well under $60bn. With the level of uncertainty in the global market intensifying — from increasing interest rates to domestic and geopolitical challenges, significant economic concerns, war in Ukraine, and concerns about the stability of the global banking system — no region was immune to the shifting market forces. After slowing down significantly in Q4 2022, VC investment in the UK remained subdued in the opening quarter of this year, particularly when compared to the same period a year ago. Overall, UK businesses completed 402 deals in the quarter, with around £2.9bn flowing into our fast-growth businesses. London-based businesses continued to attract the lion’s share of VC investment both by value and volume, and the UK remained the jewel in Europe’s crown for attracting VC investment, securing five out of the top 10 largest deals completed in Europe over the quarter.
Cybersecurity Still Finding Its Place In New AI Era
It is difficult nowadays to talk to investors in any tech sector without AI coming up in the conversation — and that is certainly true in cybersecurity. At the recent RSA Conference in San Francisco, talk of AI and its uses in new applications and security functions abounded as the typically robust cybersecurity sector has seen signs slowing. Funding in the sector is down, as is M&A dealmaking. However, that decline could be helped out by AI and its uses in security — just as many bad actors are starting to use it to evade cyber defenses. “We are talking with a lot of people, looking at a lot of different innovations,” said Alberto Yépez, co-founder and managing director at Forgepoint Capital, which specializes in cybersecurity and infrastructure software investments. However, many stress it is still early days for AI. That goes double for both cyber companies using AI and startups looking to secure aspects of generative AI. A quick search of Crunchbase data shows that cybersecurity AI does not show rapid growth. (In this search we included companies tagged as both being in a category of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.)
In the 'Stablecoin Olympics,' No Winner Will Take All
April was full of stablecoin politics, perpetuating the idea of a global race to tokenize cash. In my opinion, this is not a single race – it’s a competition across several disciplines. We should cheer for the right to compete freely rather than for one winner. Mid-April, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee proposed a bill to regulate fiat-backed payment stablecoins while restricting any other backing mechanisms, and instructing the Fed to study the digital dollar. Fast forward to last week, when Republican presidential candidates rallied against the idea of a digital dollar, calling it a China-inspired surveillance tool.
Why capital-efficient SaaS startups will be the next big bet for Venture Capitalists?
The past few years have witnessed immense growth for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startups. They have been dominating the technology industry, and Venture Capitalists (VCs) have poured billions of dollars into this sector. However, the market has become increasingly crowded, and the economic situation has become challenging. Amidst the challenging investment landscape and ongoing funding winter, investors are adopting strategic shifts. VCs are now looking for ways to maximize their returns while minimizing their risk. With falling ROIs, profitability and unit economics are getting valued as much as growth, if not more. LPs (Limited Partners) investing in VC funds face unique challenges during these uncertain times. Therefore, focusing on capital-efficient startups, particularly in the SaaS industry, is increasingly considered a winning bet.
UK watchdog to simplify IPO rules to boost tech listings
The UK's financial watchdog has proposed new rules to simplify domestic public listings in a bid to attract more tech and early-stage companies to its exchange. In a consultation published Wednesday, the Financial Conduct Authority set out plans to replace the existing premium and standard listing segments with a single category. Currently, the premium and standard segments have different eligibility requirements that a company must meet in order to list, with the premium requiring a higher level of corporate governance. Only companies included in the latter are eligible to be included in the FTSE index, making it more prestigious than the standard segment. The FCA, which released a paper detailing possible reforms last year, said the creation of a single category is intended to remove barriers for early-stage companies looking to access the premium segment.
Down rounds are prevailing as power shifts to VCs again
It appears things are not going well for startups these days. Down rounds, or a funding round in which a startup raises capital at a lower valuation than its last investment, have become more common than the venture community has seen in nearly half a decade. According to data from Carta, down rounds nearly quadrupled in number in Q1 2023 compared to a year earlier. Down rounds are bad because they can lead to outsized dilution, unhappy investors, employees fretting over the value of their equity and other less than winsome events. They are new to many startups and were quite rare during the most recent venture boom, when so many startups were raising multiple up rounds in the same year that it became a mini-trend.
Zimbabwe sets price to sell gold-backed digital tokens
Zimbabwe's central bank has set a price for its gold-backed digital tokens. The country is planning to sell its gold-backed digital currency to investors starting May 8. The tokens will be sold at a minimum price of $10 for individuals and $5,000 for corporates and other entities. According to a statement released by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on May 4, the gold-backed digital currency tokens will be sold in both U.S. dollars and local currency. However, the local currency price will have a 20% margin above the willing-buyer willing-seller interbank mid-rate. Interested investors can participate in the offer from May 8, and it will close two days later. The willing-buyer willing-seller interbank mid-rate is the exchange rate at which banks are willing to buy and sell currencies to each other. It is considered the "midpoint" between the buying and selling rates, and it's determined based on prevailing market conditions such as supply and demand.
New Unicorns Led By AI Companies In April, And Two Dropped Off
Five companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in April 2023 — the sixth month in a row for new unicorns to number in the single digits. Three of those companies are in the AI sector. Of the five companies, three are U.S.-based. The U.K. and China each count for one new unicorn this past month. Two companies were dropped from the unicorn board. Tonal raised $130 million in funding at a valuation between $550 million and $600 million according to the WSJ, which removed it from the unicorn board. The company previously raised funding at a $1.6 billion value in March 2021. Cybereason, an endpoint security company, raised $100 million led by SoftBank which valued the company at $350 million, a 90% discount from its prior funding in July 2021 which valued the company at $3.2 billion. Earlier this year, online media company Vox Media received a lowered valuation in February 2023 at $500 million, down from $1 billion. In December 2022, online grocery retailer Oda was removed from the board with a new valuation of $350 million, down from $1.2 billion.
Top 10 Crypto VC Firms by Fund Size
A significant source of funding for many startups and early-stage businesses across several industries is venture capital (VC) investment. The crypto sphere is similar to other industries in this respect. Indeed, there is a tonne of crypto VC firms. Additionally, crypto VC firms don’t always assume the position of an investor. They occasionally also provide management or technical expertise. VC firms may get payment in a variety of forms, including stock, ownership stakes, or voting rights, depending on the conditions of the investment. In this article, we have mentioned the top 10 crypto VC firms that are prominent so let us dive right in and check these best crypto VC firms by fund size.
After Years Of Sinking Venture Funding, Plant-Based Seafood Charts A New Course
There’s something fishy about the plant-based seafood market. While consumers in the U.S. latched on to early plant-based meat alternatives, enthralled with Impossible Foods’ vegan burger that released the same blood-like substance as meat, vegan seafood didn’t see the same rise in popularity. This was despite having relatively similar funding patterns. From 2014 to 2019, there was only a 20% difference in venture funding between the two categories, according to Crunchbase data. By 2020, investors began abandoning the plant-based seafood category. In 2021, while nearly every industry saw some growth, imitation seafood declined. But the tides are turning for sales of plant-based seafood. Between 2019 and 2022, the number of grocery offerings jumped from 19 to 33, and the category experienced a 53% growth in unit sales, according to the Good Food Institute. And after recent — and jarring — setbacks faced by the plant-based meat industry, seafood startups and the venture firms that fund them are charting a new course — one that means more funding is going to fewer startups.
Regional bank sell-off ensnares more fintech business partners
The regional bank sell-off intensified Thursday as share prices for Pacific Western Bank and Western Alliance fell sharply. Tennessee-based bank First Horizon was also hit after a proposed merger with TD Bank was called off. For fintech startups that partner with regional banks, the day's events sent yet another shockwave through the industry. From the earliest days of the crisis, the banks providing savings and loans services to so-called neobanks have been under pressure from shareholders and depositors. Shares of Los Angeles-based PacWest dropped more than 50% Thursday afternoon, and Phoenix-based Western Alliance's stock dropped over 35%, adding to losses that followed Monday's collapse and sale of First Republic Bank to JP Morgan Chase. Since then, the stocks of both banks have slumped more than 60%.
Global venture funding down 56% in April but healthcare, AI stand apart from market volatility
Last month showed a continued and noticeable decrease in global venture funding, a new report from Crunchbase found. In a year-over-year comparison, global funding reached $21 billion in April, down 56% from $47.8 billion the same month a year ago as venture investors continue to pull back, according to the report. Healthcare, artificial intelligence and financial services led in raking in the cash last month, while unicorn funding dropped to the single digits from 40 at the same time last year. Healthcare stood apart from all other sectors in raising $5.7 billion in April. Standout companies include RNA-based medicine provider Orbital Therapeutics, medical robotics company Noah Medical and drugs from plants developer Enveda Biosciences. Despite market slowdowns, AI also demonstrated the ability to launch larger funding rounds, raising a total of $2.8 billion in April. Overall, April 2023 showed the second lowest funding month since July 2022 when venture capital began to scale below $30 billion.
Examining global successes and challenges in regulating crypto: Report
The use and popularity of cryptocurrencies have significantly increased in recent years, but their decentralized nature makes them difficult to regulate, and the lack of a clear framework has led to concerns about money laundering, terrorist financing and consumer protection. Over 90 countries have introduced cryptocurrency regulations since 2014, with 28 adopting crypto-related laws in 2022. The Cointelegraph Research Blockchain Regulation Database provides an overview of the legal landscape surrounding blockchain and cryptocurrency worldwide as well as the regulations that apply to various activities. Through its user-friendly interface, the database provides information on matters such as the legal status of crypto in multiple jurisdictions, the latest news and updates, and compliance assistance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism requirements. It’s updated weekly and reviewed monthly for perfect data accuracy, meaning it can be a helpful tool for those involved in the crypto space.
Market Map: Ecommerce investors' shopping spree slackens
Ecommerce has been riding a wave. The pandemic drove immense growth for the vertical, packing a dual punch: Consumer spending was up and lockdowns pushed traffic to online platforms, transforming the way people shop. The big brick-and-mortar stores got a tech upgrade while new platforms emerged to meet demand, and investors have taken note. Backers have poured money into segments like purchase venue, which accounts for startups that create the systems, resources, integrations and applications that consumers use to make purchases across all kinds of storefronts. The market map below explores the purchase venue segment and shows which startups are attracting investors' attention and capital.
VC term sheets: What’s the current market standard?
Whether you’re a first-time founder or a seasoned veteran, term sheets are an important stage of securing venture capital (VC) investment. They summarise the key terms of investment and provide a crucial blueprint for a founder and investor relationship. A term sheet can be as simple as a one-pager to 10+ pages. The primary aim is to define terms as precisely as possible to avoid misunderstandings later in the deal process and help set out how the investor relationship will operate post-deal. Despite their importance, these agreements are often confusing, particularly for founders. The language within them is usually filled with complex legal jargon. And although investors often claim that their term sheets are ‘market standard’, term sheets vary from one investor to the next.
Central Bank Digital Currencies Are Unexpectedly Becoming a Presidential Election Issue
Most Americans spend little time thinking about central bank digital currencies, if they even know what they are. For those who don’t, CBDCs are digital forms of national currencies, issued by a country’s central bank. The United States Federal Reserve has no plans to issue a digital dollar. Yet, potential presidential candidates in next year’s U.S. election are already sounding an alarm. “Expect this CBDC issue to become a presidential campaign talking point,” said Ron Hammond, director of government relations at Blockchain Association. “Perfect intersection of fear of government, China and finance collapse with the bank crisis.”
7 things a VC wishes she’d known before becoming an investor
Ten long years of hanging by the hoops, trying to crack in, a VC desperado. It’s a fairly typical story: I studied books and articles, listened to podcasts about the greats, built spreadsheets of mock portfolios and learned lots of VC lingo (series, val caps, SAFEs…). And somewhere along the way I even switched to flat shoes (Allbirds of course!), branded t-shirts and backpacks. What a VC-wannabee! I still couldn’t get a guernsey. Because I had it all wrong… If I had my time again, now having been on the inside of a venture firm for several years, boy would I do things differently. Here’s what I understand about venture today that I just didn’t get at the time.