VNTR Capital News October 1, 2023 – News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – October 1 News, Events, and VC Reads
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
VNTR Capital Newsletter is delivered to 50k+ investors weekly to share the latest news, events, and articles from the global VC and startup ecosystem.
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Scroll down for VNTR Capital Community News, Upcoming Events, and VC News/Reads.
VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Spotlight
VNTR Platform — The VNTR Platform was launched in July and onboarded 500+ active investment decision makers who have access to curated VC news, can connect with other vetted investment decision makers, share deal flow, ask for help, register for VNTR events and claim partner offers. Active investment decision-makers can claim a free account (VNTR LITE) to join VNTR Membership and upgrade to a VNTR PRO subscription to enjoy our premium services: mastermind groups, peer support, match-making, and personalized introductions service, and enjoy priority access to events and offers.
VNTR Speed Networking — The October Investors Speed Networking event will take place on Oct 23. VNTR LITE and PRO members will network one-on-one and build relationships with peers.
Flagship Events — sponsor slots available at our flagship events:
Companies can Apply as a sponsor to connect with investors and receive a personalized data-driven plan to achieve their goals.
Head of Sponsorships — Lukas Wojciechowski joined our team to work with our partners and help them grow by leveraging the VNTR network and events.
We are recruiting:
Chapter Directors in Riyadh, Berlin, and Los Angeles to help us launch and grow the VNTR Capital community and serve as a gateway for the Venture Capital global community. Apply here
Executive Assistant in Cascais/Lisbon Portugal to support the executive team.
This week
Munich — We hosted our first VNTR Investors Roundtable in Munich on Oct 25 as a side event to Bitz & Pretzels and Octoberfest 2023 (view photos). We plan to launch an official VNTR Chapter in Munich soon.
Masterminds — We are hosting VNTR PRO Masterminds this week on Oct 3-5. Join VNTR PRO membership to grow with other VNTR PRO peers.
London — The next VNTR Investors Roundtable London is on Oct 5 as a side event to Zebu Live (Complimentary investor passes for VNTR PRO members).
Tbilisi — VNTR Investors Roundtable Tbilisi on Oct 8 will gather investors during the DeGameFi Web3 annual conference.
Upcoming
Dubai — Yuri will visit the Dubai Chapter to host two events in October:
Oct 11 VNTR Investors Cocktail Dubai as a side event to Future Innovation Summit (Complimentary investor passes for VNTR PRO members).
Oct 17 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai as a side event to GITEX Global and Expand North Star. Approved Investors can get complimentary investor passes.
New York — We are launching the VNTR New York Chapter during NY Tech Week with our 2nd VNTR Investors Roundtable NY on Oct 18 at The Penn Club, #2 City Club in New York.
Miami — The launch of the VNTR Miami Chapter with Investors Cocktail will take place on Oct 20.
Las Vegas — Our first VNTR Investors Roundtable in Las Vegas will take place on Oct 23 as a side event to Money 20/20 (Member discounts available), sponsored by Stellar Foundation. We have an additional 2 sponsor slots available.
Barcelona — VNTR Barcelona Chapter will gather international investors visiting the European Blockchain Convention on Oct 25.
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.
River North is a global strategic communications agency built on transparency, trust, and results. We fuse 30+ of combined experience, creative thinking, and the latest trends to deliver meticulously researched and carefully considered brand positioning narratives that align your value proposition, core values, and customers' needs. You can contact Kelly Ferraro to learn more.
AgileGTM is the world's 1st Enterprise Web3 Accelerator fund. The fund invests in B2B ventures enabling the enterprise world to adopt a decentralized, ownable, and immersive Internet. The 12-week in-person accelerator program is run in Lisbon, the #1 Crypto hub in Europe, and focuses on Go-To-Market and commercial enablement. You can contact Filippo Chisari to learn more.
Upcoming VNTR Capital events:
Nov 1 VNTR Investors Roundtable Hong Kong (During Hong Kong FinTech Week)
Nov 3 VNTR Investors Roundtable Istanbul (During Istanbul Tech Week)
Nov 14 VNTR Investors Roundtable Lisbon (During Web Summit)
Nov 16 VNTR Investors Roundtable Singapore (During Singapore FinTech Festival)
Dec 1 VNTR Investors Roundtable Helsinki (During SLUSH)
Dec 10 VNTR Investors Roundtable Miami (During Art Basel Miami)
RSVP to Upcoming VNTR Capital Events
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UPCOMING VC EVENTS
Oct 3-4 CV Summit, Zug, Switzerland
Oct 4-5 Sifted Summit, London, UK
Oct 5-6 Zebu Live, London, UK (Complimentary for VNTR PRO members)
Oct 7-8 DeGameFi, Tbilisi, Georgia (10% off VIP passes with VNTRVIP10)
Oct 8-9 Wow Summit, Dubai, UAE (15% off with WOWDXBVNTR15)
Oct 10-11 Future Innovation Summit, Dubai, UAE (Complimentary for VNTR PRO members)
Oct 12 LetsIgnite, Bengaluru, India
Oct 15-18 Expand North Star Dubai Harbour, UAE (free for qualified investors)
Oct 16-20 GITEX Global, Dubai, UAE (free for qualified investors)
Oct 16-22 NY Tech Week, New York, USA
Oct 19-20 Bitcoin Unleashed, London, UK
Oct 19-20 CoinAgenda, Dubai, UAE
Oct 19-21 VC Weekend, Dubai, UAE
Oct 20-23 Plan B Forum, Lugano, Switzerland
Oct 22-23 Share Algarve, Vilamoura, Portugal
Oct 22-24 Money 20/20, Las Vegas, USA
Oct 23-24 SOCAP23, San Francisco, USA
Oct 24-26 Digital Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria
Oct 24-25 Blockchain Life 2023, Dubai, UAE
Oct 25-26 Urban Tech Forward, Warsaw, Poland
Oct 30-Nov 3 Solana Breakpoint, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Oct 30-Nov 5 Hong Kong FinTech Week, Hong Kong
Oct 30-31 AIM Summit Dubai, UAE
Oct 31-Nov 2 Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology
Nov 7-10 Nearcon, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 8-9 Wolves Summit, Vienna, Austria
Nov 11-12 Australian Crypto Convention, Melbourne, Australia
Nov 13-16 Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 13 Europas, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 13-17 AIBC Europe, Malta
Nov 14-16 SALT iConnections Asia, Singapore
Nov 15-17 Singapore Fintech Festival, Singapore
Nov 30-Dec 1 SLUSH, Helsinki, Finland
Nov 30-Dec 1 TechEx Global, London, UK
Dec 4-5 Next Block Expo, Berlin, Germany
Dec 4-8 West Tech Fest, Perth, Australia
Dec 8-10 Art Basel, Miami, USA
Dec 12-13 New England Venture Summit, Boston Dedham, MA, USA
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
IPO Watchlist: The enterprise SaaS unicorns most likely to go public
Instacart and Klaviyo's public listings last week signaled the partial reopening of the IPO market for venture-backed tech companies. Klaviyo's stock popped to $36.75 in its NYSE debut, above its IPO price of $30. The developer of a marketing automation platform with large and fast-growing revenue, Klaviyo was a near-perfect IPO candidate from investors' points of view. Which companies might be next in the pipeline isn't so clear. Here are 15 US venture-backed enterprise SaaS unicorns likely to follow in Klaviyo's footsteps to an IPO. The list was created using PitchBook's VC Exit Predictor, which calculates exit probability using a machine learning model that is fed historic and real-time data on private company exits. The predictor draws from 34 inputs related to company characteristics, financing and investors.
European VCs get better returns than US counterparts
US VCs might hold bragging rights to the world’s best-funded startup ecosystem, but European investors make smarter bets, according to a new report by trade association Invest Europe. Since 2002, European VCs have bagged a net annual return of 12.65% on investments — pipping US investors’ 12.25%. European funds have also performed better than their US counterparts across five and ten-year time horizons.
LPs 101 — what are limited partners, and what do they look for in VCs?
Sometimes referred to as “silent partners”, the role of limited partners (LPs) can seem a mystery. But without them, venture capital — and therefore many startups — wouldn’t exist.
What are limited partners?
Europe’s record VC investment in the last few years has been powered by LPs, which range from pension funds and state-backed investors to family offices and funds-of-funds.
“Limited partners are investors in venture capital funds, so tend to be institutional investors or high-net-worth investors that will invest into a manager’s fund,” says Christine Hockley, managing director, funds, at British Patient Capital, the largest domestic investor in UK venture and venture growth. “Then the fund will invest into high growth companies within the strategy of that particular fund manager.”
The 10 Biggest Rounds Of September: Anthropic And Stack AV Lead Big Month
Last month, we talked about how hot it was for big funding deals in August.
September did not cool down.
There were two raises of $1 billion or more this month, and it took at least $210 million to make this list. Of course, AI played a role, but so did autonomous driving, biotech, batteries and more. Let’s take a look at exactly what all made the list this month.
Investors taking 30% of a startup in a round are being short-sighted
Over the last couple of months, I’ve spoken to a number of early-stage investors — both angels and VCs — who seem to be proud that they’ve been able to take 25% to 30% of a startup’s equity in an early-stage funding round. In one case, an angel investor patted themselves on the back for “managing to convince the founder to give them a 41% stake.” I was reminded of that several times as I was in Oslo this week, speaking with a number of players across the startup ecosystem. If you are reading the above and wish that you, too, could command that level of ownership in a startup, I’ve got some advice for you: You are being short-sighted and are hindering the startup, the founders and your own chances of finding success.
How To Spot Red Flags In Your Startup’s Business With Quantitative Tech Evaluation
Running a tech company or investing in one can be a thrilling journey filled with potential rewards, but it’s equally fraught with risks. While some people might rely mainly on their intuition, there is immense value in assessing the financial well-being of a tech company, a practice that proves beneficial for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Using quantitative metrics offers a data-driven and objective approach to evaluation, but it requires a keen eye to uncover hidden strategic insights. First, ask: What is the purpose of the evaluation?
Bootstrapping is cool once again
Bootstrapping, or funding your own company, has long been the first route many founders take when they set out on their entrepreneurial journey. But it’s not a decision that they have any say in. Often, sources of capital only flow to those with the networks and the opportunity to get warm introductions to investors, so for most of history, bootstrapping has been what has fueled many businesses started by people without access to those networks. But of late, investors across the board have gotten much pickier about who and what they invest in, which has sort of evened out the played field. Network or no, startup founders are increasingly having to figure out sources of financing that’s not venture capital.
AI’s $200B Question
The Generative AI wave, which began last summer, has gone into hyperspeed. The catalyst for this double acceleration was Nvidia’s Q2 earnings guide and subsequent beat. This signaled to the market an insatiable level of demand for GPUs and AI model training.
Before Nvidia’s announcement, consumer launches like ChatGPT, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion had raised AI into the public consciousness. With Nvidia’s results, founders and investors were delivered empirical evidence that AI can generate billions of dollars of net new revenue. This has shifted the category into its highest gear yet.
While investors have extrapolated much from Nvidia’s results—and AI investments are now happening at a torrid pace and at record valuations—a big open question remains: What are all these GPUs being used for? Who is the customer’s customer? How much value needs to be generated for this rapid rate of investment to pay off?
China's venture capital firms making inroads in Saudi Arabia, UAE
Industry insiders say that Chinese venture capital companies (VCs) are making increasing inroads in the Middle East with more aggressively priced deals and by exploiting the growing vacuum that Western competitors are leaving in the region.
This development comes against the backdrop of warming relations between China and several Middle Eastern states and a series of regional conferences this year aimed at bolstering investment in the area.
Although from a security perspective, the United States remains the dominant player in the Middle East, China has recently positioned itself as a mediator: Beijing brokered the normalization of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two biggest rivals in the region. China also welcomed Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the BRICS group of major emerging economies, a move that has strengthened Sino ties with the Middle East.
5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In September: Tesla For Boats, Managing Relationships, And Learning Something New
Vacations are over, everyone’s back in school, football’s here and we are in the full swing of fall.
That means some pretty fascinating rounds may have escaped your eye — but don’t worry, we’re here to recap.
So let’s take a look at some of the most interesting rounds for September.
Bitcoin’s inflation-hedge theory tested as rising interest rates bring turbulence to markets
The United States economy has been facing turbulent times lately, with the U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) inflation index rising by a significant 3.5% over the past 12 months. Even when excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, it’s evident that the efforts made by the U.S. Federal Reserve to curb inflation have fallen short of their 2% target rate. U.S. Treasurys have lost a staggering $1.5 trillion in value, primarily due to these rate hikes. This has led investors to question whether Bitcoin and risk-on assets, including the stock market, will succumb to heightened interest rates and a monetary policy aimed at cooling economic growth.
Staffing tensions between PE firms and portfolio companies persist
Let's say you're a chief financial officer at a PE-backed company. It's a new gig, the product of a resume filled with years in upper-level management positions at various multi-billion-dollar public companies. In your previous positions, you grew accustomed to abundant resources at your disposal, including a stable of savvy colleagues. But in your new position, things are quite different. There aren't enough qualified people in critical roles, and the PE owner's hyper-focus on the bottom line is tempering additional hiring.
You find yourself at an impasse: You need to bring on more talent, but you're facing pressure from the PE firm to hold off on any additional spending as the asset class grapples with debt coming due in a high interest rate environment.
Recent IPO wave has advisors talking tech, venture capital with clients
The IPO window is open, or at least it’s noticeably ajar. So what does that mean for financial advisors whose clients are interested in venture capital and seek to invest in a company before its shares hit the big board?
Despite the recent sell-off in stocks, a number of high-profile new issues have hit the market of late. This rising river of initial public offerings has energized many investors into believing that the long-halted venture capital industry is once again flowing. Recent IPOs like Instacart, Klaviyo and Arm Holdings may be struggling to sustain their post-debut gains, or even their initial offering prices, yet they’re still sparking conversations between advisors and clients.
Fintech loses UK funding crown as VCs bet on global green transition
The UK’s energy startup sector has raised the most VC cash in 2023, knocking fintech off the top spot it has held for a decade. Startups in the energy sector have picked up $3bn so far this year, just shy of the $3.4bn they raised across the whole of 2022, according to data compiled by Dealroom and HSBC Innovation Banking. Transportation startups — many of which cross over into the energy sector — have also bagged $2.7bn this year, a figure that puts them on track for a record year. Healthtech, meanwhile, brought in $2.4bn. As for fintech, the sector raised just $2.1bn in 2023, down from a high of $13.5bn in 2021. It is likely to end the year at its lowest level since 2018.
Stats Show Seattle’s Startup Mojo Is Waning
Funding to Seattle startups has shriveled this year amid a statewide investment downturn that exceeds the slowdown we’ve seen nationwide. So far in 2023, Seattle-based startups have pulled in $1.1 billion in seed through growth-stage financing, per Crunchbase data. That’s a decline of 57% from the same period last year, which was itself well below the 2021 peak. For a sense of how the numbers are trending, we charted out citywide investment totals and round counts for the past six calendar years below.
What does Venture Capital have against FEMTECH?
When serial product manager Audrey Tsang first met with the folks at the period-tracking app Clue, she was instantly drawn to the diversity of the leadership team. After holding manager, director, and lead product roles at tech powerhouses like Yahoo, Yelp, and Pinterest, Tsang became the co-CEO of Berlin-based Clue in 2021. It’s the first team she’s worked on that’s majority female. That gives the organization a different dynamic and a different feel, she says, and that may be important for the future. She insists that in the current economic climate, leaders of femtech companies need to get creative to raise funding since VC investors are still majority male.
Europe's VC direct secondaries market heats up with downturn
European venture capital has seen significant growth in deals for secondhand stakes in startups, driven by dwindling liquidity options for investors and employees of portfolio companies. Unlike their US counterparts, European VCs were previously slow to embrace direct secondaries, in which founders, employees and investors sell shares, in part because of a smaller primary market and more complex deal terms. But in the last year, shareholders in European startups have been opening up to secondaries deals. "There's a lot of activity going on," said Julian Rowe, general partner at Phoenix Court Group's growth arm, Latitude. "We've come a long way in the last year or so and people are becoming more creative in the way they access companies."
AI startups still snag huge valuations despite lack of revenue
"Can investors make 10-figure AI valuations pay off in markets no one is sure exist?" That was the title of a panel featuring prominent AI investors at last week's TechCrunch Disrupt conference. The discussion—which featured Sequoia's Sonya Huang, Greylock Partners' Saam Motamedi and Benchmark's Miles Grimshaw—largely skirted the provocative question. Still, the panel's name underscored an open secret among investors: Most of the AI startups grabbing valuations in the hundreds of millions have hardly any revenues to speak of. Ask any VC, and they are likely to say that most Series A and beyond AI rounds are now valued on future promise, rather than actual sales.
PE healthcare deals feel a sector-specific squeeze
Private equity firms' pullback from some corners of the healthcare industry has been outpacing the slowdown in other sectors, PitchBook data shows. In healthcare services and health-focused IT sectors, the number of deals reached fresh lows in Q2—down more than 70% from peak dealmaking times in the fourth and second quarters of 2021, respectively, according to our Q2 Healthcare Services and Healthcare IT reports. By contrast, PE dealmaking in the broader market across all sectors has fallen by an estimated 29% from its high in Q4 2021—a deep drop but a significantly lower one.
France, Singapore and Switzerland test cross-border CBDCs
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of France, Singapore and Switzerland concluded a joint test of the cross-border trading and settlement of wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The Banque de France issued the report on Sept. 28. The so-called Project Mariana was developed by the Banque de France, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Swiss National Bank under the aegis of the BIS. It has tested the cross-border trading and settlement of hypothetical euro, Singapore dollar and Swiss franc CBDCs between simulated financial institutions using decentralized finance (DeFi) technology concepts on a public blockchain.
How To Use AI To Brainstorm A Billion-Dollar Business Idea
Society is steeped in the mythology of the lightbulb moment. The lone creative genius. The sketch on the back of a cocktail napkin. But the truth is most great business ideas are the result of many brainstorms, sprints, prototypes and pivots — a wiggly line instead of a single ah-ha experience. As any entrepreneur can attest, summoning the next category-creating business or blockbuster product is hard.
Was tech’s ‘bull run’ simply a temporary surge?
For a few months this summer, it seemed that the trend of falling tech valuations was nearing an end. The U.S. pausing interest rate hikes, falling inflation in key markets, and software companies’ slowly rebounding revenue multiples led to a trio of IPOs that were both long in the coming and very welcome in their arrival. Though Arm, Klaviyo and Instacart all priced their IPOs strongly and traded well in their first few days on the market, their shares have since stalled. Instacart’s stock is now trading below its IPO price, and Klaviyo and Arm have given back much of their earned gains in recent days.
VC funding in September rises 116%, see only 5% YOY decline for the Indian startup ecosystem
September 2023 turned out to be very positive for the Indian startup ecosystem with venture capital (VC) funding almost doubling as compared to August and a marginal decline to the same period last year. This development comes after month-on-month VC funding dropped to its lowest ever for 2023 in August at $396 million. This month, VCs invested $857 million in Indian startups cutting across 83 deals—a 116% month-on-month rise. However, in September 2022, the VC funding amount stood at $905 million—a decline of just 5.3%, as per YourStory Data.
DAOs need to learn from Burning Man for mainstream adoption
As they exist today, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) will not scale to the masses. Sure, shining examples like PleasrDAO, Uniswap DAO, Synthetix’s group of DAOs and Maker DAO exist, thriving in their respective niches. Still, none of these have gotten anywhere close to being household names. Why, you might ask? They’re too crypto. Three of these four are protocol DAOs, driving the day-to-day operations and future growth of DeFi ecosystems. The other, PleasrDAO, is a collective of well-known crypto builders, investors and overall thought leaders curating the future of art on-chain.
Vast majority of VC-backed UK startups do *nothing* on climate emissions
Some 76% of the top 500 VC-backed U.K. startups have done nothing to either measure or offset their carbon emissions, according to new research shared exclusively with TechCrunch. In total, these companies have raised $40 billion in VC funding. Furthermore, of the VCs looked at, the highest only scored 37 out of a possible 100 in the ranking, with the lowest on 3. Fintech businesses turned out to be doing the most on climate: Monzo (raised $1.2 billion), Oaknorth Bank (raised $861 million) and Tide (raised $294 million). These were followed by Faculty (an AI developer, raised $52 million) and insurtech company Yulife (raised $207 million). Worst performing out of the top 100 in the 500-strong index were Doccla (raised $23 million), Multiverse (raised $414 million), Cera (raised $303 million) and Motorway (raised $272 million).
Staking Risks Are Vastly Misunderstood
Interest in staking has shown a strong resilience to the bear market. A considerable amount of value remains staked on top blockchains, in many cases surpassing the actual total value locked (TVL) living on-chain. However, things are not looking so good otherwise for staking. Public perception of staking has become one of the biggest casualties of the current bear market. Many of the crypto lending firms and exchanges that went under in the past year frequently marketed their service offerings as “staking.” In most cases, they were not.
Surprisingly Large Sums Have Gone Into Bug Farming Startups
That is the last thing on most of our to-do lists. Startup investors, however, seem to think otherwise. At least that’s the impression one gets looking at insect cultivation-related funding over the past couple years. Venture capitalists have poured hundreds of millions into upstarts aimed at getting livestock, pets, and even people, to consume more bug products. Examples abound. InnovaFeed, a French biotech developing insect-based protein for the agriculture and aquaculture industries, landed a $250 million Series D just last year. Ynsect, a mealworm cultivator, picked up $170 million in April. And Protix, a Dutch supplier of insect ingredients for humans and animals, has scooped up nearly $120 million to date.
Battery VC Investment Gets Supercharged
Lately, it seems like battery startups are powering up with giant funding rounds at an unusually rapid pace. In roughly the past month alone, we’ve seen three financings of more than $1 billion. Verkor, a French startup focused on low-carbon battery manufacturing, raised $2.1 billion in debt and equity financing this month, including a $900 million Series C. The company plans to open its first gigafactory in 2025. Redwood Materials, the Nevada-based battery recycling startup founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, picked up $1 billion in Series D funding, bringing total debt and equity financing to over $3.8 billion. The company also acquired Redux Recycling, a German battery recycler, last week.
US judge refuses to block venture capital fund's grants for Black women
A federal judge in Atlanta on Tuesday rejected a bid to bar a small venture capital fund from awarding grants to businesses run by Black women, in a case brought by the anti-affirmative activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious college admissions policies. U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash during a hearing denied a request by Edward Blum's American Alliance for Equal Rights for a preliminary injunction blocking Fearless Fund from considering applications for grants only from businesses led by Black women.
The Barrier to Mainstream Crypto Adoption Isn’t UX — It’s Product-Market Fit
Discussions about accelerating adoption of crypto often focus on improving user experience. (UX). The popular thinking goes: Web3 products lag behind from a user experience perspective, onboarding poses multiple points of friction, and technological concepts come with learning curves. Web3 is missing a seamless experience for apps that will unlock greater adoption.
While improving crypto UX is certainly important, I believe that the more significant and urgent barrier to adoption is building things that people want. Web3 has a product-market fit problem, not a UX problem.
What do European funds of funds want from VC managers?
Funds of funds (FoF) have become important backers of venture capital investors across Europe. A fund of funds is a fund that invests in other funds — in this case, VC funds. There are now at least 100+ of them backing more than 700 venture funds each year in the region, according to a survey of FoF from Mountside Ventures. The 103 funds that responded represent more than £35bn in assets under management (AUM). “Without them, there wouldn’t be the European VC scene,” says Jonathan Hollis, managing partner at Mountside Ventures. “Not only are they the largest LP [in terms of number of VCs backed], they are the most sophisticated LP,” he says — because they have to fundraise themselves.
Exclusive: VC firms working with D.C. to "self-regulate" AI startup investing
A group of venture capital firms is working with the U.S. Commerce Department to develop "responsible AI" guidelines for themselves and their portfolio companies, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: This effort is designed to cover thousands of current and future startups, whereas most other AI self-regulation talks have been limited to Big Tech companies and major AI model vendors.