VNTR Capital News Sep 17, 2023 – News, Events, VC Reads
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – Sep 17 News, Events, and VC Reads
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
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Scroll down for VNTR Capital Community News, Upcoming Events, and VC News/Reads.
VNTR CAPITAL COMMUNITY NEWS
Spotlight
Web Summit — Our flagship event of the year will occur on Nov 14 during WebSummit in Lisbon, where we will gather VCs, angels, and family offices. Companies can apply to join as a partner of the event and connect with investors,
We are recruiting:
Chapter Directors in Riyadh, Singapore, and Berlin to help us launch and grow the VNTR Capital community and serve as a gateway for the Venture Capital global community. Apply here
Create your VNTR Investor Account
This week
New VNTR PRO Members:
Singapore — We hosted our second VNTR Investors Roundtable in Singapore on Sep 14 and gathered 80+ investors and partners (view photos).
Upcoming
Masterminds — We are hosting VNTR PRO Masterminds this week on Sep 19, 20 and 21. Join VNTR PRO membership to grow with other peers.
San Francisco — Our second Investors Roundtable in Silicon Valley will take place on Sep 20 during TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 in partnership with Innowise.
Barcelona — Join us for the VNTR Barcelona Chapter launch on Sep 21, where Jordi Bosch will gather the VC community for an interactive roundtable.
Munich — The first VNTR Investors Roundtable in Munich will take place on Sep 25 as a side event to Bitz & Pretzels and Octoberfest 2023.
London — The next VNTR Investors Roundtable London will be on Oct 5 as a side event to Sifted Summit and Zebu Live.
Tbilisi — VNTR Investors Roundtable Tbilisi Oct 8 will gather visiting and local investors during the DeGameFi Web3 annual conference.
Dubai — We are back with Dubai Chapter events and will host two events in October:
Oct 11 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai as a side event to Future Innovation Summit. Approved investors get complimentary passes.
Oct 17 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai as a side event to GITEX Global and Expand North Star. Approved Investors get complimentary passes.
New York — We are launching the VNTR New York Chapter during NY Tech Week with our 2nd VNTR Investors Roundtable NY on Oct 19.
Las Vegas — Our first VNTR Investors Roundtable in Las Vegas will take place on Oct 23 as a side event to Money 20/20.
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.
Cointelegraph Accelerator is working with early-stage Web3 projects to boost their growth by leveraging its access to a native Web3 audience, marketing expertise, and a broad network of partners in the industry. The equity/token-based program aligns the interests of the accelerator and the participants, allowing them to build meaningful partnerships for sustainable growth.
EHP is the only three-phase heat transfer technology that contains nanoparticles and a miraculous way to reduce energy consumption. EHP Technology (watch video) is the world's first and only known 5th-generation heat transfer technology, the world's fastest, most affordable, and most efficient heat transfer technology. EHP is the first recycling technology that can reduce up to 70% of our world's global waste heat to go to the air, saving up to 40% of the world's global energy problem. You can contact Anil to learn more.
Liquid Crypto is leading the way for the next generation of DeFi. Users can effortlessly complete all of their transactions within one platform with confidence, knowing they will always be offered the lowest possible rate in the market. Liquid Crypto’s AI enables projects, traders, and investors to effortlessly realize outsized returns in an omnichain reality by bridging the gap between CeFi, DeFi, Money Managers and Market Makers. You can contact Choua Lee to learn more.
dEquity is a pioneering FinTech company transforming residential rental properties into lucrative, income-generating investments. dEquity provides innovative solutions that empower individuals from all backgrounds to participate in the real estate market, offering opportunities for passive income and financial growth. You can contact Mark to learn more.
Upcoming VNTR Capital events:
Oct 19 VNTR Investors Roundtable Lisbon (During Block3000)
Oct 25 VNTR Investors Roundtable Barcelona (During European Blockchain Week)
Nov 1 VNTR Investors Roundtable Hong Kong (During Hong Kong FinTech Week)
Nov 3 VNTR Investors Roundtable Istanbul (During Istanbul Tech Week)
Nov 9 VNTR Investors Roundtable Singapore (During Bloomberg New Economy Forum)
Nov 14 VNTR Investors Roundtable Lisbon (During Web Summit)
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
Sep 18-19 IPEM Paris, France
Sep 19-21 TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
Sep 19-22 Super Return Asia, Singapore
Sep 20-21 DMEXCO, Cologne, Germany
Sep 21-22 Metaverse Summit, Paris, France
Sep 21-23 TechSparks 2023, Bengaluru, India
Sep 24-26 Bits and Pretzels, Munich, Germany
Sep 26-28 Meridian by Stellar, Madrid, Spain
Sep 26-27 TechEx Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sep 26-28 Mobile World Congress, Las Vegas, USA
Sep 26-28 Elevate Festival, Toronto, Canada
Sep 27-30 Monaco Yacht Show, Monaco
Oct 3-4 CV Summit, Zug, Switzerland
Oct 4-5 Sifted Summit, London, UK
Oct 5-6 Zebu Live, London, UK
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 (free for VNTR 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 19-21 VC Weekend, Dubai, UAE
Oct 20-23 Plan B Forum, Lugano, Switzerland
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 30-Nov 3 Solana Breakpoint, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Oct 30-Nov 5 Hong Kong FinTech Week, Hong Kong
Nov 7-10 Nearcon, Lisbon, Portugal
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
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
View curated VC news and articles on the VNTR Platform
Meet the top 10 VC fund families
On the crowded rollercoaster ride that is venture capital investment performance, one firm—New York-based Union Square Ventures—has crafted two fund families that far outperform their peers. USV's late-stage opportunity funds and early-stage flagship funds sit first and third, respectively, in a fresh PitchBook ranking of global VC fund family performance. The success of the early-stage funds—marked by early bets on companies like Etsy, Coinbase and X, formerly known as Twitter—likely fueled some of the outsize returns from USV's Opportunities Funds, a fund family that invests in existing portfolio companies.
The 7 best ways to lose money as an angel investor
Angels should have the same depth of understanding of the markets they invest in as the people who are working in the field, with fiduciary responsibilities to the people whose money they are investing. Angels have a broader set of reasons for investing, too: Maybe they want to help a friend out, or they care about a particular problem, or perhaps — as is sometimes the case — they are looking for an infinite pit to pour a not insignificant amount of money into without any chance of success at all. Investing at the earliest stages of a company is a high-risk activity, even with perfect information and context. That means that investors are more likely to not make any returns than someone investing in a more established business.
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Databricks And Generate Biomedicines Lead Another AI Surge
The AI craze will not settle down. This week, four of the top six rounds are directly related to AI and the use of the new technology. The rounds also show how AI is affecting every industry — from data analytics to biotech — and Nvidia’s growing tentacles as an investor in the technology.
Saudi Arabia to invest in Indian start-ups, will set up Sovereign Wealth Fund office in India
Saudi Arabia is considering setting up an office of its sovereign wealth fund (SWF) in India to facilitate investments in the country. Moreover, the country also plans on investing in Indian start-ups through venture capital. The country’s Investment Minister, Khalid A. Al Falih said on Monday that within the next few weeks, he would send a delegation to India to explore the opportunity. He added that his delegation would explore Gift City along with Mumbai and New Delhi.
For $100M-Plus Rounds, It’s Unclear What’s Normal
Venture funding rounds of $100 million or more were once a rarity. But as startup investment hit record levels a couple years ago, megarounds became an everyday occurrence. Now, with funding contracting, such deals are again getting rarer. So far this year, just 97 U.S.-based companies have landed a round of $100 million or more at Series A through Series D, per Crunchbase data. Over the prior two years, meanwhile, more than 800 such rounds closed. As charted below, 2023 is on track to be the most sluggish in years for both the number of megarounds and the total invested in such financings.
The big French fire sale: record numbers of startups are selling at big discounts
The number of startup acquisitions in France is hitting record highs. But deal value is down, as cash-strapped businesses desperately seek acquirers.
With startups running out of cash, the French tech fire sale is in full swing — and it’s emblematic of a broader collapse across Europe that is forcing desperate startups to sell at any price.
The rising wave of selling suggests that many founders and VCs are still just beginning to feel the consequences of the frigid funding climate, marking a painful end to an era of startup excess.
Japan to allow startups to raise funds by issuing crypto instead of stocks
The Japanese government reportedly plans to permit startups to raise public funds through the issuance of crypto assets, such as currencies, instead of stocks, local media has reported. According to Japanese financial news site The Nikkei, this updated system is specifically applicable to a category of funds known as Investment Business Limited Partnerships (LPS). So far, Japan has lagged behind the rest of the world in embracing digital assets. However, this has been changing in recent months. Japan’s primary financial regulatory authority, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), made a significant move on Aug. 31, seeking to amend the tax code related to cryptocurrencies, thereby taking a more active role in cryptocurrency regulation. The noteworthy move is aimed at exempting local businesses from the year-end “unrealized gains” tax on cryptocurrencies.
Sovereign wealth fund deals projected to drop 64% in 2023
Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) — some of tech’s biggest ticket investors — are projected to take part in 64% fewer deals into Europe’s startups in 2023 compared to last year. The downtick in activity means reduced access to a pool of capital which has historically backed some of the continent’s fastest-growing companies. Sovereign wealth is predominantly deployed at Series C and beyond. In 2022, there were 36 European tech deals involving either the Qatar Investment Authority, GIC, Mubadala, Temasek or the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority — some of the most active SWFs. As of mid-September 2023, there have been just nine deals involving the funds.
Bootstrapping vs. Seeking Venture Capital — How to Decide the Best Avenue for Your Business
Funding your idea is one of the most crucial aspects of getting your business off of the ground. But what's the best option between bootstrapping and seeking venture capital? Every person who's founded a business knows that financing your idea is one of the hardest but most important early steps. In fact, creating a stable financial nest for your new company might be the difference between a company that thrives and one that fizzles out. There are two primary methods of financing: looking for venture capital and bootstrapping. Choosing which financing method you go with is a crucial decision that may have long-term impacts on your business.
Private equity piles into battery storage sector
While private equity investment in the battery storage sector has slowed, overall deal count still remains above pre-pandemic levels, with nearly $5.2 billion invested across 44 deals so far this year. The battery storage market is growing in tandem with electric vehicle use. Australian energy research company Aurora Energy predicted in Europe alone the sector will attract over €70 billion of investment by 2050. Private equity firms in particular are still keen to get in on the act, as seen earlier this month with KKR's $750 million investment in UK player Zenobe in return for joint control with M&G unit Infracapital. PE deal activity for battery storage companies reached a peak last year, with 80 deals announced worth a combined $11.2 billion, according to PitchBook data. Although 2018 had a far greater total deal value, this was due to the largest battery storage deal on record, Brookfield Business Partners and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec's $13.2 billion acquisition of Clarios, a global leader in the sector.
5 AI trends to look forward to in 2023 and beyond
The artificial intelligence (AI) market has been growing at an exponential pace over the last couple of years, thanks in large part to consumer-ready products such as ChatGPT, Google Bard and IBM Watson that are now being used commonly across the globe. To this point, global management consulting firm McKinsey believes that anywhere between 50% and 60% of all organizations today are already making use of AI-centric tools, with this number expected to grow sharply in the near future. Moreover, as per Forbes, AI is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today, with the total market capitalization of this space set to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.3% until the end of the decade, reaching a cumulative valuation of $1.81 trillion over the said period.
Unicorns Are Thawing Out IPO Plans
After filing to go public, most companies either go through with an offering within a few months or formally withdraw it. But some do neither. Rather, having mistimed the market or misjudged their own IPO readiness, some companies continue to lie in wait, prepared to restart the process when conditions improve. This past week, we saw one such example from Turo, the peer-to-peer car rental platform. The San Francisco-based company — which originally filed to go public in January 2022 — submitted an updated registration that included earnings up to the first half of this year. To date, 14-year-old Turo has submitted six updated filings, posting regular growth in revenue. For the first half of 2023, revenue totaled $408 million — up from $333 million in the same period a year ago — while net loss widened to $23 million.
Guide: Generative AI
AI is nothing new. For decades it has been in use in data-driven and analytical workflows, with increasing sophistication. But creativity and ideation were considered human skills, far from the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
The emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) and programs such as StableDiffusion and ChatGPT has turned this assumption on its head. GenAI is an emerging frontier of AI, which uses Large Language Models (LLMs) trained on large data sets of content media (text, images, audio, video) to create new text, audio, images and more.
During a rapid emergence, Generative AI startups have attracted huge funding from investors, with over $22B in funding in the last five years.
Instacart's IPO price target delivers startups a dose of reality
Instacart's IPO is seen as a bellwether for public investors' demand for startups. So far, it's telling the entrepreneurial world what was already obvious—that revenue multiples of formerly VC-backed companies have cratered as investors lack faith in their future growth.
Instacart is targeting an IPO valuation of up to $9.3 billion on a fully diluted basis, 76% below its last $39 billion private market valuation and a fraction of what it would have received if the company had gone public in 2021.
Israel’s Startup Funding Drops As Its Famed Cyber Sector Takes A Hit
Israel has long taken pride in its blossoming tech startup scene, which has birthed large companies such as Check Point Software, CyberArk and Imperva, and trails only the U.S. in terms of cybersecurity funding. But Israel drove much of the decline in Asia’s significant drop in venture funding last quarter. Israeli startups saw a 67% year-to-year drop in funding, falling from $2.7 billion in Q2 last year to less than $900 million in Q2 this year, according to Crunchbase data. What may be most concerning is one of the sectors leading the way in the decline: cybersecurity, Israel’s best-known tech sector. The country, which is the second-largest cyber startup market in the world behind only the U.S., has witnessed a massive dropoff in venture dollars, with Q2 startup funding dropping 87%, per Crunchbase data
August And Two Companies Prepare To Exit
Nine companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in August 2023, with three of those companies in financial services.
And two highly valued unicorns — Instacart, among the top 10 most valuable private companies, and Klaviyo, among the top 80 — plan to go public in September, a signal that the IPO market could open in 2024.
3 Big Drivers Determining the Future of Crypto in the U.S.
Some of the most persistent questions in Washington D.C. at the time were whether crypto would still be around in a few years, rather than asking complex questions about market structure, taxing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or if code is protected by the U.S. Constitution. While those issues are still up for debate, it’s clear that crypto’s staying power is not. As Blockchain Association marks five years since its founding, it’s worth pausing to reflect on the past half-decade and look forward to the challenges that will likely define the industry’s success in arguing its case in U.S. capitol in the years to come.
What Will Be the Next Target of the SEC's Enforcement Regime?
Crypto has made “non-compliance its business model,” at least according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler. With that belief pervasive among the regulators primarily tasked with regulating securities in the United States, it is no surprise that enforcement actions involving cryptocurrencies are at an all-time high. In just a few years, we have watched a largely unregulated “Wild-West” be transfigured into a central focus of for the SEC, and, to a lesser extent, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ).
Sustained recovery? UK PE trends in four charts
While most of the rest of Europe is seeing subdued private equity activity, the UK is showing signs of recovery against a tough economic backdrop. Here are four charts from PitchBook's 2023 UK Private Capital Breakdown illustrating how UK PE is powering on against all odds. The second quarter saw a 13.3% increase in deal value over the previous three months , coming in at £38.4 billion ($48 billion). As Europe's largest PE market, the UK still accounted for 30% of European deal value.
Fund of funds: why to invest and, more importantly, why not
In stark contrast to the private equity and venture capital business, fund investment business is not that sexy. In fact, I often wonder how I ended up here. At dinner parties, whenever I am asked to explain what I do, and I tell them that I invest into private equity and venture capital funds, I can see them glancing over my shoulder to find another person to talk to. And I get it. It seems abstract and boring at first. But I do believe it can be very interesting from a strategic, analytical and even philosophical point of view. For that and mostly other reasons, it seemed a good idea to explain some more about fund investments.
India VC dealmaking activity pulls back to pre-pandemic levels
Momentum in venture dealmaking in India continues to soften this year with deal count and value on course to be at their lowest levels in five years. Some $7.6 billion has been invested this year across 977 deals, according to PitchBook data, significantly below last year's total of 2,377 rounds worth a combined $24.1 billion. However, total deal value for the last two consecutive quarters has increased, which could point to a potential recovery on the horizon. Megadeals including online learning platform Byju's $700 million round in April and eyewear startup Lenskart's $600 million June investment have helped to push up overall deal value.
Venture capital exec says ‘lack of innovation’ drives funding away from crypto
Compared to 2022, where the first and second quarters of the year saw a combined $20.3 billion flow into the space through venture capital funding, 2023 has been significantly lacking. Venture capital funding for the crypto space has significantly declined this year. In the first quarter of the year, around $2.6 billion worth of crypto VC deals were made. In Q2, the space saw around $2.1 billion across 292 funding rounds, which is one of the worst performances in terms of crypto fundraising. Amid the current VC funding situation, Cointelegraph’s Zhiyuan Sun recently interviewed Tony Cheng, a partner at the crypto investment firm Foresight Ventures, to speak about how the lack of new innovations may be driving venture capital firms away from the space, how founders should act to survive the bear market, and what companies should prioritize between user growth and profit.
Big tech isn’t shelling out for acquisitions like it used to
The economic and regulatory climate has brought big tech M&A activity to a near halt, with acquisitions reaching an 18-quarter low in Q2’23.
Historically, big tech players have snapped up startups to acquire tech talent and expand into new markets and product lines. However, they face a more challenging regulatory climate — especially in the US and Europe, where anti-trust pressure has been mounting.
3 Strategic Steps Toward SaaS Profitability
In the “good old days” — i.e. just two years ago — making a profit wasn’t top of mind for venture capitalists and thus for entrepreneurs. When there was more venture capital money than good startups to invest in, fiscal concerns often took a back seat. But times have changed. In today’s market, even fantastic companies struggle to secure scarce venture capital. Nowadays, you need to have a rare combination of high growth, profitability, low customer churn and high net dollar retention just to get your foot in the door. The financial benchmark known as the “Rule of 40” — which is used to balance growth and profitability, meaning YoY revenue growth beyond 40% could allow for negative profitability — now seems to be changing. Today, both profitability and growth are needed to attract investors.
Most Active US Investors: Alumni Ventures Leads For 2nd Straight Month
For the second month in a row, Alumni Ventures — which caters to individual investors who typically don’t have a pathway to the VC market — was the most active investor in U.S.-based startups.
However, no firm could even crack double-digits in U.S. investments last month as the market continues to find its new equilibrium.
In July, Alumni completed a dozen deals in U.S. startups, but topped August with only nine. That’s a somewhat low total when you consider firms such as Gaingels (16), Insight Partners (12) and Soma Capital (10) all completed at least 10 similar investments in August 2022.