VNTR Newsletter Feb 16, 2025 - Bahrain Conference
Hello friends,
Happy Sunday!
VNTR Newsletter is delivered to 100k+ investors and subscribers weekly to share the latest news, events, and articles from the global VC and startup ecosystem.
Scroll down to discover VNTR Community News, Upcoming Events, and the latest VC News and Reads.
VNTR Community News
VNTR Podcast: Check out our new episode with Oskar Hartmann, a prolific serial entrepreneur and super angel investor. With involvement in over 150 ventures and 14 unicorns, Oskar shares invaluable insights from his remarkable journey. Tune in on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify.
VNTR Club Lifetime Membership: The VNTR Club is an exclusive, global community of seasoned venture capital investors. Our Lifetime Membership requires a one-time fee to join a rapidly expanding platform and network, offering privileged access to professional VC investors, curated investment opportunities, and impactful events—ideal for those aiming to stay at the forefront of innovation. Contact Elise to learn more and book your onboarding call.
VNTR March 2025 Fellowship Program: VNTR is expanding its global chapter network to over 50 cities in 2025, focusing on key tech hubs throughout EMEA and Southeast Asia. March 2025 Fellowship Cohort is a 5-week program designed to help entrepreneurs transition into Venture Capital, become active investors, and serve as super connectors in their local VNTR chapters. Fellows will develop the knowledge, tools, and strategies to establish and scale VNTR chapters in their regions successfully. Apply for the March 2025 cohort and take a leadership role at VNTR.
This week, we’re in Bahrain for the VNTR Roadshow Bahrain, marking the launch of the VNTR Chapter Bahrain at the VNTR Investor Conference Bahrain on February 18. Supported by In2 Bahrain and ATME, this event brings together top investors and industry leaders. Join us at the Investor Conference Bahrain.
VNTR Regatta Sardinia: Join us from May 26 to 30 for an exclusive sailing experience with VNTR Club members. Don’t miss this chance to sail through Sardinia’s picturesque coastline, build deep relationships with fellow investors, and gain fresh perspectives on the latest trends in venture investing. Secure your spot now, and prepare to set sail with VNTR!
VNTR Events
Join us at our upcoming events to connect with key investment decision-makers:
16-20 Feb 2025
VC Roadshow Bahrain
17 Feb 2025
Expert Session Online
with Alessandro Pace
18 Feb 2025
Investor Conference Bahrain
19 Feb 2025
VNTR Club Retreat Bahrain
19 Feb 2025
LP Dinner Vienna
20 Feb 2025
Investor Roundtable Hong Kong
during Consensus (15% discount using VNTRDESK15 code)
25 Feb 2025
Investor Roundtable Doha
during Web Summit Qatar
26 Feb 2025
Investor Roundtable San Antonio
26 Feb 2025
Investor Breakfast Madrid
26 Feb 2025
Investor Afterwork Paris
27 Feb 2025
Investor Breakfast Toronto
27 Feb 2025
Investor Roundtable Denver
during ETHDenver
27 Feb 2025
Investor Roundtable Kuala Lumpur
4 Mar 2025
Investor Roundtable Miami
during Florida Venture Capital Conference
5 Mar 2025
Investor Roundtable Barcelona
during Mobile World Congress
6 Mar 2025
Speed Networking Online
11 Mar 2025
Investor Roundtable London
during Super Return
19 Mar 2025
Investor Roundtable San Francisco
during GDC
26 Mar 2025
Investor Breakfast Madrid
27 Mar 2025
Club Mastermind Dubai
for active VNTR Club members only
Thank you to our Partners
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Bahrain-licensed digital assets platform is rapidly establishing itself as a transformative force in the capital markets. ATME bridges traditional finance principles with digital innovation opportunities, providing a secure and compliant exchange for tokenized assets (Real-World Assets, RWAs). Contact Julia to learn more.
Soonami is the fastest-growing ecosystem for innovators, empowering startups to create, build, and scale using the best of Web3 and AI solutions. We believe in a remote-first world, fostering inclusivity for founders across the globe. The vision is to build a software-driven platform that connects co-founders with groundbreaking ideas and funds the most promising ventures. Today, more than 8,000 founders and 900+ projects trust our pltform to fuel their success. Contact Christian to learn more.
Your Personal Lifestyle app that helps you Book 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 access to VNTR experiences.
Companies who would like to sponsor VNTR events can apply as a sponsor. View the top events sponsorship packages.
Or be a core supporter of the VNTR community year-round, engaging with our global investor network. Check Details & Packages.
Upcoming VC Events and Conferences
Feb 18-20 Consensus, Hong Kong (15% discount using VNTRDESK15)
Feb 18-19 Global Family Office Investment Summit, Miami, USA
Feb 19-20 CVC Summit, Miami, USA
Feb 19-21 FII Priority, Miami, USA
Feb 23-26 Web Summit Qatar, Doha, Qatar
Feb 25 FO Summit Dubai, UAE
March 3-6 4YFN, Barcelona, Spain
March 3-6 Mobile World Congress
March 18-20 Digital Asset Summit 2025, New York, US
March 25-26 CEE VC Summit, Warsaw, Poland
April 9-11 South Summit Brazil, Porto Alegre, Brazil
April 11-13 Liberland's 10-year anniversary
April 14-16 GITEX Africa, Marrakech, Morocco
April 23-25 GITEX Asia, Singapore
April 27-30 Web Summit Rio, Brazil
April 30 - May 1 Token2049, Dubai, UAE
May 12-13 Dubai FinTech Summit, Dubai, UAE
May 14-16 Consensus, Toronto, Canada
May 21-23 GITEX Europe, Berlin, Germany
May 27-30 Web Summit Vancouver, Canada
June 11-14 Viva Technology, Paris, France
June 26-27 LegalTech Talk, London, UK (complimentary investor passes)
June 26-27 Istanbul Blockchain Week
If you would like to submit VC-related events, please get in touch with Yuri or Telegram @byuric
VC Reads and News
View curated VC news and articles on the VNTR Platform
The Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds: Robotics And Legal Tech Top Bounce-Back Week
The past few weeks were slow when it came to big rounds, but this week was quite the bounce-back. More than a half dozen startups raised $100 million or more, as investors went big on robotics and legal tech.
62% of Start-Ups Fail. And 1.3% Become Unicorns
So Carta has some interesting new data from all of its start-ups from The Class of 2018 here.
Every start-up dataset is a bit different. Some are broader than Carta, some narrower, but Carta is a good proxy for typical tech start-ups that raise a seed round.
And what happens after that seed round?
* Within 7 years, 62% of start-ups shut down.
* But of the ones that raise seed capital? It’s not clear, but it might be as low as 30% that fail within 7 years.
* 15% are able to get to Series B
* 1.1% raise a round at a $1B or high valuation
Abu Dhabi Discloses $437M Stake in BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF
The Middle Eastern city of Abu Dhabi on Friday disclosed a $436.9 million stake in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) as of Dec. 31, 2024. The stake was held via Mubadala Investments, one of the country's sovereign wealth funds, per a 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
VC industry reacts to Trump nominating a16z’s Brian Quintenz for regulatory role
Brian Quintenz, who leads policy for Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto team, announced on Wednesday that he’s being tapped to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to his X post. And many in the VC industry appear to be thrilled about it.
The CFTC regulates the trading of commodity futures, options, and swaps, otherwise known as derivatives. It is also involved in the enforcement of regulations impacting some crypto.
Crypto bills stack up across the US, from Bitcoin reserves to task forces
State lawmakers across the US are introducing crypto-focused legislation, with the bills as diverse as the states themselves. Since the beginning of February, nine US states have introduced some form of legislation pertaining to cryptocurrency. The bills range from Bitcoin reserves to task forces designed to better inform state policies on digital assets. The growing visibility of the blockchain industry follows the 2024 federal and state elections, in which the crypto industry spent nearly $250 billion supporting pro-crypto candidates in both parties.
Aging buyout portfolios reach decade high at 3.4-year hold period
Private equity firms are holding on to their portfolio companies longer than they have in over a decade. The median holding period of a US PE-backed company reached 3.4 years at the end of 2024, the longest in over nine years, according to PitchBook’s Q1 2025 Quantitative Perspectives: US Market Insights report.
Healthcare Leads For New Unicorn Counts In January As AI Theme Continues
Eleven startups joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in January, including five from the healthcare sector. Health-related startups that joined included companies working on genetic research, drug development, scanning services, AI agents and in-home healthcare. The remaining six new January unicorns hail from multiple sectors, although artificial intelligence impacts the majority of them — driving advances in health, professional services, computer vision, data storage and space technology.
Cleantech Funding Off To A Slow Start In 2025
If urgency were the driving motivation of venture funding, you’d expect cleantech would be cleaning up. However, that’s not happening. In the wake of a record year for global surface temperatures that brought epic destruction from wildfires, floods and storms, sustainability-related investment is off to a sluggish start in 2025. So far this year, only around $2.3 billion globally has gone to seed through growth-stage investments in sustainability-related categories , per Crunchbase data.
Infrastructure fundraising set to rebound—but some vehicles missed target
Infrastructure fundraising is expected to turn a corner this year, but some funds are still struggling to hit their goals as investors shift their focus to higher-risk strategies. In the past two weeks, two new vehicles closed in quick succession, albeit short of their intended targets. Abrdn announced Feb. 5 that it wrapped up its third core infrastructure fund on Jan. 31 on €585 million (around $604 million), including co-investments, having previously aimed for €1 billion.
Hundreds Of Unicorns Haven’t Raised New Funding Since 2021
We are witnessing an unprecedented pile-up of unicorn startups that have not raised any money since 2021. Currently, an estimated 517 global unicorns — or private companies valued at $1 billion or more — raised their last known round more than three years ago, per Crunchbase data. Such companies are particularly abundant in certain sectors, including enterprise software, fitness, commerce, AI and analytics. The accumulation comes amid a sluggish period for tech IPO filings and large acquisitions. So far this year, we haven’t seen any tech unicorns go public — even those in hot spaces that recently raised big rounds.
Breaking The Wealth Barrier: Why The SEC Should Redefine ‘Accredited Investor’
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s outdated accredited investor rules have locked millions of capable Americans out of one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy: private company investments. With ICAN, or the Investor Choice Advocates Network, filing a writ of mandamus to compel the SEC to revisit its archaic standards, there’s finally a chance for meaningful change. This isn’t just about updating regulations — it’s about fairness, innovation and common sense.
What’s eating Musk and Altman? Billionaires beef over AI’s future
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has refused a buyout offer from Tesla founder Elon Musk with a curt “no thank you” on X, marking the latest episode in an ongoing feud between the two tech billionaires. On Feb. 10, a group of investors led by Musk reportedly submitted a $97.4 billion bid to OpenAI’s board of directors.
VC secondary discounts narrow as primary dealmaking rebounds
Direct VC secondary deals are becoming more expensive as a recovery in primary dealmaking shrinks discounts. According to data from Zanbato published in PitchBook’s 2024 Annual European Venture Report, the median discount for secondaries was 3% in December compared to 46% in the same month in 2023.
Defense Tech Venture Funding Gains Traction
Venture funding for defense tech startups grew last year, but despite some large and notable funding rounds the total amount invested was lower than some might have anticipated. Funding to VC-backed startups in defense — defined here as the industries of military, national security and law enforcement — hit $3 billion in 102 deals, per Crunchbase data. That’s only an 11% uptick from 2023, which saw $2.7 billion raised in 100 announced rounds.
SoftBank Vision Fund Hit With More Losses
SoftBank reported a net loss of nearly $2.4 billion for its fiscal third quarter, with another quarter in the red for its once-heralded Vision Fund unit. The Vision Fund unit, famed for its investment in startups including Uber and DoorDash, lost about $2 billion as shares of Coupang and Didi fell. The losses come just weeks after the White House announced its new $500 billion AI Stargate Project, in which SoftBank is looking to invest $19 billion, per reports.
AI investments surged 62% to $110B in 2024 while startup funding overall declined 12%
Venture capitalists are gobbling up term sheets for startups peddling artificial intelligence, but they’re remaining picky when it comes to funding the wider spectrum of technology. According to new figures from analytics firm Dealroom, AI startups raised $110 billion last year, 62% more than the year before. At the same time, privately backed companies (startups and scale-ups) across the technology spectrum raised $227 billion in 2024, down 12% from 2023.
Top 15 crypto conferences to mark your calendar in 2025
Check out all the major crypto conferences of 2025 that unite global leaders for vital insights on DeFi, AI, real-world adoption, governance and more.
AI agent startups: 18 companies VCs are watching in Europe
AI agents — tools that use the tech to perform tasks without needing a human in the loop — could be the big startup hype bubble in 2025. Many VCs tell Sifted they're looking to deploy capital into AI agent startups this year, as companies hit the market with tech claiming to automate whole workflows and make companies more efficient.
These are the investors funding Musk’s $97 billion OpenAI takeover attempt
As if Elon Musk doesn’t have enough going on, a consortium of investors led by him announced plans Monday for what appears to be a hostile takeover of OpenAI. The investor group offered nearly $97.4 billion to buy all of OpenAI’s assets and is “prepared to consider matching or exceeding higher bids,” it said in a press release sent to TechCrunch.