VNTR Newsletter Jan 12, 2025 - Join us in Davos
Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – News, Events, and VC Reads
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
Spotlight
New Partner Announcement: THORWallet joined us as a partner for a series of 4 events during WEF Davos, LEAP Riyadh, ETH Denver, and Paris Blockchain Week. Get a 5% discount on fees by joining THORWallet.
VNTR Chapter Directors Fellowship Program: We are kicking off our second Chapter Directors Fellowship program cohort on Jan 14, during which we will launch 10+ new chapters across EMEA. The program is designed for entrepreneurs eager to transition into venture capital, become investors, and serve as super connectors within their local VNTR chapter communities. Fellows will gain the knowledge, tools, and strategies to successfully establish and scale VNTR chapters. The Fellowship also provides insights into generating revenue through premium offerings, including Club memberships, sponsorships, syndicated deals, and regional micro VC funds led by chapter directors in partnership with VNTR. Apply to join the Fellowship Program and become a partner at the VNTR global network.
VNTR at Davos WEF 2025: Join us in Davos during the World Economic Forum for an exclusive series of high-impact events:
Jan 19 VENTURE Club Ski Retreat supported by Yalla Limited and Denario
Jan 23 VENTURE LP Roundtable (GPs interested in presenting, contact Yuri)
Jan 20 Catalysts of Impact - supported by Earth05, Angel Twin, FutureHouse.ai, E-TRON, LiquidManzana, Be World Positive and Green Accelerator:
Jan 21 Web3 Investor Circle part of The Swiss WEB3FEST Winter Edition 2025
VNTR Roadshow Bahrain: Immerse yourself in Bahrain’s dynamic ecosystem, network with key players, and explore exciting opportunities during a 4-day VNTR Roadshow Bahrain. Highlighted by the VNTR Investor Conference on February 18, this experience combines valuable insights, strategic connections, and curated events. Apply to Roadshow
February 17: Ecosystem Day – A full-day program to delve into Bahrain’s innovation landscape and connect with the local ecosystem players
February 18: VNTR Investor Conference Bahrain – A full-day program with keynotes, panels, roundtables, and one-on-one meetings. (sponsorship packages)
February 19: VNTR Club Retreat – A full-day program to unwind, network, and build deeper relationships while exploring top Bahrain sightseeing spots.
February 20: Curated One-on-One Meetings – Tailored opportunities to meet potential partners, investors, and collaborators.
VNTR GP Club Membership: We invite seasoned General Partners (GPs) raising their third or subsequent funds to join the VNTR GP Club Membership and connect with potential global LPs. Schedule an onboarding call with Robert.
Corporate Partners: Partner with us to elevate your brand, expand your reach, and be part of a thriving global investor community. You can sponsor a series of events or join our Annual Corporate Partnership program for year-round engagement. Schedule intro call with Alex to explore customized corporate integration opportunities.
VNTR Podcast: We are introducing a new podcast format: VNTR Debates. In this series, two guest investors will join us for an engaging and interactive debate, exploring diverse perspectives on key topics. This format allows our audience to gain valuable insights and learn from the contrasting viewpoints of industry experts. Stay updated with our latest episodes, and subscribe on your preferred platform to never miss insightful discussions: YouTube, Spotify, and Apple. Contact Elise if you would like to be on the show.
VNTR Events
Join us at our upcoming events to connect with key investment decision-makers, including venture capital partners, family offices, business angels, corporate venture capital leaders, institutional investors, and limited partners (LPs).
Feb 5 VNTR Investor Roundtable Dubai (sponsorship packages) during AI Everything
Feb 10 VNTR Investor Roundtable (sponsorship packages) during LEAP
Feb 11 VNTR LP Roundtable during LEAP
Feb 18 VNTR Investor Conference Bahrain (sponsorship packages)
Feb 19 VNTR Investor Roundtable Hong Kong (sponsorship packages) during Consensus Hong Kong
Feb 24 VNTR Investor Roundtable Doha (sponsorship packages) during Web Summit Qatar
Feb 27 VNTR Investor Roundtable Denver (sponsorship packages) during ETHDenver
View the full list of VNTR events and top events sponsorship packages
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, and X.
Thank you to our Partners:
Perfect — 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.
Beehiiv — Beehiiv is an all-in-one newsletter platform designed for creators, publishers, and businesses to build, grow, and monetize their newsletters seamlessly. With powerful tools for audience growth, subscriber engagement, and revenue generation, Beehiiv simplifies the process of launching and scaling newsletters. VNTR offer: Receive a 30-day trial + 20% OFF for 3 months.
Mercury — The fintech more than 200K ambitious companies trust with their finances. VNTR offer: Get $250 cash, when you deposit $10K within your first 90 days.
UPCOMING VC EVENTS
Jan 15-17 CFC St. Moritz, Switzerland
Jan 16-18 DLD, Munich, Germany
Jan 17 GITEX Global X Expand North Star Roadshow, San Francisco, USA
Jan 20-24 World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
Feb 3-6 4YFN, Barcelona, Spain
Feb 4-6 AI Everything Global, Dubai, UAE
Feb 5-7 Techchill, Riga, Latvia
Feb 9-12 LEAP, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Feb 18-20 Consensus, Hong Kong
Feb 23-26 Web Summit Qatar, Doha, Qatar
March 25-26 CEE VC Summit, Warsaw, Poland
April 9-11 South Summit Brazil, Porto Alegre, Brazil
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
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
Startup Funding Regained Its Footing In 2024 As AI Became The Star Of The Show
Global venture funding in 2024 edged above 2023’s totals, with AI showing the biggest leap in amounts year to year. Overall startup funding in 2024 reached close to $314 billion — compared to $304 billion in 2023 — up around 3%, based on an analysis of Crunchbase data.
Global venture investment in 2024 was above the pre-pandemic year of 2019, but below 2018 and 2020 amounts at $346 billion and $350 billion, respectively.
AI startups grabbed a third of global VC dollars in 2024
One out of every three VC dollars invested globally in 2024 went to an AI startup, reflecting a continued coalescence around the vertical that some investors fear is having a distorting effect on the market.
Funding for AI and ML startups accounted for 35.7% of all VC global deal value last year, according to PitchBook data. In North America, the vertical grabbed nearly half of all VC dollars. Globally, investment in AI and ML startups increased more than 50% to $131.5 billion.
Why only raising from Tier 1 VCs isn’t always a good strategy
If you, like me, regrettably couldn’t stay off social media during the holidays, you may have seen a debate pop up among VC tweeters that seems to surface every year: why you should never raise from anyone but so-called Tier 1 VCs — or those whose returns and reputation is top-notch.
The debate this time kicked off on X after Ian Crosby, the cofounder and former CEO of US accounting startup Bench, posted about how his company was being shut down years after he says he was removed as CEO in 2021 (he claimed his board wanted to replace him with a professional CEO). Tech journalist Eric Newcomer posted a screenshot of the company’s board members, prompting one founder to declare on X: “Never raise money from Tier 3 VCs. Every horror story I hear is from uncalibrated VCs that have no operating experience who think they can tell a founder how to run their company.”
Eye On AI: AI Venture Funding Shattered Quarterly Records In Q4
While many of us took some time off during the holidays, AI startups did not take a break from fundraising.
The fourth quarter was unlike any other in the industry as far as fundraising goes. It also wasn’t just Databricks (although, yes, a massive $10 billion round does pump up the numbers).
In early October, OpenAI announced its long-awaited raise of $6.6 billion at a post-money valuation of $157 billion led by Thrive Capital.
The following month, xAI raised another $6 billion in a funding round valuing it at $50 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new round includes investment from the Qatar Investment Authority, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.
Amid an IPO boom, India VC fundraising grows 77%
Indian VC fundraising grew 77% in 2024, defying a broader slump in Asia—and much of the world—as a record number of IPOs have pushed more VC firms to invest in the world’s fastest-growing large economy.
In 2024, $3.5 billion was raised from 38 funds, up from the previous year’s total of $2 billion across 29 funds, according to PitchBook data. Asian fundraising overall declined 24.2% from the previous year.
Europe’s ‘soonicorns': Who will reach a €1B valuation in 2025?
Europe’s unicorn herd saw limited growth in 2024 as the number of venture capital-backed companies to cross the €1 billion valuation threshold remained flat.
Only 14 startups reached unicorn status last year, according to PitchBook data, the same number as in 2023, which in turn was down nearly 70% from 2022.
With VC investors expecting a better year for dealmaking and valuations in 2025, this year is likely to see more companies join the herd—especially AI startups.
We’ve compiled a list of some of Europe’s VC-backed companies that could exceed a €1 billion valuation this year.
North American Startup Funding Spikes To Close 2024
North American venture funding spiked in the final quarter of 2024, closing out an up year for startup investment driven by continued momentum around artificial intelligence, Crunchbase data shows.
Altogether, investors put $61.9 billion into U.S. and Canadian startups at seed through growth stage in the fourth quarter. It was the highest quarterly tally in nearly two years, with the strongest pickup seen at late stage.
For all of 2024, meanwhile, total investment was just over $184 billion — up 21% from the prior year.
For perspective, below we charted out total investment, color-coded by stage, for the past 12 quarters.
The State of Venture Capital in Africa in 2024
In 2024, venture capital funding in Africa dropped to $2.2 billion, down 25% from 2023 and 53% from 2022, reflecting global economic challenges. The "Big Four" countries – Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa – dominated, attracting 84% of total funding. Notable trends included the rise of venture debt, a shift toward sectors like AI, climate tech, and renewable energy, and North Africa overtaking West Africa in funding activity.
VC fund distributions will rebound in 2025
In 2025, venture fund LPs can expect distribution yields to increase for the first time since they peaked in Q3 2021.
Distribution yields measure the proportion of the aggregate US VC fund net asset value that was distributed over the subsequent year. The most recent quarters have been some of the lowest on record, approaching the global financial crisis (GFC) lows of 4.2%.
The recent dearth in distributions is not systematic; it is a hangover from the recent period of expedited market dynamics.
Saudi Arabia’s startup ecosystem kicks off 2025 on a strong note
Saudi Arabia’s venture capital and startup ecosystem kicked off 2025 with fresh funding rounds as the Kingdom continues its regional dominance.
Zension Technologies raised $30 million in a series A funding round led by Wa’ed Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco.
The round also saw participation from Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and regional investor Global Ventures.
VC investment in emerging markets plummeted by over 40% last year
VC investments in emerging markets such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) plummeted by over 40% compared to 2023, according to a new report. The data mirrors the wider global trend of reduced VC funding in the last two years, especially for non-AI companies.
The total raised across the markets surveyed was $9.1 billion in 2024, a 41% decline year-on-year. Furthermore, there was a 20% drop in deal activity, with the number of deals falling to 1,527.
M&A in European tech slowed in 2024 — but insiders expect things to heat up
2024 turned out to be a slower year for M&A in Europe than many bankers, investors and lawyers expected.
There were 858 exits of VC-backed companies in Europe last year, down about 11% from 2023 and off a whopping 37% from the frenzied days of 2021, according to new PitchBook data (which could still change as further deals are announced). The value of those deals, however, ticked up, largely thanks to Spanish luxury beauty and fashion company Puig’s $2.8bn public listing in May on the Spanish stock exchange. M&A deal value hit €61.8bn last year, up from €42.2bn the year prior.
PE takes pick-and-shovel approach in AI gold rush
An Emirati billionaire pledged Tuesday to invest upwards of $20 billion to build data centers in the US.
The soaring demand for data centers, fueled by the AI craze and the explosion of cloud-based services, has sparked a boom in infrastructure dealmaking.
GPs and institutional investors see long-term data center projects as a relatively safe way to capitalize on the AI revolution. Compared to investments in individual AI-focused companies, large infrastructure projects, such as those required for data center development, reward investors with contractual cash flow from a suite of high-quality tenants.
In 2024, digital infrastructure GPs struck a record-breaking $108.1 billion in deals for data centers and related markets—over three times as much money as they spent in the previous year, according to PitchBook data.
The AI Revolution Will Spawn Millions of New Tokens
In October 2024, an AI agent became a millionaire for the first time. That's something only a tiny fraction of humans will ever accomplish, even after a lifetime of labor, but an AI agent managed it in a span of days. Terminal of Truths (ToT) watched as its associated token $GOAT skyrocketed to a $900M market cap — not through trading algorithms or customer service, but by building “memetic fitness” and creating its own religion.
Silicon Valley is so dominant again, its startups devoured over half of all US VC funding in 2024
For all the chatter about the decline of San Francisco, data repeatedly shows that the Bay Area, including the city itself, is still the best place for venture-backed startups.
Startups located in the Bay Area vacuumed up $90 billion of VC investment in 2024, which was 57% of the $178 billion of US venture funding spent last year, new stats released on Tuesday by Crunchbase show.
Asia Venture Funding Tanks To 10-Year Low
While global venture investment rebounded last year, the Asia funding market cratered, totaling only $65.8 billion in 2024 — the exact same low the market hit in 2014.
With the exception of seed and angel, every other funding stage was down last year as geopolitical events and a struggling Chinese economy seemed to drag the venture market down, per Crunchbase data.
What 2025 Holds for Tokenized Real World Assets
Real world assets (RWAs). This is what the crypto natives and institutions are now calling on-chain representations of ownership in real estate, debt, equity, fund LP units, and other traditional assets.
Singapore’s GIC invested more than any other sovereign wealth fund into European startups in 2024
Singapore’s GIC ploughed more money into European startups than any other sovereign wealth fund globally in 2024.
The fund, which has $847bn in assets under management, backed just two European companies in 2024, German hydrogen startup Sunfire and Storegga, a UK startup developing carbon removal plants.
Despite the low deal count, GIC’s investment came to $1.9bn – the highest of any sovereign wealth fund, according to research consultancy Global SWF.
Innovators Wanted: 3 Pet Care Areas Primed For Disruption
As we enter 2025, startups and investors alike are taking stock: What lessons were learned in 2024? Where did we get it right? Where is there opportunity for growth? And more importantly, what are our goals for the year ahead?
Like many industries, venture investment in pet care fell in 2024, yet the overall industry saw no signs of losing steam. In fact, pet spending continues to grow: The U.S. market alone spent $186 billion on their pets in 2023 with estimates predicting that spending will have increased 2.5% by the end of 2024.
While this has led to some exciting solutions, in any growing industry the distance between competition and over-saturation quickly shrinks.
2025 Q1 Venture Trends
As we head into Q1 2025, the venture capital and startup ecosystem is brimming with momentum. Accelerating developments in sectors like AI, deep tech, and health sciences continues to reshape the industry’s focus, while optimism abounds about the incoming U.S. Administration policy agenda, which promises to remove major regulatory hurdles that have been responsible for hampering and slowing down the pace of innovation.
AI talent flywheel spins and future of compute takes centre stage: VC UK tech predictions for 2025
2024 was a choppy year on the UK tech scene. Year on year funding fell (again), tax burdens on businesses increased and there was a lot of backlash against government tech moves.
There were some notable raises, though — none more so than autonomous vehicle company Wayve’s $1bn Series C in May, a record sum for an AI company in Europe — and a number of VCs closed funds north of $1bn.
But what do investors think 2025 has in store for UK tech? Sifted spoke to Hoxton Ventures, Air Street Capital, AlbionVC and Index Ventures to find out.
How Startup Founders Can Navigate VC Dynamics and Exit Strategies
When startup founders bring venture capitalists (VCs) on board, they unlock opportunities for accelerated growth and access to invaluable expertise. However, they also enter into a dynamic where VCs’ goals may not always align with their own. For founders, understanding how VCs operate and their approach to exits is critical for managing expectations and making informed decisions.