VNTR Newsletter Mar 9, 2025 - VNTR Forum Riyadh
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
New VNTR Podcast Episode: Join VNTR Club members Pavel Yurovitsky, CEO of KIT Global, and Wahid Chammas, Founder & CIO of TyreGate Capital Holdings, as they share expert insights on growth marketing strategies, top marketing channels, essential tools for success, and the game-changing impact of AI on the industry.
📺 Watch & Listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple
Billionaire Mindset Dinner: VNTR members are welcome to attend the Billionaire Mindset VIP Dinner on March 14 at Intrigue, Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas.
SportTech Investment Committee: Join us for a pitch session featuring three early-stage SportTech startups as they present their ventures to VNTR members.
Web3 Amsterdam Conference: Complimentary Passes using VNTR100 discount code.
VNTR Roadshow Riyadh Saudi Arabia: Join us for a three-day immersive experience exploring Saudi Arabia’s thriving startup and venture ecosystem. Connect with key ecosystem players, engage with local VCs and family offices, and build relationships with fellow investors:
📌 April 22 – Ecosystem Day: Meet ecosystem key stakeholders.
📌 April 23 – VNTR Investor Forum Riyadh: learn, connect and engage with peers
📌 April 24 – Pre-arranged 1:1 meetings
🔗 Apply to join the Roadshow on VNTR
💼 Sponsorship packages available
March 11 – April 10 2025 Fellowship Program: We are seeking visionary Chapter Directors to lead VNTR Chapters in key global hubs, including Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Jakarta, Melbourne, Sydney, Berlin, Monaco, New Delhi, Lisbon, London, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Marrakesh, Lagos, Athens, and more.
🚀 Apply now for the March 2025 cohort and take on a leadership role at VNTR!
Join The VNTR Club Exclusive Lifetime Membership: The last 2 spots are available on the current lifetime membership terms, which include an equity partner position in VNTR for those who join. 📩 Contact Elise to learn more and schedule your onboarding call.
VNTR Regatta Sardinia: From May 26 to 30, sail through Sardinia’s picturesque coastline, build deep relationships with fellow investors, engage in thought-provoking discussions on the latest venture capital trends, and unwind with curated experiences, gourmet dining, and breathtaking views.
Spouses and life partners are welcome and can share a cabin or hotel room.
🚀 Limited spots available – secure yours today
VNTR Events
Join us at our upcoming events to connect with key investment decision-makers:
March 10 2025
Miami Spring Training
in partnership with Bullpen
March 11 2025
Investor Roundtable London
during Super Return
March 12 2025
Investment Committee Online
March 13 2025
Investor Breakfast Amsterdam
during Web3 Amsterdam
March 13 2025
Investor Roundtable Paris
March 19 2025
Investor Roundtable San Francisco
during GDC
March 19 2025
Investor Roundtable New York City
during Digital Asset Summit 2025
March 26 2025
Investor Roundtable Warsaw
March 26 2025
Investor Breakfast Madrid
March 27 2025
Club Mastermind Dubai
for active VNTR Club members only
March 27 2025
Investor Roundtable Toronto
during CIX
April 4 2025
Investor Roundtable Bengaluru
April 4 2025
Investor Roundtable Bangkok
during South East Asia Blockchain week
April 9 2025
Investor Roundtable Paris
during Paris Blockchain Week
April 13 2025
Investor Roundtable Manama
during Formula 1 Grand Prix
April 15 2025
Investor Roundtable Marrakesh
during Gitex Africa
April 16 2025
Investor Roundtable Tokyo
during TEAMZ Web3/AI Summit
April 22-24 2025
Investor Roadshow Riyadh
April 23 2025
Investor Forum Riyadh
April 24 2025
Investor Roundtable Singapore
during Gitex Asia
April 30 2025
Investor Roundtable Silicon Valley
during Startup Grind Conference
May 1 2025
Investor Forum Dubai
during Token2049 Dubai
Thank you to our Partners
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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
March 13-14 Web3 Amsterdam, Netherlands (Complimentary investor passes for VNTR using VNTR100)
March 18-20 Digital Asset Summit 2025, New York, US ($200 off using VNTR200)
March 19-20 NextBlockExpo, Warsaw, Poland
March 19 South Summit Scale Oslo, Norway
March 20 South Summit Scale Berlin, Germany
March 25-26 CEE VC Summit, Warsaw, Poland
April 8-10 Paris Blockchain Week, France
April 9-11 South Summit Brazil, Porto Alegre, Brazil
April 11-13 Liberland's 10-year anniversary
April 14-16 GITEX Africa, Marrakech, Morocco (Complimentary investor passes)
April 23-25 Money 20/20 Asia, Bangkok, Thailand
April 23-25 GITEX Asia, Singapore (Complimentary investor passes)
April 27-30 Web Summit Rio, Brazil
April 29-30 Startup Grind Conference, Silicon Valley, USA (Complimentary Investor Passes for VNTR)
April 30 - May 1 Token2049, Dubai, UAE
May 9-10 Blockchain Week Rome, Italy (Complimentary investor passes for Club members, 10% discount using VNTR10)
May 12-13 Dubai FinTech Summit, Dubai, UAE
May 14-16 Consensus, Toronto, Canada
May 21-23 GITEX Europe, Berlin, Germany (Complimentary investor passes)
May 27-29 Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas, US
May 27-30 Web Summit Vancouver, Canada
June 4-6 South Summit Madrid 2025, Spain
June 11-14 Viva Technology, Paris, France
June 19-21 BTC Prague, Czech Republic
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: AI And Defense Tech Lead With Massive Rounds
This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out the biggest funding rounds of last week here. Artificial intelligence and defense were the key buzz words of the week in the venture world. Three startups in those sectors raised massive rounds, however, there were big rounds elsewhere too — including biotech, healthcare and robotics.
The US LPs backing European venture funds
Although many of Europe’s most active limited partner (LP) investors are homegrown — like the public-private EU backer the European Investment Fund — several of the US’s largest LPs have spied opportunity across the Atlantic, actively investing in some of Europe’s best-known VC funds in recent years. The LP landscape in the US is very different from Europe: big university endowments and pension funds dominate American VC funds’ coffers, whereas in Europe most funding comes from state and government backers.
Venture Firms Going Public
Traditionally, venture firms have stayed private partnerships, with the management company wholly owned by the general partners of the firm. But this would definitely mix things up, although it wouldn’t be entirely unprecedented, with PE firms such as Apollo, Blackstone and KKR all being public.
So what would it actually mean for a VC firm to go public? Why would a firm choose to take this route in the first place? And how would public markets value them?
Let’s break it down.
A quarter of startups in YC’s current cohort have codebases that are almost entirely AI-generated
With the release of new AI models that are better at coding, developers are increasingly using AI to generate code. One of the newest examples is the current batch coming out of Y Combinator, the storied Silicon Valley startup accelerator. A quarter of the W25 startup batch have 95% of their codebases generated by AI, YC managing partner Jared Friedman said during a conversation posted on YouTube.
Where PE leads, VC follows
This week Bain released their annual global private equity report. As private equity ($5 trillion global AUM) is the big brother to venture capital ($2 trillion global AUM), trends in private equity tend to follow in venture capital thereafter.
The report comes at a time of change for the private markets industry (including both PE and VC).
The growth of the private capital market has been rapid over recent decades. According to Preqin, the private capital market has grown from $716 billion in total AUM in 2000 to $15 trillion as 2023. The major twin growth engines in recent years have been low interest rates and multiple expansion.
Pandemic-era VC dry powder is still piling up
Mounting amounts of dry powder held in three- to five-year-old venture capital funds have reached levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis, according to a new PitchBook research report.
These large untapped capital commitments stem from limited partners piling into funds in venture’s 2020 and 2021 boom. But the market’s prolonged downturn since then has left VCs with too much cash on hand, and too few opportunities to deploy it, says Kyle Stanford, PitchBook’s director of venture capital research.
Of the $677 billion of VC dry powder globally, 53% resides in funds between three and five years old, according to the report.
Unicorn Valuations Crest Higher
When the term unicorn first entered startup parlance in 2013, VC-backed private companies with billion-dollar-plus valuations were still relatively rare creatures.
How long ago that seems.
This week, generative AI heavyweight Anthropic became the latest one-time unicorn to surpass the $60 billion valuation threshold.
The San Francisco-based company announced Monday that it secured $3.5 billion at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The financing followed the launch of the latest version of its popular AI chatbot and agent, Claude.
Why VCs ghost founders, or reject deals and never speak to the founder again
Getting ghosted is never fun. Especially if you’re a founder seeking capital from investors. It’s similar to dating. You might be left wondering “Why is this person not getting back to me? Did I do something wrong?” Did the investor hate the product? Did they not care for me personally?” It’s enough to drive anyone crazy. Ghosting is an undeniable signal of a lack of interest. If a VC wanted to invest, they would definitely respond to your cold call, or get back to you after the pitch.
Forex Comes Into Focus As More Currency-Related Startups Raise Funding
Most of us get through each day without noticing how our national currency is faring on global markets. Others, however, have no such luxury. Whether it’s manufacturers with cross-border supply chains, retailers pricing imported goods, or workers collecting pay in volatile home currencies, quite a few players in the global economy are instantly affected by exchange-rate fluctuations. Unfortunately, it’s also something over which they have little to no control.
What should founders actually do after they exit?
It’s the last slide on the pitch deck for a reason. We’ll raise all this money, build this amazing business and then we’ll sell it and everyone will take their money. Simple as that. What will the founders do next? Who cares. I find it baffling that we have so little discussion about what happens to founders after an exit. There’s no right way to navigate the transition, and no matter whether the payout you get means you’re set up for life or not, at some point you’re fully out, and have to face the question of ‘what next?’
Europe’s defense-tech startups launch into new era of growth
Europe is redefining defense priorities as global geopolitics shift and relations with its closest ally become increasingly strained. It’s been just over three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the threat to Europe’s security borders is only intensifying as the US freezes military aid to that nation. Europe has been left vulnerable with lagging defenses. The EU’s response: a massive spending spree.
Rounds Of $500M+, Skewed To Senior Startups, Soak Up Record Share Of Funding
The term “startup” conjures up images of scrappy entrepreneurs tirelessly pitching investors to fund their early visions. However, an increasingly large share of what we call startup funding looks nothing like that. Rather, it consists of investors pouring billions or hundreds of millions into businesses that already have valuations similar to successful public companies and often have large, established revenue streams as well.
Aerospace and defense dealmaking takes flight
Private equity investments in the aerospace and defense sector turned a corner last year, as high buyer interest and narrowing price gaps powered a deal spree. In 2024, the PE industry inked an estimated 333 deals targeting aerospace and defense companies globally, smashing 2021’s nearly decade-high deal count of 262, according to PitchBook’s latest Aerospace & Defense Report. The total deal value—$36.7 billion—fell behind 2021’s peak but was 37% higher than in 2023.
Eye On AI: The Never-Ending AI Valuation Escalation Part II
It was just four months ago we examined right in this very column the exorbitant valuation jumps many (all?) AI startups had been enjoying in the then-recent months. Well, February showed that type of craziness can happen in just one short month. The year is still young, but AI valuations are already reaching astonishing heights. SoftBank‘s planned $40 billion investment into OpenAI would come at a nearly $300 billion valuation, almost double its valuation from October.
Startup Funding Slows In February Amid Exit Uncertainty
Global venture funding totaled $19 billion in February, marking one of the slowest months for startup investment in the past year, according to Crunchbase data. AI and healthcare were the two leading sectors for investment, with hardware and manufacturing gaining in prominence. The U.S. led monthly funding totals with just over $10 billion invested this past month — or 54% of global venture investment.
2 Roads To Startup Growth In 2025: Efficiency Vs Acceleration
The world of startups in 2025 feels a bit like Robert Frost’s famous poem, “The Road Not Taken.” Two paths diverge in a wood, and startups are standing at the crossroads deciding which to follow. The decision today isn’t just about “growth” in the abstract; it’s about how to grow. On one path is the pursuit of higher growth forecasts at the cost of efficiency — previously the de facto mode for startup growth. On the other, a more measured approach is taking shape — slower growth but with airtight efficiency, sometimes even reaching the hallowed ground of cash-flow breakeven.
As Hegseth cozies up to Silicon Valley, VCs’ defense tech investing is getting frothy
A belief that the Pentagon under Trump will be more hospitable to startups is fueling defense tech venture deals at more than 100x revenue multiples, according to insiders. And two of the most prominent VCs in the sector, Founders Fund and 8VC, have spent the last few months raising war chests from LPs to deploy into the next generation of warfare technology.
US will use stablecoins to ensure dollar hegemony — Scott Bessent
United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US government will use stablecoins to ensure that the US dollar remains the world’s global reserve currency during the White House Crypto Summit on March 7. Bessent reiterated the Trump administration’s promise to end the war on crypto and committed to rolling back previous IRS guidance and punitive regulatory measures. Bessent then turned his attention to stablecoins and said.
DeFi is no longer decentralized — compliance is undermining decentralization
When decentralized finance (DeFi) first emerged, the core idea was simple: financial freedom, transparency and the absence of centralized control. Smart contracts were meant to replace banks, liquidity was to be distributed globally, and users were supposed to have complete control over their funds.
ChatGPT doubled its weekly active users in under 6 months, thanks to new releases
OpenAI’s flagship AI chatbot, ChatGPT, returned to solid growth in the latter half of 2024, according to a new report published on Thursday by VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). While it took ChatGPT nine months to grow from 100 million weekly active users in November 2023 to 200 million in August 2024, it’s now taken less than six months for the app to double those numbers yet again, the report found.
Crypto Market Is Skeptical About the Formation of a U.S. Strategic Reserve: JPMorgan
Cryptocurrency markets are likely to remain under pressure in the short term owing to a lack of positive catalysts and skepticism about whether Congress will approve a U.S. strategic crypto reserve, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Wednesday.