VNTR Newsletter Oct 27, 2024 – Venture Capital News, Events, VC Reads
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
VNTR Global Investor Summit on Nov 13 in Lisbon: In just 2 weeks, we’ll host our biggest global event of the year in Lisbon, bringing together 200+ investors. The VNTR Summit features keynotes, panels, and roundtables on ClimateTech, AI, Blockchain, Women in VC, Impact Investments, Investments in Portugal, and more. Approved attendees can join LP and CVC roundtables, pre-scheduled meetings, and curated matchmaking. Secure your complimentary General Pass on VNTR or Purchase a VIP Investor Pass, including VNTR Club Retreat Sintra, access to VIP lounge programming, LP Roundtable, CVC Roundtable, VIP matchmaking, and introduction service.
VNTR Awards: We launched the annual VNTR Awards to recognize excellence within the venture capital community. Please participate by nominating individuals and firms who stand out in the VC ecosystem. Award recipients will be chosen based on global community votes and industry insights. The awards will be presented during the second half of the day at the VNTR Global Investor Summit in Lisbon.
Speakers at VNTR Summit: We have a few remaining speaking slots available. You can apply as a speaker here. VNTR Summit speaker lineup:
Marco Antonio Soriano IV, Chairman of the Board of Directors at The Soriano Group & Family Office
Igor Ryabenkiy, General Partner at Altair Capital
Kelly Perdew, General Partner at Moonshots Capital
Olya Sergeeva, COO of VNTR Capital
Daniel Casanas, Head of Investments at Stellar Development Foundation
Stephan de Moraes, Managing General Partner at Indico Capital Partners
Philipp Willigman, Founder & CEO at U-Path
Kevin Jiang, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Mangusta Capital
Neville Teagarden, Managing Partner at AI Capital
Dr. Steven Waterhouse, Founder & CEO at Nazaré Ventures
Mathias Ruch, Founder & CEO at CV VC / CV Labs
Nelson Luciano, Startups, Cloud Natives & Venture Capital at Google
Sergey Gribov, General Partner at Flint Capital
Max Studennikoff, Founder and Chairman at CC Forum in Sustainable Development.
Bryan Talebi, Founder and CEO at Ahura AI.
Zach Coelius, Managing Partner at Coelius Capital
Sead Bajrovic, Founding Partner at Water Impact Partners
David Long, Chief Commercial Officer at CV VC
Yuri Rabinovich, Founder and Managing Partner at VNTR
Sponsor VNTR Summit: Last sponsorship packages are available for companies seeking to engage with investors, portfolio companies, and high-net-worth individuals. Boost your brand and connect with key decision-makers. Apply today or contact Elise for details.
VNTR Summit Week side events:
Nov 11 VNTR Chapter Directors Summit (Chapter Directors and Venture Partners)
Nov 11 COREangels Day (20% discount using VNTR)
Nov 14 VNTR Club Retreat Sintra (VIP pass holders, VNTR Club members, and speakers)
VNTR Podcast: In Episode 17, we delve into Venture Capital Insights and Storytelling with Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta. Tune in on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple. Stay updated with our latest episodes, and subscribe on your preferred platform to never miss insightful discussions.
Coming 4 Weeks:
Hong Kong: Oct 30 VNTR Investor Roundtable during Hong Kong FinTech Week.
Copenhagen: Oct 31 VNTR Investor Breakfast
Istanbul: Oct 31 VNTR Investor Roundtable during Istanbul Tech Week
Dubai: Nov 3 Global Entrepreneurs Summit & Expo 2024 - VNTR Investor Panel Discussion
Vienna: Nov 5 VNTR Investor Breakfast during Invest Austria
Singapore: Nov 7 VNTR Investor Roundtable during Singapore Fintech Festival
Madrid: Nov 7 VNTR Investor Roundtable
Online: Nov 7 VNTR LP Roundtable
Cascais: Nov 11 VNTR Chapter Directors Summit (active VNTR Chapter directors and Venture Partners)
Lisbon: Nov 13 VNTR Global Investor Summit.
Sintra: Nov 14 VNTR Club Retreat Sintra (VIP passes, VNTR Club members and speakers)
Bangkok: Nov 14 VNTR Investor Roundtable during Devcon.
Helsinki: Nov 21 VNTR Investor Roundtable during SLUSH
Tel-Aviv: Nov 25 VNTR Investor Roundtable
Thank you to our Partners:
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Upcoming VNTR Events:
Dec 6 VNTR Investor Roundtable Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix)
Dec 11 VNTR Investor Roundtable Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi Finance Week)
Jan 15 VNTR Investor Roundtable Bahrain (Chapter Launch)
Jan 22 VENTURE Investor Roundtable Davos (World Economic Forum)
More events available on the VNTR Platform
Contact Elise to sponsor VNTR events or join the VNTR Corporate Partnership.
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, and X.
UPCOMING VC EVENTS
Oct 28-29 SWITCH, Singapore
Oct 28-Nov 1 Hong Kong FinTech Week, Hong Kong (10% discount using HKFTW24VNTR, Reach out to Hannah to apply for an Investor Champion Program (to receive a complimentary pass)).
Oct 30-Nov 1 Istanbul Tech Week, Istanbul, Turkey (Use "vntr15" to get a 15% discount on all passes)
Nov 3-4 Global Entrepreneurs Summit and Expo, Dubai, UAE (complimentary for VNTR members)
Nov 6 Invest Austria, Vienna, Austria (30% discount using VNTR-30)
Nov 6-8 Singapore FinTech Festival, Singapore (20% discount using SFFCPVNTR on Delegate Pass)
Nov 7 The Venture Revolution, San Francisco, USA (50% discount using VNTR50)
Nov 11-12 WOW Summit Bangkok, Thailand
Nov 11-14 Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 12-15 Devcon, Bangkok, Thailand
Nov 20-21 Slush, Helsinki, Finland
Dec 3-5 ISPO Munich, Germany
Dec 4-7 CC Forum, Paris, France (VNTR100EXEC complimentary General Admission pass, VNTR20VIP for 20% discount code for a VIP pass)
Dec 9-12 Abu Dhabi Finance Week, UAE
Dec 10-11 World AI Summit, Doha, Qatar
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
Investments in generative AI startups topped $3.9B in Q3 2024
Not everyone is convinced of generative AI’s return on investment. But many investors are, judging by the latest figures from funding tracker PitchBook.
In Q3 2024, VCs invested $3.9 billion in generative AI startups across 206 deals, per PitchBook. (That’s not counting OpenAI‘s $6.6 billion round.) And $2.9 billion of that funding went to U.S.-based companies across 127 deals.
Some of the biggest winners in Q3 were coding assistant Magic ($320 million in August), enterprise search provider Glean ($260 million in September), and business analytics firm Hebbia ($130 million in July). China’s Moonshot AI raised $300 million in August, and Sakana AI, a Japanese startup focused on scientific discovery, closed a $214 million tranche last month.
Even With Venture Slowdown, Megadeals Grow
Although venture funding still seems to be slumbering overall, big rounds have made a comeback this year.
Per The Crunchbase Megadeals Board, nearly 240 rounds of $100 million or more have been announced (or reported by reputable news outlets) by U.S.-based startups. That number already tops the 210 raised all of last year.
Klarna dethrones Revolut as Europe’s top fintech founder factory
Klarna has become Europe’s top fintech for producing founders from its former employees. A total of 62 startups have been created by alums from the Swedish buy now pay later giant, according to data released today by VC firm Accel and data platform Dealroom.
Revolut, last year’s top dog, is in second place with 49, while money transfer app Wise scores bronze with 33 startups founded by ex-employees.
Klarna’s total is almost double last year’s 32. The number of former Revolut founders has increased by 44% year-on-year. Accel partner Luca Bocchio tells Sifted this is due to both the size of the companies — Klarna has around 3,800 employees; Revolut has more than 10k — and their culture.
Europe’s PE-backed companies see an IPO recovery
PE investors in Europe have seen a modest recovery in IPO activity this year after two consecutive years of decline—however activity still falls below the previous peak in 2021.
There have been 15 PE-backed IPOs involving European-headquartered companies this year worth a total €41.8 billion (around $45 billion). Last year, the total value of IPO activity among companies in the region reached €59.7 billion, however there were just 8 IPOs in all—much of the value came from London-based chipmakers ARM‘s $54.8 billion blockbuster IPO in New York.
AI-Related Seed Rounds Slow, But Prices Remain High
The third quarter was the second-largest for venture funding to AI startups ever — with a whopping $19.1 billion raised, per Crunchbase.
However, the numbers also showed total deal flow in Q3 dipped to under 1,000 rounds for the first time since ChatGPT launched — falling 33% from last year.
At the heart of that deal flow decline was the very earliest stage — seed — which saw a precipitous 43% drop from just a year ago. However, valuations for those early seed rounds seem to have never been higher.
General Catalyst Lands A Massive $8B In New Capital For Funds
General Catalyst — whose investments include Airbnb, Instacart and Mistral AI — has raised $8 billion in new capital as it looks to “turbocharge” its investments in sectors like AI, defense, climate, healthcare and fintech.
The firm’s latest fund — Fund XII — will see about $6 billion of the new capital, including around $4.5 billion for its core funds focused on seed and growth equity, and $1.5 billion for its creation strategy. The remaining $2 billion will go toward separately managed accounts.
Media for equity: 'False economy' or fast track to growth?
Consumer-facing startups have had a tough time recently. VC investment into consumer startups globally was down 97% in 2023 compared to its peak in 2021, and a cost of living crisis and rise in inflation has reduced people’s spending power. Many investors have turned their attention towards B2B business models instead.
Media companies are also struggling: last year, the revenues in the TV production sector in the UK fell by £400m as broadcasters had to cut back on spending.
Venture debt activity picks up in Europe
Europe has seen a rebound in venture debt dealmaking, with this year already surpassing 2023 in deal value.
Through the first three quarters of the year, venture debt provided €13.2 billion in capital, according to PitchBook’s Q3 2024 European Venture Report, compared to €13.1 billion ($14.2 billion) in 2023.
At the current pace, 2024’s annual total is projected to come in just below 2022, making it the third-highest year on record for venture debt value.
4 Areas Where Seed Funding Is Strong, From AI Assistants To Carbon Capturers
In the not-that-distant future, robots and AI assistants will be taking on a much larger share of our work. Humans will consume growing quantities of increasingly elaborate digital content. And we’ll find more creative ways to store the carbon generated by all our activity.
That, in very broad strokes, is the futuristic vision one might imagine after scrolling through a sample set of 1,000 seed-stage companies on Crunchbase that raised funding in the past six months. Funding activity shows especially heavy enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, with roughly a third of funding in our sample set going to AI-related companies.
Family offices are increasingly interested in defence tech - but they’re keeping it quiet
Family offices are often secretive about their activities, but insiders say they're growing increasingly bullish on one area of investment: defence tech. It comes as VCs are being more vocal about their activities in the space.
“We're facing, basically, a sea change in attitudes as well as [an] openness to defence,” Nicholas Nelson, partner of UK-based defence VC MD One Ventures, which has family office LPs, tells Sifted.
Estimates put the number of family offices in Europe at more than 2,000, according to a recent Deloitte report. Nelson says he’s seeing more family offices in central eastern Europe, the UK and the US show an increasing appetite for defence and dual use (technologies that have both military and commercial applications), both investing directly into startups as well as backing VCs, though he admits his sample size is small.
Marc Andreessen says LLM developers may be in “a race to the bottom”: Trial Balance
Earlier this month at the technology conference Ray Summit, Marc Andreessen, general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, provided an interesting take recently published in its entirety on large language models (LLMs) and their profitability trajectory, specifically within product development. As Hewlett Packard Enterprise CFO Marie Myers mentioned during her keynote at a conference earlier this month, her company is one of many currently in the process of developing products that are essentially custom LLMs for businesses.
Investing In The Next Frontier Of Aerospace And Defense Startups
The aerospace and defense sectors face a pivotal moment as geopolitical tensions rise, labor shortages increase and technological innovation accelerates, driving demand for modernizing military and aerospace operations.
Early-stage tech investors are taking note, as funding shifts toward startups that address challenges in automation, digital transformation and supply chain resilience — each significant for these sectors. Demand for new aircraft, ships and advanced defense systems is a top priority for the Department of Defense.
Do we need to compare Ivy League endowment returns?
One of my biggest fears as a journalist is telling the same story over and over again, so I asked myself that question during one of the busiest times of the year: Ivy League endowment reporting season.
While it’s fun to compare the performances of these endowments, top endowments take relatively similar approaches to growing their capital base, and that makes for similar results. So is peer-to-peer comparison the best way to tell stories about these institutions?
Last week, Harvard University’s $53.2 billion endowment posted a one-year return of 9.6% for the fiscal year ending in June, fitting neatly below the returns seen at Columbia University and Brown University for the same period and above those at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University and Dartmouth College.
AI: 'Foundation Robotics' investments ramp up
Investor enthusiasm for ‘AI Robots’ continues to build in this AI Tech Wave. And it’s independent of Elon Musk’s humanoid robot initiatives at Tesla. And the never-ending flow of cool Hyundai owned Boston Dynamics robots on YouTube (see above).
It’s a subject I’ve covered before, especially in terms of ‘Foundation Robotics’ based on LLM AI technologies likely taking longer than expected to Scale for business and consumer uses. Not the least of it is the relentless innovations that are underway by both incumbents like Google, Nvidia, and new robotic startups.
Shop Till Your AI Bot Drops
Most of us spend quite a bit of time shopping. Depending on the circumstances, it can be either a chore, a pastime, or some combination of the two.
Online retailers get this, which is why they offer both addictively scrollable listings and very fast checkout. You can get what you want quickly, or, if you prefer, spend time browsing.
With the rise of generative AI, both types of shoppers look poised to see new tools that make the experience more enjoyable or efficient. In the startup sphere, this includes apps that understand detailed shopping requests, bots to scour secondhand offerings, and tools that simplify building custom products.
Are Tribal Tech Startups The Answer To The Loneliness Epidemic?
Today we put more value on individual success and independence than on social ties and community. We relocate farther from family to pursue career opportunities and ambitions. We constantly multitask, leaving little time for forging social connections. Many of us are living alone, making human belonging tougher to come by.
We’re having a hard time making friends, too. A study earlier this year found that 51% of surveyed Americans said they found it difficult to make new friends. Contrast this to a 1990 Gallup survey, which found that one-third of Americans reported having 10 or more friends. In 2021, only 13% in an American Survey Center poll said they had that many friends; 12% said they had none at all.
Quantum Computing – An Update
We talk a lot about qubits in this post. As a reminder a qubit – is short for a quantum bit. It is a quantum computing element that leverages the principle of superposition (that quantum particles can exist in many possible states at the same time) to encode information via one of four methods: spin, trapped atoms and ions, photons, or superconducting circuits.
EVs are just going to win
At the beginning of this year, the big story about electric vehicles was that sales were slowing down. Detractors of EVs — and there are a lot of them out there — declared that EVs are a flash in the pan, that interest is already waning, that the problems of EVs would prevent them from ever displacing internal combustion cars, that EVs will never be viable without subsidies, and so on. Essentially, the story was that the EV revolution was over, or at least stalled indefinitely.
That narrative has now essentially collapsed. EV sales reaccelerated in the U.S. after just a couple of months, and their market share has hit a new record high.