VNTR Newsletter September 1, 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 for VNTR Community News, Upcoming Events, and VC News/Reads.
VNTR COMMUNITY NEWS
Spotlight
Summer: We hope you had a wonderful summer vacation and are recharged for the new business season with exciting opportunities, conferences, and investments. Although July and August were relatively quiet, we still hosted 16 offline events across major cities, including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Miami, Tokyo, Bali, Cologne, Istanbul, Toronto, Marbella, Nashville, Kuala Lumpur, Cascais, Mexico City, Phnom Penh, and Brussels. In addition, we organized 12 online events featuring VNTR expert sessions and speed networking. The VNTR Team is now geared up for a busy season ahead, ready to connect thousands of investors through our upcoming online and offline events!
New Partner: We're happy to announce that Camino has become the title sponsor for the VNTR Singapore Roundtable on September 19 during Token 2049 (15% off using VNTR15). Camino Network is the Layer 1 blockchain built specifically for the travel industry. Operated by a consortium of industry leaders, Camino transforms the distribution landscape and solves connectivity challenges in the multi-trillion-dollar travel sector.
VNTR Summit Speakers: We are excited to welcome our latest speakers at the upcoming VNTR Summit in Lisbon:
Kelly Perdew, General Partner at Moonshots Capital, is an investor in 14 Unicorns, including LinkedIn, Slack, Scopely, ID.me, Pandora, and X.ai.
Igor Ryabenkiy, General Partner at AltaIR Capital, has invested in over 10 Unicorns, such as Miro, Deel, PandaDoc, Turing, Verbit AI, Sunbit, Jeeves, Socure, Albert, Squire, and OpenWeb.
Apply to speak. We invite top-tier VCs and capital allocators to share their valuable knowledge and insights with hundreds of attending investors.
VNTR Summit Passes: We're excited to announce that early bird registrations are now open for the VNTR Summit in Lisbon on November 13, 2024. VNTR Club members receive a complimentary VIP pass as part of their membership benefits.
Don't miss out—create your investor account on VNTR today and secure your spot at this exclusive event. Interested in enhancing your brand's visibility? You can also apply to sponsor or reach out to Lukas to discuss sponsorship opportunities.New VNTR Podcast: We hosted Dov Moran, Managing Partner at Grove Ventures. Dov is renowned globally as the inventor of the USB flash drive. He founded M-Systems, a pioneering data storage technology company, which SanDisk acquired in 2006 for $1.6 billion. You can now watch it on YouTube, Spotify and Apple. Don’t miss out—catch up on all our latest episodes and subscribe on your favorite platform.
Coming 3 Weeks:
Seoul: Sep 4 VNTR Investors Roundtable Seoul side event to Korean Blockchain Week in partnership with QuantumEVM.
Online: Sep 5 VNTR Expert Session with VNTR Club Member Christian Sauer, CEO at soonami
Bangkok: Sep 6 VNTR Investors Brunch Bangkok during Wiki Finance Expo
Online: Sep 10 VNTR Club AI Mastermind
London: Sep 10 VNTR LP Roundtable in partnership with CV VC
Paris: Sep 11 VNTR Investors Roundtable Paris during IPEM Paris
Copenhagen: Sep 12 VNTR Investors Roundtable Copenhagen during Tech BBQ
Miami: Sep 12 VNTR Investors Roundtable Miami during WebCongress
Dubai: Sep 12 VNTR Investors Roundtable Dubai during Dubai AI & Web3 Festival (complimentary investor passes)
Singapore: We are hosting multiple events during Token2049 (15% off using VNTR15):
Sep 17 VNTR LP Roundtable Singapore (Capital allocators and family offices)
Sep 18 XRLP Accelerator Scale Investors Mixer by VNTR in partnership with XRPL Accelerator
Sep 19 VNTR Investors Roundtable Singapore, powered by Camino. In partnership with Stellar, XRPL Accelerator, and Token2049.
Thank you to our Partners:
Camino Network is the Layer 1 blockchain built specifically for the travel industry. Operated by a consortium of industry leaders, Camino transforms the distribution landscape and solves connectivity challenges in the multi-trillion-dollar travel sector.
Perfect is a Personal Lifestyle app that helps you Book your 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 VNTR experiences.
Upcoming VNTR Events:
Sep 26 VNTR Investors Roundtable Barcelona (European Blockchain Convention)
Oct 9 VNTR Investors Roundtable San Francisco (San Francisco Tech Week)
Oct 16 VNTR Investors Roundtable Los Angeles (Los Angeles Tech Week)
More events available on the VNTR Platform
Reach out to Lukas to sponsor VNTR events or join VNTR Corporate Partnership.
Follow us on Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, and X.
UPCOMING VC EVENTS
Sep 9-11 IPEM Paris, France
Sep 11-12 Dubai AI & Web3 Festival, Dubai, UAE (complimentary investor passes)
Sep 11-12 TechBBQ, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sep 17-18 Asia PE-VC Summit, Singapore
Sep 17-19 Dreamforce, San Francisco, USA
Sep 18-19 Token2049, Singapore (15% Discount using VNTR15)
Sep 18-19 Principled Business New York Summit, NY, USA (30% Discount)
Sep 24-27 Super Return Asia, Singapore
Sep 25-27 South Summit, Seoul, Korea
Sep 29 - Oct 1 Bitz & Pretzels, Munich, Germany
Oct 1-3 CV Summit, Zug, Switzerland
Oct 2-3 Sifted Summit, London, UK
Oct 2-3 How to Web, Bucharest, Romania
Oct 4-5 Dext Force Festival, Barcelona, Spain (30% Discount)
Oct 4-7 WCIT 2024, Yerevan, Armenia (Investor Tour)
Oct 7-13 San Francisco Tech Week, USA
Oct 8-12 Merge Madrid, Spain
Oct 13-16 Expand North Star, Dubai, UAE (Complimentary investor passes)
Oct 14-18 GITEX Global, Dubai, UAE (Complimentary investor passes)
Oct 14-20 Los Angeles Tech Week, USA
Oct 15-17 Meridian by Stellar, London, UK
Oct 21-27 Mexico Tech Week, Mexico City, Mexico
Oct 22-23 Blockchain Life, Dubai, UAE (10% Discount using VNTR)
Oct 28-29 SWITCH, Singapore
Oct 28-Nov 1 Hong Kong FinTech Week, Hong Kong
Nov 11-14 Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 20-21 Slush, Helsinki, Finland
Dec 4-7 CC Forum, Paris, France
Dec 9-12 Abu Dhabi Finance Week, UAE
If you would like to submit VC-related events, please respond to this email or Telegram @byuric
Check out VNTR Capital upcoming events
VC Reads and News
View curated VC news and articles on the VNTR Platform
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Cribl And Codeium Raise At Huge Valuations
The week saw a handful of nine-figure rounds, and some at pretty big valuations. That included one large round minting a new unicorn that has developed an AI-powered coding co-pilot. However, after some of the really large rounds, the round sizes dropped fast and furious.
To Make It Big, Most Tech Startups Have A Limited Post-IPO Window To Turn Profitable
Covering tech startup IPOs generally involves writing about companies that lose money. Sure, there are exceptions. Blockbusters, like Google, which was minting search advertising cash well before its IPO. Or, more recently, companies like Instacart or Klaviyo that tapped public markets shortly after turning a modest profit. But in most cases, even the most valuable one-time venture-backed technology companies went public before turning profitable. While they eventually made money, it often took a while.
Where VCs are placing their next AI bets
The time has come — as it does with every investment hype cycle — for VCs to start wondering whether the billions they’ve poured into AI over the past two years will ever pay off. Companies which raised big earlier in the AI boom will soon need to raise funding again — and VCs are having a good think about what metrics they’ll need to see to merit further investment.
After Slowing In 2023, US Median Round Size Again Growing
For a decade, U.S. seed and early-stage round sizes consistently saw an increase until early 2023 when typical round sizes began to come down and the venture market was three quarters into a funding slowdown. The first half of this year, however, has reversed that trend as the median round size for funding at seed through Series C has picked up again, an analysis of Crunchbase data shows.
Corporate Funding Rounds Account For Larger Share Of Venture Investment
In the past couple years, a larger share of U.S. startup investment has come from corporate funding rounds. That was the broad finding from a Crunchbase data dive into U.S. rounds solely backed by a corporate investor. Such rounds accounted for 12% of total funding in 2023 — a high point in our survey and potentially a record-setting share. The strong showing was largely due to a single round — Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI.
One of Germany’s biggest LPs KfW Capital says VC fundraising is picking up
VC fundraising was slow in 2022 and 2023, but things are “steadily improving”, says Jörg Goschin, managing director at German state-backed LP KfW Capital. “We looked at around 220 funds last year and we expect that number this year to be higher, which shows that fundraising activity is picking up,” says Goschin. “I think we can say that the light at the end of the tunnel which we saw last year is getting brighter.” A subsidiary of the KfW Development Bank, KfW Capital is a major LP in European VC funds including Germany’s Project A and Earlybird and France’s Partech.
VC’s top fund families feature household names and up-and-comers
Venture capital funds in 2023—at least in their limited partners’ estimation—flashed that they might be able to get back to making money. Or at least stop losing it. VC funds recorded an aggregate return of 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to PitchBook data. But over a longer time horizon, select managers have shown an ability to book far better results. Case in point: New York-based Union Square Ventures has maintained the firm’s strong performance.
When the Mismanagerial Class Destroys Great Companies
In 2005, Paul Otellini became the new CEO of Intel, America’s premier semiconductor designer and manufacturer. He was the first CEO of the company not to have a background in engineering. Sometime shortly thereafter, Otellini entered discussions with Steve Jobs on whether Intel would manufacture the chips needed for Apple’s secretive, potentially revolutionary new project: the iPhone. Ultimately, Otellini declined. He thought the initial costs would be too high and the resulting sales too low. Since then, Apple has sold 2.3 billion iPhones. Intel flatly missed out on the mobile computing revolution ushered in by Apple, which put Intel’s competitors in various domains—including companies like Samsung, TSMC, and most significantly Arm—squarely in the leading position that Intel once had.
Defense and aerospace deals grow as PE investment rebounds
PE firms have invested nearly $4 billion in defense and aerospace already this year, a sign of recovery after high interest rates slowed down deals over the last couple of years. After peaking in 2021, PE investments in the sector took a downward turn in 2022 and 2023, slowing by over $15 billion. But the investments picture this year is looking more positive. So far, the deal count is only 51, but completed deals have been larger than in previous years, according to PitchBook data. At the current pace, 2024’s deal value is on track to surpass last year’s total.
Putting OpenAI’s Crazy High $100B Valuation Into Context
These days, hearing about hot companies in generative AI raising huge rounds at multibillion-dollar valuations has gotten pretty routine. However, when news broke this week that OpenAI is in talks for a new funding round at a valuation of over $100 billion, it drove home just how big the stakes have become. The investment, said to include backing from Thrive Capital and Microsoft, represents a 16% jump from OpenAI’s last known valuation.
Record year for European PE mega-funds on the horizon
European private equity mega-funds are on track for another record-breaking fundraising year after collecting more than €96 billion (roughly $107 billion) in 2023, a sign that there is still plenty of room to grow before becoming a more mature market like that of the US. PE mega-funds—defined in PitchBook’s The Rise of European Megafunds: Part II as vehicles over €1 billion—collected €77.8 billion in the first half of 2024, already reaching 81% of the record set last year. Fund counts are also on the rise: 14 vehicles closed in H1 2024, compared to 20 for all of 2023.
Venture Funding To China-Based Startups Dries Up
Venture funding to Chinese startups seems almost certain to hit its lowest point in a decade as early-stage funding to the country continues to plummet. Total funding to startups in China bottomed out last quarter when it hit only $7.4 billion — a stunning 42% decline from Q1, which saw $12.8 billion invested, and the lowest since Q3 2014, per Crunchbase data.
Investors bet on gaming’s next hitmakers
In gaming, content is king. VC investment in the gaming vertical is back on the rise with three consecutive quarters of growth, according to PitchBook’s Q2 2024 Gaming Report. In Q2, deal value jumped 43.4% over the previous quarter to $1.8 billion, although the number of deals slipped to 136, a decline of 24%. The largest segment driving growth within gaming is also its most important: content with startups creating new, unique games for players. Gaming startups launched some of today’s biggest games like Minecraft and Fortnite—investors are looking for the next big hit.
Elon Musk, Tesla beat Dogecoin manipulation lawsuit
Elon Musk and his electric automotive company, Tesla, have won the dismissal of a lawsuit that accused them of manipulating the price of Dogecoin, causing $258 billion in damages. The lawsuit was tossed in an Aug. 29 decision by Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Hellerstein said the defendants made several “material misrepresentations” of Musk’s tweets about Dogecoin, which included Musk saying he would become the official CEO of Dogecoin and that Musk may put a “literal” Dogecoin in a SpaceX vehicle and fly it to the moon.
ChatGPT may already have more monthly users than Netflix
OpenAI’s flagship product, ChatGPT, has surpassed 200 million weekly users, more than doubling its count from a year ago. The 200 million weekly user milestone is certainly significant, but it makes direct comparisons to user bases in the technology market difficult. Most organizations report monthly user counts. Netflix, for example, has an estimated subscriber base of 278 million paid subscribers. Those are monthly numbers, so, technically, it’s possible that ChatGPT sees more monthly usage than the streaming giant.
Apple, Nvidia among prospective investors in OpenAI’s multibillion-dollar fundraising
Apple and chipmaker Nvidia are reportedly among the investors interested in backing OpenAI’s upcoming funding round, which could value the artificial intelligence company at over $100 billion. According to Aug. 29 reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, both companies are planning to invest in the AI startup. Apple’s move would be unusual for the company, which typically does not invest in startups. The investment, however, would align with its strategy to keep up with the AI race amid growing competition from tech giants and emerging startups.
Decline in Venture Capital Exits in Africa: Insights from the H1 2024 Venture Investment Report
Africa’s venture capital (VC) landscape faced a significant downturn in the first half of 2024, particularly evident in the stark decline in exit activities across the continent. According to the latest Africa Venture Investment Report, the region recorded only nine exits, marking a 40% decrease compared to the first half of 2023. This downturn aligns with broader global and regional VC trends, but contrasts sharply with the peak exit activities observed during the post-COVID-19 funding influx in previous years.
60 AI Upstarts Reshaping Tech: A VC’s Insider Guide To The Next Wave Of Innovation
In a world where artificial intelligence was once the stuff of science fiction, we now find ourselves in an era where AI is not just a reality - but a driving force of innovation across industries. Forget the usual suspects - the tech giants that dominate headlines. Today, we're diving into the AI startup ecosystem, where the next billion-dollar ideas are taking root.
A recent report from Exploding Topics has unearthed 60 AI companies that are growing at breakneck speed, each with the potential to disrupt industries and deliver the kind of returns that make VCs salivate. But here's the kicker: many of these startups aren't household names... yet.
Nigeria Leads in H1 2024 Venture Capital Funding Despite Africa’s Economic Challenges
The first half of 2024 saw significant geographical shifts in the landscape of venture capital investment across Africa. With a total funding of $393 million and only 119 deals, the region experienced the lowest H1 funding since 2019, marking a 57% year-on-year (YoY) decline. This downturn was notably more severe compared to other emerging venture markets like MENA and Southeast Asia, highlighting Africa’s vulnerability to global economic uncertainties.