VNTR Newsletter September 29, 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 six weeks, we’ll be hosting our most anticipated global gathering of the year, bringing together over 200 investors in Lisbon. This exclusive event is designed to foster learning, connections, and the sharing of insights across the investment landscape. VNTR Summit will feature keynotes, panel discussions, and roundtables, focusing on pivotal themes such as ClimateTech, Impact Investing, AI, Blockchain, Women in VC, and Investments in Portugal. Attendees can participate in GP/LP and CVC roundtables, engage in pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings, and leverage our curated matchmaking services to maximize connections. Don’t miss out on the premier investor event of the year. Secure your early bird ticket today. We are recruiting speakers and panelists to join our programming. Apply as a speaker here.
VNTR Summit Awards: We are pleased to announce that we will host an award ceremony during the VNTR Global Investor Summit. VNTR awards will celebrate excellence within the investment community, recognizing outstanding achievements and contributions from individuals and organizations in the Venture Capital industry. The categories and their respective nominees will be announced soon. Follow us on our Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn & X) for all the latest updates.
Sponsor VNTR Summit: Limited sponsorship opportunities are available for companies looking to provide value to investors, high-net-worth individuals, and their portfolio companies. Don’t miss this chance to enhance your brand’s visibility and connect with key decision-makers. To explore sponsorship options, apply today or contact Lukas directly for more details.
VNTR Podcast: Tune in on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple. Stay updated with our latest episodes, and subscribe on your preferred platform to never miss insightful discussions.
VNTR Syndicate: Gain access to pre-vetted startups and leading venture funds through the VNTR Syndicate, exclusively for accredited investors. Unlock high-potential investment opportunities by joining VNTR. Schedule an introductory meeting to learn more and become part of the syndicate today.
Expand North Start and GITEX Global: Join us at our flagship investors gathering during Expand North Star Dubai. Investors can claim complimentary investor passes. Join our official side events for investors:
Oct 15 VNTR Investor Roundtable Dubai. Thank you, In5 Tech, for hosting us.
Oct 16 VNTR LP Roundtable Dubai (active Limited Partners, family offices, fund of funds, and capital allocators only). Thank you, Dubai Internet City, for hosting us.
Coming 4 Weeks:
Munich: Sep 30 VNTR Investor Roundtable during Bits & Pretzels.
New York: Oct 1 VNTR Investor Breakfast during Mainnet.
Zug: Oct 1 Venture LP Roundtable Zug during CV Summit. (30% Discount)
Barcelona: Oct 4 VNTR Investor Breakfast Barcelona during (Dexforce Festival)
Online: Oct 8 VNTR Speed Networking powered by Airmeet
Madrid: Oct 9 VNTR Investor Roundtable Madrid during Merge Madrid
Miami: Oct 10 VNTR Investor Roundtable Miami during Florida LP Summit
San Francisco: Oct 11 VNTR Investor Roundtable San Francisco during SF Tech Week.
Los Angeles: Oct 16 VNTR Investor Roundtable Los Angeles during Los Angeles Tech Week
Austin: Oct 19 VNTR Investor Brunch Austin during F1 Grand Prix Austin
Toronto: Oct 23 VNTR Investor Breakfast
Mexico City: Oct 24 VNTR Investor Roundtable during Mexico City Tech Week
Thank you to our Partners:
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.
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Upcoming VNTR Events:
Oct 31 VNTR Investor Roundtable Istanbul (Istanbul Tech Week)
Nov 1 VNTR Investor Roundtable Miami (Fort Lauderdale Boat Show)
More events available on the VNTR Platform
Reach out to Lukas to sponsor VNTR events or join VNTR Corporate Partnership.
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UPCOMING VC EVENTS
Sep 29 - Oct 1 Bitz & Pretzels, Munich, Germany
Sep 30 - Oct 2 Mainnet, New York, USA (20% discount using vntrmainnet)
Oct 1-3 CV Summit, Zug, Switzerland (30% discount using VNTR_CVSUMMIT_2024_SPECIAL)
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 10-11 Zebu Live, London, UK (25% discount using VNTRCapital25)
Oct 13-16 Expand North Star, Dubai, UAE (25% discount using VNTRENS25, Complimentary investor passes)
Oct 14-18 GITEX Global, Dubai, UAE (25% discount using VNTRENS25, 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 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 20-21 Slush, Helsinki, Finland
Dec 4-7 CC Forum, Paris, France
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 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: Zing Health And Whatfix Head Up Slow Week
This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding rounds here.
Not a lot of activity this week when it comes to big, nine-figure rounds with ony two of $100 million or more. No single sector dominated either, as money was spread all over the place from contact centers to cybersecurity.
The world’s top startup cities
PitchBook’s VC Ecosystem Rankings compare global cities based on the size and maturity of their startup networks. The framework helps founders, operators and investors assess locations when deciding where to expand or invest.
Network effects matter in venture capital: Investors get more than half of their deals through referrals, according to research led by Harvard professor Paul Gompers. So it stands to reason that dealmakers should seek these networks out when deciding where to do business.
The list is based on a scoring system that uses PitchBook’s proprietary data on private companies. Development and growth scores are based on data related to deals, exits fundraising and other factors from the last six years.
Longevity Startups Are Getting Funding, But Not As Fast As We’re Aging
We are all getting older. But never before have we been getting this much older.
In the U.S., at least one in six people is now over the age of 65. At the same time, in most developed countries older adults are accounting for an unprecedented share of the population.
It’s a global phenomenon as well, particularly for the very old. Over the next 30 years, the number of people who are 80 or older will roughly triple worldwide. The number of centenarians is projected to increase tenfold between 2010 and 2050.
Predicting AI’s future from Y Combinator’s new cohort
The future of AI is being shaped at Y Combinator‘s Demo Day this week.
The accelerator, led by CEO Garry Tan, features nearly 200 AI startups in its Summer 2024 batch, about 75% of the total cohort. YC has emerged as the most active investor in companies using large language models to perform multistep tasks that require humanlike reasoning. VC investment in LLM agents has rocketed on the back of foundational AI companies investing billions of dollars into powerful new capabilities.
Venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs
From Keith Rabois to Ethan Kurzweil, a lot of VCs have switched firms or spun out of storied VC institutions to launch their own funds this year. These employment changes are surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move around very much — especially those who reach the partner or general partner level.
VC funds have 10-year life cycles, and partners have good reason to stay that course. In some instances, there may be a “key man” on a firm’s fund, meaning that if they leave, the fund’s LPs have the right to pull their capital out if they choose. Many partners and GPs also have some of their own money invested in their firms’ funds, which gives them further reason to stick around.
So, while big-name investor moves in venture capital aren’t common, they seem to have become so in recent months. So far this year, there have been notable instances of investors returning to old firms, striking out on their own, or taking a pause from investing entirely.
The Complete List Of Unicorn Companies
A unicorn company, or unicorn startup, is a private company with a valuation over $1 billion. As of May 2024, there are over 1,200 unicorns around the world. Popular former unicorns include Airbnb, Facebook, and Google. Variants include a decacorn, valued at over $10 billion, and a hectocorn, valued at over $100 billion. Download the full list today to see each company's valuation, investors, and more.
Corporate Venture Deal Numbers Are Down Despite Big AI Headlines
It seems every time a large generative AI company raises billions of dollars, one of the Big Tech pillars such as Nvidia, Microsoft or Google is leading the round.
However, a look at Crunchbase data shows something surprising — corporate venture investments were actually down throughout the past two years.
How autonomous vehicles are transforming the supply chain
Funding for autonomous vehicle startups is again on the rise, and self-driving cars on city streets aren’t the only investment opportunity as the technology becomes a key part of commercial transportation.
In Q2 2024, autonomous driving startups received $2.9 billion in funding, according to PitchBook’s latest Mobility Tech report, more than any other area of the vertical—defined as innovations advancing the transportation of both people and goods. This was self-driving technology’s strongest quarter since its peak in Q3 2021.
Though the promise of self-driving passenger cars are likely what most people think of when someone says “AV,” those vehicles only make up a portion of the potential market.
6 things founders should know if they’re fundraising this autumn
European investors are starting to return to their offices and open their mail — and for some VCs, those inboxes are now brimming full, they tell Sifted.
That’s in contrast to the summer — which, for many, was very quiet. This August was the worst month for fundraising in years, with €1.8bn raised, per Sifted data.
It’s not been easy for some startups to secure cheques this year. “Fundraising always was really, really hard,” Jan Miczaika, partner at HV Capital, says of the European ecosystem. Now, post-2021 blip, we’re “trending back” to that normal, tougher environment. Companies managed to raise €27.8bn through the first half of the year — down a bit from the latter half of 2023, but higher than the same period last year, per Sifted H1 data.
“There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right now,” says Philippe Klitzing, partner at Peak Capital, so founders need to “show how your company can thrive despite this economic uncertainty or even benefit from it.”
MiCA threatens crypto firm exodus to Middle East: Regulatory expert
Europe’s upcoming cryptocurrency regulatory framework could reduce the number of Web3 firms in the region and introduce new centralization-related concerns.
The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) bill is the world’s first comprehensive regulatory crypto framework, widely seen as a net positive for the industry.
While MiCA legitimizes the crypto ecosystem, it also threatens to introduce consolidation among crypto firms, according to Anastasija Plotnikova, CEO and co-founder of Fideum, a regulatory and blockchain infrastructure firm focused on institutions.
Are We At The End Of The Startup M&A Era (And The Tech Dominance Of Silicon Valley)?
The ability to continuously produce innovation has been one of Silicon Valley’s main key drivers. VCs invest in startups, and startups use the funds to acquire other startups, allowing them to grow and innovate at a faster pace.
Big Tech companies buy startups too — to onboard talent and innovation. Eventually, startups exit and return capital to VCs, who then invest in a new wave of startups. This cycle accelerates the wheel of innovation, expanding its scope with each iteration.
Peak XV has reaped $1.2B in the year since it split from Sequoia
Peak XV Partners, the largest India and Southeast Asia-focused venture fund, has realized about $1.2 billion in exits since its separation from Sequoia last year, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
The investor has sold stakes in nearly a dozen portfolio companies that went public in the past year, including food delivery group Zomato, cosmetics retailer Mamaearth, and spam protection firm Truecaller.
It has also sold holdings in some private startups, including K12 Techno, Pocket Aces, and PingSafe, through secondary transactions and M&A. The firm’s current funds total $2.85 billion.
The Next Wave of AI Is Mobile
AI has an insatiable appetite for resources. It consumes vast amounts of power and data, with estimates of 460 terawatt hours in 2022 that are projected to increase sharply by 2026 to somewhere between 620 and 1,050 TWh. But, its most voracious demand is for compute: the processing power that fuels the training of complex models, the analysis of massive datasets, and the execution of large-scale inferences.
This computational hunger has reshaped many of our professional landscapes. In 2024, the global AI market surpassed $184 billion, with projections suggesting it could pass $800 billion by 2030 – a value comparable to the current GDP of Poland. ChatGPT, the industry’s most well-known product, famously reached 100 million active users within just two months of its launch in November 2022.
Startups Look To Streamline Tasks Around Death And End-of-Life Planning
Earlier this week, we wrote about what startups are doing to help us live longer.
No matter how long we manage to extend lifespans, however, we won’t be around forever. And that brings us to our next startup funding topic: Innovation and investment around death and end-of-life planning.
Part of this was an excuse to re-use the above graphic, which had been mostly laying dormant since we last wrote about this theme four years ago. Additionally, however, there’s actually a fair bit of funding around this morbid topic.
Startup M&A Trends Higher As PE Leads, But Remains Sluggish Compared To Earlier Years
Startup investors were looking to M&A in 2024 as the fast track to getting liquidity. But while Crunchbase data shows deal volume for venture-backed companies is likely up year over year, it remains sluggish compared to earlier years.
That’s despite the fact that the public markets have been historically slow and private company valuations have come down, which should make acquisitions more compelling for buyers.
Interestingly, some of the largest M&A deals this year have been led by private equity firms — rather than the public companies that typically top the acquisition leaderboards.
All in all, M&A for venture-backed companies so far this year has reached $67 billion across more than 1,300 deals, Crunchbase data shows. (It’s worth noting, however, that only around 16% of deals analyzed since 2019 have a price associated. The majority of deal prices are not disclosed.)
OpenAI’s move to for-profit: Is it indeed ‘illegal’?
On Sept. 25, Reuters reported that ChatGPT developer OpenAI is working on a plan to restructure its core business from no-profit to for-profit.
The move has received controversial feedback from the community, with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk questioning the legality of such a business transformation.
Musk took to X on Sept. 26 to argue that one “can’t just convert a nonprofit into a for-profit,” adding that such a conversion is “illegal.” However, that’s not the case, according to several sources.
Can Europe Produce World Class AI Innovation?
Europe is stuck in a static industrial structure with few new companies rising up to disrupt existing industries or develop new growth engines. In fact, there is no EU company with a market capitalisation over EUR 100 billion that has been set up from scratch in the last fifty years, while all six US companies with a valuation above EUR 1 trillion have been created in this period. This lack of dynamism is self-fulfilling. Yet, Europe’s need for growth is rising.”
DePIN: Reshaping the Internet and Empowering Users
In recent years, a handful of tech giants have gained an alarming amount of control of the internet, jeopardizing our data privacy and digital security. The recent CrowdStrike incident, where a single failure led to widespread disruption, is more than just a wake-up call — it's a loud warning that we’re facing a much bigger problem. But there’s a solution: Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN). DePIN offers a game-changing way to connect the physical world to the blockchain, completely overcoming the major flaws of our current centralized systems.
Has PE fallen out of love with Europe’s biotech industry?
European private equity investment in biotech has been on a downward trajectory since its pandemic-era peak, and now a tougher economic backdrop is bringing investment in 2024 to a projected five-year low.
So far this year, PE firms have invested just €300 million (around $334.5 million) into European biotech, not even half the investment of 2023 and considerably lower than the average annual deal total of €1.6 billion between 2020 and 2022, according to PitchBook data.
Why Now Is a Good Time to Invest in Venture Capital in Africa
Current short-term challenges can lead to long-term advantages, and VC dealmaking globally could get a shot of adrenaline from cooling inflation and seemingly imminent interest rate cuts.
The African venture capital ecosystem has encountered significant headwinds in recent times. According to research firm Africa: The Big Deal, VC investments in Africa hit a four-year low in the first half of 2024, with startups raising only $780 million. This represents a 31% drop compared to the second half of 2023 and a staggering 57% decline from the first half of 2023.