How venture capital is changing, and why it matters

Venture capitalists are bankers with better branding.

Friends and I traded that joke back and forth in the 2010s. A fiscally cautious response to the Great Recession contributed to a slow, if steady, economic rebound, spurring central banks around the world to maintain historically low interest rates. This cheap-money era motivated money managers to chance ever-riskier asset classes. 

Big money flooded funds focused on every stage, from a startup’s first check all the way to its IPO. READ MORE

Women cofounders raise about 20% of venture capital—but we often overlook them

Female founders of VC-backed companies raise only 2% of the venture capital invested annually. It’s a worrying statistic that is often repeated year after year by publications, researchers, and the VC industry at large. However, it can be misleading and ignores the progress that has been made over the past 20 years.

This 2% figure ignores the many women who are cofounders, CEOs, COOs, and CFOs. While just 2% of VC capital goes to firms founded solely by women, closer to 20% of VC capital goes to firms with at least one woman as a cofounder.  READ MORE

Secondary Market Seeing Rebound After Slowdown

Payments giant Stripe turned a few heads late last month when it announced it had a secondary deal with investors to buy current and former employees shares through a tender offer that valued the company at $65 billion.

The valuation was a 30% uptick from its previous funding round and seemed to show the robustness of a secondary market that had its own stumbles as venture capital fundraising tumbled last year. READ MORE

Ready for the Biotech Bounce Back in 2024?

Heading into 2024, expectations for biotech venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investments were low following two lackluster years, but as we wrap up Q1, those expectations have been turned on their head after a strong start to the year. This leads us to question whether these early tailwinds are here to stay?

Already, several themes have emerged as value drivers in 2024, including artificial intelligence (AI), weight loss, and cell and gene therapy manufacturing. Companies that are still standing in these sectors would be well advised to make strong moves toward their next growth milestone. READ MORE

A Changing of the VC Guard May Create New Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

Given the breakneck pace of technology development and turnover at growing companies, one might imagine the makeup of firms created to fund emerging, potentially blockbuster startups would experience similar turnover. Yet it appears that many of Silicon Valley's financial old guard are only now starting to pass the torch to a new generation of aspiring venture capital entrepreneurs. READ MORE

Steer Clear of Corporate Venture Capital Pitfalls

No one needs to be told how crucial innovation is to a business’s survival in a constantly morphing landscape. Corporate venture capital (CVC) is one of three main innovation mechanisms that large companies now deploy, along with internal R&D and innovation M&As. In recent years, CVC units have become increasingly important across geographical borders, industries, and technology sectors, helping companies to stay nimble and forward-looking — and to create new growth engines. In 2022, global CVCs invested almost $100 billion in about 5,000 investment rounds of VC-backed companies. Over 100 new CVCs were created that year alone. READ MORE

VCs will get liquidity in 2024 from the secondary market, not IPOs

If you asked a bunch of VCs at the end of 2023 if the IPO market would finally open again in 2024, most of them would have said yes. We know because TechCrunch surveyed more than 40 of them in December and that’s what they said.

Yet, there are two weeks left in Q1, still no completed major IPOs, and very few in the works. Reddit is the only big-time IPO far enough along to be priced. Otherwise, there is just speculation on who might go public, with very few public SEC documents. For instance, there’s Shein who reportedly filed a confidential S-1 last fall, or car rental marketplace Turo who is still waiting on the sidelines after filing its initial S-1 in 2022. READ MORE

In Silicon Valley, Venture Capital Meets a Generational Shift

Reid Hoffman, a founder of LinkedIn and a longtime venture capitalist, is no longer the public face of the venture firm Greylock. Michael Moritz, a force at Sequoia Capital for 38 years, officially separated from the investment firm last summer. And Jeff Jordan, a top investor at Andreessen Horowitz for 12 years, left in May.

They are among the most recognizable of a generation of Silicon Valley investors who are getting out of venture capital at the end of a lucrative 15-year upswing for the industry. READ MORE

The Rise Of The Solopreneur

We’re officially in the era of the solopreneur, marking the next evolution of early-stage businesses.

These solopreneurs are a one-person show, operating and managing a business independently, handling all aspects from product development to marketing to sales. And, solopreneurship is skyrocketing globally, thanks to tech advancements that make running a business smoother and more cost-effective. READ MORE

A firm that helps kids with autism grew till it had 265 clinics. Then private equity took over.

Like many parents of autistic children, Misty Richard was thrilled in 2017 to find a clinic close to her home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that could help her son, Javier Bautista, known as J.J. The facility was operated by the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, a nationwide company that had 265 locations at its peak. Known as CARD, the center specialized in Applied Behavior Analysis, an individualized program that uses reinforcement strategies to help autistic children cope, learn and communicate. READ MORE