How One Entrepreneur is Disrupting Venture Capital

In the competitive and often rigid realms of venture capital and private equity, traditional diligence processes can pose significant barriers to rapid investment decisions and efficient resource utilization. These processes, which are designed to scrutinize and evaluate potential investments thoroughly, often end up being protracted and cumbersome. This not only delays funding but also diverts entrepreneurs’ focus away from their primary business activities. A pioneering entrepreneur, Nicole Loftus recognized these challenges and sought to address them through innovative solutions. 

Her creation, “The Locker,” a fully automated diligence software, stands as a testament to the potential for technology to streamline and transform established industry practices. Her approach and the success of her venture offer actionable insights and valuable lessons for other entrepreneurs aiming to effect change within their industries. READ MORE

Private Equity’s Fundraising Skid Continues

Higher interest rates and uncertainty about the future of markets has made private equity and venture capital fundraising the pits so far this year. If the trends continue, 2024 will be one of the worst for those asset managers in several years.

Through the first half of 2024, PE and VC firms globally raised $365.75 billion in new capital, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and Preqin. At that pace, the total amount raised will be about $731 billion, roughly 20 percent less compared to the $919.27 billion raised in 2023. READ MORE

Family offices are giving top staff equity and profit shares in battle for talent

Family offices are increasingly offering lucrative shares of equity and deal profits to staff amid a growing battle for talent, according to a top family office attorney.  

As family offices surge in size and number, and compete more directly with private equity firms and venture funds for top staff, they’re sweetening their compensation plans. Along with salaries and bonuses, many are now offering equity stakes and various forms of profit-sharing to give employees more upside and incentives. READ MORE

Why making fun of VCs is good for (almost) everyone

It was this message, posted on X in May, that earned Panos Papadopoulos a retweet from the popular “VCs Congratulating Themselves” account, which often racks up thousands of likes and shares for drawing attention to cringey or self-important moments in the tech industry.

But instead of feeling embarrassed by the public call-out, Papadopoulos — who is a partner at VC firm Marathon Venture Capital in Athens — really enjoyed it. “It's a badge of honour,” he told me. “There is too much entitlement, bad takes and God syndrome in VC, so it is great to have someone grounding people and having some fun.” READ MORE

Not every startup is AI-related. Here’s an analysis of where venture capital funding is actually going

You’d be forgiven for assuming, based on business press coverage (cough), that, at any given point in time, there is a single, mega-disruptive technology that exerts a gravitational pull on any and all venture capital dollars. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, this would have been the internet and its nascent economy. In the late 2000s to 2010s, it was smartphone and SaaS apps. A few years ago, it was crypto, which, if the prognostications were correct, we would all currently be using to buy groceries. READ MORE

VC dollars pour into biopharma, with Q2 haul signaling sunshine ahead

With venture investments pouring into biopharma, steady M&A deals and an increasingly widening IPO market, J.P. Morgan sees the industry returning to growth—finally.

Venture dollars rose in the second quarter compared to the one prior, according to a new second-quarter licensing and venture report from the bank. Biopharmas raised $7.6 billion in private financings across 107 investments, with the dollar value for both the second and first quarters beating the previous ones. The first quarter also saw 107 total rounds.  READ MORE

Vertical Farming Venture Capital Has Dried Up, But Startups Are Still Planting Seeds

As venture capital wagers go, indoor farming has not done especially well.

Over the years, investors have plowed over $6 billion into startups in the space, most during the peak period of 2019-2023. They’ve harvested meager returns so far. READ MORE

North America’s Lead Widens In Ranking Of Startup Funding By Continent

Venture capital is a global asset class. But lately, North America is gobbling up an increasing share of total investment, driven largely by rising sums going to artificial intelligence startups.

How big is its lead? Using Crunchbase data, we charted funding in recent six-month periods to the six inhabited continental regions of the globe: North America, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Oceania, which includes Australia and New Zealand. READ MORE

Old VC funds breathe new life into secondhand stakes trading

I recently bought a secondhand road bike for the summer.

That was after weeks of searching for deals, weighing different models and figuring out a fair price. But as the weather got warmer, more buyers were actively looking. It was much trickier to find a good deal in June than it would’ve been in February. READ MORE

Cybersecurity Funding Jumps 144% In Q2

Venture funding to cybersecurity startups had its best quarter since Q1 2022 — surging 144% year to year — and seemingly building off a strong start to the year.

The increase in venture dollars was mainly due to a significant jump in nine-figure rounds — illustrating that even as investors may be pulling back on investing in young startups, they are willing to double down on more mature companies looking for growth rounds. READ MORE

Scarcity of Exits Challenges the Venture Industry

Venture firms’ limited partners are hungry for cash.

But portfolio company exit opportunities have been scarce.

It’s an understated crisis in the venture industry. The best companies don’t need to exit and everyone else can’t figure out how to. READ MORE

Europe's Venture Capital Challenge: Can The Old Continent Catch Up In The Innovation Race?

As the global economy becomes increasingly driven by technological innovation, Europe finds itself at a critical juncture. Despite being home to world-class universities, talented entrepreneurs, and some of the world's largest companies, the European Union is struggling to keep pace with the United States and China in creating and scaling innovative startups. At the heart of this challenge lies Europe's underdeveloped venture capital (VC) ecosystem, which is hampering the continent's ability to finance and grow the next generation of tech giants. READ MORE

Tough times for VC newcomers as larger funds dominate

For newcomers seeking to raise venture capital, things are looking bleak.

While global VC fundraising is on track for its worst year since 2015, the pain isn’t being felt equally. Emerging managers, firms that PitchBook defines as having launched fewer than four funds, are facing their worst environment in 10 years, raising less capital than ever before, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. READ MORE

Where will private equity aim its $9tn money hose?

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Private capital firms are sitting on an ungodly amount of capital, after mammoth fundraising in 2020–21 and little investment in subsequent years. Late last year, Preqin estimated the amount of “dry powder” at over $4tn, almost a third of the entire private capital industry’s total assets under management. As Alphaville wrote in May, the industry has now raised more money from investors than it has returned for six straight years, for a gap of ca $1.6tn. READ MORE

“The U.S. government is the largest tech investor in the world. More than all venture capital combined.”

“Several of you over the last few months have thanked me for coming to Israel - there is no country I’d rather be in other than the U.S. I feel blessed to be here today,” said Brendan Dillion at the opening of his remarks during the Israel Private Markets Summit. The Partner, Co-Head of Credit & Capital Markets, and Head of Capital Formation at Veritas Capital was giving a talk to a room of 500 guests on the intersection of government and technology.

“We had an epiphany in the 1990s about investing in government services,” he explained. “The characteristics we saw were that they were undercovered in private equity; there were long-term contracts of 5-7 years in nature, and they were sticky and hard to lose.” Today, the company invests across four main sectors: Aerospace Defense and National Security, Education, Sustainability and infrastructure, and Healthcare. READ MORE

Private Equity-backed fintechs pay better, VC-backed fintech staff are happier

If you're working in a fintech, chances are its funding comes from either private equity or venture capital. The two industries are both focused on growing startups, but their differences can make a big difference to startup employees. A recent paper from Oxford and HEC Liège researchers shows that VC backed firms are best for employee satisfaction, while private equity-backed startups excel in pay.

Analyzing one million employee reviews for startups on Glassdoor, the paper found that a company's ownership structure correlates to employee satisfaction. It found that employees in private companies tend to be much happier than those in publicly traded companies. Employee satisfaction was "significantly higher for VC-backed companies," with satisfaction levels dropping to more normal levels after an exit. READ MORE

These are the companies JD Vance has invested in as a VC

JD Vance, who on Monday was named Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election, has had a number of careers throughout his life. He currently serves as the junior Senator from Ohio. He has been a best-selling author. And once, briefly, he opted to try his luck as a venture capitalist.

Over the course of six years, Vance worked at three different VC firms, which wasn’t long enough to truly be a success or a failure in the job. READ MORE

Venture capital has an exit problem

The rocket-ship story of cyber security company Wiz is the kind of thing that the venture capital industry has long relied on to draw in investors. Four young engineers sell their first start-up to a giant tech company (Microsoft) and go off to found another. This one finds an unmet need and hits the big time: it quickly raises $1.9bn from some of the best-known names in venture investing. After just four years, a different giant tech company (Google) comes along and offers to buy it for $23bn. READ MORE

The Regulatory Climate Is Getting Hotter for Private Equity

Private equity (PE) firms have long been subject to strict financial industry regulations in the United States and European Union (EU). Now they are facing even greater levels of scrutiny—and a wave of new compliance challenges.

To keep up, leaders of PE firms need to proactively increase their focus on regulatory risks—in their organization, investment portfolio, and portfolio companies. Leaders also need to identify and address risks during M&A due diligence, before they make an investment. READ MORE

Global VC investment rises to five-quarter high of $94.3 billion in Q2’24

Global venture capital (VC) investment soared from US$75.4 billion to $94.3 billion between Q1’24 and Q2’24, fueled by nine $1 billion mega-deals—the second largest total ever seen in a single quarter. While VC investment rose to a five-quarter high, deals volume fell to 7,691—the lowest level seen globally since Q3’16. The low deal volume mirrors the ongoing challenges faced by the VC market, including the high interest rate environment and geopolitical uncertainties.

AI accounted for over half of the ten largest funding rounds globally during Q2’24 as VC investors continued to pour money into the space, according to the Q2’24 edition of KPMG Private Enterprise’s Venture Pulse— a quarterly report highlighting VC investment trends globally and in key regions around the world. These AI deals were led by a $8.6 billion raise by CoreWeave and a $6 billion raise by xAI—based in the US. READ MORE