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"More money, more success" has long been the driving force behind founder fundraising strategies. But a paradoxical truth is emerging: sometimes, less money can lead to better, more sustainable businesses.
When VCs infuse startups with significant capital early on, it's typically accompanied by an outsized valuation. It creates immense pressure. As a founder, I've experienced the challenge of raising a big round and then grappling with the expectations that come with it. READ MORE
In the third quarter of this year, venture capital fundraising tightened significantly, with only $66.5 billion raised — down 16% quarter over quarter and 15% year over year. Amid this challenging environment, institutional investors are being more cautious and reassessing their investment strategies. For some VCs, this has highlighted an often-overlooked fundraising approach: courting entrepreneurs, including ex-portfolio founders, as limited partners.
Here’s why it worked for us. READ MORE
In the evolving world of private equity (PE), one trend is undeniable: compensation expectations are rising, and cash incentives are increasingly crucial.
As executives consider open PE leadership roles, they’re coming in with heightened expectations, especially in a sector that has seen some of the steepest increases in compensation. READ MORE
In the world of startups, the allure of venture capital often overshadows the virtues of bootstrapping. Recent exits of bootstrapped companies — like Text Request’s acquisition by Commify, Syft Analytics’ sale to Xero, and Silo.AI’s exit to AMD — highlight the power and potential of staying self-funded. These examples underscore why more entrepreneurs should consider bootstrapping as a strategic choice, not as a fallback, focusing on sustainable growth which can become effective in times of trouble. READ MORE
Consider a simple truth: Professional investing requires understanding value. If you cannot understand the value of an asset, and how it appreciates over time, you will not invest in it.
At one point in time, this understanding was the “moat” for venture capital firms. Those that could see value where others couldn’t were able to make decisions that resulted in outsized returns. Consider the investors who recognized the potential for online marketplaces in 1997, the space industry in 2002, or crypto in 2012. READ MORE
Vermont, Hawaii and Arkansas aren’t on the short list of states likely to serve as home to the next Silicon Valley contender.
However, by one measure worth watching — increased venture funding — these are all geographies on the rise. READ MORE
In the wake of easing inflation and AI advances over the past year, some tech companies may be increasingly hungry to enter the M&A arena even as the new U.S. election has thrown a new type of uncertainty into the market, deal experts from accounting and consulting firm KPMG said in a virtual roundtable last week.
This year has seen strong growth in terms of average deal size, and modest growth in terms of volume, both of which KPMG’s Anuj Bahal, the firm’s US deal advisory and strategy sector leader for tech, media and telecom, expects to continue through 2025. READ MORE
In 2025, the private equity landscape will be shaped by several key trends, including the expansion of continuation vehicles as a vital liquidity tool, heightened regulatory scrutiny and antitrust pressures introducing both challenges and opportunities, and interest rate cuts and evolving buyer-seller risk tolerance creating a more complex deal environment.
Learn more about these important trends: READ MORE
Last week, defense and critical infrastructure tech startup Chaos Industries raised $145 million in a Series B — more than doubling its Series A from just last year.
The funding round was just another sign of how defense tech investment has exploded this year. The sector already has taken in more venture dollars than ever before and investment is showing few signs of letting up as defense systems become more dependent on tech, conflicts around the world heat up, and many expect a likely uptick in the Department of Defense’s budget after the recent election. READ MORE
At BFG Partners, we invest in early-stage, high-growth consumer product companies. We’re fortunate to have the opportunity to support the health and wellness ecosystem, and we know firsthand what a difference growth capital can make for young companies competing for market share.
If you’re a new brand and considering bringing on a VC partner, here is what you need to know to get ahead of the game: READ MORE
So for a while, unicorns took a bit of a breather. With the stock market for tech stocks and cloud stocks in a big decline in 2022, unicorn production slowed down. And what had become a rite of passage in 2018-2021 … “Becoming a Unicorn” … seemed to recede as a critical milestone.
But we’re back. AI has refueled unicorns, and 100x, 200x+ deals for the very hottest, fastest growing AI B2B companies. READ MORE
As we look ahead to 2025, the venture capital landscape is undergoing significant transformations driven by broader economic shifts and emerging technologies. Despite promising technologies garnering significant inflows, the overall investment climate in 2024 remains tough, with a 15% decline compared to the previous year.
Continuously exploring key trends for venture capital investments in 2025, I’ve identified several that have caught our fund’s attention. Notably, there’s a rise in mega-deals alongside the democratization of investment access. READ MORE
The private equity industry is at the cusp of a technological revolution, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and innovative financial strategies. These trends are reshaping how deal makers operate, offering new opportunities for efficiency, value creation, and competitive advantage.
Here’s a closer look at how these emerging trends are transforming private equity. READ MORE
Private equity’s recent splurge of piling ever more debt onto already highly leveraged bets has sparked fears about financial-system risks. Banks, however, are positioning themselves to take advantage.
As buyout firms have struggled to sell companies in a difficult M&A market, many have turned to “net asset value” loans, where they borrow money from specialist funds or banks secured against a portfolio of their holdings — often at very high interest rates. It’s been a controversial way to avoid booking losses on asset sales while hoping for a better environment for making deals. READ MORE
As an investor working in corporate venture capital, I average about four introductory meetings a week with startups coming to me with fundraising pitches — and I’ve noticed that founders could be doing a lot more to optimize their time with VCs.
The greatest missed opportunity? They’re not leaving time for discussion. Or when they do, they expect me to be the one to ask all the questions. READ MORE
Earlier this week, we wrote about the sharp decline in venture funding to U.S. real estate-related startups. But while overall numbers are down, there are still areas popular with investors.
Using Crunchbase data, we identified four spaces where this is the case: Home equity financing, rental management, eco-friendly building and tools for streamlining construction. READ MORE
What makes private equity firms target a publicly traded company for takeover?
A new study from the University of Iowa finds that private equity is often likely to target firms that more aggressively manage their earnings to meet analysts’ quarterly expectations.
Paul Hribar, professor of accounting in the Tippie College of Business, said this phenomenon is called earnings myopia because managers are overly focused on near-term earnings at the expense of long term growth and value creation. READ MORE
Quantum advantage, the point at which quantum computers can outperform classical machines, is expected to transform industries as diverse as manufacturing, logistics, drug design and finance.
Large corporations are already working with developers to devise practical ways of using the advanced capabilities in their businesses. According to Olivier Tonneau, partner at Quantonation, a quantum technology VC fund, the race to prepare is well underway. READ MORE
VC investment into agtech increased for the second consecutive quarter in Q3 2024, suggesting recovery for the sector after some major low points in 2023 and earlier this year.
According to newly released PitchBook data, agtech saw $1.6 billion invested across 159 deals in Q3 2024, with a 15% increase vs Q2 in deal value. Deal count declined 17.6% from Q2 2024, in keeping with a trend that’s been ongoing since 2022 and suggests “a shift toward larger, more strategic investments in the sector,” according to PitchBook. READ MORE
Care delivery has never been an easy task. For decades, it was seen as a function of society delegated solely to hospitals and clinicians. However, over the years, care delivery has also become increasingly more complicated, begging for more innovation and change as a means to improve quality of care, increase access to care and ultimately, optimize health outcomes.
With the emergence of these changes, players that have not traditionally been involved in healthcare have taken it upon themselves to shape the future of the industry. READ MORE