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Venture Capital News
Medium
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409
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Creators: The New Class Of Founders - How Are VCs Adapting?
- The shift towards creators as founders raises questions about the role of venture capitalists (VCs).
- VCs are reimagining their value by exploring flexible funding models, creator-centric success metrics, and platform support for creators.
- Creators need funding options that allow them to retain control while scaling up.
- Successful creator-led businesses focus on loyalty, engagement, and community strength as key metrics.
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TechCrunch
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Bowery Farming is ceasing operations
- Agtech unicorn Bowery Farming is shutting down, according to internal documents and company employees.
- The New York-based company built vertical farms to produce crops like lettuces, herbs, and berries.
- Bowery Farming raised over $700 million in funding from various venture capitalists.
- Vertical farming has proven to be a challenging industry, with other companies like AeroFarms and AppHarvest facing difficulties.
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Medium
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164
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Reflecting on The Future of Sports: Thoughts Coming out of The RAISE Global Conference
- Courtside Ventures closely follows the proliferation of sports investing in multi-billion dollar verticals like digital media, gaming, collectibles, wellness and live entertainment.
- Investment in these categories has yielded multiple success stories like the Seed round investment in The Athletic, contributing to the company’s acquisition by the New York Times for $550M in cash.
- Sports are embedded in the fabric of global culture, impacting communities of passionate fans, consumers, and collectors on a daily basis.
- The growth of sports has gone far beyond fan metrics and into major B2B and commercial realms. Recently, FANGMA companies invested in major sports rights packages, driving team valuations and player salaries to unprecedented heights.
- Sports as an investment category are largely uncorrelated to the pendulum swings of public markets, proving consistent and reliable growth throughout market cycles.
- Sports represent one of the last parts of humanity that bring us together. They provide joy, serendipity, spontaneity and escape at a level unmatched by any other form of entertainment.
- Almost everything Courtside Venture's CEO learned about being successful in his career has come from sports; hard work, perseverance, team work, dedication, determination and discipline.
- Venture is a combination of hard work, intelligence, skill, timing and instinct with a little bit of luck in this highly unpredictable and chance-driven market.
- Courtside Ventures aims to focus on large markets, great founders, and operational excellence of startups to drive great returns for their investors continuously.
- Courtside Ventures is enthusiastic about the predictions of a $630B growth of sports and surrounding markets by 2028, securing uncorrelated alpha for their LPs.
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Medium
1w
211
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Fund Momentum: New Fresh Capital Ready to Deploy #1
- Welcome to the first edition of the bi-weekly newsletter highlighting fresh funds raised recently.
- The newsletter covers new funds raised between September and mid-October, featuring 65 funds.
- Here are the first 10 funds that have raised fresh capital and are ready to deploy:
- 1. Fund Name: 20VC, Fund Size: $400M, Location: eng, Industry Focus: AI, Climate, Vertical & Enterprise SaaS, Consumer, Fintech, Fund Managers: Harry Stebbings
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Medium
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181
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Healthcare Transformed: Where AI Meets Clinical Care
- The healthcare industry is facing a shortage of 86,000 clinicians in the US by 2036, which can lead to inefficiencies in healthcare access and quality of care. AI has the potential to empower doctors with faster, better-informed decisions, and can offer scalable solutions in the face of this personnel shortage. Clinical AI can be used by clinicians as end-users or in clinical decision support tools. GenAI and LLMs are being used to improve administrative efficiencies in healthcare by streamlining lower-risk tasks like documentation and billing.
- Predominantly, AI has been applied to structured data in healthcare through AI/ML software medical devices for interpreting data from images, such as CT scans, X-rays, and MRIs. Successful startups such as Viz.ai or Aidoc have attracted significant funding and partnerships with major hospitals, health systems and technology providers leveraging these technologies. Today, emerging startups are using genAI to improve clinical decision support by interpreting vast amounts of structured and unstructured data.
- Clinical AI agents enable clinicians to expand their reach, resulting in more effective patient care, cost reductions for payors and revenue opportunities for clinicians and hospital systems through reimbursable services powered by cost-effective software. Many clinicians are skeptical of AI tools because of concerns related to their safety, reliability, and their impact on the human element in patient care. However, demonstrating how AI can serve as a supportive tool rather than a replacement can help alleviate these apprehensions.
- Calculating ROI for clinical AI tools presents a challenge compared to administrative AI tools, which have clear financial metrics. Clinical AI tools deliver benefits such as more accurate diagnoses, earlier detection, and improved patient satisfaction that take time to manifest and are harder to directly link to financial performance. Epic has built over 100 genAI projects with the goal of streamlining medical insights, charting and coding, and minimizing documentation.
- Key archetypes of a successful clinical AI company include developing tools for clinicians, offering solutions for unmet clinical use-cases, and academic medical center integration.
- Generative AI is revolutionizing healthcare, automating lower-risk tasks, improving healthcare access and streamlining administrative processes. Clinical applications of AI offer real-time insights, accurate diagnoses and treatment suggestions based on vast datasets. With the help of AI, clinicians can make faster, more informed decisions, significantly improving outcomes for everyone in the healthcare ecosystem.
- Cathay Innovation, which is backed by global biopharma leader Sanofi as an investor and strategic partner, has invested in AI-driven startups like Owkin, Inato, Nabla, Bioptimus, and Entalpic.
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Medium
1w
71
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Balancing Incentives for Early Investors and End Users in Crypto Fundraising
- Early investors play a crucial role in funding product development and market traction.
- Incentives should be designed to keep early investors invested in the project's journey.
- Projects should focus on user-centric growth incentives to cultivate a community of users.
- A balanced tokenomics model aligns the interests of early investors and end users.
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VC Cafe
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405
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The Emerging Israeli AI Landscape in 2024
- Israel has over 2,150 active AI firms, about 30% of the local tech sector and attracted over 60% of all capital.
- The country is ranked 3rd globally in private AI investment, it is a top performer in the global AI market.
- Vertical AI companies attract the largest Private funding in fraud detection in finance, predictive maintenance in manufacturing, and personalized shopping experiences in retail.
- Opportunities for start-ups in Israel are in developing solutions for industries with deep domain expertise.
- Cross-industry AI is robust with opportunities as there is a significant need for end-to-end enterprise solutions.
- Challenges abound with fierce talent competition, funding sustainability, strong global competition.
- Israel AI hub faces limited Government support, funding, data training Sandboxes, and regulatory frameworks are lacking.
- The country can maintain a competitive edge through continuous innovation and adaptation.
- Focus on strengths and addressing key challenges will establish Israel as a global AI hub.
- Building in the vertical and horizontal AI categories, startups such as Hour One, Munch, Vault AI and Playo are spearheading the way.
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Medium
1w
12
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Joyce Shen’s picks: musings and readings in AI/ML, November 4, 2024
- Visa continues to deploy hundreds of AI use cases.
- Wall Street giants are planning to invest $50 billion in AI and power projects.
- MIT introduces a new method inspired by large language models for teaching robots new skills.
- Several AI startups raise significant funding rounds, including Abstract Security, CybaVerse, Vensica Medical, Casap, Auquan, Moondream, Vara, Cornerstone AI, CREW Carbon, MIND, Hotglue, Bifrost AI, Ataraxis AI, Scalpel AI, and Persana AI.
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Medium
1w
177
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Foothill Ventures investment cluster: “AI to Infrastructure”
- Foothill Ventures is focusing on the investment cluster of 'AI to infrastructure' which includes AI applications, software infrastructure, hardware compute infrastructure, hardware interconnect infrastructure, and semiconductor manufacturing technologies.
- There has been an explosion of deep learning models, particularly in the areas of vision and language, creating a demand for AI software infrastructure to manage compute costs.
- To address the compute bottleneck, Foothill Ventures made investments in companies aimed at AI processing in both datacenters and the edge.
- Next, the focus is on addressing the networking bottleneck, as advances in processing speeds have outpaced networking speeds. Foothill Ventures has invested in companies working on next-generation interconnect solutions.
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Medium
1w
143
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The Well-Rounded Investor: How Personal Partnerships and Philanthropic Efforts Guide Strategic…
- Investing is a social activity that involves personal partnerships and philanthropic efforts.
- Personal partnerships in investing provide diversification and access to a wider range of opportunities.
- Collaborating with aligned individuals enhances investment strategies and fosters collective learning.
- Philanthropic efforts align with investment goals, contribute to societal well-being, and drive positive change.
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Medium
1w
414
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The Pitfalls of Issuing Convertible Instruments Through an LLC: A Founder’s Guide
- LLCs are pass-through entities for tax purposes, which means that profits and losses flow straight to the members/owners.
- Debt-like instruments in an LLC can create “phantom income” for the members/owners if the LLC fails before those convertible notes or SAFEs convert to equity.
- If the LLC fails and the outstanding convertible notes aren’t paid back, the forgiven debt becomes taxable income for the LLC members.
- Founders should avoid issuing convertible notes through their LLCs and educate their financial team on treating SAFEs as contingent equity to avoid unexpected taxable income.
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Medium
1w
147
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Hubble peers into the center of a star-forming powerhouse!
- M33, a galaxy known for its high rate of star formation, is being observed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
- Unlike other galaxies, M33's star formation is not fueled by galactic collision but rather by a large amount of dust, gas, and ionized hydrogen clouds.
- Researchers have found evidence of high-mass star formation through collisions between massive molecular clouds within M33.
- The Hubble image reveals reddish clouds of ionized hydrogen mixed with dark dust lanes, showcasing the abundance of stars in M33.
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Medium
1w
410
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Nordic Tech #5: Melting Down Centralized Blockchain with Lava Network
- Lava Network provides a decentralized RPC infrastructure for scalable and customizable modular blockchains.
- RPCs are essential for accessing and interacting with blockchain data remotely.
- Lava incentivizes users to provide RPC services through tokens and crypto rewards.
- With over 6 million unique users each week, Lava competes with giants like Infura and QuickNode with its true decentralization.
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Eu-Startups
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304
Lisbon-based Faber announces the launch of a new €60 million fund aiming to seed the future with deep tech
- Lisbon-based venture capital firm, Faber, has launched a new €60 million fund called Faber Tech III.
- The fund, with an initial closing of €31 million, is focused on early-stage deep tech startups in Southern Europe.
- Faber aims to bridge the gap in specialized seed capital in the region and support transformative startups in sectors like AI, robotics, and next-gen computing.
- The fund's first investments will be in companies from Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands working on advanced technologies like photonic chips and synthetic biology.
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StartupDaily
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165
Breakthrough Victoria posts $3 million loss
- The Victorian government’s $2bn venture capital fund, Breakthrough Victoria posted a $3m loss during its third year of operation. The loss was lower than expected for an investment firm that is in the early stages of its evolution, according to its annual report. The funding body cut costs after its operating grant funding ceased, which included dozens of staff and an annual wages bill of nearly $10m. Breakthrough Victoria suffered criticism for its costs and investments earlier this year, and this led to directors leaving.
- In total, the fund has made $350m worth of investments across 44 investments to date, the majority of which have been to tech companies or as co-investments with university platforms. Breakthrough Victoria spent $52m getting two US companies to Melbourne, which included $37m for stratospheric balloon company World View. The company manufactures balloons for weather monitoring and can stay airborne for up to 45 days. The opposition has suggested taxpayers’ money has been gambled, with Breakthrough Victoria in financial disarray.
- Breakthrough Victoria attracted attention in 2023 when annual report revealed total costs of $22m and just $73.7m invested. There were calls to shut it down from those including Adir Shiffman, chair of ASX-listed Catapult Group, and Seek cofounder Matt Rockman. Shiffman described it as suspiciously political, poorly conceived, using the wrong KPIs, with an overly broad and unclear mandate, poor governance and a lack of useful reporting.
- Opponents to the fund have suggested there is no need for $2bn in government money to compete with Australia’s large private venture capital industry. Supporters, however, suggest the fund is essential for science start-ups and medtech companies that would suffer without its financial backing.
- Despite recent losses, the fund’s net assets as at June 30 this year were $536.1m, an increase of $172m from the previous year. Those funds are a result of an increase in investments held worth $159.3m and $175m received in capital funding from the state government.
- Breakthrough Victoria’s investment timeline has recently been extended from 10 to 15 years, which now stretches to 2034-35. During this period the government will contribute $450m. The board has already approved $17m of investments, with more expected to be settled following the reporting period.
- While Breakthrough Victoria has attracted some controversy, it argues that it isn’t just a venture capital fund. It has also co-invested with six Victorian universities to drive commercialisation of research – an investment that is matched dollar-for-dollar by the universities.
- Breakthrough Victoria’s sole shareholder is Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas, and former Labor premier John Brumby chairs the board. Opposition industry and innovation spokesperson Bridget Vallence has suggested Breakthrough Victoria is in financial strife, although Brumby has defended the fund and suggested it goes beyond being a venture capital organisation.
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