Nick East

Striking: Zenobē, a UK climate tech startup, raised £600m from KKR and £270m from Infracapital, bypassing VC entirely. Zenobe captures excess energy from wind farms to stabilize the grid and reduce gas power reliance. This means: Zenobe secured one of 2023's biggest startup fundraises — without any venture capital. #battery #fundraising #venturecapital #energystorage #infrastructure #growthinflection Sifted: https://lnkd.in/g8wF-xA5

5

Bumping this… I’ve had 5 or so interesting conversations, 2 that may lead to deals, in the past week. Demand > supply for quality IT MSP / Cybersecurity MSSP companies. We have options with UK, US and Gulf based buy-side partners. All quality buyers with good reputations. Timing good for UK based owners, given election and CGT uncertainty. There’s also potential for mergers / rollups, which is a nice, simple way for all to benefit from scale - without the need to build organically. DMs open for friendly and confidential chats. #openequity

14

Open access. Lots of talk about it, but what is it, how to do it? There is no getting around the need for ISPs to deploy some infrastructure; otherwise, they are just resellers of someone else’s service. But by sharing middle mile Infrastructure they can focus their Capex on last mile investments rather than duplicating what can be shared. The question then is, how to share it? In theory, Kenya's National Broadband Network is Open Access, but from what I've heard it's not a good solution. Leasing fibers on middle mile fiber would allow each provider to light it as fast as they would like. All of the civil works and fiber would be shared; the electronics is small portion of the total. In our transportation system, we share the roads, built by the public sector, and let multiple providers, that is private cars, taxis, buses, and trucks, all share the same infrastructure. That's a rough analogy, but maybe useful.

41

19 Comments

For VI, I will modify a quote by Peter Kreeft to "We live and die; Vodafone Idea Limited died and lived!" The company has resurrected from near-death to walk into the perfect blue sky scenario where a 15-20% tariff hike is imminent across all industry players, pending AGR resolution is a given. Lastly, there is still a massive brand recall with customers who've stood by the company despite being the only telecom with no 5G! VI's stock is bolstered by a solid anchor list of long-term investors, which significantly reduces selling pressure. With a clear 12 rupee bottom, it's not far-fetched to anticipate VI reaching the 18-20 levels in the near future. It is my fundamental belief that a country as large as India needs more than 2 telecos, and #GoI will do all it takes to make this one fit rather than go back to the ventilator! #stock #stockmarket #trading #investing #money #stocks #investment #forex #finance #invest #business #trader #nifty #investor #sharemarket #daytrader #market #sensex #nse #financialfreedom #forextrading #trade #wealth #bse #daytrading #entrepreneur

18

The UK is well ahead of its continental counterparts when it comes to tech startups* generating revenue. 🇬🇧 👑 💂 *Let’s be honest, at these revenue levels most of the companies counted here aren’t startups. They’re scaleups or established privately held tech companies. https://lnkd.in/ebSnfcYz #vc #venturecapital #startups #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #tech #technology #innovation #money #business

227

33 Comments

"I overpaid £2M. Outdated valuation cost me dearly. Never again." Sadly this happened to one of our clients, who overpaid by £2M for a company that couldn’t deliver on its promises. Imagine investing in a promising tech startup, convinced by their impressive pitch and glowing projections. You go ahead with the deal based on an outdated valuation. Six months later, the market shifts, and the startup's growth stalls. The outdated valuation didn’t reflect current market realities or potential risks. By the time the issues became apparent, the money was spent, and the return on investment wasn’t forthcoming.   This painful lesson underscores the importance of accurate, current valuations. They provide a realistic picture of a business’s worth and help investors make informed decisions. At bizval, we interrogate every aspect of a business’s financials, market conditions, and potential risks to safeguard you from overpaying and ensure your investment is sound. The takeaway? Always base your investments on thorough, up-to-date, and trusted valuations. It’s not just about avoiding losses—it’s about making smart, strategic choices.   Stay informed. Know your value. Make wise investments. P.S. Update: Our coaching at Outcomes Business Group UK has empowered the new owner to revitalise the business and set it on a path to success. Together, we have developed efficient new routes to market, built strong trust within the marketplace, and fine-tuned the services offered. With a dedicated and powerful team executing flawlessly, customers are now delighted and wholeheartedly supportive of the business. #BusinessValuation #SmartInvesting #Entrepreneurship #StrategicPlanning #BusinessGrowth

9

2 Comments

Voodoo didn’t buy BeReal for €500MM. Per reporting, the cash consideration in Voodoo’s acquisition of BeReal is €166MM, with the remainder of the €500MM “valuation” being paid out if performance targets are met in an earn-out. I don’t think that Voodoo’s acquisition of BeReal is motivated by cross promotion. Voodoo states that BeReal features 40MM “active users,” which is vague. I’d estimate BeReal has MAU in the 5-10MM range, with the 40MM number representing a longer timeline. This isn’t enough MAU to justify the price solely on the basis of cross promotion, especially given that BeReal’s MAU is likely stagnant. Further, Voodoo’s own social media app, Wizz, is growing faster than BeReal in the US: it sits at Top Downloaded rank #17 in the Social Networking category vs. 27 for BeReal. The CEO of Wizz, Voodoo’s social media app, will become the CEO of BeReal. My sense is that Voodoo may integrate the functionality of BeReal into Wizz at some point to accommodate BeReal’s core demographic and serve a larger TAM. If cross promotion does factor into the equation, it’s likely from games into the social media properties. Voodoo is a much more valuable company with a scaled social media property than an operator of a hybridcasual gaming portfolio, the titles in which are volatile from a growth perspective (see the chart below). BeReal was something of a gimmick, and it may work better as a feature than a standalone app. If Voodoo can use BeReal’s core mechanic to grow Wizz into a scaled social media property, with strong retention and long-term engagement, it can pair its existing advertising infrastructure with Wizz to service ads not just in its social media footprint but against an audience network across its published titles. But in the meantime, I’d expect traffic to move from Voodoo’s games to Wizz as it scales that property.

297

14 Comments

🚀 Busy founders looking for funding, I'd love to help you boost your odds! Having worked with investors since 2015 from a merger and due diligence perspective, I've noticed some patterns. 📊 After talking to fellow DD consultants last year and examining repeated patterns across many projects, I recognised there are common areas that founders are penalised for—areas they could address well before negotiations. 💡 The problem is that you're too busy, and many people don't know what good looks like. That's why we're running a 5-day challenge in July. We'll teach you about the common, usually quite simple, problems that will come up during due diligence. 🏢 My view is that a firm worth selling is worth keeping, which involves bringing your firm up to 'investor grade'. 🎯 This challenge is for those seeking Seed and Series A funding. For more information, check out the link below. 📣 And apologies if I get a bit more vocal promoting this over the next few weeks. Details here: https://lnkd.in/erAv8TDF Emjoi'd out. Hutton

66

18 Comments

I don't go in for 'building in public' in general, but every now and then I think it's worth sharing what I'm seeing in the market. The below graph shows the average time to close a deal over time at EmergeOne and you can see that this has been creeping up since last year (adjusted for seasonality) and is currently close to 3 months to close a deal. So what's happening? Well, I was recently at an CFO event where we got a bit of a data driven view into the state of private markets. Some key points that came out: 🏷️ Median post money at Series A has dropped from 80m USD in 21/22 to 65m USD in 2024. This is still up from 40m from circa 2020. ％ Top quartile is significantly over at 107m. 📈 Series B median post money is $137m, top quartile $287m USD, but bottom quartile significantly struggling. 🚀 Deal velocity has slowed but started recovering. 💰 Lots of deals are happening but not priced - bridges abound. So how does this therefore relate to what we're seeing in terms of time to close? Firstly, we are a consultancy providing fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups typically post Seed and pre Series A so this data reflects what we are generally seeing in the market as well. But the two main issues that are seemingly impacting our numbers are around deal velocity and bridge financing. There are simply fewer deals being done and they are taking longer to close, so the volume of potential clients we can target has dropped significantly. This does, however, mean that the quality of deals we're working on is significantly higher this year. Secondly, as companies struggle to raise priced rounds, they are raising lower amounts of capital on convertibles. This impacts us as CFOs are only truly valuable when there is a significant balance sheet to manage, less capital = less need for CFOs and hence the decision as to when to bring us in gets pushed out. But equally, that insecurity over funds means that founders are much more hesitant to make significant hiring decisions, prioritising hires that can directly influence revenue / traction in the near term. But they also know that they need the support so are often waiting for the 'magic moment' where they hit an inflection point that gives them confidence to pull the trigger. Outside of the deal data, we are also seeing venture indexing towards more R&D heavy businesses (life science, hardware etc.) and these sort of companies are often not commercialising for several years. They have security over spend and regard finance as a future problem. We are seeing a lot of companies approaching Series B without anyone in finance, deferring that decision till they close. But we are also seeing leads come through from a multitude of sources proving there is appetite for strong commercially minded CFOs to support and grow these scaling businesses. So as the market stabilises, I would expect to see these numbers come back. Business wouldn't be any fun if it was all easy, would it?!

12

7 Comments

I couldn’t be prouder to be a Venture Partner at Isomer Capital (aka the best European FoF - at least for me) as we just announced the launch of our pioneering £100m secondaries fund. This fund is dedicated to acquiring stakes from LPs in various VC funds, tapping into a massive and largely unexplored market. 🌟 Key Highlights: - Focused Investment: Primarily targeting stakes in VC funds, with selective investments in private companies. - Robust Funding: Already over 20% funded, thanks to strong support from Nordic family offices and a German foundation. - Market Potential: With a growing number of private tech companies and a VC liquidity crunch, Europe's VC secondaries market is poised for rapid growth. - Track Record: This isn’t Isomer’s first foray into the secondaries market. As a firm we’ve done several secondaries deals with portfolio companies and VC firms, including early-stage VC Seedcamp (in 2021) and mobility giant Bolt (in 2023). - Expert Team: Welcoming the amazing Omolade (Rachel) A., formerly of Coller Capital, as a principal to lead this initiative. 💡 Investment Strategy: - 65-75% of the fund will buy "LP interest" stakes in VC funds. - 15-25% will be directed towards stakes in companies. - Up to 15% reserved for flexible investment opportunities. 📈 Looking Ahead: We're targeting returns of 2-3x, with significant distributions expected in the next 4-7 years. As one of the few players in this space, we're not just participating in the market—we're driving it forward. Read all about it here: https://lnkd.in/dc7sbC3G #VentureCapital #SecondariesFund #EuropeanVC

23

1 Comment

UNLOCKING THE SECREATS OF THE GLOBAL VC ECOSYSTEM : A SUMMIT FOR LIMITED PARTNERS AND VENTURE CAPITALISTS TO THE GLOBAL VC's ECOSYSTEM SUMMIT -------------- 💰💵 Check 1st post in features section in my profile 💵💰 -------------- #VCEcosystemSummit #VentureCapital #LimitedPartners #Investment #PortfolioManagement #GrowthStrategy #IndustryLeaders #Networking #Collaboration #Innovation #Startup #Entrepreneurship #Funding #Investor #LP #GP #VC #PrivateEquity #HedgeFund #AssetManagement #WealthManagement #FinancialServices #InvestmentBanking #CapitalMarkets #BusinessGrowth #Scaling #Expansion #Disruption #Volatility #RiskManagement #Resilience #Sustainability #ESG #ImpactInvesting #Diversity #Inclusion #Equity #Equality #WomenInVC #WomenInFinance #MenInVC #MenInFinance #VentureCapitalist #InvestmentBanker #FinancialAnalyst #PortfolioManager #InvestmentManager #AssetManager #WealthManager #FinancialPlanner #InvestmentAdvisor #VCFirm #StartupAccelerator #Incubator #CoworkingSpace #EntrepreneurialEcosystem #InnovationHub #BusinessNetworking #ProfessionalDevelopment #Leadership #Mentorship #CareerGrowth #IndustryTrends #MarketInsights #FinancialRegulations #InvestmentStrategy #RiskAssessment #DueDiligence #DealMaking #MandA #IPO #PrivatePlacement #HedgeFundManager #AssetAllocator #FamilyOffice #SovereignWealthFund #PensionFund #EndowmentFund #VentureCapitalInvesting #StartupFunding #GrowthCapital #ExpansionCapital #Buyout #Recapitalization #Restructuring #Turnaround #DistressedInvesting #SpecialSituations #EventDriven #CreditInvesting #DebtFinancing #EquityInvesting #MezzanineFinancing #GrowthEquity #VentureDebt #SeedFunding #SeriesA #SeriesB #SeriesC #IPOPrep #PreIPO #PostIPO #PrivateCompany #PublicCompany #MicroVC #NanoVC #SeedStage #EarlyStage #GrowthStage #LateStage #PrivateEquityFund #HedgeFundManager #InvestmentPortfolio #RiskManagementStrategy #InvestmentResearch #FinancialPlanning #WealthCreation #CapitalGrowth #InvestmentOpportunities #BusinessExpansion #MarketTrends #IndustryInsights #FinancialInnovation #InvestmentInnovation #VCDeals #StartupSuccess #InvestmentStrategy #PortfolioDiversification #InvestmentRisk #InvestmentReturn #InvestmentGrowth #InvestmentIncome #InvestmentManagement #InvestmentConsulting #PrivateEquityInvesting #HedgeFundInvesting #VentureCapitalInvesting #AngelInvesting #ImpactInvesting #SustainableInvesting #ESGInvesting #ResponsibleInvesting #InvestmentFirms #InvestmentCompanies #InvestmentPartners #InvestmentNetwork #InvestmentCommunity #InvestmentEvents #InvestmentConferences #InvestmentSummit #InvestmentForum #InvestmentRoundtable #StartupInvesting #EarlyStageInvesting #GrowthStageInvesting #LateStageInvesting #PrivateEquityFirms #HedgeFundManagers #VentureCapitalFirms #AngelGroups #ImpactInvestors

1

The absolute must read interview of Danny Rimer at Index Ventures in the Financial Times. So many gems: 🌊There’s certainly going to be a washout of the number of VCs that are out there 🧗🏽‍♀️it’s always been the people. So, of course, you need to have the markets and technologies aligned. But the talent is really what’s going to drive the difference. We will always back a phenomenal team in a crappy market, rather than the inverse. 🎎🎭We spend an enormous amount of time assessing talent. I would say it all starts with their storytelling. We can understand a person pretty well by just listening to their story and asking questions that highlight whether what they’re saying is accurate, is sincere, whether they’ve learned from their mistakes. 👾the fact that LLMs are so costly to implement actually implies that there’s going to be a much greater opportunity to invest in the application layer. 🤐Europeans tend to be much more humble, and to assume that the more polished US peer is actually ahead of them because of what the US peer is broadcasting to be a fact, when, in fact, it’s just a perception…making sure that Europeans are more comfortable with not only spotting the bullshit, but also being willing to express how well they’re doing and how likely they are going to do is another area where we lag. 🗓️You have to be very thoughtful as to when you bring in a strategic investor. It can be too early and it can really veer the company off to a difficult place that is hard to recover from. ❌One of the biggest mistakes was to try and predict total available market size. We really view TAM as noise. 🤝Another lesson is about being as transparent and as helpful as possible to the entrepreneur #venturecapital #startups #investing #founders #toptier Index Ventures’ Danny Rimer: ‘The talent is what’s going to drive the difference’ https://on.ft.com/45jwnQy

36

3 Comments

Liquidity or exit planning is often taboo leading to many companies being ill prepared. Successful outcomes are years in the making - they start and end with proactive prep (e.g. getting your house in order, developing strong relationships with strategic partners, potential investors and advisors). With Scott Colvin & Paul Perrett we lay out some key actions you should embed now that can set you up for exit success and also make you a better run business today Big thanks to Bree Fedele 🖋

53

6 Comments

What is Sam Altman investing in? We break down where he is making bets in the link below ⤵ https://lnkd.in/eAaEkjNs

8

2 Comments

Currently, rollups are fragmented, leading to poor UX and disjointed liquidity. Here the first demo of Javelin by our portco NodeKit With Javelin, users can synchronously send messages and move funds across #rollups on NodeKit within a single 2s block.

11

49 founders and senior startup leaders respond to a survey from Sifted on the relationship between founders and VCs. Are expectations off from the start as VCs try too hard to pander to their founders with over promises of "value-add" and extensive platform teams? Do founders need to be reminded of their primary role - execution?

3

Join me and hundreds of other investors at Focal's S24 demo day this coming Thursday 16th May - link for tickets in the comments. We've filtered thousands of applicants down to the final twenty-five who will be pitching from 2pm-5pm BST. At previous demo days you've had the chance to invest alongside incredible VCs like Lightspeed, GV (Google Ventures) and even me at unbundled vc. I will also be hosting a Q&A session with one of the finalists. #founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic More at unbundled dot vc.

45

1 Comment

PSA: If you send a founder product nits + feedback with concomitant screenshots/mocks you instantly vault into being an S-tier user. (Friction logs are even better, of course.)

2