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☆ The co-founder of Europe's first Black VC Fund on how he transformed his life, and his plan to help Black founders "build the impossible"
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Fahiemah Al-Ali | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe co-founder of Europe's first Black VC Fund on how he transformed his life, and his plan to help Black founders "build the impossible"Black Seed's Karl Lokko, the co-founder and chairman of Europe's first Black-led for Black-founders venture capital fund, says he's on a mission to find South London's next Black unicorn. The UK native opens up to CNBC in a candid conversation about his transformational journey from gang leader to climbing Mont Blanc with Sir Richard Branson, how mastering the art of 'code-switching' led to access within the tapestry of London society, and why Brixton could become the "Black Silicon Valley."

☆ Tom Brady's NFT company, Autograph, has laid off dozens of people after severing ties with board member Sam Bankman-Fried
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tom Brady cofounded Autograph at the height of the NFT sports boom. Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried joined the board of the company last year. Insider has learned the company has laid off dozens of employee and cut ties with Bankman-Fried. Autograph, the buzzy NFT platform cofounded by NFL star Tom Brady, has laid off dozens of staffers after separately severing ties with former board member Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, Insider has learned. Bankman-Fried joined the board of directors last year several months after Brady and his then wife, Gisele Bundchen, invested in FTX.

☆ 'We assumed we would never get funding' – Birdies Co-Founder Bianca Gates on eschewing early VC fundraising
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via Email'We assumed we would never get funding' – Birdies Co-Founder Bianca Gates on eschewing early VC fundraisingBianca Gates is the CEO and Co-Founder of Birdies. Bianca says that she and her co-founder assumed they would never get VC funding so that made them focus on profitability and good execution. In 2021, companies founded by women received about 2.4% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the U.S according to PitchBook. For Black and Latinx women it's only about 1% of all venture capital funding.

CONTAGION RISKTrust firms were dubbed "shadow banks" because of how they operated outside many of the rules that govern commercial banks. Zhongrong International Trust has been working with local governments, including Qingdao provincial authorities, to source early stage deals in intelligent manufacturing, an executive there said. CCB Trust, Zhongrong International Trust and Avic Trust did not respond to requests for comment. Ping An Trust, Zhongrong International Trust, Everbright Xinglong Trust and Minmetals International Trust have all bought project companies from struggling developers in the last few months, corporate records and company announcements showed. Ping An Trust, Zhongrong International Trust, Everbright Xinglong Trust and Minmetals International Trust did not respond to requests for comment.

☆ The cofounder of venture capital firm Target Global left after his Russian oligarch father was sanctioned
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Shona Ghosh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Alexander Frolov, the son of a sanctioned Russian oligarch, has left his tech investment firm. The UK sanctioned Alexander Frolov Senior on November 2. Alexander Frolov, the son of a sanctioned Russian oligarch, has left the venture capital firm he cofounded and ran, Target Global, amid ongoing concerns about Russian money flowing into European tech startups. The move was first reported by German publication FinanceFwd and was confirmed to Insider Monday by a spokesman for Target Global. The UK sanctioned Russian oligarch Alexander Frolov, formerly CEO of steel-mining firm Evraz, in November 2022.

☆ Mendoza Ventures founder on '23 IPO market: IPOs are going to remain flat
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailMendoza Ventures founder on '23 IPO market: IPOs are going to remain flatAdrian Mendoza, Mendoza Ventures founder, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss what the next year for IPOs will look like, if 2022 was the sort of year venture capitalists wanted and where venture capital funds will go next year.

LONDON/STOCKHOLM, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The European tech industry saw $400 billion in value wiped out this year and an 18% decline in venture capital funding, according to a report from venture capital firm Atomico. "The European tech ecosystem is facing the most challenging macroeconomic environment since the global financial crisis," Tom Wehmeier, partner at Atomico, told Reuters. Venture capital funding in Europe was down to $85 billion for the year, based on data collected across 41 countries, an 18% decline from the $100 billion raised in 2021. In a survey of founders and investors on the continent, 77% said they were either as enthusiastic, or more so, about the future of the European tech industry than in 2021. "The financial markets have changed, and with that, the expectations of everyone working within the European tech industry need to evolve."

☆ Over $400 billion has been erased from the value of Europe's tech industry this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Europe's tech industry has lost more than $400 billion in value this year, according to venture capital firm Atomico. That's prompted investors to reassess their positions on lossmaking tech companies, whose values typically rest on the expectation of future cash flows. That is down 18% from the more than $100 billion European startups raised in 2021. It was nevertheless the second-highest amount ever invested in the European tech ecosystem to date, Atomico said. European tech investment shattered records last year as participation from U.S. investors surged to new heights.

☆ VCs are abandoning supply chain tech — except for startups that can cut out the human
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Venture capital funding of supply chain startups was down 56% year-over-year in the third quarter. Venture funding for supply chain startups in the third quarter fell to $3.3 billion — down 56% year over year and 37% compared to the second quarter, according to Pitchbook. Before the pandemic, supply chain tech startup funding grew by a few billion every year for most of the last decade. Nearly half of the cash invested in supply chain startups went to last-mile companies. A temporary reckoningVenture investment in other types of supply chain startups — like technology for trucking and broader supply chain management — traditionally doesn't reach the heights of delivery startups.

☆ Brokerage startup Bux is acquiring the retail-trading arm of Spanish rival Ninety Nine as fintech consolidation continues
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Bux, the online retail brokerage, has acquired the retail-trading arm of Spanish fintech startup Ninety Nine. Bux, a European rival to US retail brokerage Robinhood, has acquired the retail-trading arm of Spanish fintech startup Ninety Nine. Bux, though it raised an $80 million from investors in 2021, recently turned to crowdfunding with a campaign on Seedrs. Globally, fintech startups raised just $13.3 billion in the third quarter of 2022 taking funding levels back to pre-pandemic levels, per Dealroom. "Thanks to this acquisition, Ninety Nine users will have access to a wide range of services provided by Bux, such as investing in Spanish, European and US stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, fractional investing and the Bux Savings."

☆ After FTX collapse, pressure builds for tougher crypto rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX was the biggest in string of big crypto-related failures this year. Some crypto investors share these concerns. "Regulators could have posted a lot more guidance for crypto," said Brian Fakhoury at crypto venture capital fund Mechanism Capital. India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the collapse of FTX underscored the need for greater visibility on often-anonymous crypto transactions. The FTX collapse "shows the importance of a well-framed regulation," Sitharaman said, "so that countries can be clearly aware of by whom, for what for these transactions are happening.

☆ Buzzy startups failed to fix mental-health care. Now their mistakes are fueling the space's next generation.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

In the past two years, highly funded startups have tried to disrupt mental-health care. The startups said they wanted to help solve the industry's biggest problems: Mental-health care is too expensive, and there isn't enough of it to go around. Talkspace's priority is now its division that sells mental-health care to employers, which pay recurring fees for employee access. Startups tackling more serious mental-health conditions are working with health plansThere's also a rising crop of mental-health companies tackling the costliest mental-health conditions, something the direct-to-consumer firms tend to shy away from. About half of Bicycle's patients pay with their insurance, a number he's looking to increase.

☆ BlackRock's Fink says crypto technology still relevant despite FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) Chief Executive Larry Fink said on Wednesday that there appear to have been "misbehaviors" by the now-bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, but that the technology behind crypto is relevant for the future. "We're going to have to wait to see how this all plays out (with FTX)," Fink said. "I mean, right now we can make all the judgment calls and it looks like there were misbehaviors of major consequences." BlackRock invested $24 million in FTX through a billionaire fund it manages, he said. Despite all the problems around FTX, Fink said he considers the technology behind crypto "will be very important."

☆ How to play the beaten-up EV stocks from here — Evercore ISI sees one doubling next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Electric vehicle stocks have had a tough year, but don't count them out just yet, according to Evercore ISI. Analyst Chris McNally said the past year has been a much-needed expectation reset for nascent EV players, such as Fisker , Rivian Automotive , and Lucid Group . Each has separate, premium "go-to-market" niches within the growing EV market, he said. "Then we would begin to see vertical integration & branding advantages take charge," McNally wrote. Lucid Lucid epitomizes an aspirational EV, McNally said.

☆ Exclusive: Ex-Tiger Global partner John Curtius to raise $1 billion for new venture capital fund -source
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Krystal Hu | Shadia Nasralla | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 30 (Reuters) - John Curtius, a former partner at investment firm Tiger Global, is in talks with institutional investors to raise $1 billion for his new venture fund Cedar Investment Management, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The fund will focus on investing in early stage enterprise software companies in the United States and Europe, the source added, requesting anonymity while discussing private matters. If closed, the fund will likely be one of the largest new funds raised by first-time fund managers amid a slowing venture capital market. Curtius joined Tiger from Elliott Management in 2017 and had been running enterprise software investment at the prolific tech investment firm that has $125 billion in asset under management. His portfolio of tech companies includes security software SentinelOne (S.N) and unicorns such as data infrastructure firm Databricks and cybersecurity company Snyk.

☆ Exclusive: Sentry, recently valued at over $3 billion, has acquired Codecov, a maker of software development tools
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Application monitoring service Sentry has acquired development tool maker Codecov. Sentry recently raised $90 million in Series E funding, which valued the company at more than $3 billion. Sentry, a startup that makes an application performance monitoring platform, said it has acquired Codecov, a startup that makes software development tools. The company, which has raised over $200 million to date from Accel, NEA, Bond and others, was recently valued at more than $3 billion. Combining the two services will allow Sentry to monitor for errors at every stage of the development process, Sentry CEO Milin Desai tells Insider.

☆ On the heels of BlackRock's $24 million bad bet on FTX, Larry Fink expects a sea change in venture investing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Larry Fink said he expects a change in where venture capital firms are investing. BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, was among the venerated investment firms that had invested in now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Larry Fink, BlackRock's cofounder and chief executive, now says he expects a shift in the way emerging companies are funded. Insider earlier reported that the firm's investment in FTX was small. "I actually believe we're going to be seeing a transformation of where this money's going to go," Fink said.

☆ BlockFi makes first appearance in bankruptcy court
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. cryptocurrency lender BlockFi on Tuesday will make its first appearance in U.S. bankruptcy court after filing for Chapter 11 protection on Monday. BlockFi is expected to tell U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey why it went bankrupt and how it plans to exit from Chapter 11. New Jersey-based BlockFi became the first direct casualty of crypto exchange FTX's collapse earlier this month. The company sold a portion of its crypto assets earlier in November to fund its bankruptcy, and it entered bankruptcy with $256.5 million in cash on hand. BlockFi's Chapter 11 plan envisages that BlockFi Wallet customers would be paid back in full and other account holders and creditors would receive a mixture of cryptocurrency, cash, and new equity shares.

☆ BlockFi tells U.S. bankruptcy court it is 'the antithesis of FTX'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationNov 29 (Reuters) - Lawyers for BlockFi, the first direct casualty of crypto exchange FTX's collapse, made their initial appearance in U.S. bankruptcy court on Tuesday, emphasizing that the U.S. cryptocurrency lender was "the antithesis of FTX." Sussberg went to great lengths to distance BlockFi from FTX, saying the company did not face the myriad issues apparently plaguing FTX. Sussberg said BlockFi also intends to seek a court ruling allowing customers in the BlockFi Wallet program to withdraw their funds during the bankruptcy case if they wish. "If it's in your wallet, it stays in your wallet," Sussberg said. Its Chapter 11 plan envisages that BlockFi Wallet customers would be paid back in full and other account holders and creditors would receive a mixture of cryptocurrency, cash, and new equity shares.

☆ Startups helping make farmers more efficient and sustainable have raised $1.1 billion in 2022. Here's 10 of the most-promising agritech startups, according to VCs.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Climate change and Russia's war on Ukraine have helped put food supply chains high on the agenda. European agritech startups tackling challenges in the food system have raised $1.1 billion this year. Insider asked investors to pick the 10 hottest agritech startups emerging in Europe right now. Venture capital funding has tumbled in 2022 but investment dollars continue to flow into European-headquartered startups helping farmers be more efficient and sustainable while also benefitting from greater yields. Agritech startups raised $1.1 billion across 143 deals in the opening 10 months of 2022, down from the $1.4 billion secured in 224 deals across the entirety of last year.

New Jersey-based BlockFi, founded by fintech executive-turned-crypto entrepreneur Zac Prince, said in a bankruptcy filing that its substantial exposure to FTX created a liquidity crisis. BlockFi listed its assets and liabilities as being between $1 billion and $10 billion. Renzi said that BlockFi had sold a portion of its crypto assets earlier in November to fund its bankruptcy. In a court filing on Monday, BlockFi listed FTX as its second-largest creditor, with $275 million owed on a loan extended earlier this year. In its bankruptcy filing, BlockFi said it had hired Kirkland & Ellis and Haynes & Boone as bankruptcy counsel.

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New Jersey-based BlockFi, founded by Zac Prince, said in a bankruptcy filing that its substantial exposure to FTX created a liquidity crisis. In a court filing on Monday, BlockFi listed FTX as its second-largest creditor, with $275 million owed on a loan extended earlier this year. Crypto lenders, the de facto banks of the crypto world, boomed during the pandemic, attracting retail customers with double-digit rates in return for their cryptocurrency deposits. Crypto lenders are not required to hold capital or liquidity buffers like traditional lenders and some found themselves exposed when a shortage of collateral forced them - and their customers - to shoulder large losses. In its bankruptcy filing, BlockFi said it had hired Kirkland & Ellis and Haynes & Boone as bankruptcy counsel and Berkeley Research Group as a financial adviser.

☆ Fintechs are opening up access to alternative investments previously reserved for sophisticated investors, but some VCs question if that's a good thing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But some don't think retail investors are ready for the level of risk in the asset class. Alternative investments, as the name suggests, is an asset outside of traditional investments like stocks, bonds, and cash. Investors choose from private-equity funds, venture capital, hedge funds, real estate, and art, among other areas. Such returns have attracted state pension funds, university endowments, and, most recently, individual investors from the ultra-high-net-worth to the Joe Schmoes. Companies like iCapital, Allocate, RealBlocks and CAIS (pronounced case) launched to help wealth-management firms usher their clients into sought-after private market funds.

☆ Anne Hathaway-backed VC firm Pact just closed the first tranche of its $36 million seed fund. Here's the 11-slide LP deck it used to raise the capital.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A female-founded VC firm has closed the first tranche of its £30 million ($36 million) early-stage fund. Check out the 11-slide LP deck the London-based firm used to raise the fresh funds. While investments will span Europe, Pact will help its portfolio companies scale into regions underserved by traditional investors, Gu told Insider. Gu will support companies looking to enter Asia while Pham and Mobassaleh-Wyndham will focus on EMEA, and specifically Türkiye. It sees this as a pull for potential portfolio companies who can then take advantage of the network's expertise.

☆ Exclusive: Buyout firm EnCap eyes first oil and gas production fund in five years - sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( David French | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Houston-based EnCap has approached investors in its previous funds to gauge their interest in participating in the new launch, the four sources said. It would be EnCap's 12th flagship fund and it could be officially marketed to investors early in 2023, the sources added. Many private equity investors have fallen out of love with the oil and gas sector as easy-to-drill acreage is becoming scarcer and more expensive for private equity firms. EnCap has sought to attract ESG-minded investors through EnCap Energy Transition Fund II, its second fund dedicated to helping companies transition to clean energy for which it is currently seeking $2 billion, according to a separate source. EnCap is also raising its fifth fund for its pipeline infrastructure affiliate, EnCap Flatrock Midstream, seeking $3 billion.

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