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☆ VCs need to return cash to their investors. The secondary market is coming alive as a result.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Venture capitalists need to free up cash and return money to their own investors, known as limited partners (LPs). The secondary share sales market in the US is well established. Bad timingMost VC funds agree to return their profits to their LPs within 10 years. A record 31 secondary funds headquartered in Europe were established in 2021, amid the hype period, with $29 billion in assets under management per PitchBook. It all comes down to how buoyant the VC market is: "If the market is good again, then who's going to sell secondary?

Persons: There's, Michael Smith, Regeneration's Smith, Kelly Rodriques, Hussein Kanji, Kanji, Hussein, Tom Henrikkson, OpeanOcean, it's, Henrikkson Organizations: Venture, Business, Industry Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Ventures, Albion, Forge, Financial Times, VC, Hoxton Ventures, Sequoia Locations: Silicon Valley, Europe, San Francisco, Amsterdam, London

☆ There's a wave of pre-IPO startups with pandemic-era price tags stuck in limbo right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

There is a wave of pandemic-era startups stuck in limbo right now. The days of seeing 80% to 100% year-on-year revenue growth are gone, Hussein Kanji from early-stage fund Hoxton Ventures told Business Insider. Hoxton Ventures' Hussein Kanji said the days of companies racking up 100% year-on-year revenue growth are over. Investors tend to assess whether a company is IPO-ready on the rule of 40, which is revenue growth plus EBIT margin. Kanji added: "This is a lesson for a lot of people – if the IPO window opens up, take the company public."

Persons: they're, James Ulan, Klarna, Ulan, Karna's, Hussein Kanji, Morgan Stanley, Kanji, Kamil Mieczakowski, Fabian Heilemann, Graphcore Organizations: Business, Hoxton Ventures, Hoxton, Nvidia, Sequoia Locations: Ulan

☆ Inside the implosion of dark kitchen startup Kbox Global, another pandemic-era boom beginning to bust
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

In 2019, after years of investing in and setting up food and beverage brands internationally, she founded dark-kitchen startup Kbox from London. But two years after this funding, large for an early-stage European startup, Vellani exited the business suddenly, citing health issues. "You're only judged on food quality, but if the chef is doing 10 times the work for same money, then it's a fundamental problem." Both Uber Eats and Deliveroo, after an initial burst of interest, would eventually go on to cut back on virtual brands. In an email comment, Vellani acknowledged her lack of direct technical experience but said she sought to fix this through other C-suite hires.

Persons: Salima Vellani, Uber, Travis Kalanick, Vellani, Butler, CloudKitchens, Kbox, MrBeast Burger, YouTuber MrBeast, Jimmy Donaldson, Influencer Jimmy Donaldson, Burger, Brexit, Vellani didn't, Karim Vellani, Karim, Ben Schultz, Nick Holloway, I've Organizations: Balderton, Hoxton Ventures, Reef Technologies, Lean, Network, United, Advisory Locations: London, Saudi, Revolut, COVID, Kbox, Sydney

☆ How Preply became one of the largest online language learning startups in the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

He started to see the potential for online language tutoring as a viable business model, since online lessons were cheaper than in-person lessons and class schedules were more flexible. In the summer of 2012, Bigai, Voloshyn and Lukyanov founded the online language learning startup Preply. Last month, Preply raised a $70 million Series C extension round with a combination of debt and equity led by Horizon Capital. Reach Capital, Hoxton Ventures and Owl Ventures, which led its previous $50 million Series C in 2022, also participated. The company's successful fundraising comes after a difficult year personally for the Preply team.

Persons: Preply, Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn, Sergey Lukyanov, Bigai, Lukyanov, James Kim Organizations: Preply, Horizon Capital, Morning, Skype, Horizon, Reach, Hoxton Ventures, Owl Ventures, Datadog, Bain, Reach Capital Locations: Ukraine, Boston, Texas, Barcelona, Kyiv, Berlin, Czech, Russia

☆ Ukrainian-founded Duolingo rival Preply banks $70 million to push into A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Preply, a language learning platform connecting people with tutors, raised $70 million of fresh capital to ramp up its use of artificial intelligence, the company told CNBC exclusively. The equity portion was led by Horizon Capital, a venture capital firm focused on investing in emerging entrepreneurs, particularly Ukrainians. The funding adds to a $50 million Series C funding round Preply raised last year, and takes its total funding raised to over $170 million. It comes as Duolingo, a competitor to Preply, has been incorporating OpenAI's GPT language processing software to enhance its app's personalization to users. Horizon Capital raised $125 million for a startup fund aimed at backing Ukrainian founders.

Persons: Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn, Serge Lukianov, Preply, Preply's, Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, Dmitriy Zaporozhets Organizations: CNBC, Horizon Capital, Reach Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Bain, Horizon, Google, Samsung, Amazon Locations: Ukraine, U.S, GroupM, Ukrainian, Preply, Russia, Moscow

☆ Kitt designs, builds, and manages office space for the likes of Oatly. Check out the 35-slide pitch deck it used to raise $8 million from Hoxton Ventures.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Kitt, which designs, constructs, and manages office space, just raised $8 million. Instead, he was consumed by a quirk of his Kentish Town, London, office space: a leaky AC unit. It was this experience, and the subsequent chasing of the landlord for repairs, that germinated the seed of his next business: managed office space. Kitt has a marketplace of office space to connect landlords and commercial tenants. With the rise of remote work, office space is now seen as a strategic decision, Coulson said.

Persons: Steve Coulson, Coulson, Kitt Organizations: Kitt, Hoxton Ventures, Babylon, New Locations: Kentish, London, Deliveroo, Kitt, New York

☆ 'A very problematic market': As Arm shuns London, tech investors question UK as an IPO destination
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The institutional investors that dominate the London market lack a good understanding of tech, according to several venture capitalists. Numerous tech firms listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, in moves that buoyed investor hopes for more major tech names to start appearing in the blue-chip FTSE 100 benchmark. Since Deliveroo's March 2021 IPO, the firm's stock has plummeted dramatically, slumping over 70% from the £3.90 it priced its shares at. "London is creating, and the U.K. is creating, globally important businesses — Arm is a globally important business. The London Stock Exchange was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Venture capital firms on both sides of the Atlantic have been urging their portfolio companies to move money out of embattled lender Silicon Valley Bank, deepening fears of a run on the tech-focused bank. Silicon Valley Bank shares plunged 60% Thursday after disclosing that it needed to shore up its capital with a $2.25 billion equity raise from investors including General Atlantic. Pear VC, an early-stage VC firm based in San Francisco, urged its portfolio network to withdraw funds from SVB on Thursday. The wind-down of crypto-centric Silvergate Bank and pressure on Silicon Valley Bank this week reminded some founders of the 2008 financial crisis, in which banks toppled during the mortgage bust. We are seeing other funds encouraging companies to withdraw their funds from SVB.

At least 10 European VC funds have told their founders to pull funds out of Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank's woes spread overseas on Friday morning as tech investors in Europe followed their US peers and advised founders to pull their cash from the bank. The bank's shares plummeted 60% amid concerns among investors and founders about the safety of their cash. The bank has been a stalwart in the tech industry over the past 40 years, acting as a banking partner and investor for startups across the world. Castiglione said that UK funds were only "screwed" if Europe followed suit with the "US panic contagion."

☆ The implosion of Silicon Valley's largest bank has investors worried worse is to come: 'There might be some kind of crack in the financial system'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | James Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The implosion of the California lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate has investors worried. Christopher Whalen, the chairman of Whalen Global Advisors, a financial consultancy, said Silicon Valley Bank was "just the tip of the iceberg." He added that the situation at Silicon Valley Bank was "a reminder that many institutions are sitting on large unrealized losses" on bond holdings. Mould said the "fire sale" of Silicon Valley Bank's bond portfolio raised broader concerns. Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker on Thursday implored customers to "stay calm" in an apparent bid to stave off further mass withdrawals and avert collapse.

☆ Early Deliveroo investor Hoxton Ventures is set to lose one of its founding partners
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

European venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures, a backer of some of the U.K.'s best-known tech unicorns, is set to lose one of its founding partners. They include food delivery app Deliveroo and cybersecurity firm Darktrace . Some of Hoxton's portfolio companies have seen their public market values sink as investors re-examined their exposure to tech. Babylon Health has lost 95% of its market value since going public via a combination with a special purpose acquisition company. Nonetheless, Hoxton generated a hundredfold return on its early bets on Deliveroo and grew the value of its Darktrace position by fiftyfold since first investing in the company, according to one of the sources.

☆ The VC dream machine pumped out one dumb startup after another. 2023 should put an end to that.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

2023 should curtail the current flow of bad startup ideas. The way it roughly works is to bet millions across lots of startups in the hope one of them blows up and returns that cash. 'Fewer insane ideas'We are no longer in a low-interest-rate market, meaning startup investors who could once rely on generous backers will have to be more cautious about how they spend their money. They do have lots of money, with an estimated $290 billion of capital available to them in October, according to Pitchbook data. But Kniaz senses a shift in motion: "This next year will show which emperor has clothes on or not.

☆ Nonstop partying, lavish spending, and sexual-harassment accusations: Inside the self-destruction of Pollen, the music startup once worth $800 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Melkorka Licea | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

About 400 Pollen employees were camped out in Mendocino County, California, for five straight days of partying. Two former Pollen employees told Insider that they recalled the assistant telling them about Callum's inappropriate comments at the time. (The Pollen representative said Callum and Bedi didn't date at Pollen or at any other company connected to Pollen. Out of 360 events Pollen announced over the past 12 months, 39 were canceled, the Pollen representative said. (The Pollen representative said that "out of hundreds of thousands of customers, fewer than 100 people were moderated" online.)

☆ Giraffe360 offers real-estate brokers a camera and software to create 3D property viewings. Check out the 9-slide deck it used to raise $16 million from Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Giraffe360's camera-based platform allows real-estate companies to create virtual property tours. The London-based startup secured $16 million in a round led by Founders Fund. CEO Mikus Opelts saw an uptick in virtual house viewings during the pandemic, and he is optimistic that virtual viewings will be key to real-estate listings in the future. Existing investors LAUNCHub Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, HCVC (Hardware Club), and Change Ventures also participated in the round. This brings the startup's total amount raised to $22 million in equity, and $9 million in venture debt.

☆ Meet 13 first-time healthcare founders who beat the odds to raise cash from VCs in a choppy market
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

These 13 healthcare founders have raised venture capital for the first time as a recession looms. Their startups have landed anywhere from $5 million to $70 million in early-stage funding this year. "Serial entrepreneurs build consistent companies, but they usually don't build them to the same scale as first-time founders," he said. These 13 founders are taking on healthcare's rocky waters for the first time in 2022. Check out the full list, ordered from least to most money raised this year.

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