Nada Inc.’s Post

🌍 Mastering Exits in VC! Here are some reflections from today’s fireside chat with EstVCA Chair Kaari Kink and Creandum General Partner Staffan Helgesson held at EBAN - European Business Angel Network Congress in Tallinn. 🙌 How to navigate the environment of lack of exits and liquidity: ⚪ If you’re an LP, dividing your investment ticket over 2-3 funds might make sense to diversify and not depend only on one fund’s returns. ⚪ The 3rd fund is the hardest to raise so there might be pressure on the second fund to push for exits and show returns. It’s important to understand that this industry is about riding the winners and not backing out too early. ⚪ Often the best returns come several years after the initial 10+1+1 year fund term so fund managers and LPs should expect a longer holding period, even as long as 18 years, and not get stuck on numbers on the paper. ⚪ That said, selling parts of your position in later-stage rounds and recycling the capital as well as providing LPs with some liquidity is a reasonable strategy. ⚪ It helps to be transparent with LPs at the start that the fund holding period may be longer to ensure good companies can grow to exits. Equally, it helps if you don’t ask LPs to pay for the “overtime” but get approval for holding the positions. ⚪ When it comes to companies that are not obvious winners in the portfolio, it’s important to ask tough questions. Mainly, is this company a complete platform or a feature? If the latter, it might make sense to be part of someone else’s offering and merge. ⚪ The one principle Creandum always promotes is to involve a professional banker: “I have never seen an exit where not including a banker gets you a higher price”. ⚪ Times are never as bad as u think, better times come faster than you think. European landscape is still relatively early in its development but there’s much reason to stay bullish. ⚪ The biggest mistake angels and VCs can make is throwing good money after bad money. When the startup struggles to raise the next funding, it’s a strong sign from the market and you should strongly consider if committing more capital is the way to go. #exits #vc #ebancongress

🚨 Attention all founders! Join Kiran Mehta and Nomaan Riaz from Mercia Ventures at a brand new event in Leeds next month. Focusing on scaling your business, Kiran and Nomaan host two panels whilst sharing first-hand knowledge on: 🧭️ How to navigate the current VC funding market 📈 The pros and cons of scaling with or without VC 🚀 How we can help fuel growth with NPIF II investment This is a fantastic opportunity to create new conversations with the Mercia Ventures team, and ask us the questions you need answering when it comes to scaling your business! 📝 Sign up with link in comments ⏬ #Event #Leeds #ScaleUp #Investment #VC #NPIF | Chris Borrett

🚨 Attention all founders! Join Kiran Mehta and Nomaan Riaz from Mercia Ventures at a brand new event in Leeds next month. Focusing on scaling your business, Kiran and Nomaan host two panels whilst sharing first-hand knowledge on: 🧭️ How to navigate the current VC funding market 📈 The pros and cons of scaling with or without VC 🚀 How we can help fuel growth with NPIF II investment This is a fantastic opportunity to create new conversations with the Mercia Ventures team, and ask us the questions you need answering when it comes to scaling your business! 📝 Sign up with link in comments ⏬ #Event #Leeds #ScaleUp #Investment #VC #NPIF | Chris Borrett

A little over five months ago, I wrote a post about the mission behind Electrifi Ventures (see link in comments), a Climate Tech-focused angel syndicate I’m running alongside GrowthStream, an advisory business in the energy transition space. By sharing my time and knowledge with both seasoned and aspiring investors, I aim to amplify our collective climate impact through angel investing. Fast forward to today, I am thrilled to share with you our incredible journey to being one of the largest independent Angel Syndicates, with over 250 Angel Investors / LP’s across ANZ! In less than a year since starting Electrifi Ventures, we are proud to have invested in seven industry-transforming climate startups, and we are backing these companies with conviction: Sicona Battery Technologies: a game changer for the uptake of Electric Vehicles, is a deep tech company creating advanced materials that improves the overall performance of lithium-ion batteries. Sicona believes it is able to increase charging speed by 40% and deliver 20% more range on EVs.  GOTERRA: an autonomous circular food waste management infrastructure that is integrated with existing systems to create enduring industry solutions.  Harvest B: a food technology business that develops and manufactures plant proteins with animal protein-like textures that are easier to consume and more affordable for everyone.  NRN - National Renewable Network: a connected network of solar and storage systems that radically changes the way renewable energy is delivered for energy retailers. Stealth DAC Innovator: an innovative technology that is removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, at scale, in a cost-effective way, via Direct Air Capture (DAC). Threadlet: an energy efficiency platform that aims to automatically identify SME energy usage and switch business energy accounts to the best energy rate provider for every venue, every month. 📣 Would love to invite anyone interested to learn more (or invest) in innovative solutions tackling the climate crisis to join the Electrifi Ventures angel syndicate (link in comments).

Want to know 10 things I heard about #angelinvesting last week at the Angel Investor Summit? 1. London dominates all angel deals. 48% of all deals in 2023 took place in London. 2. Some #angels admit to being addicted to angel investing. They can’t stop. They enjoy taking the risk (even though one said they know it’s the children’s inheritance). 3. Some #angelinvestors rush in head on. An executed founder I met told the audience he’d made too many investments too soon, without enough due diligence. 4. Fewer angels than I thought have grasped the importance of building a diversified portfolio of 10 or, better still, 20 investments to spread their risk. 5. An exited founder turned angel admitted that he was ‘too gullible, too impatient and too optimistic’ to be a successful angel. I suspect this is a bigger risk the richer you are. Another said ‘Everyone’s going to be brilliant, right?’ 6. Very few angels make a lot of money. One well respected Angel who I already knew had made 75 investments over 15 years, had 20 exits and 20 gone to the wall, and 35 with an as yet unknown outcome. Overall gain on his investment portfolio about 3x. 7. Most angels have too many startups in their portfolio that they call the ‘Living Dead’, (not necessarily to their faces). 8. There was a broad consensus that when you invest the number one thing is the founder. Can he or she execute on their dream, can they ‘have what it takes’, and does the founder care enough about the problem they are trying to solve? This decision remains an impression without any systematic analysis. 9. At early stage, valuation remains an art. Hit some metrics and it’s a negotiation around price. 10. Failure was simply described as not reaching #productmarketfit before the money runs out. It was a good reminder to revisit Paul Graham’s default alive or default dead. It was a great day out and South East Angels is building a great community. I’m looking forward to next year’s event already Kristina Pereckaite #AngelThink

Join us for a workshop led by Lisa Calhoun, Founder & Managing Partner of Valor VC. Gain practical insights on why securing a lead investor first is a strategic advantage for founders raising a seed or Series A round. 📅 Date: Wednesday, September 25th 📍 Location: ATDC 🕒 Time: 10 – 11:30 am (1.5-hour session) 🔍 Workshop Highlights: · Shortening time to close · Reducing founder’s time spent raising · Fast-tracking your startup’s credibility 📈 You’ll Come Away With: · How to define a lead investor · What to expect from a lead investor and how to qualify them · The unspoken benefits of why getting that lead commitment matters so much to other investors 🔒 This is an invitation-only event. Don’t miss this chance to fast-track your startup’s success! For more details and registration information, you may contact Dr. Caroline M. Ford at caroline.ford@atdc.org. #ATDC #ValorVentures #StartupSuccess #LeadInvestor #SeedRound #SeriesARound #valorvc

4 VC's walk into a bar, there's chilli margs, 75 founders, and a whole lot of goss. Welcome to #InvestFest - we're lifting the lid on the Australian VC market and asking the questions that founders can't.🤭 Consider this investor insights: #SpicyEdition 🌶 We're asking the questions you REALLY want to know with Alezeia Brown from Main Sequence, Sachin Samarawickrama from Folklore Ventures, Sid Kasbekar from Airtree and Nick Capell from QIC. And we'll be jumping into the hard hitting topics like: 🤑 2025: Fund or Run 🔓 Tales from the vault 🥊 Stolen deals 👀 Looking past the hype 💸 The one that got away 🏃♀️Startups I'd leave my job for... 🔮 Billion dollar bets 😵 Biggest risks (that paid off) Get ready for the Gold Coast biggest Investor x Founder connect on Thurs 7 Nov! Oh and we've still got another INVESTOR drop coming your way🔥 [Some other links you might be looking for] 👉More about InvestFest 2024: https://lnkd.in/gEkBAGQe 👉InvestFest Founder Waitlist: https://lnkd.in/gxtid_U2 👉Investor looking to get involved: https://lnkd.in/gsXH8tGn 👉Keep me in the loop for your other awesome event: https://lnkd.in/exDnxPWj #GoldCoast #Founders #Investors #VCs #Queensland

Fundraising in a down market: Our advice to early-stage founders by Daniel Tomov, Partner at Eleven Ventures 👇 Why it matters.👇 The post-2021 funding landscape is brutal. With fewer dollars flowing and investors sitting on high-valuation portfolios, founders need to bring their A-game. Product-market fit is everything, and investors are scrutinizing harder while setting higher benchmarks (think $5M ARR for Series A instead of $1M). Founders, expect tougher terms like 2x liquidation preferences and prepare to achieve higher milestones before closing rounds. Tomov emphasizes strategic adaptability: explore diverse investors and avoid being boxed into VC-only options. Read the full article on EUVC Insights! 🔽 https://buff.ly/3XESkar #venturecapital #startupfunding #Europe #EUVCInsights

🚨 Attention all founders! Join Kiran Mehta and Nomaan Riaz from Mercia Ventures at a brand new event in Leeds next month. Focusing on scaling your business, Kiran and Nomaan will share first-hand knowledge on: 🧭️ How to navigate the current VC funding market 📈 The pros and cons of scaling with or without VC 🚀 How we can help fuel growth with NPIF II investment This is a fantastic opportunity to create new conversations with the Mercia Ventures team, and ask us the questions you need answering when it comes to scaling your business! Sign up below ⏬ #Event #Leeds #ScaleUp #Investment #VC #NPIF | Chris Borrett

It’s really hard to raise $10M+ in Latin America. VCs need to believe in more than just the founders and traction, they need to be confident you have the right team to execute your vision. Don't miss Matt Muldavin's article, "You Need a Great Team, Not Just Great Traction, to Raise $10M+ in Latin America," the first in a three-part series on how to build a team that can help you secure that level of funding. https://lnkd.in/e-SFr4CV