Santosh Sankar’s Post

Timothy Young of Eniac Ventures gives founders some advice: 💥 The first question you should ask yourself is, "Can I avoid venture capitalists?" 💥 VCs take a lot in return. (Advice to a #Founder from the "Leaving Civilian VCs Panel" with Tim Young-Eniac Ventures, David Hornick- Lobby Fund, Barry Eggers - Lightspeed, Tilli Kalisky-Bannett - SVB Capital) Links in the comments!

#StartupNews 🚨| Peak XV Partners is set to launch #PeakXV Anchor Fund— a permanent capital vehicle investing in new businesses and strategies, sources tell Shruti Malhotra. Details here ⬇️ | Young Turks

Billionaire Family-Backed Firm Raises $100 Million Venture Fund, Congatuations Mark B. 👇 HIPstr, the venture arm of Mark Bezos and David Moross's HighPost Capital, raised $100 million from investors including rich individuals and institutional firms for early-stage deals outside its traditional buyout focus. Why is this so significant? As the venture capital ecosystem continues to evolve, family offices are increasingly seen as pivotal players. Challenging macroeconomic conditions such as higher interest rates and inflation, as well as tighter credit markets, have put downward pressure on the direct investing portfolios of many family offices over the past couple of years. Some have responded by slowing or ceasing direct investing. But the family offices with the greatest AUM have tended to take the opposite approach, doubling down in the expectation of benefiting from lower valuations and opportunistic situations. An investment firm founded by Jeff Bezos’ younger brother Mark Bezos and a US private equity veteran that focuses on consumer bets has raised its first venture fund. Read more below. #FamilyOffice #UAE https://lnkd.in/dm8d2RcM

New Post: Peter Thiel-founded Valar Ventures raised a $300 million fund, half the size of its last one - https://lnkd.in/gNjn4zGz - The perception in Silicon Valley is that every investor would love to be in business with Peter Thiel. But the venture capital fundraising environment has become so difficult, that even Valar Ventures, one of the VC firms he helped found, has raised a much smaller fund this year compared to previous ones.  Thiel set up © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. - #news #business #world -------------------------------------------------- Download: Stupid Simple CMS - https://lnkd.in/g4y9XFgR -------------------------------------------------- or download at SourceForge - https://lnkd.in/gNqB7dnp

Billionaire Family-Backed Firm Raises $100 Million Venture Fund, Congatuations Mark B. 👇 HIPstr, the venture arm of Mark Bezos and David Moross's HighPost Capital, raised $100 million from investors including rich individuals and institutional firms for early-stage deals outside its traditional buyout focus. Why is this so significant? As the venture capital ecosystem continues to evolve, family offices are increasingly seen as pivotal players. Challenging macroeconomic conditions such as higher interest rates and inflation, as well as tighter credit markets, have put downward pressure on the direct investing portfolios of many family offices over the past couple of years. Some have responded by slowing or ceasing direct investing. But the family offices with the greatest AUM have tended to take the opposite approach, doubling down in the expectation of benefiting from lower valuations and opportunistic situations. An investment firm founded by Jeff Bezos’ younger brother Mark Bezos and a US private equity veteran that focuses on consumer bets has raised its first venture fund. Read more below 👇 https://lnkd.in/eKAFzT4K #Startup #innovation #entrepreneurship #sustainability #investing #networking #venturecapital

💵📊 Avid Ventures has launched its second early-stage fund closing $87 million. This brings the total capital raised by the company to over $165 million. The Avid Fund II will back exceptional founders building transformative software and fintech companies from Seed to Series B stages. 📈 The VC firm welcomed new institutional investors, including The Mellon Foundation, Hall Capital Partners LLC, Vintage Investment Partners, UJA-Federation of New York, Soka University of America, and CM Wealth Advisors, among others. Returning Fund I investors include Foundry, General Catalyst, and multi-billion dollar philanthropic family offices. It was also backed by leading investors and executives such as Brian Singerman (Partner, Founders Fund), Rob Hayes (Partner, First Round), and Susan Sobbott (former multi-decade American Express leader). 🤖 Read more here: https://shorturl.at/PExRv Addie Lerner Daniel Simon Nicky Goulimis #tech #funding #news #VC #technology #investment #innovation

Norwest Venture Partners is breaking records as it raises $3 billion for his 17th vehicle! Norwest Venture Partners is making headlines once again as they raise a staggering $3 billion for their 17th fund, maintaining their fund size despite the current market downturn. Founded 65 years ago and backed solely by Wells Fargo, #Norwest Venture Partners has been a powerhouse in the #VC space. With a legacy of success and innovation, Norwest is led by senior managing partner Jeff Crowe, who has played a pivotal role in the firm's growth and impact. Backed solely by Wells Fargo, Norwest's latest fundraise of $3 billion is a testament to their continued strength and resilience in the face of market challenges. Despite the downturn, Norwest remains committed to staying competitive in the dealmaking environment, focusing on growth equity, healthcare, and investments in regions like India. Norwest's diversified approach sets them apart, allowing them to navigate market fluctuations with agility and foresight. Operating globally with investments in North America, India, and Israel, Norwest's multi-strategy fund encompasses early-stage and growth equity businesses, with a recent addition of a biotech team to enhance their healthcare practice. The article on TechCrunch in the first comment. Want to stay up to date with the market? Here my newsletter: - Linkedin: https://t.ly/s541W   - Substack: https://lnkd.in/dzfGJzmW

This is NOT GOOD. Entropic distribution of resources is critical for the health and resiliency of any 'system' - including entrepreneurship and venture capital. See https://bit.ly/4iHOCFp

"Last month, Santa Barbara Venture Partners took the unusual step of selling shares of its portfolio companies to generate capital to return to its limited partners. Sales are by no means traditional exits—investors generally expect cash-outs like initial public offerings or acquisitions. But the secondary transactions have shown that SBVP can make money for its investors, said Dan Engel, its founder and managing partner." OK, I get it - the need to show LP's distributions is understandable, if not always optimal. So far, so good. Then I kept reading. SBVP was launched in 2020 and by 2022 was out raising a second fund. Well that was quick. Engel then noted the "fundraising market began to sour, LPs demanded more proof of traction." If your LP's expect tangible proofs of traction from a 2 year old early stage venture fund, they don't understand the asset class. Depending on the survey, average time to exit for a venture backed company is 7-10 years. A sale 2 years after investment rarely represents a big win, when such a big win occurs it is pretty much the venture equivalent of winning the lottery. You don't invest with the goal of a big exit in 2 years. However, the issue is not just LP's. Historically venture funds raised every 3-4 years. During the 2021 Bubble this dropped to every 1-2 years. Similarly, companies fundraised every 18-24 months, during the bubble this often dropped to less than a year. The net of this is the following: 1. Historically, when you fundraised a successor early stage fund, no one expected exits, but you were usually able to show valuation increases because many of your portfolio companies completed at least one follow on round before you started your fundraising. 2. In the current environment, venture fundraising is returning to the 18-24 month time horizon and the down market has in effect extended this through convertible notes/SAFEs/flat rounds. As a result, a two year old fund out there fundraising, not only can't show exits (which LPs should not expect), but in many cases they are not showing valuation increases. That might explain the large number of first time funds not raising successor funds. These secondary sales might make the picture look "nicer" for the moment (and maybe help some funds raise successor funds), but likely will reduce LP returns in the long term.  

Venture capitalists are embracing the secondary market as a viable option for generating exits in a market where liquidity events are scarce. The stigma around selling on this market is starting to fade. #VCJ #VentureCapital #Secondaries