Rahul Berry

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

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Femtech has been in the headlines this week, as London-based Flo Health cracked a US$1 billion valuation following its US$200m Series C raise backed by General Atlantic – making it Europe’s first femtech company to achieve unicorn status. This has been controversial news on two fronts. First, the news that first place was taken out by a women’s health app run by an all male founding team, which stands in stark relief to the lack of capital going to women-led businesses - with only 2-4% of VC funding going to women-led companies. Second, Flo is still facing an ongoing Canadian class action claiming that it shared intimate health information – including details about users’ menstrual cycles, pregnancies and sex lives – to companies like Facebook, without their knowledge (and it’s not the first time, either - links in comments). This reflects consumers’ very real concerns about data, safety and trust when accessing essential health care that touches on highly personal aspects of our lives. In my favourite conversation yet, Rachel Yang and I recently sat down with Ida Tin, Danish entrepreneur, author and co-founder of the pioneering menstruation tracking app Clue, who coined the term ‘femtech’ back in 2016, to discuss the intersection of data, power and trust. Some highlights from our conversation? Although funding levels into femtech are not nearly as high as we’d like to see, Ida shared that the sector has evolved dramatically since she started Clue over a decade ago. We’re no longer faced with the barrier that women’s health is a niche area, and this shift has encouraged more women founders to start businesses solving the problems they themselves face. That said, there’s still a long way to go in terms of investors believing the scale of these problems and not subjecting women and gender diverse founders to a higher bar. Femtech solutions like Clue go a long way to addressing inequity in health care by empowering people with menstrual cycles with their health data in three ways – to give you the data to know when something isn’t right with your health, to help collect data to share with your doctor to help your experience carry more weight (although it shouldn’t have to be this way!), and helping healthcare providers connect broader datasets to identify key diagnostic gaps. In the post-Roe v Wade world, transparency on data privacy in the femtech space is more concerning than ever – and the risk here really comes down to the ethics of the people making decisions. Consumers are scared of data leaks and tech companies misusing their trust. Against this backdrop, data regulation in the health space is very necessary, and founders need to make sure they’re treating users’ data with the care it deserves. Check out the link to full interview in the comments below👇 Do you know an amazing founder building in the femtech space? I'd love to chat!

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"Funding Collapse sends investment in start-ups to six year low" The Times today covering the shocking stats that VenturePath uncovered, with our partner Beauhurst. Great quotes from supporters Michael Moore CEO, BVCA and Julian David CEO, techUK. * UK VC funding at Series A is -44% from last year, and worsening * Q3 24 is down a staggering 57% from Q2, itself down from Q1 * 9 in 10 seed funded startups cannot access Series A VC funding, the next 'rung on the funding ladder' * Just 32 future scaleup companies across the whole of the UK were able to access their first VC funding round in Q3...a 6 year low * Half a billion less capital is going in to UK scaleups at Series A, than just 2 years ago! As the UK scaleup funding gap widens, we are losing ground against other countries, at both startup stage (a position the UK worked hard to achieve, since 2011), and for scaleup support. OECD data: 13th in the world for scaleup support, and that's before Series A funding access dried up. I get that its confusing. Another report (BBB, Nations & Regions) released this week spoke of positive trends in private investment, stating "The data for Q2 2024 shows that investment value has continued to grow". Great, I love to see optimistic data. But under analysis that bundles venture with private equity (later stage), where a few megadeals skew the numbers. Otherwise the exact opposite is true. Our independent research here, for the UK ScaleUp Investment Mission, is laser beam focussed on Series A. The funding round where companies move from the c.1m startups launched each year, through the 2,179 that access seed funding, into the rarefied category of being recognised as future scaleups, attracting Series A funding (£2-10m). The UK venture landscape is currently funding just 248 pa of these companies, and declining. We've been sharing this urgent call for support with the new Government since the day after the election. I've personally met with several Ministers, and spoke to all the relevant Government departments. I will shamelessly repeat loudly what is at stake. UK scaleup funding at Series A has nearly halved in a year, and continues to decline steeply, more than halving in the last quarter. VenturePath developed The UK ScaleUp Investment Mission to convene the scaleup support ecosystem and £7bn of funders to help address this problem, to improve nationwide access to VC investment, and create more venture-backed successes. We have clear support, clear recommendations to reverse this decline in UK scaleup investment, and have made a clear ask of Government for participation in this, to ensure immediate action is taken to create the conditions for success for UK scaleups, ensuring the focus on growth isn't undermined by lack of capital, or equitable access to it. Government decision makers, we'd love your interest, to progress to action. HM Treasury: Rt Hon Rachel Reeves Spencer Livermore James Murray & CC Poppy Gustafsson (welcome to the debate).

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Question for all the founders in my network: What tools are you using for your customer waitlists? 💡 I've seen everything from simple one page websites to more developed integrated engagement/management platforms. Keen to know what people think is good! #founders #vc #startup

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Attention all ambitious founders seeking investment opportunities! Get ready for Pitch&Drink with P2S.vc — a night in London where founders and investors meet under one roof 🚀 This event will feature a speed dating format of pitch-session. Startups will have 2–3 minutes to present their elevator pitch directly to investors, followed by a 6-7 minute Q&A session. Why You Should Join: 👉 Benefit from live pitch reviews and align your startup with investor expectations. 👉 Don't miss this opportunity to make valuable connections and explore funding possibilities! 👉 Connect with a community of like-minded individuals and VCs and gain insights into your next fundraising venture in a relaxed and fun environment. The speed dating part of Pitch&Drink with P2S.vc exclusively for investors and approved startups will start at 6:00 PM. After 8:00 PM, the event will continue with music, drinks, lots of networking, and discussions of the hottest vc news 🍸 Join us on June 3rd! Secure your spot now: https://bit.ly/4alEgpC Pre-seed to Succeed (P2S) is an investment program launched by AltaIR Capital, Yellow Rocks, Smart Partnership Capital and I2BF Global Ventures. The P2S is designed for early-stage startups with MVP and first traction and focuses on the following industries: B2B / SaaS, FinTech, AI, Future of Work, Productivity Tools, Digital Health, and HR Tech. The program offers initial funding from participating venture companies, ongoing support from seasoned experts and mentors, and 50% of the next round for proven startups.

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Is everyone launching VCs nowadays? In late 2022, I enrolled in the VC Lab programme but the timing wasn’t quite right, so I dropped out. Now, with better timing after selling my business, I’ve rejoined the VC Lab again (here is a spoiler into my future plans 🙈) Sifted tracked only 40 new first-time funds with a first or second close in 2023, a decrease from over 60 in 2022. As of 2024, only 18 new VCs have been launched in Europe. Anyone in my network launching a VC fund or considering it? How are you navigating this process? #VC #VentureCapital #Fundraising #BusinessOpportunity

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Very proud to see the WVC:E dream team - Anisah Osman Britton MBE & Rachel Drapper - alongside long time friend and rockstar Ekaterina Gianelli on stage at TechBBQ discussing "Fixing the Talent Exodus in VC". Key Takeaways: 💰Impact of Consolidation on Culture and Talent: The ongoing consolidation in the VC industry is reshaping company culture, affecting morale, and influencing talent. 🚀Emerging Managers Aren’t Diversifying VC: Despite the rise of emerging managers, the industry remains largely homogenous, with many new managers still coming from the same traditional, non-diverse backgrounds. ⚠️Perceptions of Diversity as High Risk: Many in the VC industry continue to view diverse hires, investments, and business models as "high risk," "too time-consuming," or "too costly," perpetuating a cycle of exclusion. 🚼 Parental Leave Inequality: Inequities in parental leave policies are disproportionately affecting women in venture, creating additional barriers to progression. But there are funds, investors, LPs and organisations (like us!) that are trying to change this!

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🚀 Calling all institutional investors who are interested in Pre-seed to Seed stage startups! You might have heard about London’s Largest Demo Day we hosted in April, where we had 100 pre-selected Pre-Seed to Series A stage #startups  #pitching to hundreds of #investors . We managed to gather high-quality startups to pitch on the day with the help of our 40+ investor partners. 🙌 We’re doing it again on the 14th of October and are expanding our investor partner list. This will help us rate the applicants and raise event awareness. In return, each investor partner gets early access to the deal flow and a couple of complimentary tickets for the event! 🎟️ If you’d like to join other investors and support us, please fill in the form (link in the comments). The form also includes more details on the process, expectations, and timeline. 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿: • VCs • CVCs • Family Offices • Angel Syndicates 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲? • 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘁: Driven mainly by applications and ratings, but we are aiming for full representation in hardtech, deeptech, and fintech. • 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁: All applicants will take a psychometric test designed by ETA Technologies to assess their team’s potential for survival. The results will be available to investors post-event. • 𝗦𝗣𝗩 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: We plan to create an SPV to invest in the top 2-3 companies, decided by the investor committee. • 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: We will host “The First Money In” pitching event for pre-selected founders who have undergone due diligence. Individual angels can commit up to £100k with a £1k ticket. We hope to have you on board with us. We will be announcing our investor partners next week. 𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 (𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀). Looking forward to your applications! 🚀 Each application will be manually reviewed before it is approved.

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Pre-seed / Seed Startup founders from the UK: Here is a free list of 200 active UK-based VCs We're updating our investor database at Meet.Capital, so we have new lists to share with you. Our lists are hand-checked by our team and includes all you need to get started: Website. Location. Investment thesis/description. Preferred domains. Preferred stage. Linkedin company page. Contact email. To get it, comment 200 and we'll send it to you. ❤️ If you know anyone who needs this list - tag their name in a comment. ❤️❤️ Help spread the word by giving this post a❤️ Like and resharing it.

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Venture capitalist and podcaster, Harry Stebbings, has closed a $400 million fund for his firm, 20VC, which focuses on backing startups in Europe. Stebbings aims to use his media influence and connections to bring attention to the potential in the European tech market. Key takeaways: Despite the tough climate for founders, there is still money available for investing, with the pot growing bigger. U.S. limited partners are interested in investing in European startups, with a majority of the backers in this fund being from the U.S. 20VC has a unique selling point in bringing operational experience to its investments, as well as sub-funds run by experienced operators. Counter arguments: The uneven math of the venture capital market, where 1% of companies make 90% of the gains, may discourage risk-taking and failure in Europe. The IPO market is still relatively quiet, and some of 20VC's investments may still be pointing towards the U.S. market. #venturecapital #vc #venture #startups

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The fall of seat based & the the rise of usage based pricing is a major trend in SaaS. Hear more about it from the experts at m3ter at Money20/20.

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First Priority: Founder First duty: Protect The Founder at Foundership

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Help make this happen 🗣️ Want to be part of a discussion that will actually drive change at SXSW London? WVC:E has applied to host an session on this important topic: 🚼 VC’s Wake Up Call: Making VC more inclusive for parents We need your vote 💜 The session delves into: ✨ Key statistics and insights to understand the current landscape ✨The challenges and opportunities for reshaping venture capital ✨ Real life experience's and anecdotes We need your vote 💜 What you will gain: ✅ A supportive network of like-minded professionals advocating for change. ✅ Practical solutions to create a culture that supports parents, promotes gender equity, and unlocks untapped talent. ✅ Tips to drive policy changes in their organisations. We need your vote 💜 🗳️ Here’s how (it only takes a few minutes): 1️⃣ Create a login: SXSW London Voting Portal (link in comments) 2️⃣ Search for ‘VC’s Wake Up Call’ in the session bar. 3️⃣ Click the 💜 to cast your vote. Thank you x

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Its's a deal flow time! We are about to share the details of 637 start-ups who joined Rare Founders London's largest #demoday 2 weeks ago with all the investors (only verified ones) in our community. If you are a #founder who is #fundraising and want to get more exposure to investors (IT'S FREE) - submit your details following the link in comments. If you are an #investor interested in pre-seed to series A start-ups join our community (link in comments) to get access access to the monthly deal flow. Please tag #investors and #founders who this might be applicable for.

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Does being a great VC = being a great manager ? Basically no.  Because the two are very different things.  (It’s not me, Kyle Harrison is saying so!) What's important for a VC can be summed up like that : "The two most important things are (1) performance, and (2) teamwork. But if you don't have number 1 then nothing else matters." Being a good VC is making the right investments to have a solid track record. The currency in VC is getting credit for getting deals done. This leaves little room for investors to train newcomers (ie. Associates/Analysts) because you don’t get recognition from that. So being a good manager isn’t valued as much as being a good investor. But problem is, building a solid track record is very different from building a long lasting investment firm, which can only be done by training associates and so being a good manager. David Haber compare the way VC are working with the way Chicago Bulls won championships in 1991-92 meaning winning on the back of 1 or 2 players (1 or 2 good investors) So the structural incentive rewards only deals getting done leaving on the side building a team that knows how to work together. Everything outside track record could be considered pointless. And that’s why VC can’t be considered as an apprenticeship business. But the the positive thing is, a lot of smart VC (ex: Sequoia Capital (US) or Serena (FR)) already know that training new generations is equally important as having a great track record if you want to survive on the long run. So remember as a VC, find great deals but don’t forget to find a great Associate that can succeed you ;) PS: I’m not going to say it but I could: Automate as much as possible to have time for your Associate. Many thanks to Kyle for this interesting piece! Link in comments 👇

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Remove the detailed roadmaps from your pitch decks. No VC will invest the time to go through all the milestones in your history and those in the future, with all the bullets providing details about each milestone. Far too early. VCs are not warm enough when they read your pitch deck. Put your detailed roadmaps into your data room and let VCs digest them after they had 1-2 meetings with you and ask for further material. If you think a roadmap could help to increase a VCs appetite, then only provide 3-5 high-level milestones on a slide that could be read and understood in max 10 seconds. Check my FundraisingCOUP program if you want to become a Top 1% fundraiser & get in touch with me if you're building a disruptive Future of Work & Learning startup and looking for Pre-Seed or Seed funding.

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📣 Focal powered by HSBC Innovation Banking, is back! 🚨 Applications for Focal’s W24 demo day are open to startups raising in the next 6 months. Go apply here 👉 www.gofocal.vc Even those who don’t make it to demo day can get introductions to over 250 leading VC fund partners, including Techstart Ventures LLP. #focal #startup #fundraising #vc #demoday

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🗞️ 5 news I enjoyed reading this week as a fintech founder 1️⃣ Stripe employees and investors have sold $694M of shares in a secondary sale, marking the first major liquidity event for a while in the space. 2️⃣ Google is launching a new pricing test on Workspace, increasing prices by more than 16% for some users. 3️⃣ The first e-Invoice has been successfully sent in the US, marking a first step in the adoption of paperless B2B payments in the country. 4️⃣ Spendesk announced they'd acquired Okko to make a move into the very hot procurement space. French scale-ups buying French early-stage companies is a very strong signal for the ecosystem. 5️⃣ Paris Saint-Germain qualified for the Champion's League semi-final, nothing to do with fintech but ... QUEL KIFF PUTAIN 🔥 Links to articles in the first comment 👇

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