Rockman Law

HNY! Hope everyone had a great break. Quiet on here as head down. Such a lot of exciting things coming up: - More Tools for all scaleups to improve their growth trajectory - More Founders using VenturePath to secure their Series A-B investment rounds - More VCs joining VenturePath's VC Network - More Events (including a VC dinner for 50 on the 22nd and SuperScalers female founders event on the 30th) - More Partners joining our scaleup support ecosystem - More Data to publish on 2024 VC trends for the UK ScaleUp Investment Mission Busy January! We'll share more on these when we have a minute... If you can play a part, as a founder, VC, investor, partner, sponsor, data provider etc., there's still room for a conversation or coffee with you though 😉

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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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"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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Taavet Hinrikus and I made the Financial Times Due Diligence email. https://lnkd.in/ez2AuGQx One 'unintended consequence' is that if there is a 45% tax on carry and CGT (raising £40m per year, remember) it for all intents and purposes closes the door on new VCs in the UK. Especially started by teams from non-traditional backgrounds. To meet the GP commit, you need to be already part of the 'wealthy' as you cannot rely on the value you create - nearly half of it will disappear - to fund it. We have both had extremely successful startups which are few and far between. The smaller number of new VCs will therefore more likely increasingly be for people who have inherited the capital or can draw it from their already rich family. Probably not want they have in mind with this policy.

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Numbers & insights from a deep tech venture studio that launched 11 companies (all are active) in the last 7 years, reaching £85M valuation across the portfolio: 1. Post Urban, initially bootstrapped by Luke Robinson, an academic with a PhD in physics from Cambridge, now operates with external funding from a UK-based fund. 2. Launched 5 companies during the first 5 years and 6 companies during the last 2 years. 3. All 11 completed pre-seed rounds; 1 of them got Series A, 2 of them are approaching their Series A. 4. The startups have collectively raised ~£25M in venture capital, in addition to receiving grants. The total valuation of the 11 companies is ~£85M, half of which have not yet undergone subsequent funding rounds. 5. Initial equity splits: the venture builder 20%, CEOs of startups 35% (vests over 4 years), CTOs – 20-25%, employees 10-15%. 6. The initial valuation of startups was £2 million, with £300K invested by the venture builder. The last 2 startups were at £3.5-4M initial valuation. 7. Building deep tech ventures requires significantly higher initial funding because these projects need more time to develop demonstrable products. Two portfolio companies hit £1M in ARR. 8. The venture builder has increased the capital for the last 2 startups to ensure they reach meaningful milestones. The CEOs of the startups were able to secure additional funding through their networks, £350K and £450K, respectively. 9. The deep tech investor pool is smaller than that for sectors like SaaS, which requires a stronger proof of concept and market readiness to attract funding. 10. 3-4 times, potential customers became investors in Post Urban Ventures. This is a great approach because it secures investment and validates the concept by gauging whether these potential customers truly believe in the solution and its market necessity. 11. They don't start with a technology or an idea; instead, they integrate insights about global problems and, by actively engaging with advisory boards, founders, and industry experts, identify pain points and align them with technological solutions. 12. They do not bring universities in as co-founders but source scientists or professors to contribute to research and development. This involves leveraging academic expertise to support the technical aspects of startup projects until a prototype is developed. 13. The studio maintains strong connections with major academic institutions, including Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, and UCL, supporting its deep tech focus and facilitating access to new technologies and potential founders. 14. Areas of focus in deep tech: AI (Knowledge Graphs, NLP, DNNs, Computer Vision, Edge AI, Active Learning), Quantum Technologies, Biotech, AgTech, Enterprise SaaS. Watch the full interview to gain insights into the portfolio companies, handling IP collaborations with universities, key challenges, and team construction: https://lnkd.in/dCi7fZ7G

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✨ Breaking: MountTech Announces New Fund.- MountTech Growth Fund - Kavachh : Led by Dr. Ajay Kumar, the fund emerged in 2024 focusing on startups in sectors such as defense and national security, space and aerospace, cybersecurity, semiconductors, communications, critical minerals, and industrial sectors. Investments range up to Series A, with ticket sizes from $1-3 million. https://lnkd.in/dRiJ4fUM Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups #Venturecapital

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TLDR: EIS should be scrapped as a fund structure but retained for Angel investments by individuals. Alex Chalmers has done all the work which in 10 years I've never got around to doing: why 95% of EIS/VCT funds are bad for our tech ecosystem, rip #startups off, and why as a Founder you should push back against their stupid fees or not take their money. https://lnkd.in/dnq9ZScS

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🇬🇧 Calling all UK startups: stepping into the venture capital arena can be a thrilling yet daunting experience, but you're not in this alone. I’ve curated a list of 10 top-notch venture capital firms in the #UK, each a leader in their unique sector. Whether you're revolutionizing #tech, transforming #healthcare, or breaking new ground in another industry, aligning with the right #VC partner is vital for your growth and success. 1. Ascension Focus: Seed and Pre-Seed Ventures Sector: Software, Internet, FinTech Top Portcos: Heatio, Saltroad, Nebu~Flow 2. Fuel Ventures 🚀 Focus: Seed and Pre-Seed Ventures Sector: Software, E-Commerce, Internet Top Portcos: Lunio, Eleos, StudioSpace 3. Force Over Mass Focus: Seed and Series A Ventures Sector: Software, Information Technology, FinTech Top Portcos: CUR8, Artificial Labs, SuperFi Finance 4. Northstar Ventures UK Focus: Seed, Funding Round and Series A Ventures Sector: Software, E-Commerce, SaaS Top Portcos: Lightox, DayaTani, Circadacare 5. Octopus Ventures Focus: Series A, Seed, and Series B Ventures Sector: Software, Health Care, Artificial Intelligence Top Portcos: Sidekick, ExpressionEdits, Swiipr Technologies 6. MMC Ventures Focus: Early-Stage, Pre-Seed, Seed and Series AVentures Sector: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Top Portcos: LiveEO, Stanhope AI, Eatron Technologies 7. SFC Capital Focus: Pre-Seed and Seed Ventures Sector: Software, Artificial Intelligence, IT Top Portcos: Lemon, Unibloom World, Blue Skies Space 8. Episode 1 Ventures Focus: Seed, Series A and Pre-Seed Ventures Sector: Software, Artificial Intelligence, SaaS Top Portcos: Lawhive, Superlinked, Viable 9. Maven Capital Partners Focus: Seed and Series A Ventures Sector: Software, Information Technology, SaaS Top Portcos: Carcinotech, Metrion Biosciences, McKenzie Intelligence Services Ltd 10. Notion Capital Focus: Seed, Series A and Series B Ventures Sector: Software, SaaS, IT Top Portcos: TechWolf, Caeli Wind, Harbor Lab Ready to connect with the perfect investor for your startup? Drop a “LIST” in the comments, and we’ll tailor a personalized investor lineup just for you. Got a favorite UK-based VC firm that deserves a shoutout? Let us know in the comments below. At Thunder.vc, we excel in pairing your startup with venture capital firms that align with your specific sector, growth phase, and objectives.

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Force Ventures LLP is delighted to participate in TransBnk - Transaction Banking Platform's USD4M equity financing round, led by 8i Ventures and Accion Venture Lab, along with co investors such as GMO Venture Partners, Ratio Ventures and others. Transbnk, a fast growing fintech SaaS platform, operates at the intersection of lendingtech, regtech and paymenttech, with a strong focus on building transaction banking solutions in the USD 200B unsecured lending market. Wishing the best to team Transbnk as they continue their high quality buildout across India, Middle East and South East Asia markets. Vaibhav Tambe Sachin Gupta - Couldn’t think of a better team to build for this segment, given their very strong domain expertise and founder market fit, which is also reflected in the speed of their product adoption, while maintaining fantastic unit economics all throughout. Read more at: https://lnkd.in/gD9SP73A We at Force Ventures LLP are strong believers in the “fintech infra layer” story for the next decade, as many Indian Startups, build the critical API / infra layer for their Indian and global clients across verticals. While the sales cycles in fin SaaS are undoubtedly elongated, the corollary is that once they are deeply embedded in customer workflows, switching costs tend to be very high for customers, resulting in high stickiness and growing net revenue retention. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be first cheque backers or early backers of high quality fintech SaaS / Infra / BFSI focused start-ups such as bluecopa, Credgenics, Inkle, IGNOSIS, Finverv, OneAssure, SatSure, PYOR and others. If you are a founder building in fintech infra / fintech SaaS we would love to chat and learn more!  #fintechinfra #SaaS #startups

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🚨Boom! 8090 Industries portfolio company Armada led by Dan Wright and Jon Runyan lands another $40M led by Microsoft marking $100M raised to date after announcing its Series A and coming out of stealth in 2023 just 7 months ago and shares new customer partnerships with Haliburton and Skydio. 🌪 “Extreme situations like hurricanes reinforce the need for “edge” computing, the practice of processing data locally rather than sending it back to the cloud. “Lots of oil and gas companies are really very concerned about these types of disasters. You can’t have any latency. You have to be able to respond in real time.” Dan Wright, cofounder and CEO of Armada, While disaster response is the obvious application, Armada’s edge technology also has a big role to play in all sorts of remote environments where uninterrupted data access is critical. Think real-time safety monitoring at high-risk worksites, real-time emissions tracking for oil rigs, and automated operations for mines. In regards to the newly inked partnership with Microsoft: It’s a natural fit, says Pradeep Nair Armada’s founding CTO and a 10-year veteran of Microsoft’s Azure business. “If you look at all of these customers we’re hitting—oil, gas, and mining—these guys are legacy, traditional customers and Microsoft is their biggest vendor,” he says. The partnership with Microsoft “opens up the whole pipeline, without us needing to go through the whole procurement process.” Cc Kerem Ozmen Garuth A. Wes Mendenhall Filip Vurdelja Haluk Sabanci Dincer Grant Brown Ishan Meswani Andrew Irwin Shilpa Patel

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DePIN & RWAs dominance isn't as far off as most people think. Across every innovative cycle, three fundamental pillars emerge: foundational technology development, proliferation of infrastructure, and a surge in application development. As we venture into the third cycle, DePIN and RWA protocols are poised to become market leaders paralleling the dominance witnessed by infrastructure projects from 2015 to 2024.

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Start up failure are part of the VC game but in 2020-2022 we forgot that risk is part of the game. We are now back to reality. According to Carta Start-up failures in the US have jumped 60 per cent over the past year. Carta said 254 of its venture-backed clients had gone bust in the first quarter of this year. The rate of bankruptcies today is more than seven times higher than when Carta began tracking failures in 2019. https://lnkd.in/eVP9Gmv4

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🚨 Fundraising Alert 🚨 Top tier companies raising Pre-Seed to Series A in the next 6 months should apply to Focal where they can pitch almost all their prospective investors at once. Demo day is on May 16th. ✅ Applying takes 7 mins ✅ Previous applicants raised from funds like Sequoia, Balderton, Episode 1, Lightspeed and GV. ✅ Even if you find fundraising easy, this is a way to build added momentum. You can apply here: https://lnkd.in/eTdTtSw7

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Emerging GPs📢 We all know it is a difficult time to raise your first (or second) VC Fund.😟 But AlphaQ Venture Capital is here to help you with the Global Allocator Alliance Pitch events and invite-only GP and LP matching Discovery platform.🎌 With an incredible team of Jocke Martelius, Amina Bijedić, Zerina Zimić and Marius Weber, be sure you will get unmatched support when you most need it. Check how they supported our partner Vadim Balashov of US California-based Viaduct Ventures, raising their Fund II.👇 DM me for a warm intro.🤝 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #VCfund and increase the international pool of your LPs?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments (Series A/Series B)?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE   #VentureCapital #VentureFunding #VentureDebt #Fundraising #Innovation #Technology 

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Striking: Zenobē, a UK climate tech startup, raised £600m from KKR and £270m from Infracapital, bypassing VC entirely. Zenobe captures excess energy from wind farms to stabilize the grid and reduce gas power reliance. This means: Zenobe secured one of 2023's biggest startup fundraises — without any venture capital. #battery #fundraising #venturecapital #energystorage #infrastructure #growthinflection Sifted: https://lnkd.in/g8wF-xA5

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Finding product-market fit (PMF) is one of the biggest challenges web3 founders face - and we often get asked how to navigate this journey. Recently, I revisited a classic a16z post on PMF and thought it would be a great opportunity to share four key strategies for founders looking to achieve it. 1️⃣ Focus on Network Effects (and Reward the 'Right Users') Network effects are crucial. In crypto, founders can leverage various token-based incentives to drive participation and kickstart growth. However, be cautious - relying solely on incentives without solving real issues for real users can inflate metrics, making it harder to learn from them and make the right decisions on your path toward PMF. 𝐓𝐢𝐩: Invest enough time in creating the right incentive mechanisms that drive real engagement from the 'right users', not just speculative interest. 2️⃣ Engage Your Community for Feedback Your power users - early adopters who have a deep understanding of both your product and the broader space - are crucial in shaping its development. Engage with them directly and observe industry trends on platforms like X and Farcaster. In early technology markets like crypto today, these users can help you refine your product. An example from the blog post highlights how, in the early days of cloud computing, fast-growing startups with unpredictable demands shaped product priorities, leading to innovations like auto-scaling services. 𝐓𝐢𝐩: Regularly engage with your most knowledgeable and active users to garner product feedback. 3️⃣ Build Strategic Partnerships Partnering with strong brands, projects or even individuals that resonate with your target audience can enhance credibility and visibility. Crypto's open-source nature also means that such partnerships can - and should - be leveraged to attract developers. 𝐓𝐢𝐩: Look for partnerships that not only expand your user base but also add credibility to your product. Additionally, consider leveraging partnerships to increase your visibility within the developer community and attract more talent. 4️⃣ Focus on Developers - Not Only Users Building on the previous strategy: By attracting more attention from developers, you can iterate on your product more quickly. The faster you can iterate, the faster you can refine your product and achieve PMF. 𝐓𝐢𝐩: Offer grants or bounties related to the development of your product. Furthermore, create a developer-friendly environment and strong incentives for contributions. — Needless to say, but the search for product-market fit is highly subjective and influenced by many factors that can't be covered in a single blog post. However, I think the insights from a16z offer founders a strong foundation to begin their journey toward achieving PMF. If you are a founder and want to dive deeper into this topic, feel free to read the blog post yourself (link in the comments) - or to reach out to Blockwall 🙏a16z crypto, Andreessen Horowitz #web3 #crypto

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✨ Chet Kapoor ✨ is quite the Silicon Valley legend. Three-time founder and currently the CEO of DataStax his wisdom for founders is incredibly spot-on ✅ and timeless ⏰ ! In this most recent and probably best-ever episode of The Enterprise GTM podcast, Chet discusses what it takes to build enduring tech companies. Some 🎤 soundbites 🎤 from our conversation: 👩‍🏫 The quality of people influences the outcome of your startup the most. 🔥 You do not need smart people who sit around and pontificate. ☄ Momentum is everything. Never underestimate it. 🌟 Having complete clarity of thought at any given time is very important--who are you doing this for, and how will it change their lives? 🌈 One of the best ways to create a large company is to create a parade or join one. ☝ Know who you are. There's a high likelihood that the company will become more like who you are rather than who you want to be. 🛑 Don't make the mistake of hiring sales execs too soon. Be extra cautious about partnerships. 📣 Tune in to hear about what he has to say about AI startups getting started today, the future of the data layer, the evolving importance of data roles (data science, data engineering), and so much more! #devtool #founder #startup #data #ai https://lnkd.in/gW-58nvE

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VC in the UK – Q1 2024 👉 The Dealroom.co report in partnership with HSBC Innovation Banking highlights that Q1 2024 UK venture funding was $3.9bn. 👉 UK VC investment levels have stabilised following a global rest in H2 2022. 👉 Early-stage investment in Q1 closed higher than the 2 previous quarters. UK start-ups raised $279m in pre-seed & Seed rounds (defined as rounds <$4m) in Q1 2024, while Series A ($4m-$15m) rounds totalled $769m. 👉 Investment at Series B ($742m) and C ($715m) has remained relatively steady in Q1.  There were 6 late stage mega rounds of $100m+, totalling $1.4bn. 👉 See full report here 👇 https://lnkd.in/d-gFuwqu Mat Lauren #VC #investors #entrepreneurs

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An underappreciated factor in UK VC right now, is the number of firms *only* investing in portfolio companies. ** The effect of funds, particularly the larger/later-stage funds, concentrating their funds on portfolio companies has a dramatic effect on the market. Because the new deals to later-stage funds, are likely the portfolio companies of earlier stage funds. And if the former falls/reduces/stops; the earlier stage funds have to devote more capital to their portfolio than was originally modelled. And it gums up the entire system. And it’s currently affecting all levels of funding, from growth down to seed stage funds. #founders #vcfunding #startups ** I’ve used ‘only’ as a catch all for 100% allocation to portfolio (as some funds are) through to significantly increased levels of portfolio funding (as the majority are).

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