How Underrepresented Founders Can Cultivate More Funding Opportunities

Entrepreneurship is a challenging path for anyone, but it can be even more so for individuals from underrepresented communities who face additional obstacles in accessing funding and support. While the statistics on venture capital funding for women and minorities remain low, there are ways that budding founders from underrepresented communities can increase their chances of success. READ MORE

Silicon Valley Bank Bet Big On Biotech. And Now It’s Gone.

Silicon Valley Bank, the prominent startup and venture capital bank that was abruptly taken over by regulators Friday, had made big bets on the biotech space in recent years, and its sudden downfall leaves life sciences companies particularly vulnerable. 

The main concern is whether or not early-stage biotech companies that banked with SVB will be able to access their cash. With no cash flow, nascent pharmaceutical startups rely on their cash reserves to fund drug development.  READ MORE

Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Leaves Tech Industry Scrambling For Answers

The stunning move by the FDIC to take over Silicon Valley Bank on Friday left venture firms and their portfolio companies staring at a great unknown many never thought possible.

SVB works with more than half of all U.S.-based startups and is the preeminent provider of venture debt in the industry. Its collapse leaves open gaping questions among startups about cash flow and access as bank regulators moved in. READ MORE

Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Leaves Tech Industry Scrambling For Answers

The stunning move by the FDIC to take over Silicon Valley Bank on Friday left venture firms and their portfolio companies staring at a great unknown many never thought possible.

SVB works with more than half of all U.S.-based startups and is the preeminent provider of venture debt in the industry. Its collapse leaves open gaping questions among startups about cash flow and access as bank regulators moved in. READ MORE

Private fund investors flood secondary markets in dash for cash

The start of this year brought a glut of assets for sale on the secondary market by institutional investors facing a growing need for cash, but so far buyers have been slow to bite.

Secondary buyers and bankers that broker such deals estimate that as much as $18 billion of private-equity fund stakes have been offered for sale so far this year. The glut includes $6 billion of holdings being shopped by nonprofit healthcare provider and insurer Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., which if sold in its entirety would be among the largest portfolios ever to trade. READ MORE

Uncle Sam Is Disrupting the Venture Capital World

Higher interest rates, slumping stock prices and corporate America’s shift in focus from growth to profitability has taken the air out of one of the main drivers of innovation and new company formation in recent decades:  tech startups funded by venture capital . At the same time, the US government passed a host of bills last year that create new funding streams for manufacturing and technology industries —  with strings attached . As a result, economic growth this decade could be driven less by Silicon Valley values and more by the values of the administration setting the terms for the new funding. READ MORE

How early-stage investors can prepare for an uncertain outlook

In the context of current economic headwinds, money managers and investors grapple with tough decisions about where to invest and how to maintain a diversified and well-performing portfolio. Companies in sectors experiencing “hyped” valuations are at a greater risk of losing value in a market correction. Meanwhile, early-stage venture investments in essential sectors such as healthcare and industrial production can provide shelter from stormy markets by focusing on disciplined capital formation, long-term value creation, and the potential for outsized returns. READ MORE

Startups Opt For Microcap Mergers To Tap Public Markets

Most years, at least a few buzzy startups manage to carry out high-profile IPOs. But lately, with the window for large new offerings frozen shut, those debuts aren’t happening.

Instead, what we do see are smaller deals in which venture-backed startups are tapping public markets through combinations with Nasdaq-traded microcap companies. Transactions, which take the shape of mergers, reverse mergers and M&A deals, involve companies in similar industries as well as disparate ones. READ MORE

Outlook for Private Equity Dealmaking in 2023

Private market investments this year are in a state of uncertainty following a slowdown in M&A activity in 2022 after an active 2021.

Contributing to the state of uncertainty are record-high inflation, rising interest rates, tight supply chains and uncooperative labor markets, all of which are still weighing on buyers’ and sellers’ minds. And further, these recession indicators are factoring in on the market and hence, we are starting to see some difficulty in deals closing as senior lenders grow increasingly more cautious about leverage and industries with cyclical activity. READ MORE

Angel Investing vs. Venture Capital

Angel investors and venture capitalists tend to operate in the same circles. While both invest in startup companies and new technologies, they're otherwise very different. An angel investor is generally an individual looking to invest their own money in a startup business. A venture capital firm is a group looking to invest its clients' money in new companies. This leads to stark differences in how these investors operate. READ MORE

Artificial Intelligence In Agtech Is Blooming

Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic in recent months thanks to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While everyone is marveling at the technology for passing law exams, AI has long had the ability to feed us.

Source.ag, a Netherlands-based agriculture tech startup, announced on Thursday it raised a modest $23 million Series A funding round for its AI platform that predicts the best growing conditions for greenhouse plants. READ MORE

This Is Not The End: How To Navigate A Down Market

Like all industries, venture capital is not immune to the overall market uncertainty that dominated the second half of 2022 and has now spilled into 2023.

According to research firm Preqin, venture capital investments last year experienced the sharpest drop in 20 years, equating to a year-over-year difference of $286 billion. On a global scale, deal executions were down a staggering 42% in the first three quarters. These significant dips in activity indicate that investors continue to be more cautious with their money. READ MORE

Once Taboo, Startups May Be Warming To Down Rounds

In 2021 it may have seemed any startups could raise $100 million at the snap of its fingers — but the last year-plus is forcing some to find more creative ways to raise rounds and even contemplate the once taboo “down round.”

Last year ended with a slew of unicorns announcing deals that sliced into their valuations and the start of this year brought similar headlines, with reports that highly valued startups such as payments provider Stripe and online prescription delivery company Capsule are looking to raise down rounds due to market conditions. READ MORE

2023 Is The Year Of Camel Startups

If there's anything we know about the tech ecosystem, it's that the only constant we can rely on is change. While startups everywhere have longed to be named the next unicorn, yearning to be the next camel company in 2023 will prove its worth.

Camels know how to play the long game. They are resourceful, balanced, resilient and, most importantly, real. Unicorns are imaginary animals living in a world of myths and legends, and I believe coining a startup term in their honor feels—to put it bluntly—deceptive and misleading for founders. READ MORE