Boost VC’s Post

Investors Who Invest in the Early Stage 🚀 Navigating the early stages of startup development can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to securing funding. The pre-seed stage is critical for startups looking to bring their innovative ideas to life. Some prominent investors and firms are dedicated to supporting startups during this nascent stage. Adam Draper ⏻ - Boost VC 🌟 Adam Draper, founder of Boost VC, is known for investing in early-stage tech startups. His firm focuses on emerging technologies, and Draper's belief in the transformative power of startups drives his investment philosophy. He famously said, "Invest in founders who will change the world." Aileen Lee - Cowboy Ventures 🐎 Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, has an impressive track record in identifying and nurturing startups. Known for coining the term "Unicorn," Lee focuses on companies that leverage technology to create significant change. She notes, “Great founders build great companies.” Ammar Hanafi - Moment Ventures ⏳ Ammar Hanafi of Moment Ventures seeks to fuel innovation at its earliest stage. His firm invests in bold entrepreneurs developing disruptive technologies, ensuring they have the necessary resources to succeed. Brandon Bryant - Harlem Capital 🏙️ Brandon Bryant is a founding partner at Harlem Capital, which aims to invest in 1,000 diverse entrepreneurs over the next 20 years. His team believes diverse perspectives drive innovation, which is critical during the pre-seed stage. Brett Wilson - Swift Ventures ⚡ Brett Wilson, co-founder of Swift Ventures, focuses on supporting startups in their formative years. With a background in technology and entrepreneurship, Wilson emphasizes the importance of mentorship for early-stage founders. Chris Fralic - First Round Capital 🥇 As a partner at First Round Capital, Chris Fralic is passionate about assisting startups at the pre-seed level. He believes in building a strong community around startups, famously stating, "The best investments come from strong relationships." Chris Smith - PLAYFAIR CAPITAL LLP🎢 Chris Smith, a partner at Playfair Capital, is dedicated to investing in talented founders and their visionary ideas. His approach combines rigorous research with a collaborative spirit. Sarah Kunst - Cleo Capital 💼 Sarah Kunst is the managing director at Cleo Capital, focusing on supporting diverse founders during their early stages. She emphasizes the critical nature of pre-seed investments and their long-term impact. If you're a startup seeking funding or an investor looking for the next groundbreaking venture, Go Global World can connect you with like-minded individuals eager to collaborate🌐 https://lnkd.in/dU32yM_U #StartupValuation #InvestingInStartups #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #InvestorInsights #StartupEcosystem #GoGlobalWorld #InvestorNetworking #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #InnovationInvestment #FundingOpportunities #InvestmentStrategy #TechStartups #MarketAnalysis

Spacetech startup Digantara raises $2 million from Aditya Birla Ventures, others Digantara 📍 Fundraising Success: Digantara, a spacetech startup, has successfully raised $2 million in funding. 📍Lead Investor - Aditya Birla Ventures: Aditya Birla Ventures played a key role in this funding round, emerging as the lead investor. Their involvement signifies confidence in Digantara's potential and vision. 📍Diverse Funding Sources: Apart from Aditya Birla Ventures, the funding round also attracted investments from other sources. This diverse pool of investors suggests a widespread interest and support for Digantara's innovative solutions. 📍Spacetech Industry Focus: The fact that Digantara operates in the spacetech sector highlights the growing importance and interest in space-related technologies. This funding could contribute to the advancement of Digantara's projects and initiatives in this cutting-edge field. 📍Utilization of Funds: Details about how Digantara plans to utilize the raised $2 million could provide insights into the company's strategic priorities, whether it's for research and development, scaling operations, or expanding its team. 📍Market Potential: The investment indicates that investors see a significant market potential in Digantara's offerings. This could be driven by the increasing demand for spacetech solutions globally. 📍Partnership Opportunities: The involvement of major investors like Aditya Birla Ventures may open doors for strategic partnerships and collaborations, potentially accelerating Digantara's growth trajectory. 📍Validation of Technology: The funding round serves as a validation of Digantara's technology and business model. Investors often conduct thorough due diligence before investing, and their participation suggests a level of confidence in the startup's capabilities. 📍Competitive Edge: The funding may enable Digantara to strengthen its competitive position within the spacetech industry, allowing it to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving and competitive market. 📍Long-Term Vision: The investment from Aditya Birla Ventures and other investors also reflects a belief in Digantara's long-term vision and potential to make a lasting impact in the spacetech sector. 📍Positive Signal for the Ecosystem: A successful funding round for a spacetech startup can be seen as a positive signal for the broader startup ecosystem, encouraging innovation and attracting attention to the possibilities within the spacetech industry. 📍Increased Visibility: The announcement of the funding round may bring increased visibility to Digantara, attracting attention from potential customers, collaborators, and other stakeholders in the spacetech ecosystem. Source of info: Economic Times #DigantaraSpaceTech #AdityaBirlaInvests #SpaceInnovation #StartupFunding #NewFrontiersInTech #Scoopearth #startup

An estimated 3,200 private venture-backed Startups in U.S.A have failed after having raised just over $27 billion, as per a recent survey by Pitchbook. This is just USA and not a global number and doesn’t include the ones who went belly up after going public. Another report by Carta indicates that over 500 startups shut down due to bankruptcies or dissolution last year. Most VCs have curtailed their investments in 2023 and have begun taking a hard look into these Startups and deals flooding their table. They now focus on a few core business aspects that wasn’t a hard issue earlier on. Revenue and Competitive Environment. When it comes to investing in startups, mostly stellar VCs ran the show earlier on. They had a well-researched and proven model that worked. Get in early, manage well, and exit early. As over 90% startups fail, investing in such business ventures is a high-risk, high-reward game and only a few talented business and finance deeply understand this environment to tactfully place investments in such scenarios. The problem is in the last 2-3 years there have been hundreds of pop up Venture Capital Firms with well educated people with very poor experience to play such games globally. This is a high intensity play to know which startups, ideas and founders have the potential. Major losses have been incurred by such new Pop-Up VCs after having raised hundreds of million of dollars from LPs and Investors. Because they sell the idea of the 1/3rd rule, where each 1/3rd is invested across a portfolio of startups where they could lose 1/3rd, a hope to break-even in 1/3rd and hit it out of the park in 1/3rd of the placements. Fair. But how good is that strategy working depends on their ability to investigate the startups business and management skills. The worst hit in startups are the “Angel Investors” or those family and friends who believe in the founders dream, as they often do not have a portfolio, ability to analyze business ventures, or know what questions to ask. They come in early because they believe in the founders and idea. Perhaps a simple question to ask is “Show me how, why and when will you make your first $1 million?” or “When will you generate positive cashflow?”. This often unravels the “Brilliant Idea” into dollars and cents to demonstrate its true chances to succeed as a business venture. We work with founders and startups who demonstrate a keen sense of business acumen, a strong revenue generation strategy, acute financial discipline and the courage and skills to execute their business plans and understand their responsibilities towards their shareholders. No Fairytales. No Unicorns. info@hyperstrategies.com #investors #capitalraising #startup #startups #venturecapital #founders #privatecapital #investing101 #funding #privateinvestors #privateequity #startupinvestors, #fundraising #investments #startupfunding

It has become increasingly difficult for VCs to exit from their startups due to several factors. Most commonly the lack of sales and revenue crashing the expected valuations. It is very important to deeply understand and investigate how, why and when a startup will generate positive cash flow. Most brilliant ideas die because they couldn’t execute their business plan. #capitalraising #raisingcapital #raisingfunds #startup #startupsuccess #startups #investors #venturecapitalists #familyoffices #familyoffice #investing #founders #fundraising

Breaking News: 8i Ventures Launches 'Origami' Seed Program with $10M Fund. In a groundbreaking move set to reshape the startup funding landscape, 8i Ventures has just announced the launch of its 'Origami' seed funding program. With a substantial $10 million commitment, this initiative is poised to inject vitality into the early-stage ecosystem. As a news reporter covering this exciting development, I can attest to the significance of 'Origami' in accelerating the growth of budding entrepreneurs. By streamlining the funding process and prioritizing speed, 8i Ventures aims to support startups in their nascent stages. Founded by Vikram Chachra and Vishwanath V in 2019, 8i Ventures has already left an indelible mark on the startup landscape, backing innovative companies such as slice, M2P Fintech, and BharatX. With 'Origami', they reaffirm their commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and driving innovation. We'd like to update you on this game-changing initiative and its impact on the startup ecosystem. https://lnkd.in/gp_thGHD #8iVentures #Origami #SeedFunding #StartupEcosystem #Innovation #Entrepreneurship

First Cheque co-hosts Cheryl Mack from Aussie Angels & Maxine Minter from Co Ventures have interviewed some seriously impressive investors who’ve openly shared how they’ve built their early-stage startup portfolio. 🚀 🎧 Catch up on all the interview episodes of First Cheque: 🎧 🤖 Ash F. has invested between $20K to $20MM AI startups. After building Topguest, then AngelList, Ash founded Zetta Ventures which has gone on to support 50 AI startups. 📚 Marvin Liao from Diaspora Ventures has spent 25 years in Silicon Valley and is ex-Yahoo and ex-500 Startups. So far, Marvin has made +460 investments totalling over USD$50M. ⚙️ ⚡️ Michael Batko from Startmate leads ANZ’s largest community-driven seed fund which raises ~$3M from 100+ investors every 6 months - supporting a total portfolio of 230+ startups with a total value of over $3.5 billion. 🔮 Trang T. Nguyen from Transpose Platform shares how to disrupt industries using a platform based approach. Trang has helped to create +15 programs, +1,000 startups and has made direct early-stage investments into 9 unicorns. 🧠 Elicia McDonald from Airtree joined their investing team in 2016. Elicia meets around 200 founders a month and supports leading startups like Abyss Solutions, Reejig, HotDoc, and Regrow Ag. 🌳 Craig Blair from Airtree shares key lessons from early-stage investing since the early 2000s and now running a fund with $1.3B funds under management. 🐦 Samantha Wong from Blackbird discusses spotting opportunities and intentionally building community with +100 startups, +150 founders and +6,800 operators. 🛠️ Anabel Lippincott Paksoy from 43 invests in pre-seed and pre-product startups based out of the Bay Area with a focus on community operators. 🦄 Elaine Stead from Main Sequence has made +100 personal investments (including 2 unicorns) discusses bravery and risk when supporting startups. 😱 Rayn Ong from Archangel Ventures is one of the best connected investors in Aus with +100 personal investments. Archangel has +$10M invested into +40 companies with +90 founders. 🌱 Judy Anderson-Firth from Euphemia investing and supporting +40 companies and +20 funds with their ~$70M portfolio. 🐑 Daniel Gavel from Black Sheep Capital aims to invest with a ‘everyone wins’ approach with multiple strategies running a fund, a syndicate and personally investing in startups. ⚡ Jessy Wu from AfterWork Ventures in Sydney has $20M funds under management and they've invested in +50 startups so far with +$100M revenue ambition. Listen and learn with First Cheque wherever you listen to podcasts. 🎙️ #venturecapital #funding #investments #vc #seedcapital #angelinvestors #startupfunding #podcast #startuppodcast

Elevate Ventures announces the official launch of the $3 million Elevate Ventures Pre-Seed Fund, which will provide direct investments ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 to help entrepreneurs build impactful startups. This fund replaces the Elevate Nexus Pitch Competition, allowing companies to seek an investment any time, instead of only during a pitch competition. Building Indiana Business #entrepreneurship #startup #pitch #seedfunding

Significant development in Greater Cincinnati's entrepreneurial world worth tracking! "Cintrifuse Capital, a newly renamed arm of the Over-the-Rhine-based startup support group, is looking to fund significantly more deals in the region in 2024 and beyond. The team behind the effort said the shift will be “transformational” for the ecosystem. Cintrifuse Capital could back 40 to 50 local companies over the next few years while also fostering new talent and uncovering venture-backable founders waiting in the wings to take the leap... Cintrifuse last year rebranded its syndicate fund as Cintrifuse Capital. The move means that arm of the organization is now functioning as a true venture firm. In the past, it has distributed funds to other venture groups throughout the United States. The goal is to pump millions of dollars into local startups – as much as 40% of the firm’s Fund III, now active, is dedicated to that idea. There’s also talk of standing up a mini venture studio to help kick-start the creation of more venture-backable businesses in the region, while offering a talent management network also found at most national VC firms... J.B. Kropp, an ecosystem veteran, joined Cintrifuse in April 2023. In his past career stints he helped launched the Brandery in 2010 alongside Rob McDonald and Dave Knox. The accelerator, at its peak, was a huge driver and put Cincinnati on the map as a startup hub both nationally and internationally. He’s also the co-founder and a board member at Main Street Ventures, a nonprofit that offers programming and equity-free funding to startups across the Tri-State. Since the hire, he’s been building out the Cintrifuse Capital team, which now includes Joseph Delworth, an analyst; Emily L. Easley, an associate; Principal Santiago García; Controller and Chief Compliance Officer Nikki Boehmker; and Max Dworin, its director of direct investments and venture creation."

Serena Williams: Empowering Startups Through Venture Capital, Branding and Experience Success Story: Serena Williams, the iconic tennis champion, is not only known for her dominance on the court but also for her business acumen off the court. In 2014, she quietly launched Serena Ventures, an investment firm focused on supporting diverse founders and early-stage startups across various industries. Through Serena Ventures, Williams has made strategic investments in a wide range of companies, including those in technology, health and wellness, fashion, and food. She’s been able to leverage her experience and success to get access to great deals, but also to provide a lot of value to founders beyond her capital - her mental frameworks, experience on and off the court, resilience, brand power, and unparalleled network. **Failure Story:** While Serena Ventures has seen remarkable success, it has also faced challenges along the way. Like any investment portfolio, not every startup Serena has backed has achieved significant success. Some investments may not have yielded the expected returns, highlighting the inherent risks associated with venture capital. Two examples: HUED: Founded by entrepreneur Kimberly Wilson, HUED focuses on addressing racial disparities in healthcare. The platform connects African American and Latinx patients with culturally competent healthcare providers. Although HUED has received funding from investors like Serena Ventures, it is still growing. An unspecified French startup: In the early stages of Serena Ventures, Serena had the opportunity to invest in a French startup. However, due to time and resource limitations, she was unable to proceed with the investment. Sometimes, even Serena Williams' investment decisions face logistical challenges. Lessons Learned: 1. Diversification is Key: Serena's investment strategy emphasizes diversification across different sectors and stages of startup development. This approach helps mitigate risk and maximize potential returns. 2. Supporting Underrepresented Founders:** Serena Ventures has a strong focus on supporting underrepresented founders, including women, people of color, and entrepreneurs from marginalized communities. By providing access to capital and resources, Serena is empowering a new generation of diverse entrepreneurs. 3. Long-Term Vision: Serena understands that success in venture capital requires patience and a long-term perspective. She remains committed to supporting the growth and success of her portfolio companies, even in the face of short-term challenges. Some closing thoughts: Serena Williams' venture into the world of startup investment through Serena Ventures exemplifies her commitment to empowering entrepreneurs and driving positive change. By leveraging her platform and resources, she is not only making strategic investments but also championing diversity and inclusion in the startup ecosystem.

VC funding may be down, but there are other ways to finance your startup growth in 2024—like #UBuffalo’s Cultivator program, according to Kevin Siskar's article in Inc. Magazine. Read more ⬇️ #startups #startupfunding #seedfunding #earlystagestartups