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Do you think it is time there was a funding readiness Programme geared specifically towards supporting ALL underestimated founders in the UK? We do! Enter the Diversity-X Funding Readiness Programme! 🌈 We're flipping the script: ✅ Tailored support to navigate unique entrepreneurial challenges. ✅ Access to networks that really understand and champion underestimated founders. ✅ A deep dive into unconscious biases, turning them into conscious opportunities. ✅ And the big one: We arm founders with a crystal-clear understanding of their business. We’re talking the A-Z of raising capital - be it equity, debt, bootstrapping, revenue, grants, or those clever alternatives. Our mission? To empower underestimated founders to make informed decisions about their funding journey, tailored precisely to their business model and growth stage. It's about giving them the whole kitchen, not just the ingredients! Are you: ✅An underestimated founder ✅UK based ✅Pre-seed/Seed stage ✅Planning your capital needs in the next 12 months? Then join us in this journey towards a more inclusive, well-informed, and thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. Because when we lift each other up, everyone rises! Apply here 👉🏾: https://lnkd.in/e7qEcWXt Applications close 5pm GMT on 10th January 2024. #DiversityX #FundingReadiness #UnderestimatedFounders #Founders #StartUps

𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲! 𝗜’𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗢𝘀𝘀  • Oss helps top founders across Latin America raise Series A rounds. • Our approach is to get in the trenches with the founder. Embedding ourselves into the startup and supporting the hard work of raising a round. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹? • Imagine having a team that understands the VC game by your side from the preparation to the closing of the fundraising round. • Strategize, build materials, extract value from your existing investors, create the data room, enhance investor communications, and run the fundraising process together. • We support you unconflicted, prioritizing the founder’s best interests. 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗲𝘁? (𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻 𝟵-𝟭𝟮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀) • In 2 months, Oss can drastically improve your VC game, enhancing communication, updates, and expectation management. • This will make raising your next round easier. Think of it as “growth hacking your VC game.” • Are you ready to raise money in this market environment? Let’s explore that together. 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝘀𝘀? After testing Oss with a couple of startups during Q2, I’m now seeking two startups pursuing a $10M+ raise before year’s end: • Raising an ambitious Series A • Growing and profitable • Industry agnostic • Building for and from Latin America Thank you to everyone who supported me as this emerged from stealth... and primarily, thank you to my wife.

#fundingalert 💼Company: Tangent 💰Funding: €1 Million ⚡Round: Pre-Seed  👥Investors: ZINC , The SyndicateRoom, and Google’s Black Founders Fund Andrew Robb , Catherine Lenson, Leonard Picardo , Atomico and Ada Ventures. Tangent is an employee referral tool that enables recommendations to come from ANYONE, not just the wealthy and well-connected elite. Regardless of where they were raised, what school they attended, or what their parents did for a living, they are working to establish a new workplace that benefits everyone. Tangent is a network that links job searchers from poor socioeconomic backgrounds with employees in tech for mentorship and employee referrals. It was founded by LinkedIn and EE alumnus Gary Izunwa and Joe Adams. Gary Izunwa, Ella Goldner (Levy), Aaron Eckelt, Katarina Roberts, Jack Clifton, Ross Heptinstall, Dalia Aga-Shaw, Andrew Durkin, Rohan Shah, Soizic East, Molly McManamon   Read more - https://lnkd.in/gRcMMVUU To share your startup story write us on - contact@startuprise.co.uk #Tangent #referral #socioeconomic #jobsearch #funding #fundingnews #startupnews #news #startuprise

I saw a joke I really liked on the great fields of the Internet: 'My father gave me a million dollars and told me to go open a business. I opened a business and lost everything. But I am not a quitter!' Keep this in mind, the punchline will come later. A lot of the work we do is targeted at biotech companies. The common issue most (if not all) biotech companies are facing is funding. Project plans are often put on hold until funding is secured. Raising funds is tough work. It involves reaching out to angel investors, high net worth individuals, family offices, seed investors, VCs. There is a lot of travel, and a lot of legwork. CEOs of biotechs desperately need help. Yet, the consultants helping with VC outreach all ask for upfront payments to start the work. Imagine yourself in the shoes of a biotech CEO. Your funding runway is coming to a close, you need all the help you can get - but you need to spend the already limited funds in the hope of getting more money. And if things did not work out - well, then you paid someone to run your company into the ground. This is why BD as a Service is entering the venture capital world. We will be helping biotech companies raise funds by matching them with investors who, based on their deal history, are likely to fund similar projects. And we will be doing this without an upfront payment, to be paid in case of successful transaction only. How can we afford that? We get paid by vendors for project referrals. As we establish relationships with biotech companies, we will match them not only with investors, but also with vendors who will help them to run the projects once funding is in place. Referral fees will subsidize the VC matching work. This week I will be at Sachs Biotech in Europe Forum in Basel, where we already have a number of meetings with biotechs and investors booked. If you are a CEO of a biotech company, please get in touch. Now, what was the ending of that joke? 'I went back to my father and asked for another million' 😁

Here comes another April 1st “We raised some $$$” announcement. Or is it? Welcoming AngelList Quant Fund as a new investor in Humantic AI today! And while welcoming new investors is always a treat, what's truly fascinating is HOW it happened. And let me tell you, it's a 'too good to be true' story! But before the how, let me cover the why. See, AngelList Quant Fund is unique because of two reasons. 1. It is a quant fund that works without the usual investor bias;  2. It invests based only on the "velocity of hiring demand". And it is investing in Humantic AI for a simple reason - Humantic AI is now one of the top 15 startups globally attracting the *world's best* talent on AngelList's WellFound platform. Out of 20,000 or so. (Yes, you are reading that right!). It not only looks at how many people are applying, but also what's their pedigree - colleges that they are from, companies they have worked at, and a good bit more. *They know that where the best talent goes, success goes too.* In their words, this is the kind of hiring velocity that startups like Doordash and Square had in their early days. (So if you are someone who is top of their field, you know who to ping. For exceptional people, we will create roles if needed). Now back to the how. Back in January, I did a post here on Linkedin about our culture, recruitment philosophy and more (link in comments). Which became, to say the least, controversial. 100s if not 1000s of people had a thing or two to say. How they would never work at such a place, how to spot a terrible leader and more. What these people forgot is that just as they have a certain preference, there are many others who have a different preference. And where they saw a bad culture, others saw an honest culture. Where they saw grinding, others saw polishing. So at the same time that 100s got terribly disgusted, 100s of others got terribly excited. And turns out those were some of the best in the world - as Angellist tells us now! Now it's easy enough for us to put on a smirk here. But that would be a disservice to the values that we are trying to stand for. So without any malice, we simply thank everyone. It's a good time to remember that there is enough ground for many different approaches and philosophies to coexist. Let us make our choices, but let us also give everyone else some space to make their choices. So once again, welcome onboard, Avlok K., Abe Othman and the AngelList team! And thanks to Carya Venture Partners, (esp. my partner in crime Sharath Keshava Narayana), Andrés Pérez Soderi, Gokul Rajaram, John Donovan, Amit Singh Bradley Horowitz Ashim Mehra Andre Fuetsch Siddhartha Ahluwalia and every one of our investors who has always been there for us! (And for anyone who aspires to be world-class in their field, we are recruiting and will create any role if we think you have what it takes. Just remember to read the original post that started it all :D)

You need to do unusual things in order to have an unusual outcome - and some of those may be seen as controversial by some. We are determined to back and support founders that believe this ethos - and Amarpreet Kalkat embodies that spirit fully. We have been blown away by his leadership at Humantic AI - few startups can make this much noise (we vividly remember that time you guys got kicked out of #Dreamforce 😉) yet grow so efficiently. This next step is a testament to the amazing team you guys have built. Let's keep making noise and building the next generation of #salestech! Sharath Keshava Narayana Andrés Pérez Soderi Marty Massih Sarim Sai Supriya Sharath Andy Lee

About a year ago, in September 2023, I left full-time employment to start working on Openseed VC 💜 This decision came during what is arguably the toughest --- fundraising environment for emerging managers since 2015. It was a leap of faith, driven by conviction and supported by an army of backers who, through their capital 💰, well-wishes 🤗, and goodwill, made this venture a reality. A LOT can happen in a year. As I reflect and journal co-incidentally on today, my birthday, I’m struck by how much we have achieved so much in just twelve months: In the spirit of counting my blessings, I spelt it out; - Built a compelling fund brand and strategy 📈 - Fundraised from LPs 🤝 - Structured and incorporated the fund - Received regulatory approval and incorporated - Reached the first close of the fund 🔒 - Had a strong public launch 🎉 - Built a lean team and onboarded advisors 🧑🤝🧑 - Recruited 60+ operators for the operator network 👥 - Received 850+ founder applications 📑 - Conducted 200+ founder calls 📞 - Made two investments in Europe 🌍 & Africa 🌍 Just a year ago, Openseed VC as a fund didn't exist, and I am so excited for what's to come! We aren't just building a fund; we are creating an innovative financial institution that is the first investor in talented, experienced, and diverse operators from day zero. This is just the beginning; it's day zero for us too. ✨ If you're hesitant to take the leap to pursue something you know you were born to do. Something you realise has a high opportunity cost and high upside, yes- high risk of failure, but if not pursued you know you’ll regret it—maybe this is a sign. A year from now, a year will have passed anyway. A LOT can happen in one year. It’s also coincidentally my birthday today, so I will be celebrating on two fronts! :) Grateful, and thanks again to every single person who contributed to my journey🎊 #openseedvc #operators #founders #europe #africa #futureofcommerce #futureofwork #futureofhealth #oneyear

📢 Groundbreaking News: Kennet Partners has secured a record-breaking $287 million growth fund, marking the largest raise in European history! 🚀 In a significant boost for Europe's tech ecosystem, Kennet Partners has closed its fifth and largest fund, "Kennet V," with a focus on scaling innovative tech firms. This monumental fund underscores the growing investor confidence in Europe's tech future and the readiness of its startups for the next growth phase. Founded in 1997, Kennet Partners has a storied history of supporting high-performing tech businesses. With a commitment to sectors such as SaaS, fintech, and healthcare technology, Kennet V is set to drive further innovation and job creation across the continent. Strategically, Kennet V will allocate between $10 million and $20 million per company, ensuring firms with strong growth potential have the capital necessary to scale effectively. This investment underscores a broader trend of substantial growth funds increasingly shaping the European tech landscape. “This milestone fundraise is a testament to the resilience and dynamism of Europe’s tech landscape,” said Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, reflecting the broader investor enthusiasm. Don't miss out on the full story behind this game-changing fund and what it means for the future of tech in Europe. Read more now and be part of this pivotal moment!

🚨 If your care about angel investing in the UK remaining accessible and fair: Take a look at this open letter to the chancellor. I'm signing as, if this regulation had come to pass when I first started angel investing, I might have been prevented from doing so. Today I run a venture capital fund: bringing capital to #deeptech entrepreneurs across Europe. And even for accessing funds as an individual LP, the restrictions make it harder for folks! It's crazy. Let's not even mention the drastic reduction it'll cause to female angels and LPs who are already a minority. In the UK you can gamble your life away on the high street, at a slot machine, but the government seems to think that investing in startups and funds must be only for the ultra-rich. Founders and investors, do like and share this:

New figures from the Irish Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (IVCA) reveal a significant drop in venture capital for Irish start-ups and tech firms. Funding fell by 48% to €259m in Q1 2024, down from €502m in the same period last year. This mirrors a global trend, with international tech funding also down by 20%. Interestingly, early and seed stage funding rose, with very early stage start-ups raising €40m. The life sciences sector received nearly two-thirds of all funding, while the software sector saw just 9%. Here at Vantage, we have a proven track record of building technical teams from the ground up, creating successful recruitment strategies, and implementing effective onboarding and retention programs. We have a proven track record of building technical teams from the ground up, crafting successful recruitment strategies, and implementing effective onboarding and retention programs. Reach out to us today to see how we can support your growth! #Startups #TechRecruitment #TeamBuilding #Onboarding #Retention #IrelandTech