Los Angeles Business Journal’s Post

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗮? Earlier this year, I attended KL20, where one of the key announcements was the MYStartup initiative. I had the opportunity to visit Cradle Fund office to speak to, Norman Vanhaecke , Group CEO of Cradle Fund, he expands on how Cradle is spearheading this initiative to unify the ecosystem through a single-window platform. Here are some key insights for startups in Malaysia. 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺: 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 should fully immerse themselves in Malaysia’s growing startup ecosystem by connecting with programs, networks, and funding opportunities through platforms like Cradle’s mySETUP. Networking and building relationships within the ecosystem is crucial. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: Cradle’s early-stage grants provide crucial financial support for startups to prototype and commercialize their products. Understanding the available funding options can help startups secure the capital they need to grow. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀: Investors look for scalable products with strong market potential. Startups must focus on ensuring their offerings can expand beyond local markets and meet the needs of a global customer base. 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀—whether VCs, PE investors, or family offices—have distinct expectations. Tailor pitches to address their specific needs, focusing on return potential, exit strategies, and scalability. 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆: 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 for cross-border collaboration can help startups tap into regional synergies, learn from other countries, and access larger markets. Malaysia’s startup ecosystem is positioned to benefit from these international connections. Watch the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/gzXWcUwF 𝗣𝗦. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁, 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗔 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄! #startups #asia #asean #credlefund he

The adventure awaits. Are you ready to join the ranks of modern-day explorers? Join Matas Danielevicius as he shares his insight about Thai startups navigate through storms of challenges. Every setback is a stepping stone, read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/gv8K36nj

[Published in March 2024] 🌧️ The chill of a funding winter is back, with economies worldwide cooling down. Japan, the UK, and possibly the US are slipping into recession, leaving many startups on thin ice. 💼 But wait! There's a ray of hope amidst the gloom. Febe Ventures, led by seasoned entrepreneurs-turned-investors, is stepping up to support startups in emerging markets. Their mission? To help founders weather the storm and emerge stronger. 📈 Olivier Raussin, co-founder of Febe Ventures, shares his playbook for survival. From prioritizing healthy finances to streamlining operations, his advice comes from the trenches of startup battles. 🌍 Febe Ventures isn't backing down. With a focus on B2B software, marketplace, health, and sustainability sectors, they're doubling down on their commitment to the region, ready to invest in the next wave of innovation.

2-Minute Product-Market Fit Masterclass | Insights from Fave Co-Founder (Chen Chow) In this PMF video, Chen Chow, Co-Founder of Fave, shares his invaluable insights on how startups can successfully align their products with market demand. Full video : https://lnkd.in/gjkDhMBU Whether you're a startup founder or entrepreneur, this quick and actionable guide will help you understand what it takes to achieve Product-Market Fit faster and scale your business. Yeoh Chen Chow, or known as CC, has experience building up startups (Fave, KFit) from scratch, till being acquired by Pine Labs for USD45mil. Through the process, raised fund from about 20 VCs, corporates and angel investors across the region, and acquired or acqui-hired 9 companies, including 3 subsidiaries of Groupon in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. He has invested in 30+ startups and companies around the region too. Chen Chow Linkedin : https://lnkd.in/gPpxHA57 #tmoaceo #productmarketfit #startupfounder #productmarketfit #malaysiafounder

This week is selection week. Perhaps the most important week for Accelerating Asia Ventures, we will host over 400 interviews with startup founders who have applied for cohort 10. Founders will meet with our team, alumni from our previous cohorts and investors in our fund to help us decide which startups will be accepted into our accelerator and receive investment from our venture fund. Advice for all the founders interviewing this week (which also applies to any founder speaking with investors): - Be efficient with your speech. Answer questions directly and succinctly. If you can't be efficient in our meeting I will assume you aren't efficient generally. That's no way to run a business. - Know your metrics. If at anytime you need to "get back to us" with information you've probably failed the interview. You should know your business and be able to answer questions about it. - Be yourself. It will come out anyway, don't make things more stressful by trying to be something you're not. Be comfortable with who you are and where your business is at. If it's too early you don't want to be in our program anyway. Each investor has a sweet spot for what type of startups they are best suited to. Don't try to force it. Whether or not you end up getting into our program you should come away from the sessions with valuable feedback to improve your business and/or the way you communicate it to potential investors and stakeholders. Good luck to everyone and I look forward to announcing the cohort 10 startups soon. If you'd like to learn more about the startups we work with go here: https://lnkd.in/gEXCeYwN

One of the issues the SouthEast Startup scene faces is that it sits in a region with lackluster, kind of also getting worse, IPO market: https://lnkd.in/g_Dn9ShE This chart at the end is not about the Startup scene nor is the article but Startups can't escape the fact that the region is not great for IPOs in general and Singapore, the region's epicenter for Startups, is not really even seen as a place to go public. I don't have the fix for this but I think this is one of the biggest issues that needs addressing in the ASEAN Startup ecosystem - there needs to be a regional way for late stage Startups to go public with thriving stocks for the overall ecosystem to improve. I am sure finance heads and others more deeply into this will have a counter to this and that's cool but other ecosystems do a tad better IMHO cause they have public market liquidity.

Europe Startup Scene: North American VC Challenges. Europe's startup scene has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years, with deal volume doubling and notable success stories like Klarna and Deliveroo. Yet, North American VCs have struggled to establish a sustainable presence in the region. High-profile exits from the likes of Coatue and OMERs, coupled with dwindling activity among remaining players, underscore the daunting hurdles faced by transatlantic investors. #startups #venturecapital

Founded in 2019, FEBE Ventures – short for ‘For Entrepreneurs, By Entrepreneurs’ – was founded by Olivier Raussin and other entrepreneurs. Together, the team has a combined history of building over 30 companies and backing over 200 startups. At the end of 2023, Febe Ventures launched its second fund with a goal of raising US$75 million. Fund II will be majority focused on #B2B software, #marketplace, health, and #sustainability startups, and geographically focused on emerging markets. The average investment will be around US$250,00 for pre-seed and US$750,000 for seed-stage companies. There will also be follow-on investments.

We are excited to share that we had the opportunity to visit LECK Ting Yan 陆霆谚! Ting Yan is Managing Partner at TRIVE, a seed stage VC investing in technology companies creating positive social impact in Southeast Asia. Since 2015, TRIVE has made 23 investments, had 4 exits, and achieved a distribution to paid-in capital (DPI) of 1.6X. Part of TRIVE's pay it forward initiatives, Ting Yan has been part of 1200+ pro-bono 1-1 advisory sessions and the incubation of 100+ idea stage startups. He also speaks at events to trade perspectives on the Southeast Asian ecosystem. One notable point that Ting Yan shared was that it is important for venture capitalists to focus on real exits when investing in startups, in order to return capital to their Limited Partners. This allows for the longer-term sustainability of the venture capital ecosystem and the longevity of the startups that they support. Based on his plenty experience from incubation to early stage investing, we learnt many valuable lessons from how to find good startups/founders, what were the challenges for founders and investors in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem. We sincerely appreciate Ting Yan's time and the invaluable knowledge he shared with us. His expertise and perspective were truly enlightening. ASEAD (Yuichi Sakano & Shawn Tan) #INSEADmoments #ASEAD #INSEAD #24D #Entrepreneurship #Startup #SSUP #Singapore #Japan

📩 Advice on building startups from Theory Ventures, Harvey Esquire and Equidam The Equidam Monthly is a curated collection of articles from the best in the industry delivered on (or near!) the last Friday of the month: • 📢 Trends in the world of venture capital • 🚶 Advice from founders, investors and experts • 🏃 Early stage fundraising news Read the full newsletter here: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ehZK2Jfi Here's a quick preview of this month's stories: Ready ... 📢 • Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures discusses the recent trend of private equity acquisitions in the software industry, in "Why Startup M&A in 2024 Will Rebound" • Analysts at PitchBook see moderate improvements on the horizon for the US VC ecosystem, in "US Venture Capital Outlook for 2024" • Daniel Bias and Alexander Ljungqvist examine the long-term impact of the Great Recession on innovative startups, in "Great Recession Babies: How Are Startups Shaped by Macro Conditions at Birth?" Set ... 🚶 • Daniel Faloppa of Equidam shares his tips for startup fundraising, in "How To Raise Your First Round: A Step-By-Step Guide to Startup Fundraising Strategy" • Chris Harvey of Harvey Esquire delves into the complexities of cap table management in venture deals, in "How to Fix a Broken Cap Table: A Practical Guide" • Kirstie Pickering of Sifted explores the intricacies of startup equity packages, in "What does a good startup equity package look like?" Go!!! 🏃 • Tom Jackson of Disrupt Africa reports on pre-seed funding for revolutionary AI technology for processing video and audio content, in "Tunisia’s Imaginario AI raises $1m pre-seed to scale internationally" • Cate Lawrence of Tech.eu covers a record-breaking Pre-Seed funding round for Spain's fintech sector, in "Crescenta Raises €3.5M in Spain's Largest Fintech Pre-Seed Round" • Vishal Singh of Silicon Canals - European Technology News shares Bubty's innovative AI technology for managing flexible workforces and its plans for international expansion, in "Dutch startup Bubty secures €1.7M in seed funding to expand internationally" #Fundraising #VC #Startups Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management CEPR - Centre for Economic Policy Research Swedish House of Finance European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) Jose Puga Abdelhak Loukkal FJ Labs All Iron Ventures Ander Michelena Ramiro Iglesias Concepción Benjamin Schriel Lee Willoughby