VentureXchange’s Post

'The number of Japanese companies investing in startups has increased by more than 24-fold in the past decade — in 2013 there were just 203 corporate investment vehicles in the country, now this has increased to 4,875 corporate investment initiatives, according to data collected by startup information platform Initial in January 2024. This rapid growth has come as even small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan have created funds. Some 142 new CVC funds were launched last year alone, including retailer MatsukiyoCocokara’s MC & C fund, land transport firm Nippon Express’s NX Global Innovation and precision instrument producer Shimadzu’s Shimadzu Future Innovation Fund. The total amount invested in startups by corporates has risen more than fivefold in the 10-year period, from ¥39.6bn ($271m) in 2013 to ¥204.9bn ($1.4bn) last year, according to the Japan CVC Report 2024, compiled by venture capital firm Jafco and business co-creation group Relic.' https://lnkd.in/gZsKXvZM

Data Dillema: Government vs. Private Reports Reveal Contrasting Perspectives on South Korea’s Venture Investment A recent announcement by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the ‘2023 domestic venture investment and fund formation trends’ has ignited intense scrutiny over the accuracy of South Korea’s venture capital (VC) market statistics. While the government heralds remarkable growth and recovery, private research organizations paint a contrasting picture, sparking debates over the data […] The post Data Dillema: Government vs. Private Reports Reveal Contrasting Perspectives on South Korea’s Venture Investment first appeared on KoreaTechDesk | Korean Startup and Technology News . The post Data Dillema: Government vs. Private Reports Reveal Contrasting Perspectives on South Korea’s Venture Investment appeared first on KoreaTechDesk | Korean Startup and Technology News . #koreatech #Tech #koreastartup #KoreaTechnews #Koreastartupnews

📊 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘄𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 📊 The latest Swiss Venture Capital Report unveils the resilience and dynamism within the Swiss startup ecosystem amid challenging global economic conditions. The report, highlighting key figures and trends, showcases the continuous growth and innovation driving Switzerland's entrepreneurial spirit. 🔹 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘄𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀: ▪ Swiss startups have continued to attract significant investments, showcasing the confidence of investors in Swiss innovation and technology. ▪ Medtech and digital health sectors have emerged as strong pillars, receiving substantial venture capital, reflecting the global demand for healthcare innovations. ▪ The report indicates a steady growth in median round sizes, signaling an increasing maturity within the Swiss startup ecosystem. 🔹 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: ▪ While specific Cantons like Vaud have shown remarkable performance with CHF 444 million in investments, the overall Swiss landscape is characterized by a widespread entrepreneurial spirit across various regions. ▪ Undisclosed investment rounds and public capital injections have further strengthened the ecosystem, providing startups with a diverse range of funding avenues. 🔹 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱: ▪ Despite the global economic slowdown, Swiss startups have demonstrated an impressive ability to adapt, innovate, and thrive. ▪ The Swiss Venture Capital Report 2023 not only highlights the achievements of the past year but also sets a positive outlook for the future of Swiss entrepreneurship. 🔗 Access to the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eCxWZk_N #swissstartups #venturecapital #innovation #swissvcreport2023 #startupecosystem

The Venture Capital Barometer - When You Open Your Mind #Europe #Startup #France #innovators #Innovation #Tech #Euro #Ai #IA #Grenntech #Capital #Venturecapital #Limitless Ernst & Young's excellent 2023 venture capital barometer is out, and the figures are super interesting! France consolidates its 1st place in the Euro zone, tech is declining, and it is the consecration of Greentech and Artificial Intelligence. Synthesis The venture capital barometer is an excellent indicator of the dynamism of start-ups and innovation. Venture capital consists of investing in very young or emerging and unlisted companies. The risk is high and participations are often in the minority. In case of success, the tumb can be significant, at the height of the capital risk. Venture capital is also called venture capital. The key figures of Venture capital in France THE KEY FIGURES OF THE YEAR 2023 OF VENTURE CAPITAL French start-ups raised 8.3 billion euros in 715 fundraising In the Euro zone, France is expanding its domination over Germany, which remains 2nd! The efforts made by the country pay off. Congratulations to the entrepreneurs, the creatives, and the brains! In terms of sector, the number 1 is now greentech???? And that's good news! The world of finance is moving towards essential issues and flows with it. THE CLASSIFICATION OF VENTURE CAPITAL SURVEYS BY SECTORS: Greentech with 2.7 billion. investing in the ecological and environmental transition has never been so popular. The beautiful news. Software software with 2 billion euros. Artificial intelligence is on the rise in the venture capital sector. We put it big! Lifescience, 970m€. The biotech, research, medicine sector. Internet 844m€. This is mainly the services part. Tech 750m€. The king sector, very nourished in previous years, is losing ground! In the amount of lifting compared to 2022 there is a decrease of 38% but only 3% fewer projects. So many lifts but smaller! The money costs more and so we tighten the screws. But we still develop, we innovate as much! By being careful.

Some weekend reading....... Just in: The KPMG Venture Pulse Report for Q4'23 is out, and here are our top insights for the ventures ecosystem:   📉 Global venture capital fell to $344 billion in 2023 from $531.4 billion in 2022 – hitting the lowest level since 2019. 💰 Total investment in Australian startups was US$2.54 billion in 2023, compared to US$5.44 billion in 2022. ❗️ Australia witnessed a 53% drop in total deal value, with Australian VC deals dropping to 482 in 2023 from 714 in 2022. 🚀 Startups continue to attract investment in emerging areas like AI, cleantech, healthtech, and defencetech. 💡 VC investors are urging portfolio companies to enhance capital efficiency and shift business plans towards profitability over top-line growth.   Curious for more insights into the global VC landscape? Dive into the Venture Pulse report below (head straight to page 89 for the Australian scoop). https://lnkd.in/gvjYiM5K Matt Herring Peter Turner Tapan Verma Kristina Kipper Amit Verma Cecily Conroy Adam Cronin Mark Arnold Andy McKeon Peter Turner Cheryl Mack Steven Maarbani

Just in: UAE, South Korea Deepen Ties with Investment Pacts at Investopia 2024: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Korea solidified their economic partnership by signing two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) during Investopia 2024,a global investment event held in Abu Dhabi last February.These agreements aim to boost collaboration in venture capital,support startups,and explore new economic sectors. The MOUs highlight Investopia's role in fostering dialogue and fostering connections between international and national institutions.This paves the way for promising business opportunities and the development of new partnerships.Notably,the agreements focus on propelling investment in key sectors like venture capital,small and medium enterprises (SMEs),entrepreneurship,financial technology (FinTech),artificial intelligence (AI),and the circular economy,all considered drivers of sustainable global growth. The signings took place in the presence of dignitaries including H.E.Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri,UAE's Minister of Economy and Chairman of Investopia,and H.E.Daehee Lee,Deputy Minister at the Korean Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups.Representing the Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC) and the Korea Institute for Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED) respectively,Mr.Ahmed Hamza and Mr.Ganghun Lee signed the first agreement.The second MOU was signed by Mr.Abdul Basset Qaid,Head of Capital Funding at the Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF),and Mr.Hyung-Chul Koo,Senior General Manager at the Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC). The DMCC-KISED agreement focuses on providing comprehensive support for startups and entrepreneurs.It facilitates the exchange of best practices and experiences to benefit both parties.This collaboration will also ease the entry of UAE startups into the Korean market and vice versa.Additionally,it fosters cooperation in emerging industries like entertainment,digital games,blockchain,and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) technologies. The DFDF-KVIC agreement,on the other hand,aims to enhance collaboration in venture investments.This includes sharing expertise and experiences in nurturing startups and facilitating their global expansion through participation in relevant international events. These latest MOUs bolster the existing strong UAE-Korean relations,particularly in the areas of energy,investment,emerging industries,and the new economy.They also underscore the success of Investopia in driving investment initiatives and projects on both local and global scales,attracting investors and governments to explore diverse economic and investment opportunities. Over the two days of the event,Investopia 2024 brought together a diverse group of investors,government officials,entrepreneurs,and experts.Held in Abu Dhabi,the event served as a valuable platform for establishing partnerships and fostering investment and cooperation opportunities…

Exciting times ahead for those who capitalise on shifting trends. While the numbers reflect a change, the ongoing interest in startups within emerging sectors like AI, cleantech, healthtech, and defencetech is noteworthy, underscoring the resilience of innovation. Other sectors like fintech are consolidating and there is a move to further sub-sector specialisation. Emerging markets are also focused on catching up with technology already seen in developed markets. VCs are becoming more discerning, and I see an ecosystem recalibration towards sustainable growth. And with that, a call for early-stage startups to prioritise capital efficiency and business models that choose profitability over growth-at-all-costs. A captivating read indeed, opening doors to deeper understanding of the future of VC. #VentureCapital #FintechInsights #VenturePulseReport #Fintech

🌟Exciting update!🌟 Last week, I had the privilege to take part in a 3-day UCU Business School (LvBS) workshop in Kyiv, which is a part of the Master’s program in Innovations & Entrepreneurship. The two main topics were startup funding and media comms for startups. We had an incredible lineup of speakers, among them: • Oleksandr Yatsenko 🇺🇦 — Managing Partner @ BRISE Capital, Principal @ SMOK Ventures. Briefed us on how VC firms operate. Explained what steps one has to take to prepare for investments, helped us understand how to efficiently communicate with investors • Ivan Petrenko — CEO @ CfE Accelerator UCU, Managing Partner @ Angel One. Unveiled the specifics of angel investments in Ukraine, discussed why there are so few startups in our country • Andrii Brodetskyi — Investment Analyst @ Horizon Capital. Gave invaluable insights on how venture capital firms operate, talked about the red flags in founders for investors • Taras Kirichenko — Managing Partner @ Toloka.vc, Member of Supervisory Board @ Нова пошта. Taught us all a few life lessons, explained how one can ‘hack’ Toloka to get an investment from them 🙃 • Roman Cherepakha — Investment Director @ Horizon Capital. Picked up Andrii’s topic, focusing on Private Equity • Andriy Dovzhenko — Co-founder & Managing Partner @ SMRK VC Fund. According to Andriy, an ideal founder is the one who possesses qualities similar to Oleksandr Kosovan, the MacPaw 🇺🇦 CEO • Yana Paladiieva — Head of Projects & Programs @ Ukrainian Startup Fund. Gave an extensive presentation on what USF has to offer (waaay more than one might think). Told us about a couple of spicy cases (🤐🤫). If anyone’s reading this, please follow USF’s socials everywhere and spread the word, Yana would be immensely grateful :) • Катерина Шаповал — Editor of Special Projects @ Forbes Ukraine. Told us about Forbes’ special projects she oversees (30 under 30, Next250…), even brought us the freshest issue that had come out a day prior and signed it! Answered my question whether Forbes Councils is a dumpster (spoiler: it is 🙃) • Illya Kabachynskyi — Ex-Editor in Chief @ AIN. Shared the secrets of effective communication with media (how one can get published without paying a single cent 🤫) • Julia Salizhenko — CEO & Creative Director @ Platfor.ma. Continued the media comms topic, giving a detailed explainer on getting published by a respectable media. Did you know that Tuesday @3PM is the best time to send an email? • Yelyzaveta Bordunova — Editor in Chief @ VECTOR. Further continuing the media comms topic, gave a few more valuable pro-tips on creating content the media would absolutely love to publish Special thanks to UCU Business School (LvBS), CfE Accelerator UCU, Oleksandr Akymenko 🇺🇦, Nadiia Mishchur, Daryna Prydka, LIFT99 Kyiv Hub, and all the speakers for the unforgettable experience! ❤️

“Venture capital has been an important spur to China’s emergence as a technological superpower. Not only have VC funds helped foster world class companies such as Alibaba and Tencent, they have also brought expertise, networking opportunities and markets to a host of Chinese ‘unicorns’, start-ups worth more than $1bn. But now, for a variety of reasons, China’s start-up sector is in the doldrums. Some commentary from within the industry is laden with doom. The economic vision of Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader, rests heavily on tech ambitions. Beijing’s official ‘work report’ in March this year exhorted the country to build an industrial and scientific system capable of pushing the world towards new technological frontiers. Unleashing what Xi calls ‘new quality productive forces’ is now China’s top economic priority. So-called future industries, such as biotech, new energy, new materials, advanced equipment, next generation IT, aerospace and others, are central to realising Beijing’s goals.” “All these require the innovation that in large part derives from a vibrant start-up ecosystem. To be sure, China has made impressive progress up the technology ladder. As recently as 20 years ago, it was at best a mid-technology power. By 2023, according to ASPI, an Australian think-tank, China led the world in 57 out of 64 advanced technologies, making it a peer competitor to the US. Such achievements, however, come from the past. The future trajectory of China’s technological advance is much less certain. Fundraising for China investments by both overseas and domestic venture capital funds has fallen off a cliff since 2022, driving a dramatic decline in the number of start-ups founded in China last year and so far this year. The reasons fall into two broad categories. The first are macroeconomic, such as China’s broader slowdown since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the bursting of the property bubble. The second can be laid at the door of Xi himself.” “Regulatory crackdowns on leading private tech companies, such as Alibaba and Tencent, have hammered their stock market valuations and sown deep uncertainty over Beijing’s ideological attitude towards private enterprise. In addition, the broad US-China strategic rivalry has helped scare off international venture capital from the Chinese market, partly because investors know that finding an ‘exit’ through listing on international stock markets has become more challenging. All this is having second-order effects. Chinese students studying abroad see fewer opportunities back in China in the once-magnetic tech sector. There is a sharp rise in litigation, too. If China wishes to sustain its tech pre-eminence, it needs wholesale reform. The underprivileged private sector should be given equal status with state-owned industries. Above all, Xi himself needs to realise that innovation does not follow administrative fiat. Creativity flows when a hundred schools of thought contend.”

The dangers of mixing profitability and venture scale. Here's what Mathias Léopoldie, founder of Julaya (Ivory Coast) has to say: "While far from a solely African problem, the confusion between these two terms may cause damage. In light of hostile macroeconomic conditions, many Africa-focused VCs have started demanding that their startups reach “profitability” even if this means compromising on hyper-growth. This is partly a mistake: if investors want to invest in profitable African businesses, they can invest in African banks for example, which exhibit fantastic ROIs. Or switch to private equity. But that isn’t the VC game. VCs demanding that their portfolio companies, especially young ones (pre-seed and seed stages), become profitable quasi-eliminates any potential “home-run” companies. The latter can only emerge through market share dominance, a process facilitated by operating at a company-level loss when competitors can’t. Those home-run companies are the only way a VC can reach the outsized returns it promised its LPs. Herein lies the confusion between profitability as a whole and positive unit economics at the marginal level. VCs should be encouraging their portfolio companies to reach “venture scale”. Venture scale is the ability to grow at a decreasing and very efficient marginal cost. This implies tinkering and getting unit economics to a point where the revenue generated from each unit sold is superior to what it costs to make it. This metric is referred to as the “contribution margin”. A company with a positive contribution margin, which can be unprofitable as a whole because it has very high fixed costs (such as R&D), has a clear path to long-term profitability. This justifies pumping large amounts of money into it, enabling the company to reach the economies of scale it needs to win. Companies continuing their fundraising route, and even going public, with iffy contribution margins either speed-run their death (Airlift) or make their lives significantly harder (SWVL). Those are the business models VCs should be wary of. However, a blind focus on company-level profitability for the sake of profitability doesn’t make much sense in the VC context. There are very useful data points that companies can follow to see if they are on the right path, such as the “burn multiple” or the “magic number”. VCs investing in African startups should be cognizant of this difference as they hit the brakes during the current funding winter." Read Mathias' full op-ed here: https://lnkd.in/gqQtZAJX