Yordan A. Zarev

I can understand Raiffeisen Bank International AG supporting Putin. Austria is doing its best to monetize its neutrality—Ukrainians mean nothing to it. The same is true for Orban's OTP Bank (when will NATO and the European Union kick them out?). However, Deutsche Bank? Commerzbank AG? ING? UniCredit? Intesa Sanpaolo? Aren't Germany and Italy firmly committed to NATO and the Ukrainian cause? Hasn't DB had enough scandals? This is almost $1bn that these banks are paying to Putin's regime. The US should sanction these banks. Stop Business With Russia Boycott Russia #ukraine #slavaukraini European Central Bank Federal Reserve Board U.S. Department of State U.S. Department of the Treasury The White House

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myidea.ro/masterclassess - 101 insights about funding and a few seats available tomorrow - for entrepreneurs raising money & for new angels looking to manage the risk of investing for sustainable maximum returns

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This is going to be truly transformational for Ukraine.

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I had the pleasure of co-hosting a roundtable with two amazing investors, Noa Shamay from Cardumen Capital and Miriam Shtilman Lavsovski from Tal Ventures, as part of Fusion’s pre-seed fundraising conference. My main takeaway? There are no rules when it comes to pre-seed rounds. Forget the clickbait headlines—each startup is unique, and so is every round of funding. Here’s what I shared: 💡No cookie-cutter solutions – Every startup and every round is unique. Forget those “10 things you need to do” lists (and yes, I am aware of the irony of it being the first thing on this list - but stand by it!). Do your research and customize your approach. 💡Understand investor strategies – Investors have different playbooks. You’ll come across two types: ➡️➡️Pre-seed-focused investors like Fusion VC, who have clear criteria and look to invest in a lot of different startups with smaller checks. ➡️➡️Occasional pre-seed investors, who invest in pre-seed on a case-by-case basis. Figuring out why they’ve invested in certain pre-seed rounds might take some detective work—talking to other founders who raised pre-seed funding from them is a great start. 💡Investment thesis matters – Each investor has a thesis driving their decisions. If you can connect your pitch to their pre-seed thesis, you’ll be one step ahead. Figure out why they would do a pre-seed round and not a seed round - what significant milestones can be reached with the pre-seed funding? What advantages does the investor gain in terms of position or access in the company to compensate for the risk of pre-seed funding? 💡Prepare to fundraise – The best advice? Lean on your network. Like everything else in the Israeli Eco-system - use your network. people love to help. talk to founders who have raised funding from the investors you’re targeting, or to other investors who invested alongside them. Like everything else in managing your startup - plan out the best pipeline, process and pivot for you fundraise. this isn’t pivoting your company (at least not necessarily) but pivoting your presentation. work in bulks of around 5 investors, and try to start with at least 5 investors you’re not really interested to raise money from. after every bulk of investors, go over the feedback, find trends, and pivot your presentation. Let me know what you think in the comments! 👇 One last thing that stood out was a serious lack of female founders in the crowd, and that needs to change. If you’re a female founder, let’s grab coffee and chat about your company. And if your company isn’t in cybersecurity or enterprise software, don’t worry - let me be one of those 5 investors you don’t really want to raise money from. Let’s close the gap and fund more women led startups 💥 (shout out to Marina S. who is killing it and is a bright example of why this is not about doing good but about making good money). #PreSeedFunding #FundraisingStrategies #WomenEntrepreneurs

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Does slowing down help us make better choices? 💭 We want to share with our community another nugget of wisdom from Inven Capital's Soul of a Winner event which took place earlier this month. Petr Míkovec, Managing Director at Inven Capital, asked a very interesting question: How do we make the right decisions as often as possible? The typical answer would be to review data and conduct deep analysis at regular intervals. But what if our data is based on assumptions, methods and values that no longer serve us and humanity? Or that maybe never even did. What if, to make the right decisions more frequently, we need to slow down? That would go against so much of the startup and entrepreneurship culture we're part of here at Life Size. And yet, in our search for balance and for a satisfying life bringing together meaningful work, friends, family, nature and so on, slowing down comes up consistently. This can show up in several ways such as taking regular breaks, stepping away from our work to go on a walk, focusing on one task at a time and disconnecting from distractions. In this fast-paced industry, it can be challenging to slow down but the importance of doing so should not be overlooked. What does the thought of slowing down conjure up for you? Image by: Inven Capital #Communications #ClimateTech

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As always, interesting data from Invest Europe on private equity and venture capital in Central and Eastern Europe. #PrivateEquity #VentureCapital #GrowthCapital #CEE #PEinCEE #InvestEurope

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I'm delighted to announce the launch of the TempoCap Liquidity Indices, which, on a quarterly basis, track the largest European VC-backed exits since January 2020. We are tracking three main types of exits: all cash, cash and shares, and public listings.   We struggled to find this information in a single place or in a comprehensive format, so we decided to compile it ourselves from a range of data sources. Of course, we may have missed some exits, so please don't hesitate to get in touch if we have.   Here are a few notable trends from the data: 🔴 On all cash exits: A limited number of these were above $1 billion in Europe over the last nearly five years - we counted only five. Out of the top 15 cash exits, six were companies from the U.K., four from Germany, three from France, and two from Scandinavia - including the largest, Tink. 14 out of the top 15 exits were to strategics (with only one PE buyer), and 60% of buyers were U.S. companies. The average time to exit from the founding date was ten years. 🔴 On exits for cash and shares: There have been a limited number of these above $1 billion in Europe over the last circa five years, too —we counted only four. The U.K. had five companies out of the top 15, and interestingly, two each came from Poland and Germany, while the largest, Wolt, is Finnish. Again, 60% of buyers were from the U.S. The average time to exit from the founding date is nine years. 🔴 On public listings: Here, all 15 listings were above $1 billion—but some didn't stay above that level post-IPO, and three are no more! Out of the top 15, seven (or nearly half) came from the U.K., three came from Germany, and the largest, UI Path, came from Romania. The average time to IPO from the founding date was 11 years. We have researched various sources to ensure that we have the most accurate information possible, but if you've spotted something that needs to be corrected or a company that needs to be added, please let us know at [email protected].

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Great article from Luisa Alemany and colleagues, the concepts here are foundational. Before I begin looking at potential questions, I start with a Materiality Assessment, to identify the most relevant issues to focus on.

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I am pleased to see Alitheia IDF (AIF) highlighted by Jessica Espinoza, CEO of 2X Global, at the SuperReturn Emerging Markets 2024 event in Amsterdam! Jessica showcased AIF as an example of how Gender Lens Investing (GLI) strategies drive commercial and social impact. Since closing AIF (a 2X Flagship Fund) at $100M in 2021, we have invested over $50 million in 12 companies, with 75% women ownership. As the first and largest GLI fund in Sub-Saharan Africa, we developed the industry’s first comprehensive GLI toolkit, inspiring broader adoption across private equity. Our commitment to putting women as key success drivers across the investment value chain has become a model for the industry, inspiring others. It’s rewarding to see AIF’s impact and approach recognized as a model for sustainable, inclusive investment in emerging markets. Check out the slides from Jessica’s presentation for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dpGiraPU #GLI #ImpactInvesting #SustainableFinance #AlitheiaIDF #SuperReturn2024

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📊 According to the latest figures from PitchBook, valuations of early-stage companies stabilized in all sectors in the first half of 2024, with an increase of 17.3% compared to 2023. In particular, the average size of early-stage deals has increased by 43.9% over the same period. Even if these figures indicate a certain recovery, it is still too early to declare a turning point. ⚠️The reality is, the VC market remains filled with uncertainty. Interest rate developments will play a crucial role, but they're not the only factor at play. Geopolitical tensions, such as the conflict in the Middle East and the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, along with the upcoming U.S. elections, add layers of unpredictability. So, how should startups navigate these uncertain times? 💪 More IPOs may be on the horizon, but I'm not optimistic. Until the global situation becomes clearer, startups must stay agile and prepared for whatever comes next. 🌍 #VentureCapital #StartupStrategy #FutureEnergyVentures

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The Information is out with more breaking #AIfunding news. The latest reflects Mistral AI raising “several hundred million,” at a $5B+ valuation. For those keeping track this follows their recent $415M round closed at $2B in December 2023. One has to wonder how long early stage investors will be able to justify these valuations on companies that are just staring to generate revenue. What do you think? #management #venturecapital #privateequity #aifinancing #capitalmarkets #aifinance

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Together with my new role as Fund Manager of Patavino Capitals I officially started my Substack: Market's fixer You can find my profile here: https://lnkd.in/d32zebHz Btw for the name, I'm not trying to be arrogant, just citing Cyberpunk. My first piece of opinion talks about my view about FED's interest rate decisions and policies targets. I mainly talked about Job Market: The leading indicator for landing’s impact. What the numbers are telling us here? Unemployment growth and weakness of job market is showing. Unemployed people costs a lot to the economy in terms of lost produced value. One of the worrying signs, is the aggregate monthly growth of the unemployed/Job opening ratio, because since 2009, the growth was never this consistent. As matter of fact, total change of this ratio reached 53% aggregate change since 2021: in 2021 there was 2 job openings and 1 person lost its job. Now it’s 1 and 1. (as reported in the chart) What else? Read the article: https://lnkd.in/didP3B9q and subscribe to the Substack, for more.

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#dealtime! Just in time for our (overbooked) VII. PT1 Family Day (https://lnkd.in/dMzngJGk) Sifted (Financial Times) broke the news this morning that we led an excellent consortium of investors including Commerzbank Group's Neosfer, 468 Capital, Maximilian Tayenthal and the scout founds from Hedosophia & Andreessen Horowitz in the seed-round of Berlin-based Terra One - a special warm welcome to Tony Schumacher & Thomas Antonioli! This is not only portfolio company #23 for the PT1 funds but also our second bet on battery storage technology. Why are we so bullish on this sector and Terra One specifically? Decentralized storage enables the green energy transition by offloading stressed grids and also already today can earn decent $$/€€ if the operations & energy trading is done in a clever way, what is exactly Terra One's AI-enabled secret sauce. These IRRs are highly attractive for deep-pocket infra/renewable-investors that need to look beyond traditional solar, wind and RE-assets as the ROIs there are melting off.

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Bank CTOs dread modifying their core banking systems. So, how can they best accommodate digital assets? The answer is Trever. We are thrilled to announce our investment in Trever, a most innovative Austrian company that will enable countless banks worldwide to offer digital assets to their customers without the need for risky, lengthy, and expensive transformation projects. Trever acts as a Digital Asset Operating System, bridging the gap between traditional banking and the fast-evolving digital asset ecosystem. It ensures seamless compatibility with legacy systems, allowing banks to connect to multiple trading venues and custody partners, guaranteeing competitive pricing across all trading centers. We firmly believe that, just as the rise of e-commerce was inevitable with the advent of the internet, the future financial systems will be fundamentally based on blockchain technology. And Trever has the right software to make this happen. Together with our wonderful co-investors—Krzysztof Bialkowski and Krisztián Gyepes Gyepes from TX Ventures, Jacek Łubiński from Market One Capital, and Alex von Frankenberg—we had our kick-off workshop last week in Graz, Austria. Congratulations to Hans-Juergen Griesbacher, Benjamin Rath, Marcel Schreiber, Thomas Langbein, and the entire Trever team for your incredible achievements and the exciting milestones ahead. We are delighted to join you on this journey and promise to do our part to make Trever the go-to digital assets platform for banks that want to integrate the future into their IT systems. By the way, if you are wondering, the name comes from “Tr(ading cl)ever.” Once you remember this, you will never misspell the company name again! Go Trever! #trever #digitalassets #fintech #blockchainfounderscapital #blockchain #venturecapital #austria #graz #crypto

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Europe's funding gap is gaping. According to today's Atomico State of European Tech report, gender metrics are either relatively stagnant or heading in reverse. ⬇️ At Pre-Seed, the number of all-women founding teams securing VC funding between 2021-2024 dropped to a paltry 4.9%. This is down from 13.2% between 2017-2020. ⬇️ At Series A, the numbers have dropped from 4.6% to 3.2% ➡️ At Seed and Series B, numbers are slightly up (now 5% and 1.7% respectively) but it's still a drop in the ocean Women are being funded less, paid less, promoted less. These numbers do not reflect the quality of founder talent we are seeing at Ada Ventures. ✅ 19% of Fund I and Fund II Ada Portfolio companies have an all-women founding team ✅ 56% have a woman founder ✅ 78% have an underrepresented founder The conclusion? Too many VCs are continuing to overlook women-led teams in the industry, whether consciously or unconsciously. Our approach to investing, Inclusive Alpha®, helps us find a truly diverse spectrum of founder talent whilst still driving outsized returns. 

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Climate tech investing in Europe is on the rise and I have to say that it's more fund than I ever expected. If you are curious about the stage of climate innovations and the most promising approaches to lowering global greenhouse gas emissions, we will be discussing a few learnings at the DDC Investor Summit in the beautiful city of Prague.

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"Venture Debt has had its best year on record" 💥   This year's Atomico State of European Tech record says it in bold: this is the biggest year for debt financing in Europe on record.   📊 Debt as a % of total venture investments is highest ever: close to 15%.   📈 Total debt financing in Europe reaches almost $4,8 billion.   🧊 And according to Atomico and Dealroom.co, this is only the tip of the iceberg.   👀 For me this looks like a definitive breakthrough of debt financing in entrepreneurial finance.   It rhymes what we at Capital Mills are seeing in the market: more and more companies are aiming for sustainable profitable growth, and looking for financing options that match that ambition.   Click on the link below to acces the whole report

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"All the signs are that big tech has succumbed to irrational exuberance. Runaway spending is one of the risks. Wall Street is already pencilling in expectations that the four firms’ capex could come to an eye-popping $1T over the next five years". Meh, some irrational exuberance in innovation can be a very good thing for humanity. The long term benefits of advancements in things like AI and robotics will be great. Innovations in these spaces will allow humanity to finally disconnect from labor arbitrage being one of the main drivers for development and prosperity. So make it rain Big Tech, make it rain! https://lnkd.in/eQr_qgDK #tech #technology #innovation #deeptech #ai #artificialintelligence #google #facebook #amazon #microsoft #apple #startups #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #vc #venturecapital #money #business

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📍 Two exciting days of 0100 Conference CEE 2024 in Prague Zero One Hundred Conferences (PE & VC Platform) came to an end: 💥 2024 & 2025 vintages will be very good for investors - Marco Natoli European Investment Fund (EIF) 💥 Talent, #technology, #innovation - the fundamentals of the coming growth of the CEE region - Edgar Kolesnik Abris Capital Partners 💥 A 🍌-shaped (J-curve, reversed direction should have been, but couldn't find it 😉 ) future for the region in terms of LPs coming in - David Schäfer Munich Private Equity Partners 💥 Play your strengths (relations, being closer to founders...) when dealing with the competition from outside the region - Roland Dennert Cipio Partners 💥 #Technology is horizontal & it's the most lucky sector - Krzysztof Konopinski, FRM Spire Capital 🎯 Ask yourself a question: do I have enough #technology (...and #CEE) in my investment portfolio? Michal Wojdyla Innova Capital - thanks for moderating our panel on Technology Focus in CEE: Growing Opportunities in ICT. Questions to the point‼️ And for sharing a great perspective on #technology from Innova Capital that raised the biggest fund ever👏

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