Andrea Emanuelli

Femtech has been in the headlines this week, as London-based Flo Health cracked a US$1 billion valuation following its US$200m Series C raise backed by General Atlantic – making it Europe’s first femtech company to achieve unicorn status. This has been controversial news on two fronts. First, the news that first place was taken out by a women’s health app run by an all male founding team, which stands in stark relief to the lack of capital going to women-led businesses - with only 2-4% of VC funding going to women-led companies. Second, Flo is still facing an ongoing Canadian class action claiming that it shared intimate health information – including details about users’ menstrual cycles, pregnancies and sex lives – to companies like Facebook, without their knowledge (and it’s not the first time, either - links in comments). This reflects consumers’ very real concerns about data, safety and trust when accessing essential health care that touches on highly personal aspects of our lives. In my favourite conversation yet, Rachel Yang and I recently sat down with Ida Tin, Danish entrepreneur, author and co-founder of the pioneering menstruation tracking app Clue, who coined the term ‘femtech’ back in 2016, to discuss the intersection of data, power and trust. Some highlights from our conversation? Although funding levels into femtech are not nearly as high as we’d like to see, Ida shared that the sector has evolved dramatically since she started Clue over a decade ago. We’re no longer faced with the barrier that women’s health is a niche area, and this shift has encouraged more women founders to start businesses solving the problems they themselves face. That said, there’s still a long way to go in terms of investors believing the scale of these problems and not subjecting women and gender diverse founders to a higher bar. Femtech solutions like Clue go a long way to addressing inequity in health care by empowering people with menstrual cycles with their health data in three ways – to give you the data to know when something isn’t right with your health, to help collect data to share with your doctor to help your experience carry more weight (although it shouldn’t have to be this way!), and helping healthcare providers connect broader datasets to identify key diagnostic gaps. In the post-Roe v Wade world, transparency on data privacy in the femtech space is more concerning than ever – and the risk here really comes down to the ethics of the people making decisions. Consumers are scared of data leaks and tech companies misusing their trust. Against this backdrop, data regulation in the health space is very necessary, and founders need to make sure they’re treating users’ data with the care it deserves. Check out the link to full interview in the comments below👇 Do you know an amazing founder building in the femtech space? I'd love to chat!

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Despite England’s loss at the Euro 2024 last night in Berlin, the UK has retained its crown for venture capital investment! 🇬🇧👑 Data from Dealroom, a global provider of data and intelligence on start-ups and tech ecosystems, revealed that UK start-ups and scale-ups raised £7.4bn during the first six months of the year. That’s a 16% increase from the same period last year, accounting for nearly one-third of all venture capital funding in Europe! Some standout funding rounds include: • Wayve, the autonomous vehicles technology firm, raised £861m in May. • Credit technology company Abound secured £400m. • Highview Power, focused on long-duration energy storage, raised £300m. • Online bank Monzo gathered £150m. • Electric vehicle charging group Char.gy raised £100m. The second half of the year looks promising with Index Ventures announcing it has raised $2.3bn in two new funds to invest in start-ups, with a significant portion expected to be deployed in the UK. Tech companies specialising in energy attracted the lion’s share of funding, with £4.3bn across Europe, followed by generative AI companies, which attracted £2bn. Having been deeply involved in the UK tech sector, I’ve witnessed the resilience and innovation driving these impressive numbers. The UK continues to be a powerhouse for tech innovation and investment, and it’s exciting to see the impact these investments will have on the future of technology and sustainability. What are your thoughts on the future of UK tech investments?

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I couldn’t be prouder to be a Venture Partner at Isomer Capital (aka the best European FoF - at least for me) as we just announced the launch of our pioneering £100m secondaries fund. This fund is dedicated to acquiring stakes from LPs in various VC funds, tapping into a massive and largely unexplored market. 🌟 Key Highlights: - Focused Investment: Primarily targeting stakes in VC funds, with selective investments in private companies. - Robust Funding: Already over 20% funded, thanks to strong support from Nordic family offices and a German foundation. - Market Potential: With a growing number of private tech companies and a VC liquidity crunch, Europe's VC secondaries market is poised for rapid growth. - Track Record: This isn’t Isomer’s first foray into the secondaries market. As a firm we’ve done several secondaries deals with portfolio companies and VC firms, including early-stage VC Seedcamp (in 2021) and mobility giant Bolt (in 2023). - Expert Team: Welcoming the amazing Omolade (Rachel) A., formerly of Coller Capital, as a principal to lead this initiative. 💡 Investment Strategy: - 65-75% of the fund will buy "LP interest" stakes in VC funds. - 15-25% will be directed towards stakes in companies. - Up to 15% reserved for flexible investment opportunities. 📈 Looking Ahead: We're targeting returns of 2-3x, with significant distributions expected in the next 4-7 years. As one of the few players in this space, we're not just participating in the market—we're driving it forward. Read all about it here: https://lnkd.in/dc7sbC3G #VentureCapital #SecondariesFund #EuropeanVC

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An underappreciated factor in UK VC right now, is the number of firms *only* investing in portfolio companies. ** The effect of funds, particularly the larger/later-stage funds, concentrating their funds on portfolio companies has a dramatic effect on the market. Because the new deals to later-stage funds, are likely the portfolio companies of earlier stage funds. And if the former falls/reduces/stops; the earlier stage funds have to devote more capital to their portfolio than was originally modelled. And it gums up the entire system. And it’s currently affecting all levels of funding, from growth down to seed stage funds. #founders #vcfunding #startups ** I’ve used ‘only’ as a catch all for 100% allocation to portfolio (as some funds are) through to significantly increased levels of portfolio funding (as the majority are).

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Founders/Investors raising or investing...READ THIS We have raised £400k under the UK Government's SEIS/EIS Scheme, through SeedLegals Of that £400k, £250k was under SEIS and £150k was under EIS. So what does this mean? Well, the £250k we raised under SEIS, qualifies for Tax Relief/Rebate to the individual investor of 50% and 0% Capital Gains Tax. So, that means that £125k will be either offset or claimed back, courtesy of the government. A typical ticket of £25k, suddenly turns into £12,500 of actual investment, but still £25k in terms of your equity/shareholding....BLOODY GOOD RIGHT! Then we have the £150k under EIS. Same as the SEIS, you get 0% Capital Gains Tax and 30% Tax Relief/Rebate. So from the £150k under EIS, £45k is Offset or claimed back courtesy of the government. So of the £400k we raised, £170k will be claimed back, into the investors pockets! Now as we move into our Seed Raise, of £2million, we are still raising under the EIS Scheme, which means £600k will be rebated back by the government. So if someone put the full £2million in, they could claim back £600k, meaning their cash outlay is £1.4million, but they actual shareholding and equaity is at £2million. This Scheme is an incredible incentive for investors and a great way for founders to raise investment and fund their businesses. I hope this helps and I hope people take advantage of this scheme. #seis #eis #investment #Founder #fund #raise

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Counting down to launch :) Eva, Sam and I are hosting a webinar tomorrow at 1300 UK time on cold investor outreach. We'll cover best practice, along with investor + founder perspectives. Now at ~800 registrations - sign up link below. #capitalraising #startups #fundraising #founders

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"Funding Collapse sends investment in start-ups to six year low" The Times today covering the shocking stats that VenturePath uncovered, with our partner Beauhurst. Great quotes from supporters Michael Moore CEO, BVCA and Julian David CEO, techUK. * UK VC funding at Series A is -44% from last year, and worsening * Q3 24 is down a staggering 57% from Q2, itself down from Q1 * 9 in 10 seed funded startups cannot access Series A VC funding, the next 'rung on the funding ladder' * Just 32 future scaleup companies across the whole of the UK were able to access their first VC funding round in Q3...a 6 year low * Half a billion less capital is going in to UK scaleups at Series A, than just 2 years ago! As the UK scaleup funding gap widens, we are losing ground against other countries, at both startup stage (a position the UK worked hard to achieve, since 2011), and for scaleup support. OECD data: 13th in the world for scaleup support, and that's before Series A funding access dried up. I get that its confusing. Another report (BBB, Nations & Regions) released this week spoke of positive trends in private investment, stating "The data for Q2 2024 shows that investment value has continued to grow". Great, I love to see optimistic data. But under analysis that bundles venture with private equity (later stage), where a few megadeals skew the numbers. Otherwise the exact opposite is true. Our independent research here, for the UK ScaleUp Investment Mission, is laser beam focussed on Series A. The funding round where companies move from the c.1m startups launched each year, through the 2,179 that access seed funding, into the rarefied category of being recognised as future scaleups, attracting Series A funding (£2-10m). The UK venture landscape is currently funding just 248 pa of these companies, and declining. We've been sharing this urgent call for support with the new Government since the day after the election. I've personally met with several Ministers, and spoke to all the relevant Government departments. I will shamelessly repeat loudly what is at stake. UK scaleup funding at Series A has nearly halved in a year, and continues to decline steeply, more than halving in the last quarter. VenturePath developed The UK ScaleUp Investment Mission to convene the scaleup support ecosystem and £7bn of funders to help address this problem, to improve nationwide access to VC investment, and create more venture-backed successes. We have clear support, clear recommendations to reverse this decline in UK scaleup investment, and have made a clear ask of Government for participation in this, to ensure immediate action is taken to create the conditions for success for UK scaleups, ensuring the focus on growth isn't undermined by lack of capital, or equitable access to it. Government decision makers, we'd love your interest, to progress to action. HM Treasury: Rt Hon Rachel Reeves Spencer Livermore James Murray & CC Poppy Gustafsson (welcome to the debate).

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Owning a niche and solving key customer needs, the key to DeepTech Commercialisation? At Empirical Ventures, we often encounter groundbreaking scientific innovations facing a dual challenge: - Developing novel technology - Proving that this technology solves a pressing market problem For startups, one crucial factor that is often overlooked is speed of execution. Talent and intellectual property are all critically important, but the ability to move swiftly is what allows startups to enter new markets before incumbents. In DeepTech, focusing on a market niche perfectly aligns with the benefits of speed. Examples of niches in DeepTech: Performance Niche - These customers adopt new technologies to outperform competitors or showcase their innovation capabilities to outside stakeholders. Bottom-Line Niche - These customers face immediate pressures that impact their profitability and are motivated to engage with emerging solutions. Silveray’s recent funding round exemplifies these dynamics perfectly. Their flexible digital X-ray detectors have broad potential across industries. However, it is their traction in the aerospace sector and specifically weld inspection that got us excited. For Silveray the niche is driven by two critical factors: Regulatory Pull: Upcoming legislation mandates the digitization of existing and future X-ray film records. Cost Savings: Silveray’s solution delivers significant financial benefits, making it highly attractive to customers facing bottom-line pressures. Silveray have the only viable solution for the digitisation of industrial weld monitoring. With only moderate penetration of this market (<2%) we believe they could generate 8 figure revenues by 2030. This nicely highlights that niche's can be lucrative in the right industries. Great to welcome Dan Cathie and the team at Silveray to the EV portfolio. Looking forward to supporting them as they continue to grow. CAPITAL AT RISK, FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS ONLY

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Here is a snapshot of the top European funding rounds and exits in September 👀 347 funding rounds were completed in September €4.2bn was invested into European Startups 53 exits occurred, 49 undisclosed, 4 were valued at €3.3bn The UK raised €1.1bn across 68 deals More fundraising data on the last update from Isomer Capital on EUVC Insights! 🔽 https://lnkd.in/dTys96rP #venturecapital #startupfunding #Europe

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One of the worst things about VC is having to pass on amazing startups because they don't quite fit our thesis at 7percent Ventures. It's always a great when we get to shout out people building such transformative technologies - even when we've not invested. Thanks Kai Nicol-Schwarz for collating this list of startups in the #Cambridge ecosystem. My picks: Prospectral, Signapse, Tenyks. Who else should be on the list?

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In a recent Sifted article, I share thoughts on emerging managers esp. Solo-GPs, here's what I think 👇🏽 https://lnkd.in/eYx7h5Qv I’m a solo-GP building OpenseedVC, here’s what some think this means; 🔻That there is key-person risk 🔻That there is little accountability or governance 🔻That it is a one-person show Here’s what it ACTUALLY often means; 👇🏽 ✅ We've set up governance that foster accountability, not bureaucracy ✅ As a fund, we have a dizzying depth of complementary skillsets ✅ We build conviction and move quickly; critical for early stage ✅ We are process geniuses, automations and efficiency is in our DNA ✅ We have a lean, mean team optimised for high for efficiency There is no "founder-like fund" quite like a Solo-GP emerging manager. For us at OpenseedVC, we invest up to $150k at the angel stage, and are flexible. We can lead your angel round. We can follow if the terms work for us. We don't take board seats. Whatever it is, we are first investors in ambitious and experienced operators just as they start their technology companies! We are founders ourselves, and have parallel experiences to the most ambitious and resilient founders, and this is ultimately superpower 💥 Solo-GPs are outliers, and in the business of #VC #venturecapital, outliers signal potential for outsized opportunity. #operators #openseedvc #europe #africa #soloGPs

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Ep.3 of #20Europe now LIVE 🎙🇬🇧 "The investor signal. I'm struck by just how much airtime this topic gets in Europe vs the US. It's the least important signal..." 🗣 Georgia Stevenson (Index Ventures) "The willingness to light money on 🔥 in San Francisco is incredibly deep. It is not as deep here so less teams take outlier bets." 🗣 Finn Murphy (Nebular) "The ONLY thing that matters when doing a deal is the conviction of the sponsor. Not valuation or stage of entry." 🗣 Julien Bek (Sequoia Capital) Just a little 🌶 from a wider discussion on: Why the UK should be considered the European home of #AI 🤖 Getting an MBA is outdated 🎓 The UK is not all about London 💪 Why a $100bn tech business can only be built in the US 🇺🇸 As always, would love to have your feedback on the show and themes to cover in future episodes, so hit up the comments section 👇 https://lnkd.in/ek7ZNG8X 20VC, #tech, #podcast, #UK, #entrepreneurship, #startups

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Why UK investors are going to ask you about “SEIS” and “EIS” 🚨 Confused about SEIS and EIS? 🤔 Don't worry, we've got you covered! 💡 Our latest podcast ep with Sam Simpson breaks down these UK government tax incentive schemes for investors, designed to encourage investment in early-stage startups. Think 50% tax relief, CGT exemption, and more! 🤑 But, can you invest in your own company using these schemes? 🤔 The answer might surprise you... 👀 Have you used SEIS or EIS for your startup? Share your experiences in the comments below! 💬 #SEIS #EIS #startups

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Join me and hundreds of other investors at Focal's S24 demo day this coming Thursday 16th May - link for tickets in the comments. We've filtered thousands of applicants down to the final twenty-five who will be pitching from 2pm-5pm BST. At previous demo days you've had the chance to invest alongside incredible VCs like Lightspeed, GV (Google Ventures) and even me at unbundled vc. I will also be hosting a Q&A session with one of the finalists. #founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic More at unbundled dot vc.

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I'm excited to share that Antler, one of the most active early-stage investors globally, has made £840K in investments across seven innovative British startups across multiple sectors. In our eleventh UK residency, we had over 2,400 eager founders apply, with 78 exceptional individuals from 24 different countries making it through, including 18% women. Our rigorous selection process, which includes more than 200 hours of due diligence, allows us to invest in fewer than 1% of applicants, ensuring we back the best. We’re thrilled to welcome these seven startups to the Antler portfolio, and we can't wait to support them on their journey! 🔎Vente AI: Revolutionising recruitment with AI by automating role identification and boosting candidate pipelines for agencies. 💡Distillery: Delivering product and marketing insights 25 times faster than traditional methods, Distillery is reshaping how businesses access and use data. (Vasil Yakov and Edward Louth) 🏦Banqora: Uses AI to automate document processing and streamline post-trade operations, saving financial institutions significant time and money. 🏠AskVinny: Streamlining property management with AI-powered agents to improve tenant-landlord interactions and service delivery. 🪲Omma: Innovating an AI-driven insect incubator for large-scale farms, Omma helps reduce pesticide use by automating the rearing of beneficial insects. 🧑‍🏭️Tradestack: Helping trade businesses win more jobs faster with an AI-enhanced tool that improves quoting and efficiency. 🏨Inntelo AI: Enhancing the hotel guest experience by integrating GenAI into hotel systems to automate guest interactions and service requests. Check out the press release in the comments section! If you’re interested in connecting directly with any of the founders, please feel free to reach out to me directly. #VentureCapital #TechStartups #Investments #Founders

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🚀 Antler UK’s Latest Investments: 7 Startups Shaping the Future Curious to get an inside view into Antler's latest investments in the UK? We've made seven investments following our Spring residency in London. Check out their one-liners and latest traction below. Comment "Invest" if you want to book time with the founders, and I'll message you a link privately. 1. AI-powered post-trade processing: Running pilots with UK financial service providers and already raised follow-on funding from VCs, angels, and industry experts. 💹 2. Transforming hotel communications with conversational AI: Pilots with prominent hotel groups, will cover over 900 rooms by October, a waitlist of over 1,500 rooms. 🏨🤖 3. The automated data stack for early stage companies: Already revenue-generating, and saving their customers thousands of pounds weekly on analysis and data maintenance work. 📊💼 4. AI property manager: Pipeline of 13,000 units, 1,700 actively using the platform. Strategic partnerships with leading UK property developers. NPS of 91 from early users. 🏠🧠 5. Automating the back-office admin of trades businesses: Gained first paying customers, and signed strategic partnerships for access to 29,000 UK trades professionals. 🛠️📋 6. Business development automation for recruiters: Within weeks of being onboarded to their MVP, early customers generated over £60,000 in additional revenue. 💼💰 7. AI-powered insect rearing system for pest management: A sustainable alternative to chemical pesticides, running 2 pilot trials with farms that operate in the UK, Europe, and Africa. 🌍🐜

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🚀 Excited to speak at the Barcelona Deep Tech Summit! Come network all founders, LPs, and investors interested in advanced tech 👇 The European deeptech scene is on fire - with €1.4B in fresh EIC grant funding for European deeptech founders announced for 2025. 250+ M&A deals are forecasted for 2024, with at least 20 deals above $100M, bringing liquidity to the VC market. Our recently published investment in Ephos , Inc. (Italy) shows our commitment to Southern European deeptech. And we're just getting started. Want to explore opportunities in one of Europe's fastest-growing sectors? (18.7% CAGR through 2034) Let's connect in Barcelona! Whether you're an LP, founder, or fellow investor - I'd love to discuss how we can build the future of European deep tech together. See you at Barcelona Deep Tech Summit ⚛️ #angelinvesting #familyoffices #VentureCapital #deeptech

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TLDR: EIS should be scrapped as a fund structure but retained for Angel investments by individuals. Alex Chalmers has done all the work which in 10 years I've never got around to doing: why 95% of EIS/VCT funds are bad for our tech ecosystem, rip #startups off, and why as a Founder you should push back against their stupid fees or not take their money. https://lnkd.in/dnq9ZScS

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Thank you Funds Europe for including my voice in the new UK Budget coverage. VC industry was expecting the tax on carried interest - private equity managers’ share of profits on successful deals - to increase. However many of my fellow Venture Capitalists raised a concern about removing the right incentives for taking risks. These incentives are even more important for the founders creating strategic technology assets in the UK than for their investors. "Carried interest rewards fund managers who take long-term risks, which frees the capital needed to support early-stage innovation, particularly in R&D-intensive fields like quantum computing and AI. These sectors require sustained, high-stakes investment, where tremendous strategic asset value can be created, but the journey involves a great deal of risk-taking and patience." Thank you to everyone who led a dialog on this topic in the past few months and made sure that incentives are largely not removed for the founders and capital to stay in the UK. OpenOcean, British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA), Michael Moore, Daniel Harrington

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