Christina M. Hawley

Proud to announce the first investment of Brilliant Minds: To&From by Bridget Johns-Pavlopoulos. 🎉 A retail powerhouse turned visionary entrepreneur, she's taking on the e-commerce world and redefining it with AI. As she says, "Success doesn’t require a sanitized version of yourself; it thrives on authenticity." You can read more about her vision and journey here: https://lnkd.in/eQd4wt54. More to follow soon! #investments #startups #brilliantminds #longevity

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Acceleration SSA’s Richard Clogg joined IAB South Africa's Brand Council Roundtable last week for a valuable discussion on the power and importance of 1PD in the future of marketing. The conversation was packed with important insights for how marketers can position their businesses for long-term growth and transformation in a privacy-first world. In case you missed it, here’s a quick rundown of top takeaways and event themes:  ✔ 1PD is Key to Success: A 1PD strategy is non-negotiable and critical to marketing success in a privacy-driven world.  ✔ Double Down on Privacy: Prioritize collection of consented data and ensure you’re upholding customer trust, always. ✔ Lean into AI: Utilize AI across targeting and measurement to unlock new opportunities. It's not just a buzzword; it's a game-changer in today's marketing landscape.

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WPP has cut forecasts for 2024, reduced headcount by 2.7%, and is selling huge holdings to release some entrenched cash, a move that seems to be part of a continued cost-cutting mission. The inference is pretty powerful here, if we read between the lines - there's been a significant investment in operational efficiency (automation, production and distribution innovation, and of course AI), and with the recent (ish) merger of Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R creating this powerhouse of creative capability - its positioning them as a leaner, more creative, more efficient, advertising & marketing machine - designed to weather product unpredictability, and economic fluctuations more effectively in the future. Traditional network agency processes have really shown signs of bloat and inefficiency over the past few years - that the market cannot continue to support. https://lnkd.in/ei4w9qbw #Marketing #AI #Automation #WPP #CreativeStrategy #VirtualProduction #CGI #AdvertisingInnovation

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🌟 Our First Ever Impact Report is Here! 🌍 When starting Plank Hardware in 2019, it was never my intention to launch an impact business. The goal was, and still is, to create high-quality design details for interior projects around the world. 💫 It was only once we started to grow — both in terms of the staff we employ and the volume of products we manufacture — that it became necessary to critically evaluate the repercussions of our operation on the planet. As the first hardware business to achieve B Corp certification, we're committed to continuous improvement. This impact report outlines what we've been able to do so far, and also how much further we can go to be better..

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Well done Instinct Digital and Cassian Scott Stephen Maynard Great traction for the ambitious growth plans at Instinct Digital - “We are delighted to partner with AlbionVC on the next stage of our journey,” said Cassian Scott, CEO.  “Our prestigious clients are fundamental to our success, along with our partners and team who have enabled Instinct to build a product that has the potential to become the benchmark in investment communications and reporting for investors." see Morningstar Synpulse Marouane Bakhtar #fintech #assetmanagement #assetmanagers #investmentmanagers #wealthmanagement #reporting #investors

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According to Pitchbook data only 2% of VC funding goes to all-female-founded teams 🧐 … and that this has consistently been the case for about five years. Sophie Winwood, co-founder & CEO of WVC:E, discussed this statistic (and more) about why we need more diversity in venture capital on the EUVC podcast this week. 🫱🏾‍🫲🏻 With VC and startups being male-dominated industries, Sophie shares how we can diversify the industry, make it more inclusive, and encourage women to remain in VC. One improvement she comments on is that VCs need to introduce a parental leave policy, making it simpler for women to return to work after maternity leave. Last year Sifted reported on impact fund AENU’s survey that found of the 63 VC funds queried, only 50% had parental leave policies in place. WVC:E has also been shortlisted for the EUVC Awards for Achievement of the Year due to its work promoting inclusion, empowerment and integration of VC. The winner will be announced at SuperVenture in Berlin on 4th June. To check out the full episode, click here: https://lnkd.in/gjFjd73t #WomeninVC #Podcast #FemaleFounders #WVC

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🚨 I am very excited to announce that Haatch have led the pre-seed round in Social Tip, the fantastic new company founded by James Watt after his super 17-year stint at the helm of BrewDog 🚨 There is no denying that social content heavily influences how consumers purchase products and services. Our attraction to investing in Social Tip is threefold: trust in paid advertising continues to fall, rewarding verified purchasers who share on social creates significant ROI for the brand while continuing to build loyalty with customers, and backing the B2B Platform, which is distributed by the largest brands, is the scalable strategy. With James Watt at the helm, we're excited to support Social Tip to become the first and fastest-growing platform rewarding true UCG backed by verified purchases. Of course, James Watt and the entire Haatch team are passionate about ensuring the community can access investment opportunities. As you'll know from my posts over the last year, Haatch has been leading the way in democratising access to venture capital in general for suitable investors, whether that be launching the first-ever SEIS Fund on Crowdcube last year, our EIS Fund partnership with Seedrs this year, or the other work we have been doing with Odin, Further, and many more. This investment is no different, with the ability for suitable investors to invest via Crowdcube on the same terms as Haatch and our fellow angel investors! If you're interested in learning more, head to my comments for the links 👀

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Application for London’s Largest Demo Day is well on the way, but now it’s time to bring some spotlight on one of our partners who made this event possible🔥. We are super excited to be supported by Grantify UK ! I’ve known about Grantify and the man behind it (Mat Westergreen-Thorne) since last year. His story of resilience and perseverance with Grantify is super inspiring. Similar to my case with Rare Founders, Matt set up Grantify to solve his own problems with #grants  Anyone who has tried to research or apply for grants can relate to this😥. But he actually solved the problem. Now with Grantify, all you need is to sign up and get matched with the right grant, and with up to a 60% success rate with grant applications, #founders can get their funding in no time (subject to them being actually eligible for grants❗). I’m super grateful that companies like Grantify see and respect the work we do with Rare Founders and the effort we put into creating something different like London’s Largest Demo Day. By the way, for those founders who are looking at grants and want to get a special 𝟭𝟬% 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 from Grantify for the Rare Founders community, see the slides below. One of the last slides has a QR code so you can check your eligibility and, if eligible, get your 10% discount.

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☀️ day in Luxembourg at Impact Europe co-hosted with ImpactVC Insightful and heated discussions around the evolving sophistication in the Impact investing market Key take-aways included: ⚖️ Impact measurement: An accelerating trend towards proving out 'shared value' - how being impact focused is improving company performance and resilience Thoughtful articulation from Marie Ekeland on why impact investing provides strong risk-weighted returns when set against a backdrop of industries and companies needing to decarbonise over the next 20 years 💰 Impact linked carry: European Investment Fund (EIF) require it for managers who raise from them. Healthy discussion on the pro's and con's alongside a recognition that pragmatism is needed and impact needs to incorporate qualitative and quantitive factors Good to hear from Florian Erber on his experience implementing this in particular that deal leads have accountability for setting and working with portfolio companies on their impact metrics 3. Raising an impact fund: It's tough - even more so if you experiment with structure with many institutional funds, in particular development banks, having restrictions around their ability to invest in evergreen structures. It is great to see funds like AENU and 2050 look to educate the market around the benefits of evergreen structures and lay the foundations for this approach to become more mainstream 4. Impact exits: Impact first companies have a wider range of options for exit Lara Viada shared her experience of exiting a business to the Reposol foundation and their ability to super scale the impact post exit Thank you Ellie Broad Douglas Sloan Gianluca Gaggiotti Ines Mertens de Wilmars for inviting Eka Ventures

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Episode 353 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Giuseppe Stuto, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 186 Ventures: https://lnkd.in/eS7CtuS5.  Co-Founded by Giuseppe and Julian Fialkow, 186 Ventures is a pre-seed & seed stage VC firm investing broadly across technology. I kept hearing about the firm, so I was excited to interview Giuseppe for the podcast as they have been out there hustling and have been earning the respect from entrepreneurs and their peers in the VC industry. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the importance of investor & founder alignment. * How a conference at Stanford changed the trajectory of his career into entrepreneurship.  * The full background story of SmakHigh and how they evolved to Fam, the first live group video application for iMessage, including how Jeffrey Bussgang's book - Mastering the VC Game - helped them raise venture funding from Jeff and Flybridge. * The full story of how the acquisition by DraftKings came to fruition. * The details about 186 Ventures and what they are targeting for investments. * The 4 fundamental parts of a business that matter. * The importance of building a repeatable sales model for not only your go-to-market strategy but also how it factors into raising capital. * Why Boston is the best place to build an AI startup. * And so much more. #ai #bostonstartups #startups #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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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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🎉 For the next few weeks I will be only be introducing my company as "Carbon13, winnerofGrowthInvestorAwardsTeamoftheYearforInvestingInWomen" This is now my second favourite moment at Carbon13, right after that first time we closed applications to that first Venture Builder in 2020 and we could see just how many amazing people were putting their trust in us to help them build a startup that could change the world for the better. And so many amazing women ⚡ Women like Sarah Montgomery of Infyos, Marcela Flores of Tierra-Foods , Kelly Price and Sarah Power of Agreed Earth and more. But this award is for activities in just the last 18 months where we really worked hard and intentionally to increase the potential for investing in more female founders. This is an award for a Team, and there's not one person at Carbon13 who wasn't involved in this. We're now at 65% of our investments having at least one female founder, in 2024 alone, our investments including Berlin 1 and Venture Launchpad 3 all have at least one female founder. There's too many for me to tag! But as a sample there's Sandra Astete Morales, PhD of Climalyst, Elizabeth Lee of Carbon Cell, Karishma Gupta of Eslando. Our current Venture Builder cohorts have the highest participation of women yet, hitting 38% for Berlin Cohort 3. Whereas in the rest of the industry, Atomico's State Of European Tech 2024 report has investment in women at single digits and DECREASING yoy, even at pre-seed level. 📉 Yet our work shows there's no shortage of remarkable women building the future. Thank you to the Growth Investor Awards and Investing In Women Code for highlighting the investors that fund women.

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#ThursdayThought: Great work is something people want to talk about and in this case, further proof in the power of culture to connect. #ShiftedPerspectives wasn't just the name of this campaign, but a daily behaviour at Super-Sub AU to approach all opportunities with an open mind. Partnerships can do for brands what advertising alone can't*. Connecting with consumers/customers through culture lands messages with meaning you can't fabricate. The more we can collectively create work that drives results and pushes the boundaries, the greater impact we can have on society.. #RisingTidesLiftAllShips #gamechangingthinking #sportsmarketing *I'm biased, and advertising is cool also.

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Exciting times ahead! With Amazon finally making its debut in South Africa, local brands are gearing up for an e-commerce revolution. But wait, have you thought about your retail media strategy? With 74% of global consumers starting their buyer’s journey on the Amazon platform, this oversight could end up hurting brands' Amazon strategy. Martine Kevelham, CCO of Incubeta Marketplace breaks this down in our latest article stating that "Retail media is the best way for e-commerce brands to get as close as possible to the consumer in the digital isles and as they make their final decision in their online retail journey". Let's unpack this more. Click the link below!

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We unveiled Insight 2025 at the Digital Marketing Conference in Cape Town, designed to guide you in crafting your digital strategy for the year 2025. Our Insight 2025 report delves into the effectiveness of digital marketing, pinpoints existing gaps, and explores how businesses, from budding startups to established giants, harness digital marketing. We've spotlighted three key themes shaping today's digital world: The necessity for improved data practices, striking a balance between immediate wins and long-term brand loyalty, and the crucial role of ensuring tools work together effortlessly. Learn More and Download: https://lnkd.in/etjhDVHs

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For asset management marketeers, the GBS should be a cornerstone of setting your marketing strategy.

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WARC Media was invited to The Trade Desk London office a few weeks ago, where we learnt about and discussed their latest research on omnichannel campaign effectiveness. Thanks to Sara Picazo, Research & Insights Director, The Trade Desk and Andrea Frankl Sanz. With research of this kind, it's always valuable to get behind the scenes, ask questions, and dissect the methodology, the implications, the industry stigma, and the actual moments in the experimental neuro testing, the last of the three stages of the study. Observing the impact of advertising across channels, here some findings: 🧠 omnichannel campaigns are 1.5x more persuasive and 2.2x less fatiguing than disconnected campaigns, leading to better recall and emotional connection. 👥 Omnichannel strategies are audience-first; they enable but also require brands to identify the right touchpoints based on audience behaviour. 🤳 In the meantime, audience media engagement can be grouped into "mindsets, moments, and media" and found throughout the day. Read our exclusive WARC op-ed piece where Sara Picazo breaks down the research, its methodology, and impact here: https://lnkd.in/evfAqyFb Or a chart article summarising the effectiveness of each channel when isolated & used in a holistic method: https://lnkd.in/eyJ9f-VW Access the full research here: https://lnkd.in/eXwbiipz

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