Hal Watts

A timely round up on US Femtech (and female health) funding by Leah Hodgson published yesterday, following the $200m Series C/growth equity round raised by Flo Health Inc. There is a helpful link into further analysis on deal value v. deal count, and PitchBook also tracks the founding teams; female v. co-female/male. #femtech #femalecategory #femalehealth

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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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#DeepThoughts Once a week the #deeptechbio team at Octopus Ventures share a topic which we have been thinking about. We want to create conversation, meet founders and experts, and share our excitement! 🤓 OV is a generalist fund of specialist teams. Internally we’re split into six different groups - or ‘Pods’: Deep Tech, Biotech, Consumer, B2B, Health and Fintech. You might notice that Climate Tech is missing from that list. We’ve experimented with a Climate Tech Pod in the past, but it became clear that Climate was a motive force more than a domain specialism and that Climate Tech entrepreneurs could run businesses that straddle any number of our Pods. So instead we've embraced a Pods and Tribes model (thanks Spotify) forming a team of Climate Tech investors that sit across our Pods, making sure we always have the right mix of people sourcing and reviewing Climate opportunities. I'm sharing this structure because it highlights how challenging it can be to categorise a Climate Tech startup. The consensus online is that a Climate Tech startup is one whose trading activity supports either the mitigation of, or adaption to, climate change. The breadth of potential activity within this definition makes it very hard to evaluate a given company’s Climate Tech credentials however. In response I’ve been developed a mental model for Climate tech classification that I thought I’d share today. First Order These companies have a direct effect on atmospheric warming. They might do this through Point-Source Capture, like Seabound; through the replacement of fossil fuels with green alternatives, like DRIFT Energy Ltd or copenhagen atomics; they could focus on the capture and sequestration of atmospheric CO2, like Brilliant Planet; or they might offer low emission alternatives, as Arda Biomaterials does with leather and SCiFi Foods does with beef. Second Order These startups engage in commercial activities that have an indirect effect on atmospheric warming. Remote monitoring services, such as AIRMO's methane monitoring solution, or Solaris Suborbital Inc.'s wildfire monitoring service, are good examples of this type of Climate Tech. Third Order These companies vital to accelerate our transition towards net zero emissions. Companies like Metris Energy, who are accelerating the deployment of solar energy by commercial landlords; Kita, whose insurance offering accelerates the maturation of the carbon markets; and Origami who offer Battery Energy Storage System owners a way to optimise the yield on their assets. NB. Whilst it’s true that there is an increasing bias towards Bits over Atoms as you move outwards from a direct interface with our Atmospheric composition, I don’t believe classification it’s as simple as an Atom vs. Bits distinction. How do you think about the divisions within Climate Tech space? Are there any exciting Climate tech startups we should be looking at? Let us know in the comments below.

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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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Is VC really dead, as people would like us to believe? I think it's (rightly) transforming and setting up roots. Before writing VC's obituary, let’s look at the data. It's quite enticing to be a pessimist proclaiming all is gloom and doomed but it fundamentally misreads how venture capital evolves. All previous 'dying' periods birthed some of the world's most iconic companies, examples like LinkedIn from 2000's crash, Airbnb and Uber from 2008's winter. The 50% dip in overall funding in 2023 isn't death; it's a cleansing of 20-21's tourist VCs who jumped in mistaking momentum for value, lured by the uptrend. Resets are always a good thing for value creation and skill to come to the party. The top quartile firms are still raising oversubscribed funds. Why? Because real VC was never just about capital deployment. Just as mobile and cloud computing emerged from previous downturns, the AI revolution is catalyzing VC to evolve into something more nuanced, more specialized, and ultimately more enduring. The fat is being trimmed, but the muscle is getting stronger. Building enduring companies requires smart capital, strong network effects, and operational expertise, which AI is nowhere close to disrupting. Funds in India itself, deployed over $6.5 Bn+ in 2024 Q2 and Q3. Recently spoke to a VC stalwart who in addition to being long on India also mentioned on how India is ripe and brimming with the world’s finest talent — talent that needs capital to fuel its ambitions. India’s startup ecosystem is in its early years. This is the time when it needs nurturing, and VCs have an important role in that I believe VC is just strengthening its roots to become more thoughtful, value-added - driven by empathy, shared purpose and long-term alignment. Far from dead; alive and excited for what's to come!! Karthik Prabhakar Rohit M A

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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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We had the pleasure of speaking to the inimitable Gordon Sanghera, co-founder and CEO of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, valued at around $6.8bn in 2021. Gordon somewhat accidentally ended up as an entrepreneur, breaking the conventional VC wisdom around 'born founders'. The technology is wild - democratising access to genomic sequencing giving us a new understanding of living organisms. In the episode of Riding Unicorns, we cover: 00:00 Defining Entrepreneurship 00:55 Understanding Oxford Nanopore's Technology 06:10 Gordon's Journey to Founding Oxford Nanopore 12:09 Commercialization Challenges and Strategies 16:27 Building a Strong Founding Team 20:55 Navigating the Ups and Downs of Deep Tech 25:54 Innovative Applications of Nanopore Technology 28:57 Company Culture and Operational Insights 35:05 Attracting Talent in a Competitive Market 37:22 The IPO Experience and Future Outlook https://lnkd.in/eQZVSGeK

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🌟 Scaling Care Hires: A Journey from Concept to Industry Leader 🌟 Join us as we trace the incredible evolution of Care Hires, from a mere concept on a piece of paper to a thriving platform serving over 15,000 care workers and 1,000 agencies. Ian Mattioli director of Mattioli Woods plc our first investor and chairman, played a pivotal role in this growth story, embodying the spirit of taking calculated risks to scale efficiently. In this video, explore how strategic decisions like offshoring our tech development to Sri Lanka catalyzed our expansion, enabling us to enhance service delivery and impact across the care sector. Discover the bold moves and visionary leadership that drive Care Hires ongoing success. #CareHires #HealthTechInnovation #StrategicScaling #Leadership #Entrepreneurship #MattioliWoods

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The art of synthesis for deep tech founders. In a conversation with a founder last week, we were exploring a new business idea. At the heart of the idea is some complicated bio-technology, a very difficult to navigate supply chain and an expensive capex build. It was also quite boring on the surface and hard to imagine a crowd of investors downstream fighting to get into the next round. But the founder explained it to me in a way that electrified the concept in my mind. They came at it from a world of geopolitical shifts, a gaping opportunity to effortlessly reflow supply chains and a magical technology that would sustainably deliver industrial advantage to countries. The founder started with the WHY and led me to the WHAT. See Simon Sinek - https://lnkd.in/dE4RV4Sj for more on this. - WHY: painting a picture of a massive market problem that most people understand. - HOW: building a business model around an existing flow of that market and leaning into it instead of trying to force a change. So many companies fail when founders think they can bend a whole planet around their company. - WHAT: a unique invention that no one else has. After the WHY and HOW, I am hungry to understand the WHAT. The work to get to this simple idea takes a special kind of work - SYNTHESIS. It involves iterating thousands of times over a vast information space that includes world events, government policies, industrial trends, technological invention. It requires an always-on radar that scans the world looking for micro-moments of hypothetical product market fit and smushing them all together until a single cohesive story emerges that a founder can unite a community around. - I'm a Partner at Main Sequence, a VC purpose-built to create global companies from scientific ideas with the inventors who imagine them. I build-out-loud here: https://lnkd.in/gENhMrbU Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog: https://lnkd.in/dAXEMWTr

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The startup paradox... Almost everyone has an idea for a tech platform. But almost no one has a product (even an MVP) out in the market. At Verticode, we want to change that. We’re here to tighten the gap between “I’ve got this idea” and “Give this a try!” For founders who’ve got some market validation - but not quite enough to raise funding - this is a critical stage. You should be able to launch your MVP without remortgaging your home or burning through endless resources. Your idea deserves a shot. The market deserves to see it. And we’re making sure more founders can bridge that gap. Fast. Affordable. Built to scale. Let’s get your idea out there.

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NOTWICS would like to alert founders to this lovely message I got from my good mate Tom Britton @ SyndicateRoom This excellent Cambridge based pre-seed and seed stage VC is looking for top founders and hopefully this is the first of many funds ringing the bell saying they are now deploying 💥 - akin to top man Dan Bowyer’s LP post yesterday. The winds of change are coming - funding is coming back From Tom “Hey Chris - We've partnered with Carbon13 to launch their next Climatech SEIS fund. The fund will open to investors on Tuesday and aims to deploy in the current tax year. And on Carbon 13 Carbon13 companies have gone on to raise up-rounds totalling more than £38m. The average age of their cohort participants is 37, a quarter hold PhDs and 63% of their teams are mixed gender”. Their portfolio now has 71 ventures across five key sectors: chemicals and materials, energy, food systems, enabling platforms and the built environment. Founders find out more here and get applying https://lnkd.in/es6EvuN5 Or Direct Message Tom for more Apologies for spelling mistakes - rushing to host a huge defence tech breakfast with FieldHouse Associates and others #startups #scaleups #vc #angel

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At PeerCapital we love throwing data on perceived fallacies! Couldn't agree more with Ankur on how VC in India is indeed evolving into "something more nuanced, more specialised, and ultimately more enduring". In the context of the amount raised by VC firms in India in 2024, 'new funds' accounted for 37% of total VC capital, compared with 15% last year. The growth signals a need in the ecosystem for fresh perspectives, refined approaches, and the ability to take well-calibrated risks to back early-stage founders. Excited for our ongoing founder conversations and what's to come in 2025! #earlystagevc #earlystagefounders #vc

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I run a lot of workshops with new clients as part of our discovery phase at Intrface / Digital Product & UX Design Studio. There's a common theme between startups and SaaS companies wanting to break through their industry and noisy marketplaces. Want to know what it is?👇 It's their unfair advantage. Contrary to popular belief, your value proposition, tech stack, and strategic partnerships do not differentiate you. Though these things are important, customers don't care how clever your marketing is, whether you use AI or who you're partnered with! Their unfair advantage is always how they deliver their solution to their customers. It's the User Experience (UX) that differentiates them. ✨ Customers only care about the problem you're solving, and they only care about how effective and efficient your product is at solving that problem. If you can deliver value by solving a valid problem with the best user experience... You win. All. Day. Long. Tell me I'm wrong!? 🤪 So stop building clunky experiences using terrible design and implement strategically-minded UX design based on insight and data. DM me to learn more about how we can help. #ux #design #product #startups #saas

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Balderton's €1.3bn raise for European startups sparks debate: Does a bigger VC fund lead to better outcomes? First, consider: 💲 Larger rounds demand bigger funds, but returns get harder at scale 💲 $100M fund needs $1bn exit at 10% ownership for a single 1x return 💲 Most early-stage VCs target 3x returns, investing in 30+ companies 💲Management fees (typically 2%) grow with fund size Plus, the current landscape: Giants like Balderton, Index, and Accel are raising massive funds, while smaller firms stick to sub-$200M and focus on early-stage startups. Many VCs have maintained their previous fund sizes, while others are downsizing or struggling to raise new funds (or even returning un-invested capital to investors, as CRV recently announced they will do). Thus, weigh up the trade-offs: Larger funds (≥$500M): 📈 More firepower, full-cycle support 📉 Risk: Pressure to deploy capital, potentially lower returns Smaller funds (≤$200M): 🔍Agility, focused support, higher potential multiples ❌ Limited late-stage participation The future of European VC may not be one-size-fits-all. As the ecosystem matures, perhaps there's room for both Davids and Goliaths. What's your take? Would you bet on a nimble $150M fund or the muscle of a €1B+ vehicle? Source: Sifted #EuropeanVC #FundStrategy #StartupInvesting PS 🔔 Follow me for strategies and resources for startups and VCs! There's a better, streamlined way to raise capital: 💸https://foundersuite.com/ for startups 💸https://fundingstack.com/ for VCs and investors

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"Is the UK a hard place for DeepTech funding?" I always love answering this question. The UK and Europe is one of the best places for DeepTech funding! 🤘 We have some of the best DeepTech funds based right here in Cambridge with Cambridge Innovation Capital, IQ Capital, Martlet Capital and Amadeus Capital Partners. Last year, The 2023 European DeepTech Report reported the UK was one of the top three countries to receive the most DeepTech funding across Europe seeing a total $3.4 billion raised. 💥 DeepTech is one of the most resilient funding sectors to be in right now. 🚀🚀🚀 Cambridge Future Tech Lucie Polakova #venturebuilding #deeptech #deeptechfunding #cambridge Pic: Talking careers in tech at University of Cambridge 🤘

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The forgotten land of building well-crafted products - and what can we learn from likes of Perplexity, teenage engineering and PostHog et.al. --- Did we buy into building scrappiness far too long 🤔 Would we buy a half-baked product for ourself, team or family? 1 - Totally new market/ habit creating product/service: probably try it out 2- Existing market/ user patterns already established - product should meet and exceed expectation 3- Existing market/ new user segment or geo - experiment with new experience or journey etc --- Next wave of products have to be built with passion by default. 🔨 Building product is like a craft: - Just like a skilled craftsman meticulously hones their work - Treat each feature, design element, and user experience an opportunity to communicate with the users 🔬 Granular stuff matters - It is in the details, isn't it - when you tap on the Airchat logo for long or move the pointer across Miro's icons at the bottom right - Small details make a big difference over long term (if you care, users will notice) - The highest standards leaves a lasting positive impression on users - Don't overlook the granular aspects or performance or error handling, or even the choice of fonts 😃 Delight customers - A product can thrive in its ability to delight and satisfy customers. - Go beyond meeting expectations, find ways to surprise and delight users - through intuitive interfaces, or exceptional customer support. - Happy customers are loyal advocates and grow your reputation --- Often, it's the seemingly minor details that separate good products from great ones. #startups #customerdelight #productmanagement #gtm #userexperience #uiux #personalization

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Back when I started working in VC, the concept of a 'VC Tech Stack' was unfamiliar, and manual tasks were the norm. It's amazing to see how much and how fast things have changed since then, with the emergence of software tools enabling investors to do more with less. Software is changing industries across the board, and venture capital is no exception. At Signal, we're excited to be a part of driving this change, and we're proud that Dealroom.co has acknowledged us in their market overview of VC tools, listing us as one of their solutions for signal providers - and to be featured on Startup&VC's VC Stack - link in the comments 👇

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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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Striking: Zenobē, a UK climate tech startup, raised £600m from KKR and £270m from Infracapital, bypassing VC entirely. Zenobe captures excess energy from wind farms to stabilize the grid and reduce gas power reliance. This means: Zenobe secured one of 2023's biggest startup fundraises — without any venture capital. #battery #fundraising #venturecapital #energystorage #infrastructure #growthinflection Sifted: https://lnkd.in/g8wF-xA5

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