Apoorva Ruparel

Excited to share Marathon Venture Capital's investment in Eva Magnisali's DataForm Lab! Construction is large enough to be measured in GDP terms, yet remains a laggard in the adoption of automation. Our buildings are still constructed manually! Offsite manufacturing, i.e. assembling buildings in factories, provides the perfect canvas for putting automation to work – still, however, robots are nowhere to be seen... Eva studied architecture and robotics, and worked with design firms, developers and industry vendors, realising first hand what's keeping the industry stuck in the past. Then she got to work... Dataform Lab's software platform translates designs to production drawings and machine code, along with optimising processes and scheduling, essentially offering a modern operating system for construction factories. The company already works with some of the most prominent offsite manufacturers worldwide. Today it announces the completion of a GBP 1.1m Seed round led by Marathon. Eva and her team are on a mission to drive automation in offsite manufacturing. If you are excited about working at the intersection of technology and construction, get in touch! Building construction has been slow and expensive for far too long. Our next homes and schools may come from fully-automated factories, delivered at a fraction of today's time and cost. Keep an eye on Dataform Lab! https://lnkd.in/dVVfnudS

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When you find a practical use of AI in an area that has strong tailwinds in the India growth story, you know this is a venture that has a high potential not just for value creation but for job creation in the country. Delighted to back TraqCheck founders Jaibir Nihal Singh, Armaan Mehta and @rishabh jain as they make it easier for over 200 corporations to embrace the new way of work. Traqcheck's Ai-enabled background checks of employees is way, way faster and far more reliable than traditional methods of background verification. Pankaj Bansal (पंकज बंसल)Karann Mittal Danish Dogra Aman Khan Yukta Kelkar Atreyi D.

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OpenAI's Sam Altman interviews serial founder and legendary VC investor Vinod Khosla. Sam asks "What percent of investors are good company builders?" Vinod responds with 3 powerful statements: 1️⃣ 90% of VCs add no value 2️⃣ 70% of VCs add negative value 3️⃣ If you haven't built a company before, you haven't earned the right to advise an entrepreneur #VentureCapital #Fundraising #Founders

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DePIN & RWAs dominance isn't as far off as most people think. Across every innovative cycle, three fundamental pillars emerge: foundational technology development, proliferation of infrastructure, and a surge in application development. As we venture into the third cycle, DePIN and RWA protocols are poised to become market leaders paralleling the dominance witnessed by infrastructure projects from 2015 to 2024.

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Tech of today was at some point of time considered as DeepTech. This evolution happens gradually, powered by visionary innovators and supportive investors who pave the way forward. Today, India stands in a unique position—not only to drive groundbreaking innovation and attract top talent but to do so at a significantly lower cost than in other markets. At Aeravti Ventures, we are continuously inspired by the innovation potential of the Indian founders and are thrilled to be at the forefront of it. Below is the link of the The Economic Times article in collaboration with Ankit K. of Capital-A https://lnkd.in/gPhJ3pyk

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It is serendipitous that I just posted about how forward thinking Nevada is and then this article popped up in my feed! Congrats Piotr Tomasik 🌊 Jeff Tatarchuk 🌊 Darrick Horton 🌊 you guys are on fire! #vegas #startups #tensorwave

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Looking forward to diving into the state of the late-stage venture market at TechCrunch Disrupt next week with Karthik Subramanian. With late-stage companies facing tougher paths to exit, we’ll be debating whether the market is actually rebounding, sharing our thoughts on the outlook for future IPOs, and discussing how founders can navigate these shifting dynamics. Hope to see you there! #TCDisrupt #VC

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Three years ago, Stage Venture Partners backed Ariyan Kabir, Brual Shah , and Satyandra K. (SK) Gupta's startup, GrayMatter Robotics. Today, GrayMatter revealed their $45 million Series B, led by Wellington. In the past three years, GrayMatter's robots have handled 7.5 million square feet of products, streamlining tasks such as sanding, grinding, and finishing high-performance surfaces. This innovative automation addresses urgent labor shortages, enabling U.S. manufacturers to meet demand efficiently. Technology like GrayMatter's is crucial for American factories, and the company is just scratching the surface in revolutionizing high-tech production processes. https://lnkd.in/gJaUfDZq

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For Ep 18 of Hutt Capital's Inside the Hutt podcast, we talked with Mahesh Ramakrishnan of Escape Velocity (EV3) about building EV3 and all things DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks). Great conversation for anyone interested in this emerging category. Topics included: -Mahesh's studies of religion and how understanding the incentive systems there tie into his current work -Firm overview of EV3 -What is DePIN and why is it interesting -Advantages of DePIN vs. traditional infrastructure networks -How blockchain & crypto are used In DePIN -The different categories within DePIN and how it represents several large underlying markets -Current traction & usage of DePIN, and tracking this data via DePIN Ninja -EV3's annual DePIN Summit -How does EV3 differentiate its capital to win deals -Running a sector-specific fund vs. generalist crypto fund Apple: https://lnkd.in/geCZga-s Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g_MXFptb

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Looking forward to meeting women entrepreneurs who are on their journey to create some pathbreaking ideas and inspiring others to do the same. #advaitawomenentrepreneurs #womeninbusiness #entrepreneurship #womenentrepreneurs #EmpowerWomen #womenleaders #businesswomen

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I’m thrilled to be announcing that Notion Capital is leading the $15m Series A investment in Cogna today. In the industry, we like to think that software has been eating the world. But when you look at the data a better description would be more of a nibble. Depending on what source you look at the software industry represents between 5-8% of global GDP. Contrast that with the services industry that represents between 60-70% of GDP and worth around $25 trillion on a global basis. Most services have been out of reach for the software industry. They have either been too complex or too specialized for off the shelf software to access in any economically viable way. But that’s beginnning to change with GenAI leading to the emergence of ‘service as a software.’ Cogna is at the forefront of this opportunity - building precision software at scale and delivering huge productivity gains for traditional industries. We know Ben Peters & Lars Mennen well having backed their previous company Five AI that was acquired by Bosch in 2022. And we’re very excited to be backing them again together with Hoxton Ventures & Chalfen Ventures Read my full blog post on why we invested here. Radu Bozga Ben Peters Lars Mennen Bryan G. Mike Chalfen Hussein Kanji Kirsten Connell https://lnkd.in/eh8mhcJb

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Because I look waaay better on a podcast than on YouTube, LOL (though it is also on YouTube), here is a link to the interview from Prashant Choubey with me on the subject of How VCs should approach LPs. Thanks for a good interview, Prashant, and I hope this is useful! https://lnkd.in/gXANyehS

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Cap Table Red flags in early-stage start-ups Over the past two years, we at Transition VC have evaluated close to 1,000 deep technology or Engineering start-ups in the energy transition domain in India. More than two dozen are actively working on innovative ideas and developing technologies or products with significant potential. Still, we had to reject a few start-ups due to Cap Table issues. Disproportionate allocation of shareholding percentage among the founders: Disproportionate allocation among the founders has resulted in potential conflicts leading to founder issues and the collapse of the start-ups. These human issues are complicated to solve in the later stages, and it also means one of the founders with a majority stake is perceived to have a significant influence & role, and the other founder whose role is perceived to be a supporting one. For us, at Transition VC, the maximum difference between dual founders shall not be more than 20%, i.e., the maximum disproportionate split can be 60% versus 40%. Allocation of a significant percentage of passive participants: We have observed that few start-ups gave up significant stakes to non-active participants such as advisors, universities, accelerators, or incubators, This substantial allocation of shares to passive participants hinders the start-up’s capital-raising ability in the further rounds, as the co-founders’ stake might come down significantly below the minimum stake, as every investor at each stage expects the founders to have more significant skin in the game. A single investor holding more than >30% with special powers related to exit, monetary and strategic rights is perceived negatively by the new investors, who would want to avoid existing investors having too much control over the start-up. Bringing in a strategic investor early in the game: Having strategic investors, suppliers, and customers on the cap table can be detrimental to attracting new investors, customers, and strategic partners. It is better to avoid them until they have a very minimum stake and don’t have a direct overlap. Single founders: Entrepreneurship is very tough mentally and, many times, exhausting. It can drain all your energy, resulting in burnout within a short time. Things could be smoother and more linear when building or scaling start-ups. There are a lot of ups and downs during the entrepreneurial journey; you need someone who can share your vision and passion and support each other during tough times. There is a high chance of solo founders burning out if things go south and potentially giving up. Having multiple founders in a start-up is not mandatory, but we prefer multiple founder start-ups as the key personal risk comes down significantly with multiple founders. Transition VC #start-ups #Venturecapital

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Friends, Q2 was a quarter of progress and learning for us at HawkTower, where we invest in early-stage startups applying breakthrough computing technologies to maximize California's natural resource markets. Our focus is on technology-enabled interventions (e.g., AI-enabled geospatial radars for lithium-ion batteries in the waste stream) for critical, market-level imperatives (e.g., disaster prevention) that can drive rapid commercial adoption (e.g., placed on every recycling truck in the world). Our current investment priorities are: - Agricultural productivity and efficiency - Biomanufacturing - Labor and mobility automation - Waste stream optimization and decarbonization - Disaster prevention and management Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to: Milestones and Investments: - In late April, we officially launched our fund, filing with the SEC. Yay. - By June, we completed our first fund close ahead of schedule, with backing from family offices, foundations, high-net-worth individuals, and organizations aligned with California's future. - Our portfolio now includes three early-stage investments (Farm-ng, Agriful Software, and Nexstera Tech). Strategic Partnerships: - We believe that startups operating closer to their customers and resources, especially in agriculture and biomanufacturing, have a strategic advantage. For instance, the Salinas Valley, a major agricultural hub, is less than an hour from Silicon Valley and serves as a center of thought leadership in the convergence of agriculture and AI (from Western Growers, Taylor Farms, and others). - Similarly, the North San Joaquin Valley is emerging as a biotech and agtech innovation hub, and we are proud to support BEAM Circular, a startup hub for the circular bioeconomy. Key Relationships: - Karen Warner, CEO of BEAM Circular, joined HawkTower as a strategic advisor. - Jackie Cruz, Ed. D. Cruz, Hartnell College’s VP of Advancement, advises on Salinas Valley and workforce development. - Ben Palone from Western Growers, with his technical background in agriculture, became a trusted advisor. - Matthew Hoffman from Driscoll's Global R&D team provides insights on global agriculture, product positioning, and investment strategy. - We collaborated with Monterey Bay DART for workforce development and automation in agtech. - Dominic Milano and the Milano Technical Group from Merced collaborated on key initiatives and advised us on investments. - HawkTower is participating in Santa Cruz Works's accelerator cohort as a mentor and advisor. Thank you Doug Erickson. - We published an overview of entrepreneurship across the UC system with input from across the University of California system. Moving into the fall, we remain deeply committed to supporting founders shaping California's future natural resource markets. Stay tuned and be in touch! : ) Db

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🌟Innovative VC Firm Overcomes Exits Drought with Secondary Sales🌟 ⛵Navigating a challenging landscape where exits are scarce, Santa Barbara Venture Partners (SBVP) has pioneered a novel approach to sustain its growth and attract investors for its second fund: secondary sales. Instead of waiting for traditional exits like IPOs or acquisitions, SBVP opted to sell shares of its portfolio companies, demonstrating its ability to generate returns for investors and stand out in a competitive market. 🎤According to Dan Engel, founder and managing partner of SBVP, these secondary transactions have been a game-changer, sparking investor interest and bolstering the firm's credibility. By leveraging its recent successes, including a lucrative stake in sports-betting company DraftKings Inc.' acquisition of digital lottery app Jackpocket, SBVP seized the opportunity to return profits to its limited partners (LPs) and pave the way for its second fund. 💡Engel highlighted the challenges faced by young VC firms in raising subsequent funds, particularly amid a downturn in exit activity and heightened investor scrutiny. With traditional exit routes becoming increasingly elusive, the pressure is on for firms to demonstrate tangible returns and establish a track record of success. ✨"For us, secondary sales have been a game-changer. They've helped us return profits to our LPs and attract investors for our second fund," said Dan Engel. 💰For SBVP, the decision to pursue secondary sales was driven by the need to provide liquidity to LPs and validate its investment thesis in the eyes of prospective investors. By strategically offloading portions of its holdings in high-performing portfolio companies like Bark Technologies and Rad AI, SBVP not only generated substantial returns but also bolstered investor confidence in its ability to deliver results. ⚠Despite the complexities and potential stigma associated with early share sales, Engel emphasized the importance of prioritizing investor returns and seizing opportunities to unlock value for stakeholders. With a focus on profitability and transparency, SBVP remains committed to its mission of delivering sustainable growth and maximizing returns for its LPs. 🔍 "Returning profits to our investors is our top priority. By strategically selling shares, we're proving our commitment to delivering results and driving value for our stakeholders," added Engel. As SBVP continues to explore secondary transactions and expand its investor base, the firm stands as a testament to innovation and resilience in the face of market challenges. 🚀 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #fund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VCInnovation #SecondarySalesSuccess #InvestorReturns #ValueCreation 

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This was a fun one to write: exploring our AI cluster from applications down through the semiconductors that make AI possible all the way down to the advanced manufacturing that is helping make those chips possible. Tagging Chris Miller Anissa G. and Jane Lanhee Lee who may find this interesting

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