James Mawson’s Post

Billionaire Family-Backed Firm Raises $100 Million Venture Fund, Congatuations Mark B. 👇 HIPstr, the venture arm of Mark Bezos and David Moross's HighPost Capital, raised $100 million from investors including rich individuals and institutional firms for early-stage deals outside its traditional buyout focus. Why is this so significant? As the venture capital ecosystem continues to evolve, family offices are increasingly seen as pivotal players. Challenging macroeconomic conditions such as higher interest rates and inflation, as well as tighter credit markets, have put downward pressure on the direct investing portfolios of many family offices over the past couple of years. Some have responded by slowing or ceasing direct investing. But the family offices with the greatest AUM have tended to take the opposite approach, doubling down in the expectation of benefiting from lower valuations and opportunistic situations. An investment firm founded by Jeff Bezos’ younger brother Mark Bezos and a US private equity veteran that focuses on consumer bets has raised its first venture fund. Read more below 👇 https://lnkd.in/eKAFzT4K #Startup #innovation #entrepreneurship #sustainability #investing #networking #venturecapital

The market for venture secondaries continues to look super interesting given ongoing illiquidity for private VC backed companies.

Adams Street Partners raises $1.2 billion in commitments for its fourth fund #Adams Street Partners has successfully closed its oversubscribed #Venture Innovation Fund IV Program, raising over $1.2 billion in capital commitments. This shows Adams Street's deep-rooted expertise in #VC, built over four decades, and its ability to secure backing from a global network of institutional investors, family offices, and wealth platforms. With a focus on venture fund investments, secondaries, and direct investments, the Fund strategically targets high-growth and disruptive companies in the innovation economy. Founded by Brijesh Jeevarathnam, Partner & Global Head of Fund Investments, and Jeffrey Diehl, Managing Partner & Head of Investments, Adams Street is recognized for its pioneering role in venture capital since the 1970s. Their long-standing relationships with top venture managers worldwide, including partners like Accel, provide them access to some of the most innovative opportunities globally. This latest fund showcases the continued confidence from investors across various regions, marking a 40% growth from the previous venture innovation program. With $60 billion in assets under management and a presence in over 30 countries, Adams Street continues to position itself as a leader in driving digital transformation through its commitment to cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence. The announce on #AdamsPartners website in the first comment.

Venture capitalists are embracing the secondary market as a viable option for generating exits in a market where liquidity events are scarce. The stigma around selling on this market is starting to fade. #VCJ #VentureCapital #Secondaries

This is a trend that is likely to garner more attention; the "quiet quitting" of venture GPs in the face of a tougher fundraising landscape. This has a huge implications for portfolio companies, LPs, and the GPs themselves. The good news is there are some amazing options, especially for the GPs, so if you're in touch with any of these situations, please reach out, as we have partners looking to work with LPs and portfolio cos, as well as the GPs themselves, in funds that have hit the tipping point. #venturecapital #vc #ventureinvesting #scalepointadvisors https://lnkd.in/e2Aq__un

How Fifth Wall went from zero to $212 million of committed capital for our first fund, without previously working in venture capital or having family money to invest: We proved out our investment thesis and built a track record on AngelList. Establishing a track record is one of the hardest steps of starting a venture capital fund. It's a little easier if you have previously worked in venture or have family money to invest, which my cofounder and I did not. When you’re starting a fund, you need to demonstrate to investors that you can identify opportunities, diligence them, and generate strong returns. You need to de-risk the investment, from an LP’s perspective. But how do you do that without access to capital? You need a track record to get access to capital, but you need access to capital to build a track record…tough situation. So we fundraised on AngelList, maybe $10,000 at a time, doing one-off deals with pools of capital as small as $50,000. We raised from small, retail investors trusting us and our thesis about real estate’s collision with technology and generating returns through our relationships and our network in real estate. And off that track record, we were able to raise our first fund of $212 million with a sector focus in what today is known as proptech, or real estate technology. So, if you find yourself in the static friction a lot of would-be GPs find themselves in of not being able to raise capital because you don’t have a track record…and you’d need capital to build a track record…be creative with how you prove your thesis. #lessonslearned #venturecapital

Billionaire Family-Backed Firm Raises $100 Million Venture Fund, Congatuations Mark B. 👇 HIPstr, the venture arm of Mark Bezos and David Moross's HighPost Capital, raised $100 million from investors including rich individuals and institutional firms for early-stage deals outside its traditional buyout focus. Why is this so significant? As the venture capital ecosystem continues to evolve, family offices are increasingly seen as pivotal players. Challenging macroeconomic conditions such as higher interest rates and inflation, as well as tighter credit markets, have put downward pressure on the direct investing portfolios of many family offices over the past couple of years. Some have responded by slowing or ceasing direct investing. But the family offices with the greatest AUM have tended to take the opposite approach, doubling down in the expectation of benefiting from lower valuations and opportunistic situations. An investment firm founded by Jeff Bezos’ younger brother Mark Bezos and a US private equity veteran that focuses on consumer bets has raised its first venture fund. Read more below. #FamilyOffice #UAE https://lnkd.in/dm8d2RcM

44% of VC capital raised this year went to just two firms. With increasing consolidation in VC, Equal Ventures' Rick Zullo shares his perspective on the outlook for the industry if we continue down this path. "The VC ecosystem is like all other ecosystems – players evolve to survive/thrive or risk fading away into extinction... As emerging managers experience a financing crunch, capital is consolidating behind mega funds, risking the very survival of our industry." Read more: https://lnkd.in/gzF2yFHv #VC #MarketTrends

I don't do a lot of stories about firm/fund launches, but I thought this one was worth digging into because of the existential debates currently happening about the future of venture capital. The VC asset class has expanded enormously over the last 10-15 years. Many of the biggest firms have tens of billions of assets under management and are only getting bigger. It has made me wonder whether VC firms must become next JP Morgan / Blackrock / Blackstone, accumulating as many assets as possible and raking in fees, or else wither and die. (Bigger funds tend to mean lower returns, btw.) The other big question is whether the firms that cling to the old school, traditional unscalable VC model can survive in a world of giants. Some investors are trying to forge a new path in the middle. I thought Nicholas Chirls' approach with his new firm, Asylum, was interesting. It will stay small, invest slower, and seek out companies that require less funding. He wants to model the firm after A24, the indie film studio. Read more about it and the broader industry debate happening here: https://lnkd.in/gXmnviv5

In the past few years many VC firms have raised new funds smaller than their previous funds, which goes against the historical trend. The weak fundraising environment definitely had a lot to do with it, but some investors chose to scale back. This trend suggests some VCS are taking a more cautious approach to investment, driven by market uncertainty and a greater emphasis on long-term value creation. Investors are increasingly focusing on sustainable growth, thorough due diligence, and supporting their portfolio companies through more turbulent times. For founders, this means a stronger focus on capital efficiency and building businesses with a solid path to profitability. For VCs, it’s about balancing the need for returns with a more thoughtful, patient approach to backing the next generation of innovators. I'm of the view that this is all good for the industry and the economy, but I do wonder where all this capital efficiency is going to come from after two years during which most of the startups that have managed to stay afloat have already been forced to cut costs to the bone. Interestingly (from my perspective, at least), one area where many startups could still cut costs considerably without sacrificing quality is on legal fees. I'll be discussing how next week at Startup Boston. Register here: https://lnkd.in/e9a4S2TP. #VentureCapital #Fundraising #Startups #InvestmentTrends #SustainableGrowth #Entrepreneurship #VC