TechCrunch

JANUARY 22, 2021

At the time, seven-figure seed investments in African startups were a rarity. These investments are usually made by third-party investors (friends and family), and range between $25,000-$150,000. Andreata Muforo is a partner at TLcom Capital, a pan-African early-stage VC firm. So why the sudden change in appetite from investors?

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

It was expected that these figures would increase in 2020. Investments did pick up, and from July, VC funding on the continent had a bullish run until December. Investments did pick up, and from July, VC funding on the continent had a bullish run until December. For 2020, the number dropped to $1.43

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 19, 2021

Despite a pandemic that sparked a global recession, 2020 was still a record year for venture capital investments into American startups. venture capital market in 2020 was hot, it was not newly so. So far, 2021’s startup financing and exit market appears to be the mirror of what we saw in late 2020. In the U.S.,

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 12, 2020

USV has invested in the education sector for a bit more than ten years. We have focused on “direct to learner” businesses and have mostly avoided investing in companies that sell to the established education system. And yet this portfolio will generate close to a half a billion dollars of revenue in 2020.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 12, 2020

The de-carbonization of the economy is a megatrend that is already underway and is highly investable because the unit economics of renewables and energy efficient electrical equipment is now superior to the unit economics of carbon and mechanical equipment. So let’s get on with it.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 5, 2021

There has been this narrative about investing in VC funds that you have to get into the top quartile (25%) or possibly the top decile (10%) in order to generate good returns. I have heard that for as long as I have been in VC and probably have written it here a few times. Well, it turns out that is not right.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

My goal in the interview overall was to capture more of the personal side of Fred since so much of his investment thesis and portfolio work already comes out in his blog. We talk a lot about his schooling, his early jobs as a developer and then as a VC and we talk about his decision to spend winters in Los Angeles.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 5, 2020

Most of USV’s big wins have been in companies where we were the first institutional VC to talk to the company or where we had way more conviction about the opportunity than other investors at the time of our investment. ” He was surprised and said “You are the first VC to say that.”

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 31, 2020

I edited hundreds of stories in 2020, so choosing my favorites would be an exercise in futility. “Enterprise expenditure on custom software is on track to double from $250 billion in 2015 to $500 billion in 2020,” so we’ll definitely be diving deeper into this topic in the coming months. Robotics and supply chain.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 22, 2020

But in recent years, corporate docs are being drawn up in English to facilitate communication both inside Switzerland’s various language regions and foreign capital, and investment documentation is modeled after the U.S. Today, pitch competitions, incubators, accelerators, VCs and angel groups proliferate. Andreas Iten , partner, F10.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

For most of my career as a VC, the IPO has been the holy grail. Our very best portfolio companies would be offered an opportunity to go public by the top investment banks on wall street. I don’t take as much offense to this situation as others in the VC business have. We will see. It will be revealing to all of us in time.

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Haystack

JANUARY 18, 2020

Having spent time around and then in the world of VC in the Bay Area during the last decade, I’ve been reflecting on how different norms in the industry have changed. At the start of 2010, there was some unwritten VC industry conventions that have been tested, challenged, and upended in the last decade. That is for another post.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Indeed, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and the Italian Trade & Investment Agency in London have even been known to fund Italian entrepreneurs abroad to help them gain more experience. The good news: VC funding in Italy has grown. billion investment plan, which includes its first cloud data center in the country.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

I have been investing in developer tools since the earliest days of my VC career. The first investment I led in the late 80s was a financing that provided the funds to acquire a programming editor called Brief. That investment worked out but we didn’t make a lot of money on it. It was a text-based editor for PCs.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2020

When I started leading deals at First Round Capital, I sourced investments in 8 companies. I have now been investing on my own at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures for almost eight years exactly—which is pretty much about the time people say it takes to build up a company to a big exit. 2020: “Hold my beer.” I’m just sharing.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 20, 2020

Meanwhile, few spaces were frothier in 2016 than virtual reality, but most VCs who gambled on VR following Facebook’s Oculus acquisition failed to strike it rich. Brayton Williams, Boost VC. Most investors I chat with seem to be long-term bullish on AR, but are reticent to invest in an explicitly AR-focused startup today.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 8, 2022

The dynamics that play into this forecast, aside from the impact of COVID, include a youthful population (the youngest globally), rising smartphone adoption and internet penetration that has led to a burgeoning tech ecosystem backed by local and international VC dollars. million jobs due to Google’s $1 billion investment in the continent.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 20, 2020

If you search for “vc open for business” on Twitter , you will see almost universal scorn for the idea that VCs are open for business right now. We have mostly seen VC firms live up to the commitments they made pre-pandemic and in the cases where terms changed, it has not been not gratuitous. It may in fact be open.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 8, 2020

But now that ordering online vs lining up to order is the way that this coffee shop mostly works, I was happy to make that investment of time. USV TEAM POSTS: Nick Grossman — Oct 2, 2020 USV Algorand Transparency Statement, Q3 2020 Rebecca Kaden — Oct 1, 2020 Sora. My point is this. And that is a good thing.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2021

It helps me invest and advise the companies we are invested in. Like our investing, I will get some of these right and some wrong. As I wrote yesterday , I think the trends that were accelerated in 2020 will not reverse in 2021, although the slope of the adoption curves will likely flatten a fair bit.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 1, 2020

My partner Rebecca wrote about our most recent education investment, Sora , on the USV blog today. We have been investing in learning for over a decade at USV and have built a terrific learning portfolio focusing on companies that are providing services direct to the learner (as opposed to selling “ed tech” to institutions).

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 20, 2021

The fourth quarter of 2020 was as busy as you imagined, with super late-stage startups reaching new valuation thresholds at a record pace, and total venture capital funding in the United States recording its second-best result of all time. First, we want to how unicorns performed in Q4 2020.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 25, 2021

Founded by Yele Badamosi in 2017, Microtraction arrived on the continent’s early-stage investment scene with all intent to be “the most accessible and preferred source of pre-seed funding for African tech entrepreneurs.” Other investors include Pave Investments and US-based angel investor, Chris Schultz.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MARCH 12, 2020

I got an email from a well known journalist who covers the VC sector today. He was asking a bunch of VCs a few questions that basically can be summed up “are you open for business?” It will be interesting to see where his informal survey of the VC business shakes out.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Sopoong , a social impact-focused VC, intends to support environmentally minded tech founders in South Korea and Southeast Asia, while building a bridge between Korean conglomerates and startups in the sector. Sopoong has closed on around $8 million (10.3 Sopoong has closed on around $8 million (10.3

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 25, 2022

In late 2020, a group of Stanford students banded together to create Stanford 2020, a venture fund solely to invest in their fellow classmates’ ventures. million for the debut investment vehicle — waitlist not included. million seed funding round led by Initialized Capital, with investments from GSR, NEA and Canaan.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 27, 2020

USV TEAM POSTS: Gillian Munson — Oct 20, 2020 Our Investment in Possible Nick Grossman — Oct 20, 2020 Making Butter with Jam Albert Wenger — Oct 18, 2020 How Much Clothing is Enough? They are eager to support entrepreneurs of all kinds who are working to make a better NYC. A Personal Experiment.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2020

It’s 2020. So, I am starting out 2020 in an optimistic mood and here are some predictions for the decade that we are now in. We will see massive capital investments made in protecting critical regions and infrastructure. Time to look forward to the decade that is upon us. This is an important decade for mankind.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

Venture capital getting later and larger was something we saw repeatedly in our examinations of what happened in Q3 2020 more broadly. Late-stage deals made Q3 2020 a standout VC quarter for US-based startups. billion or +17% from Q2 2020’s $7.6 billion in 2020. Fintech appears to be in a very similar boat.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 28, 2020

USV TEAM POSTS: Gillian Munson — Oct 20, 2020 Our Investment in Possible Nick Grossman — Oct 20, 2020 Making Butter with Jam Albert Wenger — Oct 18, 2020 How Much Clothing is Enough? A Personal Experiment.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 5, 2021

Over the next few weeks, the venture capital industry will compile and release data concerning its Q4 2020 performance, capping a year that saw the world of private capital freeze , thaw and burn. But we can get a peek at a critical part of the VC universe early, thanks to a preview of global fintech investment results from CB Insights.

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Dream It

APRIL 7, 2020

— samir kaji (@Samirkaji) April 7, 2020 To guide startups through the confusion, Dreamit interviewed three leaders helping startups secure emergency funding from different perspectives as bankers, attorneys, and investors. The information on this page was updated on April 6th, 2020. Last Friday was anything but orderly.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 8, 2020

The second quarter of 2020 is now behind us and we will see the data on it soon. If we see interesting opportunities, it is our job to invest in them. But looking back on the second quarter of 2020, what I see is a hyperactive venture capital market firing on all cylinders. We are not paid to hoard the cash.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

link] — Ben Siscovick (@bsiscovick) February 26, 2020. In that post, I argued that the venture capital business could not sustain more than $20bn a year of new capital coming into it and continue to produce good returns to the investors in VC funds. — Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) February 27, 2020. All public.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 20, 2020

Dani then spent two years at USV helping us spot interesting investments before starting Jam. USV TEAM POSTS: Nick Grossman — Oct 20, 2020 Making Butter with Jam Albert Wenger — Oct 18, 2020 How Much Clothing is Enough? So if you want a better way to collect feedback on your application, spread some jam on it.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 1, 2022

However, we were not able to do that in 2020 and 2021 so this was our first Portfolio Summit since 2019. In the three years that have passed since our last summit, we roughly doubled the size of our portfolio, adding 65 new investments. Those of us who work in VC and startups can work remotely and get most everything we need done.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

I was talking to a group of education entrepreneurs (on Zoom naturally) last week and was advocating for the “direct to learner” approach that defines our eduction investing strategy at USV. USV TEAM POSTS: Albert Wenger — Oct 30, 2020 The Coming Fight for Control of the Internet.

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