Podcasts about localglobe

Episode SummaryXavier Collins, London-born and New Zealand-raised, is no stranger to building marketplaces that scale. After early days at Uber, Xavier joined Nexus Notes before launching Deliveroo into dozens of UK cities and spearheading Turo's growth across Europe. Now he's applying his marketplace magic to the film industry with Wonder, an AI-native creative studio backed by Blackbird, LocalGlobe, and a host of world-class angels.In today's episode, Xavier takes us deep into the creative frontier of AI and storytelling, exploring how technology can unlock new levels of creativity, reshape entertainment financing, and give more filmmakers a voice. We cover:• How AI is redefining storytelling and enabling more scripts to reach production• Lessons from building successful marketplaces at Uber, Deliveroo, Turo, and Nexus Notes• The keys to marketplace success: seeding liquidity, focusing on quality supply, and defining user experience• Why the entertainment industry is overdue for disruption (and how Wonder is leading the charge)• How filmmakers and creatives can harness AI to amplify their visionWe also dive into Xavier's unique journey—from narrowly missing a consulting career to hustling his way through startups, and the unforgettable Cannes moment that launched Wonder.Time Stamps02:49 The Cannes moment: Realising AI will reshape filmmaking07:18 Using AI to rescue stories that wouldn't otherwise be told10:56 The life-changing phone call that sent Xavier into startups19:37 Early lessons on marketplace liquidity from Deliveroo and Turo25:52 Price, selection, and service: The three pillars of marketplace success32:16 Services vs SaaS: Rethinking business models in the AI age41:05 Financing films 101: Inside Xavier's other venture, Lumiere Ventures48:26 Xavier's advice to young people: Lean into AI nowResources

On this episode of Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast, Amy sits down with Tom Leathes, CEO and cofounder of used car marketplace Motorway. The company, founded in 2017, has helped more than half a million people sell their cars, and has raised $273m from investors like Index, Iconiq, LocalGlobe and BMW i Ventures.Tom and his two cofounders have launched four startups before Motorway, with three resulting in successful exits, and one having to shut its doors. Tom and Amy discuss what he's learnt from that one failure, and what's now going right at Motorway, as the company takes on the formidable challenge of disrupting a huge and slow-changing automotive industry. This podcast is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta is the fast, frictionless way for growing companies to get compliant, stay secure, and earn and maintain the trust of vendors and customers.  Head to Vanta.com/sifted to learn more. 

Welcome to a new episode of our special series, At The Cap Table Series, where Sarah Finegan, Senior Investor at Antler, talks with Emma Phillips, Investment Partner at LocalGlobe. Local Globe is one of Europe's most respected early-stage venture firms. Founded by Robin and Saul Klein, Local Globe has backed nearly 300 companies, including 17 unicorns and five IPOs, focusing on B2B software, applied AI, and the future of work.With deep entrepreneurial DNA and a commitment to investing in founders at the earliest stages, the firm plays a crucial role in shaping Europe's startup ecosystem. Since joining Local Globe nearly a decade ago, Emma has transitioned from an operating partner to a leading investor, bringing hands-on experience in scaling companies and navigating operational challenges.In this conversation, she shares her insights on what makes a great founder, the importance of first-principles thinking, and why exceptional talent can come from anywhere. We also dive into Local Globe's unique approach to venture investing, the major trends shaping the future of work & AI, why founders should embrace unscalable solutions early on, and why Europe needs to build a more open and accessible venture ecosystem.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview

Ash Arora is Investment Partner at LocalGlobe, one of the leading early stage venture capital firms in Europe, with one of the highest number of unicorns in portfolio, with companies like SoRare, Layer Zero, Robinhood, Figma, Wise, and Twitter (X). Ash, also a Strategic Partner and member of WAGMI Ventures family, leads the B2B, AI and web3 practice of LocalGlobe. She shares insights gathered over her illustrious career journey as an investor, intricacies of investing through different cycles of crypto, philosophy on evaluating winners, and investing in the current global macro market dynamics. 

Raising Angel Finance and Venture Capital for Your UK Startup Starting and growing a business often requires substantial funding. For UK entrepreneurs, angel finance and venture capital (VC) are two of the most popular options for scaling a startup. In this episode of the Charles Kelly Money Tips Podcast, we break down these funding sources and share how you can access them. Watch video - https://youtu.be/uUuhpoE2lcg What is Angel Finance?Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals who provide funding for startups, typically in exchange for equity. They often invest at earlier stages than VC firms and may also offer mentorship and business connections. Platforms like Seedrs or Angel Investment Network can connect you with UK-based angel investors. What is Venture Capital?VC firms provide larger amounts of funding to businesses with high growth potential. They look for startups that have already proven some traction and scalability. VCs like Index Ventures and LocalGlobe are popular choices in the UK. How to Attract Angel Investors and VCs: Craft a Winning Business Plan: Clearly outline your market opportunity, growth potential, and financial projections. Build a Strong Network: Attend pitch events, startup accelerators, and industry conferences to meet investors. Show Traction: Highlight existing sales, user growth, or partnerships that prove your concept is working. Prepare for Due Diligence: Be transparent and organized when presenting financials and business operations. While both angel finance and VC can accelerate your growth, they come with trade-offs like equity sharing. Choose the right path for your business goals. For more tips on funding your startup, watch the latest episode on the Charles Kelly Money Tips Podcast on YouTube. How will Labour’s new Renters Rights Bill 2024 affect buy-to-let landlords? The Labour Party’s Renters' Rights Bill 2024 is poised to bring significant changes to the UK’s rental market, impacting both tenants and buy-to-let landlords. Understanding these changes is crucial for landlords to navigate the evolving landscape effectively. Watch video version - https://youtu.be/Wx1HXgVW1bM Section 24 Landlord Tax Hike Interview with Chartered Accountant and property tax specialist who reveals options and solutions to move your properties from your own name into a limited company or LLP whilst mitigating the potential HMRC pitfalls. Email charles@charleskelly.net for a free consultation on how to deal with Section 24. Watch video now: https://youtu.be/aMuGs_ek17s #MortgageRates #FixedRateMortgage #BaseRate #UKHousing #InterestRates #MoneyManagement #CharlesKellyMoneyTips #Podcast #PersonalFinance #HomeLoans #property #buytoletmortgage #landlord #section24 #Inflation #Landlords #PropertyInvestment #RentalIncome #CharlesKellyMoneyTips #UKEconomy #RealEstate #AngelInvestors #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #UKBusiness #Entrepreneurship #RaiseCapital #CharlesKellyMoneyTips #FundingTips #BusinessGrowth

Today's guest is Firaas Rashid, CEO and Founder of Hook. Hook is the B2B SaaS platform focused on predictable revenue growth from existing customers. Backed by Lightspeed and LocalGlobe, Hook is revolutionising the way companies forecast their revenue growth using product usage and customer data. He is passionate about changing the way Customer Success is run and building the leading workplace for ambitious people who want to be part of a team. Before founding Hook, Firaas was CTO and Head of Customer Success (EMEA) at AppDynamics, scaling from $170m to $550m Annual Recurring Revenue in 2 years. He led a rapid journey of rebuilding Customer Success to focus on data-driven prioritisation and scale. Prior to that he was a Director of IT at Credit Suisse. Beyond his role, Firaas finds joy in travel, exploring new restaurants, and even taking to the skies. This episode is brought to you with support from Oracle Netsuite. Learn more at Netsuite.com/scale --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/uncharted1/support

In this episode, Nimmy Mathews (Head of EMEA Sales, Startups at AWS) and Yvonne Bajela (Partner at LocalGlobe and Latitude) discuss investing in African startups and supporting black female founders and underrepresented founders. They share insights on funding challenges and their vision for improving the ecosystem. Mathews has led diverse organizations at Amazon, focusing on helping startups and small businesses scale globally. Bajela, a founding member of Impact X Capital LLP, has invested in companies like Wise and Flutterwave. She's been recognized on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Europe Finance List and 25 Leading Black British People.

George Henry is a General Partner at LocalGlobe. LocalGlobe is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and impact investments. They have seeded impactful founders since 1999 at places like Citymapper, Improbable, Lovefilm, Moo, Wise, and Zoopla. They invest in startups selling to consumers, small businesses, and enterprises. They are lean, data-driven, and move fast in decision-making. They offer highly structured, collaborative support to investee companies, and have an excellent track record in getting their startups to a Series A raising (almost 90% vs less than 40% EU average).George joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss founder evaluation, the 4 investment themes they're excited about, what the next 10 years potentially hold for VC, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date!

“If you eventually want to do investing, become an Operator or Founder, don't go into banking.”  We are back with another season of our popular VC Feature series, where we hear from some of the best Investors in the space.  Today, we're joined by Ash Arora, the youngest Partner at LocalGlobe.  Before joining LocalGlobe in 2022, Ash was the Investment Lead for Crypto Unicorn, Polygon's venture arm, with LPs such as Sequoia, Lightspeed, Softbank, Tiger, etc.  In this episode, we discuss Ash's career journey, her transition from banking to VC and her focus on Blockchain and AI investments.   Episode Chapters:  ➡️ Upbringing & early career aspirations [03:10]  ➡️ Career foundations in banking [05:00]  ➡️ Reflections on her time at Polygon [07:30]  ➡️ The value of an Ops background as a VC [10:30]  ➡️ Joining LocalGlobe [13:20]  ➡️ Why Blockchain & Web3 [16:00]  ➡️ What makes Founders stand out to Ash [18:15]  ➡️ What to avoid when pitching to VCs [22:25]  ➡️ Raising in a challenging climate [26:50]  ➡️ Embracing Failure [29:00]  ➡️ The importance of mentorship & becoming a mentor [32:20]  ⛳ Helpful links: ➡️ Follow Ash on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aashima-arora?originalSubdomain=uk  ➡️ Find out more about LocalGlobe: https://localglobe.vc/  ➡️ Read about Ash's parameters for finding your next role: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aashima-arora_how-do-you-find-your-next-job-half-the-activity-7136378080742318081-E6PV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop  ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️ Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

☁️Cubbit è una scale-up che sta costruendo il futuro del cloud : grazie alla geo-distribuzione dei dati. Fondata nel 2014, Cubbit oggi ha piu di 350 clienti enterprise in Europa tra cui Leonardo, il leader della difesa e cybersecurity in Italia, un team di oltre 60 persone, e $25 milioni raccolti dalla fondazione. Il 16 luglio 2024 Cubbit ha annunciato di aver chiuso un nuovo round di finanziamento da 12,5 milioni di dollari guidato da LocalGlobe e da ETF Partners con la partecipazione di Verve Ventures, 2100 Ventures, Hydra, Growth Engine, Eurenergia, Moonstone. Hanno reinvestito anche Azimut Libera Impresa SGR – Azimut Digitech Fund (supportato da FNDX), CDP Venture Capital SGR (attraverso il suo Fondo Evoluzione) e Primo Ventures. Hanno aderito come investitori individuali anche alcuni key executive del settore, tra cui Fabio Fregi, ex Country Manager Italia di Google Cloud, Joe Zadeh, ex VP di Airbnb, e Duccio Vitali, fondatore di Alkemy. La società è stata supportata nell'attività di fund raising dall'advisor Growth Capital. In questa chiacchierata parliamo con Stefano Onofri, co-CEO e co-founder, di tutta la strada fatta per arrivare a questa tappa. NEWSLETTER Iscriviti a Il Digestivo la nostra newsletter mensile sul mondo startup italiano: https://ildigestivo.substack.com/ SPONSOR Serenis è una piattaforma digitale per il benessere mentale. Seguendo il link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.serenis.it/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ troverai un questionario da riempire e da lì, tramite un algoritmo proprietario, la piattaforma ti connetterà con il terapeuta più adatto a te. Le sedute sono online e se il terapeuta selezionato non ti convince, puoi facilmente cambiare.  Serenis ha deciso di offrire un codice sconto per tutti gli ascoltatori di Made IT. Con il codice MADEIT7 avrai un colloquio gratuito e un'agevolazione di 7 euro sulle successive 3 sedute. SOCIAL MEDIA Se vi piace il podcast, il modo migliore per dircelo o per darci un feedback (e quello che ci aiuta di più a farlo diffondere) è semplicemente lasciare una recensione a 5 stelle o un commento su Spotify o l'app di Apple Podcast. Ci ha aiuta davvero tantissimo, quindi non esitate :) Se volete farci delle domande o seguirci, potete farlo qui: Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@madeit.podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@madeitpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

889: Venture capital has driven technological advancement from hardware companies like Cisco to software giants like Google. But what does the future hold? In this episode of Technovation, host Peter High talks with Saul Klein, co-founder and managing partner of Phoenix Court, about his insights on a more balanced future for tech VC. They discuss Saul's innovative approach, which includes managing four distinct funds—LocalGlobe, Latitude, Solr, and Basecamp—to strategically support potential unicorns. With experience as a partner at Index Ventures and a non-executive director at the UK's Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Saul shares insights on the European and Israeli tech ecosystems, the historical and social context of innovation, and the need to demystify venture capital. Additionally, he analyzes the impact of Brexit on innovation, regulation, and trade agreements, and delves into the social impact initiatives of Phoenix Court and his perspectives on the future of tech investment.

889: Venture capital has driven technological advancement from hardware companies like Cisco to software giants like Google. But what does the future hold? In this episode of Technovation, host Peter High talks with Saul Klein, co-founder and managing partner of Phoenix Court, about his insights on a more balanced future for tech VC. They discuss Saul's innovative approach, which includes managing four distinct funds—LocalGlobe, Latitude, Solr, and Basecamp—to strategically support potential unicorns. With experience as a partner at Index Ventures and a non-executive director at the UK's Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Saul shares insights on the European and Israeli tech ecosystems, the historical and social context of innovation, and the need to demystify venture capital. Additionally, he analyzes the impact of Brexit on innovation, regulation, and trade agreements, and delves into the social impact initiatives of Phoenix Court and his perspectives on the future of tech investment.

Ash Arora is the youngest Partner at LocalGlobe, a VC fund ranked #1 early-stage fund in EMEA and #3 globally after Sequoia and Accel. Previously, Ash was the investment lead for $100Mn Polygon Ventures Fund I with LPs such as Softbank, Lightspeed, Tiger, etc In this episode, we cover - - A sane introduction to the world of blockchain & crypto - Is Blockchain a vitamin or a pain killer? - What's the path to widespread adoption - Is regulation a good thing for blockchain? - What is DeFi? - Impact of volatility in crypto, and frauds by FTX - Diligence process to vet blockchain startups Links: ⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://podcast10x.com LocalGlobe website - https://localglobe.vc/ Follow Ash on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aashima-arora Follow Ash on X - https://x.com/0xashesonchain

We're joined by Ash Arora, a Partner at LocalGlobe leading their Web3 practice, to discuss the intricacies of venture capital, blockchain, AI investments, and market dynamics. LocalGlobe, one of the leading early-stage venture capital firms in Europe, ranked #1 early stage fund in EMEA and #3 globally with highest number of unicorns in portfolio, with companies like SoRare, Copper, Robinhood, Wise, Figma, Twitter and LP in a16z, Sequoia etc. Ash shares insights into what sets LocalGlobe apart in the competitive VC landscape, including their comprehensive 52-parameter framework for evaluating investment opportunities and the unique support structure they offer to startups. Ash takes us through the specifics of their blockchain investments, highlighting significant successes such as Sorare, Copper, and Improbable. She explains the importance of due diligence, the unique value-add LocalGlobe provides post-investment, and their strategic approach to both pre-seed and growth-stage funding. The conversation also explores the current market conditions, comparing them to past tech cycles and discussing the resilience of early-stage investments amidst broader market slowdowns. Ash provides her perspective on the impact of tech layoffs and the dynamics of acquiring talent in a fluctuating market. In a detailed discussion on AI, Ash outlines LocalGlobe's broad investment strategy, covering everything from semiconductors to AI applications. She shares thoughts on the future of AI in the venture capital landscape, emphasizing the irreplaceable human touch in evaluating and supporting founders. Ash's expertise in blockchain is evident as she discusses the state of the market, the potential of DeFi, and the future of blockchain technology. She also touches on the regulatory environment and the importance of innovation-friendly policies. Below is a quick synopsis of all the topics we cover: Venture Capital Dynamics: How LocalGlobe maintains its edge with a unique evaluation framework and extensive founder support. Blockchain Investments: Key insights into successful blockchain investments and the future potential of blockchain technology. Market Conditions and Talent Acquisition: Analysis of current market trends and the impact on talent acquisition in tech. AI Investments: LocalGlobe's strategic approach to AI investments, from foundational models to application layers. Regulatory Environment: The role of regulation in fostering or stifling innovation in blockchain and AI. Join us for a comprehensive discussion as we explore the intersection of venture capital, blockchain, AI, and market trends with one of the industry's leading experts. Follow our host, Waheed Nabeel (@iwaheedo), for more updates on tech, civilizational growth, progress studies, and emerging markets. Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp for the episode.   (00:00) - Intro (02:39) - Ash Arora's background and role at LocalGlobe (04:40) - LocalGlobe's unique investment criteria and framework (10:23) - Supporting startups post-investment (13:11) - Investment stages and focus areas (15:24) - Current market conditions and tech layoffs (23:12) - AI investment strategy and market mapping (28:08) - The future of AI and its impact on VC (34:07) - Blockchain market analysis and investment thesis (38:29) - Layer 2 solutions and blockchain infrastructure (46:25) - Meme coins and market dynamics (48:46) - Regulation in blockchain and AI (50:06) - Intersection of AI and blockchain (51:45) - Outro   Full Disclaimer:  The views, opinions, and thoughts expressed by the guest in this communication are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the hosting entity or its affiliates. The content provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The hosting entity and its affiliates do not endorse, recommend, or assume any responsibility for any investment decisions made based on the information provided. Always seek the advice of a qualified financial advisor before making any financial decisions.                    

Today, we have Julia Hawkins with us. Julia is a General Partner at Phoenix Court, a $1.5bn AUM EMEA multi-stage tech investor, backing the most ambitious founders on their journey from seed through to public markets and beyond over the last two decades.LocalGlobe is the pre-seed and seed fund investing out of Phoenix Court's Fund 12 with an established portfolio of over 200 companies with notable investments including At-Bay, Motorway, Zego and Improbable. At Phoenix Court, Julia focuses on health and hard tech and led investments into AccuRx, Oxford Nanopore, Vaccitech, and more recently Spore Bio and Early Health.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview

George is a General Partner at Phoenix Court Group, the group of funds home to LocalGlobe in Somers Town, London, building global businesses based on innovative science and technology to have the maximum positive impact on society.LocalGlobe is investing out of their fifth institutional fund, of approx. 150M pounds, with a total AUM of over 1b pounds. Local Globe has an established portfolio of +60 companies and notable investments, including Melio, TravelPerk, Tide, Hibob, Motorway, Wise and Oxford Nanopore, AvantArte, and Sorare.At LocalGlobe, George focuses on Marketplaces, E-commerce 2.0, and SaaS with a particular focus on SMEs across New Palo Alto, a region that encompasses a market of 40 million people and is roughly 4 hours train ride from Phoenix Court's home next to St Pancras, London. George led the investments into Travelperk, Rekki, Taster, and Qogita.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview

Today's guest is Firaas Rashid, CEO and Founder of Hook. Hook is the B2B SaaS platform focused on predictable revenue growth from existing customers. Backed by Lightspeed and LocalGlobe, Hook is revolutionising the way companies forecast their revenue growth using product usage and customer data. He is passionate about changing the way Customer Success is run and building the leading workplace for ambitious people who want to be part of a team. Before founding Hook, Firaas was CTO and Head of Customer Success (EMEA) at AppDynamics, scaling from $170m to $550m Annual Recurring Revenue in 2 years. He led a rapid journey of rebuilding Customer Success to focus on data-driven prioritisation and scale. Prior to that he was a Director of IT at Credit Suisse. This week's episode is brought to you by DuploCloud and Montpac. Checkout Duplocloud.com/uncharted to learn how they help automate tedious DevOps tasks and Montpac.com for all your finance and accounting needs. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/uncharted1/support

Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio are the Co-Founders of Ostium (https://www.ostium.io). Backed by General Catalyst, WAGMI Ventures, LocalGlobe, & Alliance DAO, Ostium is building the first perpetuals decentralized exchange for real world assets. In this episode we chat through what it means to create a DEX built for RWA assets, what Ostium's success ultimately could mean for the broader crypto space, the story behind their fascinating macro research, how to think about our current moment in crypto, Ostium's progress thus far and upcoming launch timeline, & much more.Recorded Monday December 11, 2023.

In LAB #10, The BAE HQ Welcomes Ash Arora, a Partner at LocalGlobe.Today we're talking all about how to find the right people for your startup. Also how to find the right people as investors, how to find people on your board when you should get people on your board. How to find the right co-founders and managing that relationship, which can be really difficult.  To help answer those questions we have an absolute powerhouse in Ash Arora who is the youngest ever partner at LocalGlobe, which is the number one venture capital fund in the European Middle East and Asia region. She's got a wealth of experience, but also different portfolio companies. So she there all the mistakes have been made and helped many of the people find the right people for their startup.If you're listening to this and want to see the video, go to YouTube:https://youtu.be/P71wHTiZzR8Visit our website: http://thebaehq.com

Natasha Vernier is the Co-founder and CEO of Cable, the all-in-one effectiveness testing platform for financial services. Prior to Cable, Natasha joined UK neobank Monzo when it had less than 100 customers. She built and led their financial crime team for five years, and is one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the world on financial crime, which amounts to over $4 trillion per year, or 4% of global GDP. Natasha started Cable in 2020 with her co-founder Katie Savitz, and has since raised over $16 million supported by investors like LocalGlobe, CRV, Stage 2, and Jump Capital. — Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://bit.ly/3ZyBhWM — Topics discussed: • How crime is a $4 trillion market • Why 80% of crime is carried out for financial gains • Why the UN estimates we only catch 0.2% of financial crime • The reason banks are incentivized to stop fraud, but not crime • Why it's so hard to stop financial crimes • How $20B in financial crime was committed on crypto rails in 2022 • What “Synthetic ID Fraud” is, and why it's the fastest growing type of fraud in the US • What Natasha thinks are the new frontiers of fraud • Joining Monzo as one of the first employees and staying through a $4B valuation • What it's like to be fully invested in a startup when you're not a founder • Building Cable to enable regulatory and financial crime teams • Raising a Pre-Seed round and signing the first customer without a product built • Why compliance officers want to buy complicated products • How Natasha diversified her cap table, raising a Seed round from CRV and a group of angels with broad skill sets, ethnicity, race, and sexuality • How she got two funds to pre-empt her Series A • Why founding a startup means getting punched in the face every day, and her biggest mistake is not enjoying the little things sooner • The two founders she most looks up to • The one interview question she asks every candidate at Cable Referenced: • Cable's site: https://cable.tech • Cable's Seed round: https://community.cable.tech/weve-raised-5-3m-from-crv-localglobe-and-a-diverse-group-of-exceptional-angels/ • How They Built the Hoover Dam (Part 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXFjLaUxpaw • How Vegas Became VEGAS (Part 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QNuYHEzS2o Where to find Natasha: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/natashavernier • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashavernier Where to find Turner: • Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it • Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io Want to sponsor the show? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform

“Everything I have done has centred around teams and individuals, and how do you get the most out of them…” Today's 40 Minute Mentor is the brilliant Catherine Lenson, Angel Investor, Founder, Venture Partner at LocalGlobe and CEO of Andante Advisory. Catherine has had a hugely successful career, having spent her formative years at UBS and becoming the first female Managing Partner at SoftBank. Today, Catherine is the Founder and CEO of Andante Advisory, a boutique consultancy firm which operates as a trusted partner to senior executives and leading organisations on Culture, People and Purpose. She is also a Venture Partner at LocalGlobe, an angel investor in early-stage tech companies across the UK, US and Israel, and is the UK's first Fair Play facilitator. Tune in to today's episode to discover: ➡️ Reliving her days when a rogue trader almost brought down UBS [03:32] ➡️ The privilege of entrepreneurship [05:29] ➡️ From her love for music to Cambridge and ending up in London [06:39] ➡️ Scaling from 20 to 500 people in four years [10:04] ➡️ Becoming the first female Managing Partner at SoftBank [13:34] ➡️ Building a portfolio career [16:49] ➡️ Angel Investing and joining LocalGlobe [24:39] ➡️ Common culture mistakes [32:32] ➡️ Fair Play and creating more equality in the household [36:47]  ⛳ Helpful links:➡️ Connect with Catherine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-lenson/➡️ Find out more about her work: https://www.catherinelenson.com/➡️ Find out more about LocalGlobe: https://localglobe.vc/ ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm 

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Won Yi, Associate bei Cavalry Ventures. Won hat die Runde von Translucent besprochen. Die britische FinTech Translucent hat in einer Seed-Finanzierungsrunde 5 Millionen Pfund eingesammelt. Die Runde wurde von Chalfen Ventures und LocalGlobe gemeinsam geleitet. Translucent bietet eine Plattform zur Vereinfachung der Buchhaltung für multinationale Unternehmen und löst globale Finanzprobleme. Das Unternehmen hat bisher insgesamt 7,7 Millionen Pfund an Investitionen gesammelt. Die Plattform ermöglicht es multinationalen Unternehmen, Finanzdaten und Arbeitsabläufe zu vereinheitlichen, indem sie sich auf bestehende Buchhaltungssoftware wie Xero, Quickbooks und Sage aufsetzt. Die Nachfrage nach Translucent ist hoch, was zu dieser schnellen Seed-Runde geführt hat.

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Tina Dreimann, Co-Founder von better ventures. Tina bespricht die Finanzierungsrunden von Neko Health, Kinnu und Noriware.Das schwedische HealthTech Neko Health, gegründet 2023 von Hjalmar Nilsonne (Watty-Gründer) und Daniel Ek (Spotify-Gründer), hat in einer Series-A-Finanzierungsrunde 60 Millionen Euro eingesammelt. Neko Health bietet eine Lösung für präventive Gesundheitsversorgung mittels Früherkennungsmethoden an. Das Unternehmen plant, seine Lösung in ganz Europa einzuführen und das Team durch neue Talente zu erweitern. Die Finanzierungsrunde wurde von Lakestar angeführt und umfasst auch Atomico und General Catalyst. Klaus Hommels von Lakestar und Niklas Zennström von Atomico werden dem Vorstand von Neko Health beitreten.Kinnu, ein Londoner EdTech, hat in einer neuen Finanzierungsrunde 6,5 Millionen US-Dollar eingesammelt. Das Unternehmen setzt KI-gesteuerte Lernmethoden ein, um das traditionelle Bildungssystem zu verändern und den Fokus auf die Bedürfnisse des Lernenden zu legen. Die Investitionsrunde wurde von LocalGlobe und Cavalry Ventures angeführt und umfasste Spark Capital, Jigsaw und Angel-Investoren wie Tom Hulme von Google Ventures. Die Gründer Christopher Kahler und Abraham Müller haben bereits ein Unternehmen im Bereich Marktforschung gegründet und verkauft. Die KI-gesteuerte Plattform ermöglicht es den Lernenden, Wissen effektiver zu erwerben und anzuwenden, und fördert interdisziplinäres Lernen. Noriware stellt auf Algen basierendes Verpackungsmaterial her und hat in einer Pre-Seed-Finanzierungsrunde über eine Million Schweizer Franken eingesammelt. Das Material ist natürlichen Ursprungs, vollständig heimkompostierbar und kann mit herkömmlichen Kunststoffmaschinen hergestellt werden. Zu den Investoren gehören Branchenexperten wie Ertan Wittwer, Marcel Kubli und Philip Magoulas. Das Unternehmen plant, die Laborinfrastruktur auszubauen und das Team zu erweitern, um ein umweltfreundliches Verpackungsmaterial auf den Markt zu bringen, das keine Mikroplastikpartikel hinterlässt. Die kommerzielle Nutzung der Verpackungen von Noriware soll ab 2024 beginnen. Noriware wurde 2022 von Jessica Farda und COO Stefan Grieder gegründet. Die Gründung fand in der Schweiz statt.

“If you can be very clear in articulating what you are trying to do, why the world needs it and why you are the best person to work on it, the money will follow.”And just like that, we come to the end of our 40 Minute Mentor VC feature series. BUT, before we kick off our next series, we have one more VC mentorship packed episode in store for you…. Today, we're joined by Yvonne Bajela, Partner at LocalGlobe and Latitude, and Venture Partner at Impact X Capital. Yvonne talks about her journey from Goldman Sachs to VC, her first investment and the formative influence her father had on her career. Having invested over £200m across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Yvonne has backed some of the most category-defining Founders, including the teams behind Unicorn InsurTech, Marshmallow and OG FinTech Unicorn, Wise. Tune in to discover: ➡️ The influence her late father had on her career [03:28] ➡️ The success story of her investment in Marshmallow [09:04] ➡️ Local Globe's investment thesis [13:07] ➡️ Building a founder-investor relationship for the long-haul [14:07] ➡️ Characteristics she looks for in Founders she invests in [16:18] ➡️ Common mistakes she sees Founders make [18:21] ➡️ Closing the funding gap for under-represented Founders [20:58]➡️ Navigating the current fundraising climate [22:45] ➡️ Building a successful board of advisors [24:57] ➡️ Motherhood and returning to VC [27:28]  ⛳ Helpful links:➡️ Connect with Yvonne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonnebajela/➡️ More about LocalGlobe: https://localglobe.vc/➡️ More about Latitude: https://latitudeventures.vc/➡️ More about Impact X Capital: https://www.impactxcapital.com/ ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm 

Le modèle de Virgil est simple : la plateforme aide les jeunes actifs à accéder à la propriété dans des villes de forte densité urbaine, alors que les taux augmentent et que les prix ne baissent pas encore. Comment ? En simplifiant le parcours d'achat d'une part. Mais surtout avec un apport pouvant monter jusqu'à 100 000 euros en échange de 15% de l'appartement. En investisseur dormant, la startup se rémunère sur les services liés et lors de la vente du bien, sous 10 ans maximum. Mais Virgil n'est qu'une première brique pour ses fondateurs Saskia Fiszel et Keyvan Nilforoushan. Leur vision est bien plus grande : donner de la liberté financière. La newsletter Spoon, sur l'éducation financière et la gestion de son argent, en est une preuve. Les deux associés, descendants d'immigrés, sont persuadés qu'ils peuvent influer sur des changements sociétaux, à leur niveau, en redonnant du pouvoir aux jeunes. “Il y avait un sujet d'autonomie et de liberté assez fort chez moi dans mon enfance”, assure Saskia Fiszel. Son objectif : garder chez Virgil la même envie, le même engagement, la même intelligence, avec 27 personnes ou peut-être 200 dans quelques années. Venez découvrir une entrepreneure engagée, animée par des convictions fortes autour du sens au travail, de l'égalité des chances et de la méritocratie. Dans cet épisode, on cite Keyvan Nilforoushan, Fleur Douet, Alven, Kima, GFC, LocalGlobe, Lydia, Sista, Colombe Mandula, Chloé Hermary, Jade Francine

Our guest this week is Otta CEO Sam Franklin Otta is the better way to find a job in tech. They have raised over $20m including a Series A led by Tiger Global after initial backing from LocalGlobe and Riding Unicorns Live 2022 special guest Paul Forster. Sam has worked as a management consultant and cut his teeth at tech company Nested.Sam joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss what makes an entrepreneur, the pathway to Otta.com, imposter syndrome & so much more.Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date!

Ophelia Brown is the Founder of Blossom Capital, one of Europe's newest but leading early-stage venture firms. Ophelia and the Blossom team have invested in stand-outs including Checkout, Duffel, Tines, and Moonpay. Prior to Blossom, Ophelia was a GP at LocalGlobe and a Principal at Index Ventures where her investments included Robinhood and Typeform. In Today's Episode with Ophelia Brown We Discuss: 1.) From Restaurant-Owning DJ to Leading European VC: How Ophelia made her way into the world of venture and came to found Blossom? What does Ophelia know now that she wishes she had known when she entered venture? What does Ophelia feel she is running away from? 2.) Venture Capital: The Market: Why does Ophelia believe the best venture firms focus either by stage/theme/geography? Why does Ophelia believe that marketing in venture has no substance? How can founders determine between what is real and what is false? Why does Ophelia believe that growth investors have ruined the venture market? When does Ophelia believe VCs will realise that FOMO investing is not a good strategy? 3.) Ophelia Brown: The Investor and Fund Manager: What has been Ophelia's biggest investing mistake? How did it change her mindset and approach? In a world where everyone does seed investing, why does Ophelia not? How was raising the first Blossom fund? What were some of her biggest lessons? Why does Ophelia believe that follow-on investing can damage returns? How does Ophelia reflect on her own relationship to price? When has she paid up and it worked? When has she paid up and it not worked? Does Ophelia think it is fair that many find her curt and abrasive to work with? 4.) Europe: Is Now Really The Right Time? What would Ophelia like to see change in the way European VCs act? If Ophelia could invest in one seed firm, one Series A firm and one growth firm in Europe, what would they be? Why? What are 1-2 of the biggest barriers Europe must overcome in the next 5 years?

Today we are happy to welcome Eleanor Kaye, Executive Director at Newton Venture Program, a joint venture of LocalGlobe and London Business School. Newton trains aspiring and practising venture capital professionals with an explicit mission to diversify the VC Ecosystem. Previously, Eleanor worked at Palantir Technologies across multiple operational roles during Palantir's period of hyper-growth before Direct Listing. A passionate hiker, mother and now, gardener, Eleanor also dedicates time to mentor, encourage local impact initiatives, and supporting those in need. In this episode you'll learn:- Why & how LSE & Local Globe are involved in the Newton Venture Program- How blind recruiting and evaluation leads to more diversity in VC- The impact of the Newton Venture Program and who it's for- Why Eleanor believes VC could do with a little less naïvety amongst emerging managers- There's no right way to do venture, so how does the Newton Venture Program teach?- Reflections on role models and who to learn from

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Mathias Ockenfels, General Partner bei Speedinvest. Mathias hat die Finanzierungsrunde von Instacar, Carboncloud und Jumba kommentiert. Jumba, ein kenianisches Startup, das die Beschaffung von Baumaterialien vereinfacht, sammelt 4,5 Millionen US-Dollar ein. Das Startup, das es Baustoffhändlern ermöglicht, ihre Bestände aufzufüllen, und Immobilienentwicklern den Zugang zu den für ihre Projekte benötigten Materialien ermöglicht, hat nach eigenen Angaben zum Ende des letzten Jahres ein dreifaches Quartalswachstum verzeichnet. Die Runde wurde von LocalGlobe angeführt, mit Beteiligung von Enza Capital, Foundamental, Seedstars International Ventures, Logos Ventures, SpeedInvest, First Check Africa und Alumni Angel Network.CarbonCloud, die Klima-Tech-SaaS-Lösung für die Lebensmittelbranche, hat 7,5 Millionen Euro erhalten, um seine Marktposition als führende Climate Intelligence Platform auszubauen. Die Finanzierungsrunde wurde von Cusp Capital und Peak angeführt, unterstützt von Rivus Ventures und den bisherigen Investoren Maki VC und TS Ventures.Das griechische flexible Leasing-Startup Instacar hat 55 Millionen Euro eingeworben, nachdem es seine Expansion in neue Märkte beschleunigt und seine Entwicklung zu einer Anwendung vorangetrieben hat, die alle Dienstleistungen rund um das Auto anbietet, von der Vermietung bis zum Service, Reifenwechsel, Waschen oder sogar Parken. Die Finanzierungsrunde wurde von Autohellas und dem griechischen Fonds Ellikonos 2 SCA SICAR angeführt. Auch die Olympia Group und Velocity Partners, die gemeinsam mit Autohellas bereits in Instacar investiert hatten, beteiligten sich.

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Business Angel Luis Hanemann. Luis kommentiert die Runde von Qvantum und LocalGlobe sowie die Entlassungswelle in der US-Techbranche und die dadurch entstehende Startup-Flut.Der schwedische Wärmepumpen-Anbieter Qvantum hat 41,2 Millionen Euro Spendengelder gesammelt, um mehr Wärmepumpen in städtische Wohnungen in Europa zu installieren. Die Kapitalbeschaffung wird von Thomas von Koch, dem ehemaligen CEO von EQT, und dem IKEA-Investmentarm Ikeasfaren unterstützt. Wärmepumpen nutzen Elektrizität und einen Kältekreislauf, um erwärmte Luft in das Gebäude zu leiten, ohne Brennstoff zu verbrennen, und sind somit eine umweltfreundlichere Alternative zu herkömmlichen Haushaltsheizungen. Qvantum plant, seine Wärmepumpen-Technologie in Städten wie Stockholm, Helsinki und Rotterdam einzuführen.LocalGlobe hat eine Startkapitalinvestition von 8 Millionen Pfund in Concretene getätigt, ein Baumaterial, das von der britischen Nationwide Engineering Research and Development in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre der University of Manchester entwickelt wurde. Concretene verspricht eine nachhaltigere, robustere und kostengünstigere Alternative zu Beton, dem weltweit am häufigsten verwendeten Baumaterial, das für mehr als 7 % der weltweiten CO2-Emissionen verantwortlich ist. Das Startup plant, sich für eine globale Expansion zu rüsten und Partnerschaften mit potenziellen Kunden wie Heathrow und Manchester Airport, Network Rail, Yorkshire Water und der Umweltbehörde zu schließen.Es gibt eine Entlassungswelle in der US-Techbranche, die dazu führt, dass viele Betroffene mit eigenen Firmen durchstarten. Neues Kapital gibt es momentan besonders für Startups, die sich mit Videospielen und Künstlicher Intelligenz beschäftigen. Investoren vergleichen den Abschwung der Technologie-Branche 2022 mit dem Platzen der Internet-Blase Anfang der 2000er Jahre und sehen es als Chance, alles auf Null zu setzen und sich auf neue Prioritäten zu konzentrieren. Es wird erwartet, dass es im Jahr 2023 eine Flut von Startups geben wird.

Alex Mifsud is the CEO & Founder at embedded finance disruptor Weavr – who recently raised a $40m Series A led by Tiger Global. Other investors include QED, Anthemis, LocalGlobe, Mubadala Capital and Seedcamp. Alex walked me through his: journey from academia to tech entrepreneurship learnings - including "how to go as fast as possible without the wheels coming off"! product philosophy: "put yourself in the shoes of customers and start designing the solution you would love to have if you were them" views on hiring & diversity: “the danger of cloning versus the danger of lone wolves” perspectives on the challenges of being a tech entrepreneur: “if it were a very straight line it would be a really boring job”! For more insights into Weavr check out https://www.weavr.io/ and for guidance on hiring leaders for B2B SaaS scale-ups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Daniel Wild, Gründer und Aufsichtsrat von Mountain Alliance. Zusammen mit Jans Urlaubsvertretung Fabian Tausch (UnicornBakery) analysiert Daniel die Finanzierungsrunde von Pave und Cleo. Pave, eine Echtzeit-Vergütungsplattform, die Unternehmen bei der Planung, der Kommunikation und dem Benchmarking mit dem Markt unterstützt, gab am Dienstag ein Serie C i.H.v. 100 Millionen US-Dollar bekannt. Außerdem übernahm Pave im Zuge dieser Runde auch Advanced-HR von Morgan Stanley. Advanced-HR verfügt über eine Produktpalette, die Option Impact, Option Driver und VCECS (Venture Capital Executive Compensation Survey) umfasst. Die Serie C wurde von Index Ventures geleitet, wobei Partner Mark Goldberg einen Sitz im Vorstand einnahm. Mehrere neue und bestehende Investoren nahmen ebenfalls teil, darunter Andreessen Horowitz, YC Continuity Fund, LocalGlobe, Craft Ventures, Original Capital, Backend Capital und Contrary Capital sowie namhafte Persönlichkeiten wie der ehemalige LinkedIn-CEO Jeff Weiner und der ehemalige Facebook-Vizepräsident für Personalwesen Tudor Havriliuc. Pave wurde 2019 von Matt Schulman in San Francisco gegründet. Außerdem konnte sich Cleo nach mehreren Monaten eine Finanzierung in Höhe von 80 Millionen US-Dollar sichern. Der 2016 von Barnaby Hussey-Yeo gegründete digitale Assistent Cleo unterstützt Menschen während ihres gesamten finanziellen Lebens, vom ersten Gehaltsscheck bis zum ersten Haus. Das Unternehmen hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, das Leben von Millionen junger Menschen mit finanziellen Kenntnissen positiv zu beeinflussen, die angesichts der sich verschärfenden Lebenshaltungskostenkrise einem erhöhten Druck auf ihre Finanzen ausgesetzt sind. Die Serie-C-Runde wurde von der belgischen Investmentgesellschaft Sofina angeführt und von bestehenden Investoren, darunter EQT und Balderton Capital, unterstützt.

Maya is a multi-cultural & multi-lingual Google and American Express marketing, product & partnerships professional with 15+ years of experience in tech & D2C industries. Currently, as the Founder of a strategic growth consultancy - MarketingCube.co - her clients include portfolio companies of Balderton, Notion, Creandum, LocalGlobe amongst others. Maya has also joined advisory boards and is an active Angel investor. As a ‘full stack' CMO Maya is able to support with: Identifying & understanding your customers; creating a stand-out brand & revitalised messaging that encourages loyalty; sustainable & profitable growth plans; org design & talent management. Most recently, in an in-house full-time role, Maya was digitising the UK healthcare industry at Pharmacy2U by bringing repeat prescription management online. Under her CMO leadership, Pharmacy2U grew 5 fold in revenue and secured a brand awareness of 1 in 4. This growth was recognised by the Amazon growing business of the year award and making it into the Sunday Times TechTrack 100. Episode Links: Supported by trumpet Maya's Linkedin

השבוע היה לי הכבוד לארח את אורן ברזילי, מייסד-שותף ומנכ"ל EquityBee (אקוויטיבי) - הסטארטאפ שמאפשר לעובדי סטארטאפים לקבל מימון כדי שיוכלו לממש את האופציות שלהם ולהפוך לבעלי מניות באמצעות קהילת משקיעים גלובלית. טרם הקמת אקוויטיבי, כיהן אורן כמנכ״ל ומייסד חברת Start A Fire, אשר פיתחה פלטפורמה המנתחת התקשרויות תוכן ומאפשרת הפצת לינקים בליווי המלצות תוכן אישיות, ושירתה למעלה מ-3,000 מהמותגים הגדולים בעולם. לפני כן, ייסד ושימש כסמנכ״ל טכנולוגיות בחברת Tapingo, אשר פיתחה פלטפורמה לרכישות מקוונות דרך המובייל ונרכשה על ידי GrubHub ב-150 מליון דולר. אורן הקים את אקוויטיבי ב-2018 יחד עם עודד גולן (CPO) ומודי רדשקוביץ (COO). אקוויטיבי יוצרת חיבור בין עובדים המעוניינים לממש אופציות (אבל לא מחזיקים בהון הנדרש לצורך זאת) לבין משקיעים המעוניינים להשקיע בחברות שלהם. כיום, אקוויטיבי מעסיקה כ-100 עובדים בישראל ובארה״ב. החברה גייסה 87 מיליון דולר מאז הקמתה, ובין המשקיעים בה קרנות ההון סיכון Greenfield Partners ,Group 11 ו-Battery Ventures, Zeev Ventures, LocalGlobe, Latitude ו-ICON Continuity Fund. לדף משרות אצל אקוויטיבי: https://equitybee.com/careers מדריך אקוויטיבי לאופציות עובדים בסטארטאפים: https://guides.equitybee.com/he/home/ לאינסטגרם שלי: https://www.instagram.com/guykatsovich/ (*) עקבו אחרינו ב"עוד פודקאסט לסטארטאפים" וקבלו פרק מדי שבוע (טוב נו, כמעט): עוד פודקאסט ב-Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dTqS27ynvNmMnA5x4ObKQ אפל פודקאסט: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1252035397 גוגל פודקאסט: https://bit.ly/3rTldwq עוד פודקאסט - האתר שלנו: https://omny.fm/shows/odpodcast ה-RSS פיד שלנו: https://www.omnycontent.com/.../f059ccb3-e0c5.../podcast.rss See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, our General Partner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji talks to Saul Klein. Saul Klein is a serial entrepreneur, operator and investor with over 25 years of experience building and exiting companies in the US, Israel and Europe. He has a passion for working with seed and early-stage businesses and the positive impact that technology can make on society. Saul is a Founding Partner at LocalGlobe and Latitude Ventures. Previously, Saul was a General Partner at Index Ventures from 2007 until May 2015. In 2012 David Cameron appointed Saul to be the UK's first Technology Business Ambassador to Israel and in 2016 he was awarded an OBE for services to Business. For almost five years, Saul has been a trustee of Comic Relief. He currently serves on the UK Government's Digital Economy Council and is a member of The Council for Science and Technology which advises the Prime Minister on science and technology policy issues across government. Saul is also a member of Camden's Economic Renewal Commission. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific founders & investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.

Alors qu'il était gérant d'un groupe de restaurants, Pierre se confronte à la dure réalité du paiement fournisseurs. Une tâche qu'il redoute car elle lui prend un temps fou. Et c'est en s'inspirant de Lydia qu'il imagine une solution pour les entreprises. Une obsession qui le pousse à se lancer un nouveau challenge. Fin 2019, il co-fonde Libeo, un SaaS qui permet de régler ses factures fournisseurs en un clic et sans IBAN. En l'espace de 2 ans, c'est un carton plein. Aujourd'hui, Libeo c'est :

Author, consultant, retail visionary and former head of Debenhams and the Arcadia Group, John Hoerner, joins LocalGlobe founder Robin in today's episode. The two industry veterans compare notes on how business has changed over the last four decades and what they think the future holds. For more information on John Hoerner's book go to www.howtosell.expert Look for #2020visionpod to carry on the conversation.

Father of three Saul Klein guides us through his journey in the world of entrepreneurship as an investor in Index Ventures, a VP at Skype and Co-Founder of venture capital firm Localglobe. He chats with Amrit about the importance of defining long term priorities, the high value of emotional soft-skills, and the entrepreneurial gene.  Keep up to date with everything https://twitter.com/startupdadspod/ (Startup Dads related on Twitter) Check out https://localglobe.vc/ (Localglobe) This week's Startup Shout Out: Zinc – Tackling pressing social matters https://fascinateproductions.co.uk/ (A Fascinate Production)

After exiting Songkick, Michelle You was burnt out. It felt like failure and grief (her words). She spent a year backpacking around the world, living on $2 per day, trying to figure out what it took to make her happy, to figure out what mattered to her and what her next business move was. “I went camping and hiking and surfing and climbing for the first time. And it was that that made me fall in love with nature. And that was my gateway drug into the climate change crisis.” Michelle is determined not to repeat the same mistakes she made at Songkick at Supercritical, the climate tech startup helping businesses actually achieve net zero. “It took me personally lots of coaching and conversations to feel like okay, I really feel ready now to dive in again, because I was scared, you know, I was really scared of failing, I was scared of having a bad idea, scared of replicating terrible decisions, terrible experiences.” Find out how Michelle found herself again after feeling like a massive failure from her first startup, and why she's built a climate tech software platform that isn't all just planting trees.  “We measure the carbon footprint end to end. This typically takes somebody six months of working with a consultant charging five figures. And that's what I learned [during] my time at LocalGlobe. This can be done with software.” We chat about: Why the end of Songkick felt like grief The importance of a good product discovery process  Why climate is the next diversity and inclusion Sponsor links: smithandwilliamson.com/secretleaders netsuite.com/secretleaders linkedin.com/secretleaders vanta.com/secretleaders

Sapphire Partners continues their #OpenLP miniseries takeover by hosting Saul Klein of LocalGlobe and Latitude. With decades of experience in the region, Saul has been, and continues to be, an early champion of the European tech ecosystem. During the conversation, Sapphire's Thomas Moon chats with Saul on topics including the evolution of venture in Europe over the past 20 years, the road ahead for European venture, and the journey from operator to angel to institutional seed investor.

Saul Klein, serial entrepreneur and prominent seed investor in the global tech scene, has co-founded numerous game-changing businesses such as LocalGlobe, Seedcamp, Kano, Zinc or Lovefilm (acquired by Amazon). Prior, he had a VP role at Skype and was General Partner at Index Ventures. He shares with us his journey to the entreprenurial space and talks about the transition from working at an established company to starting your own business. He highlights the first steps to take as founders to really see the exciting opportunities and elaborates on the way LocalGlobe evaluates investments and helps improve their performance. https://www.linkedin.com/in/janbrinckmann https://www.linkedin.com/in/saulklein https://localglobe.vc 00:00 Introduction 1:31 Saul's journey into the entrepreneurship world 3:40 Disrupting the newspaper industry as a 22 year old 6:25 Seeing entrepreneurship in a new light at netscape 08:55 Making the transition from working at an established company to starting an own business 11:20 First startup experiences at a MIT spinn-off and getting to know the VC and M&A space 13:55 Founding LoveFilm 16:00 Being an Marketing Executive at Skype 19:10 Advice on finding THE entrepreneurial opportunity 23:55 First steps to take as a founder to really see the exciting opportunities 29:53 How to enhance the performance of the start-up as a VC 37:55 How LocalGlobe finds the startups to invest in 43:56 Quick Fire Round: who Saul admires the most | biggest risk currently | #1 recommendation for aspiring entrepreneurs 44:38 Closing

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Naomi Shah of https://www.meetcute.com/, a media company that produces original, scripted romcoms in podcast form. Before starting Meet Cute, she was a member of the investment team at NYC-based Union Square Ventures. In this episode, Naomi talks about her journey from the trading floor at Goldman Sachs to the venture world (USV) and then on to becoming a startup founder, tips to founders from her time as a VC, tips for raising capital virtually, how to deal with "long maybes" from investors, and much more. The Company recently raised a $6.25 million Series A funding round, bringing the total amount raised to $9.25 million. Investors include LocalGlobe, Lerer Hippeau and Newark Venture Partners, as well as Union Square Ventures. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at https:/www.foundersuite.com/

Andreessen Horowitz has launched its Crypto Fund III, a dedicated $2.2B fund for blockchain startups in their early to late stages. The VC firm has been investing in crypto since 2013 from its dedicated crypto fund. The previous crypto fund, Crypto Fund II, had come out last year.JW Player has raised $100M in a Series E funding round. Last month, this video software and data insights platform acquired live and on-demand video streaming provider Vualto. The proceeds from this fund would be used to accelerate its product innovation and to build its team.Tonkean, a business operation automation startup, has announced its $50 million Series B funding, led by Accel. The company would use its proceeds to scale its hiring process across engineering and go-to-market teams and invest in its no-code orchestration platform for business operations.Firebolt, an Israeli cloud data warehousing platform, raised $127 million in a Series B financing round. According to the company, its SQL-based solution is up to 182 times faster than existing data warehouses and is based on academic research that has yet to be applied. Its clients are already cloud-native, Big Data organizations, so it's not trying to convert them; instead, it's collaborating with those who are already there.California-based env0, a self-service cloud management platform for collaborative remote-run workflow management, has announced its $17 million Series A fundraise, led by Microsoft's Venture Fund – M12. Existing investors, Boldstart Ventures, Grove Ventures, and Crescendo Ventures, participated in the funding round. In a statement to the press, env0 stated that the funds would be used to expand its infrastructure as Code (IaC) platform, accelerate visibility, predictability and governance of cloud deployments. The funding comes amid growing demand for IaC.San Francisco-based Sanity, a structured content platform provider, has announced a $39 million Series B funding, led by ICONIQ Growth. Lead Edge Capital and existing investors – Threshold Ventures, Heavybit Industries, Alliance Venture, and Monochrome Capital- participated in the round.Illumio, a SaaS startup that provides automated cyberattack enforcement, has received $225 million in a Series F round headed by Thoma Bravo. The money will be used to grow the company's field operations and network of channel partners and develop, engineer, and produce new products. Illumio's solution is used by more than 10% of Fortune 100 companies, including Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas SA, and Salesforce, to secure their data centers, networks, and other applications.Legatics, a legal IT firm located in London, has received a USD 4.2 million growth capital investment from Mobeus. Legatics will welcome Joe Krancki, a Mobeus investor, to its board of directors. Mr. Seale launched Legatics in 2015 to revolutionize legal transactions by allowing deal teams to collaborate and close agreements in an interactive online environment. Since its inception, Legatics has been utilized by over 1,500 organizations, with more than half of the world's leading banking and finance law firms purchasing the software.Unicorn India Ventures led a $500,000 seed funding round for WINDO, a social commerce startup. WINDO is an Instagram commerce software company that assists small businesses and solopreneurs leverage consumer migration to Instagram. The Bengaluru-based company wants to be a one-stop-shop for businesses, letting them handle everything from the WINDO app, including centralization.ApnaKlub, a social commerce platform, has announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round led by Whiteboard Capital and Blume Ventures. The Bengaluru-based business, founded in 2020 by Harvard Business School alumni Shruti and Manish Kumar. ApanKlub claims to have served 2500+ partners over 4500 pin codes in just seven months. Classplus, a B2B educational technology firm, has secured $65 million in a Series C investment round headed by Tiger Global. Classplus, located in Noida, is a mobile-first SaaS platform that uses an app to make material distribution, payments, communication, and online assessments easier for private coaching schools and their teachers. With over 80% of users originating from Tier-II India, the firm claims that educators' total profitability rises by 2x to 3x after six months of joining the network.  Gotrade, a company that aims to remove cost barriers involved in investing in US stocks, has come out of its stealth mode, raising $7 million in a seed round fund led by LocalGlobe. Social Leverage, Y Combinator, Picus Capital and Raptor Group, participated in the round. Gotrade is now available to users from 150 countries. 

Today's episode of Building Bridges is my conversation with Saul Klein, a venture capitalist based in London and a prominent figure in European tech.I've been connected to Saul Klein for quite some time, because he was a partner at Index Ventures when the VC firm invested in my firm The Family in 2013. But I really got to know him after I moved to London in 2015. His name simply kept coming up as the person I should meet.Someone even told me “Saul is the London version of you”. I must say I'm lagging far behind in terms of track record, but it's true Saul and I have many shared interests: not only startups, but also ecosystem building, the geography of entrepreneurship and venture capital, and the many (and overlooked) interactions between the worlds of tech and policy.There's a reason Saul's name is mentioned so often in London, indeed. He was present at the creation of the contemporary UK tech system, as the founder of Lovefilm and an active angel investor. He then joined Index Ventures, arguably the most accomplished European VC firm, as a partner, before founding his own firm, LocalGlobe, with his father Robin Klein—another prominent figure in London tech.In between, Saul was also instrumental, as a cofounder, in launching projects as diverse and impressive as Seedcamp (one of Europe's most successful seed funds), Zinc (a mission-driven firm that aims to tackle societal challenges), and Newton (a training program for VCs, LPs, angels, accelerators, and tech transfer officers worldwide).Needless to say he and I talked quite a lot over the years about many tech-related topics. Our conversation in this podcast, however, is focused on something that really stands out in my view: LocalGlobe's investment thesis, which I wrote about in On Trains and Geography (October 2020), Part of Saul's investment thesis is that his firm should invest in tech startups within a 4-hour train ride from London—which includes cities as diverse and interesting as Cambridge, Manchester, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Here are his arguments:4 hours is far from being a random number. It's enough time to reach a given destination without being away from the office for too long. You can travel 4 hours to your destination, have a 2-hour meeting, and then travel back to sleep in your own bed, back with your team the next morning. (A bit extreme, but it's doable.)You can actually be productive when traveling by train. Not only is it easier to get an Internet connection when on a train (either through wifi or 4G), but traveling by train also comes with many fewer interruptions than traveling by plane.Finally, Saul's is a bet on the future. From what he told me, he expects plane travel to be less and less tolerated in a business context due to climate change, and at some point governments could decide to revisit the whole cost structure (from tax and other perspectives) so as to make planes more expensive...and trains cheaper.A key implication of this thesis is that tech people in London and Paris, which despite Brexit are still well connected by the Eurostar, can work on building The New Entente Cordiale

The Agenda

Join veteran European tech investor and LocalGlobe partner, Robin Klein, as he shares the stories of entrepreneurs and innovators whose careers have spanned twenty years in this century and twenty years in the last.   20/20 Vision is not only about seeing things clearly but also about applying hindsight and drawing conclusions from the past. In this new series of conversations, Robin meets some of the people he has known and worked with over the last forty years; experts in business, science, politics, and academia.   Each week, Robin and his guests talk over their long careers, their love for what they do and discuss what keeps them motivated, along with their visions for the future.

Dans cet épisode, je reçois Jeremy Attuil le co-fondateur de Libeo, une plateforme de gestion et de règlement de facture fournisseur sans Iban. En 14 mois, Libeo en est à son troisième tour de table. Après un préseed de 1,75 M€ et un seed de 4 M€, ils ont annoncé en février dernier un nouveau tour de table de 20M€. A cette occasion, ils accueillent au capital DST global et Serena en plus des investisseurs historiques Breega et LocalGlobe. Dans cet épisode, nous parlerons de saas B2B, de gestion fournisseur et évidemment de levée de fonds pour comprendre comment Libeo a pu convaincre autant de fonds d'investissements en si peu de temps. 

And here are the notes and links for this week’s episode:

Dr. Brittany Barreto, fellow podcast host of Femtech Focus discusses the latest investment trends in Femtech - market worth $1 trillion! Did you know that there are 3 femtech IPOs, 39 notable exits out of which 6 over $1 billion. No wonder VCs are focusing on the FemTech space. Be prepared to learn, not only what makes a successful Femtech company but also sextech, orgasms and pelvic floor therapy! Loved listening to Brittany? Follow her FemTech Focus podcast: https://femtechfocus.org/podcast/ Want to learn more about Femtech? The LBS Women in Business Conference on 4th March 2021 has a very exciting FemTech panel lined up with Dame, Parla, LocalGlobe and moderated by Amy Lewin from Sifted. Grab your ticket to the hottest LBS event of the year! https://www.lbswib.co.uk/conference-2021.

Interview de Pierre Dutaret, co-fondateur et CEO de Libeo.

Tech jobs are some of the most lucrative in the employment market, but there's a perception that they're only for the extremely tech-literate. In this episode, Saul Klein dispels that myth. A technology investor at venture capitalist firm LocalGlobe, Klein has backed a slew of British start-up successes, including LoveFilm, Improbable, TransferWise and Kazoo. In conversation with episode host James Ashton – a Financial Journalist and Senior Adviser at Portland – Klein also discusses how the UK can stay on top of Europe's tech industry, the "New Palo Alto", and how a £50 billion valuation has become the new £100 million valuation. Learn more about Portland here: https://portland-communications.com/

How can entrepreneurs not just recover from the crisis, but rejuvenate the economy?In episode 9, Alice Hu-Wagner, Sir Chris Deverell, Julia Hawkins, Chris Wade and Thomas Hellmann discuss the role of entrepreneurs when it comes to bringing us out of the crisis into a new normal.How can entrepreneurs bring about innovations to speed up the economic recovery? And what are the specific problems they are well placed to address?Featuring:Alice Hu-Wagner (@ahuwagner), managing director, British Business Bank.Sir Chris Deverell (@chris_deverell), former UK Armed Forces Chief of Staff of the Joint Forces Command; founder Deverell Innovation Ventures.Julia Hawkins (@svennj), partner, LocalGlobe. Chris Wade (@CWatVC), co-founder and partner, Isomer Capital.Thomas Hellmann, DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation; site lead, Creative Destruction Lab, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/For more Business Insights head to Oxford AnswersCredits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

My guest today is Jacob Haddad, CEO of AccuRx, a London-based company working on a platform that brings patients and healthcare teams together. AccuRx started in 2016, raised a $9m Series A from Atomico and LocalGlobe in 2019 and has grown tremendously since then. I had Jacob on an earlier episode of the podcast but today's conversation is completely different. Jacob has a very deliberate approach to running accuRx so this episode is absolutely packed with tactical advise on how to start, build and run a company.We cover everything:   the accuRx's origin and early days.  how Jacob uses curiosity and first-principles to solve problems  The importance of optimizing hiring for Values and Culture.  Why having an obsession with the end-user is key for companies working on an industry such as healthcare.  the AccuRx product development process and how it evolved over time.  and much much more. I hope you learn as much from this conversation as I did. 

Jay Bregman is a serial entrepreneur and currently the cofounder and CEO of Thimble which is an insurance producer enabling small businesses to succeed on their own terms. The company has raised $30 million from Slow Ventures, LocalGlobe, Frontline Ventures, AXA Venture Partners, OpenOcean, Novel TMT Ventures, ValueStream Ventures, and IAC to name a few. Prior to this, he cofounded Hailo (acquired by Daimler Mercedes-Benz) and eCourier (acquired by Royal Mail).

Jay Bregman is a serial entrepreneur and currently the cofounder and CEO of Thimble which is an insurance producer enabling small businesses to succeed on their own terms. The company has raised $30 million from Slow Ventures, LocalGlobe, Frontline Ventures, AXA Venture Partners, OpenOcean, Novel TMT Ventures, ValueStream Ventures, and IAC to name a few. Prior to this, he cofounded Hailo (acquired by Daimler Mercedes-Benz) and eCourier (acquired by Royal Mail).

Storelift, qui développe des magasins autonomes et connectés, lève 5 millions d’euros à l’occasion d’un tour de table mené par Cap Horn et LocalGlobe, avec le participation de business angels.

Zebra Fuel, the startup that brought fuel directly to your vehicle, is ‘no longer' delivering in London Zebra Fuel, the London-based startup that delivered fuel directly to your vehicle — backed by Robin and Saul Klein's LocalGlobe, Brent Hoberman's Firstminute Capital and Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman — has told customers it is “no longer” delivering fuel in London.

So, let’s start with last week’s startup funding scene. We had a total of 391 funding rounds, $9.2 billion total funding, 146 acquisitions recorded, and a transaction of a total acquisition amount of $12.5 billion. Let’s dive right into the highlights now. Used car marketplace Motorway picks up £11M Series A Motorway, the U.K. used car marketplace, has raised £11 million in Series A funding. Leading the round is Marchmont Ventures, the fund managed by Hugo Burge and Alan Martin (the former CEO and CFO of Momondo Group, respectively), along with participation from existing backer LocalGlobe. Founded by the team behind Top10 — the mobile and broadband comparison site that exited to uSwitch in 2011 — Motorway has set out to make it easier to sell your used car online. The website lets car sellers instantly see live offers from multiple car buying services and specialist dealerships. Indonesia’s EV Hive raises $13.5M and expands into co-living and new retail WeWork’s battle to win co-working in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, is intensifying after one of the U.S. firm’s key rivals issued a slew of announcements to double down on its business. EV Hive, an Indonesia-based co-working startup, said today that it has raised $13.5 million and expanded into new verticals. The company is putting off plans to foray into new countries in order to prioritize growth opportunities at home. The four-year-old company, which started as a project for seed-stage VC firm East Ventures, has rebranded to CoHive as part of the strategy to diversify its business. That’ll see it add new services for living spaces (CoLiving) and retailers (CoRetail), in addition to its core co-working and events businesses. Duffel raises $21.5M in Series A from Benchmark for its travel platform Ten months ago London startup Duffel hinted that it would be “a new way to book travel online, aiming at the booking experience ‘end to end,’ ” and announced a healthy $4.7 million funding round, but not much else. Last week, Duffel announced a funding of $21.5 million in Series A from U.S. VC giant Benchmark, which also backed Snap, Twitter and Uber. Benchmark is joined by Blossom Capital and Index Ventures, which participated in Duffel’s $4.7 million seed round last year. Duffel appears to be building a new software stack for travel, in the same way that challenger banks started from scratch to make themselves more agile than the laggard banks. SafeAI raises $5M to develop and deploy autonomy for mining and construction vehicles Startup SafeAI, powered by a founding talent team with experience across Apple, Ford and Caterpillar, is emerging from stealth today with a $5 million funding announcement. The company’s focus is on autonomous vehicle technology, designed and built specifically for heavy equipment used in the mining and construction industries. What SafeAI hopes to add is an underlying architecture that acts as a fully autonomous (Level 4 by SAE standards, so no human driver) platform for a variety of equipment. Said platform is designed with openness, modularity and upgradeability in mind to help ensure that its clients can take advantage of new advances in autonomy and AI as they become available. Two Sigma leads $12m series A for expert knowledge network NewtonX NewtonX is a “knowledge access platform” which attempts to intelligently answer questions posed to it by business clients. Clients answer a carefully calibrated series of questions to properly vet and scope a query, and then NewtonX farms it out to it network of experts for insight. That rapid-response network has now gotten the attention of Two Sigma Ventures, the venture wing of the high-flying algorithmic-trading hedge fund, which led a $12 million Series A round into New York City-based NewtonX. That’s a follow up to a $3 million seed round co-led by Third Prime Capital and Xfund last year. Moving on to acquisitions - WordPress management site WP Engine acquires Flywheel as it moves to a $1B valuation and IPO WordPress now accounts for 34 percent of all websites globally, and today one of the key companies that helps handle the creation and management of some of those WP-hosted sites is getting a little bigger through some consolidation in the wider ecosystem. WP Engine, which works with businesses to build and manage their WordPress-hosted sites, has aquired Flywheel, a smaller competitor. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, WP Engine, as Brunner describes it, focuses largely on mid-market and larger businesses, while Flywheel — founded and currently based out of Omaha — has focused on smaller businesses. That makes the two natural complements to each other, but Brunner notes that there will be more gained from the union. What else caught our eyes- Facebook just reinvented digital currency with its Libra cryptocurrency that will launch early next year. No they’re not calling it Zuckerbucks. Libra is like cash that lives inside your phone. Starting in 2020, you’ll be able to purchase Libra through Libra wallet apps on your phone or from some local grocery and convenience stores. You cash in your local currency like dollars and get nearly the same number of Libra coins, which are represented by wavy three-line emoji instead of the $ symbol. But first you’ll have to verify your identity with a photo. You’ll then be able to spend your Libra while online shopping, or potentially pay for things like Ubers or your subscription for Spotify, since those companies have partnered with Facebook to make Libra popular. Since it’s almost free to digitally move Libra from one account to the other, you won’t have to pay high credit card processing fees that can add almost 4% to your total. And some Libra wallet apps and shops will give bonus discounts or free coins for signing up and paying with Libra.

Last week’s startup funding scene was quite interesting. We had a total of 373 funding rounds, $8.4 billion total funding, 116 acquisitions recorded, and a transaction of a total acquisition amount of $30.7 billion. PayFit raises $79 million for its payroll service French startup PayFit is raising a new $79 million funding round (€70 million) from Eurazeo and Bpifrance. The company first started with a payroll service for small and medium companies in France. It has evolved into a full-fledged HR solution for multiple European countries. PayFit uses a software-as-a-service approach so that small companies can easily manage payroll and HR information from a web browser. Everything stays up-to-date and compliant with labor regulation. While it’s easy to build an HR giant in the U.S., it’s a bit more complicated in Europe as labor laws vary so much from one country to another. But the startup has managed to launch its service in France, Spain, Germany and the U.K. — Italy is coming soon. The company says that it has developed its own programming language called Jetlang in order to transform labor code into computer code. London’s LocalGlobe just closed on two funds totaling $295 million Seven months ago, TechCrunch’s Steve O’Hear reported that LocalGlobe had begun the fundraising process for two separate funds. The London-based seed-stage venture firm was raising yet another seed-stage venture fund, O’Hear said at the time; he also noted that LocalGlobe was also expect to raise its first opportunities fund. Fast-forward and today, the firm, founded by father and son duo Robin and Saul Klein, says it has closed both, having secured $115 million in capital commitments for its seed fund and $180 million in capital commitments for the second fund, dubbed “Latitude,” which it says it will use to support its “winners” at the Series B and later stages. LocalGlobe remains even more active on the pre-seed and seed-stage front, where it has funded hundreds of startups over the years. Among the very newest of these is a bet on Yapily, a two-year-old, London-based maker of an API for connecting enterprises to banks that just raised $5.4 million in seed funding co-led by LocalGlobe and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. Maker of VR hit 'Rec Room' announces $24M in funding from Sequoia, Index The quest to create a social auditorium in virtual reality has eaten many VC dollars over the years. While plenty of contenders have emerged, it’s likely Against Gravity’s Rec Room has been the most creative in its approach to capturing a niche market while plotting how to build a sustainable business based on users in VR headsets talking to one another. The Seattle startup has told TechCrunch exclusively that it has bagged $24 million over two rounds of funding. The studio’s Series A was led by Sequoia and their Series B, which just recently closed, was led by Index Ventures . Against Gravity has a bevy of top investors that also participated in the rounds, including First Round Capital, Maveron, Anorak Ventures, Acequia Capital, Betaworks and DAG Ventures. The company didn’t break down the specific details of the rounds. Against Gravity was authorized to raise up to $15.4 in its Series B at up to a $126 million post-money valuation, according to Delaware stock authorization docs we got from PitchBook. The company didn’t comment on the valuation. Helium launches $51M-funded ‘LongFi’ IoT alternative to cellular With 200X the range of Wi-Fi at 1/1000th of the cost of a cellular modem, Helium’s “LongFi” wireless network debuts today. Its transmitters can help track stolen scooters, find missing dogs via IoT collars and collect data from infrastructure sensors. The catch is that Helium’s tiny, extremely low-power, low-data transmission chips rely on connecting to P2P Helium Hotspots people can now buy for $495. Operating those hotspots earns owners a cryptocurrency token Helium promises will be valuable in the future… The potential of a new wireless standard has allowed Helium to raise$51 million over the past few years from GV, Khosla Ventures and Marc Benioff, including a new $15 million Series C round co-led by Union Square Ventures and Multicoin Capital. Stride raises $2.5M from JetBlue, NFX for its guided trips marketplace Group travel — it’s something you either love or hate, but Stride, which describes itself as a marketplace for “experiential multi-day and multi-destination packaged trips planned by experts,” wants to change this perception. The service, which was co-founded by former Starwood Hotels and Viator executive Gavin Delany, today announced that it has raised a $2.5 million seed round from JetBlue Ventures and NFX. In addition, it rolled out its new TripFinder feature, which makes it easier to find the right tour from the more than 30,000 travel itineraries from its partners in its database. Moving on to mergers and acquisitions, VMware announces intent to buy Avi Networks, startup that raised $115M VMware has been trying to reinvent itself from a company that helps you build and manage virtual machines in your data center to one that helps you manage your virtual machines wherever they live, whether that’s on prem or the public cloud. The company announced it was buying Avi Networks, a six-year-old startup that helps companies balance application delivery in the cloud or on prem in an acquisition that sounds like a pretty good match. The companies did not reveal the purchase price. Avi claims to be the modern alternative to load balancing appliances designed for another age when applications didn’t change much and lived on prem in the company data center. What else caught our eyes last week? Shyp is preparing for a comeback under new management Once one of the hottest on-demand startups, Shyp shut down in March 2018 after missing targets to expand to cities outside of San Francisco. When it first launched in 2014, Shyp initially offered on-demand servicefor almost anything customers wanted shipped, charging $5 plus postage to pick up, package and bring the item to a shipping company. Eventually it introduced a pricing tier in 2016 as it tried to find new approaches to its business model, before closing down two years later. Fifteen months after shutting down, Shyp is getting ready to launch again. The startup tweeted today that “We are back! We’re hard at work to rebuild an unparalleled shipping experience

Breedr, a U.K. startup helps farmers make better use of their livestock data to improve profitability. Founded in early 2018, Breedr aims to bring the livestock industry into the digital age. The company provides farmers with an app to let them capture data on their livestock and then use that data to improve the efficiency of their farms and help ensure that they can sell the animals at the most optimum time and price. On today’s show we speak with co-founder and CEO, Ian Wheel and Remus Brett from London-based LocalGlobe, the VC who provided the seed funding. Technology to the rescue!

Avi Meir is the Founder & CEO @ TravelPerk, the startup that allows you to book, manage and report all your business travel in one place. To date, Avi has raised over $73m with TravelPerk from the likes of Felix Capital, Yuri Milner, Spark Capital, Sunstone and LocalGlobe to name a few. Before founding TravelPerk, Avi founded HotelNinjas, a web-based hotel management software platform that was ultimately acquired by Booking.com. Prior to that, Avi was VP Product at Budgetplaces.com, which was acquired by Palamon in 2011. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Avi made his way from the world of hotels to the world of founding startups and what was his entry point? How did Avi's experience with HotelNinja's impact his operating mindset with TravelPerk today? 2.) How does Avi think about attaining the right board composition? What is the ideal structure? How important is it to have industrial experience around the table? What are the 2 other core skills that Avi believes are required on the board? What can founders do to ensure plasticity of mindset at a board level? 3.) What makes the truly special board members? What do they do both in the good and the bad times to make them so good? What does Avi believe makes the more challenging board members to work with? Why does Avi believe that culture fit at the board level is not discussed enough? What can be done by the founder to improve this? 4.) TravelPerk has now raised over $75m in funding, what does Avi believe they have done well to date to allow them to raise this? For the next round, what would Avi like to improve upon and pushback on further? What advice does Avi have for founders entering negotiations when it comes to both valuation and option pool? 5.) Why does Avi believe that culture and growth are 2 sides of the same coin? What have been some of the biggest challenges in scaling the team with the scaling of the company? How does one retain startup culture when no longer a startup? What would Avi do differently with regards to expansion with the benefit of hindsight? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Avi’s Fave Book: Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Avi on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Avi Meir, CEO of TravelPerk (www.travelperk.com) a Barcelona-based startup that is re-inventing business travel. TravelPerk recently raised a $44 million Series C led by Sweden’s Kinnevik, Russian billionaire and DST Global founder Yuri Milner and Tom Stafford. Prior investors include Target Global, Felix Capital, Spark Capital, Sunstone, LocalGlobe and Amplo. In this episode, Avi talks about building to be global from day one, questions to ask investors to ensure the vision and exit expectations are aligned, how the Company is using it's location in Spain as a recruiting advantage, and much more.

We feature Zinc, the London-based company builder backed by Localglobe & VC veteran Saul Klein. We speak to Co-founder Ella Goldner as well as to member's of Zinc's first cohort to learn how Zinc aims to solve some of the developed world's biggest social problems.,

Robin Klein is one of the true pioneers of Europe’s venture scene: as cofounder of The Accelerator Group (TAG) in 1995, and an early stage investor in the likes of Transferwise, lastminute.com, last.fm, Love Film and Agent Provocateur, he has catalysed the success for some of London’s most impactful private businesses over the past two decades. “We never forget that the company is owned by the founders and that we are part of the support team”, says South African-born Robin. General Partner at LocalGlobe, he was until 2015 a venture partner at Index Ventures. Prior to joining Index, Robin co-founded The Accelerator Group, with his son Saul. Before beginning his investment career in earnest he built and sold a number of businesses, the last of which was the Innovations Group. He sits on the board of several companies, and conducted the first documented e-commerce transaction in the UK in 1995. Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Robin speaks optimistically about the future of European venture, but warns it still lags behind in IPOs and corporate M&A. “There is a lot of capital and a tremendously supportive ecosystem… but that capital will dry up or be unsuccessfully deployed if the volume of the exits doesn’t support the bottom of the pyramid,” he says. He also emphasises for the importance of founder-market fit for LocalGlobe. “At the stage we invest the amount of due diligence you can do on the product, market and the metrics is relatively limited so I would like to spend much more time with our founders, because that’s where the heart of our decision-making lies.” Learn more about the kinds of milestones LocalGlobe looks for in early-stage companies, the evolution of Europe’s ecosystem and the next industrial revolution. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com LocalGlobe: www.localglobe.vc Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Robin: linkedin.com/in/robinklein / twitter.com/robinklein

Saul Klein is Founding Partner at LocalGlobe, Former General Partner at Index Ventures, Co-Founder and CEO of Seedcamp, Kano and Lovefilm International. Saul Klein joined Index Ventures in 2007 and was a Partner until May 2015. Saul has invested in early-stage internet companies including AlertMe, Chartbeat, GlassesDirect, Soluto, MyHeritage, andSongkic. A serial entrepreneur with two decades of experience building and exiting companies in both the US, Israel and Europe, Saul has a passion for working with seed and early stage businesses. Most recently he co-founded Kano and Seedcamp, as well as co-founder and original CEO of Lovefilm International (acquired by Amazon). Saul is also a Founding Partner of The Accelerator Group (TAG), which he started with Robin Klein in 1999 as a vehicle for investing in early-stage internet services, e-commerce and digital media businesses. The TAG portfolio includes bit.ly, Erply,Lovefilm, MOO, Songkick, Spot Runner,Tweetdeck,and Twitterverse. He was part of the original executive team at Skype (acquired by eBay). He has also been a board member of Codecademy and Mind Candy for years. Saul believes tech is still only just starting to make a dent on the economy and society and that it has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. He has a Master of Arts degree from Magdalene College, Cambridge. His talk at London Business School is part of the 2015-2016 Tell Series talks and it was recorded on 3 February 2016 at London Business School. Learn more about entrepreneurial opportunities at the School: http://bit.ly/LBS-entrepreneur Learn more about Tell Series: http://tellseries.com/ Learn more about DIIE: http://www.london.edu/diie

Seedcamp Co-Founder Saul Klein joined Carlos for this podcast on everything from the importance of knowing your positioning to the origins of Seedcamp. Aside from being the Co-Founder of Seedcamp, Saul is a prominent figure in the global tech scene, currently he is Co-Founder of LocalGlobe, which announced a dedicated Seed fund last year, and Co-Founder of Kano, a new kind of computer company. In his conversation with Carlos, Saul talks through his career journey working in successful startups Lovefilm and Skype, and his role as an Investor at Index Ventures, Seedcamp and LocalGlobe. He highlights the importance that design and communications play in building great startup companies, and that the best creatives will only produce the best work if they can work with great positioning, which is key for the founding team to drive.