early stage funding

The impact investor and climate correspondent walk into a bar

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This week Natasha Mascarenhas and Becca Szkutak took to their

How fintech and serial founders drove African pre-seed investing to new heights in 2020

When Stripe-subsidiary Paystack raised its seed round of $1.3 million in 2016, it was one of the largest disclosed rounds at that stage in Nigeria.  At the time, seven-figure seed investments in Afri

Sophia Bendz is leaving Atomico to join Berlin-based seed firm Cherry Ventures

More personnel changes in European early-stage VC. This time it’s the latest career move of former Spotify global director of marketing Sophia Bendz, who is leaving Atomico to join Berlin’

Hoxton Ventures’ partners assess Europe’s early-stage landscape

"We’re largely hands off with our companies, but I think almost all the founders we pick tend to do the right thing and have a broader perspective on society."

Nigeria’s Okra raises $1M from TLcom connecting bank accounts to apps

A new Nigerian fintech venture, Okra, has racked up a unique mix of accomplishments in less than a year. The Lagos based API developer created a product that generates revenues from both payment start

Kleiner Perkins gets back to early-stage with its $600M 18th fund

“KP used to be a small team doing hands-on company building. We’re moving away from being this institution with multiple products and really just focusing on early-stage venture capital,&#

Where seed and early-stage funding is growing, contracting or holding steady

While Silicon Valley remains ground central for hobnobbing with investors, the common wisdom goes, early-stage funding stretches much further elsewhere.

The United States’ share of global early-stage capital slips again

Tech hubs tend to generate material wealth for their workers and the countries that house them. Historically, Silicon Valley has served as the de facto hub for tech. But that is under assault from mar

Cap tables, share structures, valuations, oh my! A case study of early-stage funding

For many entrepreneurs, especially first-time founders, raising outside capital can be daunting. Between all of the new vocabulary and the very real legal implications of the agreements being signed,

11 reasons we didn’t invest in your company

Like most VCs, we see dozens of deals each week. We've developed a funnel that enables us to quickly eliminate those that don't fit our general investment criteria. The deals that survive this initial

The two best pieces of early-stage pitching advice

Over the past 10 years I've been on the first cap tables of three startups for which I've been responsible for closing their capital-raising efforts. I’ve raised money from the smallest angel invest

There’s more to early-stage funding than VC money

Good companies will always get funded. If that’s your company, it’s important to make sure you have the resources to keep it alive long enough to get funded. Murmurs of a looming downturn in ventu

France’s Orange Launches Digital Ventures, A $23M Fund For Early Stage Investments

Orange, the big French carrier with 240 million customers formerly known as France Telecom, is today unveiling its latest bid to get closer to little startups, and appear a little cooler in the proces

Using Analytics, Bloomberg Beta Seeks Out Startup Founders

By now 350 employees at companies across the country might just be rethinking their day jobs, thanks to an email sent this morning by venture investment firm Bloomberg Beta. The early-stage investor,

Here’s One Way To Monetise The Series A Crunch: Make A List Of Moribund Startups, Sell It For $5k (As Acqui-Hire/IP ‘Intel’), Profit

Back in December, the sort-of-Series-A-crunch led VC analysis firm CB Insights to predict that more than 1,000 startups will be orphaned at the seed stage. But it seems there is silver-lining to the s