Ning Li

Only 4% of EU VC's have previous startup experience... versus 60% in US  In CVC in EU it will even be worse... (educated guess)  There are some more interesting insights on the low level of support by VC's, the needs from startups, .... in the article below  This confirms also the need for more VC Platform roles in the EU #vcplatform (see my previous post on VC Platform roles)  #venturecapital 

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Soooo pretty much how French VC has always been. VC firms suing each other. LPs firing GPs. LPs taking funds back. VCs suing entrepreneurs. It's always been a dramatic scene. 🇫🇷 🐓🍷🥖 https://lnkd.in/eK8JbgDA #vc #venrurecapital #startups #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #tech #technology #innovation #money #business

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Tomorrow I’m lucky to be hosting a panel with three exceptional founders: - Gilles Gaillard - Co-founder of Animaj, raised 100m EUR (in equity and debt) in 2023 to build an AI-powered animation studio that counts 𝗮 stunning 15 billion (!) YouTube views per year. Animaj acquires animation and cartoon franchises to turn them into digital-first content and amplifies their distribution using AI. - Baptiste Jamin - Co-founder of Crisp IM, 42 alumni, also can be called the “King of Bootstrap”. He started building chatbots in 2015, 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗹. Crisp centralises all customer interactions through live chat, chatbots, and a shared inbox. Today Crisp serves over 600,000 companies without raising any funds. - Vincent SIMON - Co-founder of Relationchips and founder of Simundia. Vincent is a serial entrepreneur & investor who founded a coaching platform that raised over 15m EUR & is currently working on a no-code sales workflow platform. What do they have in common? They started their career as freelancers and worked their way up to become highly successful entrepreneurs. 👉 Join us at Le Wagon tomorrow at 7pm to hear their story. We’ll also host a networking session for you to meet people from our community who are working on projects that might interest you. 🔗Link to register in the comments.

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🌟 Europe! It’s time to boldly build together to create a better and brighter system of care. 🌟 It was energizing for Alexandre Momeni and myself to meet with so many talented entrepreneurs and leaders across pharma, payers, providers and policy at HLTH Europe, all committed to making a difference in European healthcare. Here are a few of takeaways: ✅ An ambitious new generation of European digital health innovators is emerging. Following in the footsteps of Sword Health, Alan and Doctolib, companies like Doccla, Nabla, Corti and Causaly are pioneering world-class solutions to bridge the critical gaps in Europe’s healthcare infrastructure. They are creating a future instead of optimizing the present and their success will raise the bar, attracting more talent and investment in the space. ✅ Our academic health systems are undergoing a ‘renAIssance’. Lighthouse health systems like Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Guy's and St Thomas'​ NHS Foundation Trust and Greater Paris University Hospitals - AP-HP are re-imagining their business models to shift care out of the hospital, making strategic investments and embracing innovative solutions to leapfrog their most pressing challenges, including with (Gen)AI. AI is not just a tool for efficiency; it’s a catalyst for more effective healthcare. ✅ Radical collaboration is the path to success. HLTH, with over 3,500 attendees from over 60 countries convening in Amsterdam, is proof that when we are bold and join together as a community, bringing the best minds and hearts together to engage and share ideas, we make progress. This is critical in Europe where the geographic and regulatory complexities of the market means greater coordination and intentionality is needed to achieve real system-level change instead of diffuse pockets of innovation. As an investor in European digital health for over a decade, I’m excited by how vibrant the ecosystem is becoming. At General Catalyst, we are committed to creating, investing, partnering and operating to enhance the resilience of European healthcare — all in the pursuit of Health Assurance. Let’s seize this moment!

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Time to step up Germany 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 Corporations have pledged to invest €15bn in France at the “Choose France” summit — an annual event held since 2018 to facilitate foreign investments in the country. A large chunk of the money will be dedicated to AI. Microsoft stole the show after announcing its largest investment in France to date, a €4bn cash envelope to build more data centres — and expand existing ones — across the country by the end of 2025. The focus is on increasing the capacity of GPUs, which are needed to run large AI models. Amazon also announced that it’ll invest €1.2bn to further develop its French cloud and AI infrastructure. Quantum computing was also on the agenda. IBM pledged to invest €45m to expand the company’s research efforts in France. Up to 50 quantum researchers and engineers will be recruited in the country in the next year.

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If you want to invest in exciting startups worldwide as an angel investor. Here are some tips & tricks on how to leverage your network from Cyril Chemla. 1. Build bridges, not silos. Cultivate relationships with angels and VCs in different regions. This opens doors to unique deals you might not find on your own. Ex: My network led me to invest in FinTech startups in Africa, even though I've never been there! 2. Start by giving. Support other investors and VCs. Offer your expertise and connections. This builds trust and reciprocity, leading to future deal flow. Investing is a community. 💙 By providing value first, you unlock a world of opportunities beyond your borders. If you want to learn more about Cyril's story and get more insights, watch the latest episode of the #SuperAngel podcast with Tom Wilson from Seedcamp and Anthony Danon from Cocoa 🍫 on EUVC . Link in comments. 🔽 #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

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A must read for every founder (and investor) in B2B marketplaces. ⤵️ All credits to Fabrice Grinda + FJ Labs 👏🏽 https://lnkd.in/eB7uGzyH #firstdegree #founders #investors #whyrelationshipsmatter
#alwaysbelearning #sharingknowledge

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Getting a venture investment right is a lot of fun BUT I’m not convinced that you learn much from it, so it doesn’t do much to make you right again (other than maybe your personal brand) In my experience, you learn more from two other experiences First: having high conviction and being wrong When you’re convinced in your gut that a company is going to succeed, a failure will kind of rock your world Your “what happened?” Post-mortem will force a re-evaluation of your mental model on what is present in a future success Oftentimes there are important factors underweighted (or not present at all) in that model — for us, we’ve learned the importance of gross margin and repeat purchase the hard way, and now they’re paramount to our new opportunity evaluation Second: seeing other great investors be wrong There’s a great Howard marks quote I love: “you’ll never able to be right and alone unless you’re willing to be wrong and alone” — easy in theory, but in practice this is an emotional grind In 2018 when we signed our term sheet to lead the Liquid IV round, I called every early stage investor that I knew asking them to join the deal. These were the investors I looked up to, who I wanted to be like — much more experienced and in most cases better investors than I was.  Every single one passed, on what would end up being over 10x in under 3 years If I hadn’t already signed the term sheet and committed to doing the deal, it would have been incredibly challenging not to walk away — after all, these people are so smart and must have known something I didn’t That experience of seeing these other investors be wrong showed that they are human, and gave me permission (emotionally) to disagree with the pack Being wrong yourself, or even disagreeing with the pack, can be painful and uncomfortable, but these experiences are ultimately the only way we grow

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I’m pleased to have contributed to Arianee’s position paper, "From A Production-Based to A Service-Based Economy: The Role of Tokenization in Decoupling Growth." This insightful paper tackles a topic close to my heart. This paper outlines numerous practical strategies for companies to progress on tackling overproduction while creating new economic opportunities. Thank you Arianee, Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel and of course my friend Francois Souchet for the opportunity to collaborate. #circulareconomy #technology #circularbusinessmodels #sustainability

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Top tips for angel investors for more international deals. From Eva Spannagl, Managing Director of Climatos. The easy part: 👉 Build connections with international investors. 👉 Reach out proactively to international teams. 👉 Use Linkedin The tough one: 👉 Define your unique value proposition for this type of founders 👉 Preach what you want to do a thousand times. Talk about what you want. And the actions will follow. What do you think? What other tips will you add to the list? Join the conversation. #venturecapital #startupinvesting #angelinvesting #europe

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Whether you're a French startup founder or investing in the French tech ecosystem, this is a must-have resource: The Serena 2024 Edition of the Ultimate VC List is live! Fundraising can be incredibly time-consuming. That’s why, back in 2016, Serena created the Ultimate VC List to streamline the process for entrepreneurs in France. Now an interactive platform, it has supported over 100,000 entrepreneurs and VCs in the ecosystem. Some key trends Sébastien Le Roy and Maxime Furet spotted when putting this edition together: 🚀 The French VC ecosystem is thriving with new funds like Resonance, OVNI Capital, Yellow, and Varsity, signaling a vibrant and expanding market. 🌍 There’s increased interest from US and European funds for French startups, particularly in AI and climate tech, and a rise in non-traditional investors such as Business Angel Clubs and Family Offices (which are now covered by a new section). 🔧 Infrastructure investors are playing a critical role in funding innovative hybrid models amid global warming challenges. ♻️ The growing presence of impact VCs highlights the focus on socially and environmentally impactful investments.

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With Altrove, Emblem is backing a clear "moonshot", a startup offering a pretty unique risk/reward profile, and... its first French/Nordic founding team! 😊 Thibaud Martin (former founder and CEO of Jubiwee, a startup acquired by Haiilo in 2022) and Joonatan Laulainen, PhD (Materials Science PhD from University of Cambridge) are on a mission to enable more efficient and faster inorganic materials discovery, using AI and lab automation. Altrove aims to help its customers address the key challenges of achieving climate goals and de-risking their supply chain (geopolitical concerns, price volatility, tariffs, etc.) by collaborating with them on designing, synthesizing, and manufacturing alternatives to their critical materials, starting with those containing rare earth elements. We are embarking on this purposeful journey next to fantastic co-investors such as Contrarian Ventures, our friends Mikkel Hesselgren and Nicklas Jensen from Deichmann Media (who are building one of the most forward-thinking European family offices), Entrepreneur First, and business angels like Thomas Clozel (CEO of Owkin) and Julien Chaumond (CTO at Hugging Face). Should you want to learn more about altrove’s specific approach in this dynamic field, you will find a link to the great article written by Romain Dillet from TechCrunch in the comments below. Cc: Bénédicte de Raphélis Soissan, Rokas Peciulaitis, Robina v. Stein, Nikolaj Deichmann, Coralie Chaufour

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⛸ Don't miss the Next 12 Minutes with Antler Portfolio Company Founders! ⛸ 📆 Mark your calendars for next Wednesday, June 5th! Join us for a 12-minute session diving into the world of Legal-Tech with Immo Ait Stapelfeld, Co-Founder of NeuroSense. From lawyer to legal tech entrepreneur. NeuroSense, is revolutionizing how legal processes are streamlined, making them accessible for everyone. Hosted by Alan, we explore the stories of founders in our portfolio every first Wednesday of the month. This time, we'll explore Immo's path - from idea to building business momentum rapidly. ⏰ Time: 12:00 PM CEST – Quick and impactful, our 12-minute format ensures you get the most out of your lunch break. Don’t be late! ❕Location: Zoom – Sign up link in the comments below. 🎤 Have questions for Immo? This is a great opportunity to ask them live and get real-time insights. Peek behind the curtain, discover how to find the perfect co-founder, or learn about joining Antler as a complete founding team.

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📣 Major Update for French Founders and VC Firms! 🚀 Versible eu We have built a full database of all the private funds investing in #Seed, #SeriesA, and #SeriesB across nearly every sector in the #French ecosystem. As part of our mission, we are developing the next generation of venture capital management software. Our goal is to streamline the fundraising process and enhance investor relations for founders and investors throughout Europe. Each of our initiatives aims to shine a spotlight on the hardworking individuals who are shaping the future of the world. Stay tuned for Monday 27th. #Venturecapital #Seed #Lafrenchtech #LegalTech #Agriculture #Mobility #Deeptech #FoodTech #InsurTech #BioTech #HealthTech #Realestate #Web3

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[ 💎 Support Women in Entrepreneurship ] At Newfund, gender diversity is a priority. We track our data to eliminate bias in our investments. Women founders are underrepresented and receive less funding than men. To address this, we developed a 2023 action plan to promote female entrepreneurship, aiming for 25% of initial appointments with startups co-founded by women. Here's our progress: 📌 17% of opportunities were from startups co-founded by women, up from 11% in 2022. 🤝 21% of first meetings were with female founders, up from 13% in 2022. We're committed to reaching 25% in 2024 and welcome your support in recommending Newfund to female founders. 🌟 Let's drive diversity and innovation together ! hashtag#GenderDiversity hashtag#WomenInTech hashtag#VentureCapital hashtag#DiversityAndInclusion hashtag#Startups hashtag#Newfund

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The Startup Tech Stack 2024 by Ollie Forsyth Huge startup tech map packed with ressources to build ventures from the ground up👇 Row 1 ���� Product: Support in making products better Security / KYC: Customer onboarding and compliance Marketing: Website builders, data collecting and more Fintech / Insurance: Payment providers, expense management and insurance Row 2 🎯 Collaboration and project management tools HR: Employee onboarding and payroll Fundraising: Cap table management and investor reporting Analytics: Product analytics Row 3 🚀 Customer Service: Customer support Cloud: Cloud providers Sales: Closing deals faster Employee Benefits: Giving your team great benefits Brand: Design platforms Row 4 🏁 Productivity: Tools to save you time Data: Data & analytics CRM: Customer relationship management tools Automations: Automations for your startup Legal: Sign docs quickly 🛎 What to do next 1. Tag a founder who might find this useful 2. Tag a company that you are missing #letsbuild #venturebuilding #startup #techstack #prototyping #mvp

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🚩 22 investor red flags to look out for. 🚩 You deserve the best investors! But it’s easy to make a mistake. There are over 8,400* VCs in Europe alone. During fundraising you will meet many. And not all investors are created equal. They will all be selling themselves well. You will read and hear all kinds of superlatives. Spotting early red flags is essential. I’ve decided to help you out on this. 🚩 22 investor red flags to look out for 🚩 > Arrogant behavior > Highlife party culture mentality > No track record in your industry > Pressing you to make a decision > Slow response in communication > Slow in the due diligence process > No clear value-add besides money > Wanting to take >50% of the company > Very aggressive valuation negotiations > The VC worked only in financial services > Demanding lock-up exclusivity, during DD > Conflict of interest with other investments > No prior founder experience in the VC fund > Demanding unrealistic stake. Check trends > Wanting too many board seats or veto rights > Discouraging you to do due diligence on them > Not transparent in advance with LP constraints > No exploratory calls with your customers (if any) > Corruption proposals. Getting you into a scheme > Late for meetings and acting like nothing’s wrong > Bad feedback on them by their portfolio founders. > No transparency on process, criteria, decision-makers If you see any of these red flags, be cautious. Dig deeper. If things don’t look well, move on. It’s 8,400* of them in Europe alone. P.S. What red flags would you add? 🚩 Let's discuss in the comments. ⬇️ *According to Crunchbase

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Ask my partners Evan Allen Blair Merlino JT Benton and they'll tell you I'm a glutton for asking and figuring out not just what works, but how things work, and why. Perhaps it's the researcher side of me, but I get uneasy relying on heuristics/patterns without knowing what's causing it, not just for an intellectual curiosity standpoint, but because it introduces uncontrolled risk into the business. Power law is a classic example of this. Sure, it tends to work for large enough funds over a long-enough duration. To the degree that trend holds, everything is fine. If the trend all of a sudden breaks (some evidence suggests that may be happening in real time), then all of a sudden a lot of GPs and LPs are going to get crushed and no explanation or understanding as to why. As studio builders we don't rely on power law. We constantly develop and fine-tune our ventures to learn and master what is driving their value. We are by no means perfect, but in our estimation we're asking the right questions and seeking the right answers versus relying on a trend and hoping for the best.

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What are some valuable insights into the European startup ecosystem? I recently had the opportunity to read an insightful discussion between two established investors in the European venture space - Saul Klein of LocalGlobe and Raluca Ragab of Eurazeo. At the TechCrunch StrictlyVC event in London, they generously shared their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges facing founders and investors across the continent (for source or entire article see comment). While the fundamentals of starting and scaling a high-growth business remain similar everywhere, Saul and Raluca highlighted some key differences that impact the European landscape. One aspect they discussed was the relative lack of liquidity events compared to the U.S., which makes returns riskier for investors. With fewer large exits, it can be more difficult to attract later stage capital. 🔝 At the same time, both highlighted many promising qualities of Europe's startup hubs. Talent pools are deep, and multinational collaboration comes naturally to entrepreneurs in the region. Government programs also aim to foster innovation, and COVID has accelerated the digital transformation of traditional industries 🏭. However, Klein and Ragab's perspectives underscore the work that still needs to be done in Europe to catch up with the U.S. exit environment. Their balanced view got me thinking about how to strengthen Europe's network effects in the long term. As leaders seeking to build an inclusive world of shared prosperity, what innovative strategies could help connect the continent's many vibrant startup ecosystems? I'd love to hear your thoughts. #D11ZVentures #techcrunch #FutureOfTech #VCInsights

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