Entrepreneurs have traditionally looked for five things from their investors: capital, customers, product development, hiring and, eventually, an exit. Getting customer feedback as quickly as possible has been well-understood thanks to professor Steve Blank and author Eric Ries’s work at the start of the past decade and built into the National Science Foundation’s i-corps platform. But making it a reality is still challenging.
Category: Comment
SoftBank bounces back
“The door is always open for a second and third [Vision] fund, but we’re not very popular,” according to Masayoshi Son, founder of Japan-listed internet conglomerate SoftBank in the Financial Times.
Funding corporate and university hardware startups
It is always worthwhile listening to really smart people – one of the perks of the job on Global Corporate Venturing, Global Impact Venturing (GIV) and Global University Venturing (GUV) is that basically means everyone in our network – as they engage in making the world a better place.
Lawyers provide certainties
There are few seeming certainties in life – death, taxes and lawsuits over a US election being some.
Business model shifts in electric vehicles
It is expensive building cars, especially electric ones with few signs they can be profitable outside of selling carbon offset credits to polluters.
Agriculture blossoms into a tech age
There is always something fun as the end of year creeps up to think about the technologies that will disrupt or transform the world over the next few decades and Adrien Book’s selection below covers a number of general and specific purpose technologies. The meatless meat one is definitely catching people’s attention currently given the post-flotation performance… Continue reading Agriculture blossoms into a tech age
Analysis: Eightfold recruits $125m
US-based smart digital recruitment platform developer Eightfold raised $125m in series D funding from investors including financial services firm Capital One at a $1bn valuation.
Editorial: Agriculture blossoms into a tech age
There is always something fun as the end of year creeps up to think about the technologies that will disrupt or transform the world over the next few decades and Adrien Book’s selection below covers a number of general and specific purpose technologies. The meatless meat one is definitely catching people’s attention currently given the… Continue reading Editorial: Agriculture blossoms into a tech age
Finding the best investors
Discussion at the GCV Digital Forum 2.0 last month about Including Both Halves of Society heard Lara Koole, partner at Netherlands-based conglomerate Philips’ corporate venturing unit, describe how it could start using its limited partner commitments to look at the underlying diversity of the venture funds’ general partners.
Rising tides raise the CVC boat
The Economist this week has a nice interview with Satya Nadella, CEO of US-listed software provider Microsoft, and the company’s upwards valuation under his leadership.
Fundraising complements
History rarely repeats, but it does rhyme.
Ant gets ready for global expansion
Ant Group’s flotation was granted late last week and will raise $34.5bn by splitting its stock issuance equally across Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
Exploring the funding opportunities
The past three quarters has seen a record number of new CVC launches predominantly coming from outside traditional regions for venture investing.
Keeping attention on energy
It is quite stark how little relative attention is being paid to the innovative startups required to help incumbents and economies pivot towards more sustainable forms of energy.