Substack, the household-name media platform, has given up on efforts to raise a Series C round. The five-year-old startup had reportedly held talks with potential investors in recent months to raise $75M-$100M at a valuation of between $750M and $1B. More: - Having extended its initial text/newsletter-based platform to include podcasts, Substack was valued at $650M after closing a $65M Series B round last year led by previous investor a16z.
- The firm also counts Fifty Years, Y Combinator, and entrepreneur Audrey Gelman as investors.
- Its professed goal is to allow its users to create their own personal media empire, a mission that attracted a lot of attention from traditional media companies.
- Representatives told Axios late last year that the top 10 Substack writers collectively generated $20M in annual revenue.
- However, according to the New York Times, the company separately told investors that it saw revenue of just $9M last year.
- Writers, who are encouraged to offer their content for free, have to pay 10% of whatever they earn to Substack, with another 3% going to Stripe, its payment processor.
- The hard margins for writers have caused a lot of churn, which has been further boosted by dissatisfaction with its hands-off approach to content monitoring.
| |
 Only 15% of GPs at European VC outfits are women, with the lowest figure coming from Central Eastern Europe with just 10%. Western Europe has higher gender parity with 19%, while the U.K. has 13% women GPs. The Nordic countries come in at the continent-wide average. More: - The results are based on a study of 303 European venture funds and an accompanying survey of 122 VCs at funds with at least $26.8M (€25M) in assets under management.
- Despite accounting for 15% of GPs, women GPs have access to just 9% of total AUM in Europe, with particularly poor showings from the U.K. (5%), Central Western Europe (4%), and Central Eastern Europe (2%).
- Across Europe, 91% of male GPs have access to carried interest, compared with just 70% of female GPs, depriving them of an important source of income.
- For LPs, the picture is even worse: Just 10% of women at LPs have influence and investment decision-making power.
- The dynamic could be slowly shifting: For junior roles at VC outfits, 46% of positions are held by women, compared to just 32% of senior positions.
- While that figure shows how difficult it is for women to become partners, it offers a glimpse of how the culture is becoming less sexist.
- According to Atomico’s State of European Tech, all-women founded startups in 2021 raised just 1.1% of investment in Europe, while 8.8% of investment went to mixed-gender founding teams.
| |
 A message from ADOBE COMMERCE Discover the technologies helping merchants build the future of eCommerce. With eCommerce expected to hit a trillion dollars in 2022, you’ll need a competitive commerce platform that meets escalating operational demands and consumer experience expectations. Download 6 Must-Haves for a Fast, Flexible Ecommerce Platform to learn which features you need to compete in the online marketplaces of tomorrow. Claim your free copy
| |
The tech market downturn is the best opportunity in over 10 years to reckon with the tech industry’s excess, write Brad Stone and Lizette Chapman for Bloomberg. The current correction is less the product of a deus ex machina macroeconomic storm but rather the developments in venture capital of the last decade. More: - Spurred on by low interest rates, VCs took advantage of cheap capital and founders’ desire to cash out early by boosting valuations to astounding heights and finding ways around the protections built into markets.
- Under the mantra of wealth creation, VCs were able to sell fundamentally inflated, high-risk investments to the wider public via SPACs and the blockchain bubble.
- Most SPAC-merged companies are trading well below their initial price, while the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which measures the performance of the major cryptocurrencies, is down 48% since the beginning of the year.
- In addition to the basic economics of the downturn, the political ramifications are sure to be spectacular:
- While Bill Gates and Steve Jobs studiously avoided politics, the latest generation of tech gurus, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen, are nothing if not vocal about their beliefs.
- Meanwhile, since the Trump presidency at least, the status of tech platforms in society has been politicized.
- How this will play out as the industry is forced to decide on a strategy to protect itself remains to be seen.
| |
Last-minute ticketing platform GameTime raised $30M Series C led by Nimble Partners with participation from Maven Ventures, Accel, GV, Jeff Mallett, Palapa Ventures, Bolt Ventures, and others. The latest capital injection brought GameTime’s total raised to date to $81.3M. More: - The company declined to disclose a valuation but did note that revenue is projected to reach $500M this year, twice its 2019 level.
- It claims to have facilitated the purchase of $1B in tickets to date.
- Founded in 2013, GameTime operates a last-minute ticketing app catering to a younger audience that tends to make spontaneous purchases via their phones.
- It targets sports events, concerts, and shows.
- Currently, GameTime has 117 employees, giving it a substantially larger team than the 36 it had at the beginning of the pandemic.
- It seeks to boost that figure by another 30%.
- That growth came even though its revenue collapsed by 94% from March to Dec. 2020 compared to the year prior due to lockdown requirements.
The wider lens: - Global ticketing revenue for music and sport could reach $54B globally in 2022, representing 142% growth from 2017 and a 443% increase over 2020.
| |
 A message from ADOBE MARKETO Discover the many benefits of account-based marketing. As more and more organizations turn to ABM, the true extent of its business benefits are being revealed — and they’re huge. Get all the details in our new fact sheet. We lay out seven reasons why ABM is a business imperative and how it will benefit the way you do business. Account-based marketing (ABM) is one such technique that funnels marketing efforts to specific accounts. While ABM is not a new concept, it’s quickly becoming table stakes for B2B brands of all sizes due to recent technological innovations. A 2020 Terminus report revealed that 94.2 percent of all respondents had an active ABM program (up from 77 percent in 2019). That’s because it works. Download our fact sheet to learn seven key benefits of account-based marketing and why it has become a business imperative for creating revenue. Download Our Fact Sheet
| |
 Today’s Funding 💸 Aerospace - Astroforge (Los Angeles, Calif.), asteroid mining platform: $13M Seed led by Initialized Capital, participation from Seven Seven Six, EarthRise, Aera VC, Liquid 2, Soma.
Blockchain - MetaKing Studios (U.S.), multiplayer online game Blocklords: $15M led by Makers Fund, Bitkraft Ventures, participation from Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, Shima Capital, WW Ventures, Spartan Group, et al.
- Enhanced Digital Group (New York, N.Y.), wholesaler of structured products in the digital asset space: $12.5M Seed led by WebN Group, Genesis, participation from New Form Capital, Nexo Ventures, et al.
Data/Analytics - Bold Metrics (San Francisco, Calif.), SaaS solution allowing companies to surface body data: $8M A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, participation from Lytical Ventures, ValueStream Ventures, Nanban Ventures, et al.
Enterprise - Xona (Annapolis, Md.), user access platform for critical infrastructure: $7.2M A led by DataTribe Opportunities Fund, participation from TFX Capital, et al.
- How.fm (Cologne, Germany), onboard, upskill, and support platform for warehouse operators: $5.4M Seed led by Join Capital, participation from Kindred Capital, Capnamic Ventures, et al.
Fintech - Pemo (Dubai, UAE), fintech platform for the MENA region: $12M Seed led by Cherry Ventures, Shorooq Partners, participation from FinTech Collective, Speedinvest, BY Venture Partners, et al.
Foodtech - Planet FWD (San Francisco, Calif.), carbon-assessment platform for food: $10M A led by Acre Venture Partners, Congruent Ventures, participation from BBG Ventures, Precursor, Concrete Rose, et al.
Did you enjoy reading about all of today's funding in one place? The funding roundup is only available to free users on Mondays and Fridays. Upgrade to Inside VC Premium for either $10/month, or $100 billed annually, to receive the full list in every issue! For a limited time, we are offering a 14-day free trial. Click here to sign up! | | | |
Quick Hits - B2B businesses are switching to e-commerce. Now, it’s your turn. Learn three persuasive approaches that communicate the value of digital to decision-makers.*
- Chipmaker Broadcom will acquire cloud computing platform VMWare for $61B in cash and stock. The deal is the second-largest so far this year.
- Syn Ventures, which invests in cybersecurity, industrial security, national defense, privacy, regulatory compliance, and data governance, raised $300M for its second fund.
- Old Fashion Research (OFR), launched by former Binance execs, raised $100M for its strategy of investing in crypto companies.
- 1Sharpe Ventures closed its maiden fund at an oversubscribed $90M to place 30-40 bets on early-stage proptech companies. Half of the fund will be carved out for follow-on investments.
- Dallas Venture Capital has closed its second fund at $80M for early-stage B2B SaaS investments. The firm targets companies operating in the U.S. and India.
- Get your point across with video recording and screen sharing right from your browser. No signup.*
*This is a sponsored post.
| |
Upcoming events at Inside - May 31 - Ethereum Merge with Anthony Donofrio (Ethereum) (Register Here)
- June 01 - Selling Consumer Goods in Web3 (Register Here)
- June 06, June 07, June 08 - June 09 - In-Person RSA Conference 2022: Control IT, security, and SaaS complexity with Axonius (Register Here) *
- June 09 - Empowering Content Creators with No Code (Register Here)
- June 15 - Need To Know NoCoder - Artem Harutyunyan (bardeen.ai) (Register Here)
- June 16 - Future of the Art Market (Register Here)
- June 30 - HR Strategies to Retain Remote Employees (Register Here)
*This is a sponsored listing.
| |
 |  | Inside VC's writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master's degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
| |
The right metrics make a difference. Read our fact sheet and learn what you should be measuring to prove marketing impact. | |
Comments
Post a Comment