SVB 2022 Global Connect Conference Back In Real Life!

It's a wrap...SVB's 7th annual Global Connect Conference, a gathering of venture capitalists who invest in international markets such as India, Latam, MENA and Australia-New Zealand took place in San Francisco on September 15. We had more than 120 attendees, General Partners (GPs) who flew from as far as Sydney and Istanbul to participate in the gathering to network, share learnings and to hear the latest trends in the Bay Area. This year's theme was "Navigating Uncertainty" which addresses the current tech market correction that was triggered by global volatility including interest rates, inflation, war, elections, and more.

In a sentiment survey to more than 150 registered, the top concern was fear of a global recession. GPs felt that early stage was not difficult to fundraise, while Series A and later stage were challenging, particularly from international VCs. Most felt the correction would last for 12-18 months but were optimistic around fund performance with lower entry points.

We started the day with a breakfast for Women in VC, which was well attended and the excitement and buzz from the gathering rolled right into the networking and lunch at Global Connect (a separate post will be coming on the breakfast).

Our program started with an investor panel featuring Tess Hatch, Partner, Bessemer, Guru Chahal, Lightspeed and Priya Saiprasad, SoftBank, moderated by Priya Rajan, SVB. The discussion focused on how VCs are spending more of their time on their portfolio versus new investments, balancing expense management vs. growth with investees. In a higher risk environment, VCs are looking for a differentiated market approach from founders.

Next up was a presentation from Nick Candy from SVB on our Q3 State of the Markets report , that has some great data behind some of the current market trends. This was followed by an SVB insights panel I moderated featuring Jesse Chasse, SVB Securities, Patty Kao, SVB Asset Management and Ivan Asensio, Senior FX Advisor. Predictions included that interest rates will continue to rise given inflation levels which will result in a strengthening dollar as we go into 2023. The IPO window might begin to see some improvement by late Q1 or Q2 next year.

Our last panel focused on fundraising from Limited Partners (LPs), which has been difficult especially for international and emerging VC fund managers. GPs should continue to build relationships with LPs in the US, as they want to understand the dynamics of new growth markets. In addition, GPs should consider a differentiated strategy so LPs have a clear understanding on how you can create alpha.

To foster more intimate dialogue, we then went into four breakout sessions to focus further on 1) fundraising for GPs, 2) investing in new venture deals for emerging managers and balancing risk and reward, given that this is an attractive time to deploy capital 3) working with corporate innovation and corporate venture capital, which has been such a large funding source for the innovation economy and finally 4) venture debt which is new in many regions outside the US, but an important source of alternative financing for solid startups to extend runway.

Networking IRL was the priority and we had ample time in the Presidio sunshine, especially over SVB client wine from Williamson Winery whose owners are originally from Australia. As we left the Golden Gate Club, we felt a sense of resolve, resilience and determination collectively as a community. We will make it through this time of uncertainty together and come out the other side that much stronger. After a decade plus in our Global Gateway markets we understand that our GPs and founders are more accustomed to crisis and that they will bring all their creativity and determination to bear.

It is a challenging time for global emerging managers, no doubt, but we continue to remain bullish on the opportunity for the innovation economy in Latam, India, MENA and Australia - New Zealand. We're looking forward to seeing many of these fund managers in market as our Global Gateway team has plans to travel to all of our core regions before the year is out, or at the very latest at next year's 8th Global Connect!