Weekly update #39
Welcome to this edition of the weekly newsletter. The idea behind this activity is to gather all the information in the startup ecosystem in one place, with a special focus on the fintech market.
Before jumping to the main topics for this week, I am exploring partnerships with the newsletter. So this edition is sponsored by Notion, which is offering a 6-months free plan of its plus product to all founders submitting an application for their startups program.
In order to redeem the free trial, submit an application using this link https://ntn.so/michelemattei, select Michele Mattei as partner and include the following partner key: STARTUP4110P62416. I really hope it will be helpful for many founders out there!
Coming back to us, I’ve been reading a very interesting report this week, a survey done by Techstars on the status of innovation in 2024. The well known California based accelerator investigated what founders and VCs think about the current state of innovation in the startup ecosystem. Here my main takeaways:
When asked about the most pressing issues affecting their companies today, excluding core operations and financial management, 60% of entrepreneurs identified "Access to Capital" (respondents could select up to three options). The challenge of obtaining capital is directly linked to the 'optimism gap' between founders and venture capitalists. Only 50% of investors are either "somewhat optimistic" (44%) or "extremely optimistic" (6%) about their VC firm this year, compared to 76% of entrepreneurs.
Despite numerous challenges, 76% of current entrepreneurs report feeling optimistic about their startups in 2024, with 32% being "extremely optimistic" and 44% being "somewhat optimistic." This highlights that successful entrepreneurship demands inherent confidence and unwavering self-belief.
Notably, when asked about the most critical issues they face today, 64% of VCs surveyed cited "Sourcing High Quality Startups and Entrepreneurs" (respondents could select up to three options). This underscores the increasing importance of high-quality accelerator programs that can offer VCs a consistent flow of pre-vetted startups that have undergone a rigorous selection process and intensive entrepreneurial bootcamp.
What impact does extending the timeline by another year have on market confidence today? According to the majority of entrepreneurs and VCs in our survey, it makes little difference, particularly regarding IPOs. In fact, 39% of respondents expressed being either "slightly confident" (27%) or "not at all confident" (12%) that IPOs will rebound within the next two years.
Finally, one-third (34%) of entrepreneurs state that their main long-term goal for their startup is to be acquired by a major tech company or large corporation, while a similar proportion (30%) prefer to remain private/independent. Only 15% favor pursuing an IPO. These figures are largely consistent with those from 2023. Coupled with the prevailing lack of confidence in a swift IPO rebound, this year's data further emphasizes the trend of startups remaining private longer and IPOs falling out of favor with most early-stage entrepreneurs.
Probably there is no real surprise in the survey itself, as it confirmed some of the main beliefs in the market nowadays. Founders are still lacking capital, and VCs are still missing good ideas and founders. But on this topic, I found a very interesting study recently, that was trying to correlate capital raised and ultimate exit value:
It is very interesting to notice that there is a R^2=0.2913 correlation value between the amount of venture capital raised and ultimate exit value, meaning that the amount you raised has no real correlation with the value of your startup during the exit. And that is indeed interesting.
Before jumping to the latest news, a quick request from my side. I will start a small series of podcasts to interview fintech founders and VC managers active in the ecosystem. If you want to be part of it, feel free to drop me a line on Linkedin!
Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. Revolut finally obtained the long awaited baking license in the UK, while also launching personal loans in Italy. Monzo Bank introduced a pension product in the UK, while italian bank UniCredit is doing some shopping in the fintech space, acquiring Vodeno and Aion Bank . In all of that, Wiz refused a $23 billion acquisition proposal from 谷歌 . In the VC market, we saw ICONIQ Capital raising $5.75 billion for its seventh fund, and Lead Ventures closing a $100 million first fund. In the italian market, we saw Subbyx raising a $5.5 million funding round, FOOLFARM raising $2.55 million fresh capital and Rancilio Cube SICAF launching its second fund with $50 million. Finally, we saw some interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like Slope , MNT-Halan , Aven , Plum , Stables , Aviato , Passionfruit Stable Money , Sokin , Strive , bunch , Jarvis and many others.
领英推荐
But let's take a closer look at the main news of the last seven days:
Closed deals
Insights on the VC industry
News on the market
A special look in the Italian market
And here some useful resources for everyone involved in the ecosystem:
Events you don’t want to miss
You have a cool event you want to mention or to sponsor? Feel free to send me a DM.
Startups raising funds
You want to be present in this list? Feel free to shoot me a DM on Linkedin.
Take also a look at the last edition of the newsletter, Weekly update #38
Haskap Berries | Superfruit Farming | Nutrient-Rich Berries | Sustainable Agriculture
7 个月sounds like there's a lot happening in the financial world. interesting times ahead.