Adam Hill

💸 Unlocking Innovation: Building an Angel Investor Paradise in the UK 💸 Join the conversation on scrapping barriers, closing knowledge gaps, and fuelling innovation with insights from industry experts Sarah King and AIN's Mike Lebus 📚 Read more in this insightful article by Amelia Isaacs Digital Frontier ⤵️ https://lnkd.in/ej6P6dtt #investors #investing #innovate 🚀

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Delighted to announce that Antler UK has backed 9 new early-stage tech companies, bringing our portfolio to a total of 96 investments in the UK. Antler offers the most comprehensive early-stage due diligence in the industry with 200 hours of due diligence enabling Antler to make high-conviction and data-driven investment decisions at the earliest stage of investing. Antler's 10th residency in London attracted 1,100 aspiring founders. From this group, 66 founders were carefully selected, representing 27 different nationalities, with 24% of the cohort comprising of women. These eight investments span diverse sectors like Industrials, Fintech, B2B software and Mobility. In addition, Antler has made one seed investment in the first quarter of 2024, in a ClimateTech startup still operating in stealth mode. We are delighted to welcome the following eight startups to Antler’s portfolio in the UK, and are excited to be on this journey with you! ⚙️ AlphaLoops - Automating investment management operations using AI ⚠️ BankBridge - Bridging the due diligence gap between financial institutions 🔎 Capsa AI - AI Operating System For Private Equity 📝 Falco - AI-powered platform that empowers financial firms to identify and translate regulatory changes into actionable insights 🚚 Fleevo - The AI-driven Operating System for Modern Commercial Fleets. Driving Efficiency, Uptime, and Sustainability 🛍️ frnt - Optimising retail operations with digital workers 🎯 Intriq - Transforming businesses with the power of AI through the use of private equity playbook strategies 🦾 RoboMinder - Elevating industrial robot uptime with AI-powered computer vision

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Whilst the digital asset market has certainly recovered strongly since the darkest depths of the recent crypto winter, with Bitcoin hitting new record highs earlier this year, one area of the industry remains well behind its peak 2021/22 levels: #VC funding. Last year, VC giant Sequoia Capital cut the size of its crypto fund by over 50%, while overall crypto VC funding declined by 68%. There are several potential reasons for this. For one, the tighter macro environment is affecting fundraising across all industries. Within the tech space, however, the rise of #AI has captivated the public imagination (alongside the computing power to support it, as evidenced by NVIDIA's record performance), making it a dominant theme across many investment committees. As VC dollars are finite (at least, until the Fed turns on the quantitative easing machine again), the marginal dollar is directed to the hottest topic. More importantly, the recent crypto bear market trauma has played a significant role. While there might have been uncertainty about allocation to crypto and #Web3 during pre-crash raises in 2021, the FTX and the broader market collapse have elevated resistance to another level. However, we may have reached a turning point, as illustrated by Paradigm's completion of an $850 million raise for a new VC fund this week. While this remains behind the record-breaking levels of a16z crypto's $4.5 billion fourth crypto fund (2021), Haun Ventures' $1.5 billion debut in 2022, or even Paradigm's own $2.5 billion fund (also 2022), the amount is certainly eye-popping and appears reflective of a broader recovery in VC funding. The new fund is the largest raise in the post-FTX world. It will concentrate on early-stage startups, including an incubation program. In a blog post announcing the fund, Matt Huang (who founded Paradigm in 2018 jointly with Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam) noted, "It’s more important than ever to accelerate a positive future for crypto, not just as investors but as builders." Broader trends back up a return to funding; Q1 2024 reversed seven consecutive quarters of VC decline, with $2.4 billion of total investments, a 40% quarter-on-quarter increase (Reuters). VCs appear to be returning to digital assets. In an interview with Bloomberg, Steven Waterhouse, formerly a partner at Pantera Capital, who is now raising his own VC fund, highlighted the shifting perception of crypto: back in 2014-16, "the primary question was ‘does this thing even make sense?' Now the question is quite different: ‘What’s going to happen next and what’s the big deal?’" Time will tell how VC deal volumes will shape out, but the continued recovery of the crypto market, increasing institutional involvement (see 13F disclosure), and bipartisan support of #FIT21 (overwhelming 67% House vote) suggest the industry might be poised to offer another wave of burgeoning projects, driving new fundraises and VC deal flow. #digitalassets #evolution

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Many UK business owners are getting in touch following the general election announcement. Yes, lots of very sensible ways to secure an exit ahead - or adapted to - future (TBC) policy changes etc. Some think they need to be ‘ready’ before a conversation. The best strategy - one that gets the best outcome - is always exploring options and working to a clear exit strategy 12-36 months ahead of the target date. This saves a nasty surprise - or realising you need to work another 3-5 years… Whether you sell or not, why not have the option to choose? We setup Open Equity to offer a refreshing alternative to VC/PE or M&A Advisory. Run by operators. By owners for owners. Partnerships built to needs. We’re working with owners on a range of strategic projects … from typical ‘build to sell’ … to buy & builds … to rollups, mergers - and as of last week - an IPO. Politics is politics. Every owner will exit their business. The question is: how will you? #business #generalelection #openequity

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All InvestOps Europe attendees. If you are in #Operations or #Finance, please stop by Stand 8 to learn how HUB automates #NAVOversight, #PerformanceReporting, #BrokerInvoiceReconciliation, #FundAllocations and other manually intensive #posttrade operational tasks.   #investmentoperations #operationalefficiency

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