Poppy Gustafsson

I don't go in for 'building in public' in general, but every now and then I think it's worth sharing what I'm seeing in the market. The below graph shows the average time to close a deal over time at EmergeOne and you can see that this has been creeping up since last year (adjusted for seasonality) and is currently close to 3 months to close a deal. So what's happening? Well, I was recently at an CFO event where we got a bit of a data driven view into the state of private markets. Some key points that came out: 🏷️ Median post money at Series A has dropped from 80m USD in 21/22 to 65m USD in 2024. This is still up from 40m from circa 2020. ％ Top quartile is significantly over at 107m. 📈 Series B median post money is $137m, top quartile $287m USD, but bottom quartile significantly struggling. 🚀 Deal velocity has slowed but started recovering. 💰 Lots of deals are happening but not priced - bridges abound. So how does this therefore relate to what we're seeing in terms of time to close? Firstly, we are a consultancy providing fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups typically post Seed and pre Series A so this data reflects what we are generally seeing in the market as well. But the two main issues that are seemingly impacting our numbers are around deal velocity and bridge financing. There are simply fewer deals being done and they are taking longer to close, so the volume of potential clients we can target has dropped significantly. This does, however, mean that the quality of deals we're working on is significantly higher this year. Secondly, as companies struggle to raise priced rounds, they are raising lower amounts of capital on convertibles. This impacts us as CFOs are only truly valuable when there is a significant balance sheet to manage, less capital = less need for CFOs and hence the decision as to when to bring us in gets pushed out. But equally, that insecurity over funds means that founders are much more hesitant to make significant hiring decisions, prioritising hires that can directly influence revenue / traction in the near term. But they also know that they need the support so are often waiting for the 'magic moment' where they hit an inflection point that gives them confidence to pull the trigger. Outside of the deal data, we are also seeing venture indexing towards more R&D heavy businesses (life science, hardware etc.) and these sort of companies are often not commercialising for several years. They have security over spend and regard finance as a future problem. We are seeing a lot of companies approaching Series B without anyone in finance, deferring that decision till they close. But we are also seeing leads come through from a multitude of sources proving there is appetite for strong commercially minded CFOs to support and grow these scaling businesses. So as the market stabilises, I would expect to see these numbers come back. Business wouldn't be any fun if it was all easy, would it?!

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Startup & Investor Financial Tips In the UK, there are several financial tax incentives designed to support startups and encourage investment in early-stage businesses 🚀Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) - early-stage startups. ✔Investors can claim 50% income tax relief on investments up to £200,000 per tax year. ✔No Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on any gains from the investment if the shares are held for at least three years. ✔Loss relief available if the investment does not succeed. 🚀Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) - slightly more established startups. ✔Investors can claim 30% income tax relief on investments up to £1 million per year. ✔No CGT on profits if the shares are held for at least three years. ✔CGT deferral relief allows investors to delay CGT on other gains by investing in EIS. _______________________________________________________________ For start up or scale up financial tips DM Hydra-Software-Services  #startups #scaleups  #investors

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Only 7 days left to, depending on your drive: - Support Jointflows, - Get your hands on some discounted early-days shares of Jointflows. This is how we are currently getting VC intros 🤯: Jointflows allows sales teams to control, accelerate, and win non-linear sales cycles: a $233 billion problem/opportunity just in B2B SaaS. Hockey-stick ARR growth, highly sticky, generating money from expansions, and operating profitably. https://lnkd.in/eQTnKAqE Required legal disclaimer:𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩-𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

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For the founders and investors out there who are interested... Here’s what I’m investing in 🚀 I’ve spoken a lot about being a CVC investor and how to make it work, but I haven’t really shared much on what we actually invest in... so here it is! At Wayra UK, we’re investing in 🌐 Networks, 🔗 Connectivity, ☁️ Cloud, 🌱 Sustainability, and 🤖 AI/ML. In terms of stage, our sweet spot is Series A and pre-Series A. N.B.: If a company does not fall within this scope, we can be flexible if it’s the right financial opportunity and one we believe we can support through Telefónica. By focusing our investments in areas where we have a right to play, our goal is to create opportunities for startups to collaborate with Telefónica and merge legacy telecommunications with today’s innovative solutions. Our offer as an investor: There are two things we like to shout about as investors at Wayra and that is business development and our global footprint. Investment from us comes with a dedicated business development person whose whole job is to help you sell your product through enterprise and our global network. If there’s one thing we’ve learned as Telefónica’s CVC, it’s cracking enterprise sales and BD. You’ll get a dedicated BD person to scale your solution across Telefónica’s global hubs, build strategic plans, and act as an extension of your sales team to sell into corporates. We have a presence in 12 countries, and that’s a network our companies benefit from. In terms of other specifics: 💸 €100K - 5M tickets across Wayra’s investment vehicles 👥 A great team passionate about you and what we do 🌍 7 global hubs with a presence in 12 countries offering international scaling opportunities — If you’re new here, I’m Jake, an investor for Wayra (Telefónica’s CVC). If you have a business in these areas, or you know of businesses in these areas, DM me. Let’s chat! 💬

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Founders/Investors raising or investing...READ THIS We have raised £400k under the UK Government's SEIS/EIS Scheme, through SeedLegals Of that £400k, £250k was under SEIS and £150k was under EIS. So what does this mean? Well, the £250k we raised under SEIS, qualifies for Tax Relief/Rebate to the individual investor of 50% and 0% Capital Gains Tax. So, that means that £125k will be either offset or claimed back, courtesy of the government. A typical ticket of £25k, suddenly turns into £12,500 of actual investment, but still £25k in terms of your equity/shareholding....BLOODY GOOD RIGHT! Then we have the £150k under EIS. Same as the SEIS, you get 0% Capital Gains Tax and 30% Tax Relief/Rebate. So from the £150k under EIS, £45k is Offset or claimed back courtesy of the government. So of the £400k we raised, £170k will be claimed back, into the investors pockets! Now as we move into our Seed Raise, of £2million, we are still raising under the EIS Scheme, which means £600k will be rebated back by the government. So if someone put the full £2million in, they could claim back £600k, meaning their cash outlay is £1.4million, but they actual shareholding and equaity is at £2million. This Scheme is an incredible incentive for investors and a great way for founders to raise investment and fund their businesses. I hope this helps and I hope people take advantage of this scheme. #seis #eis #investment #Founder #fund #raise

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It amazes me how little our Start Up eco-system focuses on the basics when it comes to raising capital. Below Sam Simpson touches on the 'super power' all Start Up Founders have when building Tech or Support Services that help ANY business launch a solution for ANYONE. The narrative that needs to change in Society is about RISK. I have recently debated with UK Pension Lawyer Jade Murray about HIGH RISK Assets being held across various DC Pension products. Back in May 2010 I watched the faces of two FSA Associate Directors change, as I explained my vision for the 3PPS Framework is to provide access to the upside potential of 'HIGH RISK' Illiquid Assets, without adding a single penny of extra risk to mass retail savers. It is fascinating to hear all the pathetic excuses of 'experts' why they don't advertise the success rate of their advisory services at meeting the unmet needs of 9 in 10 workers in the UK, across 2m SMEs. Jeremy Hunt said recently that SMEs employ 27m workers out of 32m. Every single one of them have been blocked from accessing the potential upside from 'HIGH RISK' Assets, despite Statutory & Regulatory Laws being quite clear that ANYONE is eligible to participate. Sam has highlighted the basic tax relief advantages, which are 50% (SEIS), 40% (HRT & IHT), 30% (EIS), 25% (BRT), 22% (Loss Relief) or 20% (CGT) tax relief benefits are available depending on an individual's own tax circumstances. The biggest supporters of Start Ups (40%) in the UK are Friends and Family. The second biggest (30%) is the Taxpayer (everyone), via various initiatives. The remaining 30% are professional investors e.g. Angels, VC, PE. Until the Mansion House Reform, which I have been arguing for since 2004, UK DC Workplace Pension Providers have given virtually ZERO F*CKS about supporting innovation and homegrown SME talent. Pension La La Land has been happy selling 5 ⭐️ 'low cost' products, which I predicted in 2010 to the FSA, would continue to fail 9 in 10 workers. The AE chickens have come home to roost, despite all the 5 ⭐️ awards being handed out like confetti, the average shortfall has grown from £200k to £250k (25% worse). The consumer cost to repair Pension La La Land's non-compliance with COBS19.1 over the last decade is an eyewatering £600bn 😱 What does this mean for 45m DC Workplace Pension pot owners? It means that to catch up after 10yrs of #Pensionwashing you will need to pay between 4x to 10x more contributions every payday, than those who secured additional risk free funding. Restitution Funding is the only affordable option for 45m DC Workplace Pension pot owners. If you are reading this, you will have been impacted one way or another. I passionately believe the Start Up eco-system can help millions of affected workers get back on track. If you would like to know more about recovering £60,000 of lost retirement benefits, please don't hesitate to reach out. #RestitutionFunding #BUOM #TheCherubsAreComing 👼