Dominik Middelmann

A new era of deep tech has emerged. First time funds will raise “unheard of” amounts of capital to fuel next gen deep tech startups - producing outsized, superior returns for LP’s compared to the rest. Prudent investors will act on this data and shift investment strategy as LP’s or risk being left behind savvy wealth managers and CIO’s / FO’s who saw this trend begin 4 years ago.

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A few years ago, we at Andreessen Horowitz wrote an article predicting that a consumer health company could become the biggest company in the world. More recently, we’ve argued that building new companies with magical consumer experiences that inspire behavior change is the most powerful way to extend our lifespans. Today, we're thrilled to announce that we’ve led a $53M Series A in Function Health, a company that embodies the vision and excitement we had when writing those theses. The one piece we underestimated is the current state of latent demand among consumers for a new approach to healthcare and longevity. Since launching a beta in 2023, Function has amassed nearly 50k paying members with little marketing. Function aims to integrate all of your health data with all of the world’s health knowledge to best inform what actions you can take to live 100 healthy years. Function helps you fully understand what’s happening in your body, initially through the most powerful data source in healthcare: blood. We couldn’t be more excited to back Mark Hyman, MD, Jonathan Swerdlin, Pranitha Patil, Seth Weisfeld, and Mike Nemke, and to invest alongside Ari Emanuel, Blake Griffin, Jay Shetty, Joel Embiid, Jeff Dean, Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Zac Efron, Kevin Hart, Colin Kapernick, Casey Means, MD, Julie Klapstein, Zack Werner, Draft Ventures, G9 Ventures, K5 Ventures, Wisdom VC, 53 Stations, Able Partners, Cade Ventures, Continuum Health Ventures, Fearless Ventures, Pari Passu Venture Partners, Spacecadet, Wisdom Ventures, and so many more. Vijay Pande, PhD, Zach Cohen, Annie Collins, Bryan Kim

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Summary: Industry Ventures has raised a $900 million early-stage hybrid fund for investing in emerging managers and directly backing growth-stage companies. This is their seventh hybrid fund and is larger than their previous one. The fund will be split between backing VC funds, direct investments, and acquiring stakes from emerging managers. Key takeaways: Smaller, newer funds are finding it more difficult to raise capital, but this fund from Industry Ventures offers hope for emerging managers. The fund will be split between various investments, including backing VC funds and buying secondary interests. Industry Ventures may have an advantage due to their ability to invest in both emerging and more established managers. Counter arguments: Some may argue that it is still difficult for emerging managers to raise funds. The success of Industry Ventures may not be indicative of the overall climate for emerging managers. #venturecapital #venture #startups #fundraising

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Looking beyond #VC funding for your #startup? Aakash Shah of Wyndly (YC W21) reveals how he built a multi-million dollar #healthtech company using creative capital strategies. Learn how he leveraged Y Combinator's network and alternative funding methods to revolutionize allergy treatment. In case you missed it, you can watch the #FundraisingDemystified #podcast here: https://lnkd.in/eZT63YS4

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Pitched to 60 VC partners & principals Key Takeaways 👇 - At pre-seed stage the team is critical. This means you 100% need a stellar CTO. Don’t even think of raising without a CTO - If you don’t fit a certain bias, your expectations have just doubled. So having more is always better. More customers, more traction, more validation! - ALWAYS get warm intros to investors. Rely on your network. Go build one bcz cold pitching never works! - Lastly be prepared to fail. Markets are brutal right now. Have a backup plan! #startups #founders #fundraising

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In 2023, only 13.2% of all startup founders were women. Startups with all-women founders raised less than 2% of all venture capital funding. Only 15% of unicorns that went public in 2021 had at least one female founder. April Koh is one of the rare founders who has made it through the gauntlet to get to this point. While companies are struggling to raise more capital in this environment because the hurdles are higher, imagine how much harder it is for a woman founder. It is a triumph and credit to how she has built Spring Health into a $3.3 billion valuation. We are all pulling for you April, because the more Spring Health's there are in the world, the more likely we are to see women unicorn founders in the future.

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