Female Foundry Week 109: Jumping the pond. Managing technical teams. Founders turned VCs - but how many? Meet us at the Tech.eu Summit.
Welcome to The Week 109, 2024 Edition of the Female Foundry newsletter!
Female Foundry - where investors and female founders meet.
In the news
Berlin-based Cozero, co-founded by Helen Tacke, raises a €6.5m Series A round led by Kvanted and ENV for its carbon management software; London-based FilmChain, founded by Maria Tanjala and Irina Albita, picks up a €2.8m Seed round led by Holt IntersXion to automate payments in the film and TV industry; Ghent-based AmphiStar, co-founded by Sophie Roelants lands a €6m Series A round led by the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, to launch bio surfactants derived from waste; London-based FYLD, co-founded by Shelley Copsey, secures a £12m Series A round led by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan for its AI-powered field management platform.
A new Belgium-based VC, Impact Shakers, co-founded by Yonca Braeckman and Alina Klarner, raises €5m of a target €20m and launches a fund focused on investing in early-stage impact startups across Europe. Big congratulations!
Spotlight
Jumping the pond.
There were 121 new VC fund vehicles raised in Europe last year, according to the Female Foundry State of Gender Diversity in European Venture 2024 report we produce in collaboration with Dealroom. And even though the amount of capital raised by European VC funds dropped from €84bn to €54bn last year (see chapter: Investment Levels), signs of recovery might be on the horizon for the European ecosystem this year - 47 funds worth €4.6bn closed in the first quarter of the year, putting 2024 on track to surpass last year’s fund count.
But the signs of recovery are not visible everywhere. Despite their deep pockets, US-based LPs are grappling with negative sentiment caused by recent market volatility, compounded by a sluggish exit market and together driving a sharp decline in capital raised by US VC firms compared to other regions. In Q1 this year, a mere 100 VC vehicles worth a total of $9.3 billion closed - the lowest fund count for Q1 since 2015.
Consequently, many American GPs are now turning their gaze across the pond, eyeing European capital markets and their ..LPs. European LPs are less exposed to VC than those in the US, leaving more room to commit to the asset class. Just two weeks ago, a US-based emerging early-stage fund Maniv closed a $140m investment vehicle with a significant portion of fund commitments coming from European LPs such as BNP Paribas and a UK-based InMotion Ventures. Only four weeks earlier, an LA-based VC firm Overture raised a $60m debut fund from several European family offices.
With a much wider pool of startups to invest in, a greater potential for diversification, and a larger exit market, US funds can be a promising target for European LPs hungry for returns. There are increasingly more signs demonstrating that European LPs are recognising the attractiveness of the US market. In fact, 12.2% of overall commitments by European LPs went to emerging US VC vehicles this year, up from 6.9% in 2023 - that’s a 77% increase.
Fundraising
Managing technical teams.
With increasing expectations on startup founders to become more and more tech savvy, and with fundraising being challenging, there is mounting pressure on founders to hire exceptional technical leads and to hire them correctly. I regularly speak with founders who ask me about when they should consider expanding their technical teams. While the timing largely depends on the specific company, hiring (and managing) exceptional tech talent is going to be a priority for most startups operating today.
In my career so far, I have had a chance to hire over 50 people - some of those hires were exceptional and many of them later went on to build some great ventures themselves, but there happened to be a few complete failures too! Managing talent is perhaps the most challenging yet, if done well, the most rewarding thing you can do for your company. Here is a great article I have found that talks about how to approach managing engineering talent, which might be helpful especially for non-technical founders.
Analysis
Founders turned VCs - but how many?
No one can dispute the value of VCs who have lived through the experiences of the founders they back. Founder-VCs bring extensive networks and firsthand experience in scaling startups, enabling them to offer invaluable guidance. Having been on both sides of the table was my inspiration to found Female Foundry in the first place. The data underscores this point, with founders turned VCs showing a 28% higher success rate in backing companies compared to investor VCs.
But just how rare are VCs with founder experience? Data shows that in Europe, they are still very rare; only 8% of all venture capitalists founded the company before and the percentage of ex-operator partners at European VCs is estimated to be as low as 1.8%. By comparison, in the US, nearly every second VC has founded a company before (!).
Community
Female Foundry x Tech.eu Summit
Female Foundry is partnering with Tech.eu Summit taking place on the 16-17th May 2024 in London and we have 1x £600 + VAT ticket to give away to the Female Foundry community!
I will make an exciting announcement for Female Foundry at the conference - can’t wait for it! It will also be a great chance to meet you in person!
To enter the FREE ticket draw, submit your interest below. Deadline: April 26, 10pm GMT. T&C of Tech.eu Summit apply. I will announce the winners here in two weeks time. Good luck!
Also, if you we have a 20% discount code on 50 tickets. Drop me a line to receive a promo code.
Hiring
This week hiring:
SAPI ➯ Head of Sales | Material Evolution ➯ Program Manager | Skin + Me ➯ Office Manager.
See more jobs on the Female Foundry Job Board.
Founder & Investor Meetups
Tuesday, April 24, London ➯ Future Frontiers: A New Tech Manifesto for London, Paris ➯ Entrepreneurs: De vision à produit, l'art de collaborer avec les Techs | Thursday, April 25, London ➯ Rise FinTech Mentoring, Paris ➯ Pie & AI: Paris - GenAI for developers with GitLab.
It’s my birthday next week, so I’m taking a week off with my family. See you in two weeks’ time!
Agata
Written by Agata Leliwa Nowicka, an investor, a startup adviser, a two-time entrepreneur, and a founder of Female Foundry based in London.
Suggestions? Drop me an email.
Check femalefoundry.co for more fundraising tools and investor content. View other Female Foundry articles.