Female Foundry Week 43: Twitter deal is done. Term sheets are changing. How to write investor updates. Exiting to community. Emerging role of equity tokens in venture capital.
Welcome to The Week 43, 2022 Edition of the Female Foundry newsletter!
Female Foundry - where female investors and founders meet.
In The News
UK-based femtech startup Daye, founded by Valentina Milanova raises €11.5m Series A round led by Hambro Perks to launch an at-home screening kit and bridge the gender health gap; Carbon storage startup Paebbl co-founded by Marta Sjögren and Jane Walerud bags €8m Seed round led by Pale Blue Dot; Barcelona-based Ourspace, co-founded by Megan Murphy and Stephanie Bowker fetches a €2.5m Pre-Seed round led by Connect Ventures and Seedcamp to optimise team design and management efficiency; Austria’s Female Founders is raising a €20m fund, Fund F, to back pre-seed and seed-stage companies with at least one female cofounder; JPMorgan launches a fundraising platform to connect founders with investors and to simplify the fundraising process.
European VC-backed acquisitions are on track for a record this year as consolidation increases in the startup community. Read full story ➯
Are you considering raising debt? Here are the most active US debt investors investing in European startups. Read full story ➯
Spotlight
Twitter deal is done. Who is funding it?
Elon Musk has finally closed a $44 billion deal this week to acquire Twitter, ending a months-long saga. Musk had pledged to finance the deal through a mix of equity and debt financing. Who is involved on the equity side? So far, according to data from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the biggest equity checks will come from Sequoia Capital ($800m), VyCapital ($700m) and Binance ($500m). Just for comparison, Adobe’s acquisition of Figma, a $20bn deal done just few weeks ago that represented one of the largest software deals in history, is less than half of the Twitter’s deal strike price. Read full story ➯
Fundraising
How are term sheets changing in the current economic climate.
With growing concerns about the economic downturn, VCs have been slowing in deployment of cash in the past few months. As the startup ecosystem enters an adjustment period, founders and investors have to adapt to a different fundraising pace. Some investors see this adjustment as a positive outcome, it produces steadier valuations, weeds out unproductive businesses, and makes founders focus on creating value. With the changing investor mindset, the economics of the VC deals are changing too. So how are term sheets different in the current economic climate? And what should founders be looking out for? Eleanor Warnock reports. Read full story ➯
How to write effective investor updates.
In the current climate, keeping investors in the loop should be a priority of any startup. Sharing updates about successes but also failures and challenges can not only strengthen your relationship with investors in case you need more runway in the coming months, but also help you to gather resources and advice in the changing market conditions. The information to include in your updates will vary from investor to investor - the key is to define investor’s expectations at the outset and to make them regular. How to structure investor updates and make them an effective tool for your startup right now? Read full story ➯
Analysis
New way to exit: exiting to community.
With a slowdown of IPO activity, there is a growing movement of founders and academics advocating for a new way for startups to exit. The key idea behind this is to simplify the process, cut costs and most importantly, reward the people that have contributed to the company’s success by releasing its ownership to them. Unlike a typical IPO or a trade sale, where external investors purchase stock of a company, an exit to community transfers ownership, key decision-making and profits to a much larger group of people, including employees, contributors, its users and fans. The idea originated at a think tank, Zebras Unite at the University of Colorado and is gaining more attention. It is at the very least a concept worth exploring. Read full story ➯
Emerging role of equity tokens in venture capital.
Until recently, startups have had limited funding options, with most early-stage businesses relying on angel and venture capitals to grow. However, blockchain has been allowing startups to bootstrap their projects by issuing tokens, enabling them to retain their equity for longer. In recent months, ETOs, Equity Token Offerings, have become one of the most popular ways to raise financing for startups in the Web3 space. What does the process of issuing an ETO look like and what are the implications for startups and investors of this emerging financing class? Read full story ➯
From the Community
The tickets to European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona are here.
European Blockchain Convention - one of the most prominent blockchain & crypto events in Europe is back in Barcelona! Grab an early ticket now and join 3,000+ attendees in a 3-day event, meet with the startups, investors, corporates and developers shaping the Web 3.0 future!
We offer a 25% discount on all ticket types for our subscribers. So instead of €379 (General Pass), €729 (VIP Pass), €2,199 (Patron Pass) you will pay €285, €547 and €1,650 respectively, the price does not include VAT. Tickets ➯
Hiring
Check Female Foundry Job Board, and join female-founded startups.
Hormona ➯ Social Media Intern | Swaypay ➯ Content Creator | Baobab ➯ Marketer (German)
Find more female-founded startup jobs here.
It has been a great week. Enjoy your weekend!
Agata
Written by Agata Nowicka, a founder of Female Foundry, a serial entrepreneur, and an investor based in London.
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