Female Foundry Week 73: Power, Capital & Politics. Hard truth about soft conversations. Join us this summer. Family offices reassess their allocations. France withstands economic downturn.

Welcome to The Week 73, 2023 Edition of the Female Foundry newsletter!

Jun 11, 2023

From left: Eléonore Crespo, Charmaine Chow, Benjamina Bollag, Regine Haschka Helmer and Dr. Ruth Faram.

Female Foundry - where investors and female founders meet.

In the news

Paris-based Cleyrop, co-founded by Lauren Sayag, snaps a €10m Series A round led by Keen Venture Partners, Crédit Agricole, and Normandie Participations to industrialize the data & AI projects of public and private organizations; London-based GetHarley, founded by Charmaine Chow, bags a £42m Series B round led by Index Ventures for its personalised skincare platform; Berlin-based SPYCE.5, co-founded by Regine Haschka Helmer, picks a €1m Pre-Seed round from David Sonstebo for its Web3 infrastructure; French Pigment co-founded by Eléonore Crespo, with the mission to take on Microsoft Excel, lands an $88m Series C round led by Iconiq Growth, bringing its total funding to $234m; Cambridge-based Uncommon, founded by Benjamina Bollag and Dr. Ruth Faram, raises a €28m Series A round led by Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon to scale cultivated pork to make cultivated pork go mainstream.

London-based Black Seed, co-founded by Yvonne Nagawa, raises makes a first close of £5m of its target £10m to invest into black founders in the UK.

Spotlight

Power, Capital & Politics.

The US venture capital giant Sequoia Capital, announced on Tuesday it would be splitting its global partnership, that currently shares investors and some returns across its different locations, into three independent geographic units by March 2024, marking the end of the 18 year-long era of amicable venture capital connection between China and the US. Although Sequoia Capital does not mention raising geopolitical tensions between Shanghai and Washington in its announcement, the decision to separate Sequoia China (now HongShan) and Sequoia South East Asia (now Peak XV Partners) into distinct entities is a fresh sign of decoupling between the world's largest economies.

Several of Sequoia China's investments have come under fire in recent years from Capitol Hill, who has been gradually implementing further restrictions on American investments in Chinese companies, especially those leveraging AI and other advanced technologies, citing alleged links to the Chinese military and national security concerns. In 2019, the Trump administration put Bytedance, a Sequoia investment from 2014, under the national security review. Last year, drone maker DJI, in which Sequoia China invested in 2013, was added to a trade blacklist by the Biden administration.

The split demonstrates the extraordinary sensitivity of today's capital markets and raises questions about the growing challenges of investing in companies with global ambitions in an increasingly complex political environment. Read full story ➯

Fundraising

Hard truth about soft conversations.

This week, I spoke with a founder who had been having soft conversations with several VCs, yet, disappointingly, she had been struggling to convert those talks into meaningful investment traction. Building relationships with your target investors way before your fundraise can boost your chances of securing an investment, but only if done well. Unlike a few years ago, today there are demo days, networking meet-ups, summits, and fire chats that are great ways for you to put yourself on the radar of the right backer. Remember, this holds true not just for you but for the hundreds of other founders attending those events, that might be building in your space.

Don't be fooled. What might seem like an innocent chat is actually an efficient way for an investor to appraise your founder abilities, gauge your execution skillset, rate your startup ambitions, analyse your value proposition, determine the potential size of your market, scrutinise your growth strategy, and calculate the potential return on their investment. Most investors will arrive at their conclusions within the first 5 minutes of your "chat".

If you see that there is an interest and an investor wants to follow up when you are fundraising, don’t wait. Achieving meaningful company milestones (MVP, traction, great team addition, adviser, partner) is already a great reason for a follow-up - make sure this happens regularly. However, do not talk to the same investor unless you have significantly increased your traction. No interest? - Are you talking to the right investors? It might sound obvious, but do not expect VCs focusing on B2B fintech to be excited about your health-tech app. Seeking feedback from your potential investors can also be tricky. Have you gauged your investor’s personality? Check this. Have you heard about an investment pipeline? Check this. You should track your soft conversations too! Including tracking any feedback and any clues you might have received.

I am looking forward to meeting you at our Power Hour with EQL:HER at London Tech Week on Wednesday!

Announcement

Join Female Foundry this summer!

We are working on some exciting projects to be launched later this year and I am looking for an intern to join Female Foundry in the coming 3 months. If you know anyone who is passionate about venture capital, innovation and startups, and has great communication skills, please tell them to apply by the 19th of June.

This is a paid internship opportunity with a possibility of becoming a part of the team in a long term. Start date: Early July, Duration: Min. 12 weeks. Weekly time commitment: Min. 20hrs. Compensation: TBD. Location: Remote/Europe or in London. ALL genders welcome!

Apply here

Analysis

Family offices reassess their allocations.

Family offices are planning significant changes to their investment strategies, pursuing more tactical opportunities to capture alpha, in response to the ongoing market volatility, the latest report reveals. It indicates that nearly half of the 120 family offices surveyed intend to revamp their investment approach or portfolio, which is twice the rate compared to 2020, increasing the frequency of their internal portfolio reviews and reevaluating their positions.

Among the super-rich, fixed-income investments are expected to be the primary recipients of allocations, as 72% of them plan to enhance their exposure to investment-grade public bonds. 55% are planning to target sovereign bonds for investment, while half of the respondents expressed intentions to allocate more of their resources to private debt. Also, it looks like the majority of super-wealthy set their sights on infrastructure and private credit as their top investment priorities this year. 50% are saying they recognise some gaps in resourcing and expertise. .. And only 20% are planning to increase venture capital investments, making it the least popular area of alternatives.

France withstands economic downturn.

The report published this week reveals that France's private markets and overall economy have proven to be remarkably resilient to the slow investment conditions in 2023 so far. The value of VC deals in France has skyrocketed this year by an impressive 40.1% compared to last year, reaching €2.5bn in Q1, with Paris being able to defend its second-place position as a top VC hub in Europe with strong deal value of €1.8bn.

From the Community

Female Foundry x Perspektywy Women in Tech

Female Foundry is an official partner of Perspektywy Women in Tech - the largest women in tech conference in Europe, taking place in Warsaw next week - the 14-15 of June.