Female Foundry Week 92: American Pie. Unfair advantage. Early-stage deals show resilience. Female Foundry x Carta Dinners.
Welcome to The Week 92, 2023 Edition of the Female Foundry newsletter!
Female Foundry - where investors and female founders meet.
In the news
Berlin-based Empion, co-founded by Dr. Annika von Mutius and Dr. Larissa Leitner raises a €6m Seed round led by Cavalry Ventures; London-based Flash Pack, co-founded by Radha Vyas, fetches a £5m Seed round led by JamJar Investments; German Oxolo, co-founded by Elisabeth L'Orange, bags a €13m Series A round led by DN Capital; Barcelona-based Lapso Studios, co-founded by Eugenia Llopart de Mercader, picks up a €1.5m Seed round led by La Vida es Chula; Finnish Kausal, co-founded by Sonja-Maria Ignatius, secures a €0.88m Seed round led co-by Innovestor and Zubi Capital; Danish Bioomix, co-founded by Julia Magdalena Østergaard Andersen, lands a €6.3m Seed round co-led by West Hill Capital and PreSeed Ventures; Spanis Uelz Pay, founded by Maria Luke and Xandra Etxabe, lands a €0.8m Pre-Seed round from Wayra, Core Angels snd several other angels; Also Spanish Twinco Capital, founded by Sandra Nolasco and Carmen Marin, secures a €50m debt facility from BBVA Spark; Cambridge-based Nu Quantum, co-founded by Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, secures a €8m Series A round led by Amadeus Capital Partners, Expeditions Fund, and IQ Capital.
Spotlight
American Pie.
A16Z officially opened its London office this week, following Sequoia, Accel, Index and other American firms, and the recent announcement of the General Catalyst and La Famiglia merger, demonstrating a heightened appetite for European deals by US investors. What does the data say? Currently, 160 VC firms headquartered in the US operate in Europe, with the vast majority of them investing at the Series A-B stages.
Out of all European countries, the UK has seen the highest level of deal participation by US investors, who have so far invested in 526 deals this year. The largest deals featuring VCs from across the pond include £500m for a personal lending platform Abound and a £280m investment deal in dog food company Butternut Box. Elsewhere in Europe, US investors have joined 176 rounds in Germany and 150 in France.
So while French early-stage startups got a €500m funding boost by the French government last week, and the French OpenAI rival Mistral is touted to be raising a new round at a $2bn valuation, the funding pie chart remains largely American. Only 5% of $22bn in VC funding for generative AI has so far gone to Europe.
Fundraising
Unfair advantage.
It is my observation: Not many founders are aware of, clearly understand, or work towards improving their businesses' unfair advantage. I see that the topic does not often make its way into fundraising pitch decks either.
I am not talking about the competition slide, where a product feature or price tends to be in focus. Those can be relatively easily replicated. Unfair advantage is more complex than that. It is rooted in the founding team's experience and networks and is the result of the founders’ ability to see the world differently for a prolonged period of time. Very few founders go to this level of profound understanding before starting their business. A few spend time thinking about it while in full swing of product development. And yet, without an unfair advantage, you probably don't have a viable business. Or, even worse - without understanding your unfair advantage, you are not maximising the value creation opportunity you have in your hands.
What is your unfair advantage?
Analysis
Early-stage deals show resilience.
The report released last week indicates that the total value of investments in European startups is expected to reach over $77bn this year, well above the pre-pandemic record. What's interesting is that early-stage deals seem to be unaffected by the downturn so far, at least according to the combined deal value of $22bn (compared to last year's $21bn). Unsurprisingly, climate-tech and deeptech have taken the largest share of the deal value, accounting for over 55%.
Community
Let’s get together!
Female Foundry x Carta Dinners
We are two weeks away from the dinners we are hosting with Carta to celebrate our State of Gender Diversity in European Venture initiative.
Dinners are FREE and the spots will be given away in a draw next week. To enter the draw, you must have filled in our Survey. If you haven’t completed our 3-minute Survey yet, now is your chance:
Dinner One: 21st of November, 6:30pm - Female founders, VC investors and Angel investors. Dinner Two: 28th of November, 6:30pm - Female Emerging Fund Managers and LP investors.
I will announce the winners of dinner spots and the Slush ticket in the newsletter next week.
Can’t be in London on those dates? No problem! We have a number of other free perks that will go to lucky winners that have completed the Survey.
Hiring
This week hiring:
GoHenry ➯ Customer Service Representative | Peppy ➯ CRM Manager | SKIN + ME ➯ Content Creator.
See more jobs on the Female Foundry Job Board.
Founder & Investor Meetups
Pi Labs’ Growth Programme is closing applications next week. If you are a founder of a Pre-seed or a Seed stage high growth technology business shaping the physical world, apply now.
_
Tuesday, October 07, Stockholm ➯ Founders Live Stockholm | Wednesday, October 08, Amsterdam ➯ Workshop Financiële Planning & Analyse, Paris ➯ Fête des Entrepreneurs 2023 | Thursday, November 09, Amsterdam ➯ Entrepreneurial get together, Paris ➯ Soirée Femtech France | Friday, November 10, Paris ➯ Pitch Challenge Session.
I hope you have had a great week!
Enjoy your Sunday and see you next weekend!
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.
♡
Thank you Tatiana for your help.