Investors had to rethink their strategies last year as the venture capital market fostered record-breaking deals and valuations, while VCs had less time than ever to make decisions.
ark Goldberg knows how much the venture capital market has changed in recent years. A partner at Index Ventures, Goldberg remembers the days when investors would meet up on Monday mornings to sip cappuccinos, pore over pitch decks and dig into due diligence. But in today’s record-breaking market, things look a little different. At his firm, lengthy investor meetings have been replaced with blocked calendar slots in case a partner has to sign a last-minute term sheet quickly.
For many that has meant making the process more fluid than formal. VCs aren’t waiting for companies to come pitch to them, instead they are constantly tracking and gathering insight on startups that could be potential portfolio companies in the future. Multi-stage firm Felicis Ventures even hired a head of research in 2021 to assist with this. Frontloading the work gives VCs a “prepared mind” — as multiple investors put it — allowing them to move quickly when presented with a term sheet.
As a solo general partner, Nisha Desai, the founder and managing partner at Andav Capital, says last year forced her to be incredibly disciplined with her time to make sure she gives herself enough time to properly research and prepare. Thankfully though, she thinks founders have also leaned into the dynamic. “I will say founders have gotten smarter about due diligence. I rarely get deep or even do a first call, until I have enough information,” she says.
Although the most active investors in 2020 were blue chip venture firms, the first half of 2021 saw crossover funds Tiger Global and Insight Partners take pole position, according to data from. “The hedge funds and public investors who've come into the private markets have pushed the existing private investors like us to start upping our game on how we do diligence,” Maltz says.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
VCs don't understand that Cardano has a community: Charles Hoskinson“We live in a world where arbitrary groups of people get to be fact-checkers and decide what's legitimate,” said Hoskinson.
Read more »
2021 goes down as a year of high risk and high reward for marketsU.S. stocks are set to wrap up the year in joyful fashion as investors looked past an array of pandemic threats.
Read more »
We Made a Not-on-TikTok BA Editor Review the App’s Unhinged Food TrendsThese are the top FoodToks of 2021, according to an elder Millennial who has no idea what’s going on.
Read more »
Enjin's Efinity Won Polkadot’s Sixth Parachain With $214M RaisedEnjin’s Efinity has won Polkadot’s sixth and last parachain auction for 2021 with a fundraiser of over $214 million in DOT.
Read more »
Genius IQs, entrepreneurs and chess masters: 6 kids who inspired in 2021Whether achieving an IQ of 162 at 13, graduating university at 11 or becoming a chess master at 10, these are the kids who won 2021.
Read more »