Dry powder of VC, on challenging yourself, AI opportunities in finance, and more...
The Flowlie Times #33
Good Afternoon!
This is the Flowlie newsletter with insights on VC & PE: from operations, tech, and tax matters to trends, notable guides, and news on recent capital raises. We hope you enjoy it and find some value!
This edition is brought to you by International Intrigue, Finance Homie, and The 1 Minute Daily Question
Articles we enjoyed:
1️⃣ Venture capital has lots of dry powder in 2023. Key ideas:
Whether VCs are willing to back companies in 2023 could spell life or death for certain cash-hungry startups.
Despite the large "dry powder" figures, there are concerns that this may not translate into significant startup investments in 2023, as some investors may be overextended after rapid fundraising during the pandemic era.
While VCs are obligated to deploy the capital they raised, the pace and volume of investments may not match the levels seen in 2021, making it feel like the market isn't moving as fast.
This cash crunch of limited partners affects the ability to raise new funds even more.
2️⃣ On challenging yourself. Learning calculus is not just about its practical use in adulthood, but it's more about showing yourself and others that you can handle difficult challenges. It builds your confidence and self-image of competence, allowing you to take on harder tasks in life. The grades you get may not matter as much as the proof that you can conquer tough projects and do hard things. It's important to find ways to challenge yourself and build evidence of your ability to handle difficult situations.
3️⃣ Founder Framework: Identifying AI Opportunities in Financial Services. The process involved breaking down the industry into categories and key functions within each. The functions were ranked based on three criteria: the potential for incremental AI enhancement, the urgency of customer pain, and the function's risk tolerance. Functions with higher risk tolerance might see faster AI adoption, while those with lower risk tolerance may require more proof points, but they could still be highly desirable due to significant pain points to be addressed.
Venture announcements that caught our eye:
1️⃣ Trebellar has secured $3.5 million in seed funding. Their platform uses machine learning to streamline workplace and building operations, offering actionable insights for real estate, space efficiency, and well-being, helping large organizations improve efficiency and address environmental issues. A great example of how the data by itself is useless until someone can generate insights out of it.
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2️⃣ Anduin, a company aiming to revolutionize transacting in the private markets, has raised $15 million in Series B funding to enhance its infrastructure and expand its services. The platform has already facilitated over $55 billion in capital raising for hundreds of GPs and 27,000 investors, becoming a well-regarded solution for investor onboarding in the private markets.
3️⃣ Formaloo (a competitor to Airtable) has officially launched Formaloo 3.0 and secured a new $2.3 million investment round. The update brings significant improvements, with more than 100 new features and a redesigned Editor 2.0, allowing users to build forms, apps, chatbots, and more in a unified editor with drag-and-drop simplicity.
Flowlie news 🎉
We launched a partner offers page in the Flowlie App. Accessible to founders, this page provides enticing discounts on services ranging from incorporation and HR to podcasting and cyber security.
Cheers,
Mike from Flowlie