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The F42 brief
Hello, Here’s your Monday dose of The F42 Brief, where we give you essential updates and innovations that are moving and shaping our startup space.
What’s inside »
📈 Trending Now
The one thing that’s making all the noise …. with a bit of fact checking.
💸 New Funds looking to give you cash
Who has launched a new fund to invest in startups last week.
💡Innovator Spotlight
Founders that are doing suff differently.
🛠️ Tool of the Week
Something useful to up your startups velocity.
📌 Note to Self
Stuff I constantly remind myself about, don’t want make the same mistakes again.
📈 Trending Now
AI Adoption On the Rise Despite Concerns
In the latest report by Vention Teams (August 2024), we’re seeing a paradox in the world of artificial intelligence at work. Despite a whopping 71% of employees expressing concerns about AI adoption—many feeling more anxious than ever—there’s undeniable momentum in its integration. Over 90% of leading service providers have now embraced AI, and a third of employees are already working alongside AI solutions.
What’s more, about 38% of those yet to jump on the AI bandwagon plan to do so this year, signalling a significant shift towards embracing AI technologies across various industries.
💸 New Funds looking to give you cash
Future Tech Ventures (FTV) is a new venture capital investment fund focusing on startups in the Northern Netherlands. The fund size is €20 million, targeting at least 50 high-tech startups in the proof-of-concept phase over the investment period from 2024 to 2029. FTV seeks to invest in early-stage startups where securing funding is challenging and offers additional business support, networking opportunities, and guidance.
Capital A has launched a new venture capital investment fund with a corpus of Rs 400 crore. The fund will invest in startups within high-growth sectors such as manufacturing, climate, fintech, and deep-tech. Initial investments will range between $750,000 and $1 million, with total commitments of $2-3 million per company over their growth cycles. The fund aims to back 17-20 companies, targeting innovative technologies and business models that promote sustainability and industry transformation.
Konvoy Ventures is a Denver-based venture capital firm with $258M AUM, actively deploying funds from its $150M Fund III. They focus on investing in pre-seed, seed, and Series A gaming companies worldwide. Konvoy is particularly interested in platforms and technologies at the frontier of gaming, supporting founders building the next generation of gaming companies.
Capmont Technology has launched a new $111 million venture capital investment fund. The Munich-based firm focuses on investing in B2B tech startups in industries such as supply chain, manufacturing, IoT, enterprise SaaS, robotics, and cybersecurity. They target companies from late seed to Series B stages, offering not just capital but an extensive network to help founders succeed.
This is a new venture capital investment fund named Rethink Impact. It has closed its third and largest fund at $250 million. The fund focuses on impact investments, particularly in female-founded startups across sectors like healthcare and education. Rethink Impact seeks to invest in companies that are at various stages, typically those led by female CEOs, aiming to drive forward significant social and economic change.
Andreessen and Wilson back gaming investor Patron’s Fund II is a $100 million venture capital fund focused on investing in gaming startups. The fund, anchored by Horsley Bridge Partners, includes high-profile VCs like Marc Andreessen and Fred Wilson. Patron's Fund II seeks to invest in early-stage gaming companies, providing capital to innovative startups in the gaming industry. The fund emphasizes supporting emerging managers and target investments that showcase significant growth potential within the gaming sector.
Salesforce Ventures has announced a new $500 million investment fund focused on AI, bringing its total commitment to AI innovators to $1 billion in the past 18 months. They invest in companies that leverage AI to solve business challenges in groundbreaking ways. The fund seeks to invest in startups developing new business applications, AI security solutions, and other vertical AI technologies that Salesforce does not currently cover. Salesforce Ventures typically targets early to growth-stage companies for their investments.
💡Innovator Spotlight
Nick Franklin, founder of ChartMogul, raised $3.7M early but then took an unusual path—he stopped fundraising to focus on building his product and finding the right market fit. Instead of chasing more investment, he leaned into strategic partnerships and fine-tuning his service, growing the business to about $10M ARR over seven years. His success shows that, sometimes, the best move isn’t raising more capital but doubling down on product development and relationships, which helped him scale ChartMogul without constant funding pressure.
🛠️ Tool of the Week
Automate Some Marketing with PlugMyProduct
📊 PlugMyProduct is an AI tool designed for marketing on Reddit and Twitter. It zeroes in on relevant conversations, interprets the context, and replies for you automatically. With users praising its efficacy, the tool has gained traction, automating comment marketing and saving hours on manual searches. The current industry trends show a growing reliance on automation to boost productivity in marketing but also highlight the challenge of standing out in an algorithm-driven landscape. For startup founders, leveraging AI tools like PlugMyProduct can streamline lead generation and free up time for strategic tasks.
💡 One surprising lesson from PlugMyProduct is how important user experience is. The simplicity of setting up campaigns and generating instant results offers practical insights for enhancing productivity. Founders should aim to reduce user friction in their own tools by implementing seamless interfaces and responsive designs. Quick ROI and ease of use can significantly improve user adoption rates and satisfaction, making your tool indispensable to users.
🤔 How can you assess and refine your current tools and processes to enhance efficiency and collaboration within your startup team?
📌 Note to Self
Thank you for reading. If you liked it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in the startup Investor ecosystem.
If you've got suggestions, an article, research, your tech stack, or a job listing you want featured, just let me know! I'm keen to include it in the upcoming edition.
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For the ❤️ of startups
✌🏼 & 💙
Derek