STARTUP X
The F42 brief #004
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
Don’t be dishearten by the sheer speed and scale of execution, just be inspired by it and try and make every day count.
GITEX GLOBAL, 14-18 Oct 2024 - The biggest tech & startup show in the world. Secure your space today.
Now, this isn't just the "biggest" event; it's also one of the most hyped, both in the region and globally. But seriously, some things need to be sorted out. If you're representing the tech industry, you should be a little tech-savvy, right? I mean, that's what the audience expects!
So, imagine my surprise when I received a reminder to print my badge. The irony wasn't lost on me. Thankfully, I did print it ahead of time because the queues of people waiting to get their badges printed at the event were a complete joke.
📌 Note to self 😀
So what is the message here? it’s not just about what you say, it’s about what you do. Your users expect you to be sharp, innovative, and professional. If you can’t nail the basics – how can you expect to impress with the big stuff? Do the simple things well, and make sure your execution backs up your message.
If you have not joined the Fusion42 Community on Telegram — A space for Founders, Framers, and Funders who show up to get **it done,
it is probably time to do so.
For the ❤️ of Startups
💸 New Funds looking to give you cash
Another week and another bunch of fresh capital, with 26 new funds announced—proof that there's plenty of capital out there ready to back startup founders. Whether it's transforming education, enhancing healthcare, or pushing the boundaries of space technology, these funds are geared up and ready to deploy.
Fund NameFund DescriptionURL
NextGen Ventures
A $150 million fund, focuses on early-stage startups in AI, clean energy, and digital health, with investments between $500,000 to $5 million.
PSV Hafnium
A Denmark-based €38.2 million fund (targeting €80.4 million total), invests in early-stage deep tech startups, focusing on science-based clean tech, health tech, and industrial solutions.
PhotonVentures
A Netherlands-based fund focusing on photonics startups, aiming for a €100 million final close by 2024.
Tensor Ventures
A Czech Republic-based €50 million fund focusing on deep tech startups in quantum tech, biotech, energy, climate tech, and more.
Inditex's Venture Fund
A €50 million fund managed by Mundi Ventures, focused on tech and sustainable startups aligned with Inditex’s sustainability agenda.
Interlagos Ventures
A $550 million deep tech fund investing in early-stage startups with a goal of acquiring 18-25% equity.
97212 Ventures
A seed fund investing in pre-seed Israeli startups expanding to New York, focusing on enterprise tech, health tech, and digital transformation.
MBX Capital
A $100 million seed-stage fund investing in biotech and healthcare, targeting human and environmental health.
Diagram's ClimateTech Fund
An $80 million fund focusing on early-stage climate tech startups in Quebec, exceeding its initial target of $60 million.
VanEck Ventures
A $30 million fund focused on fintech, digital assets, and AI startups at the pre-seed and seed stages.
TNB Aura
A Southeast Asia-based firm investing across sectors, with a focus on healthcare startups in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
SFV･GB II L.P.
A JPY 5 billion fund from Global Brain and Sony Financial Ventures, focusing on fintech, healthcare, AI, and mobility startups globally.
Global Brain and Sony Financial Ventures
Lennertz's Blockchain Fund
A $165 million fund of funds focusing on blockchain investments through other VCs
Gorges Ventures
A student-managed investment club at Cornell University investing in startups founded by students from the classes of 2024 and 2025.
Actuate Ventures
A venture studio focusing on space tech and deep tech markets, planning to raise a $25 million fund.
Virescent Ventures
An Australia-based $200 million fund targeting net-zero startups in clean energy, decarbonizing transport, smart cities, and more.
Kalamazoo Forward Ventures
A $50 million fund supporting underrepresented businesses in Southwest Michigan, investing in venture capital, real estate, and small businesses.
Keles SCSP Sicav-Raif
A €250 million Luxembourg-based fund focusing on growth-stage digital health companies across Europe.
Fuze Venture Growth Fund I, LP
A $30 million fund supporting startups led by underrepresented entrepreneurs in tech, education, and financial services.
LC Nueva Momentum Fund
A Rs 250 crore fund targeting Series A, B, and growth-stage companies in India, with a target corpus of Rs 150 crore.
Narya Capital
A U.S. venture fund founded by JD Vance, focusing on tech startups outside Silicon Valley, though specific fund size and stages are not disclosed.
MindWorks Capital
A US$220 million fund focusing on cross-region investment in Greater China and Southeast Asia tech startups.
Alkemi Growth Capital
A women-led healthcare-focused fund in India, led by Alka Goel, planning to launch a second fund.
MudhalVC
A Tamil Nadu-focused fund planning to deploy ₹125 crore over four years, focusing on B2B software, AI, and SaaS in early-stage startups.
Equator Africa Fund I
A $54 million fund investing in early-stage tech-enabled companies in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in green energy and mobility.
Phoenix Venture Partners Innovation Fund CEIC Ltd.
A $50 million fund investing in early-stage technology startups in the MENA region and G20 economies, specialising in seven verticals including fintech, health tech, and sustainability.
💡Innovator Spotlight
🚀 Gablo Mo rebounded from two unsuccessful startups to launch an AI content humaniser that saw remarkable initial success. Leveraging his background in coding and ChatGPT, he developed a tool that outperformed existing options, which often compromised text quality to evade AI detectors. His strategic launch led to an impressive 1,164 daily visits, 3,776 free sign-ups, and 146 paying subscribers in just one month, driven by effective keyword usage and smart marketing on platforms like Reddit and Google.
🌟 The standout lesson from Gablo's experience is the power of simplicity and focus. He emphasizes the importance of concentrating on one excellent feature rather than overloading a product with many mediocre ones. For startup founders, this translates into a clear, actionable strategy: Identify a high-traffic, low-competition keyword and build your product's core around solving a specific problem excellently. This approach not only simplifies development but also sharpens your marketing message, making it easier to communicate value and engage potential users.
🤔 Reflecting on your current or upcoming projects, are you trying to do too much at once, or can you identify that one standout feature that could define your success?
🛠️ Tool of the Week
Unlock Profitable Startups with MuckBrass.com's AI-Driven Insights
📈 MuckBrass.com provides a treasure trove of well-researched startup ideas, leveraging AI to help aspiring entrepreneurs pinpoint high-potential ventures. With over a thousand delighted users, it taps into AI to validate ideas by analyzing search trends, competition, and user interest. As the startup scene grows increasingly competitive, MuckBrass offers a clear edge by shifting focus from simply being "cool" to genuinely profitable ventures. Key Takeaway for Startup Founders: It's crucial to prioritise profitable ventures over just exciting ideas to avoid the pitfalls of low demand.
🔍 A fascinating insight from MuckBrass is its emphasis on data-driven decision-making. By identifying search volumes and competition, founders are steered towards viable ideas instead of ones that might just "seem" promising. This approach underscores the importance of creating user-centred solutions and casts light on the need for startup founders to rely on data as a fundamental part of their decision process. Implementing this in your design and user experience can significantly enhance engagement and increase productivity.
🤔 What hidden opportunities might you discover if you evaluated your current toolbox using real-world user needs and trends? 🧩
📌 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.
Please let me know what you think of it, love a feedback loop 🙏🏼
🛑 Get a different job.
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For the ❤️ of startups
✌🏼 & 💙
Derek