On behalf of the whole vc family team, we wish you all the best for this new year! ✨
The inclusive way to break into Venture Capital. We are Junior VCs sharing what they learn on the go. Our goal is simple: Open the doors to Venture Capital.
Get to read your weekly vc newsletter along with your Sunday morning coffee ☕️ : News of the week in Venture Capital, fundraisings and acquisitions, internships and job offers in the vc ecosystem and many others.
“The only impossible project is the one you never begin.” - Tony Robbins
On the agenda:
📰 Extra! Extra! Weekly news
🚀 Fundraisings, acquisitions and IPOs of the week
😍 VC of the week: Marc Simoncini
🔎 Internship and job offers
🎁 The Gift
📰 Extra! Extra! Weekly news
🥲 Mixed results for CES 2022. The world’s largest tech show ended yesterday after 4 unconventional days. Due to the pandemic, it had to deal with a series of cancellations, both from the public and from its biggest exhibitors, which led to a sometimes deserted exhibition. However, many announcements still have been worthwhile.
🪙 Kazakh crisis causes bitcoin to fall. The Internet cut decided Wednesday in the Second Country for bitcoins’ mining, in response to the protests against the power, wiped out nearly 15 percent of the world's Bitcoin creation capacity in one fell swoop. A sharp drop in the price of major cryptocurrencies followed.
🚀 Khosla Ventures said it raised over $550 million for its first Opportunity Fund. This new fund brings Khosla's total fund package to just under $2 billion. Its Opportunity Fund is the latest in a trend of early-stage venture capitalists looking to participate in the later rounds of their portfolio companies in smaller groups as they continue to mature.
👟 The end of BlackBerry. The company announced that all its services will not be supported anymore, meaning that the phones (released before 2015) will gradually be disabled. BlackBerry was the most popular smartphone company before the iPhone’s arise.
💸 A16z announces a $9bn additional capital to invest in startups. After announcing last year a new $2.2bn fund dedicated to crypto, the well-known US-based VC fund actually raised $5bn for its Growth Fund, $2.5 for its Venture Fund and $1.5bn for its biotech-focused vehicle.
🚀 Fundraisings, acquisitions and IPOs of the week
👨💻 PayFit (Series E) raises $287M : With a valuation of around $2 billion, this round was led by Eurazeo Growth and Bpifrance’s Large Venture. The French start up offers a software to help companies manage payroll and HR in a simple way. It is the first european unicorn of 2022 !
👩⚕️ DNA Script (Series C) raises €30M: This French company has created a DNA printer that allows research teams to manufacture DNA within their laboratories. In addition to the printer, the start-up is developing software to accompany the hardware. In total, DNA Script has raised €275 million since its creation in 2014. Investors include Baillie Gifford, Healthcor Management, eureKARE and Irving Investors.
🥙 Avataar (Series B) raises $45M: The American Indian start-up offers 3D visualisation of products for e-commerce. Before buying a kitchen or a television on the Internet, it is possible to visualise them in the living room with a virtual phone. The increase in online commerce promises good prospects for the company. Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India are at the table in this series B.
🥣 Gousto (Series Late VC) raises $150M : this round was led by SoftBank and made the London-based start up a unicorn valued at $1.7 billion. The company provides meal-kits online and uses AI to provide customized meals for its users. Gousto delivers to the customers all they need to cook meals from home.
💰 Sygnum (Series B) raises $90M : The Swiss-Singaporean start up deals in digital asset management and offers a trading platform. This round will help the company expand their Web 3.0 offer and go to new markets.
😍 VC of the week:
This week we present you Marc Simoncini, partner at Daphni.
He is currently in the news thanks to his participation in the show " Qui veut devenir mon associé ?" which aims to find the best entrepreneurial projects in France.
We take this opportunity to introduce him to you because his profile proves that there is not only one way to become a VC.
Born in Marseille in 1963, he studied at the Ecole Supérieure d'Informatique de Montreuil, now SupInfo.
Marc Simoncini is one of the pioneers of the “French Internet” with the creation of companies such as iFrance, Meetic, Sensee. More recently, he is also at the origin of Angell, the electric smark bike. In 2021, he is among the 20 favorite entrepreneurs by the French.
His passion for entrepreneurship was what led him to VC: Investing in startups seemed to be an obvious choice. In 2011, he founded an investment fund Jaina Capital which merged with Daphni in 2021.
He is listed in the Challenges 500 French fortunes with an estimated fortune of more than 400 million euros in 2018.
🔎 Internship and job offers
OneRagtime - Venture Analyst Intern (Paris) 👉 Apply here
Meta - Client Partner, Venture Capital & Start-Ups (Paris) 👉 Apply here
Orange Ventures - Ops & Business Analyst (Paris) 👉Apply here
Seedcamp - Investment Intern (London) 👉 Apply here
🎁 The Gift
💸You don't understand anything about crypto and you feel overwhelmed by the subject?
Caro's Cryptos newsletter is what you need! Trust us 🤪
Thank you for reading the vc family newsletter to the end. See you next week directly in your email box!
If you have any questions or ideas, send them to contact@vcfamily.co!