Mike Cannon Brookes and Twiggy forest invest in Solar Farm

"If we nail this, we can build a new export industry for Australia, create jobs and set our economy up for the future." 

@mcannonbrookes

 

We must continue the transition to clean, affordable and reliable renewable energy and storage technologies. 

@smh

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest are part of a Capital raise of  $millions in a David Griffin’s Sun Cable - solar farm which will enable Australia to supply electricity to Singapore.

The project  aims to supply competitively priced electricity to the Darwin region and to Singapore via a 4500-kilometre high-voltage cable.

This is the start of a $22 billion plan to build the world's largest solar farm with a 10-gigawatt capacity covering 15,000 hectares near Tennant Creek in the NT, and a 22GW-hour storage plant.

Square Peg Nails it in 2020

Imogen Baxter shares 2019 Squarepeg in review... 

2019 , Squarepeg invested over US$86m in technology —all working on ideas that in success, will move humanity forward. 

It’s amazing how they are actively connecting their investees and enabling them to work together to grow from strength to strength.

Well done Justin and Paul !! 

They are a VC building an amazing culture :

🇮🇱Aidoc

🇦🇺Amber

🇦🇺HealthMatch

🇸🇬Neuron

🇦🇺Q-CTRL

Some interesting developments of their investments...

🇦🇺 Airwallex became the fastest Aussie unicorn, raising US$100m. Jack told the AFR at the time "we've done less than 10% of what we want to achieve

🌈 Paul Bassat keynoted a packed room at the AWS Summit in Sydney to bang the drum for innovation.

🇦🇺 Prospa IPO'd on the ASX, continuing on their mission to help small businesses access flexible finance

🇮🇱 Fiverr IPO'd on the NYSE, rang the bell, rebranded the iconic bulls and celebrated the Fiverr community. Read Fortune's IPO article.

🇦🇺 Canva's valuation hit AU$4.7B following an AU$125m round. Read the press.

🇦🇺 Rokt announced their US$48m Series C round led by TDM.

Square Peg’s mission is to back outstanding founders across Israel, ANZ and Southeast Asia. We are humbled to work with founders who are shaping the future. If you’re building something extraordinary and consider yourself a square peg in a world of round holes, we’d love to meet you in 2020

Looking forward to 2020!action of VC in Australia 

https://www.squarepegcap.com/resources/2019-year-in-review For detailed report 

Netflix was the best-performing stock of the decade, delivering a 4181% return

Inspired by Ari Levy of CNBC 

Ten years ago - in 2010 - Netflix was worth $2b and had 12m subscribers paying $9 a month - receiving dvds  by mail . No late fees... and going head to head with video stores .

 

CEO Reed Hastings' shared a vision of streaming videos directly to your lounge. 

10 years on it is worth $148b today, giving investors a 4,181% return. $1m invested 10 years ago would be worth $40m today! 

The company has had its issues. In 2011 , the share price plunged and company needed more money .... as the company went to streaming $400m was raised! 

Jay Hoag’s firm, Technology Crossover Ventures, led that raise pumped in $200 million in exchange for 16 million shares at $12.26 a piece. With the stock now trading at over $336, TCV's current stake is worth about $1.66 billion after selling a big chunk of its shares in the years since the investment.

"When you're being contrarian is when you'll end up with the most exceptional returns, if you're right," said Hoag - who is a proud Director of Netflix .

Why did Jay Hoag  invest?

• He believed in the team and in Reed Hastings 
• Netflix had a Global and Scalable model
• Technology - high-speed broadband would make streaming the bomb 
• Licensing movies in a disruptive way 

Content and Licencing

It’s all about content and  originals seem to be the bomb.

The Irishman, Ozark , House of Cards, Narcos  and the Crown are some of the BB series that have taken up a significant portion of my weekends with me binging in front of TV!!

Netflix have invested $15b on content in 2019 up almost 70% from two years  who, borrowing more than $10 billion making debt to equity greater than 2:1.

Competition is fierce with HBO, Disney and Warner fighting for content. Recently  Netflix have lost “Friends” and “the Office”

This is fantastic news for movie industry and creators - Netflix seems to have revived Hollywood and encouraged creators to create! 

Case in point ... "Otherhood" was among the 10 most-watched Netflix original films of the year, with 29 million views in its first four weeks.

Subscriber Growth is the upside 

12m to 158.3 million in 10 years - with International growth being  62% of the total and a strategy to continue to grow.

That is a powerful catalyst for future growth 

Technology

With the advent of 5G - will Netflix invest in Gamification and Interactive? 

The risks 

High debt, high costs and high competition with a cash burn create a volatile equation for a company that has over half the market cap of WarnerMedia parent AT&T and only 12% the revenue. 

Is Netflix going to continue to Innovate? 

You gotta listen to my mother-in-law 

You’ve got to accumulate to speculate! 

2 year old Trust and Will raises $6m Series A

Trust and Will has just raised  a $6 million Series A round to transform the future of estate planning.

Cody Barbo, CEO and co-founder of Trust & Will shares her pulse

“We are driven by our mission to help millions of families in America protect their legacy,” 

Cody has built a brilliant team that has built a rapidly growing customer base, with over 60,000+ members signing up since launching in April 2018. 

What it does 

Trust & Will creates digital trusts, wills and guardian ships in an online affordable easy way - helping people create an estate plan, protecting their valuable assets and loved ones.

All documents have been designed and vetted by attorneys experienced in estate planning.

Support from Awesome Investors 

Investors include  Jesse Draper’s Halogen Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, WTI, Luma Launch, Techstars Ventures, and others. 

We look forward to leveraging our big data assets to help them scale,” said Rob Chaplinsky, Managing Director at Link Ventures (Lead Investor).

“We are proud to have participated in both the Seed and Series A rounds of another transformative company based outside of Silicon Valley,” said David Hall, Managing Partner of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.

“We are excited to back Cody and her amazing team - who are providing the opportunity  for millions of families to protect their assets and families” - Jesse Draper - Halogen Ventures - investing in female founded consumer technology companies 

$4 Billion Self Storage Market being disrupted by Startup Second Closet with a $13.2m raise

Second Closet - a self storage - Canadian Startup has raised a Series A - $13.2 million 2 years after a seed round in 2017!

“The self-storage space is a few billion dollar sleepy industry and our model is customer focussed.”

– Mark Ang, CEO, Second Closet

What it does 

Second Closet’s digital platform allows people to order and schedule the pickup and storage of their belongings, and only pay for the space they use. 

The company provides boxes for people to store their items in, and picks them up to be stored at a warehouse. Many of Second Closet’s customers are seasonal users living in apartments and looking to free up space.

Used by thousands of customers across its two locations, Second Closet claims to have seen triple digital revenue growth over the past year.

What the raise is going to be used for

The $13.2 million is meant to help “pour accelerant” on Second Closet’s growth - using the financing to 

• launch in other Canadian markets,  
• doubling its office team to more than 75 employees, and 
• further develop its technology platform 

It’s about A $4b untapped market

The self-storage industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in commercial real estate in Canada, according to a reportfrom industry market researcher IBISWorld. With a total revenue of $4 billion in 2019, the industry has benefited from dense urban cities – like Toronto and Vancouver – which increasingly see people living in smaller homes with limited storage space. 

This industry has yet to see significant technological disruption.

“We are looking to change the game from a customer experience perspective and a usability perspective.” - Steven Ang 

 

In an era where consumers are used to “immediate gratification” from rideshare and food delivery apps, for example, Second Closet is operating in a way that fills that gap for the self-storage industry.

 It’s about your Investors and Alliance Partners 

Second Closet is backed by 

- Whitecap venture and Partners and  a number of Canada’s biggest real estate players.

“the self-storage industry has not seen innovation in decades and Second Closet has the potential to be one of the Canadian biggest tech exits, given its team and the market it is addressing.” -Steve Lau, partner at Whitecap Venture Partners, which led Second Closet’s Series A round

- Real estate moguls Mike and Mark Cowie through their firm, Cowie Capital Partners. 

The Cowie brothers are also executive vice presidents at Canada-based global commercial real estate firm Colliers International, and have a long history of working in the real estate space. 

One of Cowie Capital Partners’ four investment focus areas is self-storage, where it operates 500,000 feet of gross leasable land throughout Southern Ontario, through storage company Self Stor

- Dream Maker Ventures, the venture arm of Dream Maker Corp., a Toronto-based asset management firm that operates in real estate, development, and property management. The firm has opened doors for Second Closet by giving the startup access to its multiple real estate properties, and by promoting Second Closets to its residential property tenants.

Second Closet leases its warehouses to be agile, and is focused on the B2C space for the time being, as it is “swamped with demand.”

- MIG Group, which led Second Closet’s previous round, and BlueCat founder Michael Hyatt, who has been with the startup since its early days.

It’s about the People 

It’s about the people, says Michael . 

“Mark is smart, coachable, and super hard working. I think Second Closet brings a higher level of simplified logistics for both people and businesses when it comes to storage and deliveries. He’s a fucking star.”

Thanks to Beyakit for the story 

https://betakit.com/second-closet-raises-13-2-million-to-disrupt-billion-dollar-self-storage-market/

Meagan Simpson - Betakit - Canadian startup news

Referron v2 ready for testing

Click here to download android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.referron.android

Click here to test on Apple IOS

• Easy to login 
• Easy to send business card 
• Easy to write notes on contacts
• Easy to refer
• Easy to track 
• Easy to navigate
• Activity summary sent to your email on demand 

Still to do

• Connect with people around you - connect on the go 
• Seek function - looking for people - google for people you know like and trust - klt
• Connect to your CRM - so only input is via referron 
• Activate groups 
• Make it faster 

Why Venture Capital is so important

I look forward to VC starting to emerge as a significant Asset Class in Australia .

It has grown significantly since 2002, and BSI has been priviliged to have played a small Part was of this journey! 

The best is yet to come! 

The 10 P’s that created a $230m exit

Retail guru, Paul Greenberg , shares the 10 “Ps” that made for a perfect exit of Gaby and Hezi’s “Catch  Group” to Wesfarmers (owner of Target and Kmart) .

“Wesfarmers Limited today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Australian online retailer CatchGroup Holdings Limited (“Catch Group”) for cash consideration of $230 million.”

The backstory is that Paul was a fierce competitor to Gabi and Hezi - but both supported and respected each other - understanding that all ships sail on a rising tide !

קל הקוד “,  kudos to you Paul, Gabi and Hezi””

PERSISTENCE

It wasn’t all plain sailing ... it took 13 years to be “an overnight success” and an eventual exit in 2019

PARTNERSHIPS

Gabby, Hezi and the leader team have always sought alliances partners and synergistic acquisitions . Some worked - many didn’t! 

PLATFORM PIONEERS

Catch used Marketplaces and eventually created their own  platform and marketplace where they could add value and collaborate with partners. 

Gaby and Hezi - like many early players in ecommerce in Australia started off on eBay.

PEOPLE

It’s all about the people and their leader. 

Catch CEO, National Harpaz , has built an amazing team . The boys new when to move from entrepreneurial and bring in a strong leader to build a great team so as to systemise and scale.

Part of the “Founders Syndrome” is not wanting to let go. This can be a costly mistake.

PURPOSE

Catch culture never wavered from the price card. 

“Unbeatable prices” are a key catch cry of their business. Sure value, sure variety, sure convenience, but they stuck to their purpose of price killers. It paid off. Love a bargain.

PERSONALITY AND PR

Gabby put his personality on the line and became the face of the brand. His Personal face and touch  built a great connection with customers.

Who can forget his famous ‘recession shushmession’ on A Current Affair! 

PLAYFUL

You gotta have fun - a massive colorful tube slide  and a serious basketball court says it all. Fun is a value - and they strive to live it 

PARTICIPATORS

Gabby (and his key team) participated in  retail conferences and shared their experiences and best practice. 

The Catch guys are formidable competitors to deals direct -  they recognize their place in contributing towards a growing retail pie, not just their slice.

PUNTERS

The Catch guys have never been afraid to take a a punt... Many didn’t work ... but one, their investment in Menulog was a home run - beyond! 

As Tim Draper (the Silicon Valley guru VC ) says - if he invests in 10 companies and only a few work .... he does exceptionally well! 

Physical 

Catch launched there first physical store in the Chadstone mall, and it will be interesting where there will be a rollout of stores creating more Brand Equity and another physical retailer of note