Is the myth of the Tech G-Ds crumbling ?

From my friend Kanwal Rekhi - who comments on an interesting article in WSJ -

There is an America taunt that goes :

 'If you are so smart, how come you are not rich?'. 

The flip -  

“if you are not rich, you must be smart”  

does not logically follow. 

“These people start to drink their own Kool Aid and start feeling infallible. Markets and life have a way of humbling the mighty.” Says Kanwal 

Some massive changes  in the last few months 

• Meta Platforms, announced broad layoffs (up to 10,000 after years of breakneck hiring. 

• Google parent Alphabet has come under pressure from an activist investor to slash its costs and lay off staff 

• Elon Musk  - the polymath tech genius, seems to be making a pudding of debt ridden Twitter after paying $44 billion  to buy it (taking personally $13b of debt )- is talking about putting it into bankruptcy - after falling ad revenue and cutting its team by half laying off over 3000 people 

• FTX - the $32 billion golden child of the crypto boom -  imploded.  - Some of the biggest names in venture investing, including SequoiaCapital and Softbank  have  got burned  after one of the biggest frauds by SBF 

Just six months ago, CEOs, celebs and world leaders like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair flocked to him, gathering at a Davos-like conference he hosted in the Bahamas where he lives as one of the most outspoken evangelists for the power of the blockchain.  

Some headwinds are afoot - including rising interest rates, deteriorating macro economic growth, increasing energy costs, and more competitive pressures.

Is this a time to buy low? 

Source :- 

article in WSJ

Vow Raises $49.2m

Vow have raised a $49.2M (USD) marking a new Series A record for the cultured meat industry!

 

The round, led by Blackbird and Prosperity7 Ventures, allows them  to accelerate their mission of making better meat directly from animal cells, ushering in a new generation of food products fit for a rising population.

They are  also announcing our first brand - Morsel.

Morsel collides culinary artistry with cultured meat, and is bringing Japanese Umai Quail to some of Singapore best fine dining establishments early next year.

Want to try it? You can request an invitation here: https://www.morsel.sg/

Huge Kudos to everyone who been involved in this journey so far, to the team and supporters - changing the food industry for the better.

Square Peg Toyota Ventures Tenacious Ventures Grok Ventures PeakBridge VC Cavallo Ventures

Blackbird closes $1B fund

Blackbird's latest $1B AUD fund signals maturation of Australian, New Zealand venture scene by @rebeccabellan

This is Blackbird’s fifth fund, and it’s double the size of the VC’s last fund which closed in August 2020. 

General Partner Sam Wong says “

Let's ignore the doom and gloom on Twitter and elsewhere - there has literally never been a better time to be a founder in Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand.”

Many thanks to the founders whose success has enabled us to earn the trust of the super funds, sovereign wealth funds and hundreds of individual investors. 

To the next chapter! 

Superfunds and Succesful founders are backing this fund 

Superannuation funds like AustralianSuper, Hostplus, Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, New Zealand’s sovereign wealth funds and New Zealand Growth Capital Partners Elevate fund, which is a government-backed fund.

A decade ago, most Australian and in particular New Zealand institutional investors didn’t want to put their money anywhere near tech startups. 

It makes sense for superannuation funds to back the tech space because they have a long-term horizons and can afford to be patient. Tech is high growth, high return. It’s very long dated, and and funds are generally  locked up for 10 years.”

The fund is also backed by over 270 individual investors, many of whom are tech founders and operators that Blackbird backed through earlier funds, according to the firm. Those founders will support the fund both with their own capital, but also their expertise, knowledge and connections.

This is what the team at Blackbird have to say

The mission

We are here to change the system, to change the culture.

The Vision

The year is 2032. 

Australia and New Zealand’s five most valuable companies are technology companies. One-fifth of our GDP comes from technology.

Hundreds of startups each employ more than a thousand highly skilled employees. Those employees will take their experiences from these startups and found the next generation of companies that follow.

At Atlassian and Canva, there are hundreds of thousands of people creating technology used by consumers and businesses all over the world.

Founders of successful startups invest in and help the next generation. The superannuation and Kiwisaver funds of all Australians and New Zealanders provide the capital to fuel the ever-increasing ambition.

Australia and New Zealand as countries have, quite simply, succeeded, punching far above our weight on the world stage.

This is the future we work towards at Blackbird. We are here to change the system and change the culture.

In pursuit of this mission, we are pleased to announce Blackbird has raised a new fund of A$1 billion to invest in generational companies born in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

‍Its all about relationships and travelling the journey with the founders 

Our second decade

Blackbird started ten years ago. Over the course of our first decade, it became very clear that our world of venture capital comes down to a few generational companies and that it should be our mission to believe in them at the very beginning and continue to invest throughout their life, with hundreds of millions of dollars.

The atomic unit of Blackbird is great relationships, not picking morsels from an alphabet soup of funding rounds. And so we have designed our funds, team and culture around building relationships we hope will last decades.

As we have always done, we strive to start those relationships right at the beginning, before product and revenue. No member of our investment team will ever say “it’s too early” to a founder. 

We love to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first round of capital, as much as we love to invest hundreds of millions throughout the later stage rounds of generational companies.

Blackbird will invest in founders possessing the greatest of ambition. There is nothing greater than a founder doing their life’s work, determined to make a difference, and having a high sense of responsibility to see that change through.

That ambition is the common thread that ties graphic design, robotaxis and rockets together.