Companies pre revenue raises
Canva $6.6m
Kinde $ 12m
Why did they invest?
What were they looking for?
They're looking for FUTURE revenue growth
→ once Canva started making money
→ they went from $0 to $105M in 4 years 🤯
Raising money from VC is about them believing in your (future) ability to hit Venture Scale
Why do Many startups fail to get more funding
Many startups raised - focusing on getting to the next milestone - hit the metrics
→ Growing 2-3x yoy = successful raise
→ getting to $3M ARR = Series A
And was not enough for a series B…. Why?????
Here is the thing!!?
Revenue is a high level lagging indicator and VCs are looking for the leading indicators to future growth instead
How do you
→ grow at 10% mom for 24 months straight
→ and 6% mom for the next 3 years 🚀
Some leading indicators
So - when VCs say “you need more traction”It’s bullshit
Dig deeper and figure out what leading indicators you need to de-risk
And use that as your roadmap 💪
Article from Michael Ho
What a great story of persistence, resilience , belief and success
I look forward to follow this continuing narrative of yet another Australian innovation!!
Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Ryoncil (remestemcel-L), making it the first mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) therapy to be approved in the United States for any indication.
Ryoncil is the only FDA-approved therapy for treating steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease (SR-aGvHD) in children.
Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said the approval was a milestone in the use of innovative cell-based therapies to treat life-threatening diseases.
The disease
"Allogeneic stem cell transplant" involves a patient receiving stem cells from a donor. The procedure is used to treat blood cancers (like leukaemia), inherited blood disorders (like sickle cell disease), and immune system deficiencies.
However, such transplants carry a risk of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), where the donor's immune cells attack the patient’s body. First-line treatment for GvHD is corticosteroids, which suppress the immune system.
Steroid-refractory (SR) GvHD occurs when a patient's GvHD does not improve, or in fact worsens, after three to seven days of high-dose corticosteroids.
Once GvHD becomes steroid-refractory, the condition becomes much harder to treat, and patients face a higher risk of death.
Enter Ryoncil
Ryoncil is a therapy using cells from bone marrow (mesenchymal stromal cells). It's typically administered via intravenous infusion. The MSCs modulate the immune system, inhibiting the activation of T-cells, a type of white blood cell that attacks infected and foreign cells. They also reduce the release of cytokines, which are small proteins that control inflammation.
This mechanism allows Ryoncil to target conditions linked to excessive immune responses, such as aGVHD.
Significant clinical results
The FDA’s approval follows a Phase 3 trial of paediatric patients with SR-aGvHD, of which 89% had severe Grade C or Grade D disease. The trial showed that 70% of patients achieved an overall response by Day 28 of treatment with Ryoncil, a rate that's predictive of survival in cases of aGVHD.
More than 85% of patients completed the full course of Ryoncil treatment without interruption, with no discontinuations due to laboratory abnormalities.
Transplant physician Dr Joanne Kurtzberg, Director of the Marcus Center for Cellular Cures at Duke University Medical Center, commented: “Steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease is a devastating condition with an extremely poor prognosis. From today, we are able to offer Ryoncil, the first FDA-approved treatment which will be life-saving for so many children and will have a great impact on their families."
Commercial significance
The global graft-versus-host disease market has been valued at around US$3bn in 2024 and is projected to reach around US$10bn by 2031.
Chief Executive Dr Silviu Itescu commented:
“With Ryoncil’s approval by the FDA, Mesoblast has demonstrated the ability to bring the first MSC product to market. We will continue to work closely with the FDA to obtain approval of our other late-stage products, including REVASCOR for cardiovascular diseases and rexlemestrocel-L for inflammatory pain indications.”
With approval secured, Ryoncil will be made available at US transplant centres and other treating hospitals.
Mesoblast also aims to expand Ryoncil’s use to address the adult GvHD market.
Shares in Mesoblast closed 54.04% higher at $3.05 yesterday.
There are 3 things that will make your venture a success
- you are solving a real problem - not just by providing a vitamin - but by providing a painkiller 💊!
- your venture is about serving others
- you know exactly why your solution stands out. You have a clear point of difference !
So, If you are looking to build a startup - ask yourself these 3 questions—
1. What problem are you willing to spend your time solving?
2. Why does solving this problem matter to you personally?
3. Why can’t people live without your solution? Is it a painkiller, vitamin or just a placebo?
Cofounders Sam Kroonenburg, Jack White and Ed Ring have raised $5.5m for their AI-powered adtech startup Cuttable
Seed funding round led by Paul Bassat’s Square Peg and supported by Taryn Pieterse at Rampersand and other strategic angel investors .
Sam Kroonenburg co-founded A Cloud Guru - an online learning business, and went on to sell it for more than $2 billion in 2021,
Jack, Sam and Adam all have deep experience in tech and advertising and a strong track record of creating cutting-edge solutions”.
Paul Bassett of Square Peg has joined the board
Cuttable is a “first-of-its-kind automated content agency” that aims to support marketers and agencies marry creative advertising with AI to create high-quality digital ads at scale.
Curable enables the automation of the creative with AI - enhancing creativity, optimising ad performance and streamlines the production process - enabling more messages, more personalisation and more targeting –
Customers
Imagine having the ability to translate a marketing brief into a live ad within a few clicks!!
Cuttable is already working with Woolworths-owned brand Catch.com.au, and OnePass, and counts the likes of Medibank, Nando’s, Penfolds, Powershop, and DiDi among its clients.
“It’s about doing what was once impossible, - creating a new frontier in advertising, where technology and creativity converge to deliver unparalleled results for marketers and agencies”.
Thanks Eloise Keating from Smartcompany for the heads up
It was 20 years ago when Luke Anear started SafetyCulture in his garage in Townsville and is now stepping down as CEO as it looks to list, after raising $165m in September last year!
After numerous jobs Luke saw the l impact workplace incidents had on businesses and their employees, and built a simple checklist app for workplace inspections to help reduce hazards and accidents.
SafetyCulture has since grown into an all-in-one workplace operations platform, serving nearly 2 million customers globally and targeting 100 million users by 2032.
Its software is predominantly used by frontline workers across construction, manufacturing, hospitality and retail.
Luke will remain SafetyCulture’s largest shareholder and owns just under a quarter of the company.
Luke’s huge shows will be filled by Kelly Vohs, who will be based in the USA ahead of a listing!
Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht , Blackbird partner Rick Baker , Atlassian Scott Farquhar and Kell Reilly of Airtree are among Luke’s inner circle.
SafetyCulture has doubled in size in the last 2 years - having 85,000 businesses and close to 2 million users around the world using its platform!! Luke believes that Kelly has what it takes to get to 100m users
Another game changer - started in Australia
See more https://bsivc.blogspot.com/2024/09/safetyculture-hits-home-run-with-airtree.html
Cell therapy company Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) has entered into a convertible note subscription agreement with its largest shareholder, Gregory George, to issue up to US$50 million convertible notes at its discretion.
The issue of the convertible notes is linked to the US
FDA's approval of Mesoblast's lead product candidate, Ryonci (remestemcel-L), for the treatment of children with steroid-refractory acute graft versus host disease (SR-aGHD).
The company said the funding will enable it to implement its go-to-market commercial strategy.It said it expects a decision before or on the FDA's Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date of 7 January, 2025.
Mesoblast chief executive Silviu Itescu said: "We appreciate the ongoing support from our major shareholder in ensuring that the Company is well capitalised for commercial product launch and can hit the ground running immediately following approval of RYONCIL by FDA."
Mesoblast chief executive Silviu Itescu said: "We appreciate the ongoing support from our major shareholder in ensuring that the Company is well capitalised for commercial product launch and can hit the ground running immediately following approval of RYONCIL by FDA."
Mesoblast said its go-to-market strategy includes hiring senior executives, market access, medical education, and ongoing engagement with key opinion leaders.
