Do names of VC Rounds Matter?

Companies raising the same amount of money have different post-money valuations depending on the round name.

Eg. If a seed-stage round raises $15M, that company is likely valued at $58M post-money. Whereas if a Series B company does so, the startup is typically worth $93M.

Why?

1. The companies that are raising Series B have likely raised more capital over multiple rounds than the earlier stages. So the valuation 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 be higher accounting for the excess capital already on the books.

  

2. The later the stage, the higher the traction / underlying business metrics needed to justify the next round (typically). 

  

3. Some round name fraud happening? Founders do sometimes choose to raise a "seed" when they've already raised significant capital in order to stand out relative to their peers..

#startups #Seed #SeriesA #SeriesB #founders

Lorikeet raises $54m after 2 years of starting up

 Lorikeet,  an AI company providing AI agents for customer service and founded by  Steve Hind (ex Stripe) and Jamie Hall (Google AI) in 2023,  has raised $54 million (US$35 million) in Series A funding at a valuation north of $200m . This is after receiving US$5m in seed funding in Oct 24 and growing revenue 10x 

Investors 

Investment was led led by QED Investors, with participation from Square Peg, Blackbird, Airtree, Skip Capital, Capital 49ers, Operator Partners and Athletic Ventures.

Canva’s husband-and-wife cofounders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht also joined the Series A. Several ex Stripers are also angel investors in the platform, which uses AI agents to deal with intricate customer problems.

Customers 

Customers include Lorikeet’s agents, or ‘concierges’, are used by several Australian unicorns, including Airwallex, Linktree and Eucalyptus, as the startup takes on global customer service giants Intercom, Zendesk, Decagon and Sierra.

What Lorikeet Does 

If you’ve dealt with a chatbot at Airwallex, Linktree, Flex or Eucalyptus, you’ve probably engaged with a Lorikeet AI concierge  – which answers questions, makes judgment calls and takes action to solve problems across chat, email, and voice.

Hond says “Customers don’t want to be told how to fix their problems. They want a concierge that actually solves them.”

One of Lorikeet’s first deployments was end-to-end handling of lost, stolen, and missing debit cards—with the AI used to determine eligibility, updatethe customer’s address, and send a replacement card without human intervention.

Application of Funds 

The money will be spent by R&D and global go-to-market efforts in the next five months. The business already has customers in US, Europe, and Australia.

Kanwal Rekhi - 7 unicorns and 2 IPOs talking about his Excelan story

Love this insight from Kanwal 

“I was never meant to be the CEO, but the board had no choice…

40 years ago, the company I had co-founded, Excelan, was close to shutting down. With just eight months of cash left, the board took some drastic measures. They named me Interim CEO.

To the outside world, it looked like a long-overdue promotion. To the board, I was a last resort. They wanted someone who was Wall Street-friendly and polished. A White Knight. Not an Indian engineer with dark skin, a thick accent, and a pocket protector.

I still remember the day, walking out of the meeting and stepping into my office. I stared at the painting of a bull charging through the currents, as doubts swirled in my mind. 

It’s a temporary arrangement, I remember saying to myself.

But I still said yes. Why? 

Because I’d been here before, underestimated and overlooked. And this was my chance to prove them all wrong. 

And so, I stepped out of my office, ready to take up the challenge and figure out how to turn the company around.

Once or twice in everyone’s life, there comes a moment when the tide finally turns in your favor. And when it does, it’s on you to take the wheel and steer it with everything you’ve got.”

Kanwal’s LinkedIn post 

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