Oren Bentley

Big things on the horizon, we are motivated and blessed to be at the dawn of a new age for the internet. Read more about our journey below or listen to the podcast: https://lnkd.in/eJeNhvVa

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M&A highlights last week include Bain Capital’s acquisition of wealth management software developer Envestnet, Inc for $4.5 bn, and Vista Equity Partners, TCV and KKR’s $1.2 bn majority equity investment in enterprise data platform Nasuni . On the fundraising front, we saw Helsing's $487 mn Series C led by General Catalyst with participation from Greenoaks, Accel and Lightspeed, and Skild AI's $300 mn Series A at a $1.5 bn valuation co-led by Lightspeed, SoftBank, Coatue and Bezos Expeditions, with participation from Amazon and Sequoia Capital. Other notable deals of the week include: - AMD's $665 mn acquisition of Silo AI - Flip's acquisition of Curated for $330 mn - Infinite Reality’s $350 mn investment from private family offices at a $5.1 bn valuation, followed by a $450 mn acquisition of Landvault - Hebbia $130 mn Series B at a $700 mn valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from GV (Google Ventures) and Index Ventures - Captions's $60 mn Series C led by Index Ventures with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital - Partior's $60 mn Series B led by Peak XV Partners with participation from Valor Capital Group, Temasek and J.P. Morgan   More detailed information on key transactions attached. Feel free to reach out in case you want to learn more about tech M&A and capital raisings in LatAm. #LatAmTech #TechTransactions #Tech #Technology #InvestmentBanking #MergersAndAcquisitions #CapitalRaising #FundingRounds

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In this episode of "This Week in Startups," hosted by David Weisburd and featuring Jamie Rhode, CFA, Matthew Mulvey, and Jason Calacanis, the discussion covers the resurgence of venture capital distributions, Sequoia Capital's liquidity strategies, and the impact of economic conditions on VC funds. Dive into the insights on how venture capital firms are navigating current market conditions and the strategies they are adopting to stay ahead. Catch the full episode on YouTube to understand the dynamic landscape of venture capital investments and emerging trends. https://lnkd.in/eaRHvjeD #Venture #VentureCapital #VC

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What's the untapped opportunity in GP stakes? Hear 30 year asset management industry veteran Todd Owens, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Cantilever Group, discuss why GP stakes has become a solution for asset managers and why the middle-market is an underserved and attractive segment of alternative asset management. Todd and I had a fascinating conversation on the latest Alt Goes Mainstream podcast. We discussed: * The evolution of alternative asset managers from Todd’s perspective as a banker to many alternative asset managers. * Why GP stakes has become a solution for alternative asset managers.  * Why and how alternative asset managers are businesses and why it can make sense for them to take investment to grow. * The benefits of GP stakes for investors and why the growing AUM of private markets means investors could benefit from exposure to GP ownership. * The risks and challenges with GP stakes as an investment strategy. * Why the middle market is an underserved and attractive segment in alternative asset management. * What the currency of consolidation will look like in alternative asset management. * What it means to grow and evolve a business as an alternative asset manager. Thanks Todd for coming on the show to share your wisdom and expertise on alternative asset management. Special thanks to our sponsor Ultimus Fund Solutions for their support of Alt Goes Mainstream. https://lnkd.in/gwdVUV7j

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ADI's Jason Taylor, CFA, FRM was in-person for a great Data Driven NYC event hosted by FirstMark's Matt Turck. Below are 𝟓 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲s ⬇ 💵 Cost optimization is a priority, driving interest in LLM-based products that can deliver cost efficiencies. 🔗 Integrating LLMs into production-ready solutions requires combining multiple components beyond just the LLM model itself. 🎖 Technical skills are not the sole factor for LLM adoption - champions across different roles facilitate adoption as user barriers are lowered. 🚀 Quick access to vast information is a key value add and highly desired by users. 🔊 Successful product development and sales rely on being customer-centric - understanding user needs by being on the ground and actively listening to clients. What were your biggest takeaways? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Renen Hallak VAST Data Jonathan Rosenbluth Cohere Gabriel Hubert Dust Ben Lerner Espresso AI #ai #LLM

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NY friends! Please come see me at Tech Day on my panel discussing the future of the NY tech ecosystem and what I hope to bring to it!

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PitchBook has released their US PE Middle Market Report: https://lnkd.in/eCF-wf83 showing continued YoY growth for middle-market dealmaking in Q1 of this year. PitchBook cites the recovery of deal multiples, an improvement in borrowing costs, and a focus on selling the best assets as key features of transactions in this space. Ryan Alexander recently dug into the highlights from this report in a blog post for Offit Kurman: https://lnkd.in/eiQWrgbj #middlemarket #privateequity #growth #businesslaw

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In the current fundraising environment, VCs and LPs are adjusting their scrutiny of potential investments. 🔎 Sapphire Partners Partner Elizabeth "Beezer" Clarkson shared her perspective on how with The Wall Street Journal’s Brian Gormley in today’s WSJ Pro VC newsletter, highlighting that LPs have refined their focus to dive deeper into portfolio performance beyond just top-line numbers. Read more insights from Beezer below and the full newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/eTMRWFhy  👇 #VentureCapital #InvestmentStrategies

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What is the state of pre-seed VC in mid-2024? PreSeed Now spoke to our very own Chris Smith about investment strategies, investor expectations, the evolution of the late-stage playbook, and more... Check out the full interview by Martin SFP Bryant via the link below 👇 #vc #venturecapital #startups #careers #leadership #management #technology #innovation #work #life

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Check out our mention in Venture Capital Journal's latest article on VC secondaries! Larry gives his perspective on the benefits of secondaries: “It’s not determined by a process. It’s determined by your process." Secondaries can provide investors with the flexibility to shape their investment decisions on their own terms. 📰 Read the full article below: 

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I'm excited to share my thoughts about closing our latest fund at Companyon Ventures. Raising a VC fund as an emerging manager is tough enough without the added challenge of rising interest rates and inflation, punctuated by the 2023 banking crisis unfolding during our fundraising cycle. After countless meetings and hearing "no" more times than we'd like to remember, we're grateful for the support and introductions from our LPs and fellow VCs like Bob Mason. We surpassed our minimum target, raising $41M with an additional ~$20M from our LPs available for SPVs in our companies, bringing our AUM close to $100M. While small in today's VC world, we're very proud of how we've deployed that capital. My partners Firas Raouf, David McFarlane, and Ronny Chatterjee did much of the heavy lifting with the fundraising, but our entire team significantly contributed to the effort. Here are a few highlights and thank-yous we’re excited to share: 🙏 First, a huge thanks to the founders who accepted our investment during our fundraising process. Your powerful visions and amazing execution proved to our existing and prospective LPs that we can identify and attract some of the best founders in the industry. Thanks Stephen Gendron, Doug Neumann, Hersh Tapadia, Avante Price, Eli Taylor-Lemire, Zaid Rahman, Daniel Pelaez, and Ali Ansari! 🌟 With a larger fund than our 2020 fund, our focus and thesis have not changed. We believe we are the top firm to lead late seed, post-seed, and early Series A rounds when companies are navigating the tricky transition from a founder-led startup to the first stages of a scalable enterprise. 💰 We launched a new Capital Markets function in this fund built by my colleague Ronny Chatterjee. This has been massively impactful for our portfolio CEOs. Ronny has showcased our portfolio to more than 200 Series A, B, Growth, and PE funds, and dozens of debt providers with great success. His job is to find the right follow-on capital for our portfolio companies while saving our CEOs countless hours of blindly prospecting for dollars. 🛠 We still average ~4 new investments each year from the thousands of companies we encounter. It’s tough to pass on many of them, but our approach of offering deeply embedded GTM talent and playbooks requires a concentrated portfolio approach so we can provide the attention and bandwidth that our founders expect. 📈 We’re proud that about half of our existing portfolio from this fund and our prior fund (2020) have either already crossed the critical $10M ARR threshold or will likely do so within the next year. We're confident that many more will follow shortly after. Most were at or below $2M ARR when we invested. 99% of that operational success can be attributed to those founders, but we like to think that our 1% was well-timed and impactful. Thank you to everyone in our community who has supported us in so many different ways! https://lnkd.in/eFauhT4Q #venturecapital

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Late-stage VC funds are earning dismal returns relative to the S&P 500 and take little risk. So why are LPs continuing to fund them? What the heck is happening in VC and can we fix it? In his three-part series on why VC is dead, Joe Merrill condenses conversations he's had from leading money managers all over the world into what's happening in VC today. Read the first part here and stay tuned for part 2: https://lnkd.in/gmCMx6wR #vc #article #latestage #earlystage #learning

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Such an excellent conversation this week. For those in venture capital, this is a must listen. https://lnkd.in/gQUgM8q9

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That planning season is upon us once more - almost like it’s an annual thing :) The more informed you are the more realistic the planning the cycle - especially in a new market transition cycle (here we go again!) Join Randy Wootton and Maxio break down all dimensions of growth and operations with data points across the SaaS market to build a plan rooted in market reality 🔥

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Sapling CEO and co-founder Rob Hong, CFA MFin discusses the important role valuation plays in sell-side M&A. Highlighting that valuation isn’t just about numbers; it’s also shaped by judgment and strategic thinking and understanding the nuances of valuation can significantly impact the success of a transaction. Reach out to [email protected] to learn how we can help with your valuation. #SaplingFinancialConsultants

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Era Ventures, a proptech-focused venture capital firm based in New York, recently announced the launch of its inaugural $88 million fund. The firm garnered support from a slew of institutional investors, including one of the country’s leading Ivy League Endowments, ICG Advisors, LLC, The Ashforth Company, BGO (BGO), Continental General Insurance Company (CGIC), Bain Capital Ventures, Fenwick & West and others. The VC firm will deploy the capital across multiple stages and a full spectrum of sector-focused innovations, from enablement technologies that improve existing processes to truly disruptive platforms that reshape the industry. “We are proud to have invested in and to support Era Ventures in its mission to drive transformational change in the real estate sector,” said Jeff Assaf, Chief Investment Officer at ICG Advisors, one of the leading multifamily offices in the country. “We’ve seen specialist venture funds consistently outperform in similarly complex sectors like financial services and healthcare, and Era’s approach positions it to drive fundamental disruption in a massive, yet technologically lagging, industry.” https://lnkd.in/esSQxSVa #OpenInsurance #EmbeddedInsurance #Insurance #Venture #Funding

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