Posts Tagged ‘ Venture capital ’
Have Venture Capital Firms Created a Unicorn Bubble?
Nov 26th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, The A.I. Industry, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Other Issues in Private Investments, Private InvestmentsA theory is making the rounds, as expressed for example in a Forbes piece last month by David Trainer, that the US economy in particular (perhaps the economy of other nation states as well) is in the throes of a “unicorn bubble,” comparable to the housing derivatives bubble of aRead More
Washington, Don’t Bar the Door
Oct 3rd, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, Debt Types of Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Other Issues in Private Investments, Private InvestmentsPitchBook’s Adam Putz recently tackled the intensifying political scrutiny of Big Tech and the harm the scrutineers may do by trying to fix something that isn’t broken—the merger and acquisitions market for digital startups. The giants in the field (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google and its parent, Alphabet) are associated withRead More
Fintech: Not Such a Deal Right Now
Aug 20th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, The A.I. Industry, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsEquity rounds of VC-backed investment in the financial technology sector retreated in the second quarter of 2019, according to a new CB Insights report. Second-quarter fintech deals dropped 22% on a quarterly basis and 23% compared to the same quarter in 2018. Early seed deal share fell a five-quarter lowRead More
Canada’s Venture Capitalists: A Gender Gap
May 13th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, Venture capital, Other Issues in Private Investments, Private InvestmentsFemale Funders, a program within the venture capital company Highline BETA, with offices in both Canada and the United States, has produced a new Women in Venture report, which works with data gathered from more than 300 VC firms and corporate venture arms in both countries “to try to paintRead More
Who is Investing in Fintech and Why?
May 5th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsCB Insights, the New York-based machine intelligence platform, has just released its Global Insights Report Q1 2019. The report finds that in the first quarter of 2019, financial technology companies backed by venture capitalists closed 445 deals globally, raising $6.3 billion. The sheer number of deals, then, was up quarter-over-quarterRead More
The Effects of US VC Money for Sweden’s Startups
Apr 24th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsThe relationship between US venture capitalists and Swedish startup companies is the subject of a recent working paper from researchers at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School. This is a striking field of research, if only because in pop culture terms the US is often considered the haven ofRead More
Venture Capital Today: Tied to a Single Misleading Narrative
Mar 27th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsThe March 2019 issue of Venture Capital includes a largely pessimistic article about “the evolving environment for the formation and financing of new firms.” Written by Martin Kenney and John Zysman, the article bears the title ”Unicorns, Cheshire Cats, and the New Dilemmas of Entrepreneurial Finance.” Kenney and Zysman areRead More
Women in Alternative Investments: ‘Leveraging Diverse Perspectives’
Feb 10th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Investing, Venture capital, Hedge Funds, Institutional Asset Management, Private Investments“With change happening at an unprecedented pace, it is fitting that alternative investment firms are strategically focused on leveraging diverse perspectives in these disruptive times,” says KPMG Chairman and CEO Lynne Doughtie, “The Call to Act,” a new paper that looks at the roles of women in the alternative investmentRead More
Hedge Funds in Venture Capitalist Clothing
Jan 3rd, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Hedge Fund Strategies, The A.I. Industry, Debt Types of Private Equity, Venture capital, Hedge Funds, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsA new study of hedge funds that are engaged in the venture capital space, written by George O. Aragon, Emma Li, and Laura Lindsey, contends that some hedge funds quite successfully exploit their expertise in the value of the publicly owned portion of specific industries when they enter the private/ventureRead More
Agtech: Comfort Zones and Value Chains
Dec 11th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Real Estate, Agriculture, The A.I. Industry, Investing in Commodities, Debt Types of Private Equity, Liquid and Fixed Income Real Estate, Venture capital, Farmland, Equity Types of Private Equity, Natural Resources and Land, Commodities, Other Issues in Private Investments, Private Investments, Real Estate Equity Investments, Real AssetsAn agtech-focused venture firm has issued a report about global VC activity across agtech and its subsectors. The firm, Finistere Ventures, which describes itself as in the business of helping “ambitious founders transform food and agriculture,” collaborated with Pitchbook in preparing the review. Finistere looks specifically at: (a) macro trends,Read More
Jeff Diehl: The View from SuperReturn Japan 2018, Part II
Dec 6th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, The A.I. Industry, Debt Types of Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Other Issues in Private Investments, Alternative Investments in Context, Private InvestmentsOn Dec. 6, in Tokyo, Japan, the SuperReturn Japan 2018 event concluded. CAIA was a sponsor of this event, which was billed as “the world’s gateway to Japanese private equity and venture capital.” This is the second part and conclusion of our interview with Jeff Diehl, managing director at AdamsRead More
Jeff Diehl: The View from SuperReturn Japan, Part I
Dec 4th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, The A.I. Industry, Debt Types of Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, The Global Economy & Currencies, Other Issues in Private Investments, Economics, Private Investments, Frontier markets, Macroeconomics, Finance & EconomicsOn Wednesday, December 5, in Tokyo, Japan, the SuperReturn Japan 2018 event convenes. CAIA is a sponsor of this event. Jeff Diehl, managing partner at Adams Street Partners, a multi-national investment manager with more than $35 billion in assets under management, is attending. He will participate in a panel WednesdayRead More
Women-owned Businesses: Over a Threshold
Oct 2nd, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, The A.I. Industry, Venture capital, Angel investing, Private InvestmentsIn a new report on the condition of women-owned businesses, part of an annual ongoing examination of business trends by American Express, researchers first take a big picture view (1972 to the present) and then do a swoop-down into the details of 2018. The conclusion of the study isRead More
Pitchbook 2018 Report: Where are the unicorns?
Sep 4th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, The A.I. Industry, Industry Size & Managers, Debt Types of Private Equity, Venture capital, Angel investing, Other Issues in Private Investments, Private InvestmentsPitchBook has posted its 2018 VC Unicorn Report. The introduction explains the meaning of the term. (It has only been in use in its financial sense since 2013, so explanations may still be deemed necessary.) “Unicorn” refers to an entity upon which the private investment markets have bestowed a valuationRead More
HBS looks at 40 years of private equity performance
Sep 3rd, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, The A.I. Industry, Debt Types of Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Other Issues in Private Investments, Private InvestmentsIn a new study by Harvard Business School scholars looks into the performance of LPs invested with private equity over four decades. In the paper, Investing Outside the Box, the scholars found that it is generally better to invest inside the box. Specifically, they found that the performance of alternativeRead More
Illuminating Gender Differences in Entrepreneurship
Aug 16th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, Debt Types of Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Angel investing, Other Issues in Private Investments, Private InvestmentsIlluminate Ventures, an early-stage high-tech VC firm, has posted a paper by its founder and managing partner, Cindy Padnos, on “gender differences in entrepreneurship.” The paper begins with the observation that nearly half of the Illuminate portfolio companies have a woman as a co-founder. This doesn’t mean of course thatRead More
Agtech Investment and the Future of Food
Aug 14th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, Agriculture, The A.I. Industry, Venture capital, Farmland, Equity Types of Private Equity, Natural Resources and Land, Angel investing, Private Investments, Real AssetsFinistere Ventures, a venture capital firm that describes itself as in the business of helping “ambitious founders transform food and agriculture,” has teamed up with Pitchbook to produce a dataset that would enable “clear insights into financing activity and metrics in the agtech sector.” The result was the Agtech InvestmentRead More
Thoughts in Advance of the Chicago AAAIM Event
Jul 24th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, Debt Types of Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Angel investing, Private InvestmentsThe Association of Asian American Investment Managers holds its Chicago Regional event on Thursday, July 26 at the offices of law firm Sidley Austin LLP, One South Dearborn, beginning at 3 and continuing until 7. AAAIM confidently proclaims that its line-up of panelists is a collection of “rock stars.” AmongRead More
The VC and PE Markets in Canada
Apr 1st, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsThe Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) has posted what it calls an “overview” of the VC and PE Markets in that country in 2017. It reports growth in both of those markets, although growth at distinct velocities. The report tells us that, on the VC side, CanadaRead More
PE Funds and the Causal Arrow
Feb 18th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Debt Types of Private Equity, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsA new report published by the Copenhagen Business School looks into the consequence of private equity investment on an industry-by-industry basis. The authors find that “industries where private equity funds invest grow more quickly [than others] in terms of total production and employment, and appear less exposed to aggregate shocks.”Read More
PE and VC Opportunities in 21st Century India
Feb 13th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, Currencies, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, The Global Economy & Currencies, Private Investments, Finance & EconomicsARA Law, a firm based in Mumbai and Bangalore, India, has issued a paper on private equity and venture capital in that country. In a foreword, firm founder Rajesh N. Begur observes that there is a positive dynamic now at work in India’s economy, one that in his view “canRead More
Ceres Report Evaluates Value of Early-Stage Clean Energy
Feb 4th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, Venture capital, Socially responsible investing, Emerging Alternative Investments, Alternative energy, Other Issues in Private Investments, Commodities: Examples, Energy, Private Investments, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.A recent publication from Ceres, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting sustainability as a goal in both investing and corporate governance, looks at the value that early-stage clean energy products offer venture capitalists. The publication is the work of a team of five “lead authors and key contributors,” including threeRead More
Venture Capital Top 100 List(s): GP and LP
Jun 18th, 2017 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsPreqin has named its top 100 Venture Capital firms, ordered by the amount of capital each firm has raised in the last 10 years. The top 10, with their headquarters city, are as follows: Tiger Global Management, New York New Enterprise Associates, Menlo Park Sequoia Capital, Menlo Park DST Global,Read More
New Zealand PE and VC Activity on the rise
Jun 6th, 2017 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, Private InvestmentsAn increase in total buy-out investments proved a big factor in the growth through 2016 of the private equity and venture capital market in New Zealand. A new report looks at this growth and concludes that fund-raising activity there has reached a milestone, hitting again a levels not seen sinceRead More
Funds of Funds and the Task of Financial Intermediation
Jan 12th, 2017 | Filed under: Newly Added, CAPM / Alpha Theory, Financial Economics Theory, Venture capital, Private Investments, Finance & EconomicsAre funds of funds a valuable form of intermediation? Robert Harris, of the University of Virginia, Darden School of Business, and three other distinguished scholars looked at this question in a Darden Business School Working Paper, and they decided that, at least with regard specifically to the role of FOFsRead More
Wrangling the Unicorns: Yale celebrates their VC heroes
May 15th, 2016 | Filed under: Newly Added, Private Equity, Institutional Investing, Venture capital, High-net-worth investors, Endowments & Foundations, Institutional Asset Management, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.Yale, in their 2015 annual report issued this month has broken out their private equity allocation into two distinct segments: Leveraged Buyouts and Venture Capital. See: This is the first time in many years they’ve offered that level of detail. And they’ve given the whole report a VC-and-entrepreneurial theme, supplementing theRead More
Study Shows Divergence in Fund Expense Disclosure
Oct 29th, 2015 | Filed under: OperationsThe analytic company Convergence concludes from its research -- a study of 2,600 ADVs -- that there is a lot of variance in the “depth, breadth, and quality of expense disclosure practices” across fund types and strategies. Read More
Celent Reports on Equity Crowdfunding
Sep 23rd, 2014 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Venture capital, CrowdfundingA new report from Celent discusses the as-yet unimplemented Title III of the JOBS Act. Celent's Isabella Fonseca offers suggestions for how both wealth managers and tech providers might benefit. Read More
Kauffman Hits VC Returns, LP Dupes, and J Curve Mythology
Aug 29th, 2012 | Filed under: Private Equity, Institutional Investing, Alpha Strategies, Venture capitalIn a study of its own portfolio the Kauffman Foundation found that only twenty of 100 venture funds “beat a public-market equivalent by more than 3 percent annually”.Read More
Alpha Hunters: The Mobile Payments Opportunity
Jun 13th, 2012 | Filed under: Private Equity, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Venture capitalAllAboutAlpha talks to Jalak Jobanputra, MD at RTP Ventures on the mobile payments market, which is set transact over US$1 trillion by 2016.Read More
Finding Alpha in Israel’s Emerging Market
Apr 19th, 2012 | Filed under: Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesIsrael is now second only to the United States in terms of venture capital funds, with the highest rate of start-up businesses per capita and also the highest ratio of university degrees to population anywhere in the world.Read More
American Healthcare: Under All the Noise, Psilos Finds Cost-Effective Solutions
Feb 22nd, 2012 | Filed under: Private EquityLisa Suennen of Psilos Group discusses the new wave in healthcare venture capital: improved care quality while reducing costs.Read More