Coller Institute of Venture

Berlin builds businesses: five initiatives for Europe's start-up hub

2013-11-30T04:37:00.000-08:00

柏林构建商业契机首提五项举措争当欧洲创业中心

McKinsey Berlin

As the “Berlin builds businesses” study demonstrates, the German capital has the chance to become Europe’s start-up hub – assuming it makes a concerted effort to do so. Five initiatives can strengthen the local start-up scene for the long term in several innovative focus clusters: digital tech, biotech/med tech, and urban tech. Berlin could gain an additional 100,000 jobs by 2020 as a result.

Besides job opportunities, human capital incentives and networks, Berlin has more reasons to attract young entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to start their business here.

For more details about Berlin's five initiatives, please read here.

Machine over man; an innovation to the VC model ?

2013-11-26T08:05:00.002-08:00

机器代替人类风险投资模型创新应用？

Algorithms used in VC deal selection

Like chess could deal sourcing be executed better by the venture capital equivalent of Deep Blue?

Apparently so according to an article carried in PeHub. An increasing number of firms are using algorithms to sift through the volume of data looking for those diamonds that will end, not in tears, but with large exits.

The focus of one fund is on disruptive technologies aimed at unseating old stalwarts in certain industries such as financial services, airlines, healthcare and law.

If you're sceptical then wait they are using the data used on Wall Street to identify leading stocks. Those adopting this innovative approach praise the speed, efficiency and I suppose consistency of any in built bias. Algorithms do not have bad days or intuition.

Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program

2013-11-26T03:08:00.000-08:00

美国国家经济研究局的生产力、创新与创业项目

Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program

The Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program was founded as the Productivity Program, with Zvi Griliches as the inaugural program director, in 1978. It has more recently expanded to incorporate the vibrant and growing body of research in the affiliated fields of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Their report on the program explains Economic Research on productivity and entrepreneurship as well as innovation policy. With a close analysis on "the Economics of Digitization", it points out a way of development in the future.

In our past post, we compared Israel and Singapore's innovation ability and the capacity of productivity. And this report offers a different perspective of considering national productivity, such as in health care.

To read the full report, please visit here.

GUV Summit: University Corner

2013-11-24T04:28:00.000-08:00

全球大学风险投资峰会在伦敦圆满结束

GUV Summit

In an increasingly globalised world, innovation and the positive disruption it brings are no longer about a singular rogue scientist driving forward humanity’s progress: it is about collaboration. And to find the seeds of this networking and teamwork essential to our technological success being planted, you need look no further than Global University Venturing’s inaugural summit.

Focusing on the theme of ‘Investing in Disruption’, the event, held at the prestigious Baker Botts offices in the heart of the City of London, brought together individuals, organisation, and corporations representing every part of the innovation pipeline.

The idea of collaboration was formalised early on at the Summit with a keynote speech from Shelley Harrison, a senior advisor at Coller Capital and executive-in-residence at New York University, who also spoke in a video interview.

To read more details about GUV Summit, please visit Global Corporate Venturing website.

Carlyle Africa sails to $700m

2013-11-20T03:43:00.000-08:00

凯雷集团非洲地区七亿美金起航

Marlon Chigwende

Carlyle’s maiden Africa-focused fund will reach $700million by 2013 year-end, as it races towards its final close in the first quarter of 2014.

The Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa fund (CSSAF) had originally set out to raise $500million, and has therefore already significantly surpassed its original target, underscoring LP investor appetite for the continent.

The fund which has already touched the $650million mark is expecting at least $50million more before the year closes. The vehicle becomes one of few maiden Africa-focused vehicles that has in recent times sailed past its target ahead of final close.

More details about Carlyle Africa, please read here.

Google's creative destruction

2013-11-17T04:37:00.001-08:00

在创新与投资间破旧立新谷歌旗下的谷歌风投

Google Venture managing partner Bill Maris

Venture Capital firms have been the engine of the United States' innovation economy. At Google Ventures, the search giant's investing arm, Google thinks it can build a better one.

The managing partner Bill Maris understands the circumstance that "If I'm an entrepreneur and I have a term sheet from Sequoia and Kleiner, that's the safe choice. Google Ventures is the brave choice." But Maris argues that won't be the case for long. "We're in the process of rethinking everything, from top to bottom, so that over time, Google Ventures becomes the safe choice."

Read here to know how Google Ventures wants to do better.

Europe's hottest startup capitals: Tel Aviv

2013-11-13T04:53:00.000-08:00

欧洲最热门的创业之都：特拉维夫

Tel Aviv

For the third year's Europe Startup Guide, WIRED Magazine's editors have visited the continent's startup hubs to identify the ten tech cities you need to know about. Among the ten cities, Tel Aviv ranked No. 1. Followings are the 10 companies causing the greatest buzz, according to the local commentators, investors and entrepreneurs we surveyed.

Visit here to know more cities and companies on the list.

Upcoming event from Coller Institute: the 7th Private Equity Findings Symposium

2013-11-10T01:48:00.000-08:00

科勒研究所第七届私募股权Findings专题研讨会现已开始报名

Coller Institute of Private Equity Finding Symposium

The Coller Institute of Private Equity host its seventh annual Private Equity Findings Symposium on 2 and 3 June 2014 in London.

Ticket sales has started and we are offering early booking discounts at present.

The Symposium is the Coller Institute of Private Equity’s annual flagship event. It is a unique two-day conference, bringing together major industry representatives and academic thought leaders from around the world to discuss new research findings and current concerns regarding the Private Equity subject matter.

Considering current topics and concerns of practitioners, academics and policy makers, the 2014 Symposium will feature roundtable discussions and keynote speeches under the headline "BATTLE OF THE ASSET CLASSES".

For symposium agenda and more details, please visit here.

Why leveraging technology is more powerful than innovating

2013-11-07T02:39:00.000-08:00

利用科技缘何比创新更强大

Leveraging technology vs. innovation

A study recently commissioned by Google examined the impact of Israel’s renowned technology industry on the country’s overall economy. The results – shocking to many – should serve as a mind-opener to both entrepreneurs and policymakers in the United States and around the globe.

However, Joseph Steinberg, contributor of Forbes.com, compares the productivity between Israel and Singapore, and he concluded that effectiveness in leveraging technology is a much greater determiner of economic success than technological innovation.

To read more of his sincere analysis, please visit here.

Welcome to the Unicorn Club: learning from Billion-Dollar Startups

2013-11-05T02:19:00.000-08:00

欢迎来到独角兽俱乐部：从十亿美金的初创公司取经

Unicorn Club

Many entrepreneurs, and the venture investors who back them, seek to build billion-dollar companies. Recently, the Cowboy Ventures team built a dataset of U.S.-based tech companies started since January 2003 and most recently valued at $1 billion by private or public markets.

In this "ongoing learning-from" project, Cowboy Ventures found 39 companies belong to what they call the “Unicorn Club”, including Facebook as they called "Super-Unicorn". From enterprise-oriented and customer-oriented aspects, Cowboy Venture crew gives investors as well as entrepreneurs a comprehensive data collection and infographics to help them make decisions.

To read more about these Billion-Dollar Unicorn Club, please visit here.

This is already the third biggest year in the history of venture capital

2013-11-03T01:18:00.000-07:00

今年为风险投资行业史上第三座丰碑

Aggregate VC-Backed Exites, IPO and M&A

There has been a lot of negativity about venture capital, venture backed exits and IPOs lately, which is not surprising in light of the high profile declines in some of the big venture backed IPOs including Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, A123, etc.

However, after a close analysis, Sean Marsh concluded that "many Venture Capitalists’ view that the industry is poised to be very successful over the next decade driven by substantially decreased funding and competition amongst VCs, extraordinary levels of innovation, a larger consumer market on Internet and mobile than ever before and apparently, robust exit markets that are the lifeblood for successful venture capital investing."

Read more about the detailed analysis.

Cash Connections: Who invested in social networking?

2013-10-31T01:13:00.000-07:00

现金连线：谁投资了社交网络？

Social networking cash connections

Social networking has became an indispensable part of our digital life. But behind the scene, who invested in social networkings and made them possible for the mass majority is still a question mark. This infographic illustrates the investments made in social networking, and it shows the cash connections clearly.

Click here to read more.

Preqin Special Report: US Venture Capital Industry

2013-10-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

Preqin特别报告：美国的风险投资行业

US Venture Capital Industry

The US continues to be at the forefront of the venture capital industry, providing sources of capital for new and exciting
businesses. The industry is celebrated, with the IPOs of successful tech start-ups having been treated as important media
events, and venture capital fund managers investing in these companies are able to generate high IRRs for their investors.

This month, Preqin Ltd. published a profound and thorough report on US's Venture Capital Industry. It covers US venture capital industry in general, US venture capital benchmarks across different vintage years as well as US-focused venture capital fundraising, and it also contains US venture capital's notable deals in the country in 2013 so far.

If you want to delve into the venture capital content, click here to read the full report.

Corporate Venture Capital | Where are the incentives ?

2013-10-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

企业风险投资激励究竟在何方？

BVCA - Corporate Venture

Whilst there has been considerable focus given to encouraging venture capital in the UK in the form of policies aimed at channeling individual investment, little has been done at the corporate level or so says the BVCA in their current report "The Missing Piece".

Does this reveal a lack of understanding from policy makers or an inability of corporations to make their case? A Corporate Venture Scheme was not renewed in 2010.

With historically high cash balances held by corporate UK (and US too ), is now the time for Government to rethink their policy on attracting this important source of equity capital to the development and commercialisation of innovation?

The report's findings and recommendations derive from a series of interviews with major corporate venture capital ("CVC") investors.

In short the report is looking for more harmonisation around the accounting and fiscal incentives. Currently CVC is limited to larger players who can absorb the losses derived from consolidation accounting aspects which differ considerably from those deploying equity capital from an investment fund. It also looks at how the UK can make itself a more attractive domain for CVC, beyond fiscal incentives which will be only a short run factor.

Remember in late 90's when investors asked at every AGM about a company's digital policy and the penalty for not having one? Yes there wastage and not everything worked - that's venture, but the productivity that came from that period even post the bubble has not been matched since. We need investors to be asking as a matter of course about a company's innovative/venture policy- how much is internal and what is invested externally?

The new frontier of digital franchising

2013-10-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

数字化特许经营的新疆界

McDonalds is a huge franchise

The concept of franchising as a distribution model has been around since the nineteenth century, and the first company to pioneer the model in 1940 was — you guessed it — McDonald’s.

Introducing, the digital franchise model: a type of license or right sold to a franchisee that grants ownership of a local market and access to a digital technology that will enable them to build a local business, under the parent name.

For businesses that need local representation, digital franchising is an ideal method of distribution. Local representatives need to have a vested ownership in the success of connecting local businesses with local consumers — particularly in hyper-local markets. In this model, franchisees buy the rights to certain geographic areas and earn a profit from mobile and web eCommerce in their marked territory.

Read more about pros and cons of digital franchising here.

How tech Startups can get money and support from the Fortune 500

2013-10-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

科技创业如何募集资金并取得《财富》500强支持

Seeking mutual benefit with the Fortune 500

How can a tech startup engage with a Fortune 500 company for mutual benefit?

Fortune 500 corporations are stressed about where they can get growth and how to plug into the innovative and nimble entrepreneurial ecosystem. The chasm between the typical Fortune 500 company and a startup is typically too vast for a standard partnership. So the large company needs to build the equivalent of a standard API to handle the significant number of startups with which any given large company can work.

The most common ways in which the Fortune 500 are working with the startup community at scale is through corporate VC arms, contests, packages of benefits geared to startups, and accelerator programs.

For more information, please read here.

Crowdfunding business models

2013-10-10T01:56:00.002-07:00

众筹的商业模式

Crowdfunding Models

On the subject of crowdfunding, whether it's a fad or a real innovative challenge to the VC model is too early to tell. However what cannot be disputed is the interest it is attracting and real money the platforms are generating. With this in mind here are two infographics which I thought were helpful, one on models and one on the sector.

How to draw a crowd

Crowdfunding : VC seeding finds fertile platform

2013-10-10T01:41:00.000-07:00

众筹：风险投资种子寻求的新肥沃平台

Crowdfunding

At the Coller Institute of Venture kick-off event last month we heard Professor David Zvilichovsky discuss bubbles and crowdfunding.

Recent changes in the laws regarding solicitation in the US have accelerated the growth in this funding tool for start-ups. What used to take months now takes days. The dependence on the 3Fs has shifted although many will still lose money.

However within this sphere online syndicates are emerging which some argue may disrupt some of the smaller traditional VCs. The article in WSJ discusses some of these online syndicates and how the platforms are defending their reputation in determining who can set up a syndicate.

America needs more deep innovation

2013-10-06T03:12:00.000-07:00

美国需要深度创新

Federal funding to universities ratio, NSF/NIH

Since World War II, deep innovation in America has largely come through federal funding of academic research. Government funding is essential for supporting national needs like defense and for helping our technology industries. The government plays an irreplaceable role in supporting research that is deep, broad and diffusible— the kind of work that has the potential to transform our science and create new industries.

However, since 1960s the federal R&D has diminished while industrial R&D has grown. Meanwhile, universities are becoming more entrepreneurial as their federal support shrinks. While we benefit from the start-up companies that universities spin off, we have to solve a country-size job crisis and develop new initiatives to protect deep innovation.

Read more here about Prof. Ken Dill and his calling for more academic research and a protected portfolio of deep innovation.

Estonian president explains his country's tech boom and why America is falling behind

2013-10-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

爱沙尼亚总统阐释本国科技迸发及美国缘何落后

Estonia President Toomas Hendrick Ilves

Estonia, the tiny Baltic state that holds fewer people than San Diego, has been praised recently for both the apparent success of the country's austerity policies (and President Toomas Hendrik Ilves' very public defense of it against Paul Krugman) and the country's remarkable emergence as an Eastern Europe technology hub.

Speaking at the Concordia Summit at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel on Friday, Ilves outlined two clear factors in Estonia's technological success — and made a convincing argument that the United States wasn't doing either well.

To read more, please visit here.

The “Early-Late” stage startups: the emergence of a new investment stage

2013-09-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

“初晚期”创业：新投资阶段的出现

Source from: Chemi Peres

Recently Chemi Peres wrote in his blog about the emergence of a new investment stage: “Early-Late” stage. He states that this stage refers to companies who, for all intents and purposes, should have been defined as young startups. They are usually in just their second or third year of operations, and in most cases, their management teams are incomplete.

However, when they present their company to potential investors in the hopes of obtaining a first round of institutional VC financing (a “Series A” round), it would appear as if they are instead seeking “Late” stage financing.

This is mainly because their pre-money valuations are relatively high, and the amount of capital they are seeking to raise more closely resembles a late stage investment – in most cases, they contemplate raising $10M-$20M.

To read more reasons that caused the emergence of the new investment stage, please visit here.

New book: Startup Rising: the entrepreneurial revolution remaking the Middle East

2013-09-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

新书：《创业革命重塑中东》

Book: Startup Rising

Christopher M. Schroeder, a seasoned U.S. internet executive and venture investor travelled to Dubai, Cairo, Amman, Beirut, Istanbul and even Damascus and met thousands of talented, successful, and intrepid young entrepreneurs willing to take on the political, cultural, legal and societal challenges to their worlds.

Equally important, major regional and international private equity firms, venture capitalists and global tech players like Google, Intel, Cisco, Yahoo, LinkedIn and PayPal are making significant investments, despite the uncertainty in the region.

After the book Start-Up Nation on Israel, there are more nations rising to embrace the entrepreneurial revolution.

For more information, please read here.

Journey of a start up

2013-09-23T01:05:00.002-07:00

创业之旅

The Journey of a start up

The FT has started a record of some start ups emanating from universities; often with a social venture bias. So far there are only journeys for three : Luminaid | Spotted | Social Project PH.

Some have worked and others, after early accolades, have faded. Read why. Not to be " a glass half empty " sort - reading why start-ups fail is not schadenfreude but genuinely positive for those involved with new businesses especially those start-ups that have high digital dependency. Here is another from Tech Crunch

As populist as it may feel, 98% of VCs aren’t dumb

2013-09-16T01:11:00.005-07:00

创业者跻身风险投资家阐释多数风投并非不懂

98% of VCs aren't dumb

Mark Suster is a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC. He joined Upfront Ventures in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com.

When he read Andy Dunn’s scathing post about Venture Capitalists, he thinks that many of the assertions in the post – while populist – aren’t exactly how things are in reality.

So by having his hand at a friendly counter point, he listed 7 assertions that he thinks aren't true. Giving the experiences of being an entrepreneur, and later became a VC, Mark does have a good standing point.

For more information, please read here.

VC explains the advantages of New York City over San Francisco

2013-09-08T00:20:00.000-07:00

解析风投所在地纽约势压旧金山

New York City by Danielle Buma

GGV Capital venture capital associate Andy Manoske talks about the advantages of New York City over San Francisco in term of venture capital.

However, he said he wouldn't go that far:

I think there isn't an absolute "better" or "worse" for VCs when it comes to geography. San Francisco and Silicon Valley certainly have many regional benefits due to the sheer size of their entrepreneurial community. But many other areas of the country - NYC being one of them - benefit from having unique characteristics conducive to building certain kinds of businesses there.

Geography is only one of the factors for VC firms, there are many more elements need to take into account.

For more information, please read here.