EVCA Newsletter | February Edition - the latest VC news, jobs, and events
Of all things, the VC’s life—what we spend our time and energies on—is governed by the technology hype cycle. We might invest in autonomous cars and blockchain in one year, then CleanTech and AI the next. The hype cycle has served as a useful heuristic to describe technology adoption patterns for the last few decades. For every technology trend hyped today, we expect it to reach that lull otherwise called the “trough of disillusionment”, where interest in the technology wanes for some time and later rebounds and reaches mass adoption.
However, as I’ve wondered as of late, is it possible for certain technology trends to bypass or accelerate through parts of the hype cycle? Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, Gen AI has taken the industry by storm. Gartner has declared that Gen AI is at the peak of inflated expectations, a sentiment echoed by many VCs. Yet data is emerging that Gen AI adoption may be more mature than expected. Last year OpenAI reached $1.6B in annualized revenue in 2023. An unprecedented 67% of companies are using Gen AI, and certain startups in the space have scaled from zero to millions of revenue in a matter of months. Then there’s personal anecdote: ChatGPT has on more than one occasion saved my life when I had to accelerate my diligence to meet a deal deadline. So is Gen AI today all hype or something much more? I guess only time will tell…
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to our first EVCA newsletter for the year!
Spotlight Feature: Meet Leonardo Banchik, Director at Voyager Ventures
We had the chance to interview Leonardo Banchik, who is a Director at Voyager Ventures, an early-stage ClimateTech fund. Leonardo was previously a Partner at Global Founders Capital, where he led the firm’s ClimateTech practice. Leonardo shares his story—from growing up in Las Vegas, working at McKinsey, and investing in early-stage ClimateTech startups. In this interview, Leonardo also shares his reflections on life and career.
Featured Investor
This month we highlight Sofia Montoya of Crosslink Capital as our featured investor of the EVCA community.
Sofia Montoya is an investor at Crosslink Capital, a generalist fund focused on Seed and Series As. Prior to joining Crosslink last summer, Sofia spent three years as a growth stage investor at Adams Street Partners. She invested in Iterable’s $200M Series E, Remote’s $150M Series B, FalconX’s $150M Series D, Altruist’s $112M Series D, and Abra’s $55M Series C while at Adams Street. Sofia started her career in healthcare investment banking after graduating from Northwestern.
EVCA Leaders: Deep Tech Vertical Lead, Ryan Fauber of Point72 Ventures
This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.
Ryan Fauber is an Associate at Point72 Ventures, focusing on early-stage Deep Tech investing. Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Ryan worked as an associate in the TMT group of Goldman Sachs’ investment bank where he primarily concentrated on large-scale software M&A and internet IPOs. Before that, he spent three years in India working at the global impact evaluation firm IDinsight. There, he spent two years as an associate managing randomized control trials of social development programs and one year as the founder and head of the product team. Ryan holds a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
LP Feature: Guy Perelmuter, Founder of Grids Capital
This month we highlight Guy Perelmuter, founder of Grids Capital as our featured LP of the EVCA community.
Guy Perelmuter is the founder of GRIDS Capital, a deep tech venture capital firm focusing on artificial intelligence, robotics, life sciences, and technological infrastructure founded in 2016. He earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering in 1994 and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1996, both from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He specialized in computer vision techniques using artificial intelligence back in the mid 1990’s. In 1997, he was one of the winners of the Brazil Young Scientist Award for the implementation of his solution to produce texts in Braille using dot matrix printers, and he later went on to develop risk analysis and asset allocation systems. His book “Present Future: Business, Science and the Deep Tech Revolution” (Fast Company Press) was selected as a Top Business Book of 2022 by the Next Big Idea Club and won gold medals from both the 2022 Axiom Business Book Awards (Business Technology) and the 2021 Foreword Indies Awards (Science and Technology).
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
Tidal Waves in Venture Capital - Kevin Zhang of FirstMark Capital, examines how various macro trends + rapid advancements in AI are reshaping the venture & startup ecosystems.
What’s the deal with African VC, and is it actually working? - Anowa Quarcoo of Moja, does a deep dive into investment on the continent, and what it means for the future of the region
Data Moats in Generative AI - Kenn So of Smartsheet, revisits the idea of data moats in generative AI and how they might not be as straightforward as "classical" deep learning
Why Every Company Will Be an Energy Company - Meera Clark of Redpoint Ventures, shares why she is excited about software's potential to reshape the $600Bn commercial energy industry as businesses shift from analog to algorithmic approaches
Cybersecurity's Golden Decade: A Deep Dive into Private Market Investing - Zain Rizavi of Ridge Ventures, provides a comprehensive analysis of cybersecurity investment trends over the past decade
Events
Lunar New Year Happy Hour | February 6 | Hosted by SVB
Investor, Founder, & Friends Happy Hour | February 27 | Hosted by Counterpart Ventures
SXSW 2024 | March 8-16 | Hosted by Southwest
Una Dolce Vita Dinner in SF: February 22nd
Our SF community is hosting its first ever fresh pasta night, which will be a bi-monthly series. This time around Alec from Bullpen Capital be cooking his nonna's Calabrian Bolognese sauce with some fresh Spaghetti. “The only thing I ask for everyone attending is to please bring something to pair with the food!” This can be desserts, wine, etc! The event will take place at Bullpen's office in the Presidio. RSVP to attend.
Jobs
Senior Investment Associate in San Francisco, CA (Remote) at M13
Senior Investment Associate Role in Palo Alto, CA (Hybrid) at Woven Capital Fund
Friends & Family Coach in Los Angeles, CA (Part-Time Contract) at Slauson & Co
AI-Focused Senior Associate / Principal Role in Palo Alto, CA at GFT Ventures
Growth & Partnerships Lead Role in San Francisco, CA (Remote) at Lazer
Analyst / Associate Role (Remote) at Navigate Ventures. Reach out to achit@bbq.capital if interested
Associate Role in San Francisco, CA at Princeville Capital. If interested, please email your resume to recruiting@princeville-capital.com with a short description outlining your background, with the subject line "San Francisco Investment Associate"
Junior Investment Associate Role in Silicon Valley, CA at Softbank. If interested, please send your resume to kevin.jiang1@softbank.com
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, Ani, and Mane
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