EVCA Newsletter | February Edition - the latest VC news, jobs, and events
We’re only into the second month of the year, but the world seems to change at a faster rate than ever. Last week the announcement by Chinese-based DeepSeek that it had trained and could operate a foundational model at a fraction of a cost compared to OpenAI sent NVIDIA’s stock price into a tumble and threw the rest of the AI ecosystem into an identity crisis. Over the weekend, newly inaugurated President Trump announced a series of tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, pushing the U.S. onto the brink of trade war with some of its closest allies. In recent days, Elon Musk gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems and exercised such sweeping control across federal agencies on a scale without historical precedent. Then there were the Los Angeles fires, one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history—a stark reminder of accelerating climate change and a harbinger of potential upheaval in the insurance industry. We are yet to see the full ripple effects of these developments, but they draw into question many things: the future of AI, geopolitical stability, the economic outlook, and the nature of our federal government. For now, we’re all merely passengers on this turbulent, historic ride.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!
Meet Emily Fritze, Partner at Westly Group
We had the chance to interview Emily Fritze, who is a Partner at The Westly Group, an early-stage VC firm. Emily shares her story—from working as a political appointee under the Obama administration in Washington D.C. to investing in early-stage climate, energy, and mobility startups. She also shares his learnings on life and career.
Featured Investor
This month we highlight Austin Yu of Taiwania Capital as our featured investor of the EVCA community.
Austin Yu is a Senior Associate at Taiwania Capital’s Tech Team, where he specializes in investments at the intersection of advanced robotics, AI-driven automation, and the future of data infrastructure, capitalizing on the convergence of these technologies to drive large-scale industrial transformation. Since joining Taiwania three years ago, Austin has developed a strong thesis around the future of the computing stack given the advent of AI-enabled systems. Prior to this, he was an analyst at Mesh Ventures, focusing on mobility tech, edge devices/connectivity, and data center technologies. Austin holds a degree in Design | Media Arts from UCLA.
EVCA Leaders: Fintech Vertical Co-lead, Abdul Abdirahman
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.
Abdul Abdirahman is a New York-based principal at F-Prime Capital. He has been with the firm for four years and invests in seed - series B stage fintech, vertical SaaS, and AI startups. He also leads the firm’s effort around the F-Prime Fintech Index. Prior to joining F-Prime, Abdul invested in emerging markets-based technology startups and worked with Nala – a VC-backed cross border payments startup. Abdul holds joint MBA & MPA/ID degrees from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the Harvard Kennedy School.
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
5 Takeaways from CalSTRS’ Private Equity Performance Report - Kevin Zhang of Sealth, analyzes CalSTRS’ returns (California State Teachers Pension System) over the past 20+ years, focusing on DPI / IRR trends and specifically how VC compares to growth equity / private equity
Hype, FOMO, And Investor Psychology: How To Make Smarter Investment Choices - Ankit Sharma of Exitfund, explores the Risks of FOMO — and why you shouldn’t let it fool you into poor investments
AI Isn’t the Future. It’s Already Changing the Game - Alastair Goldfisher of Venture Lens, AI boom compare
The Four Pillars of Venture Investing - Kyle Harrison of Contrary, explains the trade-offs within the four pillars of venture investing (finding, picking, winning, and supporting)
Events
➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.
Jobs
Healthcare Fellowship at Black Opal Ventures in New York, NY
Investment Associate at Princeville Capital in Berlin, Germany
Investment Associate at Zeal Capital Partners, please email your resume and background at emily@zealvc.co
Associate at OMERS Ventures in Bay Area, CA, please email your resume and background at jvitolo@omersventures.com
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris
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