EVCA Newsletter | January Edition - our first issue of the year
It’s the start of a new year, and that means the world is brimming with possibilities. The venture capitalists sit at the edges of their seats, hopeful for lower interest rates and the long-awaited IPO window to open up. The crypto enthusiasts are savoring the surging crypto prices, and the Gen AI advocates already have declared 2025 to be the year of the agents. The pragmatists, which some would call the pessimists, predict a contraction of the number of venture capital firms and an overall slowdown in the deal pace—a VC winter in so many words. We’re also getting a new president soon, one whose agenda mixes a populist rhetoric intertwined with a distinctively Elon Musk bent. Whether you side with the optimists or the pessimists or somewhere in between, one thing’s for certain: 2025 will not be boring.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!
Featured Investors
This month we highlight Caroline Chick, Senior Associate at Activate Capital, and Jon Healy, Investor at Cathay Innovation, as our featured investors of the EVCA community.
Caroline Chick is a Senior Associate at Activate Capital, a growth-stage venture capital firm investing in the sustainable, resilient transformation of the global economy. As an investor, Caroline is driven by a passion for partnering with companies and founders at the forefront of the large-scale climate and technology-driven shifts that are poised to redefine our core systems and infrastructure over the next decade. Prior to joining Activate, Caroline worked at Nomura Greentech, an investment bank specializing in M&A and capital raise advisory for public and private companies accelerating the energy transition. Caroline is a proud Ohioan and graduate of The Ohio State University, where she studied finance, history and Spanish.
Jon Healy is an investor at Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital firm with over $2.5 billion in assets under management. He specializes in investments at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. Before joining Cathay Innovation, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised advanced industrial clients on growth strategy and operational excellence. Earlier in his career, he contributed to venture formation at FedTech, sourcing breakthrough technologies and leading startup studio team formation. He also worked as a Materials Engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center - Carderock Division (NSWCCD), focusing on cutting-edge material innovation and industrial base qualification. Jon holds degrees in Materials Science and Finance from Case Western Reserve University.
EVCA Leaders: San Francisco Chapter Co-lead, Mel Demma of Swift 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.
Mel Demma is an investor at Swift Ventures, where she invests in early-stage enterprise AI and automation companies. Mel is a force multiplier for her companies with a sincere desire to roll up her sleeves early to help build teams, flesh out ideas and find potential customers. Mel grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley, which exposed her to tech and venture capital at a young age and fomented an admiration for founders who break barriers and the investors who back them. Mel graduated from the University of Southern California, earning a BS in Business Administration. She is on USC's Marshall Partners Board and the executive team of Destined for X, a nonprofit that connects students from underrepresented backgrounds with top-tier technology companies in the Bay Area.
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
Scouting Early-Stage Opportunities: A Research Approach For Any Niche - Ravi Khurana of Stealth, created a guide for early-stage VC Analysts to filter out the noise and find stand-out startups in any industry/niche
AI Trends 2024: Power Law and Agents - Kenn So of Smartsheet, shares 80+ pages of data and analysis covering macro to scaling laws - including the latest from Neurips and OpenAI's shipmas
What to Watch in 2025 - Mario Gabriele of The Generalist, reached out to more than 60 of the world’s greatest venture capitalists to understand the companies, markets, tokens, and themes that will define the year
AI in 2025: What Comes Next? - Fabian Flatz of Frontier Ventures, delves into his top predictions for AI for 2025.
Revolutionizing Manufacturing Through Software - Isabel Young and Olivia Tanzman of AXA Venture Partners, discuss the emerging role of software innovation in the manufacturing environment.
Events
Rookie Roundtable: Master Multifamily Investing | January 14
The Queer Decarbonization Summit | February 18-19 | Hudson Valley
New York 2025 Venture Capital World Summit | May 14 | New York City
➡️ 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
Venture Capital Graduate Student Internship at Precursor Ventures in San Francisco, CA
Venture Capital Investor Accelerator at Venture University in San Francisco, CA
Head of Emerging Manager Programs at VC Lab in San Francisco, CA
Venture Partner at Global Millennial Capital Ltd. in San Francisco, CA
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris
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