EVCA Newsletter | January Edition - Tons of Jobs, Events, and Features for our First Issue of the Year
As a matter of absolute self-compulsion, I’m moved by the residual spirit of the holidays to jumpstart this edition of the EVCA newsletter with a heartfelt “Happy New Year!” It’s perhaps a strange time to celebrate nowadays, especially when every time you look on social media, news of omicron raging across the world only makes you reminisce about those normal days. However, if I could just distract you with something positive or perhaps even a tad off-color in light of the general state of events, I would mention some amazing stats from our industry—in particular, that 2021 was an earth-shattering, record-breaking year for venture capital. The level of venture capital funding in 2021 reached an all-time high at $643B, representing a whopping 10x from a decade ago and nearly doubling since 2020. The number of unicorns created in 2021 was also unprecedented, with a new unicorn born more than 10 each week on average. It goes without saying that we are very much living in some peculiar but fascinating times.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to the January edition of the EVCA newsletter!
EVCA Spotlight: Meet Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner at Eclipse Ventures
We had the chance to interview Aidan Madigan-Curtis, who is a partner at Eclipse Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in companies disrupting old-line industries. Aidan shares with us her origins story—from growing up in the Canadian Rockies, working at Bridgewater Associates right out of college, heading global operations teams at Apple and Samsara, and, in her most recent chapter, investing in startups as a VC. Through her story, Aidan shares her origins story and thoughts about life and career.
Featured Investors
This month we highlight Demi Obayomi of Sapphire Ventures and Stephanie Cherrin of Porsche Ventures as our featured investors of the EVCA community.
Demi Obayomi is a Vice President at Sapphire Ventures, a $8.8B venture capital firm with offices in the Bay Area, Austin and London. Demi joined Sapphire Ventures in 2021 and primarily focuses on investments in Application Software including Horizontal SaaS, Vertical/Industry SaaS and SMB SaaS. Prior to Sapphire Ventures, Demi was a VC investor at NextWorld Capital (San Francisco) and FirstMark Capital (NYC) where he invested in startups across categories such as application software, developer tools, fintech infrastructure, marketplaces and consumer healthcare. Prior to his investing career, Demi was a member of the investment banking team at Goldman Sachs where he advised on and executed M&A, debt financing and equity financing transactions for clients in the Industrials sector. Demi studied Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) where he graduated with Honors. Demi is passionate about mentoring aspiring investors and increasing diversity in venture capital and the technology industry at large. He is a member of BLCK VC and the Emerging Venture Capitalists Association (EVCA). Demi previously lived in Nigeria and Canada and enjoys soccer and skiing in his free time.
Stephanie Cherrin is a Principal at Porsche Ventures where she leads the team in investments across automotive, mobility, sustainability, and intelligent enterprise startups. She has sourced and led investments in notable companies including Rally, Cresta, DSP Concepts, Bumper, among others. Stephanie spent the first half of her life in the Bay Area and the second part in Israel. She has a degree in Counter-Terrorism studies from Reichman University and a Masters in Terrorism, Security and Society from King’s College, London. Stephanie has spent most of her career in Venture Capital starting in Israel as a founding member of Krypton VC, a consumer focused early-stage fund. She then moved on to manage the Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile early-stage venture fund where she invested in companies in the VR, 5G, Narrowband, IoT and infrastructure sectors. Upon moving to the US, Stephanie joined NFX as their Head of Network where she forged relationships with early-stage founders and investors to help the portfolio and surface new investment opportunities. Once Porsche Ventures began to scale their activities in the United States, Stephanie joined as Principal and has been with the group ever since.
EVCA Leadership Spotlight: Impact Vertical Leads, Eduardo Laiter of Kapor Capital and Stella Tran of Acumen America
This EVCA Leadership Spotlight Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA, as well as highlight the valuable contributions of the roughly 50 individuals across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.
Eduardo Laiter is a former senior analyst at Kapor Capital, where he focused on investing in early-stage impact businesses helping increase socioeconomic mobility in underserved low-income communities. During his three years at Kapor, Eduardo focused primarily on fintech and edtech sectors, and spent time researching alternatives to student loans and businesses increasing access to homeownership. Currently, Eduardo is pursuing his MBA at Columbia Business School and is partnering with a New York City-based fund to develop an investment thesis revolving around enterprise climate tech solutions. In his free time, Eduardo enjoys scuba-diving, camping, traveling (30+ countries visited so far), and cooking.
Stella Tran is a Senior Associate with Acumen America, the U.S. portfolio of the global impact investment firm Acumen. Acumen America aims to find early-stage innovations in health, financial services, and workforce development (edtech, people ops, future of work) that remove the barriers to opportunity, mobility and prosperity for low-income Americans. At Acumen America, Stella invests across all sectors, as well as leads strategic projects such as the Medicaid Innovation Collaborative and Where to Next to support the broader ecosystem in serving low-income communities across the United States. Prior to Acumen, Stella focused on building the foundation of her early career in social enterprise and impact investing, with roles at Just Business, The Miller Center for Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara, and The Ayllu Initiative.
What We’re Reading
Autonomous driving: are we there yet? - Silvio Memme of Omers Ventures, discusses the state of autonomous vehicles and what changes are needed to get to full adoption
The Future of Homes: Part 2 - Chris Langford of IDEA Fund Partners, provides his high-level predictions of homes and housing themes for the next 5–10 Years
5 Benefits of Joining a Sector-Focused Venture Capital Fund - Natan Reddy of Ironspring Ventures, describes 5 real benefits of joining a sector-focused fund
Embedded Lending — Our Thesis on SMB Lending, Enabling Infrastructure and the Opportunity to Unlock Access to Capital - Lauren Weston of Thomvest Ventures, reflects on what the future of lending might look like
Don’t Overdose on VC: Lessons from 166 startup IPOs - Micah Rosenbloom and Joseph Flaherty of Founder Collective, ask the question of does raising a large amount of capital make a startup more likely to succeed?
An Autopsy on Casper: Lessons from a DTC Failure - Kevin LaBuz of 1stDibs, analyzes why Casper bleeds cash while Purple makes money
Events
Tech Trends for 2022 (and Beyond!) | January 4 | Hosted by Austin Forum on Technology & Society
Repair and Reconstruct: Advancements in Regenerative Medicine | January 8 | Hosted by Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology Students’ Union (LMPSU)
Rising to the Challenge: Healthy Aging Forum 2022 | January 11 | Hosted by United Nation’s Decade of Healthy Aging initiative, WuXi AppTec, A*STAR, and Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC)
The Imagine Better Series: The New Frontiers of Compliance and Consumption | January 18 | Hosted by Futerra Live
2022 Emerging Technologies Review | January 20-21 | Hosted by The Institute for Energy Efficiency at UC Santa Barbara
AI in Healthcare | January 21 | Hosted by AICorespot
Sundance in Park City Party | January 23 | Hosted by EVCA and Pelion Ventures
Investment & Inclusion Series | Emerging Fund Managers: Opportunities and Challenges | January 25 | Hosted by The Capital Network
NVCA-Sidley Webinar: ESG in CVC | January 26 | Hosted by NVCA and Sidley
Evaluating Public Listing Alternatives | January 27 | Hosted by NVCA and Sidley
The Intersection of Public Service & Venture Capital – Panel Overview | February 4 | Hosted by EVCA (Dave Mullen) | Check EVCA Slack channel to RSVP
Jobs
Multiple Roles in San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; and Miami, FL at Soma Capital
Associate Role in San Francisco, CA at Riverside Technology Capital Solutions (RTCS)
MBA Summer 2022 Associate in the Bay Area at Emerson
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, and Isaac
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