Friday Letter

The managing partner of Energize Capital, whose new Fund III is 30% bigger than its sophomore effort, shares practical advice for other GPs on the fundraising trail.

Some seed funds are asking their LPs to support a larger number of investments, which typically means a fund will have smaller ownership of each company but will get more shots on goal.

“Companies that are well-prepared and have the ability to hit IPO windows quickly should be able to make it out,” Mike Bellin, IPO services leader for PWC, tells VCJ.

Nicole Musicco, former CIO of CalPERS, warns that evergreen funds may lead to a more transactional dynamic between manager and investor.

Ravi Viswanathan of NewView Capital says secondaries are becoming a structural part of the venture market, not just a short-term solution.

Yup Kim, CIO of Texas Municipal Retirement System, is a fan of venture capital and says the $44bn public pension may invest 'several hundreds of millions' per year in the asset class.

Although strategic exits only seem like a bigger trend because of the relative scarcity of other types of M&A, strategic buyers are acquiring about 75 percent of distressed target companies.

Contrary to a report in the Financial Times that public market turmoil is spurring large institutional investors to explore selling out of private market positions, most LPs are not likely to make such reactionary decisions to sell at steep discounts.

Dive into our exclusive directory of women-led venture capital firms, which has grown from about 100 to more than 380 firms.

'Crypto venture capital not only can sell to strategic like PayPal, or IPO when the IPO market opens, but also has a liquid token market, which offers an additional source of liquidity,' says Michael Steinberg of Reciprocal Ventures.