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#Insurtech - YoupiJob et AXA France s'associent pour protéger les travailleurs indépendants

YoupiJob et AXA France s'associent pour protéger les travailleurs indépendants

La startup YoupiJob, plateforme permettant aux particuliers de faire directement appel à des travailleurs indépendants pour répondre à leurs besoins du quotidien, vient de s’allier à AXA France. Ce partenariat permet donc, depuis le 10 mars 2016, à YoupiJob de couvrir la Responsabilité Civile (RC) Professionnelle de ses plus de 1500 travailleurs indépendants mettant leurs compétences à disposition sur le site.  

Lancé en France dans un premier temps, le partenariat prévoit une couverture de type Responsabilité Civile "Prestataires de services" pour :

- Tout dégât (corporel, matériel, immatériel, etc.) ou accident survenu dans le cadre d’une mission
- Les dommages causés après l’achèvement des jobs

Ces garanties sont valables sur toutes les activités de bricolage, jardinage, déménagement, livraison, mais également les baby-sittings, les prestations informatiques en passant par l’aide à la personne.

"YoupiJob et AXA partagent une même vocation : accompagner nos clients dans les moments clés de leur vie, au plus proche de leurs besoins. C’est cette ambition de YoupiJob d’apporter de la valeur aux particuliers en aidant les travailleurs indépendants à se lancer qui nous a séduit.", explique Elise Bert Leduc, Directrice de la marque et des partenariats chez AXA France.

"Permettre à nos membres de se mettre en relation dans un cadre légal et sécurisé est notre première préoccupation. Nous sommes très fiers du travail accompli avec AXA pour mettre au point une couverture adaptée aux besoins de notre communauté : une assurance à l’usage couvrant automatiquement toutes les missions réalisées par nos Jobeurs. Ces garanties constituent un gage de sécurité et de confiance fort pour nos utilisateurs et nous permettent d’aller plus loin dans l’accompagnement des travailleurs indépendants.", assure Betrand Tournier, fondateur et CEO de YoupiJob.


A propos de Youpijob

YoupiJob est la marque de la société Ne

via www.24presse.com

Q1 2016 Blockchains, Robo Advisors, and Fintech Raise $4.9 Billion | The Bitcoin News - Decentralised Bitcoin and Crypto News

Fintech Lifts Off in 2016 

Courtesy of KPMG International, CB Insights, and Bloomberg

 

In fact, blockchain technology and robo advisors are some of the top ecosystems within the fintech sector. Robo advisors are acting as self-reliant risk profilers that optimize investment opportunity for customers. They eliminate the need for physical and real life consultants and advisors within the financial world and are far more affordable. The use of automated advisors has risen quite exponentially just as the subject of blockchains which also eliminate third party arbitration. Both of these innovations could radically reduce infrastructure costs and transaction time by removing the need for outside financial custodians. According to Leigh Drogen, founder, and CEO of Estimize, a company that works with financial earnings estimation believes distributed ledgers will be quite transformative. Drogen tells the publication eFinancialCareers:

via thebitcoinnews.com

Motomatix raises $200,000 seed funding from Venture Catalysts - KnowStartup

Mumbai-based tech-driven startup Motomatix has raised $200,000 (INR 1.3 crore) in a seed funding round from Venture Catalysts. The investment was led by Vikram Lakhotia, managing director of Standard Transport Corporation, and Anirudh Damani, partner at Artha India Ventures.

The funding will be utilized towards hiring talent and upgrading the servers for better analytics.

Motomatix (previously known as Vahanalytics) was founded by Shivalik Sen, Arun Gandhi, Nikhil Tavora and Someshwar Dash and is currently in beta stage. It aims to address the global problem of on-road transportation efficiency, on a local scale and make drivers and roads better through smarter data and machine learning.

The startup has created a low-cost, high-value product that can seamlessly collect information on key driver metrics and identify bad drivers from the good through scientific analysis. The platform captures real time data about driving habits and road conditions using smartphones, which is then processed and refined by leveraging the power of big data in order to extract useful insights.

It is currently catering to logistics, cab aggregator and on-demand companies in this space, thereby helping companies in tracking drivers. They also keep a check on driving behaviour, suggest ways to improve them and help lower the maintenance costs.

Earlier this month, the founders sold Driven to DriversKart which lets car owners find trained and verified drivers and chauffeurs around them, for all their driving needs.

Explaining the concept behind the development of the product, Shivalik said, “We started out as an on-demand driver service and built a driving analytics module to help track and train our drivers. While doing so, we realised that there was a distinct lack of a similar scientific metric to quantify and judge driving behaviour as well as to identify and train drivers in areas which require improvement.”

“India is currently the road accident capital of the world, and with urban transport witnessing a rapid growth, there was an urgent requirement for a smart solution that can aid in improving the extant road conditions,” said Anirudh.

This market space has huge potential and valued at $220 billion in India.

via knowstartup.com

The 37 coolest startup CEOs in UK tech - Business Insider

José Neves/LinkedInJosé Neves, founder of Farfetch.

The UK has one of Europe's most vibrant startup communities. From fintech to fashion technology, the country is host to a range of new tech companies.

The people at the heart of the startups are the CEOs and cofounders who built and continue to lead the companies. We rounded up a selection of some of the UK's best startup CEOs.

Did we miss anyone? Let us know in the comments — we want to know about them.

via uk.businessinsider.com

#Insurtech #Instech = @AXAVentures invests in @Wellthapp, a New York-based Digital Health Start-Up

 

 

• AXA Strategic Ventures (ASV), a global $250 million venture capital fund, today announced that it has led a funding round of $2 million in Wellth, a mobile first, financial incentive focused, behavior change platform. 
• The round also includes investments from B-Fore Capital, I2BF Venture Capital, Beta Bridge Ventures and AltaIR Capital. 

 

Based in New York City and founded in 2014, Wellth helps insurers and risk-bearing healthcare providers better understand their populations, improve customer health and retention, and lower costs, through a mobile first, financial incentive focused behavior change platform. Its goal is to help ensure the adoption and success of value-based care. 

“We built Wellth, and the methodology of using incentives to improve patient behavior, based on decades of peer reviewed research,” said Matt Loper, CEO of Wellth. “We’re passionate about helping patients lead healthier lives and helping insurers better serve their clients. With this investment from AXA Strategic Ventures, we’re able to expand our pilots to full implementation and continue to make it easier for people with chronic conditions to stay healthy”. 

As part of the round, Manish Agarwal, General Partner of AXA Strategic Ventures, will join the Wellth Board of Directors. “We are excited that Wellth’s ability to prompt and verify patient behaviors translates into fewer hospitalizations, readmissions and overall lower medical costs,” said Mr. Agarwal. “This investment continues our focus on digital health as a core investment thesis.” 

The WellthApp is a mobile application that makes it easy for target populations to start and maintain healthy habits such as pill adherence or glucose monitoring. Tracking and verification occur through the patient’s smartphone camera--users can quickly snap a picture of a pill in their hand and the time and date will be logged within the app. Many times, patients leave a hospital and fail to follow the instructions given by caregivers and 

unfortunately caregivers are often not able to follow up with every patient’s activities. Using Wellth, patients can keep track of their medical activities with the application and that information can be shared with primary caregivers. 

Wellth and their insurance partners focus on the high risk populations, such as members with type 2 diabetes, asthma and heart disease. Their financial incentives have been developed based on peer-reviewed research into behavioural economics and chronic disease management. In a pilot program sponsored by a major national health insurer, diabetic patients using Wellth increased daily medication adherence by more than 50%. 

Find out more at www.wellthapp.com. 

 

The Refiners veut injecter la culture de la Valley dans la start-up française | FrenchWeb.fr

Ne le prononcez surtout pas à la française. «The Refiners» (les raffineurs), comme le présentent les associés, est le nouveau programme d'accélération dirigé par Géraldine Le Meur, cofondatrice de Le Web, Carlos Diaz (Blue Kiwi, Group Reflect), et Pierre Gaubil (de l'éditeur Sensopia). Tous trois installés à San Francisco, les nouveaux partners comptent rivaliser avec les structures déjà successful de la Valley; les Y combinator, 5000Startups, Techstars, UpwestLabs… avec un modèle taillé pour les start-up françaises, et étrangères. 

Face à l'échec de certaines jeunes pousses de l'Hexagone dans leur projet d'internationalisation, le trio de «general partners» veut prendre le mal à la racine. The Refiners est un accélérateur «cross border» d'une durée d'accompagnement de trois mois; il doit aider, les Français -d'abord, à s'implanter plus rapidement en Amérique que s'ils étaient passés par un programme classique. Un tel modèle existe par exemple depuis 2014 dans les pays scandinaves afin d'accélérer la pénétration des entreprises des MedTech dans ces pays, ou encore en Corée du Sud afin d'entrer immédiatement sur le marché chinois.

La BPI investit 2,5 millions de dollars dans le «cross-border»

En contrepartie d'un investissement minium de 50 000 dollars et d'une méthode «différente» pour dépasser le «fossé culturel» qui sépare les Français des «doers» américains, The Refiners prend 3 à 7% du capital de l'entreprise accélérée.

Côté financement des raffineurs, des VC américains Phil Libin (Evernote), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), des VC français tels Xavier Niel (Iliad), Jérôme Lecat (Scality), Fred Mazzella (Blablacar), et des fonds (ID Invest, Partech, Newfund). En tout, 45 privés ont investi 3 millions de dollars. Plus surprenant, le trio a aussi réussi à convaincre la BPI dans son modèle d'emmener des Français sur d'autres terres… quitte même à recruter et à se développer hors de l'Hexagone. La banque publique a investi 2,5 millions de dollars via son PIA (programme d'investissements d'avenir), un plan à l'origine prévu pour les PME et ETI, basées en France.

Deux sessions de recrutement seront ouvertes par an pour une dizaine de projets. La première est ouverte jusqu'au 12 septembre. Aucune barrière à l'entrée, seules «de bonnes start-up, et oui…si possible un produit montrable», précise le trio.

via www.frenchweb.fr

Axa France : les années Moreau - Dossiers assurances et bancassurances

Nicolas Moreau a exercé pendant 25 ans au sein d'Axa dont cinq à la tête de l'entité française.
DUARTE FILET Laetitia

E-DOSSIER  

Le 30 juin 2016, Nicolas Moreau, PDG d’Axa France, mettra fin à une longue carrière au sein d’Axa. Sa décision de quitter le groupe qu’il a rejoint en 1991 intervient deux mois après l’annonce d’une nouvelle gouvernance dans le cadre du départ d’Henri de Castries.

Nicolas Moreau faisait partie des candidats fréquemment cités pour lui succéder. Mais le conseil d’administration a préféré confier les rênes de l’entreprise à Thomas Buberl qui prendra les fonctions de directeur général du groupe le 1er septembre, aux côtés de Denis Duverne, qui deviendra président non exécutif du conseil d’administration.

Depuis 2010, Nicolas Moreau dirigeait Axa France, principale entité du groupe (22% du chiffre d’affaires). En cinq ans, il a mené plusieurs chantiers d’envergure – modernisation de l’entreprise, de son offre et de ses réseaux de distribution, ou encore réorientation de l’activité assurance de personnes -, tout en conjuguant croissance et rentabilité.

Dans un message diffusé au sein d’Axa France le 18 mai, Nicolas Moreau a exprimé sa « grande émotion », remercié les salariés pour leur engagement, sans préciser quelle serait la prochaine étape de son parcours professionnel.

Retour sur les grande étapes de son parcours à la tête d’Axa France.

via www.argusdelassurance.com

The new-world insurance agent | TechCrunch

Peter G. Colis Crunch Network Contributor

Peter G. Colis is an MBA candidate at Stanford and the CEO of life insurance exchange Ovid.

How to join the network

Silicon Valley is building the new-world insurance agent. My grandfather started selling insurance in the 1950s and insurance eventually granted him the American dream. Today, the industry accounts for 7 percent of U.S. GDP, with more than $1.1 trillion of net premiums paid annually. The aged way of conducting business is pushing the Valley to disrupt all layers of the value chain.

Insurance agents are under the most visible attack because the profession has not changed or adapted since my grandfather was in business. Buying a policy is still a pre-PC experience. There are 1 million insurance agents in the U.S. today, the most in history (even though the profession is largely replaceable with software). Agents sell 100 percent of commercial policies, 95 percent of home policies and 70 percent of auto policies.

Why isn’t your broker made of silicon yet? Channel conflict. Incumbent carriers cannot turn their backs on the agent and go direct-to-consumer without the risk of offending their agent networks. So much existing and referral-based business is at stake that most carriers do not allow consumers to purchase insurance online —  they make consumers purchase through an agent.

To keep the peace with agents, most carriers will provide an online quote, then direct you to the nearest agent instead of an online checkout (driving you from online to a retail location, what a horrible experience).

The online opportunity

Insurance carriers’ channel conflict is the Valley’s gain. Online intermediaries like PolicyGenius, The Zebra and Insurify have emerged with venture funding and a mission to sell insurance online (this is a natural, because 50 percent of consumers begin their insurance research online). Online originations is a much cheaper cost of acquisition than an insurance agent, allowing the carrier to compete with lower prices and higher underwriting losses. But these originators cannot yet transact policies directly, and still pass the consumer to the respective insurance provider to complete a purchase.

Why isn’t your broker made of silicon yet?

PolicyBazaar is an Indian startup that can sell policies

via techcrunch.com

E.ventures raises $150 million fund to invest in Europe's startups - Business Insider

Venture capital fund e.ventures has raised $150 million (£102 million) to invest in early-stage technology startups.

The company, founded in 1998, has already invested over $1 billion (£680 million) in 170 companies around the world but this new fund is specifically for tech startups across Europe.

Investments made from the new fund will typically be made at the Series A stage and range from £1 million to £5 million.

Luis Hanemann, partner at e.ventures, told Business Insider that e.ventures aims to be seen as a "more approachable" venture capital company.

"We're not all [former] investment bankers," said Hanemann, adding that e.ventures often goes to companies instead of waiting for them to come knocking on e.ventures' door.

Some of the money that e.ventures invests come from the European Union. Hanemann explained that it might become harder to invest in UK tech startups if the nation was to exit the EU.

via uk.businessinsider.com

E.ventures raises $150 million fund to invest in Europe's startups - Business Insider

Venture capital fund e.ventures has raised $150 million (£102 million) to invest in early-stage technology startups.

The company, founded in 1998, has already invested over $1 billion (£680 million) in 170 companies around the world but this new fund is specifically for tech startups across Europe.

Investments made from the new fund will typically be made at the Series A stage and range from £1 million to £5 million.

Luis Hanemann, partner at e.ventures, told Business Insider that e.ventures aims to be seen as a "more approachable" venture capital company.

"We're not all [former] investment bankers," said Hanemann, adding that e.ventures often goes to companies instead of waiting for them to come knocking on e.ventures' door.

Some of the money that e.ventures invests come from the European Union. Hanemann explained that it might become harder to invest in UK tech startups if the nation was to exit the EU.

via uk.businessinsider.com

12 Venture Capitalists Share How Startups Get Their Attention - Fortune

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How to impress the money men and women.

This piece was originally published on AllBusiness.

Entrepreneurs seeking funding always wonder what they must do to impress a venture capitalist. In this article, a number of prominent venture capitalists share exactly what they are hoping to see when an entrepreneur walks through their door seeking startup funding.

1. Know your competition

“I am impressed when someone really understands what their competition is doing. Too often people say they’re ‘the first, or the only,’ and then I do a quick Google search in front of them and turn up 10 others.”

—Howard Morgan, partner and co-founder, First Round Capital, New York.

Investment Focus: Seed financings, Internet, software, mobile

2. Know your key metrics

“Know your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Effective entrepreneurs understand what their top priorities are and manage their companies by focusing their teams around a handful of critical metrics that reflect those priorities. I’m always interested when a founder can articulate her KPIs, talk intellectually about her team executing to improve them, and has a clear sense of where those metrics can be in a year or two.”

via fortune.com

The 26 coolest women in UK tech - Business Insider

VinayaKate Unsworth of Vinaya.

The UK technology industry has plenty of women in leading roles. It's still a male dominated arena, though, so we've collected some of the UK's most interesting women in tech, ranging from VCs, to startup founders.

Many of the people on this list have inested in innovate companies, both in the UK and abroad. Others are building those companies themselves.

via uk.businessinsider.com

The truth about due diligence | TechCrunch

There’s an expression in venture capital. It’s called the “Oh, shit” board meeting. “That’s when you learn all sorts of things that you wish you’d known after writing a company that first check,” says general partner David Hornik of August Capital.

It’s easy to imagine that they’ve been happening regularly across the startup industry. The pace of funding in recent years as been feverish, giving investors less time than ever to assess the startups they’re funding. That once-celebrated companies like the blood testing outfit Theranos, and the wireless charging company uBeam, are seemingly fighting for their lives raises plenty of questions, too.

A recent Vanity Fair piece blamed Silicon Valley media (and TechCrunch in particular) for the rise of certain companies. Meanwhile, a story published earlier this week in Fast Company suggested a culture of spin is at the root of the problem. As one founder told the outlet, “Being honest in Silicon Valley is like being the one member of an Olympic team that isn’t on steroids.”

Of course, none of us would likely have heard of Theranos or uBeam if not for investors, who’ve given the companies $686 million and $25 million, respectively. Were these backers overly optimistic? Did they get duped? Were they even paying attention? It’s easy to wag our fingers as we wait to see how these narratives unfold, but here’s the truth: due diligence only goes so far. While some may think it a scientific process that insulates venture firms from bad investments, due diligence is a surprisingly imperfect process with plenty of limitations.

“If you’re looking for a black or white answer in doing diligence, it’ll be a fail,” says Matt Murphy, a former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner who joined Menlo Ventures a year ago as a managing director. “You’re usually dealing with shades of gray.”

The truth will set you free

As you might imagine, due diligence means different things, depending on the sector in which a startup is operating and the stage of its development. At the outset, say VCs, it usually involves some combination of gut instinct, research into the market opportunity (when there’s a market to research), and, done properly, lots of calls about the founder who’s pitching them.

“The challenge you have when it’s early days is an entrepreneur with nothing to sell but vision,” says Bob Ackerman, the founder and managing director of Allegis Capital.

Typically, VCs are handed references, and those are easy enough. “You’re usually introduced to a set of people who’ve worked with the entrepreneur, and you have that set of calls and they go well, because of course the entrepreneur has steered you to those people,” says Hornik.

If a VC is really doing his or her homework, that person will then find former colleagues of the founder who aren’t on their list of referrals.

Even then, some reading between the lines is required. “The natural inclination of people is say perfectly nice things, even when someone hasn’t done a good job,” says Hornik. “When someone tells me that someone ‘did a great job,’ and that they were a ‘good leader,’ that’s a bad reference. A good reference is, ‘This person is amazing. I would work with her again in a heartbeat.’ That’s what y

via techcrunch.com

Investors are losing their appetite for food delivery startups - Business Insider

The amount of money being invested into food delivery startups declined rapidly in the first quarter of 2016, according to research from venture capital analysis firm CB Insights.

Grocery and restaurant delivery companies raised $609 million (£416 million) in the first quarter of the year, down from $2 billion (£1.4 billion) for the final quarter of 2015.

CB Insights' data shows that food delivery startups are set to raise half as much money in 2016 as they did in 2015.

In 2015, $5.4 billion (£3.7 billion) was raised by some 259 food delivery startups, up from 58 in 2012.

London's Deliveroo raised a $100 million (£68 million) funding round in November 2015, while Berlin's Delivery Hero raised $110 million (£75 million) in June 2015.

The most well-funded food delivery startup to date hails from China, with Shanghai-based ele.com raising $2.3 billion (£1.6 billion) from investors at Silicon Valley fund Sequoia, Chinese tech giant, Alibaba, and many others.

CB Insights

"US-based companies have attracted 45% of food delivery deals since 2012, followed by India with 18%, China with 10%, and Germany with 6%," wrote CB Insights on its blog.

"However, the dollar breakdown looks rather different. China and Germany capture a disproportionately large share of food delivery dollars, while the US, India, and the UK get squeezed.

"China’s five mega-rounds since 2012 (three to Ele.me and two to Womai) contribute to the nation’s 41% share of food delivery dollars over the five-year period, even as it took just 10% of deals. Germany has racked up six $100 million+ mega-rounds: three to Delivery Hero, one to HelloFresh, and two to FoodPanda.

"Of Germany’s food delivery mega-rounds, investor Rocket Internet participated in four."

via uk.businessinsider.com

Are You Ready for the Next Age of Crowdfunding? | Fox Business

Are You Ready for the Next Age of Crowdfunding?

By Rob Marvin Published May 19, 2016 Features PCmag Opens a New Window.

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In Part One Opens a New Window. of our explainer on the government-regulated crowdfunding investment space, we talked about how businesses and investors should navigate the now-regulated crowdfunding landscape.

via www.foxbusiness.com

#Art #Tech : les clients achètent de plus en plus en ligne

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Les ventes ont progressé de 24% en 2015, à 3,27 milliards de dollars. Et elles pourraient approcher des 10 milliards de dollars à la fin de la décennie…

Acheter une œuvre d’art en ligne… L’idée pourrait étonner nombre d’amateurs. Pourtant, les acheteurs sont de plus en plus nombreux à passer par Internet. Selon Hiscox, ce marché a progressé de 24% en 2015, atteignant les 3,27 milliards de dollars.

Le fait de ne pas pouvoir « toucher » l’œuvre ne constitue donc pas un obstacle pour tour le monde. L’an passé, 49% des clients en ligne ont acheté sans voir l’œuvre ou l’objet. Ils n’étaient que 39% dans ce cas en 2014.

Si 81% des clients des plateformes ont ciblé un objet d’art, ils sont en revanche plus rares à avoir acheté une antiquité (35%) ou du vin (23%).

La génération Y en pointe

Autre phénomène intéressant, les ventes en ligne attirent tout particulièrement la génération Y. Parmi les acheteurs de 18 à 35 ans, 46% sont passés l’an dernier par Internet. Et si cette clientèle met en avant le caractère émotionnel de l’œuvre dans 92% des cas, elle n’oublie pas non plus que l’art peut aussi être un investissement (57%).

Cette génération est aussi très marquée par les réseaux sociaux. Ces derniers ont une influence pour 4 acheteurs sur 10, les réseaux les plus souvent cités étant Facebook et Instagram.

Si les plus jeunes sont naturellement plus enclins à se tourner vers les achats en ligne, Hiscox souligne aussi que les plus de 60 ans ne sont pas en reste. Et ils ont surtout la particularité de dépenser plus. Parmi les acheteurs en ligne, plus de 80% des baby-boomers ont dépensé plus de 10.000 livres (12.800 euros) alors que la proportion est à peine supérieure à 20% dans la génération Y.

Le mobile progresse

Attirant toutes les générations, le marché de l’art en ligne semble en tout cas promis à un bel avenir. Hiscox rappelle par exemple que 69% de ceux qui ont déjà acheté en ligne comptent dépenser plus dans les 12 prochains mois.

Ainsi, l’assureur estime que le marché pourrait représenter des ventes de 9,58 milliards de dollars d’ici 2020… avec des pratiques différentes. Alors que l’ordinateur demeure l’outil privilégié (68%), le mobile fait en effet une percée remarquée. Il a été utilisé par 11% des acheteurs en 2015, contre 4% seulement en 2014.

via www.24matins.fr

Tech Startups Come Up With Some Creative Definitions for ‘Profitable’ - Bloomberg

Last September, SpoonRocket was running out of money. Founders of the Berkeley, Calif., meal-delivery company had initially sold investors on aggressive expansion plans and the promises of a high-growth business. By the time it completed a planned rollout to San Diego and Seattle early last year, the funding environment had changed. Venture capitalists had begun to prioritize profit over growth.

After just a few months, SpoonRocket retreated from its new markets and focused on improving the economics of its business. "For a long time, we were like, 'Let's get profitable; let's get profitable; let's show the margin can get profitable,'" said Anson Tsui, co-founder and chief technical officer.

Their efforts failed to achieve profitability by conventional definitions. However, the startup calculated that the business had become "contribution margin positive," meaning that it sells an item—in this case, pre-made meals delivered to customers—for more than the cost to manufacture, distribute, and sell it. There is, apparently, some wiggle room in what expenses can be left out. Tsui said SpoonRocket's definition included the costs of food, delivery worker pay, utensils, food waste, distribution center rental, and certain marketing programs. It excluded costs of customer service, central employees, office rent, and marketing to drivers.

After all that careful math, SpoonRocket's contribution margin was 50 cents to $1 per order, Tsui said. The founders prepared a new pitch for investors highlighting this milestone. "We showed them, and they were just like, 'Oh my goodness, you guys spent $13 million to squeeze a $1 margin out of every order?'" Tsui recalled. SpoonRocket shut down in March and sold some assets to a food delivery company in Brazil.

After a boom in funding for on-demand startups beginning in 2014, investors have started pulling back. Financing for on-demand comp

via www.bloomberg.com

Trends in angel investing | TechCrunch

Sam Bernards Crunch Network Contributor

Sam Bernards is a principal at Peak Ventures.

How to join the network

“Tell me about your cap table?” I asked the founder of an early-stage startup. He was clearly passionate about his business, and had assembled a top-notch team to help him achieve his ambitious vision.

But the grit and determination that helped him overcome the challenges of his current and former startups seemed to falter a bit as he considered his response. He had a dirty cap table and he knew it.

With some reservation he said, “Our initial angel investors own 60 percent of the company. I have 35 percent and the rest is split up between the team.” He then went on to explain that their aggressive valuation was based on the growth since the last round of angel investment, in which the above-market revenue multiple the angels had chosen set the precedent.

I soon found out that this team had struggled to raise money from the other venture capital firms with which we like to syndicate — because they, too, were dissuaded from the conditions that the angel investors had created: small runway, fragmented cap table, high valuation and little strategic support. He described with some frustration how he felt stuck, and that his “angels” no longer fit the heavenly metaphor; rather, the situation felt more like hell.

Compare and contrast this situation with a scenario that has become familiar because of its frequency within our portfolio of Peak Ventures-backed companies, in which an angel investor known to our team (and often an LP in our fund) introduces us to the founders of a company that he or she has backed (usually at an appropriate valuation for the stage) and we lead the next round.

Do angels make life heaven or hell for entrepreneurs?

In this situation, the company has what I think is the best of both worlds: A passionate, helpful angel investor supported by the rocket fuel and capital connections of an institutional investor. The closer angel investors are to institutional funds, the better they can construct the terms of their deals to entice these funds to come onboard.

As I reflected on these experiences, I wondered what was going on in the broader landscape of angel investing. To my delight, I discovered that Willamette University has just released the latest version of their Halo Report, which studies angel investing across the United States. I found some of the trends interesting.

Angel equity has settled around 20 percent

Six years ago, angel rounds diluted founders by 25 percent, on average. Look at the yellow line in the chart below to see that this gently fell over the years to land at 20 percent. What does this mean for entrepreneurs who are aiming for massive growth, but need initial capital to get things started?

Use 20 percent as a benchmark to keep your cap table clean. An angel shouldn’t own a majority of your company unles

via techcrunch.com

A Berlin investor has warned that a Brexit will starve UK tech startups of EU money - Business Insider

UK tech startups could be cut off from large pools of venture capital money if the UK exits the European Union, a Berlin-based investor has warned.

Luis Hanemann, partner at e.ventures, a venture capital firm with nearly $1 billion (£693 million) under management, told Business Insider on Thursday that a Brexit would prevent his firm and many like it from investing some of their capital into UK tech startups.

The EU allocates money to venture capital firms through the European Investment Fund (EIF) on the premise that they invest it into the most promising startups across the union's 28 member states.

If the UK pulled out of the EU, then these venture capital companies would no longer be able to back UK startups with money from the EIF.

"We have some European money from the European Investment Fund," said Hanemann during an interview with Business Insider in London. "This [referendum] could make it more complicated [for us] to invest outside of the European Union."

The former Rocket Internet chief marketing officer was unable to disclose exactly how much of e.ventures $1 billion fund comes from the (EIF) but he said it was a "substantial" amount. e.ventures has invested in a number of fast-growing UK tech companies, including fashion startup Farfetch and fintech firm Azimo.

On Brexit, Hanemann added: "We hope that it’s not going to happen and we believe that it’s in the best interests of the European Union and the countries in there [for the UK to remain]."

The UK will vote on whether to stay in the EU or not on June 23.

via uk.businessinsider.com

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