Yavuzhan Yilancioglu

Welcome ecoLocked to the Climentum Capital portfolio! We are proud to have led the €4M funding round together with Matterwave Ventures, and delighted to have existing investors Counteract, Startup Family Office, Sabancı Building Solutions, and VOYAGERS.io joining the round. The investment will support ecoLocked’s mission to revolutionize the construction industry with carbon-negative building materials. Concrete production accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions, making innovations in this field crucial for achieving net-zero goals. ecoLocked is leading the change by converting carbon captured from biomass into functional, carbon-negative building materials. This funding will accelerate ecolocked's efforts to turn buildings into carbon sinks, scaling their innovative biochar-based solutions and enabling 1Gt carbon removal by 2040. Doerte Hirschberg Morten Halborg Stefan Maard

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I couldn’t be prouder to be a Venture Partner at Isomer Capital (aka the best European FoF - at least for me) as we just announced the launch of our pioneering £100m secondaries fund. This fund is dedicated to acquiring stakes from LPs in various VC funds, tapping into a massive and largely unexplored market. 🌟 Key Highlights: - Focused Investment: Primarily targeting stakes in VC funds, with selective investments in private companies. - Robust Funding: Already over 20% funded, thanks to strong support from Nordic family offices and a German foundation. - Market Potential: With a growing number of private tech companies and a VC liquidity crunch, Europe's VC secondaries market is poised for rapid growth. - Track Record: This isn’t Isomer’s first foray into the secondaries market. As a firm we’ve done several secondaries deals with portfolio companies and VC firms, including early-stage VC Seedcamp (in 2021) and mobility giant Bolt (in 2023). - Expert Team: Welcoming the amazing Omolade (Rachel) A., formerly of Coller Capital, as a principal to lead this initiative. 💡 Investment Strategy: - 65-75% of the fund will buy "LP interest" stakes in VC funds. - 15-25% will be directed towards stakes in companies. - Up to 15% reserved for flexible investment opportunities. 📈 Looking Ahead: We're targeting returns of 2-3x, with significant distributions expected in the next 4-7 years. As one of the few players in this space, we're not just participating in the market—we're driving it forward. Read all about it here: https://lnkd.in/dc7sbC3G #VentureCapital #SecondariesFund #EuropeanVC

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Great insights from Adam Agius on what to consider when raising debt for a search fund buyout. Most relevant to the UK market, but a worthwhile read for all searchers. There's more debt capital keen to support search acquisitions than ever before, but approaching it naively can be very costly...

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🌟 Excited to share my recent conversation on the "Founders' Marketing Compass" podcast hosted by Etgar Shpivak! 🌟 Etgar & I explored critical marketing metrics, the importance of understanding your numbers, and common mistakes startups make. Here’s a snippet from our conversation: "At the core of any startup, you are talking about customer acquisition. How well the founder knows their marketing numbers is the number one sign to pay attention to in a company." 📊 Key takeaways from our discussion: 1️⃣ Understand the Actual Role of Marketing: Marketing is not just about promotions; it's about understanding the product, customer, logistics, and finances. Give it the attention it deserves! 2️⃣ Prioritize Retention and Engagement: Retention and engagement should be at the forefront of your marketing strategies. Focus on building lasting relationships with your customers. 3️⃣ Be Transparent About Risks: When pitching to investors, don't shy away from discussing risks. It builds credibility and shows you understand the complexities of your business. 4️⃣ Build a Robust Support System: A supportive life partner and a strong communication system are crucial for navigating the challenges of being a founder. #StartupLife #MarketingStrategy #InvestorPitching #Transparency #Retention #Engagement #Podcast #venturecapital #earlyinvesting #highgrowthmarketing #CAC https://lnkd.in/gsVrQ_AK

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#DeepThoughts Once a week the #deeptechbio team at Octopus Ventures share a topic which we have been thinking about. We want to create conversation, meet founders and experts, and share our excitement! 🤓 OV is a generalist fund of specialist teams. Internally we’re split into six different groups - or ‘Pods’: Deep Tech, Biotech, Consumer, B2B, Health and Fintech. You might notice that Climate Tech is missing from that list. We’ve experimented with a Climate Tech Pod in the past, but it became clear that Climate was a motive force more than a domain specialism and that Climate Tech entrepreneurs could run businesses that straddle any number of our Pods. So instead we've embraced a Pods and Tribes model (thanks Spotify) forming a team of Climate Tech investors that sit across our Pods, making sure we always have the right mix of people sourcing and reviewing Climate opportunities. I'm sharing this structure because it highlights how challenging it can be to categorise a Climate Tech startup. The consensus online is that a Climate Tech startup is one whose trading activity supports either the mitigation of, or adaption to, climate change. The breadth of potential activity within this definition makes it very hard to evaluate a given company’s Climate Tech credentials however. In response I’ve been developed a mental model for Climate tech classification that I thought I’d share today. First Order These companies have a direct effect on atmospheric warming. They might do this through Point-Source Capture, like Seabound; through the replacement of fossil fuels with green alternatives, like DRIFT Energy Ltd or copenhagen atomics; they could focus on the capture and sequestration of atmospheric CO2, like Brilliant Planet; or they might offer low emission alternatives, as Arda Biomaterials does with leather and SCiFi Foods does with beef. Second Order These startups engage in commercial activities that have an indirect effect on atmospheric warming. Remote monitoring services, such as AIRMO's methane monitoring solution, or Solaris Suborbital Inc.'s wildfire monitoring service, are good examples of this type of Climate Tech. Third Order These companies vital to accelerate our transition towards net zero emissions. Companies like Metris Energy, who are accelerating the deployment of solar energy by commercial landlords; Kita, whose insurance offering accelerates the maturation of the carbon markets; and Origami who offer Battery Energy Storage System owners a way to optimise the yield on their assets. NB. Whilst it’s true that there is an increasing bias towards Bits over Atoms as you move outwards from a direct interface with our Atmospheric composition, I don’t believe classification it’s as simple as an Atom vs. Bits distinction. How do you think about the divisions within Climate Tech space? Are there any exciting Climate tech startups we should be looking at? Let us know in the comments below.

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Delighted to share news that Bizumi has just received SEIS Advance Assurance! This is great news for private investors looking to offset the inherent risks when investing in startup companies in search of great returns. In summary, the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) provides: Income tax relief of up to 50%: A £100,000 investment could provide a £50,000 saving on that year’s income tax bill.  Up to 50% capital gains reinvestment relief: You could reduce the CGT on gains made elsewhere by up to 50%.  Loss relief: If things don’t go to plan, you can choose to offset any loss, less the income tax relief received, against your income tax bill.  Now don't get me wrong, I have every confidence that Bizumi is a fantastic opportunity, but de-risking your investment through SEIS is a no-brainer! Get in touch to explore how we can become successful together.

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Great to speak at Alma College: Lessons on Due Diligence today alongside the fantastic Rupa Ganatra Popat of Arāya Ventures. This is one of a series of events run by Alma Angels to help angel investors who want to learn more about investing. If you are an angel investor interested in supporting female founders, please check out Alma. Link in comments shortly. #founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic More at unbundled dot vc.

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🌱 Calling all Seed Founders! 🌱 Are you an early-stage startup seeking investment? My latest article is a comprehensive guide to the UK's SEIS and the investors participating in it. Here's what you'll find inside: ✨ Understanding SEIS for early-stage 💼 Must have documents to secure funding 🕵‍♀️ List of 24 active SEIS funds across sectors If you represent a SEIS fund not yet featured, feel free to comment below or reach out to me directly. 💬 I'd love to include you and help connect more founders to the right investors. Link to article in the comments 🔗

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Great episode for early stage VC's and capital allocators to check out. https://lnkd.in/ekz7JHJd #vc #fundraising #venturecapital

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We have a long track record of co-investing with Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) partners. Throughout our journey, we've encountered a range of approaches, from amateurs who mistake minority investment positions for M&A, to state-of-the-art professionals who excel beyond most commercial venture firms. Agriculture is a sector under disruptive pressure from various angles. Chemistry is shifting towards biotech, input financing is evolving from paper and Excel barter transactions to AI-powered fintech solutions, and brick-and-mortar distribution is moving online. CVC is a critical tool for large organizations to understand and anticipate these sea changes, serving both defensive and offensive strategic purposes. Over the past five years, SP Ventures has had no better mentor and colleague than Syngenta Group Ventures Managing Director David Pierson. David brings decades of experience in leadership roles across Pharma, Commercial VC, and CVC. His unwavering values, wholehearted commitment to founders, and passion for the industry are unmatched. At SP Ventures, we have the honor of having David as a hands-on LP and co-investor in multiple transactions. His mentorship has significantly elevated our capabilities and approach. We sincerely believe Syngenta Group Ventures is the most professional corporate venture investor in agriculture. We proactively seek their partnership for syndicate building and knowledge sharing. It was an honor to have David Pierson and the Syngenta Group Ventures at our annual flagship event, Harvesting Innovation II. David has been an invaluable friend and unwavering partner to our firm for the past five years, anchoring our Fund II—our first offshore Latin America agtech fund. Thanks to his mentoring and advice, we have solidified our position as the leaders in the Latin American agtech venture scene. Agrofy Arado Traive #agtechbrazil #agtechlatam #agtech #agfintech #spventures #harvestinginnovation #harvestinginnovationii #harvestinginnovaton2024

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🙊 looking forward to a big announcement from Oxford Seed Fund next week had me looking back at the 200+ pitch decks the team has reviewed this year → where did we build conviction & what worked for founders? - I've been learning that venture is a mix of art + science, but there are some common risks that popped out in the retrospective on our investments: 🔍 are you a solution searching for a problem? (need tech + commercial) 🛑 how will you overcome resistance to change? (GTM, partnerships) 🔙 who do you depend on & how much? (supplier depenency risks) 🙈 is your team the right founding team for you (and this problem)? Similarly, there are also some common things we liked (even as a generalist fund that saw everything from AI-enabled veterinarians to quantum lazers): 📈 how does this get seriously massive? (scalability + first mover + traction) 🔬 why is your tech defensible or really hard to reproduce? (not just IP) 🚴‍♀️ does regulation help you ride up hill? (tailwinds not uncertainty) 🐙 are you the octopus? ("crazy smart", "gravitational", "bet on her") can't wait to see which founders the team backs next year from University of Oxford's venture ecosystem (signposting here to budding entrepreneurs!): 📢 Entrepreneurship Centre at Saïd Business School, Oxford Entrepreneurs, Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society, Oxford University Bioengineering Society, Oxford Blockchain Society, OX1 Incubator, BioEscalator, ZERO Founders Network - University of Oxford, Oxford Angel Fund, Founders & Funders, EnSpire Oxford, Ahmed Adel Saad, Callum Usher-Dodd, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science → 🤝 and hopefully also from independents working to support entrepreneurs Conception X, Nucleate UK, Planet Positive Lab, Wilbe | Home for Scientist Leaders

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📰 Great to be featured on the latest Sifted article by Amy Lewin Joe Schorge, Maria Rotilu and I share our thoughts on the topic of ''How many new #VC funds does Europe need?'' and the ''rise in solo GPs across Europe'' 💭 TLDR: In my opinion, Solo GPs are fantastic! They truly do care and are super useful with great networks, hunger and high-speed. However many solo GPs don’t lead deals at pre-seed, and the European ecosystem could do with a few more funds that do. But there are exceptions, such as Germany’s Gloria Baeuerlein, Finn Murphy, and Max Claussen, to name a few. Full article here: https://lnkd.in/dWXUFsWb

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Reading this article about the "horror"(1) of the current VC fundraising climate due to the paucity of funds raised in Q1 - especially the below sentence …. "Honestly, it is hard to see how VC firms can argue to their LPs that they really need fresh capital in a market where dealmaking remains slow, exits are few and far between and they are sitting on a massive amount of dry powder." …. spurred the following thoughts: Our fundraising success to date at Emmeline Ventures is extra incredible At Emmeline, we are investing in “uncharted terrain” and thus require fresh capital to invest in those sectors and founders that have been under-funded and over-looked by traditional investing mandates and pattern matching. Once our "uncharted terrain” investment thesis gets noticed for its promising returns (Unrealized MOICs above 2x for our 2021 vintage year fund and other good news that I can't yet share), i predict this massive amount of dry powder will start migrating towards our sectors. I see this as both good and bad news for us. ➕ On the good side, these increased funds will pull our companies beyond Series A, and ultimately to an exit when markets open up - which they have to do. If not, it’s bad not only for venture ➖ On the bad side, once traditional players become aware of our lucrative sectors and formidable founder types, this will increase competition for deals at pre-seed and seed rounds. Bring it on. We’re already seeing traditional players enter the women’s health spaces. And we're seeing players like Midi Health successfully raise massive amounts of capital in record time since they're creating scalable solutions in new categories that customers desperately need and want. Let's go! (1) personally I can think of many other stories in the world that deserve to be termed a "horror." The record level lack of VC funds raised isn't on par. https://lnkd.in/d3TrfEPc #femalefounders #femalefunders #womenshealth #menopause #careeconomy #womeninfinance #venture Show Her The Money Thanks for the nudge La Keisha Landrum Pierre

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🚀 The Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati US/UK Entrepreneurs Report for Q1 2024 is out! Here the Highlights for #TechInvestors and #Deeptech Founders 🌍 Key Insights from Wilson Sonsini's Latest Report: 🌐 Global Venture Capital Trends - Mixed Valuations: Early-stage valuations showed mixed signals. Seed valuations matched 2023's median but dropped quarter-over-quarter. Series A and B saw slight increases for the second consecutive quarter. - Fundraising Peaks: Despite mixed valuations, fundraising amounts increased across all stages for the third consecutive quarter, with Series C and later stages hitting a two-year high. 🇬🇧 UK Market Update - Investment Volume: £2.42 billion invested in Q1 2024, down 36% from Q4 2023 but up 3.7% from Q1 2023. - Deal Sizes: Mean deal size for Q1 2024 was £4.92 million, higher than Q1 2023 but lower than Q4 2023. - Top Deals: Monzo Bank secured a gigadeal of £339 million. Other notable deals include ElevenLabs (£65.2M), hyperexponential (£65.2M), and Storegga (£65.2M). 📈 Convertible Notes & SAFEs Benchmakrs: - Convertible Notes: Interest rates are up, with 80% of pre-Seed and 63% of post-Seed notes having rates of 8% or more. Maturity periods are trending shorter, especially for post-Seed notes. - SAFEs: Median raise amounts remain under $1 million, with valuation caps becoming more prevalent. 🌱 My Deeptech & Climate Focus Spots: Climate tech is continuing to be ever more real (i.e. true hardware deals done, vs the ESG platforms that dominated climate tech investing for a while): - Storegga: Raised £65.2 million for renewable energy tech, focusing on carbon capture and reduction. - Tokamak Energy: Secured £76.5 million for fusion technologies aimed at large-scale clean energy production. 🔍 Key Takeaways for Investors & Founders: - Stay Informed: Mixed signals in valuations suggest cautious optimism. Keep an eye on fundraising trends and convertible note terms. - Focus on Innovation: Deeptech and climate tech are attracting significant investments. Opportunities abound for those addressing global challenges and the bold investors who back them. #VentureCapital #TechInvesting #Deeptech #ClimateTech #StartupFunding #UKTech For more detailed insights, check out the full report by Wilson Sonsini here:

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Pre-seed/seed founders: When pitching investors, don't shoot yourselves in the foot by trying to hide what isn't pretty. A good early stage investor accounts for there being things that aren't figured out, or just plainly look bad. When I can't get a straight answer to a fact-based question from a founder, it is likely that my main takeaways will be: 1. #Fundraising will be hard for you. This is a gut and trust business. Obfuscation drops a bomb on that for many investors who index on founder honesty and ethics. "I don't know", "I can get back to you", "It's not great" or "I don't think that's the right question" are better than a cryptic misdirecting answer. 2. #Hiring and #retaining top talent will be hard for you. Great talent won't stick around at the early stage if you can't provide clarity and transparency in your leadership of teams & targets. 3. #Sales will be hard for you. Customers want clarity on value add, and how it solves their problem. I'm less inclined to believe that you provide that when I am not experiencing it myself. Any combo of the above makes a bigger dent on your funding prospects than the ugly truthful answer to the question I asked.

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Weaknesses are strengths in disguise.   Liabilities might actually be your assets   This is what Serhat Soyuerel, Co-founder and CRO at Insider. shared on stage yesterday at SaaStr Europe. His session was all about “Scaling a Growth Engine Across 28 Markets”.   He started by saying: “We are proudly from Turkey. But we are confused people. On the edge of both Europe and Asia. What are we?” He then explained how they decided to NOT go into the US early on, but instead double down on Asia. That is where their first expansions happened. Then Europe.   Confusion – their weakness – actually turned out to be a strength.     He shared a few more examples:   👉 Small markets – When you start in the US or China, your domestic market is huge. No need to expand abroad. You only build for one geo, one language, one culture. Not in Turkey. Not in Europe. There, you will need to expand early. You are forced to build muscle in building a product for multiple markets. Don’t get the timing wrong – expand BEFORE the limited TAM in a small country starts slowing you down.   👉 Less funding – Raising in Turkey is not the same as raising in the US. Fewer investors, less capital, lower valuations, smaller rounds.  So in the early days, Insider had less funding. This meant they couldn’t invest in expensive country managers. Instead, they took a DIY approach. Serhat personally lived in 20 countries in the last 10 years. At one stage, he lived in a capsule hotel in Tokyo for 6 months. But they built muscle. They learned. They created the playbooks. It became their strength.   👉 Short term – when you are a challenger from a small market with less funding, you don’t have the luxury to be ‘strategic’ and ‘think long-term’. You have to be pragmatic. Show bias for action. We often had boardmeetings where Serhat, in passing, mentioned: “Oh, we are now in Spain as well. In Scandinavia. Brazil.” We were surprised – there had not been any board discussion, no memo or recommendation. Insider was pragmatic. They met amazing talent in those countries, and just gave it a shot.   As Serhat shared on stage: “Cultures are surprisingly similar: your champions will want to get promoted, the bottom-line needs to improve, and people want to smile. So don’t wait for magic. There is no easy, best market. Just do it.”   And they did. To 28 markets. And to well over $100M+ ARR and leadership positions in Gartner, Forrester, and G2. And they did it from a position of disadvantage.   Serhat ended by challenging the audience: “If we can do it, so can you. Look at your liabilities. Look at your weaknesses. How can can you identify the opportunity? Now go turn them into strengths!” cc Peak XV Partners Hande Cilingir Jason M. Lemkin

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Space tech-focused investment firm Seraphim Space Space launched its second VC fund, SSV II, to back early-stage startups in the global space tech market. The fund aims to build a portfolio of 30 startups, investing in seed and Series A stages. The latest fund's target size is larger than its predecessor's, which closed at £70M ($90M) in 2017. The fund's investment themes include AI applications for space data, in-orbit computing, space-enabled communications, and microgravity for science. Eutelsat is one of the limited partners that contributed to the latest fund. Seraphim Space aims to stand out with its track record, having returned three times the original investment from its first fund. The first fund's returns were driven by five exits, including Siemens' acquisition of UltraSOC and four IPOs of Arqit, AST SpaceMobile, Nightingale, and Spire Global. The British firm listed its growth fund Seraphim Space Investment Trust (SSIT) on the London Stock Exchange in July 2021, getting about £250M (~$300M) in gross proceeds. The fund's market cap touched an all-time low of £130M ($162M) in July 2023. The market for space tech is expected to grow significantly, with the World Economic Forum and McKinsey estimating it could be worth $1.8R by 2035.

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Last night, we hosted the latest instalment of the Science Entrepreneur Club’s Investor-Founder Mixer Series with a dinner centred around biomaterials. Around the table we had six entrepreneurs from the BioFounder Club and six investors from the BioCapital Network - all either building or investing in biomaterial companies. Attending companies: 🍺 Arda Biomaterials - transforming spent beer grains into a 100% animal and plastic-free leather-like biomaterial. 
🏗️ Biozeroc - converting waste to carbon neutral construction biomaterials including cement-free bio-concrete. 
👜 Modern Synthesis - utilising nanocellulose-producing bacteria to create a novel class of nonwoven biomaterials to displace plastic films and leathers. 
🍄 Really Clever - discovery platform developing fungi-derived biomaterials that are clean, sustainable, and naturally cruelty-free including an alternative to leather. 
🪵 Sonichem - biorefinery technology converting low-value woody biomass into high-value green chemicals such as lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. 
🩹 Zentraxa - design and synthesis of novel synthetic peptide biomaterials for personal care, medical adhesive and industrial adhesive applications. 💸 Attending investors from Amino Collective, Discovery Park Ventures, Future Planet Capital/UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, Parkwalk Advisors, Rockstart, Zero Carbon Capital and of course CPI Enterprises Limited! A huge thank you to CPI Enterprises Limited for sponsoring the dinner. If you want to find out more about CPI’s investment activity or our sustainable material capabilities including formulation, functionalisation, analytics for manufacturing, fermentation and cell culture process engineering, process optimisation, scale-up and more - drop me a line! Our Investor-Founder Dinner Series is centred around facilitating meaningful connections between investors and entrepreneurs, enabling them to discuss thoughts on the industry, share investment opportunities and get to know each other in a more relaxed and personal manner. We theme each dinner around a specific area within life sciences. Everyone around the table is either building or actively investing in that space and we aim for a 1:1 investor:entrepreneur ratio. If you’re a life science entrepreneur and want to get involved in a future mixer, sign-up to the BioFounder Club here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eGPu-wqM If you’re a life science investor and want to get involved in a future mixer, sign-up to the BioCapital Network here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ezpNRsCM If you’re interested in getting unique and intimate access to a group of both investors and entrepreneurs, drop me a line about our sponsorship options for these dinners and more! Both the BioCapital Network and BioFounder Club are initiatives of the Science Entrepreneur Club. #innovation #venturecapital #founder #entrepreneur #biomaterials #lifesciences #sustainablematerials #BioFounderClub #BioCapitalNetwork

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🥄🥄 Exciting News from Our Portfolio in Berlin 🥄🥄 Today, I am delighted to spotlight Spoons 🥄, our newest addition to the Berlin-based portfolio, transforming the B2B sales landscape. Spoons is co-founded by sales-guru Cait Kennedy 🏳️‍🌈 🥄 and tech-wizard Tomasz Solak. Did you know that a striking 77% of B2B buyers believe that sales representatives fail to understand their needs, contributing to a substantial 67% deal failure rate. This prevalent misalignment poses a significant barrier to sales efficiency and overall success. It's time to address this challenge and Cait and Tomasz have built all the tools to do so. Spoons automates B2B account research and is the first to identify customer problems in seconds. This not only doubles the revenue potential per rep but also reduces headcount needs by 15%. Something that Cait has consistently achieved in her leadership roles, yet never found the right tools to scale it further - planting the seed to build spoons. Cait Kennedy 🏳️‍🌈 🥄 - A B2B sales expert with 15 years of experience, Cait has consistently doubled revenue per rep and boasts top win rates. She is also a proud Harvard University alumn and an EMBA from Quantic. Tomasz Solak - A seasoned tech leader with past leadership roles at Shopify, Tomasz has spearheaded products from inception to market launch, aligning tech and business objectives. Check out Spoons or hit up the team directly if you share the pain or want to learn more! 🥄🥄

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