Greggory Bordes

Southeast VC Update: Q2 2024 PitchBook Venture Monitor Highlights The Southeast continues to hold its position in the VC regional landscape #5 in dollars raised for Q2 2024 🥉 #3 in deal count (just behind the West Coast and the Mid-Atlantic) H1 2024 Southeast Breakdown:  📊 10% more deals than Northeast  📈 30% more deals than Mountain region, 20% more than South  💰 5% more dollars raised than Mountain region  💸 23.5% more dollars raised than South YoY Funding Trends:  📈 Southeast: Up 29% 📈 Mid-Atlantic: Up 136%  📉 Midwest: Down 67%  📉 New England: Down 11%  📈 West Coast: Up 59% Key Trend: While closing in on Mid-Atlantic numbers, we are seeing more deals but smaller rounds. This could indicate strong activity occurring in the seed & early-stage funding, despite the macro challenges. (Pitchbook classifies the Southeast as AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN, Puerto Rico, & Virgin Islands) #BuildInSE

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Divestment requirements have a very real cost. This reduces the ability of endowments and foundations to support their mission driven enterprises. As the list of divestment demands grow, at what point do the consequences outweigh the perceived benefits? Hiding at the end of this article is the below quote: Golden admitted the divestment had undermined Princo’s returns, saying the endowment “would have been better off” otherwise. But he pointed to a bigger concern: the pressure to “keep adding things to divest from”. “Fossil fuels are necessarily part of getting to where the overall economy needs to be [and] it would be impossible for the world to not use fossil fuels tomorrow,” he said. “Divestment is a pretty weak tool to change the economy.” https://lnkd.in/g3SeC8rg #energy #investing #vc

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I’m a strong believer in the idea that leading is largely about building empathy. The job isn’t just helping others understand the mission - it’s helping them complete the mission and building alignment through personal context. To take it a step further, you can’t be empathetic if you aren’t curious. Curiosity drives us to ask deeper questions - those questions build empathy and, then, we become more aligned.

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Per PitchBook, PE managers' returns to LPs are still in decline. The data speaks for itself. Clearly the past few years have seen a significant decline in realizations. However, one of the biggest mistakes continually made in investing is to take recent data and simply extrapolate it into the future. The article makes the statement: "The decline is a sign that PE realizations have yet to bottom out, as GPs navigate unfavorable market conditions for exiting their often long-held investments." I wouldn't be so sure. The data might actually be pointing out that the decline has bottomed out - and we simply have not yet recognized it. The investing markets are a pendulum, constantly swinging back and forth between wide open capital markets and markets closed tight. We have been in a closed market for some time now. Don't be too surprised if what we are experiencing now is the early innings to a thaw. Only time will tell... Endeavor Colorado #privateequity #venturecapital #innovation #entrepreneurship #founders #startups #investing https://lnkd.in/gCCWN9_D

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Bloomberg recently spotlighted the risky practices that some PE firms are engaging in, like over-lending and NAV financing, which can mask underlying financial instabilities. You all know how I feel about this. At Tide Rock, we firmly believe that real value comes from operational excellence and sustainable growth, not financial engineering. Our strategy is rooted in investing to ensure that our portfolio companies achieve tangible results through disciplined and effective management.   It doesn’t make sense to me how many financial engineers and analysts PE firms hire who have never run a company. They spend their time on what they are comfortable with—financial manipulation—while we, as operators, dedicate our time to what we do best: growing businesses. This hands-on, operator-focused approach sets us apart and ensures that we deliver real, sustainable value to our investors. Our approach has consistently led to an average annual growth rate of 30+% across our portfolio companies.   If you're looking for a partner who prioritizes true operational excellence over financial gimmicks, reach out and find out more about how we work. #UnleveredBuyout

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When the big deals dry up, Wall Street adjusts and digs deeper into the middle market. The headline story over the last few years is the significant decrease in funding and deal activity - particularly in the earlier stage VC and the later stage PE mega-deals. However, deals in the middle-market space have remained surprisingly robust, as detailed in this The Wall Street Journal article. From the story: "Middle-market deals made up a record 74% of private-equity buyouts by count in 2023, outpacing the previous high of nearly 72% set in 2019, according to PitchBook." It's important to remember that success in every industry comes down to the strength of relationships. Finance is no different. The upside to the big banks of getting involved with smaller companies is the opportunity to build those banking relationships earlier in the business maturation process. Without question those relationships will bear fruit down the road for the banks as those companies grow. Endeavor Colorado #privateequity #venturecapital #investing #innovation #entrepreneurship #Founders #startups #finance https://lnkd.in/gkqmUnRU

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IPO market insiders, while cautious, are optimistic that the current trickle of companies going public will pick up steam. I recently shared some additional thoughts on this trend with Crunchbase. https://lnkd.in/gh75AxcU #ipo #ai #startups

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Boards of Directors – How Relevant To The Business Is The Board? In 2014, activist investor Starboard Value successfully replaced all 12 directors on the board of Darden Restaurants. The following shows the Darden incumbent board at the time of Starboard's proxy fight, Starboard’s value creation plan initiatives, the Starboard director nominees and the before and after performance (revenue, EBITDA, EBITDA margin and stock price). Note especially the direct relevance of each Starboard nominee to the industry or some aspect of the value creation plan. How often do you see this level of relevance on public company boards?

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Summary: The article discusses the current venture firm fundraising market and the success of emerging VC firm A* in raising $315 million for its oversubscribed Fund II. It highlights the firm's focus on early-stage investments and its experienced founding partners. Key takeaways: Venture firms raised $9.3 billion in Q1 and it is unlikely that 2023's record-breaking total of $81.8 billion will be surpassed. A* has been successful in fundraising due to its focus on seed rounds and backing breakout companies in its portfolio. The firm's founding partners have a strong track record and diverse experience in different industries. Counter arguments: The article mentions that emerging managers are feeling the frost in the fundraising market, suggesting that not all emerging VCs may be as successful as A*. While A* has found success in raising institutional investors for Fund II, this may not be the case for all emerging VCs. #venturecapital #vc #fundraising #startups #innovation

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As fund managers, it's common to encounter the misperception that larger funds outperform public markets and smaller funds. However, recent performance analysis by Johns Hopkins challenges this belief. Research on the 50+ largest equity funds shows that medium-size and smaller funds have actually achieved stronger risk-adjusted returns than mega funds. This highlights the importance for institutional investors to carefully evaluate smaller funds for investment opportunities. The alpha in performance is not solely derived from mega funds. #FundManagement #InvestmentAnalysis #FinancialMarkets

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This is an excellent “must do” #checklist from pre and post closing hitting the #strategic, #financial, and #operational value drivers all throughout the life stages of the investees. #valuecreationplan #buyout

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Big things on the horizon, we are motivated and blessed to be at the dawn of a new age for the internet. Read more about our journey below or listen to the podcast: https://lnkd.in/eJeNhvVa

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Check out some great insights below on IPO Market.

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🚀 Here's to continued growth and success in the VC world! 🚀 You might remember the buzz about the SEC aiming to ramp up reporting and auditing for VC funds to increase oversight. Well, great news for the industry – the SEC's rule has been overturned. The U.S. Appeals Court has decided to lift the additional oversight on private equity and hedge funds, marking a significant win for venture capital and private equity. This decision helps us maintain the flexibility and innovation that drive our success. Read more about this pivotal decision here: #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #FinanceNews #Victory #VC #VentureCapitalist #SecuritiesandExchange #SEC https://lnkd.in/ev6NeayV

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If you're building a fintech startup, you likely know of this investor, but just in case... This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Neil Kapur from TTV Capital. He: 🛫 Is based in SF & Atlanta 💲 Has spent time at Google in consumer-facing payments & at two fintech startups  🏔️ Loves alpine mountaineering and has climbed Kilimanjaro, Denali, Rainier, and more!! Amongst founders, Neil and the team at TTV Capital , including Gardiner Garrard, Mark Johnson, Sean Banks, Lizzie Guynn, and Laney Lewis are known for saying “lift, not lean.” They believe that their job as investors is not to create work for founders, but instead ask the right questions and help navigate to the best outcomes. Knowing Neil well personally, he's not only my go-to person for anything related to fintech but I can also highly recommend having him on your cap table - he's the kind of human you want to have in your corner during both good times and bad. Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him at nkapur@ttvcapital.com ➡️ Follow TTV Capital on LinkedIn For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with TTV Capital's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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100% agree with Phil Burns - there are so many opportunities for PE to help their investments add value - innovation, operational efficiency, service expansion, partnerships, front-line execution, GTM to name a few. [now for the shameless plug] Good quality CDD, with lots of primary research and data analysis, helps investors zero in on these growth opportunities which drive PE returns and benefits the whole economy

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iCapital’s recent article says that “KKR has launched perhaps the most groundbreaking vehicle in the form of a conglomerate or operating company structure that owns and operates businesses alongside KKR private equity strategies and is available to accredited investors. The first-of-its-kind structure provides direct access to a diversified, fully drawn portfolio of KKR private and growth equity portfolio companies owned and operated across the globe.” Groundbreaking? First-of-its-kind? If by groundbreaking, they mean a model that Tide Rock has been successfully doing for over a decade with returns higher than any other PE fund according to Pitchbook, then sure, I guess it’s pretty cool. What's truly innovative about our approach is not just our structure, but also our performance—delivering strong returns by directly owning and operating a diversified portfolio. This model has stood the test of time! But, ya, welcome to the party! #unleveredbuyout

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🌟 Welcome back to Private Equity Periodicals, powered by Proxet! 🌟 ☕ Grab your coffee and join us for insights from Suzanne Yoon of Kinzie Capital Partners on the unique impact of lower middle market investing, Ares Management's standout IPO for Savers Value Village, and Ronin Equity Partners' strategic acquisition of Woodmaxx. You can also check us out on Spotify and stay ahead in the world of private equity! #PrivateEquity #Investing #Proxet #Podcast

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Great piece in #PEI, there is indeed a disincentive for sharing "bad news" to investors because, in an already tough #fundraising environment it only makes the hill steeper to climb. This study also confirms the natural bifurcation between better performing "value driver" assets and the lesser ones which tend to vegetate in legacy portfolios for years and pile up in PE's aggregate #AUM year over year. They could still indeed deliver "option value" but most likely not... Because they are in fact overvalued already! #CCPL #CollyerCapital #secondaries #valuations

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