🔥 Venture Capital Is Ripe for Disruption

Evan Armstrong has published a fantastic long read on what's wrong with the current state of the venture capital industry. Some theses:

• Today, a startup capable of reaching a billion-dollar valuation is an uninteresting target for weighty venture capital funds. Instead, they are looking for projects with a $50 billion potential to triple their profit at the least.

• Only 48 public technology companies have a value of over $50 billion. Yet, at the same time, about 1,000 venture capital funds are trying to find these chosen ones.

• You can invest in businesses with an 80 percent chance of being worth $300 million rather than a 1 percent chance of being worth $80 billion. This strategy is an obvious opportunity to make a wealth of money.

• Venture capitalists have only about 20-30 companies on their hands, so they end up working on a pattern, and only a fraction of ideas get funding. Moreover, the people behind these ideas tend to look the same—white Ivy League alums and the elite. As a result, only 0.12% of venture dollars invested in the third quarter of this year went to entrepreneurs of color.

The full article is definitely worth your time. 

🔥 Most Active US Lenders for European Startups

Even though local funds are gaining momentum, American companies are still the most active lenders to European startups. Sifted estimates that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) leads Europe in terms of debt financing for the second consecutive year.

In the Sifted article, find out more about US banks influencing the European startup ecosystem.

🔥 Investors are sitting on mountains of cash: where to invest it?

Even a quick look at the headlines of venture news is enough to understand that investment companies continue to raise capital intensively. How will the current crisis affect its redistribution? 

Well, TechCrunch analysts tried to figure it out. 

🔥 As the tech market shakes, term sheets are changing. Here’s how

Eleanor Warnock from Sifted spoke to investors and lawyers and admitted that founders should be reading those term sheets more closely than ever. Here is the reason.

🔥 Survey finds 67% of European women in tech feel under-paid compared to men, half experience sexism

Mike Butcher of TechCrunch cites several studies confirming that there is still a significant pay gap present between men and women behind all the hype around women's entrepreneurship and gender equality. In addition, the situation is especially concerning for racial and ethnic minorities. 

See the TechCrunch article for more information.

Cover image: Unsplash