Fully-branded communities, European Saas, Techno-optimist manifesto, Data in the service of Sports, and many more...
What's Up Tech? #153
Welcome to our 153rd newsletter. It was written with 🖤 by Guy Yashiv, Will Cottrell, Justine Pelisson and our dear partner Sharpstone.
Fundraisings from last week with Hivebrite, Myenergi, Globacap and Breega’s new UK fund
News from last week with European SaaS levels back to normal and Marc Andreessen’s manifesto
Our content of the month by Sharpstone on Data in the service of Sports & the Sportech sector
Internships & Job offers of the week
Enjoy the read! 🌞
🫂 Leading community engagement platform, Hivebrite, raised $37M (🇫🇷)
Hivebrite, a leading community engagement platform, has raised $37 million in Series B. Hivebrite's platform enables organizations across industries to launch, manage, and grow private, fully-branded communities. Current customers include some of the world's leading brands such as Boeing, Roche and the Obama Foundation. 😎
"We believe in the transformative power of online communities to drive growth, accelerate change, and generate operational efficiencies […] Our new capital will help us further strengthen our platform, especially in relation to deeper customization possibilities, smart connections between community members, and user experience." said Hivebrite's CEO and Founder, Jean Hamon. 🎲
🔋 Myenergi, a British maker of smart home energy tech, raised £30M (🇬🇧)
Myenergi, a British maker of smart home energy tech, has raised £30 million in investment from Energy Impact Partners (EIP). The investment will be used to support the company's growth and internationalization, as well as product development. 🎯
Myenergi is known for its Zappi solar-compatible EV charger, which can charge an electric vehicle from the mains supply or from surplus solar energy. 🔌
Myenergi Lands £30m Investment from Energy Impact Partners to Drive Growth and Internationalisation
📲 Globacap raises $21M to digitize private capital markets (🇬🇧)
Globacap, a London-based capital markets technology firm, has raised $21 million in Series B to ramp up its marketing and sales efforts, expand into new geographies and grow its customer base. It will build on the success of its white label product, which digitizes and automates processes for leading intermediaries like the JSE and Instinet. 🪄
As Myles Milston, Globacap Co-Founder and CEO emphasizes, “Private capital markets are rapidly growing, but their opaque nature is holding them back from reaching their true potential. We are bringing public markets-like infrastructure to private capital markets to improve access, boost liquidity and remove administrative burdens.” 🔓
Globacap Raises $21m Series B to Drive Digitisation of Private Capital Markets
🤑 New €150M UK-focused fund announced by Breega (🇫🇷)
Paris-based VC Breega, an early backer of quantum startup Alice & Bob and French unicorn Exotec, has announced a new €150M early-stage fund – with a strong focus on UK startups across the software, fintech, deeptech, future of work and climate tech fields. Breega plans to invest in around 30 startups over the next 3-4 years, writing tickets ranging €500K-€3M. 📈
With 13 of Breega’s 100 portfolio companies based in the UK and 5 people in its London office already, the firm is demonstrating its commitment to British venture. Dan Shellard, a UK partner at Breega, explains that “The UK continues to be the best-performing ecosystem, London in particular […] We want to make sure we are backing the best founders.” 🚀
French VC Breega Announces New €150m Fund to Take on UK Market
🤗 European SaaS back to 2019 levels
Generative AI is fueling European software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud services startups, according to the latest report published by VC firm Accel. ☁️
The 2023 Euroscape report says that there are signs of recovery from the recent downturn as investment in the sector eclipses pre-pandemic levels. Funding is at $11bn in 2023, down 65% compared to 2021; however, Philippe Botteri, partner at Accel, argues that 2021 figures represent a “huge distortion” due to inflated valuations and the COVID tech boom. 🤯
“Following the global tech reset of the past 12 months, it’s reassuring to see the cloud ecosystem’s resilience and early signs of a new normal settling in” says Botteri. ❤️🩹
Report: European SaaS back to 2019 Levels with a GenAI Boost
✍️ Marc Andreessen publishes “Techno-Optimist Manifesto”
Marc Andreessen, co-founder and partner at world-leading VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), has published a 5,000-word “Techno-Optimist Manifesto”. It comes following his June screed on “Why AI Will Save the World”. 🌍
Andreessen writes that technology should not be limited in any way. Of AI, he writes, “Any deceleration will cost lives. Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder.” 🤖
Furthermore, he believes we have a common enemy: bad ideas. In particular, he cites the “mass demoralization campaign” that society has been subjected to for the past 60 years, “under varying names like […] ‘ESG’, ‘Sustainable Development Goals’, [and] ‘social responsibility’”. ☮️
Our content of the month is brought to you by our partner Sharpstone. Massive thanks to Stanislas Guidotti for having written the piece below as well as to Charlotte Adam-Allais and Marie Aristide! ✍️
🔍 Sportech: Data in the Service of Sports
Sportech is experiencing rapid growth across the globe and especially in France, driven by five scale-ups (Spacefoot, Sportheroes, Gymlib, and Natural Grass) and a unicorn, Sorare. The sportech ecosystem has been segmented into three major categories by Roland Berger, which publishes an annual study on the sector: fan services, amateur sports, and professional sports. ⚽️🏐🏈
Looking more closely at the essential (and increasing) role of data in sports, performance measurement is the primary concrete application that relies on data and, more broadly, on technology. Indeed, technology has become a key pilar in sports, bringing about new challenges considered twofold: both in terms of building data models from scratch and in the hardware aspect, to obtain a product that is robust enough but not too cumbersome to disrupt the practice. 🫴
Concretely, the use of data in sports supplements purely visual (and very often objective and biased) assessments, and reduces uncertainty. Which is why today, improving sports performance and achieving more “strategic” victories based on data analysis has become ubiquitous.🤓
If we look at the NBA as a real case-study, data analysis has revolutionized the way it is played, favoring the three-point shot, which, on average, scores more points per attempt than a two-point shot (despite being closer to the basket and having a higher success rate). The Golden State Warriors, pioneers of this new style of play, have perfectly capitalized on it, being crowned Western Conference champions six times and NBA champions four times since 2015. 🏀
Curious to read the full article by Sharpstone (in 🇫🇷)? Find it here!
Internships
VC Analyst Intern - Alliance for Impact (AFI) Ventures (Paris)
Visiting Analyst - Planet A Ventures (Remote or Berlin)
Startup Growth & Marketing Strategy Intern - Cardino (Berlin)
Jobs
Finance Associate - Antler (Paris)
VC Analyst - Runa Capital (London)
👉 If you’d like to discover more offers, you can check our job board just here or fill this form to submit a new one.
You can also read more about baby vc on our website and follow our updates on LinkedIn, or directly reach out to us at hello@baby-vc.co! 🤝
Have a wonderful week and see you next Tuesday!
The whole baby vc crew 🖤