Smash Capital

We're a Copenhagen-based VC fund that specialises in providing seed funding for outstanding Danish startups. If you think VC is all about money, you’re wrong. We’re here on the mandate of our LPs to back founders that are able to form grand companies that solve some of the most important problems of our time and approx 70% of our portfolio converts to series A, which is well above the European standard among venture funds. We also participate in follow-up funding rounds syndicated with new international VCs. We have existed since 2004 and have raised close to €500M across 4 funds and 1 growth fund.. We raised €140M for our latest fund and have already made our first 11 investments with more to come. We take pride in helping our portfolio companies all the way to exit. We back exceptional Denmark-based founders all the way to exit. More than 70% of our companies convert from seed to Series A, making us one of the best-performing funds in Europe. We’ve made 60 investments, 10 exits and 5 IPOs over the past two decades and have just raised €140M for our next round. Come and grow with us. OUR STAGE: Seed - 12-18 months before Series A or early A-rounds OUR TICKET SIZE: €2-4M initial investment Is this the next category winner? It’s the first and most fundamental question we ask when considering any investment - and it’s why 70% of our investments convert to Series A. We gravitate towards solutions that ride the wave of underlying macro trends with transparency and/or user generated content. Our portfolio contains both consumer and Deep tech but the majority of our investments are within Fintech and SaaS. Actually, we’re the largest Fintech investor in Denmark. So what we really love...Team: Team is the numero uno driving force behind any startup success. For us, the perfect founding team are die hard executors with a bold and ambitious vision. We seek a strong mutual chemistry as - in our experience - it’s the foundation for a great long-term partnership. Early Customer Love: Being a late seed investor implies a true love for initial traction. While initial traction isn’t a guarantee of future success, it says something about your execution power and the initial product-market fit, both of which are important markers for us. Traction isn’t a uniform thing, but to give an example, we typically wouldn’t invest in a SaaS business before it reaches 50 KEUR MRR. Scalable Business: We invest in tech startups with the potential to reshape an industry, category, or vertical within 8-10 years. When investing, we understand that you’re not there yet but we still look for early signs of strong scalability - i.e. profitable repeatability. Timing: Timing (and also a bit of luck) are often key ingredients for success. We need to understand why the market needs your solution now? We love solutions that are built on strong forward-looking macro trends such as transparency, user-generated content, or you tell us. Deep Insights: There’s no ‘one’ way of building a category winner, but they are all rooted in tackling a unique and big problem. This often starts by having experienced the problem first-hand, or through substantial industry experience. We love founders who are extremely nerdy with the problems they solve. They have first-hand experience on the pain of their customers and know where the gain is. What typically makes us fall out of love...Business-to-government (B2G) - selling to the public sector A solution that solves low-priority problems - i.e. must be in top three for customer Solving overly time-bound problems - i.e. the problem becomes less relevant over time Inexperience combined with over confidence Homogenous founder team - though, we have invested in several solo founders 🤔 Not aware of what success demands in terms of organisation, product and commercial expertise Messed up cap table - Let's fix this together With you all the way Since 2004, we’ve made 60 core investments and doubled down on breakout companies like Dixa, Endomondo, Fullrate, Lunar, Templafy, Trustpilot, VEO and Vivino. To date, the companies that we’ve invested in have gone on to raise more than $2.6BN. When we invest, we invest far more than just capital. We know how to stay the course In almost 20 years of investing, we’ve lived through more than a few economic crises. We’ve invested in almost every type of industry and been on almost every type of venture journey. It’s this collective body of experience that is the essence of our value to you as a founder. We know which steps to take, which corners to cut, and when not to panic. A partner all the way to exit. We’re *not* spray and pray. We only ever invest in a few companies per fund and we have the time and money to help you to the finish line. Deep knowledge and a long-term commitment. We and our network of SEED Friends & Family have all been on the growth journey multiple times. We truly understand your business, share your vision, and will be by your side through the ups and downs. We collaborate with our founders on setting a strong board and management team. Someone you can confide in - both on what works and, even more importantly, what does not work. Close to founders. Proximity matters because it helps us build closer relationships with our founders. Plus it gives us the time and opportunity to have physical meetings when needed - some conversations are just easier face2face. The founder to CEO journey. We help the team grow from seed stage founder-centric team to a Series A mature management team (initial growth stage). Shape company for Series A. We re-engineer the process of raising a Series A and work methodically with GTM, metrics, unit economics, and a fundable team. We use our strong local network to help our companies find initial traction and make key hires. Raise next funding round. We have a strong network of international venture funds and we have worked with several of them for years. Furthermore, we have set aside a substantial amount of the fund for follow-on capital to provide you with a solid commitment going into the A round and beyond. Proven track record. Approx 70% of SEED Capital’s portfolio companies convert to series A, which is well above the European standard among venture funds, and a testament to our strategy of only investing in 3-5 new companies per year allowing an experienced team and capital to actually work with and support founders throughout their full journey. Join our #SEEDfamily. At times, the founder journey can be lonely. At other times, it can make you the happiest person on earth. With us, you’re not alone - you’ll be in great and mighty company.

blisce/ is a growth venture capital fund helping entrepreneurs build mission-driven global consumer brands and technology companies across the US and Europe. blisce/ was founded in 2013 by Alexandre Mars who runs it alongside Charles-Henri Prevost. Since 2014, blisce/ has invested in 21 leading U.S. and European companies - including Spotify, Pinterest, Headspace, Brut & Too Good To Go - with 7 exits. blisce/ was the first growth venture capital fund in the EU to be certified as a B Corp, demonstrating its commitment to ESG. Furthermore, the blisce/ team has committed to donating 20% of their carried interest revenues to Epic, a global foundation that identifies, selects, supports and monitors organizations in order to catalyze their direct action on underserved children and young people, but also on the ecosystems that affect their lives.

Drawing its name from the Italian word for 'Mongoose', Mangusta embodies the spirit of a tactical hunter - swift, precise, and unrelenting in its pursuit of the extraordinary. We seek to build a community that harnesses intellect and the ambition to change the world. Mangusta is a venture capital and growth equity firm, with its origins in Italy and a global reach. Our mission is to shape the world for future generations by supporting technology innovations that move humanity forward. We invest in audacious founders building mission-critical capabilities across AI and software. As we reach the tipping point in the advent of AGI, we see the inevitability of unlocking massive productivity gains in complex workflows across all industries. We invest in the next generation of great consumer brands and technologies enabling delightful consumer experiences. In the past, consumers trusted brands; today, consumers trust influencers. We search for the trendsetters changing the way we eat, play, and live. Our Team Our people are our greatest assets. Our team has worked together for over a decade, building products and leading global investment firms. Our team has launched generational products with iconic brands across the globe, generating billions in revenues and building many unicorns in the process. We’re not simply investors but true partners to our founders. While others are cheerleaders in the boardroom, we love the thrill of being in the trenches – brainstorming strategy and tapping into our global network of investors and operators to drive real results.

Bold. Brave. Brilliant. Brazen. The founders we back are all this, and more. They are unreasonable, they are crazy ambitious, obsessed with solving hard, gnarly problems. Problems whose solutions transform lives and impact society. And, it takes a revolutionary founder, and a transformational company to solve these problems, and effect change. We back these transformational companies, and their revolutionary founders early, and remain lifelong partners. How does Blume evaluate early stage startups? In our framework, we look at three criteria to evaluate startups – size of market or opportunity, team quality and finally, investability or probability of the next round of capital. Our approximate weightage for Opportunity : Team : Investability is 40 : 40 : 20. Let us double click on these three criteria. Market size or opportunity: Pick too small a market and even the best team can’t build a large scalable business. The best founders know how to reshape a market opportunity and build solutions to fit the largest of the market opportunities. That said, one has to begin with the aggregate opportunity being very large. For example, are Ola and Uber a ride hailing app or a large scale urban transportation business? The market size expands 5-10x when the latter is applied. At Blume, we try to find a portfolio balance between founders who can chase a large market opportunity domestically or build a tech-led differentiated product for global markets (which increase Founding teams: These are the most important variables for us or even most VCs at our stage. In every decision, once the other two factors are seen as a go, the clincher element in a yes/no decision boils down to the founding team – their expertise in solving for this space, as well as the integrity, mission, passion and persistence that one can gauge at this early stage of business. Investability or probability of next rounds of capital: The reality of how the later stage funding market is shaped to take risky bets in the ecosystem is important to consider while funding, especially in young and concentrated ecosystems like India, and that’s why we attribute 20% weightage to this element in India. We force ourselves to evaluate how much capital may be required to build to exitable scale and how challenging it is to raise that capital. As the funding ecosystem matures, we may shrink weightage of this in the future. Great founders overcome all of this but if we can select such that we have better odds at the starting point, why not? The above framework helps us shortlist but finally, it is a (increasingly improving) trained gut call that ends up building out the portfolio. What is Blume's investment criteria? Blume prefers ventures that have achieved some degree of customer validation, where the product is already launched in market and we are getting customer signups and feedback. We do make exceptions on the above for seasoned operators and second-time founders, but typically with first-time founders, we do not do idea stage or pre-MVP investments. If you are a B2B startup or an ecommerce / consumer transaction play, an annualised revenue rate (or revenues) of $375k (₹3cr) and above is a good milestone to reach out to us. If you are a marketplace startup, then reach out to us when you are nearing or have crossed a monthly GMV of ₹50 lacs a month. If you are a consumer app that isn't monetising yet, then ping us when you near or cross MAUs of 25k / DAUs of 5k. The above are broad guidelines, and not hard rules. We do make exceptions. If in doubt, reach out! How much does Blume invest? We are a seed / pre-Series A fund. While we are fairly flexible on the investment quantum, typically we have seen our investments range across from $1.5 to $3m (₹12 to 24 crs). We do optimise however for a stake of anywhere from 12 to 20%. These stake requirements reflect the depth and extent of support we provide to the startup – from fundraising and hiring to business development etc. We also anticipate the rounds of dilution that every successful startup will undergo, and the desired holding that we need to hold at the point of exit. Does Blume invest in international startups? We invest in startups that are Indian at heart or origin, but are willing to conquer the world market if needed to build scale. About a third of our portfolio is of this nature – taking Indian engineering skills to build products for global markets. Unfortunately, We DO NOT invest in startups that are international and have NO strong Indian connection / founders. We are also strong believers that to invest as a ‘generalist tech VC’ as we are, we need to be more and more focussed on a particular geography. We need to see as much of the available annual pipeline to know that we’ve truly picked 10 great founders / startups to invest in. We have no such advantage when we are looking outside the country; which is why we stay away from the temptation of looking at pipeline from international markets. What kind of sectors does Blume invest in? With our new Fund, our fourth since inception, we are looking to invest about 60-65% of the new fund in domestic-heavy sectors such as healthcare, financial services, commerce and brands, jobs and education, and digital media and gaming. The other 35-40% of the fund will focus on SaaS, and DeepTech (including CleanTech, manufacturing, blockchain) companies, typically in B2B, that can innovate and engineer with local talent pools, and yet scale globally. Does Blume have a preference between B2B and B2C? We like both. India is a consumer market that is poised to explode, as people move to the digital economy to spend an increasingly larger share of their wallet’s purchasing power. That makes it attractive to build a strong consumer proposition in India. And thus our B2C portfolio. We are also now very good at taking our science and engineering skills in software and other areas, and building commercial applications at scale, often for the global market. These constitute the majority of B2B ideas in our portfolio and we like this space a lot. Where do I send my pitch? How do I reach out to Blume? We get anywhere between 4,000 to 5,000 ideas pitched to us annually, across the team, across all formats. This includes referrals, cold mails, DMs on social channels etc. We have given up counting :) We invest in about 10-12 of these per year. As Blume has grown, we've looked at the empirical data and discovered that the vast majority of our investments were referrals from our contacts in the ecosystem. You can count the exceptions to this rule with one hand in every cycle, and still have a few fingers to spare! These referrals come from our own founders we have backed, other founders who know that we will do right by their angel investments and our extensive set of friends, investors and well wishers in the ecosystem. The exceptions, while not impossible, are indeed rare. Ceteris paribus (all things considered), you are better off reaching us through a trusted common friend. In a highly networked startup ecosystem, it is not that hard to reach us through the strongest possible mutual connection. But if that is not possible, do reach out to us cold. Your email will certainly be read, even if it is not always responded to. We have ensured that our internal systems catch every pitch - cold or warm or hot. When writing in cold, a considered and researched mail (much like a quality college application) is the only way to attempt such a reach out. Please check out the team page, find the best person in the Investment team who has invested in and / or covers the sector you're building in. Do check out their social profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter) to access their contact info. Our email ids are not hard to guess as well! Preferably write to one person at a time, in the firm. The above are good principles for you irrespective of which firm you approach / pitch to. Nothing works better than a warm, referred introduction - it always gets the rightful attention. Please note that we have done away with a pitch form, or a common email id. From our experience, we found that the volume of inbound traffic was indeed high, but not always relevant, and thus almost impossible to assign a resource to just monitor these inbound gates.

UpHonest Capital is an early-stage venture capital based in Silicon Valley. We commit our investments to the most outstanding entrepreneurs and rapidly scaling early-stage startups, applying our considerable resources and networks to catalyze value creation. We are here to help and support game changers for the big greatness. Stage: Angel to Series A Investment Landscape: 500+ portfolios, 30 Unicorns Industries: ConsumerTech, Enterprise, Deeptech Sectors: New Brand, New Lifestyle, Creative Content, New E-Commerce, Productivity, vSaaS, DevTool, Robotics, Clean Energy, AgriTech, AI+ Featured Companies: Rippling, Instacart, Hims & Hers, Lime, Ironclad, Astranis, Boom Supersonic, Rescale, Dialpad, Checkr

We were founded on the belief that technology would transform every industry in the world - and that brilliant, ambitious founders would sit at the heart of this change. We're squarely focused on helping these founders succeed. How we helpInvestment: First and foremost, we invest in people, and focus on building relationships with empathy and alignment. We partner with remarkable founders and work to ensure they've got the strategic insights and help they need across multiple rounds. Talent: Our founders tell us that scaling teams is the most challenging part of leading high-growth companies. We have a dedicated team that can help diagnose, design and build the foundations of each startup's talent engine, tailored each time. Community: You're not alone in your founder journey. Building a business is made easier with friends and well-connected allies - a resource we have plenty of. Join a peer group who will be kind, honest and interested in your journey. Frequently asked questions Whether you're curious about our terms or timeframes, below is a good overview of how we do things. What's the 101 on Square Peg? Square Peg is a global investment firm on a mission to empower exceptional founders. With investing teams in Sydney, Melbourne, Tel Aviv, and Singapore, Square Peg invests in emerging technology companies across the internet economy. Square Peg today manages US$3 billion in assets across its venture capital, opportunities and global listed equities funds and in addition has delivered material realised returns of US$0.6 billion. Since 2012 we have invested in over 50 companies including Fiverr, Canva, Rokt, FinAccel, Tomorrow and Airwallex. Through our venture, opportunities and listed equity funds, we invest in tech companies from the pre-seed stage to the post-IPO stage. What stage do you invest in? Globally, our sweet spot for a new investment is Seed-Series A. We have always been an early-stage investor, and were seed investors in companies such as Canva, Zeller and Tomorrow. If you’re wondering if you’re ‘too early’ for Square Peg, the answer is you’re not - as an example, we met and invested in Ben and Dom from Zeller just weeks after they founded the company. What's the investment process? The investment process is designed to help us understand your business, learn about your vision and give you the time to get to know us. If we have a long-standing relationship or you’re at the very early stages, it can take just a few meetings to reach an investment decision. If you’re raising a large round and we haven’t met before, it can take longer. While we like to make swift investment decisions, we encourage founders to take their time getting to know investors - it’s a decade-long decision, so a few additional weeks of diligence is likely well-spent. This is how you’ll experience an investment process with us: We’re often introduced to founders via email. This email hopefully includes a compelling deck that explores their idea. When reviewing the materials the founder sent, we look for a few things: a unique insight about an important problem in a big market, a bright vision, and a world-class team with the ambition to go after it. At this stage, we’ll determine whether the business fits our investment philosophy and ensure it’s not directly competitive with any of our existing investments. The first meeting will be 45 minutes to an hour and may happen online or in person. We encourage the founder to do most of the talking and hope we spend the time exploring the insights of their team and specifics of their business. We may meet a few more times to explore any remaining concepts and give the founder plenty of time to ask questions about how we partner with founders and ensure they’re comfortable. You may meet other members of the investment team at this stage. To receive a term-sheet, you’ll meet the global investment team for a one-hour conversation. The team will have already read a detailed briefing note on your business and be prepared with questions they hope you’ll answer. Though high-stakes, this meeting is friendly and conversational. Once the meeting ends, the investment team will vote whether to approve the investment - this means two ‘yes’ votes from the partnership. The Investor you’ve worked closely with will be in touch that evening to discuss next steps. In anonymous feedback from our founders, we’ve been told we run a quick, transparent and collaborative investment process. Founders have often remarked that the investment process helped them to deepen their understanding of their business. For all founders who meet the team, we aim to ensure this is your experience, too. Do you invest globally? We invest in companies founded in Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Israel. Most of our portfolio companies expand from the regions in which they were founded to grow in markets overseas. Examples from the portfolio which have taken this journey include Canva, Fiverr, Airwallex and Rokt. Our funds are structured so that we have complete flexibility to invest between these regions. What do you invest in? First and foremost, we invest in people. We believe that founders with a compelling vision who surround themselves with talented and mission-driven people can change the world. We’ve seen founders such as Mel from Canva, Micha from Fiverr and Jack from Airwallex build extraordinary companies, and we could never have predicted that design, digital services or borderless finance would be some of the most important problems to solve this decade. We founded Square Peg on the belief that technology would transform every industry in the world - and that we can’t predict the future of creativity, industry or ingenuity. So, we’re comfortable being a generalist technology investor, with founders at the centre of our universe. Historically, we have invested heavily into fintech, consumer internet, SaaS, edtech and healthtech, with significant and notable exceptions outside of these themes. Take a look at our portfolio to learn more about the kinds of companies we invest in. How much do you invest in a new company? The smallest first cheque we’ve written was USD$100k, and our largest first cheque was USD$35m. Usually, most first-cheques are $5-$10m, but we’re happy and able to go smaller or bigger. Do you have strict ownership requirements? As a general rule, somewhere between 10-20% ownership is the most common outcome of a venture investment partnership. In practice, we approach all fundraises with a long-term mindset, which means we’re willing and able to lead and participate in rounds where the fundraising dynamics are different to this standard. What’s important to us is ensuring that the founders and our team are deeply aligned and that the company is well-positioned to go after the mission that drives their team. One of our core values is anchor to optimism - optimism that the company and founders will be successful - which means we are far more focused on long-term outcomes and options than short-term percentage holdings. Who are your Limited Partners? Our investors, or 'LPs' as we call them, are a diverse group of superannuation funds, high-net-worth individuals, team members and family offices. We’re grateful to include world-leading industry pension funds such as HostPlus and AustralianSuper as long-term investors. We are fortunate to have investors whose approach to venture capital investing is aligned with our own: ambitious, committed and long-term. How do I approach the team about an investment? Most founders who we’ve invested in connected with us via someone in our network: our portfolio founders, angel investors and VCs we've co-invested with, our LPs, and community leaders in each ecosystem. On occasion, we have also invested in founders who emailed us cold (Mike from ZeroCo, we’re looking at you).