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Axion Ventures is launching a new venture capital fund aimed at strategically investing in a very selective portfolio of high-growth, early-stage companies. Where We Come From Rooted in Babson College’s renowned entrepreneurial principles, our investment approach focuses on identifying, building, and scaling high-potential platforms through strategic acquisitions and operational excellence. We conduct rigorous market analysis to identify scalable platform opportunities with untapped potential, guided by the entrepreneurial mindset cultivated at Babson College. By deploying strategic capital into complementary startups and providing incubation support, we foster innovation and drive value creation. Through integration and Babson College-inspired growth strategies, we build cohesive platform ecosystems, optimizing operational synergies and scalability. Additional acquisitions enable vertical integration, strengthening competitive advantages and ensuring sustainable growth. Our structured exit strategies deliver superior returns, embodying Babson’s principles of innovation, leadership, and strategic foresight.

People power the future. We empower their vision. We ignite the global success of companies by developing the leaders behind them. 100+ companies $600 M+ raised $1,6 B+ market value FounderFuel works to develop both the skills and mindsets of the founders shaping our future through game-changing technology. New founders learn and grow, hone their business models and stories and take their companies to the next level. Five axes that transform vision into leading companies. FounderFuel combines the value of Real Ventures’ expertise, experience and networks with an holistic approach that powers a 4-month acceleration with insightful mentors, intensive networking, expert-led seminars, personal development and coaching, culminating in Canada’s biggest Demo Day on July 11th, 2023. LEADERSHIP: Leaders inspire people to follow them, while managers instruct people to work for them. A crucial area of founder success relates to personal development and leadership coaching. In addition to developing our founder’s operational skills, our leadership track helps founders expand their self-awareness, develop resilience and ultimately learn soft skills that will help them weather all the storms of company-building through the development of themselves and the people they collaborate with to create value. NARRATIVE: A strong narrative is essential to building a venture-backed company. Founders that can communicate a compelling story and gripping vision are more successful in attracting talent, raising financing, and building high-functioning teams. Using techniques honed across hundreds of FounderFuel and Real Ventures companies, our narrative track gives founders the tools to convince others to believe - whether on stage, in board rooms, or even in an elevator. LEARNING: The startup journey is wrought with endless decision points, feedback loops, and second guesses. We believe founders who embrace curiosity and remain open and excited about challenges will see the opportunities to create disruptive business models. Leaders with bold ambitions will need to nurture genuine cultures where their people can continuously learn and unlearn without fear, which will ultimately develop the resilience required to succeed. NETWORK: Founders, and the companies they build, thrive when supported by great advisors and a strong diverse community. With hundreds of mentors, alumni, and partners, FounderFuel is a gateway to one of the premier startup networks in Canada. Our network track leverages this uniquely valuable group across 3 of Canada’s most established VC firms through mentor matching, founder talks, and high-value social encounters. EXECUTION: Acceleration is ultimately measured in business results. Using the OKR method as a base, FounderFuel helps participants set and reach ambitious goals while establishing an operational cadence that can scale. Our execution track includes weekly check-ins, mentor goal setting reviews, and expert-led seminars. The FounderFuel program also gets our companies venture investment ready! Canada’s biggest Demo Day FounderFuel culminates with Demo Day, a gathering of 1,000+ members of the Canadian tech ecosystem to hear the cohort’s pitches and celebrate the ecosystem that enables them to thrive. Four months is a short period of time. High output requires intense focus and execution. Demo Day is the clear deliverable for our work on company narrative, and motivates the CEOs to refine their value proposition and company vision. It’s is also a motivator for driving execution, since great pitches need great numbers!

We designed a unique VC model to serve student-founders. Wonder why? Student-entrepreneurs see the world through a unique lens. They are the most exposed to cutting-edge technology, innovations, and societal change. That’s why game-changing companies are consistently emerging from universities: Snapchat, Facebook, and Figma to list a few. Some people will argue you need 3 years of experience to start a company. They are wrong. With enough hard work and perseverance, you can start building a startup that will have an impact, today. If 25% of US-based unicorns are started at university, why couldn’t this be the same in the UK & EU? That’s why we exist, to select, support, and invest in high-potential founders. 10-100k investment: We know that small investments can make big differences. We help you get your product off the ground and set up your company. 12 weeks of intense support: We have our yearly accelerators, and hackathons. There’s no magic recipe but there some things you should know…We help you build your team, quickly test your ideas and create your company on solid ground. 80+ exports & mentors: A network is key when creating a successful company. We are building Initiator with the help of incredible experts, entrepreneurs and investors. Our network becomes yours.

Beta Boom is led by two general partners, Kimmy and Sergio Paluch. Yes, they share a last name because they are married and have been partners in life and business for over twenty years. They are both passionate about making the world a better place through technological innovation and giving overlooked founders a fair shot at fulfilling their visions. Kimmy and Sergio have two boys, Rafael and Adrian, who were Beta Boomers from the beginning, hanging out with founders in Beta Boom’s office over the summer of 2018. Rafael wants to work for Beta Boom one day and Adrian wants to be a professional footballer (soccer player). We'll work alongside you from day one. A lot of VCs say that they’ll be there for you, but few are as involved as us and most give generic startup advice. Depending on what you need, we support you on getting things done across product development, sales, marketing, and fundraising. We meet you where you are. Not literally, but figuratively. We work with you and your team to figure out where our support can be most impactful. If your team is strong on engineering and marketing, but need help with sales, that’s what we’ll help with. If your team is great at sales but needs help with engineering and marketing, that’s what we’ll focus on. If all you need is fundraising support, that’s all we’ll do. Focus on the "how" not "what." We don’t like telling founders what to do or spouting useless startup advice. You know your business and customers better than we ever will, and you should make decisions for your company. Plus, you don’t need dark overlords. What we try to help with is the “how.” How do you set up your CRM for fundraising? How do you test marketing channels? How do you generate sales leads? How do you reach out to investors or get introductions? Collaboration sessions rather than lectures. We do collaboration sessions to work through challenges or get stuff done. We don’t lecture you. For example, in a collaboration session we might work on your positioning, review usability testing plans, improve your investor tracker, edit your cold sales emails, etc. When we say we work alongside you, we mean it. Vetted experts at your fingertips. Beta Boom has an extended network of vetted experts that we’ve worked with or our portfolio companies have worked with and loved. We do this so you don’t have to waste time searching for effective support, and can get things done while you build your permanent team. Here are examples of the kinds of experts that you’ll have access to, among others: Growth marketers that can help with setting up and running Google, Instagram, and Facebook ads; Lead generation experts that can get you qualified sales leads via email campaigns; Sales coaches that can help you set up your CRM and walk you through sales conversations; A near-shore engineering firm that specializes in APIs and securely handling large data sets.

firstminute capital is a $320m sector-agnostic seed fund backed by 120 unicorn founders, including over 20 founders of $10bn+ businesses. Our General Partner Brent Hoberman is a double unicon founder. Yet, we are more than a fund. We’re an ecosystem of entrepreneurs from all over the world who, facilitated by firstminute capital’s team, come together to help one another, turn vision into reality and create the future. Our community is our edge. It is the source of the transformational support we offer to our partners who are warmly welcomed inside. An invitation into the firstminute capital community is secured by those with a special kind of spirit, not just a solid spreadsheet. A rare breed driven by a powerful characteristic we call, ‘Magnetic Ambition.’ Those with it often don’t recognise it in themselves, yet they are propelled forward by it, every day. We see it in their ability to capture hearts and minds with their vision, their belief and their commitment. When we find a founder with Magnetic Ambition, we open the door to the firstminute capital community and we give them everything they need. At your service What can founders expect from working with us? First of all, our 9-person investment team will fight for founders. Between us, members of the team have backed 10 unicorn startups at seed; we have IPO-ed companies; we have started companies; we have fundraised ourselves and we have failed and picked ourselves up again. So we are all here to help with advice, strategy brainstorming, product workshops, introductions to customers, raising a Series A or just being there for you in the tough times as well as the good times. If we can't help, we'll know someone in our extensive network who can and we'll make that intro. On top of the investment team, founders also get the whole "platform" team, which is another 11 people dedicated to helping founders scale their business and help with areas such as hiring and marketing. Our goal is to be the most helpful seed fund in Europe. We love to help founders build. Network effects At firstminute, we see ourselves as collaboration catalysts. We act to unlock the value our the community and bring our own expertise to bear when the time is right. Thanks to our 120 unicorn backers as well as a network of top CEO supporting us, firstminute has an extensive global reach. We like to bring on our investors - some of the top angels in the world - into our deals and as advisers to supercharge companies. firstminute's co-founder is Brent Hoberman, who after founding and exiting two unicorn startups himself created a network of companies under the 'Founders' umbrella. These include a world-class event series called Founders Forum as well as a consultancy, a recruitment firm, a charitable arm and Europe's largest incubator-accelerator. This whole ecosystem is part of our network, which helps with everything from sales introduction to finding top talent. We also have a large investor network to help with that Series A fundraise and beyond, having done deals with our friend at funds such as Tiger Global, Sequoia, Benchmark, a16z, Coatue and Atomico. Being part of our community, with our events and parties with some of the biggest names in tech and business, means you will be working with the best. We do an annual retreat for founders as well as regular drinks and dinners. Every year we hold our flagship summit in London which brings together firstminute investors, portfolio founders, partners from the top US and European multi-stage funds, and friends who are all bright lights in the tech community. Read more about that here.

Falak Startups’ mission is to find and empower talented and ambitious seed-stage tech startup founders and help them thrive in the region’s rapidly changing entrepreneurship landscape. Our sector-agnostic offering focuses on improving startups’ product-market fit; fine-tuning their business, operating and revenue models; growing their customer base; and raising follow-on investments. We arm entrepreneurs with the necessary tools, resources, and networks to develop their strategies and scale up their businesses. Our offering entails equity investment, growth hacking, networking, mentorship, training, and a wide variety of perks and benefits. After meeting the needed KPIs, our founders are able to showcase their startups on our Virtual Stage platform, a tool for connecting with potential investors, policymakers, stakeholders, and partners. Our support is ongoing through the startups’ journey. We are a constant advisor and advocate for all our portfolio companies. Falak Startups is offering an unrivaled ticket size of up to 2,000,000 EGP and provides the support startups need to gain momentum and accelerate their growth. Falak also supports its portfolio of startups in securing follow-on investments from venture capital firms, angel investors, and/or corporates.