WEB SUMMIT: Endangered Unicorns, CVCs (how to behave), Climate techs, Alexa everywhere?
Lisbon: Only 37 rhinoceros appeared in the world in the third quarter, against more than 160 at the same period last year, said CEO of Crunchbase, Geiger McConnell. This is the lowest number of the last two years.
“And we do not know if existing unicorns are always unicorns. Many of them do not collect funds at the moment for fear of discovering their new evaluation,” said McConnell on the first day of the Summit Web. Fraction of startups called horns unicorns are still unicorns today. “
McConnell said that he attended a “massive cooling” of the venture capital market, especially in certain sectors. “The late phase, worse. Some sectors such as NFT and fintech have also suffered a lot. The investors stop to see what is going on.” According to him, being a unicorn is something that should not even be celebrated.
“Before, it was something that showed that a business was about to go on the IPO. Now, that’s something we celebrate internal, I am against unicorns. ” In the same session, McConnell and Roxanne Varza, from Station F – A campus of startups in Paris of more than 1,000 companies – discuss the sectors in which they see the most opportunities.
“I am not a great supporter of metovers, but I am very optimistic about virtual reality and augmented reality. I think that software and applications designed for augmented reality and virtual reality have the potential to change the People’s life in a way that we have not yet seen in technology, “McConnell said. “Do not just build The Sandbox Next [a metavese] … We no longer need it.”
Roxanne said that she saw enormous potential in climatic technologies, startups that create solutions to solve the problems related to climate change – such as carbon elimination technologies, carbon capture already emitted and others things that help humanity to live with the climate crisis. “The last six to twelve months have seen an exponential increase in the number of climatic technologies,” she said.
“At the beginning of the year, there were many web3 startups, NFTs and many investors looking for this. It was the hot spot. Now that changed: investors have stopped watching the NFT and There are many people looking for climatic technologies. *** In another panel, Seth Bannon, co-founder of Fifty Years (American company specializing in climate technologies), presented data demonstrating the development of these startups .
According to him, in 2021 alone, 72 funds focused on climatic technologies were lifted, raising around 13 billion US dollars. During this period, more than $ 40 billion US dollars were invested in startups working in the field of climatic solutions. This year, the pace remains positive, despite the evolution of the venture capital market.
In the first quarter, 26 billion US dollars were invested in this sector. In the second, he said “the pace is a little slower, but I think we can at least match what was invested last year”. According to him, out of the three outlets for climate technologies (decarbonization, capture and adaptation of carbon), Fifty Years has invested more than 90% of its time and resources during its first two years.
“Before looking for adaptations,” he said, “we have to try to mitigate climate change”. At the current stage, “we will no longer be able to avoid the climate crisis, because it already exists, but its magnitude can be reduced thanks to these technologies”.
The corporate investment funds are still in their infancy in Brazil, said Anderson Theiss, founder of Redpoint Eventures and now at Itaú Unibanco. In the United States, equity funds represent half of all venture capital transactions.
In Brazil, it is even less than 10%, “said Anderson during a session organized by the firm FM/Derraik, specializing in startups and venture capital. According to him,” the more shareholders will be able to act as Ordinary institutional investors “., And unlike the mergers and acquisitions of their businesses, more value will be created for everyone.”
Daniel Shelter of Mindset Ventures, a Brazilian manager who invests in startups in Israel and the United States, believes that it is unlikely that Silicon Valley startups will take advantage of the weakness of Brazilian competitors to enter the country.
“They have their own problems. Everyone is at risk,” said the manager. According to him, capital investors -risque American who participated in the investment with Mindset said that the volume of transactions taking place in the United States today is half of what it was the last time. year.
Speaking on the same panel, Patrick Aribol – of which Alexia Ventures focuses on the SaaS, AI and Blockchain – said that many founders still refuse to accept new assessments, which has frozen many transactions.
“The first to get out of denial are investors in liquid assets, then investors in advanced phase, then investors in the start -up phase, and finally the founders, because they have conviction and passion for the company, as it is must, “said Aribol, for whom the present moment offers” wonderful opportunities “to investors.
“Alexa, where will you be in eight years?”
For Rohit Prasad, Alexa chief scientist, the Amazon virtual assistant will be omnipresent and accessible to all.
“While the sensors evolve and more and more sensors are around us-and in some cases in ourselves-Alexa will be more and more present in people’s lives,” he said.
The journalist moved to the invitation of Brivia, a communication group specializing in the digital transformation of major brands.
