Albert Ko

The innovation economy has shown signs of recovery and recalibration with the best companies still able to raise funding. Read Silicon Valley Bank's latest State of the Markets report for our team’s thoughts on what to expect the rest of the year: https://lnkd.in/g9v_d2pH #startups

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Access to scaling/ working capital for small to midsize businesses is difficult to come by. Pipe is changing that by embedding their financial solution into the current workflow of small/ midsize businesses. This is literally a game changer. See Luke Voiles' post and the Fintech Nexus article to learn more.

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Great analysis of the acquisition of Teampay by Serra Ventures Portco Paystand and how together they will transform the B2B payments system. https://lnkd.in/gqRCESE9

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Activate is proud to share news of Altana’s $200M oversubscribed Series C led by US Innovative Technology and joined by a world class set of investors including Generation Investment Management, March Capital, GV (Google Ventures), OMERS Ventures, Floating Point, Salesforce Ventures and Friends & Family Capital. Since leading the Company’s Series B in 2022 our conviction in this team, the problem they are solving, and the enormous opportunity ahead of them has only continued to grow. And while this is of course a big milestone for the company, it still feels like an early moment on a journey that’s just getting started.. So why are we so excited? In many ways, Altana is an index bet on where we see the world going, a meta-thesis for the future. Climate change is accelerating. Exponential technologies are being unleashed faster than ever. Global economic security is being threatened by slowing economies, social unrest, and bad actors who have become increasingly emboldened. The era of peaceful globalization has ended, replaced again by great power competition over energy, technology, and resources. Governments are rushing to respond with policy and regulation. Into this brave new world, Altana is building the foundational data layer to help the world’s largest governments and most important enterprises illuminate, manage and de-risk the critical global value chains that connect us all – using AI to reform the infrastructure and relationships that govern $31 trillion of global commerce. From defending critical supply chains from geopolitical foes, helping root out forced labor and sanctioned entities from our products, to providing the first-ever system to enable accurate Scope 3 carbon measurement, to building a more resilient and sustainable industrial base… the Altana Value Chain Management platform brings first-of-a-kind capabilities to these 21st century challenges. All of this is only made possible through bleeding-edge innovations in applied AI. Even more exciting, this team is up to the task. Congratulations Evan, Raphael, Peter, Katherine, Aaron, Ian, Erringer Helbling and the entire Altana team. To the next chapter..

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Pleased to share that Fin Capital’s Fintech CEO Pulse Report is out! Fin Capital surveyed over 50 CEOs and C-suite leaders of private companies from our portfolio and the broader fintech industry during June and July 2024 to get a quick pulse on what’s top of mind for fintech’s leaders. Here are some key takeaways: - Optimism in the Air: More than 60% of CEOs reported being bullish or highly bullish on the fintech industry for the second half of 2024. - Regulatory Changes on the Horizon: CEOs identified Cryptocurrency, Open Banking, and Buy Now Pay Later as the top three sectors likely to see increased regulation by the end of 2024. - Headwinds persist. Despite overall bullishness on fintech, CEOs report a weak IPO environment and flag that macroeconomic volatility, regulation, and high interest rates remain top challenges for their companies. However, with abating inflation, CEO’s believe we could see rate cuts begin in September, which could positively affect asset values and market buoyancy, including the IPO window. For more insights, including comments from Logan Allin, Christian Ostberg, Matthew D. Mann, CFA, and Stephanie Perez, check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gK6usfwM

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We are excited to back EnFi, Inc in their first round of financing. They just came out of stealth and announced a $7.5 million raise from our good friends at Unusual Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, Argon Ventures and us at Impellent Ventures. Scott Weller spoke with me about his new idea around revolutionizing credit risk analysis through AI, begrudgingly bemoaning getting pulled back into yet another startup :) He and Josh knew there had to be a better way to get risk analyzed fast at the level of the enterprise after the great SVB failing occurred and left thousands of founders scrambling away from their multi-covenant loans. They needed to move their money but couldn't because other financial institutions still relied on a clunky, long process of assessing loan-worthiness. Enter Enfi. I asked him to invest. Scott was another one of those entrepreneurs we'd back no matter what they were doing. It took a while to get him and the indomitable Joshua Summers to make room for us. But they finally relented, because I'm annoying. Very, very annoying. Like a chihuahua with a kazoo, except worse. Ask anyone... EnFi’s platform is revolutionizing credit risk analysis, underwriting and portfolio management through advanced AI and real-time monitoring for complex credit instruments. Their innovative approach to Continual Risk Analysis provides institutional and private lenders with deeper insights and automation, enhancing decision-making and risk management. Congratulations to co-founders Joshua Summers and Scott Weller, and the entire EnFi team. We are proud to be part of your journey and look forward to your continued success! #Fintech #AI #Lending #CreditRiskManagement #Innovation

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Great analysis by the AGC team on SaaS public company comps. It's worth a look as we recalibrate mid-way through earnings season. The analysis aligns with the broader Nasdaq equity performance, where the Mag 7 (or fab 4 now :-)) have shown more resilience than the rest of the market. #AGC #SaaS #EarningsSeason #Nasdaq #EquityPerformance

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Last week, I sat down with Vator to discuss AI applications in the workforce, and how founders in key industries like Healthtech, Fintech, and supply chain can apply AI in meaningful ways to reduce friction in day-to-day life. We have literally seen a usable, value-generating case of artificial intelligence inside pretty much every major vertical that exists in the last year or so, but many people are still not using AI to its full advantage. At Forum Ventures, we see thousands of B2B AI companies a quarter, and we are increasingly bullish on AI-powered verticalization. Read on to learn more about some of the exciting AI applications we see founders utilizing, the nuances we consider when finding great founders across diverse industries, and the importance of founder-market fit. https://lnkd.in/gh-hDSSG

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Real-time data collection + ad-hoc analysis with Excel plug-in and APIs = a purpose-built transactional database with data integrity and consistency. Thank you for sharing the journey for many vertical software builders Standard Metrics

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RETHINKING RETIREMENT We've been investing in the Future of Work since we launched BBG Ventures, targeting underserved segments like deskless workers (Anthill, OX) and solopreneurs (Topline Pro). Over the summer we spent time digging into another deeply underserved segment of the workforce: Boomers. By the end of this decade, the entire generation will have hit retirement age and, for the first time, Americans 65+ will outnumber those under 18. This has huge implications for every aspect of society, and it mandates that we start thinking differently about retirement. The question for all of us is this: Can we re-focus healthy Americans 60+ on a new phase of productivity, a “third act” that enables them to keep learning, keep earning, keep socially-engaged and contributing to the nation’s economic growth? And what role can AI play in helping every senior identify their unique skill set and personal priorities — and connect them with the right opportunities? We have some thoughts on how to make this happen, and we'd love you to give it a read, add your feedback, forward it to a founder who's working in this arena (or who you think might be intrigued), and share it! AgeTech has been too focused on death and decay; it's time we embrace longevity and give older Americans a way to keep working -- on their terms. cc: Carol Magalhães Isaacs, CFA Nisha Dua, Claire Biernacki, Drew Silverman Fennessy

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Since early 2021, VC quarterly exit values have plummeted to $50B or below, a stark contrast to the six consecutive quarters of $100B+ exits before then. With IPOs dwindling and M&A activity slow, the future of venture industry exits appears uncertain. Will we see a surge in private venture-backed company acquisitions? This could be a crucial and innovative strategy to boost VC exits. Increased private acquisitions might offer a much-needed lifeline, providing a creative solution to the current exit drought in the venture capital market. #venturecapital #inspireglobalventures

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Markets talk. We listen. We've from heard from capital allocators (#VC, #PrivateEquity, #FamilyOffices....even #VentureStudios, #Incubators and #Accelerators) that due diligence is a bottleneck to deal flow. It's time-consuming, expensive and often, subjective. We've launched #VentureIQ by the 9point8 Collective to directly address this problem. VentureIQ is an AI-enabled diligence solution that provides rapid scale diligence reports with exceptional fidelity and demonstrable cost efficiency - all within a single business day. We're in our soft launch, now. So, if you want to gain back valuable time and expose the long tail of deal flow diligence, shoot me a DM or visit VentureIQ.ai.

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Thrilled to announce the launch of our inaugural edition of Beyond Benchmarks at Emergence Capital. This comprehensive report dives deep into the metrics and trends shaping the early-stage enterprise cloud market. A huge thank you to our VC partners and contributors for making this possible! Here's a sneak peek of our findings: --> 60% of companies have already integrated GenAI into their service offerings, with another 20% planning to do so this year. --> While most companies use OpenAI as their primary LLM, many are experimenting with multiple models. We’re seeing a trend toward intelligently routing GenAI inference requests based on cost, performance, and security. --> Companies that have implemented GenAI are showing promising results, with a 7% higher NDR compared to those that haven’t. Beyond Benchmarks goes further with more GenAI trends, insights on the current fundraising environment, and key performance metrics. Our goal is to provide founders and their teams with valuable benchmarks to help them make better-informed decisions. At Emergence Capital, we're committed to helping founders build iconic companies. Dive into the full report here: https://lnkd.in/g6bnvAZM

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The second update that I wanted to share was an investment that we've been working on for quite some time. Excited that the announcement has finally gone out. Citi Ventures has invested in Lakera, to build the next-generation of security tools to protect the next-generation of applications (those powered by LLMs). We got to meet David Haber and his co-founders, Matthias Kraft and Mateo Rojas-Carulla, just as the year started and were blown away by their vision of the future. Humans use LLMs today but in the not too distant future LLM-agents will talk to LLM-agents at rapid speed. Lakera's Guard product protects LLM-based applications from malicious prompts (made by bad actors trying to steal data) by inserting a layer of trust where bad prompts are detected and only valid/safe prompts reach your applications. The term in vogue today is an "LLM Firewall". We conducted an exhaustive search of the category and came away believing Lakera had built the most robust and scalable product in the market. Can't wait to get started with the team and work with them on this journey! Matt Carbonara ✅, Vibhor Rastogi, Arvind Purushotham, Blaze O'Byrne, Avi Arnon, Çağla Kaymaz, Olivia Zhang, Max R. Mailman https://lnkd.in/ewMmennJ

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Argon Ventures is thrilled to back Joshua Summers and Scott Weller with the launch of EnFi, Inc. Radical productivity is a core Argon investment theme and EnFi’s vision is centered squarely on than objective. One of Joshua and Scott’s foundational insights is that capital is often not the limiting factor to banking services, especially in commercial lending. Credit risk analysis, underwriting and portfolio management still requires a ton of manual work and analysis. A lender’s capacity to offer loans is often constrained by its ability to gather and evaluate relevant data through the underwriting process. Data is limited, raw and in disparate places. Data quality is a constant issue. Extracting actionable intelligence from unstructured documents and raw data is time consuming and error prone. Many lenders’ ability to generate revenue and profit from underwriting activities is severely throttled by these challenges. Today, the modern AI stack finally unlocks the capabilities to reduce if not eliminate much of this friction. In addition, EnFi brings a transformational approach to portfolio management . Today, underwriting risk is most often only re-evaluated a couple of times per year. But a company’s business is actually built on a continuous stream of operational and financial data… Why not provide institutional and private lenders with daily insights through automated analysis? Grounded in these insights, EnFi’s innovative approach to Continual Risk Analysis enhances decision-making and risk management. These are very logical, market driven reasons to invest in EnFi. But of course the first reason we were excited was the opportunity to work with Joshua and Scott. There are many accolades to share about their previous founder and executive leadership and the professional successes they have achieved. But more importantly they are fundamentally good people, with creative insights and the ambition to work on big problems. Learn more in Axios’s coverage of EnFi’s $7.5MM seed round. And it goes without saying, that it will be fun working with our friends at Unusual Ventures, Boston Seed Capital and Impellent Ventures. #Fintech #AI #Lending #CreditRiskManagement #Innovation

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🚨Big Idea Alert: Lina Khan- FTC Chair and antitrust warrior- was named one of the ten most #innovative people of the decade by Fast Company. This may be a contrarian take bc my day job is finding and funding tech #startups that can scale to dominate a market segment, ie become the target of FTC antitrust activity. But I actually identify strongly with her perspectives and see multiple points of alignment with our own world view that drives the Aperture® Venture Capital fund thesis: 💡 In a truly competitive ecosystem price(or other financial stats) are not the only thing that matters. Ms. Khan is focused on defending the availability of consumer and small business choice in the marketplace. Like all fund managers, we are laser focused on alpha. But were also optimizing for diversity- of race, gender, geography, and cap table. 💡Khan believes it’s important to defend the interests of the little guy whenever (s)he is being mistreated by a dominant corporation. In horizontal tech areas like #AI, we look for startups building solutions that make corporations more reliable and trustworthy in the eyes of all stakeholders esp. customers. 💡Khan prioritizes enforcement activity that has the greatest impact on people’s daily lives. We invest in companies like Alaffia Health , Goodfynd , Azimuth and GreenLyne because of the positive impact on people’s health costs, household savings and access to wealth building opportunities.

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The secret—if it ever was one—is out on private equity fondness for vertical software. While PE-backed acquisitions were down 50%+ from a peak in 2021, vertical buyouts have continued to grow, and the fervor seems to be gaining steam. In today’s essay, we will pose an answer to one question: is PE a viable path to exit for a venture-backed startup?

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Exciting news! We just sent out the inaugural newsletter for Future Frontier Capital, our pre-seed venture fund backing frontier tech startups. As I hit "send," I realized how launching FFC parallels the path of the founders we support. Starting FFC has required the same passion, perseverance, and self-belief that drive entrepreneurs. Just like a startup, getting a VC fund off the ground demands relentless hustle—building the brand, perfecting the pitch, and networking tirelessly. There are constant challenges that test your resolve and endless hours of unglamorous work behind the scenes. And perhaps most daunting - the self-doubt, wondering if you're crazy for attempting something so bold. Pushing through that negative self-talk requires unshakable faith in your mission. Raising this VC fund reminds me of starting our IP strategy and patent analytics firm two decades ago. It’s a powerful reminder of the perseverance, creativity, and resilience needed to turn an ambitious idea into reality. This experience makes us more empathetic partners, ready to support the founders we back. Our work is just beginning, and this inaugural newsletter underscores our commitment to supporting frontier tech startups every step of the way. #startups #VentureCapital #EmergingManagers #Entrepreneurship #InnovationMindSet

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