SuperVenture's side events take centre stage

Good morning there,

If you're a SuperVenture attendee reading this, stay strong: the end is nigh. We hope you had fun at the zoo / cheese factory / [insert other] party last night. If you're not at the conference in Berlin and are wondering what the hell I'm on about (and why there are such novel side events), read on.

Elsewhere:

• Funding to female founders in the DACH region was less than the European average in 2023
• Seven energy storage startups to watch

— Amy Lewin, editor

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SuperVenture's side events take centre stage

I last visited SuperVenture in 2020. Covid was well on its way and the one side event I remember was a cosy dinner hosted by Seedcamp and Tiny VC which I weaselled my way into. 

This week, the conference — where the tables famously turn and VCs spend all week pitching to their investors, the LPs — has been a much bigger affair. 

Around 50 side events have been organised across the week. They range from invite-only dinners for LPs and a handful of select GPs, a HIIT class, a padel tournament (more on that later), novel food tastings (including coffee cupping) and a party at the zoo. One entrepreneurial soul has started a Google spreadsheet listing most of the events for attendees to keep track of; there's also a WhatsApp group with 200+ members sharing which ones they're off to.

Many VCs I’ve spoken to don’t even have a ticket to the actual event, they’re just in town for the side event networking. It’s an economical move; a three-day pass for VCs is £2,999. Pension funds, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, foundations, endowments and corporate investors — aka those VCs’ limited partners (LPs) — go free. 

The problem for VCs who have coughed up for a ticket (or, if they were clever, got a speaking slot so they could get a free one) is that there don't seem to be all that many LPs at the event. The European Investment Fund (EIF) is here en masse. Several members of its team have been being mobbed in the lobby all week. KfW, the German state bank, is here too. Various other LPs — like Adams Street Partners, one of the world’s largest fund of funds — popped in for their stage appearance and then, as far as I could tell, scooted off. 

SuperVenture’s website says 40% of attendees are LPs, but many of the VCs I've spoken to think lots of them are actually on the other side of town at SuperReturn, the much bigger private equity-focused conference that SuperVenture spun out from. (And they are not happy about the distance between the two venues.)

That might be why side events are taking centre stage this year. VCs told me they're a much more relaxed way to get to know LPs — and a good way to bring together co-investors. They're also a chance to get out of a suit and, I've found, have a whole lot more women attending them than the main event. 

The most memorable one for me? Love Ventures’ rooftop padel tournament. I can confirm that spending an hour whacking a tennis ball around a court under threatening rain clouds with a bunch of VCs in shorts is a good way to make new pals and mix up the networking marathon.

But all these side events are quite a chunky line in a VC’s marketing budget. Several of the event organisers told me prices can range from £2,000 for a drinks gathering, up to £30k for a dinner and £50k or more for a party. It's not always the VC organisers who cough up the cash though. If you spot a law firm, big service provider or bank named as a partner, you can assume they’re paying for it.

I’m going to guess the budget for Hedosophia founder Ian Osborne’s 50th birthday party last night — an invite-only event which rumours suggested might have Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Flo Rida or Fatboy Slim headlining — was even higher. 

Despite the almost complete lack of startups (and sunny-ish weather), SuperVenture is starting to feel more like Slush than any other conference I’ve attended for a while. It’s a networking onslaught — with plenty of dinners and parties going on well past midnight — and kind of… fun. 

But, is it actually helping VCs fundraise? I polled a few GPs — and most agreed that it's a useful way to catch up with existing LPs or those who they have ongoing conversations with, bump into people who might have missed your last few emails and have a few initial conversations with individuals who might invest way down the line. It's not, however, a sure fire way to get a fund closed.

— Amy Lewin, editor

💰 The €1bn NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) — a deeptech-focused vehicle backed by 24 NATO nations — announced its first public startup investment yesterday. The NIF and 8VC co-led a $22.5m round in iCOMAT, a UK-based materials startup making lighter and stronger structures for vehicles in the aerospace, automotive and defence sectors.

• The NIF was formed last year to invest in deeptech and dual-use defence startups in areas like materials science and AI. It has also invested in deeptech VC firms like OTB Ventures’ $185m fund announced in March.

🔋 Seven energy storage startups to watch, according to VCs from Giant Ventures, Kiko Ventures and AENU.

Funding to female founders in the DACH region was less than the European average in 2023. Across Austria, Switzerland and Germany, just 1.5% of total funding went to all-women teams, according to a new report from Female Founders and the Vienna Business Agency. That’s in comparison to the 3% of capital that went to all-women teams in Europe in 2023.

• Mixed gender teams in the DACH region also received less than the European average. 6.5% of total capital invested in startups last year went to mixed-gender teams in the DACH region, compared to 15% across Europe. 
• Elsewhere, the report found 15% of funding raised by female founders was grant money, and for male and female teams one in every seven rounds involved a grant. Grants were also the “most popular” type of funding pursued by founders in the region last year.

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Malmö, Sweden-based Spiideo, an automated camera vendor for sports, raised $20m in funding. Cipio Partners led the round.

Hamburg, Germany-based plancraft, which helps automate workflows in the craft industry (construction, roofing and carpentry) including pricing, invoicing and time tracking, raised €12m in Series A funding. Creandum led the round.

Salmtal, Germany-based coboworx, which helps SMEs implement robotic automation, which raised €11.4m in funding from investors including Northstar Family Holdings, SquareOne Venture Capital and Picus Capital.

Paris-based Dealt, which helps retailers develop and manage their service offering, raised €6m in Series A funding. La Poste Ventures, GO Capital and One Green led the round and were joined by investors including Holnest and Neo Founders.

London-based Psyomics, which is developing a mental health assessment to help clinicians diagnose and treat patients better, raised £4m in funding. Parkwalk Advisors led the round.

Oslo-based Sloyd, which provides 3D creation technology for creators and gaming companies, raised €3m in seed funding from a16z, Antler, Skyfall Ventures, FreshFund, AceCap, Autodesk and Hartmann Capital.

Barcelona, Spain-based Alinia AI, which helps enterprises evaluate their GenAI applications and how they align to business values and policies, raised $2.4m in pre-seed funding. Speedinvest and Precursor Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including KFund.

Grenoble, France-based ENTROVIEW, which develops battery diagnostics software for gigafactories and automotive companies, raised $1.6m in funding. AFI Ventures and Rethink Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including Exergon, Holnest, Kima Ventures, Wind Capital and Linksium.

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