Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of February 15, 2021. Plus.ai Raised $200M Series B

Happy Chinese New Year!  

It has been a long time (13 months 7 days to be exact) since I last visited Hong Kong, but it did not stop me from sharing virtually with my fellow founders over there.

I did this talk a couple of months ago on the topic of “How to craft your pitch deck” in which I used the “first date” analogy for investors and founders which I found quite fitting. 

Pitching is like speed dating. Even if there is love at first sight, an investor will not, cannot, and never would marry you the first time they meet you.  That means the only objective you (as a founder) have for the first date is to get the second date. 

Pitching is just the very beginning of a relationship. 

Investors want to invest in the next Mark Zuckerberg by building a business + product that everyone wants in a huge market.  Founders want to raise money from investors who can give them capital, support, and guidance. 

In this talk, I also cover: 

• What should a founder cover during your first pitch? 
• What NOT to do on your first date/pitch?
• What to ask your potential investors?
• What to do after the first date? 

Enjoy and watch my talk. 

If you are about to start your own fundraising process I would love to chat with you, especially for any companies within the enterprise space. Feel free to message me directly at edith@race.capital.

This week a total of 31 startups raised $1.1206B in funding, 4 M&As:

• $360.3M goes to 12 Enterprise startups
• $78.5M goes to 5 FinTech startups
• $350M goes to 3 Autonomous Vehicle startups
• $18M goes to 1 EdTech startup
• $75.8M goes to 2 Wellness startups
• $40M goes to 1 Construction startup
• $6M goes to 1 Logistics startup
• $1.5M goes to 1 Gaming startup
• $37.5M goes to 2 Healthcare startups
• $149M goes to 2 BioTech startups
• $350M goes to 3 Autonomous Vehicle startups
• $4M goes to 1 Other startup