Houghton Street | Community Newsletter
Hello,
Welcome back to the Houghton Street Ventures Community newsletter, our monthly update on everything that’s happening within the LSE startup and venture ecosystem. We are racing towards the final close of fund I and as some of you might have seen yesterday, Houghton Street Ventures is coming under the umbrella of Antler, the leading global pre-seed investor. Whilst this marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for us, with Adam now Partner at Antler UK and Chairman of Houghton Street Ventures, we as a fund retain full independence, ownership and will continue to invest along our core mandate - in the best and brightest entrepreneurs from the London School of Economics.
For the alumni founders and the broader community: it’s business as usual at Houghton Street. Having backed 12 founders across multiple continents since November 2022, the fund will continue to invest over the next 12-18 months. We encourage alumni who are starting new ventures, seeking partnerships, or looking to get more involved with the LSE VC ecosystem to get in touch.
If you’re interested in learning more about Houghton Street Ventures, we’d love to hear from you. Or if you have ideas about future content or collaborations, just hit reply!
Events
Check out the events we have coming up over the next few weeks:
Marketplaces 101: AMA with Katerina Petraki (ex-Alibaba) - book your free ticket here
Katerina Petraki is a GTM operator and early-stage investor. She has spent her career launching and scaling new ventures in the intersection of network effect businesses and e-commerce. For the last 5 years, she led the international expansion of alibaba.com, developing and executing the strategic roadmap for the B2B marketplace in the US from inception to multi-billion-dollar GMV through strategic partnerships, investments and ecosystem development. During that period, the business grew to over $40 billion of annual GMV, with 4x revenue growth.
Pricing 101: AMA with Ed Lee (HelloAdvisr) - book your free ticket here
Ed Lee is an accomplished pricing expert and the Founder and CEO of HelloAdvisr, a growth consultancy specializing in designing high-impact pricing strategies for fast growing companies. He works closely with companies across growth stages and draws on deep experience in industries such as software, eCommerce/retail, gaming, and consumer goods.
Opportunities
The team at Carta are offering free 1-on-1 equity forecasting sessions for founders. They will work with you to model out option pools and equity allocations according to their global fundraising data sets. If you’re interested, please email david@houghtonstreet.com and we’ll connect you to the team.
For any founders raising Pre-Seed to Series A in the next 6 months, apply to Focal and pitch to thousands of VCs and angels in one go. All applicants can receive inbound interest from their 250+ VC network (not just those that make it to demo day!). Alumni have raised from the likes of Lightspeed, GV and 20VC. It's like YC but without the accelerator. Applications close on Wednesday 24th April. To apply, visit gofocal.vc.
Ecosystem Offerings
HelloAdvisr, founded by LSE alum Ed Lee, is the trusted pricing advisor for unlocking smarter revenue growth. Collaborating with high-growth ventures, HelloAdvisr has advised companies that collectively raised over $300M from top investors worldwide. Get exclusive access to HelloAdvisr’s digital pricing advisory platform, nDexio OnDemand, and enjoy a special 40% discount for the LSE community. Reach out to edward@helloadvisr.com now and mention Houghton Street for this offer.
InsightsAI, founded by Morten Bruun, has built the AI co-pilot for creating better and more insightful pitch decks. The platform is designed to automate your slide decks, so you can spend more time on the stuff that matters. It’s integrated into Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint and lets you create a 20-page slide deck in seconds (yes, seconds). Try it out for free here
Community News & Updates
LSE Generate
Female Founders Retreat - Lisbon - 30th April - 3rd May
Join us from 30th April - 3rd May 2024 for this transformative experience, providing not only valuable knowledge and skills to build & scale your business but also a supportive community and network to bolster your long-term success.
For more information click here or register your details here.
Prices start at £400 which includes three night’s accommodation in a villa with a private pool, situated close to the beach. You’ll have access to a members club, Yayem, and your retreat sessions will be led by experts from LSE and Generate’s network of industry leaders.
Web Summit Rio De Janeiro - 15 -19th April
LSE Generate is back again for Web Summit Rio 2024. Together with their Brazilian university partners, FGV and UFRJ (Instituto Reditus), they welcome everyone from the innovation ecosystem for a sunset social and female innovators brunch. RSVP is required for both events or entry will be denied.
15th of April, LSE x FGV x UFRJ Web Summit social at Rubaiyat Rio
19th of April, Web Summit Women Innovator Brunch at Hilton Copacabana
Big Deals
SimplyBlock - raised a $2.75m Seed led by 42CAP
Pluto Markets - raised a $2.6m Seed led by Magnetic Capital
BuildNow - raised a $6.5m Seed led by Khwarizmi Ventures
Vidyut - raised a $10m Series A led by 3one4 Capital
Qloo - raised a $25m Series C led by AI Ventures
Rasa - raised a $30m Series C led by PayPal Ventures
In the News
Razor and Perch announced their merger and a fresh $100m at a $1.7bn valuation with TechCrunch
Scan.com featured in the Financial Times as one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, with their MRI solutions
Raffaella Squilloni, co-founder of Orna Therapeutics, featured on the Defiance podcast talking about their RNA therapy and being an outsider in biotech
Meet the Team
If our paths cross or if you’re swinging by London, come visit us in the LSE library - we’d love to catch up, let us know!
Best,
Hannah, Adam, and David