Houghton Street Ventures | September 2022 Newsletter
Houghton Street Ventures | September 2022 Newsletter
Hello,
In true back-to-school style, we’re kicking things off with a piece of homework (a survey); if relevant, we’d love to get a sense of how you’ve interacted with the LSE since graduating. Please complete this short survey; it should take less than thirty seconds. In other news, we have some exciting updates about the fund, our next investment, and the LSE entrepreneurship ecosystem.
What's happening at Houghton Street Ventures:
Bringing together founders around the world
We’re spending more time in various parts of the world, connecting with and cultivating the community of alum founders, investors and operators. As part of this, we were in NYC, Paris, and Berlin this month, teaming up with the American Friends of LSE and LSE Generate to bring folks together for some informal drinks. In Berlin, Adam chaired a panel with the LSE alumni association in Germany on enterepreneurship and enjoyed some drinks with over 50 LSE founders and investors.
Above, you can see Hannah, hosting a panel at the WCV:E conference in Paris. Next, Veronika is traveling around South East Asia from the 10 -19th October. Please let us know if you’d like to join these events in the future.
First LATAM investment
Off the back of our first two commitments which we have discussed previously (and will be able to share more in the next update), we’re excited to be making our first investment in Latin America -a vertical SaaS product and fintech transforming the landscape for SMEs, making Brazil a better place to do business. We have long thought that Latin America would be a focus region at Houghton Street Ventures, the alumni network is developing rapidly, and LSE has been a university of choice for much of the top talent for many years. There are close to 1,000 LSE founders in Latin America. In many cases, these founders experience tech-enabled solutions in different countries and see a chance to implement similar in their home market.
The adoption of technology-enabled business processes in LATAM has lagged behind much of the developed world despite being home to many of the world's largest and fastest-growing economies. Businesses in the region have been historically skeptical of US and European technology. Many western companies have tried and failed to enter the market successfully. This has opened up a huge market for native B2B SaaS products. And the data reflects this, LATAM venture funding has increased by almost 3000% in the last ten years.
We’re excited to share more details about our new investee company once everything completes, and, potentially, more investments into LATAM in the future.
What's happening within LSE alumni-founded companies?
Exciting fundraises
Prediko - founded by Youri Moskovic - $5m Seed from Felix Capital
Sympatient - founded by Benedikt Reinke - $7.5m Seed from Verve Ventures
Immunoscape - founded by Choon-Peng Ng - $14m Series A from Anzu Partners
Toqio - founded by Jose Nistal - $17m Series A from AlbionVC & Speedinvest
Portofino - founded by Alex Casimo - $50m Series A from Valar Ventures & Coatue
Disperse.io - founded by Felix Neufeld - $16m Series B from 2150 & Northzone
In the News
Nine LSE alum businesses featured in CB Insights Global Fintech 250 - Saltpay, Oaknorth, Built, ComplyAdvantage, Public, Scalable, Tractable, Roofstock, and Truelayer
Allocations featured in TechCrunch for their platform helping private equity funds lure smaller investors and retail into PE investing
McKinsey wrote about Motive, and their use of AI-driven automation to transform the logistics and supply chain market
To conclude, the team will be traveling a fair bit over the next month or so. We’d love to catch up if our paths cross:
Singapore - 10th - 19th October - Veronika joining the LSE contingent to meet LPs and startups in the region
Berlin - 26th - 28th October - Hannah is wrapping up the delivery of VentureESG’s pilot ESG training programme, for four of Germany’s leading VC funds, backed by KFW Capital and BMW Foundation
Lisbon - 31st October - 4th November - David and Hannah attending Web Summit with LSE Generate
Helsinki - 17 - 18th November - Hannah will be at Slush!
Best,
Adam, Veronika, Hannah & David
The Houghton Street Ventures Team