Steve's ITK: Pro-vaxxer
Opening thought: Self preservation
During the first national lockdown, I remember having a Zoom call with some of the guys from university, including one who works in pharma and three in film and television. The mood on the call was warm and supportive but definitely a tad subdued. All productions were suspended and we discussed the short term prospects (or lack thereof) in the film and TV industry. 'What's the chance of a vaccine?' one of the guys asked. 'I don't think there’ll be one for years - if ever,' came the reply from the most qualified person on the call. Besides, he said, coronavirus-type vaccines are really difficult and history is littered with failed attempts at them.
Then I chimed in disagreeing. My optimism, I explained, was based on what I'd been seeing in tech: the combination of "deep" tech and medical science and what I perceived as an acceleration in treatment discovery and disease understanding.
My thinking -- and it was obviously contingent on swallowing whole things told to me over the years by various VCs and founders alike as well as a subconscious bias in the name of self preservation -- was that if enough human and computer brain power - and money - was thrown at the problem space, the impossible might now be possible.
With a slew of promising vaccine news stories in the last few weeks, it looks like I might just be right and sometime next year I can end my self-imposed lockdown and shield in less extreme ways. I haven't left the house since the beginning of March or possibly earlier (I didn't see the significance at the time to mark my calendar) and so it won't be long before I celebrate my first lockdown anniversary. 'Whatever you do, don't leave the house before March 2021,' said a publicist friend of mine, spotting the perfect profile pitch.
A YEAR SPENT IN LOCKDOWN: THE JOURNALIST SWAPPING SHOE LEATHER FOR INTERNET TETHER.
Admittedly, I never was very good at writing headlines.
Things I wrote recently
FUNDING: WeGift, the London-based startup that has built an “incentive marketing” platform that lets businesses easily issue e-gift cards and other digital rewards to customers, has raised $8 million in new funding
SCOOP: Dija, a new U.K.-based startup founded by senior former Deliveroo employees, is closing in on $20 million in funding, TechCrunch has learned.
INSURTECH: Caura, the U.K. startup that wants to take the hassle out of car ownership, is launching car insurance — unveiling its insurtech ambitions. Dubbed “Caura Protect,” the new insurance product claims to reduce the cost and time taken to insure a car, building on the app’s existing car management features
VENTURE: Sequoia Capital, the renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has backed companies like Apple, Google, Dropbox, Airbnb and Stripe, recently disclosed that it had opened its first office in Europe.
USER EXPERIENCE: Hulu is the first major streaming platform to offer a social watching experience. And with most major league sports now being allowed to resume behind closed doors, Hulu’s combined proposition with ESPN will likely help entertain the service’s 30+ million users over the winter months.
INTERVIEW: Index Ventures, a London- and San Francisco-headquartered venture capital firm that primarily invests in Europe and the U.S., recently announced its latest partner. Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, currently COO of London-based fintech GoCardless and previously the chief product officer of Skyscanner, will join Index in January.
INTERVIEW: Autodesk, the U.S. publicly listed software and services company that targets engineering and design industries, acquired Norway’s Spacemaker this week. The startup has developed AI-supported software for urban development, something Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost broadly calls generative design. The price of the acquisition is $240 million in a mostly all-cash deal. Spacemaker’s VC backers included […]
FINTECH: Juni, a Swedish pre-launch startup that’s building a banking app and platform for e-commerce and online marketing entrepreneurs, has raised just over €2.1 million in seed funding. Leading the round is Berlin-based Cherry Ventures — the first deal, I believe, from newly recruited partner Sophia Bendz, who herself is based in Sweden.
EXIT: Autodesk, the U.S. publicly listed software and services company that targets engineering and design industries, has acquired Norway’s Spacemaker, a startup that has developed AI-supported software for urban development. The price of the acquisition is $240 million in a mostly all-cash deal.
FUNDING: Pipedrive, the sales CRM tool for small and medium-sized businesses, is the latest European company to reach unicorn status. Founded in Estonia and now headquartered in New York, the company has taken a majority investment from U.S. enterprise software-focused private equity firm Vista Equity Partners.
FUNDING: Railsbank, the London-headquartered Banking-as-a-Service platform, has raised $37 million in new growth funding. Leading the round is MiddleGame Ventures and Ventura Capital, which are both existing investors in Railsbank .
SCOOP: Starling founder Anne Boden recently told TechCrunch that the U.K. challenger bank is on track to be profitable by Christmas, but this doesn’t mean it isn’t out raising additional capital already.
VENTURE: Index Ventures, the London and San Francisco-headquartered venture capital firm that primarily invests in Europe and the U.S., has recruited its latest investment partner. Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, who is currently the COO of London-based fintech GoCardless and was previously the chief product officer of Skyscanner, is joining Index in January, TechCrunch can reveal..
FUNDING: Heroes, a European e-commerce business operating a similar model to unicorn Thrasio in the U.S. — with a strategy of acquiring and scaling high-performing Amazon businesses — has raised $65 million in a funding round.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Penguin Business describes Starling Bank founder Anne Boden’s “Banking On It” as the “first-hand account of one woman’s quest to rebuild Britain’s broken banking system.”
FUNDING: Milan-headquartered scale-up Boom, which offers a two-sided tech platform to let companies book and manage commercial photo shoots, has raised $7 million in Series A funding.
FINTECH: Lunar, the Nordic challenger bank that started out life as a personal finance manager app (PFM) but acquired a full banking license in 2019, has raised €40 million in Series C funding from existing investors.
FINTECH: Silverflow, a Dutch startup founded by Adyen alumni, is breaking cover and announcing seed funding. The pre-launch company has spent the last two years building what it describes as a “cloud-native” online card processor that directly connects to card networks.
LAUNCH: Acapela, a new startup co-founded by Dubsmash founder Roland Grenke, is breaking cover today in a bid to re-imagine online meetings for remote teams.
FINTECH: Open banking enables bank-to-bank payments, meaning that (in theory) merchants should be able to accept payments without having to hand over fees to Visa or Mastercard or other payment providers, such as Stripe.
Closing thought: Big on the Zoom circuit
As events went virtual, I remember moaning to a VC that, while the world suddenly seemed infinitely more accessible for a person like me that finds traveling to conferences difficult to nearly impossible, my (or my agent's!) phone wasn't exactly ringing. It's probably just a lag, they said. As it turns out, they were right.
By the end of the year a quick tally shows I've moderated or been interviewed at 11 virtual events/podcasts. My normal ratio is about 2-3 per year. Better still, several of these appearances were paid gigs. If this is the new normal, I better reapply for that Amex card (I've been turned down twice, the fuckers). Several of those virtual events happened this month, including three I want to especially highlight.
Fireside: Matthew Miller & Luciana Lixandru, Partners at Sequoia Capital - Sequoia in Europe
The biggest in audience size and feedback saw me interview two partners at VC firm Sequoia on behalf of Slush. I've wanted to do a Slush event for ages but the conference is normally held in Helsinki. I ain't getting on no plane, fool! The topic was Sequoia’s expansion to Europe and I definitely didn’t hold back.
Startup Grind: Steve O'Hear, TechCrunch with Hiroki Takeuchi, GoCardless
The second was an interview with Hiroki Takeuchi, the founder of fintech GoCardless. It included a special twist where, with 20 minutes to go, he turned the tables and interviewed me. A reporter at a rival publication messaged afterwards describing the event as "journalistic heroin". "I need this all the time," she wrote. The street price of O’Hear journalism just doubled.
The Way We Roll: The Man in the Hat Comes Back
Finally -- and possibly the most fun -- was appearing on The Way We Roll podcast. It's sort of disability-related but I was invited on to plug my album. What eventually ensued was a very personal conversation about what it was like growing up as a disabled kid, struggling to initially get a job, how music became my friend and the journey I've been on politically. 'This is like an audio version of ITK,' is how one friend described the show. Please do check it out.
Bonus: Which European VC was overheard telling a colleague ‘Steve f***ing destroyed Sequoia, it was beautiful to watch!’
Sign up to the Atomico 2020 State of European Tech Report event
While I still have your attention: don't forget to book your free place on Atomico's State of European Tech Report virtual event on the 8th of December. I'm moderating what is shaping up to be a great panel and -- frankly -- with a very decent lineup all round, I'm merely a supporting act.
See you then,
Steve
Get in touch
Have feedback or something to say? Hit reply. I answer every single ITK email (as long as it isn’t a pitch).