The week's developments in investing & technology, explained | 9.11.23

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After six long quarters of waning investor interest, the crypto landscape is finally seeing glimmers of hope. Bitcoin's rebound to £30,000 and the subsequent surge in trading volumes have left investors wondering: are we at the start of the next crypto bull cycle?

Amidst rising interest rates and VC funding droughts, some investors are raising millions to buy out struggling start-ups in an effort to turn them around. Elsewhere, investors are leveraging AI technology to decode execs’ speeches, extracting investment signals from subtle details like speech rate, pitch, and volume during earnings calls.

Read on for more, including why founders are hiring CROs to boost their marketing strategies and how to capitalise on a VC’s human side.

—Charlie and the Research & Intelligence Team

The investment ecosystem

🪙 Is a crypto bull market imminent? Bitcoin's rebound to £30k has sparked renewed buzz in the crypto investing landscape after six consecutive quarters of waning investor interest. But will this boost be enough to reignite the next crypto bull cycle? 

💸 VCs out, private equity in? As interest rates soar and VC funds dry up, some investors are raising millions to snap up startups left in the cold by VCs. Capitalising on economic headwinds, their strategy is to acquire promising businesses at a discount.

📉 What’s holding UK scale-ups back? A recent survey found that over a third of the UK’s fast-growing firms are held back by insufficient capital and a lack of tech talent. Despite these funding and talent challenges, 70% of entrepreneurs surveyed still see the UK as a prime location for growth.

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Chart of the week

Despite Amazon's £3.2 billion Anthropic blockbuster deal that spiked total funding value to £4.9 billion last quarter, some investors say the overall market momentum for GenAI is fading as the number of VC deals declines. 

How AI is transforming investing 

🤖 AI can now decode investment signals in execs’ speeches: AI is helping investors read between the lines by analysing subtle changes in CEO speeches. The tech can decode speech nuances in earning calls — like rate, pitch, and volume — allowing asset managers to pick up on investment signals.

📈 AI is helping startups get leaner: According to Battery Ventures' latest report, smart startups are leveraging the technology to be more cost-effective. They’re using it to cut costs, automate repetitive tasks and expand customer offerings.

Startups

👩‍💻 Want to scale faster? Hire a chief revenue officer: Startups promise big things to bag funding — but in a tough economic climate, they may find it hard to follow through. Hiring a CRO with the right experience may be the fix founders need.

🤔 The human — or biased — side of VCs: In the high-stakes world of investing, it's not just numbers that do the talking. Investors are more likely to support a founder they feel connected with — so take the time to learn about the person behind the money. 

Jobs

• Senior Revenue Operations Manager | Fivetran | Dublin | £100-128k

• Senior Sales Executive | Fospha | London | £80-120k

• Senior Commercial Manager | OVO | London | £59.7-78.8k

• Strategic Finance Manager | Birdie | UK - Remote | £60k

Noteworthy deals

• Fnality, a London-based FinTech has raised £77.7m in series B funding led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.

• Oslo-based residential solar and battery storage company Otovo raised £35m in funding led by Å Energi, Nysnø and AxSol.

• Keychain, a US-based GPC manufacturing platform, has raised £15m in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

• Munich-based AI coaching platform Retorio closed a £7.8m series A funding round led by SquareOne.

• Atlas, a 3D generative AI platform, is launching with £4.8m in seed funding led by 6th Man Ventures and Collab+Currency.

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Disclaimer: This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal or tax advice.