Max Bautin

🚀 Breaking the 'Europe is behind' narrative: European startups are quietly writing a different story. Each new generation taking a bigger slice. Young EU startups now = 18% of new global tech value. Today's Big Tech companies were uncontested in 90s and 00s. Full @dealroomco story dropping soon 📊

I wasn't planning on sharing this today but since the news leaked, I feel obliged to comment: I've raised over $200M in my career and have learned a lot about what works & what doesn't. This time around, I decided to do a few unconventional things. First, I decided to forgo the silly tradition of raising a round privately and only talking to a small handful of folks. The major benefit of making our pitch public was that I could cast a wide net and find the exact right investor for us. Our public pitch was viewed 1.7M times on Twitter. From that, I received 1,010 preliminary offers to invest which led to 170 committed offers. Secondly, another unconventional thing I did was spend weeks in back-to-back meetings really trying to get to know investors and finding the right fit. I did reference checks. I did diligence. I did my homework. Rewind is my life's work and expect to spend decades pursuing our vision of giving humans perfect memory. The firm I choose to work with in this round will be a relationship I have for decades. So, ultimately, I chose NEA. Their long-term orientation is evident in the fact that their funds last 15 years, unlike the typical 10. Not only that, but they commonly are buyers, not sellers at the IPO. Lastly, their unbelievably positive references made it clear they are the partner I want to be working with for decades to come. Ultimately, this meant I had to turn down offers to invest from 61 investors who offered valuations greater than $350M, including 22 investors who wanted to invest at a billion dollar valuation, which would have made us a unicorn. I'd much rather have a partner who believes in building a big business in the long-term, than simply one who wants to win a hot deal today.

Taxi drivers not trusting Tesla navigation..curious

Worth bearing in mind how important BPC is for the UK VC industry, and how good they are as an LP (especially compared to similar LPs elsewhere). Doubt IQ Capital would be anywhere near its size (or even be!), without BPC

And £5bn wipe off from HSBC equity. Got to love FTSE investor base..

This morning, the Government and the Bank of England facilitated a private sale of Silicon Valley Bank UK to HSBC Deposits will be protected, with no taxpayer support I said yesterday that we would look after our tech sector, and we have worked urgently to deliver that promise

@WorkMJ @SVB_UK has 3,300 clients (via @FT). There are 6,369 active UK startups with min $500K funding (delaroom). Safe to assume SVB has most of the top 50pc

There are not 85,000 venture backed startups/scaleups in the UK. A high percentage of those that actually are venture backed are clients of SVB.

In light of what's been happening, a roundup of some key stats on UK tech. 🧵 @SVB_UK has 3,300 clients (via @FT). There are 6,369 active UK startups with min $500K funding. • UK startups employ 1.8M people • The UK startup ecosystem is collectively worth almost $1T

@EdConwaySky Plain wrong. SVBUK only had a B2B license and did no B2C to founders, unlike US.

SVBUK has both individual and business customers. Basically: tech firms and tech founders. As with the US operation, these are often people who put quite a lot of cash in their accounts. Which leads to an issue…

As I type this, hundreds of officials are at work in the City trying to negotiate a way of saving - or failing that, winding up - the UK wing of collapsed US bank Silicon Valley Bank. In the coming hours we'll find out just how messy things will get. Here's how things stand.

1) was it though? Bank customers have the right to move their funds, especially when at risk. Regulator is there to ensure order and financial health of each bank. 2) bail-out cost vs even just payroll taxes Svb is an asset not liability

@gdibner VCs duty of care is first and foremost to investors and startups. Bank clients are not there to support banks in need (no matter how great). Regulators and governments are there to ensure clients can trust the system and not DD every bank they touch.

90% of VCs supported SVB (privately if not publicly). And 90% of VCs encouraged the bank run (privately if not publicly).

@darrenpjones For the kind of businesses that matter to UK economy (20/80 rule), most of which are SVB clients, £85k is a week’s to day’s burn rate. They need the £50m parked from last round at deposit. This is not about FutureFunds 1000s startups, it is about the few hundred best ones

The £85k deposit protection scheme will be too low for many businesses, which will need to pay salaries to their workers. If founders and CEOs can’t access their cash, important tech companies will be balance sheet bankrupt and will go bust.

🧵The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank UK will have obvious consequences for UK tech. The Chancellor will have to intervene in some way, especially as it’s budget week. But what should he do?

@ewankirk Because opening a new account with a baclays takes 5 weeks and a load of pain/ongoing compliance (inclusing ‘oh, we have frozen your balances’). Plus, lately big banks = bad rates. So despite all advice to diversify/go large cap, too many did the easy thing

I have a question. Why would tech companies in the UK (or US) put their deposits with SVB? It’s just a cash deposit. Put it with Barclays or at most in a MM fund. Is it some sort of reflected glory from the “Silicon Valley”? Did they offer any tech oriented services?

I don’t know why SVB’s CEO didn’t band together the top 20 venture funds to send a message to the entire tech community in one go, instead of holding a call which said nothing substantive during an SEC quiet period. I know SVB has the relationships to pull it off.

Good to see Cambridge used in startup names again, post trade name dispute with the university

Lots of response to this today - thank you. Also clear to me that @hmtreasury & @BritishBBank are listening and open to iteration on this scheme, and consideration of others (I have submitted ideas). Thanks @emmaljones @gerardgrech @Dom_Hallas +others for making the case to Govt.

We're back with actionable benchmarks for European founders! This time... The European Series A landscape over the past 5 years - trends in round sizes and most active lead VCs - by geo and category. Huge thanks to @dealroomco and the VCs involved 🙏 medium.com/localglobe-not…

Cambridge VC firm IQ Capital raises $300m ‘deep tech’ fund ft.com/content/a856a6…

Congrats to Privitar, delighted to welcome Accel on board. lnkd.in/g7nTyny