2022 in a nutshell
New brand alert! My investing activities moving forward will be under the brand of Gold Dragon Ventures. I’m also planning on raising an opportunity fund for follow-on opportunities at Series A or later, which meet a high bar in terms of runway, path to cash flow positive, and growth rate. The current macro-environment magnifies the value of this type of fund - earlier stage companies that haven’t hit their Series A milestones may not make it through the funding winter.
I’m late in commenting on the startup funding slowdown, so I’ll just make one observation: I’m seeing lots of flat rounds, but not many down rounds (unless the prior valuation was high even by 2020-21 standards). The reason is simple - Series A lead investors and seed bridge investors are not as sensitive to valuation as they are to runway right now, and down rounds cause hiring/retention problems. If a good company has a high confidence plan to reach cash flow breakeven after one round of <$5M size, perhaps at the expense of a reduction in growth rate, they’re likely going to get funded, and in most sectors, at multiples that are still higher than than their public comps. But those companies are few and far between.
One positive aspect to the current market - five portfolio companies had acquisition exits, which provided cash flow at a favorable time:
Billpocket (acq. by Kushki Pagos)
Repeat.gg (acq. by Sony Playstation)
Accept (acq. by Homelight)
Drop Party (acq. by Flexa)
One Finance (acq. by Hazel)
And now, here’s an update on the 42 incredible companies I’ve been able to help fund on AngelList from Q1-Q3 2022 via the Rob Ness / Asymmetry Ventures syndicate, my syndicate, and co-syndication partners:
Proptech:
<SCI-FI>: Rescan Seed - ultrafast 3D scanning of commercial spaces to make “digital twins”
Propertymate Seed - marketplace for new construction homes
Nectar (Techstars ‘21) Seed - “Pipe for real estate” - a marketplace for providing revenue-based financing to rental property owners with predictable income streams
Rent SmallSmall (Techstars ‘22) Seed - African rental marketplace and property management for apartment owners.
GoJom (YC W22) Seed (via Ride Wave Ventures) - online real estate brokerage and MLS for LATAM
Deep Sentinel Series A follow-on - automated home security monitoring using computer vision
Homie Series B - online residential brokerage with innovative mortgage products
Space:
<SCI-FI>: Array Labs Seed - arrays of rotating micro-satellites deliver 3D Earth imagery at scale
Slingshot Aerospace Series A - the largest satellite collision detection and avoidance service in the world
Supply Chain:
<SCI-FI>: Pipedream Labs Seed follow-on - E-commerce delivery in minutes via robots in tubes underground - check the video!
<SCI-FI>: Wave Engine Seed - a cheaper, faster, lighter jet engine with no moving parts - a once-in-a-century advance as important as the shift from propeller planes to today's jet engines
Veeve Seed - retail smart carts and store OS, with a big Albertsons launch!
WareIQ (YC S20) Seed (via MyAsiaVC) - “Fulfilled by Amazon” for India
Clicoh Series A follow-on - “Fulfilled by Amazon” for LATAM
B2B SaaS/Marketplace:
<SCI-FI>: QuSecure Series A follow-on - post-quantum cybersecurity defends against quantum computing attacks with new encryption methods - the only company in this sector with a Phase III SBIR award so far!
Lal10 Seed - “Faire meets Shopify for India” - a wholesale marketplace and serving over 1M craft-based SMBs
Priyoshop Seed - B2B marketplace for Bangladesh small businesses
Boitas (YC W21) Seed - building SYSCO for LATAM - a B2B marketplace for restaurants)
Storeyline Seed (via James Lu Morrisey) - B2B e-commerce gifting marketplace
Quotebeam Seed (via Vastly Valuable Ventures) - B2B parts marketplace for manufacturers
WeLoveNoCode Seed (via Saxecap): B2B hiring marketplace for no-code developers
Eva Series A follow-on - automated repricing and logistics for e-commerce marketplace sellers
Health / Medical:
<SCI-FI> Endiatx Seed - telehealth pill-sized robot to conduct endoscopies from inside the human body
<SCI-FI> Sigma Genetics (YC W17) Seed - pioneering the use of magnetic fields to deliver genetic therapies, starting with CAR-T for cancer
Ligandal Seed - designs, prints and tests synthetic peptides for treating diseases in just hours - a unique alternative to AAV/LNP gene therapy vectors
Inhalon Biopharma Seed - inhaled “muco-trapping” antibody treatment for acute respiratory infections, including SARS-CoV-2, (RSV) and the flu.
Genomelink (YC S21) Seed follow-on - app store for your genome data
Clear Gene (YC S18) Seed follow-on - fast lab-grade COVID testing, replacing PCR with an order of magnitude faster procedure
Swiftshift Seed - managed marketplace for nursing teams and patients needing home care.
Enter.health Seed (via Umami Capital) - Stripe for healthcare payment systems
Cytoreason Series A follow-on led by Pfizer! - cell-level models for drug discovery
ESG (Energy/Materials/Environment):
<SCI-FI>: Enlightra (YC W22) Seed - lasers that transfer data between data centers 100X faster with 10X less energy than the status quo
<SCI-FI>: Quaise Energy Seed - tapping geothermal energy by using gyrotrons to dig an order of magnitude faster and deeper than the status quo
<SCI-FI ALERT>: Earthgrid PBC Pre-Seed - rebuilding US infrastructure using plasma to dig utility tunnels through deep rock with electric robots - watch the tech demo vid!
H Quest Vanguard Seed - microwave plasma turns natural gas into clean hydrogen and other valuable byproducts (e.g. carbon black, ethylene).
Vartega Seed- carbon fiber recycling
Posh Robotics Seed (YC W22) - automating EV battery recycling with robots
Earth AI Seed - using machine learning with aerial photos to find new rare earth deposits more efficiently, which are critical inputs to a clean energy transition
Fintech:
Volato Seed - “Pacaso for jets” - fractional jet ownership with peer-to-peer rental
CapConnect Seed follow-on - marketplace for Fortune 100 primary bond issuance
Adtech:
Miles Series A follow-on - frequent flier miles for everything
Education:
Literal Seed - converts literature to chat experiences for kids