The Many Faces of 2021
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We’re slowly waking up from our slumber and finding our footing in this new year. A look back at the year gone by has made us remember the core of what we do: Humans drive vision. Strategy dictates direction. To go fast, the two have to come together. It’s in that sweet spot we strive to be the mirror that reveals the best in founders and covers their own blind spots, so they can accelerate.
In our rear-view mirror, more than anything, it still takes our breath away to watch our founders build their companies. Nothing has changed on that front.
In 2022, we’re going to take our own medicine. On that note, we’re already developing new projects where we combine strategy and vision to explore and create new ways to support humans in tackling challenging problems that matter to people around the world — now and in the future. Without revealing too much, there’s a certain scent of DeepTech in the air.
But before we can uncover what we’re going to do, let’s first go over what we did and our stories from #PSVTech01, #PSVCore, and #PSVAcademy.
We had some serious news on the fund-front (say that 10 times fast, we dare you), 28 investments, and a whole bunch of new faces to introduce. If nothing else, keep reading our first newsletter of 2022 to hear about our €55 million venture fund #PSVTech01 and why humans matter more than valuations and growth.
As you can probably tell, the #PSVfamily has proven itself above and beyond any expectations in 2021, so strap in and hang on tight to your belongings, ’cause this is going to be a wild one.
€55M Fund is Signed and Sealed
In case you forgot, #PSVTech01 just closed with a bang. Although we joke about it, the astounding sum of DKK 412M (€55M) didn’t just fall into our lap.
Without Christel Piron, Richard Breiter, Helle Uth, and Alexander Viterbo-Horten’s incredibly hard work, it would never have happened. As EU-Startups mentions, we’ve already invested in 28 startups, celebrated home runs, and made a sturdy commitment to the pre-seed stage. Get all the inside scoops here.
A red Hot Boiling Ecosystem
The current Danish ecosystem is overflowing with talent and experience. Yes, we’re seeing a lot of capital, and the valuations of tech startups are only going up, but so are the skills and potential we see in the teams behind them. In fact, the capital commitment to VCs was doubled compared to 2019 — and PreSeed Ventures was among the two VCs with the biggest capital commitments.
Just like our GP of #PSVTech01, Alexander Viterbo-Horten we won’t be rattled by the current founder’s market we’re finding ourselves in, but rather see this as a maturing of the Danish tech ecosystem, taking the entire market to new heights. However, founders need to find the right investor.
Putting Humans First
In case you’ve been living under a rock, taken a trip to the moon, or one of those SoMe-detox vacations over the past six months, you might’ve missed the fact that we went to TechBBQ this year. And when we say we went, we went hard. Don’t believe us? Check it out in this video.
Building businesses of the future should always contribute to moving the planet forward for the better of human lives and well-being. At PreSeed Ventures we strive to support startups in making it big, and with that comes an obligation to make it right on all fronts and from everyone involved. Returns and impact should be two sides of the same coin and ultimately deliver immense human value.
As a VC fully dedicated to the pre-seed and early seed stage we are blessed with the unique opportunity to play a role in setting conscious business standards at scale and drive how companies of the future impact individuals, society, and the environment. In this spirit, we have committed ourselves to 6 key principle.
New Faces to the #PSVTech01 Portfolio
We’ve scoured the streets for the perfect combination of ambition and awesomeness. Get to know some of our 28 new faces around the bonfire from the second half of 2021’s batch of brilliant new brains in our #PSVTech01 portfolio.
HelloFlow
We’ve officially welcomed HelloFlow to our portfolio. The two co-founders Mikkel Skarnager and Ciprian Florescu plan to help financial institutions reduce 80–90% of their operational costs by digitalizing their onboarding setup. The no-code heatwave has truly begun in finance.
MXNEY
MXNEY.io is staying in the family. We’ve joined Vækstfonden, Casper Blom, and the founders Mads Andreas Olesen and Morten Askekilde for an investment of DKK 21M going towards growing MXNEY.io to be the new digital bank for European e-commerce startups. We’re seriously blown away by these guys’ ambitions for growing the ecosystem. 2022, they’re coming for you!
Adent Health
It’s no wonder we’ve gotten into bed with Adent. Founded by the brothers Richard and Thøger Bundgaard, Adent is saving the world’s health one mouth at a time. With more people owning a smartphone than a toothbrush, being able to check up on one’s dental health through an app is more than useful — it saves life quality.
Rightly
Keep an eye on this addition to our portfolio, ’cause this is a future frontrunner on the LegalTech-market. Jeppe Hudtloff Viinberg and Bjørn Kunz Petersen found inspiration in their backgrounds and built Rightly.io’s AI which detects counterfeit goods on digital platforms and aids lawyers save time on manual administration globally.
Boon.tv
With our investment in Boon, we’ve welcomed in the ambitious Founder and CEO Peter Michael Oxholm Zigler, who’s turning his experience from Auto-Butler into building the best video platform for content creators.
Essentially, Boon gives the power back to the creator and the user, leaving no cake for the unnecessary middlemen.
Custimy
Custimy.io has joined the pack! It’s no wonder that Facebook has spotted their immense potential as well. We’re rarely at a loss for words, but this might be it. The co-founders Kristoffer Fløjstrup Degn and Martin Navne are taking the world by storm. Let the smarter use of customer data begin!
Funding for Female Founders
The amount of capital raised by startups with female-led founding is still horrendously bad. Despite a lot of talk about the topic, and the collective #DiversityCommitment — initiated by Stine Colding Alstrup and Liva Echwald, there’s still a lot to be done.
We won’t put ourselves forward as the foremost authority on the issue, however, we’re damn fanatical about the need for greater diversity in the #startup and #VC world. Things won’t change if we don’t talk about them or put them on our agenda. Reach out to us to discuss further initiatives.
The Year of Deeptech is upon us
2022 is the year European Deeptech finally steps out of the shadow of its older siblings. It’s all grown up now and speaks for itself: increased international interest, validation, and competition will force our deeptech ecosystem to mature and unveil its full potential.
Things are about to change. And we’re changing along with it. Not only have we begun building a new Danish Deeptech and Impact fund, but we’ve already made our first investments within this space.
2022 is the year we cement our position as frontrunners on Deeptech. Stay tuned.
Unbreakable bond: Innovative Technology and Entrepreneurship
Events such DTU X-tech Entrepreneurship are key to strengthening the bond between innovative technology and entrepreneurship — a bond that’s unbreakable in our area of business.
Having DTU invite in entrepreneurship and facilitate the movement from researching new solutions to commercialising them is key to creating results in the real world. These aren’t only our own wise words, however, but must be accredited to Director of DTU Entrepreneurship and board member at PreSeed Ventures, Jes Broeng.
We’re a Part of the Equation
Building a startup is not a walk in a park and it takes its toll on one’s state of mind. The world of start-ups has long been permeated by an ideal of always powering through and never slowing down. That “good enough” is never good enough, as Jonas Gyalokay from Airtame puts it in Børsen Pleasure or as Thomas Helms from Avallone explains in Finans.
We could say a lot about how much we value our founders’ mental health and how we invest in it through our Founder Mental Health Circle with the help of our startup coach and business psychologist Cecilie Willer — but we’ll leave the floor to our brave founders. Trust us, it’s worth a read.
Growing the PSV Family
After a long period of remote work, we missed the feeling of being cramped up at the office and the challenge of trying to find an available desk if you show up late. So, naturally, our solution was to grow the family once again.
Every new addition to the team has turned out to be a rockstar in and of themselves. We’re obviously good with faces but terrible with names and found a genius solution to that: double up! Welcome on board Simon, Lasse, Kathrine, Lasse, Camilla, Jacob, and Alberte.
PSV Academy
Our #PSVAcademy is wrapping up a year filled with StartupTalk and OpenDoor events. A pool of more than 75 badass founders, experts, company builders, investors, and community peeps have all said yes to take the online stage and share their honest stories, dirty tips and tricks for our Startup Ecosystem to harness and build upon.
Dive into our recap of all the goodies from PSV Academy 2021 here👇
StartupTalk 37: Generating Leads for Early Stage B2B Startups
To help the next-gen B2B founders we’re diving into the most (startup) effective lead nurturing tactics, giving an actionable and hands-on lesson on how to utilise your touch points combined with a strong CRM foundation to generate high-quality leads. It’s all happening January,19 2022 from 9 am — 10 am.
Don’t be shy. Sign up.
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