Doubling down — Faded or Fated?
You were the shadow to my light
Did you feel us?
Another star, you fade away
Afraid our aim is out of sight
Wanna see us alight
Where are you now?
Where are you now?
Where are you now?
Was it all in my fantasy?
Where are you now?
Were you only imaginary
Alan Walker, Faded, 2015
Today I want to celebrate our Group 11 led $55m Series B investment in EquityBee and use this opportunity to share with you, founders reading this post an important lesson about the importance of working with investors who act with conviction.
WE DOUBLE DOWN ON OUR WINNERS.
Over the past few years as our assets under management have grown considerably, we have been known for doubling down on investments we have led that exhibit certain performance indicators.
Typically we will aspire to lead the seed round and if the company performs well, we will do our very best to also lead the following Series A, B, etc. (It doesn’t mean that we will not partake in deals we cannot lead but our intention is to lead)
Recent examples include EquityBee where we led the Seed, A and now B rounds, Lili where we led the Seed, A and B rounds, Sunbit where we led the Seed, followed up in the A,B,C rounds with meaningful checks above our prorata and most recently led the Series D round, Tipalti where we joined the Seed, led the Series A-1 and then continued to maintain pro-rata to this very day etc.
If we cannot lead a subsequent financing round whether it is because the founders chose a different lead or because we do not have sufficient capital, we will at the very least, maintain our pro-rata.
There are internal factors to making a follow-on investment decision and there are also external factors — we need to have available capital to deploy and that has a lot to do with our own fundraising schedule etc.
The founders also need to decide whether we are the right leader for their follow-on round, it is not a mandatory pre-requisite on our end, it is the ultimately the founders decision.
Founders taking initial capital from VC firms should consider asking them two really important questions (on top of the usual ones around value add, subject matter expertise, background check with other founders etc.)
First one is — Will you follow up on your investment as a leader / co-leader / participant in future financing rounds? Give me a couple of examples to such deals? Second question is — How much money you have left to be deployed in your current fund and are you about to raise a new fund soon?
Those are critical questions — As founders you may have lots of options to choose from if you crush it from day one, but most companies take a few years to get there. Not all rides are smooth, market conditions can change in a heart beat, and often going into Series A and Series B, the company may need additional runway to continue scaling and meeting certain KPIs.
Having enough capital is important not only to buy runway for execution, but also for external and internal signaling (market, investors, c-suite)
Sounds intuitive and simple, I know, but most investors out there do not lead subsequent financing rounds.
Here are the observations my team and I need to make as investors when leading a follow-on investment (like the one we are announcing today):
The market inefficiency is clear and there’s no adequate scalable technological solution in sight.
The market is huge and continues to grow at double digit CAGR
The management team is solid and continues to execute whilst attracting the right talent into the c-suite
There are clear signs of product-market fit
The company is growing at hyper-growth with no ceiling in sight
Our conviction since leading prior round/s has grown — The team continues to deliver across all KPIs
Challenges stemming from growth often revolve around: a. product development roadmap. b. profitable unit economics. c. hiring and retention of Tier 1 executives into the c-suite. d. evolving competitive landscape. e. challenging regulatory environment, are all manageable and can be solved by proper execution coupled with sufficient capital.
The reasons outlined above and the TechCrunch article below clearly capture why we are excited about EquityBee and we are excited to continue supporting Oren Barzilai, Oded Golan, Mody Kov and the team.
We are delighted to also welcome new investor Greenfield Partners, and returning investors Battery Ventures, Igor Ryabenkiy and Altair, Localglobe, ICON — Israel Collaboration Network.
