emma Ventures

Oooops … we did it again! Our first VC secondary deal by emma Ventures 🚀   … and why VC secondaries might have a great future 🌞   🚀 Exciting news! emma Ventures has just completed its first VC direct secondary deal, acquiring a stake in a high-growth, VC-backed company. This milestone marks a step forward in our journey to create win-win scenarios in the Venture Capital landscape based on our long-term experience in the secondary market.   The seller, a major European financial institution undergoing strategic portfolio adjustments, benefits from immediate liquidity, while we strengthen the company as a long-term partner. 🤝   Why VC secondaries matter: VC secondary transactions unlock liquidity for founders, employees, and investors, providing a vital pathway outside traditional exits like IPOs and acquisitions. They enable financial flexibility, reduce pressure on early contributors, and align stakeholder interests by bringing strategic partners into the fold.   For new investors, these deals offer lower-risk entries, backed by clearer visibility into a company’s performance and usually at a discounted rate – currently around 30% for VC fund stakes as per recent reports from Jeffries. While challenges exist, such as ensuring accurate valuation, robust cash runway and deep business analysis, the potential is undeniable.   In an environment where exits are slow, VC secondaries present an appealing alternative for liquidity. With 12% of the growing secondary market already represented by VC deals, this area is poised for further growth. 📶   We believe that experienced fund managers, who deeply understand the VC space and secondary markets, are uniquely positioned to seize these opportunities. 🚀   💬 What are your thoughts on the future of VC secondaries? Share your insights below!

Want to successfully ride the next wave in Private Equity as a fund manager? ➡️ We strongly believe that there is some urgent work to do then! The Private Equity industry has experienced unparalleled success which brings growth, but also creates new challenges. The smooth sailing seems to be over! What are the key drivers for a successful next generation of Private Equity firms? 🚀 Based on two decades of working experience in the industry and our perspective as investors in the asset class as well, we see the following factors: 📶Operational value-add as key driver for returns with multiple expansion less likely: Expanding at the margin instead of focus on balance sheet optimization! ⚙️Solving real problems implies investing into hardware: Resource allocation decisions with high upfront costs but a longer-term payoff as better fit for the private equity model. 💡Technology, Digitization and AI at the portfolio company and GP level: It is high time to upgrade - embracing digital is less an option now than a necessity! 🙋♀️Talent: The successful PE firms of the future will differentiate themselves from their peers by attracting, retaining, and developing diverse and digital-savvy talent focused on realizing value. Pushing diversity is of utmost importance as it improves leadership style and culture, innovation, deal pipeline, investment decisions and finally returns! 🤝Succession: Many of the founders of the industry are still active today. A well-prepared transition to a new set of diverse leaders equipped with fresh digital competencies is needed to lead tomorrow’s workforce. 🌍 Increased emphasis on purpose, impact and transparency: To meet demand from LPs, to attract the best talent, and to find new and differentiated ways for value creation. 👉And finally: Readiness for next gen LPs in light of the greatest wealth transfer in history. The successful PE firms of tomorrow will be those that can effectively differentiate themselves and can unlock new levers of value in a more mature and competitive space. Embracing this transformative journey and doing the homework in the fields listed above is absolutely key! Curious to learn more about your view - what do you believe are the key drivers to successfully ride the next wave in Private Equity? Please comment below.

The emma Ventures team just returned from an exciting and exclusive family office gathering in Davos hosted by Quilvest (Switzerland) Ltd. and Quilvest Capital Partners. Many thanks for the great event and for inviting us! Christian and Katja held a presentation on the topic “Private Equity and generational Transformation” providing the family office audience with out of the ordinary thoughts about the future of the industry. 💡A seismic shift is underway in asset management with approx. USD 84 trillion in baby boomer wealth being transferred to the younger generations over the next two decades. And yes – this is huge! This number represents approx. 70% of total assets managed by Top 500 asset managers worldwide. This unprecedented wealth transfer will not leave Private Equity unaffected. Is the current Private Equity model future proof? What kind of homework needs to be done by fund managers? 🤔 Stay tuned for our views on the topic. Curious to hear your thoughts in the meantime! Please comment below.

What a great day at #riseupsummit2024 in the Google Zurich offices last Friday! We at emma Ventures were excited to share our insights about "How to raise capital from Business Angels and Family Offices" and very much enjoyed the lively and interactive session! In addition, Katja was very honoured to act as jury member in the Pitch Competition and to hand over the certificate to the winner UpLeap (by breathe medical)! Congratulations Leonie Korn and team - we wish you every success on your path going forward! Thank you Female Founders Initiative Switzerland for the great day!

Looks terrific! Very well done team Aeyde!

emma Ventures is very pleased to speak at the #riseupsummit. Katja and Christian are happy to share their experience on: „How to raise capital from business angels and family offices?“ 🚀 We look forward to an inspiring session at #riseup2024.

How can we accelerate transformation in Venture Capital to boost innovation? This was the topic of our presentation to the Diversity & Inclusion Network of StepStone Group. Does Venture Capital do its job?🤔 💡Despite digitization and countless B2B SAAS innovations, declining productivity growth is a pervasive phenomenon in the major developed economies. 💡However economic growth and growth in prosperity needs increasing productivity growth and/or more workers in face of an ageing population. Productivity growth urgently needs an innovation boost! 🚀 But we are missing a huge opportunity to boost innovation in Venture Capital. Currently, over 90% of the Venture Dollars in Europe and North America are controlled by a very homogenous group of White Men. Women and People of Colour don’t play a role. This is a significant misrepresentation of the overall population. Consequently, Women and People of Colour raise a tiny fraction of these Venture Dollars to make their ideas work. There are countless studies that diverse teams are more innovative and deliver better results. To solve the world’s biggest problems, we can no longer afford to rely on just one homogenous group of its population. We need all hands on deck – now! And we need each and everyone to contribute to push for more Diversity in Venture Capital. It is not a “nice to have”, it is inevitable. It is time to change! Thank you very much StepStone Group for having us and putting Diversity & Inclusion very high on your agenda!

Congratulations Luisa Dames and Aeyde team! This is truly amazing! Very proud to be part of your journey!

emma Ventures is thrilled to announce that we have acted as lead investor in Calingo Insurance AG's very successful CHF 3.2 million pre-Series A round! Fellow investors include Zürcher Kantonalbank, VENPACE, EquityPitcher Ventures, SICTIC and the StartAngels Network, amongst others. We are looking forward to support the excellent Calingo Insurance AG founder team Anina Lutz, Daniel Litscher and Marlo Hug on their mission to revolutionize insurance - and to shake up the pet health insurance market! Please find the full press release here: https://lnkd.in/dGQ9nQPp

We are very proud that Aeyde founder and creative director Luisa Dames has again been featured as one of 50 most influental Germans in the fashion industry 🚀! Congratulations Luisa! We at emma Ventures are very excited to be part of your journey!