SEEDS Capital

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Sofina began in 1898 as Société Financière de Transport et d’Entreprises Industrielles, an engineering conglomerate in Belgium. In the late 1960s, Sofina changed course to become an investment company. As a holding company, its major investments lie in the consumer goods, energy, and distribution sectors, with stakes in companies like Danone and communications satellite operator SES. It has also been involved in various venture capital investment activities, both as an LP to other VCs and as a VC itself, running the Sofina Growth portfolio. The Sofina Growth portfolio spans a wide range of sectors and geographies, from China to Southeast Asia, with investments in notable companies like Zilingo, Byju’s and Kopi Kenangan.

Charles Songhurst is a founding partner of hedge fund Katana Capital and also runs the Songhurst Group, which holds assets in a variety of private companies, besides being a prolific angel investor having invested in more than 500 companies to date across sectors and geographies.  His most recent investments have included in the 2021 seed rounds of home-based eye medtech Quadrant Eye and in the $2m funding of Canadian small business logistics startup Tyltgo. Songhurst is a former general manager and former head of corporate strategy at Microsoft. He has a bachelor's in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University.

ACA Investments is the Singapore-based affiliate of Asia Capital Alliance, a Japanese investment firm group. The group’s investment focus is on Japan and Southeast Asia, done by combining Japanese intellectual property and Southeast Asia’s growing markets and startup ecosystems. Its investments range from secondhand bookstore Book-Off, F&B brand owner HotLand Corporation (which operates Tsujiki Gindako), and Southeast Asian price comparison site iPrice.ACA Investments is also an affiliate of Japanese investment bank Daiwa Securities Group, which is Japan’s second-largest securities brokerage. In 2018, ACA Group announced that Daiwa Securities Group acquired a 34% stake in ACA Investments as part of a wider strategic alliance between ACA and Daiwa.

The International Financial Corporation (IFC) was founded in 1956 and is a member of the World Bank Group. It is one of the world’s largest development institutions focusing on the private sector in developing countries. It operates in more than 100 countries and has leveraged US$2.6 billion in capital from the private investment sector to deliver more than US$265 billion in financing for businesses.

Endeavor Catalyst is part of the global investment company Endeavor. Launched in 2012 and based in New York, it supports the equity funding efforts of Endeavour entrepreneurs with third party investors. Its portfolio investments had a total capital value of over US$100 million and it specializes in mid-stage investments across sectors and different countries, with significant investment in transportation startups to date. In 2020, it participated in the second €12m part of the €23m Series A round of EV charging hardware startup, Wallbox, with an undisclosed investment. Other recent investments in 2020 include in the US$40m Series D round of Egyptian healthtech Vezeeta and in the undisclosed seed round of Turkish fintech Figopara.

Dharmash Mistry is non-executive director of the British Business Bank and the BBC. He is also a partner at LGT Lightstone, Balderton Capital and Lakestar. As an experienced venture capitalist and entrepreneur Mistry has raised and managed investment funds totaling $1bn. He is a board member and one of the early investors of unicorns like Revolut and Glovo.Mistry is the former MD of Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, B2B media business specializing in exhibitions and information services and listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). He was also the chair and co-founder of Blow Ltd, an on-demand beauty services provider in the UK. Mistry also previously held non-executive director roles in companies like Dixons Retail and Hargreaves Lansdown.

Swanlaab Venture Factory is a Spanish-Israeli VC fund founded in 2013 in Israel and in 2017 in Madrid,  whose first investment fund totalled €40 million. Within Spain, its portfolio has 11 startups across different B2B verticals. Each startup selected for investment during investment rounds of €2–3 million, receives funds of €500,000 to €1.5 million.Swanlaab's Israeli backer Giza Venture Capital has already achieved more than 40 successful exits and is ranked amongst the top funds worldwide, investing over $600 million since 1992.Its most recent investments include in edtech and multimedia content platform Odilo’s July 2020 $10m undisclosed round and in the €3.5m Series A investment round of sales tech Sales Layer in May 2020.

Vesalius Biocapital III is a €70 million fund that invests in medtech, e-health initiatives and drug development in Europe. It was launched in 2017 by Luxembourg-based Vesalius Biocapital, a life sciences venture capital firm founded in 2007.  Preceding Vesalius Biocapital III were Vesalius Biocapital I, with €76 million under management and Vesalius Biocapital II, which has €78 million invested; both funds have 11 portfolio companies each.Its recent investments include in Portuguese home physiotherapy tech solution SWORD Health's 2021 $25m Series B and in the 2020 $9m second phase of its Series A round as well as in the 2020 €22m Series B round of German biotech Topas Therapeutics. 

Founded in 1999 in Santiago de Compostela, XesGalicia SGEIC SA is 100% owned by the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion (Igape). The VC supports Spanish startups through seed funding, early ventures and growth capital investments. It usually invests between €60,000 and €200,000 in each enterprise, with temporary acquisition of minority stakes. The firm focuses on the biotech, telecommunications, energy and environment sectors. In 2014, it was involved in the creation of the Galician Network of Business Angels to facilitate the collaboration of private and public fund investors to nurture innovative projects and applications of new technologies.

Founded by the charismatic Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group Corp is a multinational conglomerate with assets totaling about $342bn in 2020. SoftBank is best known in Japan for its mobile phone network and distribution business, and it was the sole distributor of the Apple iPhone in Japan until 2011. SoftBank also has subsidiaries in online gaming, publishing, and energy, and owns stakes in Alibaba Group and Sprint.Outside of Japan, SoftBank is known for its venture capital investments. In October 2016, it teamed up with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to lead a $100bn tech fund, named Vision Fund. Through Vision Fund, SoftBank has made some major high-profile investments into tech companies, such as TikTok developer ByteDance, e-commerce platforms like Coupang, Tokopedia and Flipkart, and coworking operator WeWork.

Based in Brussels, Astanor Ventures is an impact investor specializing in foodtech, agritech and blue ocean economy with focus on the environment and sustainability. Founded in 2017 by Eric Archambeau and George Coelho, Astanor has invested in more than 20 startups in Europe and the US. Archambeau and Coelho launched Balderton Capital in Europe and were early investors in Spotify, Betfair and LoveFilm.Astanor invests according to the principles for responsible investment (PRI), prioritizing technology-led solutions that connect the value chain, innovate on nutrition and accelerate regenerative agriculture. In November 2020, the firm closed fundraising for its $325m Global Impact Fund focused on food and agriculture technology that comply with the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs).

SkyDeck Berkeley is the startup accelerator initiated by the University of California, Berkeley. It was established to commercialize the university’s research arm and startup ventures of its alumni. It provides non-equity funding assistance, mentorship and networking opportunities, as well as specialist resources for not-for-profit ventures.Since 2012, SkyDeck-backed startups have raised total funding of over $1.47bn, with 17 achieving exits through acquisitions. The accelerator’s investment-arm is Berkeley SkyDeck Fund also invests about $100,000 per startup during the program. Half of the SkyDeck fund’s profits goes to UC Berkeley to support public education projects. The fund is run by Chon Tang as managing partner and Brian Bordley as principal. Contributors to the fund include private individuals, corporations and VCs like Sequoia Capital, Sierra Ventures and Canvas Ventures.

OneRagtime is a platform that brings together ventures, startups and advisory services, providing access to capital, industry expertise and operational resources. It also uses a fully-digitalized investment process for its users to carry out due diligence and negotiations. Founded in 2014 by Stéphanie Hospital and Jean-Marie Messier, One Ragtime is headquartered in London with offices in Paris and Barcelona. The company’s mentors include Josep Solé and Laurence Bret, who advise Spanish/Latin American and European technology companies, respectively.

Joe Zhou graduated from Beijing University of Technology in 1982 and worked five years as a lecturer at his alma mater. In 1987, he went to study in the US and obtained a master’s at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1989. He stayed in New Jersey and worked for five years at AT&T Bell Labs and its spin-off Lepton Inc.In 1995, Zhou returned to work in China as the VP of UTStarcom China until 1999 when he joined Softbank China Venture Capital as the head of its Beijing office. In October 2001, he became a partner at Softbank’s SAIF for five years. In 2007, he became a founding managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers China. In April 2008, he co-founded Keytone Ventures as managing partner.

Lakestar is an international VC firm headquartered in Zurich. Founded in 2012 by Klaus Hommels, the VC has been an active early-stage investor since 2000. Its first fund was established in 2013 to invest in fast-growing tech startups across Europe and the US like Skype, Spotify, Facebook and Airbnb. The firm has offices in Zurich, Berlin, London, New York and Hong Kong with total investments of more than €1bn. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2020, Lakestar managed to raise a total of $735m for early and growth stage funds to be invested mainly in Europe. One-third of the funds will be designated to early-stage investments and two-thirds to growth-stage companies to drive international expansion. Part of the capital will also be used to strengthen the leadership team.

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