SeedBlink Blog

Dear investor,

Recently, I wrote a piece on inflation and its impact on investments, and I’d like to start by sharing two paragraphs from it:

“When the war started, I said that, suddenly the value of our investments has become negative, due to the low-interest rates – on the one hand, and exaggerated evaluations – on the other. Today I have some advice for you: look for investments that are not over-evaluated. Build your portfolio in such a way that you have a chance of positive yields coming from 10-15% of the startups or scale-ups you’ve invested in.”

[...] “As inflation occurs, all we can do is to balance our sources i.e., diversify our investment portfolios by including assets with high yields in the long term. We are talking here about the assets that can be considered profitable only in diversified portfolios.”

Today, access to one of the largest and most important asset classes – venture capital, is still reserved for institutions and ultra-high-net-worth investors, and private markets outpace the public market each year. Day-to-day investors’ access is still a challenge. Surprisingly, an individual can invest in mutual funds and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), in crypto or real estate, but hardly can one own a share in private tech companies, independent of their location.

We think this challenge can be simplified and are humbled to have you as venture partners in our mission to build the financing infrastructure for European tech innovation, provide access for individuals alongside institutions, and tackle the liquidity challenges of this asset class.

Learning together, following what is really important, and taking risks for win-win opportunities make this community special.

Read on,

Ionut Patrahau

Managing Partner & Corporate Development, SeedBlink

Portfolio updates

DRUID, Agremo, Protio and Pop Market joined our cohort in May, and Proportunity, Sensetask, Magos and Mocapp are currently raising their financing rounds.

• SanoPass, EasySales & MOCAPP return to SeedBlink for new rounds of growth.
• Cyscale, software developer of data protection solutions & applications in the cloud, has obtained a €3 million seed funding. The startup will use the investment to grow the team and the products, and to develop internationally, especially in the UK market. Some of the early investors exited using our secondary market pilot, while others grew their shares.
• It’s official! Hunch announced the lead-investor for its series A round: Catalyst Romania!
• Dronamics won EU light cargo UAV certification, being the first cargo drone company to secure the license. This will allow Dronamics to self-authorize flight operations of their Black Swan aircraft across EU countries, including for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.

Dive into the full May edition of  Portfolio Companies Updates.

Community voice

In each edition we’d like to introduce to you few members of our investor community. Below, we give a shout about some adopters and their thoughts on SeedBlink and their investments’ results. If you want to share your experience with the community, please let us know at product@seedblink.com.

Cosmin Manea, angel investor and entrepreneur, shares his startup investments learnings in an interview on how he assesses the opportunities:

“Gut feeling, team, and green projects. These are the most crucial elements for me when considering an investment.

Read the full interview here.

“I appreciate that, through the Cyscale exit, I have completeed a full cycle in my relationship with SeedBlink, and have experienced the entire flow of the platform, from opportunity analysis & entry into the Cyscale project, to the exit managed by SeedBlink. This validation gives me the confidence to continue my exposure to startups through this platform. The most valuable experience comes from the fact that the platform manages the steps, procedures, and paperwork in the investor-startup relationship, saving time and resources for the investor.”

Florin Pop - Managing Partner Primainvest Capital Management

“SeedBlink is a platform that saves me time when searching for proven startups. It has very good exposure to the region I am looking for: Eastern and Central Europe.

It provides a good opportunity to invest together with other VC companies, which was not so easy before.”

Traycho Ivanov - Lead Software Engineer

Tech news and trends

European VC Valuations Report

European VC pre-money valuations across all financing stages continued their upward trajectory in Q1, pacing above the highs of 2021. Pitchbook’s Q1 2022 European VC Valuations Report breaks down the region’s activity, providing an extensive look at valuations across stages, sectors, geographies, and more. Dive deeper in the report.

Food for thought

As you live, you learn. And the more keenly you observe and learn from what is happening around you, the better your investment portfolio will grow.

Book: No Red Lights: Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital

Alan Patricof, one of the pioneers of the venture arena, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the past fifty years of the industry. From buying stock in Apple when its market valuation was only $60 million to founding New York Magazine to investing in AOL, Audible, and more recently, Axios, his discerning approach to finding companies is almost peerless.

Interview: Itxaso del Palacio, Partner at Notion Capital

“Personally, I’m a product-led investor. I favor founders who are obsessed with building products that users will love.” Itxaso, Partner at Notion Capital shared in an interview her unique background, her journey to becoming a VC and the work she has done so far at Notion.

Podcast: The Puck – Venture Capital & Beyond

The Puck offers in-depth conversations with experienced and well-established venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and leading technology experts. These episodes follow industry leaders building cutting-edge technologies that are changing the world. Listen here.