Skip to main content

Deck.blue brings a TweetDeck experience to Bluesky users

With over 3 million users and plans to open up more broadly in the months ahead, Bluesky is still establishing itself as an alternative to Twitter/X. However, that hasn’t stopped the developer community from embracing the project and building tools to meet the needs of those fleeing the now Elon Musk-owned social network, formerly known […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TBbEAPF

Fund of funds are starting to play a different role for venture LPs

Fund of funds (FoF) were created to serve as a bridge for LPs to get access to managers they couldn’t back otherwise. But in an environment where funds are not seeing consistent support from their existing LPs, and there are more venture funds than ever, is their role still relevant?

Fund of funds fundraising — say that five times fast! — has declined for years. To compare, traditional U.S. venture firm fundraising set a record in 2022 with $162 billion. U.S.-based VC FoF raised just $400 million in the first quarter of 2023, according to PitchBook, and $3 billion in 2022. This compares to $24.4 billion in 2021 and $33.7 billion — the fundraising peak — in 2017.

It’s not surprising why many LPs have soured on the strategy, said Kyle Stanford, a senior venture analyst at PitchBook. For one, backers of these funds pay a mix of fees to both the FoF and the underlying commitments the FoF manager makes.

“LPs have that double layer of fees. And that extra time it takes after [an LP] invests in the fund of funds and then have it deployed is just something that LPs right now just don’t want to deal with,” Stanford told TechCrunch+.

And with there being so many new firms and funds in the market, the issues surrounding LPs not getting access to attractive VC funds is largely moot and that barrier isn’t really an issue anymore, he said. “There has been way more opportunity to invest in a VC than there has ever been in the past,” he said. “For new LPs coming into the market, they didn’t need to go to a fund of funds to get access.”

But to be clear, even if the funding numbers are down, FoF still holds a place in the future of venture — maybe just a different one than they did traditionally. Multiple firms have started innovating on the model, and FoF can still help LPs get access to the managers they can’t invest in otherwise, albeit for different reasons than before.

Fund of funds are starting to play a different role for venture LPs by Rebecca Szkutak originally published on TechCrunch



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/BeCy7VG

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sam Altman launches eyeball-scanning Worldcoin to ‘drastically increase economic opportunity’

Worldcoin Foundation, Sam Altman’s crypto startup with the vision to “drastically increase economic opportunity,” has started the rollout of its services in 20 nations. The startup said it’s rolling out its identity technology as well as the token internationally. Individuals can download World App, the startup’s protocol-compatible wallet software and visit an Orb, the startup’s helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning verification device, to receive their World ID. As TechCrunch has previously noted , Worldcoin is perhaps one of the most audacious efforts to bribe the world to embrace their currency. The startup, founded by OpenAI CEO Altman and Alex Blania, wants to put a crypto wallet (and some of their currency) onto every human’s smartphone, but in order to do so they have to build a way to determine whether someone is a unique human. “If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans for AI online wh...

Pokémon GO will raise the price of remote raid passes

Pokémon GO is raising the price of remote raid passes, the mobile game announced today. Players used to be able to buy one pass for 100 coins (about $1) or three passes for 250 coins (about $2.50), but the cost of these items will nearly double to 195 coins for one pass, or 525 coins for three passes. Players will now only be able to participate in five raids per day. Raid battles are a key component in Pokémon GO, requiring players to meet up at a set location in real life to battle an extra strong or rare Pokémon. When much of the world went into lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, remote raid passes were initially introduced to enable people to participate in raid battles from afar… and to give its parent company Niantic another income stream. As of last year, Pokémon GO surpassed the milestone of $6 billion in revenue from in-app purchases.  “We believe this change is necessary for the long-term health of the game, and we do not make it lightly,” the Pokémon GO team wr...

Apple releases iOS 16.4 with new emojis, web push notifications, voice isolation for calls & more

Apple today released the iOS 16.4 update to users, which includes a number of new features, like an expanded set of emojis, voice isolation for calls, website push notifications and more. Users can update to the latest version by going to Settings > General > Software Update. While iOS updates often simply patch security holes or tweak smaller settings, those that deliver new emojis or expanded functionality are often more popular with consumers, leading to high demand for the download. That means you may have to wait a bit in order to install the latest update on your device. With iOS 16.4, users are getting 31 new emojis. (The release notes reference “21” new emoji, but this just has to do with how the variations are counted). Among the new additions are a shaking face, the long-awaited pink heart, two pushing hands, a Wi-Fi symbol and others, including various animals and objects. The Unicode consortium approved these emojis last year, and it was announced in February the...