How often have we heard that slow and steady wins the race? We’ve been looking at funding reports lately and there’s no doubt that this has been a banner year for both funding – and exits. Win-win for both sides of the table, and all the better when seemingly everyone wins, what, eh? Or do they? And funding, in some cases, seems to be happening at incredible speeds.

 

According to Pitch Book, Venture capital rewrites the record books, with “Venture-backed companies having attracted $150 billion in 2021, more than 90% of last year’s record total…IPOs and SPACs helped to drive the exit value of venture-backed companies to $372.2 billion in the first half of 2021. That was 30% higher than 2020’s all-time record…Firm-level fundraising also (took off), with investors closing funds worth $74.1 billion, about 91.5% of 2020’s record-breaking amount.  And Deals, exits, funds—US VC’s records for value are going to get even bigger

 

Case in point:  this past week, Months After Starting, JOKR Has Raised Over $170 Million. Not bad for a 100-day-old company. Said Business Insider, “Tuesday’s $170 million investment ranks in the top 20 largest Series A rounds in history, according to Pitchbook. It’s a staggering amount even in a year that has been shattering fundraising records; The average Series A has been $42 million in 2021, up from $33 million in 2020, according to CB Insights.

Deeper dive, for founders out there who are wondering WTF? “Jokr, which promises delivery in 15 minutes, has been opening roughly one delivery hub per day in cities including New York, São Paolo, Mexico City, Bogota. Lima, Warsaw, and Vienna. It says it already operates 100 hubs and has doubled order volume roughly every two weeks… There are a slew of competing delivery platforms, notably Instacart… Jokr is different because, rather than ferry items from retail stores, it buys goods from wholesalers and operates hubs that range from 2,500 to 5,000 square feet. This model generates better margins, (says founder Ralf Wenzel), which allows it to hire couriers as full-timers, not contractors.”

That checks off the traction, differentiators, go-to-market strategy, product/market fit, big target market and pricing boxes in investors’ minds, for those of you working on your pitch decks. It’s also a seasoned team: they’ve worked together before and had a successful exit. Wenzel previously founded another delivery platform, Food Panda, that was acquired by Delivery Hero in 2016. Team, Subject matter expert. Check, check.

We’re sure the financial projections slide was in there, too. And financials are the language of investors.

Wenzel was a Managing Director at Softbank until March, so he obviously had a network he could reach out to or who were aware of what he was working on, speaking of investors. Building a network, by whatever means necessary, be it at online/Zoom/Upstream/Entre events or on Clubhouse, is not only important, but can make all the difference. We recently texted a friend about someone we’d come across in a CH room whom she should definitely contact, we noted, as a possible strategic alliance for her business. She asked us to make the introduction, although we hadn’t personally interacted with this person. She said she didn’t have the time to spend on CH or other platforms, for that matter. Heads up, founders: building your network is as much a part of your job as building your company. Don’t simply ask for warm introductions. Develop them.

 

Meanwhile, in other funding news, Funding To Black Startup Founders Quadrupled In Past Year, But Remains Elusive, Crunchbase reported, yet Black Women Still Receive Just A Tiny Fraction Of VC Funding Despite 5-Year High, “Notably, Black women are better represented in the subset of funded Black founders than women in general are, among all the funded startups in the U.S.”

Not a shocker, especially in light of the fact that, despite the hue and cry in recent years over the lack of venture capital going to female-founded companies, surprise! Global VC Funding To Female Founders Dropped Dramatically (in 2020).

The money’s out there and important to keep in mind that the less outside money you can take, the better, meaning, traction and paying customers are great proofs of concept and something that in some circles is known as building a business. How was Wenzel so so-far successful in a crowded space in so short an amount of time? Traction, recurring revenue and he found the white space and addressed it: the distribution network/supply chain has been challenged/breaking down. Always good to find the white space/think holistically. It might just be your game-changer. Don’t just think – think bigger. Look at your own market/supply chain from beginning to end.

 

As for the ongoing lack of funding to women founders and speaking of game changers: while investors might at least claim to be game, it seems that even at this juncture, some things just never seem to change. Onward and forward.