Viktoriya Tigipko is one of the most recognized names in the Eastern European VC community and is a native of Ukraine.
She runs TA Ventures, a pre-seed and seed stage VC, since 2010. Additionally she founded iClub (an angel network), WTech (a community for women in tech), and is Chair of the Board at the Ukrainian Startup Fund.
Guest Author: Viktoriya Tigipko
The conditions out there for fundraising are still pretty tough for startups. But it is even tougher for most venture firms out there whose performance have made it very challenging for them to raise their next fund.
An investor joked to me recently that given the performance of most VC’s, it almost felt like investing as a LP in a venture fund felt a bit like investing in charity.
After all according to some recent statistics somewhere around 50% of funds were not even able to returns the funds that were invested. And only about 5% made a return that was more than 3x.
But when I see statistics like this, I am actually very excited. Because it means that a lot of funds will shake out in the coming years.
And the funds that truly have a differentiated strategy that performs consistently will get more of the available capital, which is actually still quite plentiful.
Today I will explain more about this.
It is still a funding winter out there
In 2023, global VC firms raised approximately$57 billion, a steep drop of 67% from $172.5 billion in 2022.
The trend seems to be continuing into 2024, with only $30.4 billion raised in the first quarter, suggesting a projected total of about $121 billion for the year if the pace continues.
Many VC’s are out there now trying to raise their next fund. And they are finding it challenging.
Challenging because their performance the past few years has not been very good. Particularly the funds that chased the flashy, high valuation startups during COVID.
Many of those plays have not worked out and their fund performance is a direct reflection of this.
So their fundraising efforts are taking far longer than they’d hoped and they are having to reach much wider and harder than they typically would have.
Some of these funds will need to raise funds that are significantly smaller than they’d hoped. Others will simply give up their efforts.
The funds that are raising easily are the ones with differentiated strategies
It is important for VC’s to have a Unique Value Proposition (or UVP). This is what makes your firm special and different from others.
This should answer the question “Why should a startup choose us?”
And since the best startups and founders typically have plenty of options, it is very important that you can stand out to them.
Plus you don’t always want to be only attracting the most popular startups… rather you want startups that come find you because you are uniquely positioned for what they need.
And so in a way you don’t really compete against most other capital, because you are one of the only players that offers what you offer.
There are generally four main ways to achieve this in the VC space:
- Sector-specific expertise
- Unique branding
- Establishing thought leadership
- Innovation and adaptability
Introducing my firm, TA Ventures
I am the founder of TA Ventures. I started as a super angel back in 2010 and invested in 148 startups individually and then in total we have invested over $71m in 240 startups globally so far.
Our strategy is that of an early-stage ‘generalist’ that invests in pre-seed and seed stages. I like to say that we are in venture, but are “angels at heart”.
Our geographic focus includes US, Europe, SEA, MENA (mainly Saudi and UAE) and Latam (mainly Brazil). And in fact we have venture partners located in almost all of these regions.
In a way I like to think of ourselves as a ‘traveling team’, because we are constantly moving around, meeting new companies, and comparing what we see.
Our investments have included an impressive set of companies that include Deepl ($2bn valuation), Sumup ($8.6bn valuation), Xometry ($3bn valuation), Impress, Cambrian, and more.
In total our portfolio achievements include:
- 6 IPO’s
- 15 Unicorns (Some we invested early like Deepl & Sumup)
- 20 Soonicorns (including Boku, Cambrian Biopharma, Smile2Impress, Gropyus)
We share a lot of commonalities with Fabrice Grinda’s “FJ Labs”
So what is our UVP?
Well, I like to draw comparisons of our approach to FJ Labs, which is run by a friend of mine, Fabrice Grinda, who i’ve known since about 2009 or so.
We’ve also co-invested in 21 companies together, some that they sourced and some that we did. Out of which there is already one unicorn and several ‘soonicorns’.
We share a lot of things in common, but also have some important differentiations. Let me break it down according to the framework I laid out above:
1) Sector-specific expertise
- Similar to FJ Labs we like to form a strong investment thesis on where we think things are going. Then we invest in models that coincide with that thesis.
- Also, we dig deep in some specific verticals like “Digital health”, which has been a focus for five years. Another one is physical products, for example our investment in diaper company, Coterie.
2) Unique branding
- Since we run both a VC fund, TA Ventures, as well as a angel network, iClub, there are lots of benefits to meeting a lot of high potential founders at a very early stage. Which is something I saw Fabrice do very successfully in his early-stage investing over the years.
- Also similar to FJ Labs, we do not act as a ‘lead’ investor, but will often help the startup find a lead if they need one.
3) Establishing thought leadership
- Also similar to FJ Labs, we see ourselves as kind of “smart & more” investors. For us this means we try to act quickly to help connect our portfolio companies to the right experts. And our ‘secret sauce’ is our network of 20,000+ contacts across all types of niches and functional areas.
- But we do not impose our opinion like some other VC’s. As we’ve generally found that this can waste significant time of founders.
4) Innovation and adaptability
- We have folks in numerous geographies and can therefore compare the quality of companies in a niche across geographies to choose the best one. Or if we see lots of companies in different areas doing the same thing, it might be a sign to us to wait a bit until a clear set of winners emerge.
- We are also typically able to return capital faster than the typical 7-10 years. And we have a variety of tools like secondaries that we use to achieve this.
Do you want to work with us?
There are a variety of ways of working with us. The easiest way is if you are considering angel investing then have a look at iclub.vc.
This is our angel network that consists of 1,000+ angels in 40+ countries and growing. iClub is backed by TA Ventures and is a great place to start for first time angel investors.
There is a simple form to fill out on the site and after being qualified you will have access to our exclusive deal flow.
If you’re interested in TA Ventures than you can see our team here and you can reach out to the person that you feel is most appropriate to your inquiry: https://taventures.vc/team/.
