1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Joshua Posamentier of Congruent Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: We’ve looked at a bit of what you’ve done and how you operate. We’ve got a flavor. In one of your examples, you said you’ve invested in a problem that you were already familiar with. You found a great technology out of CalTech that addresses that problem.

One could posit that you were already looking for a company that addresses that problem. Are there other such problems that you have identified that you would like to find an entrepreneur solving it. Please pick the ones that are in the IT and IT-enabled services domain.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Joshua Posamentier of Congruent Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do another one.

Joshua Posamentier: We have a company called Energetic Insurance which is a pure-play InsurTech company. They make an insurance product backed by a top 5 global reinsurance company to do credit enhancement for customers that want to get solar and other energy products and have no credit of their own. So small businesses frequently just don’t have any credit.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Joshua Posamentier of Congruent Ventures (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Joshua Posamentier was recorded in April 2020.

Joshua Posamentier is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Congruent Ventures, a firm focused on sustainability-oriented technology ventures.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Nick Adams of Differential Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I’ve been in this industry for a long time, and I’ve seen a few cycles. When we see discontinuities, every VC firm goes through a process of considering that discontinuity and developing a thesis around what kinds of companies should be doing well in this environment.

We just discussed one of your companies that is a perfect example. Do you have a broader thesis on the kinds of companies you’re looking for? Our community is full of entrepreneurs.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Nick Adams of Differential Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What was Ocrolus doing that was brilliant?

Nick Adams: I can’t share all of that, but they’ve done a couple of things around how they structure their team both on a technology front-end of things and in their back-end operations in India.

They can take a bank statement from somebody looking to get a loan and turn that around in a matter of minutes with 99% accuracy at a very low cost. It’s a very tight integration between the technologies that they’re using. 

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Nick Adams of Differential Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Double-click down a little bit on what kinds of businesses. You said enterprise and data science. Can you add some color?

Nick Adams: I would break it down to three categories. We’re broadly looking at the future of work. Specifically, how data and data science can change the way businesses operate today. The opportunity is still very large. It’s still at the early days of making information actionable.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Nick Adams of Differential Ventures (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Nick Adams was recorded in April 2020.

Nick Adams is Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Differential Ventures, an enterprise-focused firm. We discuss counter-cyclical ventures in this COVID-19 world.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Parthib Srivathsan of Companyon Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What trends do you see in general in terms of types of companies? Are there any highlights of what kinds of companies we’re seeing in 2020?

Parthib Srivathsan: We have a very specific focus. We built our deal flow relationships to deliver companies that fit those criteria. In terms of what we are seeing, it’s largely B2B tech.