1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mohit Gulati of ITI Growth 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 Mohit Gulati was recorded in December 2017. 

Mohit Gulati, Founder and CIO of Altius Ventures, which recently changed their name to ITI Growth Ventures, discusses the Indian startup eco-system.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us your about investing focus. How big is the fund? What size investments are you making? Let’s get you introduced to our audience. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ken Elefant of Sorenson Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What about geography?

Ken Elefant: We’re focused on the United States since we are doing so much in security. We do spend a lot of time in Israel as well. In the past, I have done investments in India, China, Japan, both Western and Eastern Europe. There’s no problem with that. I’ve been involved with companies around the world.

I would say that we do have a proclivity of investing in the United States and in Israel. I’m based in Palo Alto and Sorenson Ventures is based in Palo Alto. Sorenson Capital is based in Salt Lake City. They have really good networks and deal flow from >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ken Elefant of Sorenson 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 Ken Elefant was recorded in December 2017. 

Ken Elefant, Managing Director at Sorenson Capital, discusses at length the investment thesis of his firm.

Sramana Mitra: So tell us about Sorenson capital. What is the focus of the firm? How big is the fund? What size investments do you make? Let’s get to know the footprint of Sorenson Capital.

Ken Elefant: As you probably know, Sorenson Capital was founded in 2002. We have a little bit over a billion dollars under >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Alastair Mitchell of EQT Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: It’s great to hear your enthusiasm. I’m married to a European. I love Europe. We spent a lot of time in Europe and London. I do see the energy change in London as well, which is a negative energy change. It’s kind of sad.

Overall, I do think that the momentum in Europe has improved and that’s a very good thing. What do you feel you as a counterpoint of the unicorn mania that we’ve seen in the Valley or in the US over the 2014 to 2016 timeframe?  >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Alastair Mitchell of EQT Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Can you look at the 2017 deal flow, and talk about where are the pockets where there are good companies in Europe right now? Is it France? Is it Portugal? Is it Stockholm? Is it Spain? Where are you seeing the really interesting activity?

Alastair Mitchell: By deal flow, London still represents over 50% of deals in Europe. But there are two big buts. That is changing rapidly because of Brexit. A lot of those companies were actually European companies that moved to London and are now staying where they started.

It’s causing a huge boom for Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, less for the Nordic, but also for other parts of Europe. Some of the  best >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Alastair Mitchell of EQT Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: So let’s double-click down into your portfolio and talk about some of the highlights. Where are you seeing really interesting companies emerging? What are some examples of companies you invested in that could also give us a view on what is happening in Europe?

Alastair Mitchell: We invest across US and Europe. We are trying to be the most preferred and trusted partners to entrepreneurs in Europe. If you’re looking to grow your company from US into Europe, we would love to be the go-to guys. That’s our objective.

Certainly in Europe, if you believe you’re going to grow a global business, we want to be the go-to VCs. Looking at our >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Alastair Mitchell of EQT 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 EQT Ventures was recorded in December 2017.

Alastair Mitchell, Partner at EQT Ventures, talks about the European Startup Funding trends.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about your investing focus. How big is the fund? What size investment do you make? Help our audience get to know your investment activity.

Alastair Mitchell: EQT Ventures is a relatively new firm that is about 18 months old. We started out of Sweden, the Silicon Valley of Europe. It’s an amazing place with a phenomenal track record of building some global companies. When we started off, we were a $630 million fund. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Amir Banifatemi of K5 Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: LinkedIn was a perfect channel to scale that company.

Amir Banifatemi: LinkedIn was a perfect channel. It had Initial property and strong momentum and growth into a much, much larger ecosystem globally. Another example which we’re still working on is Momentum Machine, a hardware company. It is based in San Francisco and builds robots to create hamburgers. You can order your burger the way you want it down to the right meat, with the right crispness, with more or less tomato or avocado. You can pretty much, on your way, order it on your phone. When you arrive, it is all ready for you and there’s no human intervention. >>>