Reshma Sohoni - Seedcamp - UK - Stanford Engineering - Mar 5 2012

Reshma Sohoni, co-founder & Partner - Seedcamp@rsohonireshma@seedcamp.comEuropean Entrepreneurship & Innovation (ME421)Stanford Engineering SchoolMarch 5 2012

About Me• Born in India• Grew up, studied and worked in the US in business and tech (M&A and incubator 1.0)• Moved to Europe for MBA, worked in Corporate, back to VC for 6 mos, started Seedcamp

So – what is Seedcamp?

Seedcamp – catalyzing Europe!• The #1 European startup accelerator – Funded (unique) by the VCs and Angels across Europe – 1.500 mentors active annually – 200 companies mentored annually (500+ total) – 20 investments made annually – 12 Events across EMEA/US annually (40+ total) – Wide reach beyond our portfolio• Active in all of Europe and beyond – Finland to Italy, Spain to Croatia, Canada to Brazil – From idea stage to great products – Awesome founders, always.

Process Preparation ApplicationMini Seedcamp Seedcamp Portfolio

Program Timeline• Mini Seedcamp – Monthly, one major startup city in Europe – 20 Teams, 80 Mentors from the industry – Average of 2 Investments• Monthly Seedcamp Days – In London, by topic, with experts from the network• Seedcamp Week – London, September – 500 mentors, experts, speakers – Huge Demo Day and many networking events• Seedcamp US roadshow

22 companies in SC 1 Kyko

33 companies in SC 2Blossom.ioCROWD

Success Stats• Growing a great group of startups – 60 portfolio companies – More than $45 million raised by companies – Employing 400+ across portfolio of companies – Several category leaders • Basekit, Boxed Ice, EDITD, ERPLY, GrabCAD, LOOKK, Mybuilder, Ubervu, Zemanta• Strong partners to grow further – Reach: Startup competitions – Support: Local partners like 500startups in Valley – Funding: Partnership with Angellist – Access: Sponsorship & support from GOOG, MS, FB

Challenges – US as one part of the arsenal• Mini Seedcamp New York – Mostly European Teams, connecting with our mentor base• Strong connections since start – Investors in SC companies, friends of Seedcamp: • Atlas, USV, IA Ventures, 500startups, Redpoint, Matrix, many angels – Partnerships with HQ, not European divisions• Seedcamp US roadshow – 3 weeks of meetings – 1 week East – 4sq, NYSE, mongoDB, USV, Betaworks, ETSY – 2 weeks West – Goog, FB, LinkedIn, Twitter, i/o, 500, etc – Rest – Microsoft, Amazon, Qualcomm, finale at SXSW

What’s up in Europe?

Exits are birthing new angelsBig M&A:Small M&A: Plink US VCs have noticed

Huge numbers of events and hackathonsCompetitions Training Accelerators Hackathons

Several hot spots• London is number 1 in Europe, all ingredients: – Startup successes = experienced entrepreneurs and Angels – Tech ecosystem = talent, customers, partners, acquirers – Diversity = Local talent, universities, creatives – Finance ecosystem = angels, VCs, LPs, later stage finance• Berlin is catching up and has a major cool appeal – Startup successes = the much hated copycats and others – Ecosystem is growing = place to be in DE, but no industry – Diversity = lots of talent, creatives, cheap labour – Financial Ecosystem is nascent, but no place is far

Hotspots, c’td• Paris is still very local – Strong scene, great design and creativity – Few connections to outside, but starting to improve• Vienna is surprisingly active in the south – Austria, Slovenia, Turkey, Italy, etc close by• Estonia has its own Skype Mafia – 4 of 20 SC investments in the last year – Great talent & infrastructure in Baltics (Skype, Nokia, Rovio) Not Silicon Valley, but our own local color

Some portfolio companies

EDITD – Bloomberg for Fashion• Big data geek & fashion designer – Large scale thinking about industry trends – Skills and insights in place• Fashion is changing – 8 seasons per year – move fast, adjust faster – Competition driven market – copy or die – Social is driver & multiplier – understand or vanish• Success – Great customers (brands, retailers, designers, agencies) – Great investors

GrabCAD – worlds biggest engineering team• Outsourcing mechanical Engineering (CAD) – Market place for 3D designers, mech. Eng.• Estonian Mafia – local talent – Former Skype engineers & design – Mechanical engineers as founding team understood issues• Worldwide market – Starts w/ smaller projects, growing in size – Competitions bring PR and great coops• Great progress and Investors – Atlas, Matrix, – now over 40K Engineers!

Vox.io – real browser telephony• Team of former Slovenian Telco engineers – Very relevant local experience – In SF at the moment – hiring!• Use social paradigms for telephone – Vox.io/albert – Linkify, short URLS, one-time codes – Think bit.ly for your phone• Industry ripe for 2nd wave – Skype huge but slow – Mobile a big item

Transferwise – p2p FX• Very European problem (GBP, EUR, CHF) – Transfers a daily issue between currencies – Currency gap because of little innovation in banking• Cut out the middle man – Virtual transfer between individuals, match and leave – FSA regulated = trust + access to mid market rates• Great team with relevant background – First non-founder employee of Skype (=currency issues) – Fin Services advisor and experts

Thanks for having me Contact me any timereshma@seedcamp.com @rsohoni

Reshma Sohoni - Seedcamp - UK - Stanford Engineering - Mar 5 2012

by Burton Lee on Mar 09, 2012

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