Tech Innovation Grants

PE folks are out hunting for tech unicorns (and ponies too!) ─ as IPO and M&A exits dwindle, they are ever more aggressive 🤠 Sunday pause for my daily journaling on how I'm rebuilding my VC tech stack and boosting our productivity regime. 👇 I've been noticing a growing trend: Private equity (PE) firms are increasingly buying up tech startups. 📈 The IPO market is experiencing delays, and there are fewer M&As, but PE firms seem to view this as a shopping trigger. For example, AuditBoard, a Southern California startup, was preparing for an IPO when PE firm Hg offered $3 billion, significantly increasing its valuation from their last VC round. Here is why I think this trend is not a temporary window: - 📊 Interest Rates: High rates have kept late-stage startups private longer, making them appealing to PE firms. - 💼 Regulatory Environment: Antitrust regulations have reduced exit options for venture-backed companies, particularly in Big Tech. - 💻 SaaS Market Dynamics: The software-as-a-service sector is losing its appeal in venture and in the public eye. Firms like Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners are buying up "stranded companies" that are growing revenue but unable to shine enough for an exit or increasing their VC funding. I see this as just the beginning. As PE firms continue to invest in tech, they will likely expand their teams and strategies, fostering more consolidation and innovation. Also, PE exits can be quite good for a VC world that has lately struggled to turn TVPI (paper gains) into DPI (actual cash back to LPs): PE firms are known for their quick actions and attractive offers, providing liquidity that public markets may not always offer. And while the numbers are still not huge compared to heyday M&As and IPOs, they are starting to be significant and are proving resilient: in 2024 there were 59 buyout tech deals in the first quarter alone! Time to rethink exits and partnerships for VC-backed companies? 🤔 I'll be watching 🍿🎬 _______________________________________________________ #deeptech #familyoffices #limitedpartners #venturecapital #angelinvesting I'm a soloVC building my firm & community in public. 📢 On a mission to build a new kind of tech-driven VC firm at the intersection of Venture, Science and Community 👩🔬 👨💻 👫 💹 ❤️ & Follow+ to keep up with the journey 🛣️

Private Thoughts From My Desk……. #45 Health Tech Is Eating Private Markets’ Lunch   When people think of private equity, they still picture buyout kings gobbling up logistics, B2B services and software. But if you are not watching what is happening in healthcare, and especially health tech, you are missing the next power move.   According to the Barclays Private Markets Annual Report 2025, healthcare focused private equity funds raised nearly three quarters of their entire 2024 total in the first half of 2025. That isn’t just momentum. That’s a category making its presence felt.   Look at the first chart below. Capital is sprinting into healthcare like it is chasing weight loss drugs on IPO day. This is what happens when demographic inevitability meets system dysfunction meets tech enablement. Populations are aging, budgets are strained, and politicians cannot cut their way to sustainability. Someone has to fund the upgrade. This trend has been driving healthcare deals for some time, and it is continuing.   Now look at the second chart. Health tech deal value has not just crept higher, it has surged. The action is coming from buyouts more than from early-stage bets. Private equity smells margin where legacy systems still smell of fax machines and clipboards. Hospitals and insurers are realizing that workforce management, compliance and even diagnostics cannot run on spreadsheets forever.   The interesting part is that these are not wild science projects. The money is flowing into businesses that fix ugly everyday problems. Scheduling nurses. Getting claims coded correctly. Making sure the right drug goes to the right patient. Boring is beautiful when it throws off cash.   The exit side is starting to cooperate as well. Median exit values in health tech have moved up, helped by larger strategics who would rather buy a working platform than build one from scratch. That gives sponsors a clearer path from thesis to realization, not just a nice story in an investment committee deck.   Put it together and this does not look like a short-term trade. It looks like a multi-decade rewiring of a ten trillion dollar global industry that has only just begun to digitize. In that world the question for private investors is simple. If your private markets portfolio still behaves as if it is allergic to stethoscopes, how long can you afford to wait? #privateequity #privatemarkets #privatethoughtsfrommydesk

Private equity (PE) funds are acquiring major stakes in tech firms operating in areas like digital engineering and healthcare, Beena Parmar reports for The Economic Times. Technology was the top sector for PE/VC investments in Q1 2025, with $3.1 billion invested across 41 deals — a 265% year-on-year value increase, according to IVCA-EY data. While Kedaara Capital in January invested $350 million in data, analytics, and AI solutions firm Impetus Technologies, H.I.G Capital acquired Converge Technology Solutions for C$1.3 billion earlier this year. Agiltas PE also purchased Tietoevry Tech Services for €300 million. Around 70-80 new buyers have entered the market, says Shobhit Jain, Head of Enterprise, Technology, and Services at Avendus Capital. He adds that there is an increasing interest in large deals, because sub-segments like cloud and analytics have seen a 20-40% growth, even in large-scale businesses. What's driving this surge in mergers and acquisitions (M&As)? The fact that in today's tech landscape, a purely organic growth model doesn't result in significant, double-digit growth, adds the Economic Times report, citing analysts. Gaurav Vasu, founder and CEO of UnearthInsight, adds that there has been a 200% growth in M&A investments by PE-backed IT services firms. In 2024, PE-VC investments rebounded 9% year-on-year to touch almost $43 billion, according to Bain & Company and IVCA's India Private Equity Report 2025. While consumer tech funding saw a nearly 2X increase during the period, healthcare deal volumes also jumped by almost 80%, driven in part by large medtech transactions, according to the report. What trends will shape India's tech M&As in 2025? Share your take in the comments. Source: The Economic Times: https://lnkd.in/gh2gkB79 Bain & Company- Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA): https://lnkd.in/dXAhvwaq IVCA EY: https://lnkd.in/g7M5UwkZ ✍ : Isha Chitnis 📸 : Getty Images #PrivateEquity #VentureCapital #TechInvestments

In the past 7 years, funding for Deep Tech ventures in India has increased x20 from $36M in 2016 to $677M in 2023. “Indian investors don’t fund Technology ventures, they fund business model innovation ventures” — this criticism is fair & valid — Deep Tech accounts for < 6% of VC funding in India. But, things are changing — and Speciale Invest's “Deep Tech Revolution (2024)” report covers the India Deep Tech opportunity / journey ahead in detail ⤵️ 1) Govt support for Deep Tech ventures 🏦 - GOI has been working on the National Deep Tech policy - iDEX in Defense; there is a ₹500 crore corpus set aside by Ministry of Defense. So far, 139 co’s have got grants - BIRAC in BioTechnology; a total of 159 co’s have received incubation benefits; there is a ₹300 crore corpus set aside for the same “History may not repeat but it does rhyme” — USA’s Tech industry was kick started by DARPA in 1958 (back then, ~80% of R&D was Govt spend induced) — India is seeing a similar phenomenon today (2) Where India lacks right now — R&D spending 🥼 - India spends ~0.7% of GDP on R&D viz China which spends ~2.4% and USA which spends ~3.6% - We’re the 5th largest economy by nominal GDP but 10th in terms of funding for Deep Tech ventures But, don’t lose hope — 80% of investments in Deep Tech in India are at the Seed stage. Given long gestation periods for these companies, we have a 10+ year wait period until these co’s mature to produce outcomes. (3) Deep Tech is a lucrative investment opportunity 💸 - 3 out of 4 sectors where there is a > 10% probability of having a $250M+ exit are Deep Tech — Space, Cyber Security and 3D Printing - Per US & Canada data, Deep Tech ventures take less time to generate large (> $500M exits) as compared to traditional software i.e. IF today’s generation of Indian Deep Tech ventures work— it should generate significant liquidity for investors & early employees (quickly) — thereby catalyzing the next generation (similar to how SaaS exits catalyzed the SaaS ecosystem in India). ➡️ Speciale’s team has done a deep dive on 5 Deep Tech sectors (too much to cover in a single post) — I would recommend you read their report via the link in the comments #startups #india #venturecapital

The best defense is a good (funding) offense. Investors, governments, and builders are all in on defense tech. In recent weeks, we saw major deals and announcements including Anduril's oversubscribed $2.5B Series G, Anthropic's release of defense-specific models, and Impulse Space's $300M Series C. 🚀 Defense tech is having a breakout year – on track for a record-breaking year with projected investor participation up 31% YoY to nearly 1,000 unique investors. This surge represents the highest level of investor interest ever recorded in the sector. The momentum is particularly striking given broader venture market headwinds, signaling that defense tech has become a must-have allocation for institutional portfolios. 💸 The investor base is diversifying beyond traditional defense-focused funds, with generalist VCs like a16z and 8VC developing specific theses in the sector. These investors bring Silicon Valley playbooks — rapid iteration, software scalability, and platform thinking — to an industry historically dominated by slow-moving defense primes. This cross-pollination is accelerating innovation cycles from years to months in critical areas like autonomous systems manufacturing. 🌏 Geopolitical tensions and the Ukraine conflict have validated the strategic importance of defense tech, driving both government and private capital allocation. Earnings call mentions of "defense" reached an all-time high in Q1 2025, while major tech companies and the hottest AI startups are forming consortiums to compete for DoD contracts. This mainstreaming of defense tech reduces reputational risk for investors and opens institutional capital pools previously unavailable to the sector. In chatting with Justin Fanelli (CTO, Department of Navy), it is clear that the increased investor and builder is fueled by the government's increasingly innovation-forward appetite. "Investors and founders who have backed this sector and mission have moved the needle for national security, even while we've been slow, reluctant buyers. We are now overhauling the way we buy at scale. We have shifted many buyer orgs from program offices to more flexible portfolios. This is one of several ways we're putting far more emphasis on impact and value. Innovation adoption and commercial-first pushes have already made us more adaptive and resilient. We want a wider base of high performers. What's better than competition to serve those who serve all Americans better? Recent AI and raise news shows there's more room to make bigger impacts. If we nail this, I think it's fair to expect impact and investment will continue to grow." Curious about the defense tech markets and companies seeing the most interest? Explore the data and insights for *free* in the comments.

Tech fundraising state of the union outside the AI boom: most of the market is still frozen, and down rounds are increasingly common The AI boom is loud. Two weeks ago the headline was Harvey’s $300M Series D. Last week the headline was Anthropic’s $3.5B Series E. Who knows what this week will reveal. But what about the rest of the broader tech market? Let’s take a look at 6,785 funding events from companies in Pave’s dataset which is mostly comprised of technology companies. _______________ Q1: What percentage of companies have been raising new rounds of financing? ✅ 93% of companies in 2024 raised NO round. ✅ This is up from 88% in 2023, 74% in 2022, and 70% in 2021. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝘇𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. _______________ Q2: What percentage of these rounds are down rounds? After a wave of heavy capitalization and cushy ARR multiples in the 2021/early-2022 era before interest rates came up, much of the private market was very well capitalized. We talked above about how 93% of companies raised NO round in 2024. But for the companies who DID raise, how many have had to raise down rounds as they come back to reality? ✅ In 2024, ~17% of fundraising events were down rounds. This is up from ~3-5% of fundraising events being down rounds in 2021. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗮 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱. #pave #fundraising #benchmarks

You Thought You Were Hedging Tech Exposure. You’re Probably Doubling It. Here’s the risk no one talks about in private markets: sector concentration. Most investors focus on strategy—private equity, venture capital, private debt. But beneath the surface, a quieter trend is building. One that crosses structures, stages, and capital stacks. Tech is everywhere. Figure 3.1 shows it clearly: in 2024, information technology represents the largest sector in private equity exposure. And that’s not just in late-stage VC. It’s in buyout. Growth equity. Even direct lending. You might be holding tech stocks in your public book. Then tech companies in your private equity funds. Then again in your private credit allocations—just lower on the cap table. Different wrappers. Same sector. This is the kind of overlap that doesn’t show up in traditional portfolio reviews. It’s not listed on the fact sheet. And it’s often spread across dozens of managers and structures. But when the tech cycle turns—and it always does—your whole portfolio could move with it. We saw it in 2022. Public tech names re-rated sharply. That pain echoed into private company valuations, slowed down exits, and pressured distributions. And if your private market book was loaded with SaaS, fintech, or AI exposure? You felt it from multiple angles. This isn’t about avoiding tech. It’s about knowing how much you actually own—and whether it lines up with your risk appetite. Because if your entire alternatives allocation is structurally overweight the same few themes, then you’re not diversified. You’re just layered into the same bet, over and over. So what should you do? Start breaking down your alt exposure by sector—not just strategy. Ask: What’s the real economic exposure across my private holdings? How many of my funds are tied to the same market narratives? If tech enters another drawdown, how many parts of my book take the hit? Diversification isn’t just cross-asset. It’s cross-theme. And right now, tech is sneaking into portfolios from every direction. For more see our Nomura CIO Corner: https://lnkd.in/e4TCax_g #SectorExposure #PortfolioOverlap #TechRisk #PrivateMarkets #CIOInsights

The Army Just Launched FUZE. A $750M Annual VC Fund for Defense Startups. Secretary Dan Driscoll unveiled the Army's new venture capital model at the Demand Signal Forum in Arlington. Former private equity exec turned Army Secretary just flipped the acquisition playbook. FUZE channels $750M annually into nontraditional contractors. The man behind it? Driscoll ran a $200M VC fund before taking office. Iraq veteran with 10th Mountain Division. Yale Law grad. Sworn in by VP Vance in February. He calls traditional acquisition a "calcified bureaucracy" and he's not wrong. How it works. • Scout external tech, not internal solutions • Live pitch events starting October at AUSA • Other Transactional Authorities for rapid contracts • "Colorless money" flexible funding across programs First targets. • Counter-drone systems (interceptors, jammers) • Electronic warfare for spectrum dominance • Energy resilience (batteries for -40°F operations) • AI-driven autonomy and command systems Two prizes already announced. • $500K for emerging tech (October 2025) • $2.5M for counterstrike capabilities with U.S. Army Europe The shift is stark. Traditional acquisition takes 10+ years. FUZE promises prototypes to programs of record in months. Army labs and 75th Innovation Command vet the tech. Winners scale to production. Critics worry about over-focusing on tech while recruiting struggles. But Ukraine proved agile beats legacy. When commercial drones outpace billion-dollar programs, the model needs disruption. Three ways in. • SBIR/STTR grants for early stage • xTech challenges for specific problems • Direct pitches at AUSA mid-October Startups like Anduril benefit. Legacy primes lose their moat. The Army's telling innovators "we're open for business." Is your tech ready for a VC-style pitch to the Pentagon?

⭐ FT Partners is pleased to announce the publication of our 2024 FinTech Almanac report, providing the most comprehensive review of global #FinTech deal activity with analysis across private company financings, IPOs, and M&A transactions.    📊 Read or download the full report below or here: https://lnkd.in/efBjK6cN   💰 2024 FinTech transaction activity highlights: • When excluding $1 billion+ capital raises from both 2023 and 2024, private company financing volume rose a modest 13% year-over-year. • By way of number of capital raises, 2024 far outpaced the lull experienced in 2023, increasing nearly 30%. • Seed and Series A funding volume was nearly 2x higher than 2020, largely driven by a surge of investments in Crypto & Blockchain. • While late-stage funding activity did not return as prominently, there were eleven more $100 million+ capital raises in 2024 compared to 2023 and several significant valuation increases announced throughout the year like for Stripe ($70 billion), Revolut ($45 billion), Rippling ($14 billion), Ramp ($8 billion), and Monzo Bank ($5 billion). • #ConsumerFinTech mounted a comeback during the year as four out of the top five largest venture rounds were for consumer brands (Abound, Monzo Bank, Ualá and Zepz). • While other regions plateaued or experienced slight declines in 2024, #LatAm FinTech funding volume grew 70% year-over-year, with large raises for companies like Ualá, ASAAS, Celcoin, Contabilizei, Stori, and Clip. • The most active investors during the year included many crypto-focused VCs and strategic investors - Robot Ventures, OKX Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Polychain Capital, and Animoca Brands. When excluding crypto investments, QED Investors, Citi Ventures, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz and Anthemis Group join the top ranking. • With a total of eleven global IPOs in 2024, IPO activity during the year made small gains over 2023, which had just six international IPOs and no US IPOs. • M&A activity strengthened in 2024 with deal count growing 25% and announced dollar volume rising 80% year-over-year. • Volume was prominently boosted by the pending $35 billion Capital One / Discover Financial Services merger as well as 28 $1 billion+ private equity buyouts, ten of which were take-privates. • Acquisitions made by scaled FinTech companies – like Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure player Bridge – actually outpaced the level in each of the prior three years, while the number made by large strategics has not yet caught up to where it was in 2021.

Fundrise CEO Benjamin Miller joins Sourcery to break down the launch of the Fundrise Growth Tech Fund (NYSE: $VCX) — one of the first publicly traded venture capital funds. VCX debuted at roughly $700M valuation and surged to ~$6.5B within days, giving over 100,000 investors access to a portfolio of top private companies including Anthropic (~20%), Databricks (~17%), OpenAI (~10%), Anduril Industries, Ramp, and SpaceX. The timing reflects a broader shift: private markets are now where most value is created. VCX portfolio companies grew ~193% vs ~25% for public tech benchmarks, highlighting the gap between private and public market growth. Meanwhile, IPO timelines have stretched from ~3–5 years to 10–15+ years, meaning public investors are increasingly missing the highest-growth phase. We discuss how VCX works as a closed-end fund, why it has traded at a premium (despite most closed-end funds trading at discounts), and how Fundrise accessed top-tier companies during the 2022–2023 venture downturn — including buying from distressed sellers and stepping into competitive rounds. Finally, we explore what comes next: whether public venture capital becomes a standard allocation, how cycles and volatility impact the model, and what happens if public markets begin directly funding private tech at scale. Topics Covered: • VCX launch & NYSE debut dynamics • Portfolio composition (Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, SpaceX) • Private vs public market growth gap (193% vs 25%) • Macro shift: value creation moving to private markets • IPO window + why companies stay private longer • How Fundrise sources and wins allocation • Closed-end fund structure, NAV, premiums/discounts • Risks: volatility, cycles, and downside scenarios • Future of venture: rise of public VC funds Subscribe to Sourcery on YouTube for more conversations with the founders, investors, and operators shaping the future of tech, markets, and capital.