Hi, Aaron Weinman here. Today I want to highlight startup founders who are using their entrepreneurial expertise to invest in fellow startups.
It's not the easiest environment for a young business right now, but here are 32 founders betting on their peers.
Let's get into it.
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1. Many startup founders are also active investors in fellow startups. They leverage their connections and know-how in getting a business off the ground to help — and pick up a stake in — other budding entrepreneurs with potentially game-changing businesses.
In recent years, more early-stage startups have moved away from large amounts of VC cash, and opted for smaller checks from individual investors. And those individuals often run their own company as a side hustle.
That's not to say it isn't a tough slog for startups right now. Venture-capitalist funds have tightened their purse strings when it comes to investing in early-stage companies, and any prospective startup darling that harbored hopes of going public have likely had to put those ambitions on ice as investors navigate choppy public markets.
But even in a funding crunch, these founders are writing checks for their peers.
In this list, Insider's Melia Russell tapped into a network of founders and investors to identify who runs companies while investing in others.
They all still work at the startup they founded, and to qualify, their startup had to have raised more than $3 million in funding. And finally, to make the list, they needed to have written at least two checks for startups, either as an angel investor or fund manager since January.
Here's a look at 32 active startup founders betting on their fellow entrepreneurs.
In other news:
2. Banks plowed billions of dollars into these 19 crypto startups since last year. Here's their favorite upstarts, from Blockdaemon to TRM Labs.
3. Twitter won the first round in its legal battle against Elon Musk. The Delaware Chancery Court has granted the social-media platform's request to advance the case on an "expedited" schedule.
4. Financial publisher Euromoney has agreed to a private-equity sale that values the company at about $1.9 billion. Euromoney, known for industry publications like Institutional Investor and Metal Bulletin, will be sold to a consortium of investors led by the French firm Astorg.
5. Jefferies is shedding its last big holdings from conglomerate Leucadia National, the Wall Street Journal reported. An asset sale and a spin off will enable Jefferies to focus on investment banking.
6. Pimco bought a little over $1 billion of Apollo buyout loans from banks, according to the Financial Times. The investment-management firm bought the loans from the banks that underwrote Apollo's takeover of Worldline's payments terminal business.
7. Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge has halted withdrawals from one of its funds as the stock market deteriorates. The Legion Strategy fund also holds 10% in crypto, which has taken a beating lately.
8. A Nike-backed hands-free shoe company picked up $20 million in venture-capital commitments. HandsFree Labs has now raised about $34 million since 2019 as slip-on sneakers become increasingly popular.
9. Healthie, a healthcare startup that's focused on improving virtual care, just nabbed $16 million in Series A funding. Here's the 18-slide pitch deck it used to nab a commitment from Velvet Sea Ventures.
10. Citadel's Ken Griffin is riling up his new Floridian neighbors, according to the Daily Beast. The hedge fund chief executive — whose firm announced in June that it's relocating headquarters from Chicago to Miami — has amassed a swath of land in Palm Beach and his neighbors are having a moan about its "inordinate size."
Done deals:
- The American Forest Foundation's affiliate, the Family Forest Impact Foundation, raised a $10 million taxable bond to fund the Family Forest Carbon Program. It's the first green bond structured to support nature-based carbon credits. Morgan Stanley underwrote the deal.
- Trilon Group, an Alpine Investors infrastructure portfolio company, acquired engineering firm The Mannik & Smith Group, Inc.
Curated by Aaron Weinman in New York. Tips? Email [email protected] or tweet @aaronw11. Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.