Category: Newsletters

September 6, 2023 – Issue 5

Your Preferred Return has arrived.

🍁🍂 Fall is in the air and as we enter the magical time between summer vacations and the end of the year, we’re looking forward to a flurry of investment activity over the coming months. 💸🚀

In this issue, we look at the role of Artificial Intelligence in financial services (or maybe not depending on the SEC…), exciting upcoming events for investment professionals, and an in-depth interview with the Managing Partner of an impact investment fund from the DealFlow Network.

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Industry Insights

The Impact of AI in Investment and Financial Services: An Industry Transformation Faces Concerns from SEC

by Nasdaq

In an era of rapid technological advancement, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an inescapable force within financial markets.

Amid the burgeoning chatter, SEC Chair Gary Gensler has voiced concerns over the potential impact of AI on financial stability, drawing stark comparisons to the transformative roles the Internet and the Model T once played in shaping industries.

For the financial markets, will AI mean Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Investment?

💣 In a recent address, Gensler highlighted the potential for AI to be “the center of future crises, future financial crises.”

🔎 The SEC has launched an investigation to study AI’s implications and suggest rule changes that could help maintain market integrity and protect investors.

🦸‍♂️ AI could be a superpower for fund managers, equipping them to make informed, split-second decisions and granting a distinct edge in a fiercely competitive market.

👩🤖 Early indicators are showing cautiously optimistic trends, with hybrid models that combine human acumen and oversight with the power of AI’s computation prowess.

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Events

iGlobal 15th Independent Sponsors Summit
September 12th – 14th, NYC

Tuesday, September 12th – Capital & Cocktails

Join us for Capital & Cocktails, an exclusive networking event that will be held at The Campbell Bar, located in the historic Grand Central Terminal.

This cocktail reception will offer opportunities for independent sponsors to mingle with industry peers, potential partners, and influential figures.

Thursday, September 14th – Deal Flow Decoded

Join Verivend and Ilion Capital Partners for a luncheon workshop that will focus on how Independent Sponsors can unlock efficiency in their capital raising and deal management processes.  

Strategic Insights: Gain a deep understanding of the strategic principles behind efficient deal management and successful capital raising.

Optimizing Processes: Discover proven strategies for streamlining deal management processes, from due diligence to finalization, resulting in improved efficiency and reduced turnaround times.

Building Investor Relationships: Explore how cultivating strong relationships with investors, partners, and stakeholders can lead to consistent and high-quality deal management.

Technology and Tools: Learn about the latest technological advancements and digital tools that can revolutionize deal management, enhance collaboration, and provide data-driven insights for better decision-making and deal closings.

Register Here

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Jets & Capital
September 29th, Provo UT

Verivend is excited to be attending this invite only event that’s bringing together top Investors, Family Offices, and Fund Managers for an Exclusive night of High-Level Networking, Private Jet Tours, and Entertainment at a Private Aircraft Hangar in Provo, Utah.

Register Here

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IndustryR Insights

15 for 15: Official Podcast of the DealFlow Network

Guest: Fasil Kahn, Managing Partner at Acre Impact Capital

The DealFlow Network is LinkedIn’s premier networking community for deal professionals involved in the private equity, venture capital and M&A industries. Where private equity, venture capital and M&A industry deal professionals connect, share deal insights and find actionable deal flow.

Join the DealFlow Network

August 23, 2023 – Issue 4

Your Preferred Return has arrived.

As summer winds down and back-to-school season is upon us, we’re excited to be delivering the latest issue of The Preferred Return, brought to you by Verivend.

In this issue, it’s all about going back to school with fundraising tips for first-time fund managers, what ROI looks like after GPs eliminate the pain and effort of managing a fund, and what VC Firms are focusing on for the rest of 2023.

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Industry Insights

How First-Time Fund Managers Can Gain Fundraising Edge

by PitchBook

Fundraising in the private equity industry follows a familiar tale: Bulge bracket investment firms enjoy easy access to capital, while first-time fundraisers typically find it challenging to hit their targets.

Exceptions do exist, though.

So how can first-time fund managers gain a fundraising edge?

💰 During Q1 2023, emerging fund managers accounted for only 15% of all capital raised, while the other 85% was raised by experienced fund managers.

🧠 Experience and track record are common strengths among emerging GPs.

👯‍♀️ Co-investment opportunities allow GPs to enhance existing LP relationships and forge new connections.

🔬 Investors can be more attracted to specialist managers with unique expertise or a sector focus compared with generalists.

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ROI Realized

Hear how GPs describe the ROI they’ve realized with Verivend that’s saved them time, eliminated manual processes, and unlocked the ability to focus on the core value proposition of their businesses.

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Industry Insights

What’s Most Important to VC Firms in H2 2023?

In a recent LinkedIn poll, we asked VC Firms “Which of the following is most important to you for the rest of 2023?”

The majority of VC firms are focused on raising capital (48%) and generating deal flow (36%) for the rest of 2023.

While the VC fundraising climate was noticeably cooler earlier this year, these results point to a warming trend for the second half of 2023.

With both capital raising and dealflow efforts coming back into focus, it’s reassuring to see the rebound of VC begin, indicating an optimistic start to 2024.

May 18, 2023 – Issue 3

Your Preferred Return has arrived.

Welcome to the latest Preferred Return by Verivend. In this issue, we talk about SPV  innovation and why it’s time to challenge the rigidity of the traditional investment lifecycle, what our customers’ lives were like before Verivend, and how much capital is being raised in the current economic climate.

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Industry Insights

Announcing a Massive Evolution in SPV Investing

by Ari Newman, Managing Director at Massive

After three years of deploying capital via SPVs at Massive, MDs Ari Newman and David Mandell wanted to reduce the friction points of deal-by-deal investing while maintaining the flexibility of the SPV structure. The Massive Index was born and is a new SPV-based committed capital vehicle where an investor can subscribe to the next 10 or 20 investments, or on a deal-by-deal basis.

Why does this matter?

✅ Investors can subscribe at any time without a fixed window of time like a traditional fund.

➕ Investors can “plus up” their baseline commitment amounts per investment. 

💪 Flexibility of investing allows investors to subscribe to the next 10 or 20 investments and renew, or exit as appropriate.

💸 Investments are funded via quarterly capital calls like traditional funds.

🚫 Too many K1s? The Massive Index alleviates this point of friction with SPVs.

Massive is now accepting new subscribers but space is limited so if the Massive Index is interesting and you’d like to learn more, reach out here.

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Life Before Verivend

One of our favorite things is to hear from our customers about the contrast between what their lives were like before and after Verivend.

Hear each of them describe how their lives were changed by Verivend in less than 60 seconds, and check out the rest of Verivend’s Customer Stories below.

Ian Ippolito, Founder & CEO of Private Investor Club

Sam Russo, Partner & Managing Director at Lorraine Capital

Ryan Kagels, CFO at Counsel Financial

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Market Perspectives

Raising Capital & How Much?

In a recent LinkedIn poll, we asked investment sponsors and founders “How much capital are you raising?”

39% of GPs and founders said they’re planning to raise up to $10m, with the rest of respondents nearly equal across the remaining categories of $10m to over $100m.

These results indicate that although there’s been a cooldown in the capital raising market and volumes have been pushed to smaller sizes, there is still a strong demand for fueling growth in the industry.

May 2, 2023 – Issue 2

Your Preferred Return has arrived.

In this issue, we talk about wire fraud and the scams plaguing investment transactions, cap calls (and why they may be crap calls 💩), and the changing preferences of limited partners.

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Industry Insights

Scammers Target Wall Street in New Capital Call Fraud Schemes

by Agari

Capital Call Investment scams are the newest form of fraud that scammers are using to swindle Wall Street firms and their clients out of an average of $800,000 per incident.

Why does this matter?

⬆️ The number of wire transfers continues to increase year-over-year with 196 million wire transfers originated in 2022 reported by The Federal Reserve — that’s over 784,000 wire transfers per day!

✉️ BEC (Business Email Compromise) attacks doubled in 2022 and surpassed ransomware attacks according to Computer Weekly and data compiled from hundreds of incidents responded to by the Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU).

🤯 The average payout targeted in capital call schemes is $809,000.

Therefore, it’s never been more important for firms to protect themselves, their capital, and their investors.

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Product Updates

Capital Call Problems Solved

Do you have a capital call problem? Most do and don’t even know it. 💩

Creating, verifying, sending, managing, and reconciling capital calls is a painful process for Private Equity, Venture Capital, and all types of Investment Sponsors.

The current process wastes time, requires manual effort, and imposes unnecessary risks for both Investment Sponsors and their Investors.

How can you flush your capital call problems with Verivend? 🚽

⏱️ Create and send all your capital calls in seconds, not hours or days.

🔒 Protect your capital and investors through a secured, end-to-end encrypted platform and eliminate unnecessary risks, Business Email Compromise, and wire fraud.

📱 Give your investors a frictionless, “Amazon-like” one-click experience to securely fund all their investments.

👀 Watch how you can send 60 capital calls in just 60 seconds with Verivend:

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Market Perspectives

Investor Preferences are Changing

In a recent LinkedIn poll, we asked LPs “Would you prefer to pay per wire or a monthly subscription of $10 regardless of the number of wires sent?”

78% of LPs said that they would prefer to pay a monthly subscription, while only 22% said they prefer to pay per wire.

These results highlight several key insights into the evolution of LP preferences and expectations:

⚡️ LPs expect more “Amazon-like” experiences that are fast, responsive, and frictionless.

👍 There’s an appetite for LPs to pay for these better and more efficient experiences, which shifts costs away from GPs.

👀 GPs should be actively looking for technology that automates their back office while improving their investors’ experience.

April 18, 2023 – Issue 1

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Industry Insights

The Transient Era of Billion-Dollar Funds

by PitchBook

While the fundraising climate has cooled to some degree, a number of interesting developments have materialized over the last few years.

Why does this matter?

⬇️ The number of billion-dollar funds is decreasing
⬆️ LP demand in the private markets is increasing
⬅️ Investments are shifting from later-stage deals to earlier-stage deals
🔁 Smaller fund sizes + investments into earlier-stage deals = less larger GPs and more smaller LPs
🔀 More demand + more LPs = more pain & effort for GPs 😖

Therefore, it’s never been more critical for firms to be automating processes, increasing efficiencies, and enhancing LP experiences.

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Product Updates

The investment journey just got better with Verivend ✍️

We’re thrilled to announce the release of Verivend Digital Signatures to our robust suite of features.

With Verivend’s digital signature functionality, GPs can now easily create and send subscription documents and other agreements to LPs for review and signing, all within the platform. The digital signature functionality streamlines the entire signature process, reducing delays and increasing efficiency for private capital transactions.

Verivend Digital Signatures are available now to all existing and new customers.

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Market Perspectives

How are you managing your capital raising activities?

In a recent LinkedIn poll, we asked GPs “How are you managing your capital raising activities?”

89% said they’re managing with static documents and spreadsheets, which points to significant inefficiencies in the private capital industry.

Do you want to be part of the 89% of firms that are lagging or part of the forward-thinkers that are focused on:

⏱️ Efficiency
🔒 Security
😍 LP Experience