Goodbye 2022, Hello 2023 đ
2022 was a tough year, not just for the start-up world, but for the world in general. The invasion of Ukraine, rising costs of living, and the aftermath of COVID-19 made for a challenging year. Nevertheless, we remain optimistic, as we witness the ambition and resilience of the entrepreneurs we meet every day.
Throughout the past twelve months, we welcomed some exciting additions to our portfolio and to the MMV Europe & APAC team. We partnered with Zluri, Accelex, Xund, Daye, Privyr, HelloBetter, Oncoshot, Treehouse Finance, and Headquarters, and continued to support our existing portfolio companies in multiple funding rounds. We also welcomed five new additions to our team in London and Singapore.
Catch up on our highlights below for all the latest news and perspectives âŹïž
Welcome to the MMV portfolio đ«¶
Last year, we had the privilege of partnering with some amazing teams. Some highlights below:
Digital Health
Did you know â women were often excluded from participating in clinical research until 1993? Daye is a gynaecological health startup on a mission to close the gender gap in medical research, by creating convenient products and services for period pain, at-home STI testing, and the treatment of vaginal infections. From our very first meeting, we were struck by Valentinaâs grit and were pleased to co-lead Dayeâs Series A with Hambro Perks and Cross Border Impact Ventures.
HelloBetterâs mission is to bring accessible, high-quality, and scientifically-backed digital mental healthcare to Germany and beyond. They currently provide prevention and treatment courses covering depression, anxiety, insomnia, panic, stress, chronic pain, diabetes and alcohol consumption. Six of HelloBetterâs DTx programs are reimbursable via prescription, with many more to come.
Healthcare organisations are collecting significant amounts of patient data, and there is great value to be unlocked by extracting insights from these datasets. Founded by Tamas, Lukas, and Zoltan, Xund has developed a medical API to enable payers, providers, pharma, and digital health providers to build their own digital health assistants and translate unstructured data to actionable insights. We invested with MMC Ventures, RoX Health (Roche), and LANA Ventures in Xundâs seed round to fuel their next stage of growth.
An oncologist for 10+ years, Huren experienced first-hand the challenges of getting cancer patients access to the latest clinical trials. He met Ruslan (the data scientist half of the pair) at an accelerator event and the rest is history. They founded Oncoshot, a health insights platform that connects, facilitates, and incentivises secure data sharing between clinical trial stakeholders. The companyâs mission is to increase the chances of trial success and improve patient access to innovative therapies worldwide.
Web3/Crypto
2022 was a challenging year for crypto, with a number of high-profile collapses sending shockwaves through the market. Moving forward, the shift toward DeFi has accelerated and the need for greater transparency and accountability has never been more apparent.
The team at Treehouse is deeply committed to empowering retail and institutional users with the data, analytics, and risk management tools to confidently navigate DeFi. We were thrilled to join their $18m Seed round alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mirana Ventures, Binance, GSR and more.
Sharon and Sunny at Headquarters (HQ) are developing the go-to finance dashboard for Web3 teams to seamlessly manage financial operations and reporting. MMV co-led Headquartersâ pre-seed round alongside Crypto.com Capital and Forge Ventures. The beta version of the platform has now launched, check it out!
FinTech
Accelex is a UK-based SaaS platform redefining alternative investment data management by facilitating LP reporting and enabling flexible reporting and insights. Founded by industry vets Franck, Nicole and Michael, we invested in their $5m fundraise alongside Illuminate Financial, AlbionVC, Expon Capital and SixThirty Ventures.
SaaS
Privyr, led by Aaron and Shivam, helps D2C salespeople instantly contact and convert leads into clients directly from their phones. 50,000+ sales professionals across 80 countries have seen a +300% improvement in sales and productivity since using Privyr. We co-led Privyrâs Series A round with our friends at Vulcan Capital. Wavemaker Partners, Nir Eyal (the bestselling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products) and Gwendolyn Regina also joined the round.
Keeping track of 20+ software subscriptions as an individual consumer is painful enough⊠imagine the pain for companies with 100+ different subscriptions! Zluri is on a mission to help high-growth companies optimise, automate and manage their SaaS applications from a single dashboard. Ritish, Sethu, and Chaithanya are poised to win the global SaaS management segment, and we led their $10m Series A round alongside our friends at Endiya Partners and Kalaari Capital.
Keep an eye out for more exciting announcements in the coming weeks đ
Team news đ„
Itâs been an exciting year on the team front, adding five new team members across Singapore & London:
Alix joined the London team as a Principal to focus on FinTech, Enterprise SaaS & Climate Tech investments. She was previously an investor at Citi Ventures & Finch Capital.
Weijian joined the Singapore team as a Senior Analyst to focus on FinTech, Enterprise SaaS & Digital Health investments. He was previously an investor at Partners Group.
Sam joined the London team as a Associate to focus on FinTech & Enterprise SaaS investments. He was previously the founder of a B2B marketplace and a Product Manager at ComplyAdvantage.
Yara joined the London team as a Associate to focus on Digital Health investments. She was previously an investor at Oxford Investment Consultants and holds a DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine from the University of Oxford.
Sheryl joined the Singapore team as Executive Assistant. She previously worked at Fidelity and Daimler.
Community đ€ đ€
During 2022, we enjoyed continuing to build great relationships with our global community of entrepreneurs, operators, and investors.
The team was also active at a number of conferences and tech events during the year, with highlights including:
- Token2049 (where the Teriyaki Boyz performed Heartbreaker â one of our teamâs go-to karaoke songs. DM to find out who đ)
- RegTech Summit London (where Alix spoke on a panel about building partnerships between ESG & RegTech)
- Sunrise, where the team reconnected with old friends and made new ones Down Under
- We also attended Sifted Summit, WebSummit, Jefferies Healthcare Conference, Slush, SaaStock, TechBBQ, France Digitale Day, WVC:E Summit (and many more)
This year, we have already signed up for IFGS, BioTrinity, DMEA 2023, Paris FinTech Forum, SaaStr Europa, Bits & Pretzels Healthtech, Bits & Pretzels, Lisbon Tech Tour, SaaStock, Slush & TechChill. Give us a shout if youâre attending and want to grab a coffee!
What will 2023 bring? đź
While we donât have a crystal ball, we expect the subdued fundraising environment for early-stage startups to remain, especially in 1H2023. If inflation pressures continue to ease and China fully reopens (per current track), we could see some light at the end of the tunnel later in the year. Deals will still get done, but as investors tighten their purse strings and become more selective, fundraising timelines are likely to be protracted. Our message to founders â stay prudent and preserve runway, focus on positive unit economics and sustainable growth, and expect valuation multiples to adjust.
As long-term investors, we remain active in deploying capital throughout market cycles. We continue to back ambitious founders building industry-defining companies in fintech, B2B SaaS, digital health, climate tech, and Web3. If this sounds like you, and youâre looking for a late Seed-Series B investment, please get in touch!
