Pitchbook

Private market investors are turning defensive.

Investors are riding out the coronavirus outbreak with a wait-and-see stance, but a significant portion of them already are expecting to scale back their bets this year, according to a survey by PitchBook.

Richmond Inno

The Richmond area had a knock-out year for innovation, including a $13 million round of funding for a local startup at the end of 2019 and the $117.5 million acquisition of a Charlottesville-based IT company.

New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist at Union Square Ventures, recently published a blog post titled “The Great Public Market Reckoning.” In it, he argued that the narrative that had driven start-up hype and valuations for the last decade was now falling apart.

WCCFTech

The 10x return is the golden rule of thumb for investors. While the obsession with this exact number might be the fodder for memes, the reality is on paper this number is something of a necessity given the inherent riskiness of the nature of technology investing.

TechCrunch

When it comes to big business, the numbers rarely lie, and the ones PitchBook and other sources have pulled together on the state of seed investing aren’t pretty. The total number of seed deals, funds raised and dollars invested in seed deals were all down in the 2015-2018 time frame, a period too long to be considered a correctable glitch.

CNBC
"In a year marked by historic economic development deals and marred by a damaging trade war, Virginia lands at the top of CNBC’s 2019 ranking of America’s Top States for Business."

Axios
"Two decades ago, consumers made a bargain — we traded our data in exchange for using 'free' sites like Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube and Twitter. Warner says he wants consumers to be more informed about the real value of what they give up in the form of, for example, location data, relationship status, data about the apps we use, our age, gender and lifestyle."

CNBC

"GE Ventures is looking for a buyer for its portfolio of more than 100 start-ups, according to people familiar with the matter, as parent company General Electric tries to orchestrate a turnaround and get its debt problem under control."

Ad Age

"Unilever, SC Johnson and P&G have been particularly aggressive buyers in recent years, all to heighten their appeal to millennial and Gen Z shoppers, who tend to care about avoiding synthetic ingredients and chemicals deemed hazardous. But while big CPG players largely dominate natural aisles of stores, their ownership of the products or the role they play in the natural-goods industry is often invisible to consumers."

RICHMONDINNO

“[Richmond] now has a reputation as a foodie town,” said Scott Ukrop, partner at local VC firm NRV. “And with the national trend towards clean ingredient, better-for-you foods, there’s an opportunity to develop more brands and food products along the lines of Health Warrior.”

AgFunder News

"Taking the time to review what came to pass and what the future may hold within the food and agriculture sector helps to set the tone for the New Year."

Crunchbase

"There are always exceptions to the rule, sure – but launching a real business and successfully running it over the long haul are completely different jobs. They require different skill-sets and demand different kinds of leadership."

Food Navigator- USA

"Food and beverage products that communicate a clear functional health benefit, sustainability story, explore alternative protein sources, or leverage technology to shorten the distance between a recipe and finished meal, are just some of the trends to watch out for in 2019 and beyond, according to Tyson Trendtellers Council."

Laura Markley

Read as NRV's Director of Investments, Laura Markley, delves into the trends in the sizes of venture capital deals, and the outlook for 2018.