Allied Venture Partners

Hello Partners,

As a current or prospective partner, this newsletter provides exclusive insights into our investment strategy, portfolio companies, and industry trends.

Thank you again for your continued trust and support,

Matt Wilson, MBA

Founder & Managing Director | Allied Venture Partners

Team Updates

• Our core team, including Steve, Melinda, Brendan, and Colton, is finalized.

• The Scout and Advisory programs continue to expand with several new members each week, providing quality diversified deal flow from across Canada and the United States.

New Deals

• We closed our investment in Trace – the developer platform for the Apple Vision Pro headset. Thank you to all those who participated in this exciting opportunity.

• Innerlogic officially joined Boston Techstars this month. We have an exclusive pre-demo-day allocation on the same terms as Techstars, so please confirm your investment ASAP.

• Our Vint pro-rata allocation is filling quickly. This is our third time investing in the company, which is on pace to triple revenue year-over-year for a fourth consecutive year.

Portfolio News

• Rook had another excellent month in January, closing yet another enterprise client and reducing the onboarding time to ten days.

• I’m traveling to Sydney later this month to meet with our portfolio company, Tiliter, several partners, and LPs. If you are in Sydney and want to join our exclusive LP Happy Hour, please let me know, and I’ll include you on the guest list.

Industry Insights

The venture market continues showing signs of recovery, with investment dollars gradually returning to the early-stage ecosystem. However, I expect the pace of recovery to be slow throughout 2024 as investors await the outcomes of several highly anticipated IPOs, notably Reddit, Stripe, Discord, Chime, Turo, and Plaid.

These high-profile IPOs have the potential to provide much-needed liquidity for limited partners, reigniting the startup funding cycle. If successful, these IPOs should encourage LPs to reinvest their proceeds into new VC funds, thereby increasing the available capital for startup founders.

However, the upcoming US presidential election is a wildcard that could introduce uncertainty and potentially make investors more cautious. Although public markets tend to perform well during election years, political and economic instability can often lead to a risk-off sentiment, potentially slowing the flow of capital into the venture market until after the election.

Despite these challenges, I’m seeing many encouraging signs of a gradual market recovery. As the year progresses, I anticipate more investment dollars flowing back into the startup ecosystem, albeit at a measured pace. The success of these highly anticipated IPOs will play a crucial role in determining the trajectory and momentum of this recovery.

Overall, I remain optimistic about the VC industry's long-term prospects as innovative startups continue to disrupt established industries and create new opportunities for growth, particularly by leveraging AI.

However, prudent risk management and a balanced approach will be essential for navigating the uncertainties of the current market environment. I am committed to achieving my deployment target of 4-6 new companies each year. As of Q1’24, we have added two new investments and one follow-on investment.

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