The Nexit annual VC review – Highlights from 2023

March 12, 2024

As the calendar turns, so do the gears of venture capital. The data and analyses from 2023 have crystallized, revealing intriguing patterns. In keeping with our annual ritual, we’ve delved into the VC statistics and some related innovation ecosystem reports (you’ll find the list at the end of this article) and distilled the essence for […]

The Hottest VC Trends of 2022: Our Predictions

April 7, 2022

In our previous blog post, we looked at global Venture Capital investment and exit trends in 2021. Now it’s time to make some predictions for 2022 and beyond. This time around, our crystal ball is clouded by fast-rising inflation, tightening fiscal policy of the central banks, and the hard-to-predict military aggression of Russia: The scope […]

The Hottest VC Trends of 2022: Numbers from 2021

March 8, 2022

Well, it is that time of the year again: numbers and studies about the VC trends and market in 2021 are now mostly available. Adhering to our tradition, we have read the reports (see list of the reports at the end of this post) and done the heavy lifting for you: Picked some interesting notes […]

Aava Mobile – One More Activist Exit

September 3, 2021

We are proud to announce our latest activist exit: Aava Mobile has been acquired by the German electronics and sensor design group Pepperl+Fuchs. While we have agreed with the purchaser that the exact details of the deal are not disclosed, we can say the exit was a good one with over 4X return on capital […]

Activist VC Glossary – VC jargon explained

July 2, 2021

This is the Summer 2021 edition of our popular Activist VC glossary. It has all the goodies from the previous editions, a bunch of new terms, and more examples and links to blog posts and other resources that give practical examples of the terms. As always, should you come across any terms you think are […]

The ICO Is Dead. Long Live Blockchain! Part 2

April 13, 2021

In the previous blog post, we went through some blockchain basics and had a look at Cryptocurrencies with questions like: What are the key features of cryptocurrencies? Bitcoin as a store of value – was it stable when Covid-19 hit? Ethereum, Tether, Ripple – how they differ from Bitcoin? Now we will focus on some […]

The ICO Is Dead. Long live Blockchain! Part 1

March 25, 2021

A year ago, we reported that the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) bubble had burst – just as we had predicted already in 2018. This was pretty easy to foresee, even though we did get a bit of hate mail from ICO fanatics along the way. The ICO bubble grew to a significant size before it […]

The Hottest VC Trends of 2021: Our Predictions

March 12, 2021

In our previous blog post, we looked at general VC activity and exit trends in 2020. Now we make some bold predictions for 2021 and beyond. Inspecting Our Previous Predictions Let’s start with a little bit of introspection (or, self-flagellation, if you will) and assess our predictions from our last year’s edition of this blog: […]

The Hottest VC Trends of 2021: Numbers from 2020

February 25, 2021

Numbers and studies about the state of the VC and technology growth market in 2020 are coming out at a fast pace and, adhering to tradition, we have again looked at reams of data and we’ve done some of the heavy lifting for you. We’ve: Compiled some of the most interesting numbers Added some of […]

Investing after Covid – growth investor playbook

October 14, 2020

In this installment of the Activist VC blog, we will take a look at the effects of Covid-19 on the investment landscape and where we at Nexit see opportunities going forward. The evolving investor landscape After the Covid-19 pandemic hit with full force, I was worried about the markets crashing. I was wrong. The unprecedented […]

How to save the startup and VC ecosystem?

March 25, 2020

In our previous blog post, we mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic (which, of course, was not a pandemic back then) as a macro threat that may disrupt the venture and startup ecosystem. Unfortunately, we were right to a degree we could not really imagine. However, there have been startup and VC crises before. In this blog […]

The Hottest VC Trends of 2020: Predictions

March 6, 2020

In our previous blog post, we looked at general VC activity and exit trends in 2019. This week we draw some conclusions and make some bold predictions for 2020 and beyond. We will also review our predictions from our last year’s edition of this blog: how we did in retrospect. VC in General Last year […]

The Hottest VC Trends of 2020: Numbers from 2019

February 21, 2020

Similarly to last year, we have spent the early part of this year reviewing a ton of VC and startup related reports, studies, and numbers, and: Compiled some of the most interesting numbers Added some of our conclusions and predictions To keep the length and reading time of this post manageable, we have divided it […]

Entering the US: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

January 27, 2020

This third and final entry (see the earlier entries here and here) in our three-part series goes through some of the critical drivers of US market entry and gives some advice as to when you should consider making the leap and when not. Strategy First The question of whether or not to invest in entering […]

Entering the US: Keep your focus laser-sharp

December 20, 2019

This second entry (see the first part here) in our three-part series sharing some practical advice for tech startups considering a US market entry deals with the necessity of having a razor-sharp focus when first starting in the US market. It’s a huge jungle out there The US economy is ~80x the size of the […]

Entering the US: West Coast or East Coast?

September 25, 2019

This is the first post in a three-part series sharing some practical advice for tech startups considering a US market entry: Entering the US part 1: West Coast, East Coast or in between? Entering the US part 2: Why a razor-sharp focus is a necessity? Entering the US part 3: Should I go or should […]

Internet – What’s Up, Part 2

June 28, 2019

Last week, we presented the first part of our analysis of Mary Meeker’s rather voluminous 2019 Internet Trend Report and promised that we would follow up with some findings and our takeaways. So, without further ado, here’s Part Two. Banking in an Upheaval Consumer banking is being transformed by new entrants that operate without the […]

Internet – What’s up?

June 19, 2019

The noted US-based venture capitalist Mary Meeker is rightfully considered one of the brightest minds in tech. Her annual Internet Trend Reports are exciting and essential reading, but they have one slight drawback: they are very long. The 2019 edition published a few days ago is no exception: it consists of no less than 333 […]

The hottest VC trends of 2019

March 18, 2019

One of our most popular posts last year was our review of the hottest VC trends of 2018. So, without further ado, here is an updated version for 2019. Similarly to last year, we reviewed a ton of VC and startup related reports and studies and: 1. Compiled some of the most interesting trends 2. […]

The Ekahau story

February 22, 2019

One of our portfolio companies, Ekahau, was acquired last fall by Ookla, the global leader in internet testing, data, and analysis. We thought that now, when the dust has settled a little bit, is the right time to take a bit more comprehensive look at the history of Ekahau and how we applied the Activist VC […]

A Senior Facebook Executive Joins Nexit

February 1, 2019

We’ve often talked about the importance of having several experienced partners with complementary skill sets and how that kind of resourcing is one of the key aspects of our Activist VC approach. Well, we’ve done something about this. Practicing what we preach With this in mind, we are especially proud to announce that Mr. Markku Mäkeläinen has […]

Is the ICO Fever Over?

January 10, 2019

When we last looked at the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) scene in May 2018, the market had just hit a new monthly USD 7 Billion all-time high (please see the note at the end of the post). There were some fraudulent offerings and other warning signs, but the ICO fever was raging. Even the strong Bitcoin price correction […]

The Globalization of VC Activity

December 6, 2018

While the eyes of the startup world are still on Helsinki after the tech love fest that is Slush, it might be the right time to look at what is happening in the global VC scene and how it is progressing. As we reported earlier, the VC business in Europe is catching up with the […]

The Transatlantic Bridge: how to succeed in the US

November 8, 2018

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you are likely to know that the two key principles of Nexit investment strategy and operational model are: The Activist VC methodology and The Transatlantic Bridge This blog post is about the Transatlantic Bridge. Why go to the US? The US is by far the most important […]

The Danger of M&A Imbalance

October 26, 2018

This week we continue analyzing the recent startup M&A study by our friends at Mind the Bridge. Now we focus on the tech startup M&A balance in different geographies. The Great Importance of Tech Startups In the US, tech startups have made a major impact on the economy. Out of the Fortune 500 companies in […]

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