Yay!Starter June 2022 Events
In June, we attended a mix of online and in-person events in the venture capital, SaaS, and EdTech sector. Namely, we attended Summer SaaS, BVCA High Growth 2022: Accelerate, and London EdTech week!
Summer SaaS
First off this month was Summer SaaS, an online event with venture capital firms and tech startups from Emerging Europe and Israel.
With over 20+ investors and 25 startups, SummarSaaS offered fierce pitch competitions across 5 tracks, as well as interesting panel discussions. Venture capital firms attending the event included EBRD Venture Capital, Speedinvest, Flashpoint VC, Inventure, and many more.
The event took place on the 9th of June and lasted the whole day. SummerSaaS used to be a pitching competition back in 2020, however the event has evolved since then.
There were 9 panel discussions during the day and every panel had participants from the biggest venture capital firms present. Discussions were centered around the role of startups from Emerging Europe and Israel, and the future of SaaS. Critical discussions explored the underrepresentation of venture debt in central and eastern Europe. Lastly, there were many conversations aimed at nurturing the startup scene in emerging Europe through venture capital.
Pitch competition was held in a total of 5 categories which included vertical Saas, horizontal Saas developer tool, fintech, and new economy. There was also a special track for Ukrainian startups. As part of the audience, these pitch competitions gave us an insight into the emerging trends in FinTech as well as great networking opportunities.
Over the course of the day, we connected with start up founders, other attendees, and venture capitalists. You never know, we may have spoken to the next unicorn in the FinTech industry!
BVCA High Growth 2022: Accelerate!
Our second event this month was the BVCA High Growth 2022: Accelerate! This is the UK’s leading event for growth stage companies partnering with venture and growth capital to scale and accelerate businesses.
This year, the event returned to being in-person and was held in one of London's most stunning locations, The Ham Yard Hotel in Soho.
We attended day two of the event which was focused on late-stage venture and growth capital. There was a vast variety of panel discussions and in-depth presentations led by senior business leaders, innovative entrepreneurs, and experienced investors.
This innovative setting sparked a lot of interesting conversations and there were over 250 venture capital, growth, and private equity investors to build connections with.
The event was very impressive and provided us with first-hand insight into the world of venture capital. It was interesting to experience this event from the point of view of a digital marketing agency that largely works with startups between seed and Series A funding rounds.
London EdTech week
The third event we attended in June was London EdTech Week. This is a week-long celebration featuring 30+ event hosts showcasing the Now & Next of the future of learning and work.
London EdTech is a week-long series of events hosted by different members of the Edtech community. With over 5000 expected attendees, this is one of the hottest events in the EdTech Space!
There is a huge variety of presentations, workshops, and discussions at EdTech week. Out of the 30+ events on offer, two stood out to us the most.
The first session we attended was on Developing Disruptive Deep Tech from Ideation to Market Launch.
This session explored how EdTech founders can reduce their incubation to market release cycle, without losing the innovation and pedagogical value of their product. It also discussed ways to accelerate software development and the impact of disruptive depth on learning experiences.
We particularly enjoyed our second session- a panel discussion on how Educare brings together European EdTech investors.
Within the EdTech space, funding is set to grow to $87B by 2030 as EdTech startups continue to develop and become more sophisticated. However, getting access to funding remains a major challenge for a large number of EdTech entrepreneurs.
To address this issue, the panel explored alternative funding opportunities beyond the traditional strategies employed to engage angel investors, VCs, and institutional investors.
It was a very insightful session with a lot of audience engagement. Our key takeaway is that there is still a lot of funding in the EdTech space, despite the recession.
According to the investors present in the room, there are 5 key things to consider when applying for funding as an EdTech Business:
- Having a strong team
- Presenting healthy metrics (which, of course, will be different for every startup!)
- Market opportunities at hand
- A strong product market fit
Overall, June was very exciting from an events point of view. We hope you have enjoyed the insights we’ve shared with you!
