[ad_1]
A 24-year-old law school dropout from southwest London founded a popular podcast about technology investment in his teens and has raised $140 million in new funds to support start-ups.
Harry Stebbings has received investment from MIT and Rothschild-backed RIT Capital Partners, as well as the founders and early supporters of Spotify, Calm, and Atlassian for his 20VC fund.
Several Stebbings investors appeared on his podcast, 20 Minute Venture CapitalSince he started at the age of 18 in 2015, hundreds of episodes have been released. In the second year, he dropped out of law school to focus on podcasting full-time, and then started investing in 2017 at the age of 20.
“When you look to the next 10 years, we will see this divergence, the media and venture capital collide with each other,” Stebbins said, as venture capitalists enter the hottest startups and become more and more competitive.
He pointed out that Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz is another example of how venture capitalists can build their own content platforms, allowing them to bypass traditional media and build an image that can attract entrepreneurs.
After raising an initial fund of US$8.3 million in April 2020, Stebbings invested in startups including audio social network Clubhouse and virtual event service Hopin, both of which are valued in the billions of dollars.Founder of Heping Johnny Bufahart Also an investor in 20VC.
A series of social media influencers are trying to use their online profiles to become investors, including YouTube anchors Jack Paul and Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, and TikTok star Josh Richards.
But few people can raise so much money as quickly as Stebbins, who grew up in Fulham, southwest London.
His father was a stockbroker, and his mother had multiple sclerosis; the podcast was originally to help her pay for medical expenses and establish connections in the technology industry.
“Podcasting is my signature,” Stebbins said. “Creating content is easier than ever, but creating a brand is more difficult than ever… After all, distribution is everything.”
20VC is the latest example of the influx of capital into the European technology industry. Just last week, Balderton launched a $680 million growth fund, and Draper Esprit announced plans to raise an additional £111 million from investors.
According to the investment tracking agency Dealroom.co, the venture capital funds of European technology companies reached 38.9 billion euros last year, but it has exceeded the investment in 2021 and has invested 48.1 billion euros so far.
Stebbings admitted that he was “a little bit” worried that the private technology market was “really hot,” but pointed out that the trillion-dollar valuations of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet proved that the return on gambling may be greater than it used to be.
Among the supporters of Stebbings, Shakil Khan has invested in start-ups founded by young British entrepreneurs James Pride with Nick Daloisio.
“Since he recorded the first episode of Twenty Minutes Venture Capital in his mother’s kitchen six years ago, I’ve always believed in him,” along with the CEO of Spotify, is the co-founder of the 1 billion euro investment company Prima Materia Khan says Daniel Eck
20VC will operate two funds, of which 33 million U.S. dollars will be used for early investment and 107 million U.S. dollars will be used for transactions with more mature technology companies.
But Stebbing insists that there is a “complete boundary” between podcasting and his investment.
“In terms of content quality, we can never muddle the water. Just because I invested in your company, he said, it doesn’t mean that we feature you in the podcast.
[ad_2]
Source link
