Tech conferences Week
A roundup from VivaTech in Paris, London Tech Week and CogX Festival - and what it means for venture debt.
It's been a busy week with no fewer than three tech conferences hosted last week: VivaTech in Paris, London Tech Week, and CogX Festival in London as well.
The list of speakers between the events was extraordinary, from political grandees such as Hillary Clinton, Emmanuel Macron, Rishi Sunak to titans of industry such as Warren East (Rolls Royce) and Nicolas Hieronimus (l'Oreal) to, of course, several tech visionaries such as Evan Spiegel (Snap) or Bret Taylor (Salesforce).
Winter is Coming
Current market conditions dominated off-stage discussions, with most companies aware of recent warnings by VC firms such as Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator. On-stage there was relatively little reference to current market conditions, which may be because the agendas were set so far in advance, or because no-one wanted to talk about the elephant in the room.
VivaTech was the largest of the three events last week. The two talks we found most interesting were on Cybersecurity, which we feel remains one of the strongest growth areas in tech and will likely be the most insulated from the current downturn given world events; and Blockchain, in a discussion chaired by Maurice Levy with Vitalik Buterin (Founder Ethereum) and Changpeng Zhao (Founder Binance). Vitalik seemed less than convinced about the future of blockchain as a tool for monetary exchange, and more focused on its other potential applications (privacy, identity, etc).
The London Tech Week mood was probably the most upbeat, with subjects ranging from skill shortages to sustainability. For us, the most interesting events were the fringe ones, where companies discussed more "hands-on" matters, such as how to protect and value your IP.
"What is the point of crypto?" - Michael Jackson, Fabric VC
Presenters and attendees at CogX, which probably had the largest Blockchain focus, were the most upfront about asking where things go from here. The question of "what is the point of crypto" was asked repeatedly but still not answered. More than a decade after the blockchain was invented, this just isn't good enough. We therefore remain very cautious on crypto and will remain so until this question is answered.
What does this all mean for venture debt? Demand has skyrocketed since VC is harder to find, but of course the risk has as well. Over the next few blogs we will explore start-up valuations and raising money in the current environment, venture debt supply and demand, and what to do when things go wrong.