Pitchbook reports Didi could be raising the largest VC round in history, except the money is largely set to come from Softbank, who do not operate a VC fund. They do have the infamous $100 billion “vision fund” but as Axios discovered this is structured to be more of a PE fund than a VC one. Regardless of semantics, it’s interesting that potentially the largest equity venture investment in history wouldn’t come from traditional VCs, especially when you consider the other likely participants will be Apple and Tencent.

Could Principals and Associates be a thing of the past? InReach Ventures believes they are redundant now that they have built DIG, an AI to find top European companies to invest in, by “aggregating the exploding mass of data that people and organisations leave behind and structuring it into prioritised, qualified deal-flow” InReach Ventures: The Gate Is Open

The top accelerators are already experimenting with virtual programmes, will we see the next generation of accelerators follow suit, as the market continues to feel saturated? The New Virtual Accelerator

VCs acting as LPs as Foundry Group (Next) invests in Founder Collective Kindred Spirits — Our Investment In Founder Collective

Kirsten Green had only dabbled in investing in start-ups before she began a venture capital fund in 2012, now after successful exits from early investments into Jet and Dollar Shave Club, she is now considered one of the best VCs in the World. Great profile piece demonstrating that it is possible for newcomers to make a BIG impact in the VC industry A Rare Venture Capitalist — Female and Retail-Focused

Cleantech is seeking a VC revival after the solar power flop in the 2000s Cleantech Rebrands as ‘Smart City’ to Attract Venture Dollars

There are two foundational technology changes rolling through the car industry at the moment (electric and autonomy), Ben Evans looks at the second order of these technological changes Cars and second order consequences

And in a similar vein, CB Insights highlights 21 Industries other than auto that driverless cars could turn upside down

Peter Levine believes that The next multibillion-dollar tech market was quietly born this year = Edge computing

There’s been a lot of discussion around different types/structuring of financing recently, with convertible notes particularly coming under fire. The real issue is, is that each venture case is unique, meaning it can be hard to apply the same terms from one deal to another with any consistency, and maybe “one size fits all” is not the best option. One thing’s for sure though, this debate looks set to rage on for a while If not convertible notes/SAFEs/term loans… then what?

Strong introduction to Blockchain from Wendy Xiao Schadeck, a VC at Northzone What is blockchain, really? (An intro for regular people)

Christian Claussen of Ventech asks Are European VCs too risk averse?

A LOT of resource and capital is going into Silicon Valley’s quest to live forever

Good example/reminder to keep your investment thesis flexible (as well as some excellent marketplaces insight) Investing and building marketplaces

Tech stocks in Europe have risen nearly 12 percent in the first quarter, outstripping the broader market Investors bet on a quiet tech revolution in Europe

Subscriber Yannick Roux took a look at the relative odds of making it through funding rounds for European accelerator alumni Graduation Rates for Accelerated Startups

STRONG report from Cambridge Associates challenging the notion that 90% of venture industry performance is generated by just the top ten firms Venture Capital Disrupts Itself: Breaking the Concentration Curse

Andrew Parker lays out how to build a pro forma cap table model in a way that does not reference upon itself Deterministic Unissued Options Pool Calculations

The New York Times and CB Insights reveal The Top 100 Venture Capitalists (Note: There was practically no one from Europe and only 5 women included. I’d expect this or at least the methodology to change in future years)

Sapphire Ventures argue that there are three main things that can help smooth the road ahead of a public listing The Anatomy Of A Successful IPO

“What’s a risk you’re more comfortable with than the average VC?” A Question About Risk That Founders Forget to Ask VCs

Thank you to everyone for your continued feedback, I really do enjoy hearing from all of those of you who hit reply/reach out and would encourage more of you to do so ~> neil@thenordicweb.com or @neilswmurray

And if you made it this far, then you really should head over to Product Hunt next 🙏🏻