DealMakers: Entrepreneur | Startups | Venture Capital

Aengus Tran saw healthcare as a field where he could do something worthwhile, and really add value with his life and work. His startup has already raised over $100M as they transform medicine at scale. The company, Harrison. AI has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Horizons Ventures, Skip Capital, I-Med Network Technology, and Blackbird Ventures.

Carter Malloy decided to leave Silicon Valley when he launched his startup. A proptech venture that has already raised $80M in venture capital. The company, AcreTrader has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Drive Capital, RZC Investments, Narya Capital, and Anthemis Group.

Tanguy Touffut has gone from corporate to a startup entrepreneur. Raising many millions of dollars to grow a global company that helps others anticipate and protect against climate change risks. His venture, Descartes Underwriting has attracted financing from top-tier investors like Eurazeo, Serena, Cathay Innovation, and Seaya Ventures.

Matthew Stoudt’s latest startup has not only raised tens of millions of dollars in funding but hit Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2022. The venture, Applied VR has attracted investment from top-tier investors like Jazz Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, SVB Capital, and Sway Ventures.

Florian Wegener has now raised tens of millions of dollars to fuel the growth of his marketplace startup. His venture, Zageno has attracted funding from top-tier investors like General Catalyst, Grazia Equity, Capnamic Ventures, and HighSage Ventures.

Thomson Nguyen is now on his second tech startup. That’s after raising over $12M for his first venture which was acquired by Square. His latest venture, Nearside has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Kevin Hartz, Ryan Peterson, Valar Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.

Jeremy King’s tech startup has already raised over $100M on its journey to help equip B2C companies to speed up their own growth, and make intelligent, data-driven decisions. His venture has attracted financing from top-tier investors like GR Capital, Kismet Capital Group (KCG), New Enterprise Associates, and Social Capital Hedosophia.

Mina Nada ditched his law degree to find something more impactful in the real world. He’s turned his once side hustle into a fast-growing global business that has already attracted $100M in financing. His company, Zoomo has raised funding from top-tier investors like Collaborative Fund, WIND Ventures, Akuna Capital, and MUFG Innovation Partners.

Liz Giorgi got her feet wet bootstrapping her first company. After getting that business acquired she has gone on to launch a fast-growing venture-backed startup that has already raised tens of millions of dollars. Her latest company, Soona has attracted investment from top-tier financiers like Bain Capital Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Square Ventures, and Matchstick Ventures.

When former tennis player Ross Mackay found himself at a crossroads in his career he took on the challenge to change what we eat. Venturing out with just a couple thousand dollars in hand, he has built a startup that has already raised $125M, to take on a twelve-figure industry. His venture, Daring Foods has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Steve Aoki, Chase Coleman, Naomi Osaka, and D1 Capital Partners.

Arthur Waller is now on his second company. Having successfully exited his first startup, he has already raised a substantial amount of capital for his new fintech adventure. The company, PennyLane has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Partech, Sequoia Capital, Global Founders Capital, and Kima Ventures.

Now on his second startup, Adalberto Flores is credited with building the fastest micro-financing platform in the LATAM region. The venture Kueski has attracted funding from top-tier financiers like StepStone Group, K50 Ventures, Victory Park Capital, and OnePrime Capital.

Matthew Scullion got an early start in entrepreneurship. Even though he grew up far from Silicon Valley his latest company has raised hundreds of millions from top VCs. Now one of the first unicorn companies from his corner of the world, his venture serves fast-moving small businesses and global corporate giants alike. The venture, Matillion has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Scale Venture Partners, General Atlantic, Sapphire Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Bruce Lucas took his first startup from zero to being a billion-dollar public company. He has since raised more than $100M in funding for another venture. One which he sees as being recession-resistant. The company, Slide has attracted funding from top-tier investors in November 2021.

Hristo Borisov is on a mission to build the world’s biggest bank, without holding a single dollar. So far they’ve raised $240M, and have been growing incredibly fast. His venture, Payhawk has attracted funding from top-tier investors like QED Investors, HubSpot Ventures, Sprints Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Spenser Skates started flexing his skills as a tech entrepreneur when he was just 16 years old. He has since raised almost $300M for his latest venture, before taking it through an IPO. The startup, Amplitude has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Covenant Venture Capital, GIC, Institutional Venture Partners, and Battery Ventures.

Ryan Williams’ startup has not only raised substantial equity for his tech startup but has seen it invest in over $1B in assets. The venture, Cadre has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Harold Callais, Breyer Capital, Goldman Sachs Investment Partner, and Class 5 Global.

Sokratis Papafloratos is a serial entrepreneur who has started, built, and exited. His newest venture into digital health is his biggest and boldest yet. The venture, Numan has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Kreos Capital, Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Paul Heydon, and VNV Global.

Arvind Jain knows the value of hard work and conviction. His passion for creating a system that solves problems has led to him being the founder and mastermind behind brilliant applications such as Glean and Rubrik. Arvind took his passion for solving problems and thought about ways that he could help everyday people to improve their lives in different ways. Arvind learned early on that innovation must be coupled with determination and effort to create a successful business. So he started by pursuing his passions and interests in school and later took the tech world by storm when he decided to launch his own business. His venture Glean has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Slack Fund, Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Christine de Wendel kickstarted her fintech startup with a massive $24M Seed round. Followed by an even larger Series A fundraising round, just four months later. Her venture, Sundayapp has attracted the interest of top-tier investors like DST Global, Coatue, New Wave, and French Partners.

After years of growing some of the most well-known financial and technology brands, John Macllwaine decided to take the reins of the future with his own fintech startup. His company, Highnote has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Westcap, SVB Capital, Renaud Laplanche, and Costanoa Ventures.

Stefan Ytterborn started building companies when he was just 19 years old. He has now been at it for 30 years. He has launched, grown, funded, and exited. His first venture POC was acquired by Investcorp and his second startup, Cake Bikes, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like AMF, Creandum, and Headline.

Angus McDonald has gone from growing up on a rural farm, to operating a fast-growing global tech startup that has raised tens of millions of dollars in capital. The venture, Cover Genius has raised funding from top-tier investors like G Squared, Sompo Holdings, King River Capital, and Leap Capital.

Wei Gan has brought together hundreds of millions of dollars in both equity and credit facilities to scale his startup in an incredibly fast-growing market. The venture, Ribbon Home has raised funding from top-tier investors like Thomvest Ventures, NFX, Guy Gal, and Nyca Partners.

Serial entrepreneur Dheeraj Pandey has raised tens of millions of dollars for his latest tech startup. He took his first venture, Nutanix public, and has now moved on to DevRev. Top-tier investors like Mayfield Fund, Firebolt Ventures, Bradley Horowitz, and Khosla Ventures have funded the startup.

Kirat Singh’s startup is empowering the future of financial markets. They just put tens of millions of additional capital in the bank to fuel their growth too. His venture, Beacon has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Pimco and Blackstone.

David McFarland has raised tens of millions of dollars to improve the insurance industry, and in turn, empower brokers and their small business customers to survive and thrive. His venture, Coterie Insurance has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Weatherford Capital, Alpha Edison, Group 1001, and RPM Ventures.

Sam Hodges took his first startup all the way to IPO, after raising $370M in funding for it. His latest venture has already raised $160M to help other founders reduce risk. The venture, Funding Circle has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Waterfall Asset Management, DST Global, Rocket Internet, and Union Square Ventures.

Ali Albazaz has now raised nearly $100M for his new method of publishing that is rivaling the kindle. His venture Inkitt has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Stefan von Holtzbrinck, Redalpine, New Enterprise Associates, and Speedinvest.

Reed McGinley-Stempel is the cofounder and CEO of Stytch which improves security and user experience with passwordless authentication. The company has raised over $100 million from top tier investors such as Index Ventures, Benchmark, Coatue, Thrive Capital, and Contrary to name a few.

Ankur Rungta has started not one, but two companies. His venture into cannabis alone has raised over $100M. The venture C3 Industries has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Navy Capital, Madison Square Park Capital, and WelCan Capital.

Troy Pospisil is the cofounder and CEO of Ontra which is a provider of technology and services for contract automation and intelligence. The company has raised $250 million from investors like Battery Ventures and Blackstone Group.

Alasdair McLean-Foreman came to America with virtually nothing and has already started and sold two startups. He is now on his third. Alasdair's venture, Teikametrics has raised funding from top-tier investors like Granite Point Capital, Jump Capital, Centana Growth Partners, and Lydia Jett.

Eben Bayer appears to have struck on a truly remarkable solution for more environmentally friendly materials, with massive potential. His startup has already raised over $150M in capital from top-tier investors like Siam Capital, Viking Global Investors, Senator Investment Group, and Alpha Impact Investment Management Partners.

Sunil Paul is the cofounder and CEO of Spring Free EV which is a financial technology company built to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles through innovative fintech products. Prior to this he cofounded Brightmail Inc. which he sold for $370 million as well as Freeloader which he sold for $38 million five months after launching the business.

Cesar Jimenez raised a $60M pre-seed funding round for one of his startups. After the financial crisis of 2008, this entrepreneur vowed to keep on going, and currently operates two successful ventures.

Clayton Gardner has raised $75M in capital to modernize investing. His startup is already helping tens of thousands of individual investors diversify into new asset classes with ease. The venture, Titan has raised funding from top-tier investors like Will Smith, Jared Leto, Andreessen Horowitz, and Kevin Durant.

Duncan McIntyre is the founder and CEO of Highland Electric Transportation which is a comprehensive turnkey solutions provider that delivers electric school buses. The company has raised $250 million from investors like Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Fontinalis Partners, and Vision Ridge Capital Partners to name a few.

Mike Cataldo is now on his second healthcare startup. After a successful exit on his first venture, his new company is rolling out a whole line of new innovative products in the dental space. Convergent Dental raised funding from top-tier investors like George Gund Foundation, Arboretum Ventures, and LRV Health.

Raymond Nobu-Chang has had a series of highly successful startup launches and exits. That includes taking his first company public when he was just 29. The venture, LuckyPai has raised financing from top-tier investors like Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Tenaya Capital, DT Capital Partners, and Intel Capital. Raymond's next company, Agrify is also making waves having acquired three organizations like Precision Extraction Solutions, TriGrow, and Cascade Sciences.

Jim Cacioppo has experienced being on all sides of the table. Including investing in companies, starting and growing them, and acquiring them. His current venture has gone from launch to hundreds of millions in revenue and is becoming a public company in just a few years. Jushi Holdings has raised financing from top-tier investors like Graticule Asset Management Asia and Rockshield Capital.

Mark Hookey bootstrapped and took one startup through to an exit before raising tens of millions of dollars for his most recent company. A venture which is working to empower businesses to get better data, and be able to use it more efficiently and effectively. DeMyst Data has raised funding from top-tier investors like Notion Capital, Singtel Innov8, MissionOG, and SCB 10X.

Cosmo Feilding Mellen has been making huge strides in fueling the second psychedelic renaissance. This time with a professional pharmaceutical theme. His venture, Beckley Psytech has raised funding from top-tier investors like Leafy Tunnel, Palo Santo Fund, Delphi VC, and What If Ventures.

Marci Zaroff has had a string of startup successes. She has raised, launched, grown, and sold a variety of brands that enable us to live the change, eat the change, drink the change, be the change, and wear the change that we all wish to see in the world. Her venture Good Catch raised funding from top-tier investors like Big Idea Ventures, Clear Current Capital, Louis Dreyfus Company, and Unovis Asset Management. Marci has now moved on to her next startup, Eco Fashion Corp.

Allon Bloch is a repeat founder who has been with at least two ventures through going public so far. His newest venture has raised nearly $400M to disrupt and transform the third industry. K Health has successfully raised funding from top-tier investors like Kaiser Permanente, Counterpart Advisors, BoxGroup, and Valor Equity Partners.

Allison Barr Allen is the cofounder and COO of Fast which provides an online login and checkout solutions designed to provide users with a secure shopping experience. The company has raised over $100 million from top tier investors including Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, or Global Founders Capital to name a few.

Kevin Bennett has been on a mission to transform consumers’ financial relationships with their cars. His startup has already raised tens of millions of dollars from notable investors and is growing rapidly. The venture, Caribou has acquired financing from Moderne Ventures, Goldman Sachs, CMFG Ventures, and Link Ventures.

Anoop Gupta had his first startup acquired by Microsoft, just 18 months after launching. He has now raised nearly $200M for his current company. The venture, SeekOut has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Tiger Global Management, Madrona Venture Group, Mayfield Fund, and Founders Circle Capital.

Anand Janefalkar left corporate America to launch his first startup. It has already raised $100M and has become one of the fastest-growing ventures in its space on the way to transforming customer service. The venture, UJET has raised funding from top-tier investors like Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Citi Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and DCM.