Capital Raising- Big & Small

Author

Matt Ober
May 03, 2025

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Lots of investment rounds are getting done so far this year. The valuations and round sizes are all over the map!

We saw a big raise of $152m by Altruist to continue to build a custodian to compete with $SCHW ( ▲ 1.96% ) . This was a big announcement in the wealthtech space as Altruist continues to raise money to build a custodian to take on the incumbents.

Across the Social leverage portfolio, we are seeing many of our seed companies successfully raising follow-on money from Ribbon.ai to a few of our fintechs that plan to announce in the coming weeks, to more broadly across our portfolio. Alpaca being one of our companies that just completed their Series C is continuing to see rapid growth. For the growing companies, with consistent KPI’s, a good story, and a good vision, there is capital.

As we begin to deploy our Fund V, we have made our first investment in SlashExperts.com 

One thing I am seeing is many founders quoting Carta numbers. The state of the market reports. Why are you raising at XYZ valuation? Because that’s the average round size and valuation on Carta. That type of thinking drives me crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I love the reports on Carta, but Carta numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt. They include companies from every geography within the US, in every category, and is the worst reason for why you are justifying the valuation you are after. The best way to go about raising is letting the market and demand determine the valuation and focusing on getting the right investors. The investors that can be helpful, understand your business, and are the people you want to work with for the next 10+ years.

Raising money is tough. Building a company is tough. Finding the right partners and investors should be your top focus when raising capital. Focus less on valuation and more on who you want to have in your corner when things get tough. Who can open up doors, and who has the track record of success?

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