Your Window Into the Innovation Economy

Significant startup activity is no longer confined to Silicon Valley and New York City. Whereas in 2013, only four major startup ecosystems were responsible for producing billion-dollar exits, by 2019, that number had jumped to more than 80 ecosystems across the globe. Yet, while companies are becoming increasingly international, banking solutions remain local and country-specific. As a result, there is an increasing demand for better worldwide banking and payment access.

We’re pleased to welcome Naren Ramaswamy as a Senior Associate for Spike Ventures, Alumni Ventures’ fund for Stanford alumni and friends of the community. Naren combines a technical engineering background with experience at startups and VC firms. Read more about his background and why he decided to join AV.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a booming industry, with the world rapidly moving to adopt AI after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — 52% of companies accelerated their AI adoption plans due to the crisis. As we start to move toward a post-COVID world, AI will continue to become more ingrained in our smartphones, fraud detection systems, healthcare technologies, and more.

When Alumni Ventures (AV) portfolio companies get recognized for their hard work, it’s worth celebrating. Especially when it comes to how these companies grow and capture their markets.

Welcome to One Startup to Know. This series examines some of Alumni Venture’s most impactful and innovative portfolio companies that exemplify the AV investment ethos. Today we feature Synthesis, an online learning experience that encourages creative problem solving and teamwork.

Alumni Ventures portfolio company American Gene Technologies (AGT) is developing and commercializing genetic medicines targeting major diseases, including HIV/AIDS, phenylketonuria, and hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer, or HCC). AGT’s drugs will treat symptomatic disease with the intent to provide durable cures that extend the length and improve the quality of patients’ lives.

Living in 2022 means living in a state of a heightened online security posture — both for financial firms like Alumni Ventures and for our community members. Online threats have increased in recent years, and currently, government agencies have specifically asked financial services institutions to operate in a state of alertness given the war in Ukraine and potential for cyberthreats.

Centivo is one of the many innovative healthtech companies in Alumni Ventures’ portfolio and reflects our interest in and ability to connect with healthtech startups showing significant growth potential. Healthech has been a very active venture sector, with a 280% increase in global healthtech funding since 2016, reaching a record $39.7 billion across 1,186 deals in 2021.