EP #357 - Sophie Lamparter: Fundraising in 2023

About Sophie Lamparter:

⁠Sophie Lamparter⁠ is the co-founder of ⁠DART Labs⁠, an international fund investing in early stage Swiss climate and health tech startups to accelerate them on the US market. She holds a degree in Communication and Media Studies from ZHAW.

During this episode with us she discussed the current fundraising environment, which is looking very much like an uphill battle not only at the Swiss level but worldwide. There’s less capital available, investors are favoring caution, and companies are doing bridge rounds, because they’re not quite ready for the next round. But Sophie thinks we would do well to remember the time scale at hand: the average fund duration is 10 years, as is the average founder journey — by comparison, a rough 2023 is just a blip in the startup universe. In fact, Sophie argues that now is the smart time to invest, since valuations are down and we know from past startup history that the best companies are forged during crises.

In 2022, the industry which received the most investment in Switzerland was fintech, closely followed by climatetech. Sophie and DART Labs are placing their bets on climatetech in 2023 for several reasons:

• In 2025 wind and solar energy will become cheaper to produce in the US than coal: climatetech ventures are starting to make financial sense, and not just environmental sense;
• Climatetech companies are now maturing, like the famous Swiss example, Climeworks;
• There are more and more impact/climatetech funds coming up;
• Climatetech events are being hosted in New York and San Francisco;
• Most of us have now experienced the negative consequences of climate change personally.

DART Labs is currently raising USD 20M, and is still considered an emerging fund. Their investment strategy is health and climatetech early stage Swiss companies looking to enter the US market. Whether you are an investor looking to finance DART, or a startup aiming to be financed by DART, click the link above to head to their website and find out more.

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