Version One

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Announcing Jobber’s $100m Series D: building a company for the long-term in an era of start-up hyper-growth - Version One

Over the last few years, the start-up market has focused almost exclusively on hyper-growth, quick valuation increases, raising large amounts of capital, and trying to take companies public in a premature way (SPACs). Building a generational company systematically for the long-term has almost completely gone out of fashion. In this context, it’s remarkable to see […]

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The marketplace’s role in the circular economy - Version One

Since sharing an update on our areas of interest in climate and energy, we received a lot of feedback and met some great startups. Many of these discussions have centered around the circular economy. Upon reflection, it’s clear that there is synergy between the circular economy and our longstanding focus on marketplaces with their network […]

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An update on our climate & energy areas of focus - Version One

Eighteen months have passed since I wrote about Version One’s areas of interest in climate and energy… it’s hard to believe how quickly time flies. Since then, the space has only heated up (bad pun, I know) with more startups building and even more venture capital available to scale them. Now the newly passed Inflation […]

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Announcing our investment in Scanwell Health: making healthcare more accessible with accurate, at-home medical testing - Version One

Last week, I shared that I am looking for opportunities in femtech, and in the post, I wrote: In the future (and we’re starting to see this happen now), tests will be taken in the home with results delivered immediately: imagine something like a pregnancy test or glucose test strip in the home but to diagnose […]

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Announcing our investment in Remio, connecting business teams in VR - Version One

We don’t need to tell anyone how much Covid has changed the workplace. The pandemic fast-tracked existing trends in remote work. And even as some companies have returned to the office, there’s little question that distributed work is here to stay. The advantages of distributed teams are compelling – for example, companies can hire talent […]

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2021: The Version One year in review - Version One

2021 might be remembered as the year the world started to fully embrace the opportunity that the technology sector has to offer… Start-up funding hit an all-time high as did fundraising for new VC funds (coincidentally, we also raised two new funds for a total of $100m in fresh capital). Round sizes increased significantly across […]

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The Energy Revolution is (Finally) Here - Version One

It’s been exciting to see so much renewed investor interest in climate tech and clean energy startups. As Peter Thiel documented in detail, the last wave of late 2000s cleantech VC excitement ended in a trough of despair as many of the more well-funded companies went bust (with the notable exception of a few big […]

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Announcing our investment in EnergyBank, a pioneer in long-term energy storage - Version One

As our planet is grappling with a climate crisis and dependence on fossil fuels, we are investing more and more in climate and energy. In less than two years, we’ve led the pre-seed/seed rounds of five companies: EnPowered, Patch, NCX, one yet to be publicized, and now EnergyBank. And we are excited to spread the […]

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Areas of interest in climate & energy - Version One

Over the past 18 months, we’ve been increasingly focused on investing in climate and energy startups. Public awareness about sustainability and climate change is at an all-time high. There are strong tailwinds on the renewable energy front as Max discussed this summer: the cost of solar is falling off a cliff; storage and EVs are […]

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Announcing our investment in Dolly, a peer-to-peer marketplace for on-demand moving and retail delivery - Version One

We are excited to announce our investment in Dolly, where we participated in a $7.5M funding round alongside Unlock Venture Partners and Maveron. Like other peer-to-peer marketplaces, Dolly connects people in need of services with people who are ready to provide them. Dolly’s app connects individuals and businesses with local truck owners (“helpers”) to […]