Olive Capital

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Outstanding post by Ashley Smith at Vermillion Cliffs: "A $5M check into a $40M post-money valuation for a company that is eight weeks old, with pilots that haven’t had time to churn or stick, is a different financial instrument than what we used to call a seed round. The label is the same. The risk profile is completely different. For the big funds writing scout style checks into 10-20 party rounds each cycle, totally makes sense. For YC’s LPs that get exposure to the 2-3 outliers per cycle, totally makes sense. For funds like mine? It’s getting harder to manage that risk. The founders this batch were exceptional. The why behind the companies were exceptional. It is still a hard check to write if you’re a small early stage fund." https://buff.ly/4hpABwF

Olive Capital quoted in Bilan this month.

Going this coming Th. 26/3 to the opening of the Lausanne Chapter Kick-Off of the "Agent Economy Association", led by Nilson Kufus luma.com/w1713cmj One of the 3 pillars of our thesis "pre-seed everyday finance" at Olive Capital. Will you be there? Let's meet. Ping .Raphael G.

Looking to raise capital in Switzerland? I’m launching a weekly series covering investment funds with Swiss roots that actively invest in startups across multiple markets. This week’s focus: Canton of Geneva, a major center for early and growth-stage investing. ACE Ventures - Seed to Series A | AI, B2B SaaS, cleantech, fintech FONGIT - Pre-seed | Early-stage innovation and startup incubation BlueOcean Ventures - Pre-seed to Series A | Biotech, medtech, enterprise software Rosebrook - Seed to Series B | Cleantech and energy transition Calvin Capital - Pre-seed to Series A | B2B SaaS, blockchain, Web3 Seedstars International Ventures - Pre-seed to Series A | B2B SaaS, fintech, marketplaces Climb Ventures - Series B+ | B2B SaaS, consumer, cleantech, deeptech, healthtech DAA Ventures - Seed to Series A | AI/ML, robotics, cleantech, B2B SaaS Forestay Capital - Series A to B | B2B SaaS scale-ups NGP Capital - Series A to growth | Industrial tech and deeptech OakStart Ventures - Pre-seed to Series A | Broad early-stage focus Olive Capital - Pre-seed | Web3 and emerging digital models Qualcomm Ventures - Series A to growth | AI, automotive, IoT and connectivity EFI Lake Geneva Ventures - Seed to Series A | Generalist across tech and innovation Zebra Impact Ventures - Series A to growth | Foodtech and agtech with impact Volta Circle - Series A | Sustainability and climate-focused ventures Know other Swiss-based funds investing in startups that should be on the list? Add them in the comments.

The other day, I talked to a prospective LP who had a strong misconception about minimum ticket sizes to become an LP in VC funds.. In venture capital, the assumption that LP commitments must start at €250k or higher often comes from how larger funds are structured. In micro pre‑seed funds, this logic shifts. A €10M vehicle typically runs on lean management fees, and low overhead. Within that structure, a €50k ticket can represent 0.5–1% of the fund, a meaningful share that integrates cleanly into the economics. Smaller minimums don’t imply less professionalism. They reflect the capital intensity of the strategy and the fund’s design choices. There is no operational reason a €50k LP can’t sit alongside larger investors if reporting, capital calls, and governance are standardized. For GPs, the trade‑off is administrative: more LP accounts to manage, but often stronger alignment and access to relevant networks. In short, the size of the ticket is a function of fund architecture, not of investor profile or sophistication. If you want to learn more about pre-seed funds economics, contact us at Olive Capital.

At Olive Capital, we're even one notch earlier than pre-seed, institutionalizing "pre-"pre-seed. If you're an LP and curious, let us know on olivecapital.vc 📨

(this episode is an excerpt) --- Welcome to the third episode of our new series dedicated to the builders of the Farcaster ecosystem (⁠⁠⁠⁠https://farcaster.xyz⁠⁠⁠⁠). In this limited run, we are going to understand the strategies, timing, and mental...

The VC industry is leaving alpha on the table.. https://lnkd.in/emdbz2Zq