Private equity and venture capital investors, in their comprehensive review of the 2023 balance and strategic planning for 2024, are placing significant emphasis on fundraising, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations, according to a distinguished group of industry leaders who are set to participate in the upcoming 0100 Conference DACH, taking place in Vienna on February 28th and 29th with BeBeez International as a media partner (see here the press release). The 10 th edition of 0100 Conference DACH will gather over +350 senior private equity and venture capital executives, fund investors, fund managers, and industry experts.
According to Pavol Fuchs, ceo of Zero One Hundred Conferences: “Fundraising will remain a critical focus for GPs in the short term. One effective strategy to enhance success in this endeavor is by creating opportunities to meet and build meaningful relationships with asset owners, both local and international, who share an interest in the specific region. This is precisely what we offer to the DACH LP-GP ecosystem: a dedicated space for over 350 industry leaders to connect and explore lucrative business opportunities.”
“We need to go out fundraising in 2024 and even though we can show strong performance in our previous funds, it might get more difficult. Several LPs have been over-allocating VC during the last few years and might look to reduce their exposure”, explains Johannes von Borries, Managing Partner at Munich and Berlin-based venture capital firm UVC Partners. “On the other hand, early-stage VC funds investing over the next years will have higher performance because now entry valuations are lower, and even more importantly, the new founders have a getting profitable soon mindset, which should increase chances of long-term success,” von Borries adds.
Thomas Bobek, Head of Private Equity at Erste AM, highlights the strong and positive trend of their portfolio expansion. “The strong portfolio development, high visibility of investments, dry powder to benefit from the current lower valuation and better terms as well as our existing set of quality LPs, offer clear advantages when talking to potential additional investors”. In this scenario, 2024 will be promising for the company, as their deal flow remains strong. “We will very selectively assess further investment opportunities in order to benefit most from the current attractive investment environment. With the fund of funds still open for further investments, we concentrate on the final closing in Q2 2024”, Babek adds.
Data quality has posed challenges in implementing AI tools for ESG reporting and initiatives. According to Ties Boukema, Data Lead at Dawn Capital, this issue will persist on investors’ agendas in 2024. He states: “Given that the climate crisis is becoming more and more pressing, I expect to see a lot more scrutiny around data quality and methodology of carbon credits accounting. Carbon credits are a great tool in theory, but we currently do not have the systems, processes & watchdogs for the tool to be as effective as we need it to be”.
“The two main challenges family offices face when they decide to invest in PE are knowledge and access”, explains Steve Balaban, who will be facilitating the workshop ‘How Family Offices Invest in Private Equity and Venture Capital in North America, Europe, and Asia’ at the “0100 Conference DACH”. “Knowledge is the ability to ask the right questions through the due diligence process to ensure that they find the right funds that are there. Access refers to the difficulty for family offices to get access to private equity fund managers. Some funds are only open to investors that have invested before or only accept very big investors, such as large families or institutional investors”, says Balaban, investor, advisor, award-winning lecturer, and Chief Investment Officer of Mink Capital.
