Mark Gallagher

Excited to finally share what we’ve been building over the past year. Today we’re announcing the first investment from ARKITEKT EQUITY. Over the past year, we have been closely observing the structural shifts occurring within semiconductor ecosystems. As manufacturing systems become more complex, the infrastructure enabling those systems becomes increasingly strategic. These environments demand operational clarity, coordination, and long-term alignment. ARKITEKT was built around a simple idea: durable value is created where frontier technology meets pragmatic execution. Our investment in BBTech reflects this conviction. This is just the beginning of what we aim to build at ARKITEKT EQUITY. Stay tuned! https://lnkd.in/g_pQiBZY

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Differentiation you can and cannot control In my work with managers, I help them understand the external context around their firm and strategy – the part of their story that materially impacts outcomes with LPs and that they mostly can’t control. The “haves vs. have-nots” reality In this market, the gap between funds that clear and funds that don’t is stark. Managers mostly hear from peers about how hard fundraising is; LPs mostly spend time with oversubscribed managers and have the very real option of writing zero new checks. Time in market and visible momentum become simple, powerful signals. What you can do: run a real IR program between fundraises to drive re‑ups; don’t go to new LPs without clear momentum (meaningful 50%+ first close, real soft commits, credible anchors); and assume you need to work 3x harder than you think on LP relationships between funds. Endorsements > decks Your materials, views, and portfolio stories are complex; an endorsement from someone who already made an LP a lot of money is simple and compelling. Many managers start LP conversations on “higher trust” because they arrive via those GPs. What you can do: stop treating VC as only a game of weak ties. You need deep, durable relationships with investors whom LPs view as credible sources. If you don’t yet have enough co‑investors who would give you warm intros, you’re probably not ready to manage external capital. Time in market is a signal Managers like to share charts showing longer fundraising timelines, with the implied message that it’s fine to be in market for ages because “everyone is.” LPs use that same variable to separate outliers from the pack. What you can do: fundraise between fundraises. Understand true demand, improve the firm’s investability, set conservative targets, run short processes – and remember the fund is just a construct. If you’re deploying well and can point to real signs of judgment and access, you can always come back sooner. Thanks for reading Lynxpoints 🐾. Full text here https://lnkd.in/gCuDg6K8

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It is incredible what care.fi has built - an OS for healthcare players —unifying RCM, claims intelligence, and embedded finance into a single execution layer. Welcome to July Family, Care.fi

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I spoke with Christien Louviere of BDE Capital about his journey from a $330mm exit to becoming an independent sponsor. Christien shared excellent insights for folks looking to partner with business owners, rather than buy sellers out completely. Below are a few of the topics we covered: - Why he moved from “zero-to-one” startups to a buy-then-build strategy - How Christien's background shaped a focus on growth vs. cost-cutting - Why 20–40% rolled equity is central to his deal structures—and how it builds trust with sellers - Using scenario analysis with AI tools to evaluate management teams and uncover hidden key-person risks - How to identify when a $3–5M EBITDA company truly has a middle management layer—or is still founder-reliant For anyone investing in or buying small businesses, Christien’s approach provides a fresh lens on growth, alignment, and deal structuring. 🎥 Watch the full interview here → https://lnkd.in/ekfkaiej 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e86Agx6V

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"Chime’s early success pushed incumbent banks to adapt — spurring real, systematic change. In 2019, U.S. regulators estimated that American households were paying more than $12 billion annually in overdraft and other avoidable bank fees — costs that disproportionately hit the lowest-income families. But as the pandemic accelerated digital payments, the dam broke. By late 2021, banks such as Ally, Capital One, Fifth Third, and PNC began adopting Chime-like features, including same-day paycheck access and eliminating overdraft fees. When regulators revisited the data in 2024, they found those annual fees had been cut in half—to less than $6 billion." https://lnkd.in/gUU4aCRf

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Wall Street's recent lateral hiring wave is creating unexpected ripples across promotion pipelines—and the effects could last through 2027. Hundreds of external MDs joined firms on two-year guarantees, naturally affecting advancement timelines. But there's a newer dynamic that's quietly reshaping the game: experienced Directors/VP3/4s who have been RIF'd are trying to reenter the market at lower VP-level roles and compensation, creating a competitive landscape that few saw coming. Read the full analysis to understand what this means for your career trajectory.👇 #InvestmentBanking #WallStreet #CareerDevelopment #Banking #Finance #TalentManagement Retry

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Company building in energy is shaped by early decisions that compound over time—how capital is structured, how technical risk is absorbed, and how teams prepare for scale well before it arrives.    Much of my work with founders centers on navigating those choices as deep science becomes real businesses. The details differ across power, materials, and industrial systems, but the challenge is consistent: building companies that can operate, adapt, and grow over long horizons.  You can see that work taking shape across the Breakthrough Energy portfolio. https://lnkd.in/eXd72trE

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Wealth professionals looking to introduce private market investments into client portfolios are finding that client education is essential. Managing Director James Martin shares a key insight from our Global Private Wealth Survey that highlights how stronger education equips clients to confidently embrace private markets.

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Brex exits for $5.15bn — a 60% discount from its $12.3bn 2022 peak. But this deal actually makes sense. Capital One is acquiring Brex, the expense management fintech for startups, in a transaction valuing the company at ~7.2x revenues. The deal is a combination of 50% stock and 50% cash. Some key numbers: • Valuation: ~$5.15bn • Annualised revenues (2025): ~$700m • Revenue multiple: ~7.2x • Still loss-making • Total capital raised: $1.2bn • Capital efficiency (Revenue / Capital raised): ~0.9x At first glance, this multiple looks fair — broadly in line with listed US fintech peers. Klarna, Chime, Coinbase and Robinhood trade at a median ~6.2x revenues. However, those businesses are profitable (30%+ EBITDA margins) and growing materially faster. The outcome is highly asymmetric for investors: • Series A/B investors: exceptional returns (15–70x+) • Series C/D investors: around 1x, likely protected by preference stacks A good reminder that entry price matters more than headline valuation — and that strong revenues don’t always translate into venture-style outcomes. https://lnkd.in/eubkE8qN

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I’m stepping more directly into interim and operating CFO work. Over the past decade, I’ve consistently been brought into sponsor-backed and growth-stage platforms at inflection points — acquisitions, liquidity pressure, lender negotiations, audit remediation, capital raises, or operational scale. I build institutional-grade financial infrastructure fast. That means: • Liquidity visibility and covenant discipline • Clean audits and lender credibility • Transaction-ready reporting (QoE, data rooms, integrations) • Repeatable forecasting and KPI frameworks I work where capital and operations intersect — ensuring companies are positioned to access funding, execute deals, and scale without losing financial control. I’m open to select interim and fractional CFO mandates where execution speed and clarity matter. If you’re a sponsor, CEO, or investment partner navigating one of those moments, let’s connect. — Ken Anthony Stanford MBA | CPA | Growth Infrastructure CFO

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Episode 2 of our i2i Ventures podcast series The Comparable just launched! As you may know, every episode (new ones come out every 3 weeks), we dive into a sector & spotlight two companies building in 2 different emerging markets. The similarities are often surprising, as are the nuanced differences of what it means to build in really complex & hard places. For Episode 2, we highlight two digital banks building in both Vietnam & Mexico: Timo Digital Bank by BVBank, Vietnam's first digital bank which launched in 2015 (they recently celebrated their 10 year anniversary!). Now led by CEO Jonas Eichhorst, we delve into what it takes to continue innovating in an increasingly crowded fintech landscape. Hey Banco in Mexico is the 2nd company we spotlight. Originally the digital arm of reputed Mexican bank Banregio, it's now spinning out to become its own separate entity this year, with co-founder & CEO Manuel Rivero Zambrano at its helm, who himself is a fourth generation banker (!). We talk about why Hey Banco needed to exist on its own, and how it leverages the financial backbone Banregio provides to compete in Mexico's very saturated fintech space. The episode also features a segment called "Investor Insights" where investors involved in the companies and/or the startup space we highlight share more depth on these stories: Tushar Roy has led the Southeast Asia practice at VC fund Square Peg since he joined in 2015, and led the $20 million funding round in Timo in 2022. Leticia M. Jauregui Casanueva, GP at Leap Global Partners, has 18+ years experience as an investor, founder & ecosystem builder in the Mexican startup space. One of a few very interesting similarities b/w these two companies on literal opposite sides of the world: 🏦 🤝 As much as Timo & Hey Banco are *digital* banks, they both realized that offline engagement is important in building trust w/ their customer base, and both do so via physical spaces (Timo Hangouts & Hey Shops, respectively). Link(s) to listen to the full episode in the comments. Please subscribe & share!

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At Venture Investors Health Fund, we believe in the importance of aligning the financial interests of all stakeholders to drive the best outcome. Last month, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick complained that with discoveries enabled with Federal research funding from agencies like the National Institutes of Health, the American public is not at the table, and proposed that the government should seize 50% of academic royalties resulting from licensing federally funded inventions because otherwise the Federal government gets “zero” return. The Bayh Dole Act passed in 1980 was one of the most consequential pieces of legislation of the last 50 years. It gave ownership of patents developed with Federal funding to the universities where the invention occurred. The Bayh-Dole Coalition has documented how this dramatically increased invention disclosures, licenses, and commercialization of research for the benefit of the American public. Lutnick argued that if you put up half the money, you should get half the profits. It is obvious to most that the Federal government does not put up half the money. For a drug, a company can easily spend ten times the discovery grant amount just to get to an Investigation New Drug (IND) filing to start clinical trials, and 100 times the amount to get to FDA clearance. Here is the real kicker. Which stakeholder gets the best return on investment? If you aren't sure, here is a hint. They start generating a return as soon as commercial development starts and they continue to generate a return long after the patent expires. Their return is as certain as death. You got it! It is the Federal government! They collect taxes on the salaries and wages of the employees developing and commercializing the product from the get go, they collect corporate taxes on the company's profits, and they get capital gains taxes from the return to the investors. In the meantime they are achieving government objectives of creating jobs, generating wealth, addressing our healthcare challenges, and supporting our national investment in research. The American public is not just at the table, they are sitting at the head of the table. Lutnick's proposal would have the opposite impact, serving a major blow to our worldwide leadership in research. It would further erode the funding for research and reduce incentives that have been extraordinarily effective. When coupled with the threat to use march-in rights against some universities, it adds cost, risk and uncertainty that undermines the attractiveness of licensing from universities. Rather than complaining about the return to the Federal government, Lutnick should be using the data to show how it drives our economy and make the case for growing investment in research, especially now that China is targeting our innovation leadership. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://lnkd.in/gfJbE3d9

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Enjoyed reading through SVB’s 2025 State of Enterprise SaaS report which digs into key themes for the sector including: macro economic impacts, an update on the fundraising market, and company financials/benchmarks. A highly recommended read, and kudos to my colleagues Andrew McCarty, Rob Helm and the SVB Insights team for publishing. https://lnkd.in/g56ws29g

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The sequence of decisions in digital transformation determines the outcome. My research 📚️ reinforces what we consistently see across private equity portfolios. Integrating digital capabilities early in the investment cycle shapes enterprise value, execution speed, and long-term outcomes. This insight guides how our team works with firms today. We move with discipline and intention, embedding digital strategy to drive measurable impact across the full deal lifecycle. If you are evaluating how and when digital investment creates real value, I invite you to explore my research shaping the future of private equity >> https://lnkd.in/gz9UHzhD #QuantumPP #PrivateEquity

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For every market beyond Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York City, there’s a continuing discussion about what’s required to become a legitimate venture capital hub. Tonight’s “State of the Market” event hosted by VC in DC stayed clear of the anxiety-filled “when will it be our turn?” conversations, and instead focused on some history lessons about DC/MD/VA-area venture (including NEA’s founding in 1977), companies that are pushing regulatory boundaries (GenLogs and Last Energy), and future prospects for the region. A plus for founders and investors: DC has been and remains a more collegial, collaborative environment than Silicon Valley, and less concerned about flaunting wealth. It’s the right spot for founders looking to build in heavily regulated spaces because of access to government agencies, regulators, lawmakers, policy groups, and yes, lobbyists. During his panel, Scott Frederick from Sands Capital told attendees, “If you can really figure out how the government buys, that is a defensible moat.” (No details on how to tell if your enthusiastic government champion will still be employed tomorrow, that’s for a different discussion.) There’s another major draw for tech entrepreneurs: a highly educated and skilled workforce. “The talent is deep - both technically and go to market,” said Phil Bronner, long-time DC investor and co-founder/managing partner of Ardent Venture Partners. Companies can find quality sales, marketing, product, and tech talent in the region. I’ve attended lots of “when will it be the DC area's moment?” events (and they're personally meaningful as a lifelong MD resident). In venture, it’s about truly outsized returns on a consistent basis, the jaw-dropping kind that generate national tech media headlines and compel more founders, VCs, and LPs to see the area as so much more than a government town. 

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💡Emerging GP Fundraising Insight #8: Rolling Closes Keep You Moving Small funds can't always afford to sit still until the target is hit. Rolling closes let you start deploying earlier, build a track record, and show momentum to prospective LPs. One GP told me that for Fund I ($5M target), he took capital as it came, signed, wired, and got to work. It wasn't perfect, but it kept the lights on and the deals moving. Sometimes the "sign and wire as it comes" approach is the only way to get moving. Takeaway: Momentum is a fundraising asset and rolling closes can help you keep it. Has anyone here used rolling closes as a strategic advantage?

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Impactive Capital Nominates Four Candidates To Fintech WEX's Board "The activist investor's nominees are Kurt Adams, Ellen Alemany, Ken Cornick and Lauren Taylor Wolfe, whose combined experience spans areas including payments, financial services and governance. "We cannot afford another year of value destruction under a board that appears determined to avoid accountability and is unwilling to act with urgency," Impactive said, adding that the "widening gap versus its closest peer, Corpay (CPAY.N), opens new tab , is increasingly alarming." "The activist investor added that it had urged WEX's board to hold management accountable and focus on disciplined pricing, cost efficiency and simplifying the business to improve returns and unlock shareholder value. "Instead, the company has pursued mergers and acquisitions with questionable strategic fits, Impactive said." Frequently, there is an element of power seeking involving a management quest for mergers & acquisitions especially when compared to the relative "drudgery" of executing a highly disciplined operationally oriented value creation plan. The latter is also typically a much greater driver of value. #governancearbitrage https://lnkd.in/gii4TyTA

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The ADGM has introduced a dedicated regulatory framework for staking digital assets. This is a game changing moment for institutional yield in the region. Previously, institutions sat on the sidelines of staking due to compliance ambiguity. Now, ADGM provides a clear perimeter for "Proof-of-Stake" participation. And this infrastructure for institutional DeFi is being built in Abu Dhabi. Feels like a quiet but important shift. Curious how others see institutional staking evolving from here. #ADGM #CryptoRegulation #Staking #InstitutionalDeFi #UAE #Dubai

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