Mergermarket Private Equity Forum Austin 2023
Mergermarket's brand-new event for the American private equity community!
Four Seasons Hotel, Austin
04
Oct
Venture capital: capturing opportunities
Venture capital investment continues to be muted regionally, with economic uncertainty and recent bank failures adding to a tougher dealmaking and fundraising environment. Whilst VCs continue to deploy capital, they will likely be more selective and prioritize their existing portfolio companies. Bright spots, however, continue to emerge, with slowdowns in dealmaking levelling off from 2022, and notable sectors such as AI, FinTech, and cleantech gaining investment appetite. Our panel of regional and local investors take stock of the market and discuss the trajectory of venture capital in Austin and the rest of the US.
- How have VC markets have been evolving regionally, and what can VC investors do to ensure their portfolio companies are resilient?
- What is the outlook for early vs late-stage investments in the region?
- Valuations: do they remain strong or are corrections expected?
- What are the top VC investment opportunities on the horizon?
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SpeakersRachel Stone Charlottesville Bureau Chief MERGERMARKET
Christopher Britton Managing Director, Co-Head of North America, Venture & Growth Banking LAZARD
Kevin Burke Partner and Head of Strategy SAPPHIRE VENTURES
Morgan Flager Managing Partner SILVERTON PARTNERS
Charlie Plauche General Partner S3 VENTURES
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Rachel covers fintech and the broader tech sector for Mergermarket. She has a bachelor’s degree in business journalism from Washington and Lee University.
Christopher Britton joined Lazard in 2019 and co-leads our North American Venture and Growth Banking business from Austin, Texas, advising tech led fast growing private companies on their capital raisings.
At Lazard, Christopher has advised on a wide range of transactions across sectors including Smart Pension (fintech), Tessian (cybersecurity), Congenica (health tech), Bulb Energy (consumer / energy), Zymergen (synthetic biology), LumiraDX (health tech) and SystemC (Electronic Health Records) and has strong relationship with investors across the venture and growth asset class.
Prior to joining Lazard, Christopher was at Liberum Capital where he co-led the investment companies team and previously the healthcare team. He has experience advising on a range of corporate transactions including private fundraises, IPOs, and secondary transactions including M&A on the Main Market and AIM and across several different sectors. Selected transactions include the IPOs of Glencore, Infinis, Merian Chrysalis, Game Digital and Shield Therapeutics, secondary fundraises for Shaftesbury and Workspace, and block trades for Elliot Advisers and GI Partners.
Christopher graduated with a first from St John's College, Oxford and is a qualified solicitor, having worked at global law firm Jones Day.
Kevin is a Partner and Head of Strategy for Sapphire Ventures, where he is responsible for advising the investment teams, portfolio companies, and limited partners on key market trends and dynamics. Kevin works across all Sapphire strategies to help the firm best execute against current opportunities, while also identifying and evaluating future focus areas.
Prior to joining Sapphire, Kevin spent 7.5 years in Corporate Strategy at Microsoft where he was a Senior Director and member of the strategy leadership team. In this role, Kevin worked directly with Microsoft’s Leadership Team on the company’s most critical strategic growth initiatives, with work that touched both existing and new product categories, go-to-market, M&A, and partnerships. Prior to Microsoft, Kevin worked at Booz & Company in the firm’s Technology, Media, and Telecom practice where he consulted for several Fortune 100 technology clients in the software and ecommerce categories, and also was selected as one of the 3 members of the inaugural class of the Katzenbach Center’s Leadership Program.
Kevin is a graduate of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas-Austin, as well as of Emory University, where he majored in Economics. He currently lives in Austin, TX with his beautiful wife Cassie and their two children, Olivia and Owen.
Morgan has over 25 years of experience as a venture investor and technology executive. He joined Silverton in 2006 and has sponsored 24 investments and realized 11 acquisitions and two IPO’s.
He currently sits on the boards of Aceable, BILT, Insiteflow, OneDay, Rollick, Self Financial, SourceDay, The Helper Bees, The Zebra, and Wheel. Notable past investments include Alert Media (acq. Vista Equity), Black Locus (acq. The Home Depot), Crimson (acq. Advisory Board), Ping Identity (NYSE: PING), Project 44, Trendkite (acq. Cision) and Vacasa (NASDAQ:VCSA).
Prior to Silverton, Morgan worked with FTV Capital in San Francisco, where he focused on growth investments in software and financial technology. Morgan started his career at Ingrian Networks (acquired by SafeNet) and Kintana (acquired by Mercury Interactive Corp.). Morgan grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and received his BS from Stanford University.
Charlie Plauche joined S3 Ventures in 2010 and is currently a General Partner. He currently serves on the Boards of S3 portfolio companies Atmosphere, BrainCheck, Genda, HYAS, Interplay Learning, LeanDNA, Prokeep, Stellar, UpEquity, Upkey, and ZSuite Tech.
Previous boards include Alkami Technology (NASDAQ: ALKT), Favor Delivery (acquired by H-E-B Grocery), Kimbia (acquired by GiveGab), Levelset (acquired by Procore), Liveoak Technologies (acquired by DocuSign), OutboundEngine (acquired by Elm Street Technology), Tango Health (acquired by Benefitfocus), and TVA Medical (Observer, acquired by Becton Dickinson).
Charlie received his MBA from the McCombs School at the University of Texas in Austin and his BS in Finance from the University of Mississippi, where he was a Holmes Scholarship recipient and a Mississippi Eminent Scholar.