500 Global

The internet is a wild place. Over the last decade, 2.5B people came online. What happens when the next billion internet users come online? We believe that a lot of value may be created. But how? And more importantly, how can you be a part of it? The answers may surprise you. Explore the #RiseReport now. #500strong https://500.co/risereport

How to get ahead of 99% of founders when fundraising:  1/ Stop spraying and praying  2/ Focus on champion investors  3/ Double down on engagement Let me break this down. After helping startups fundraise at 500 Global, here's the truth: You're probably talking to too many investors. The Pareto Principle applies to fundraising too—80% of your success will come from 20% of your investor meetings. Here's how to optimize your fundraising strategy: 1️⃣ Quality Over Quantity Stop spraying and praying. Start targeting: - Research investors' recent deals - Check their investment thesis - Verify their check sizes - Confirm they're actively investing 👉 Real Case: For my previous startup, Querypie, we initially pitched 100+ investors. Our round closed with 2 investors who we spent 80% of our time nurturing. The other 48? Wasted energy. 2️⃣ Identify Your Champions Not all interested investors are equal: - Who asks detailed questions? - Who makes intro calls? - Who follows up proactively? - Who gives constructive feedback? 📊 Some Stats: According to Dropbox DocSend, successful seed rounds typically involve just 58 investor meetings. Failed rounds? 168 meetings. 3️⃣ Double Down on Engagement When you find interested investors: - Send regular updates - Share small wins - Ask for specific advice - Build genuine relationships 💡 Paul Graham: "The best investors are like customers—they either want to invest or they don't. Maybe means no." I can't agree more to this. 4️⃣ Cut Your Losses Fast Red flags that say move on: - Multiple reschedules - Junior team only - Vague feedback - No clear timeline 🎯 From my experience, the best deals closed when founders quickly identified their champions and went all-in on those relationships. Remember: Your time is your most valuable asset during fundraising. Spend time with investors who actually write checks. ____ · How are you approaching fundraising now and why? Comment below, I am curious. · Join my newsletter for more content by me - https://lnkd.in/gK67Fw_u

Ep.5 of #ChangingAfrica is now live! It was such a pleasure to be able to chat with Mareme Dieng, the youngest ever partner at 500 Global, Africa. An entrepreneur, investor, tech driver who was also recognised by Forbes 30 under 30, Mareme is an absolute inspiration, and I am thrilled to share this insightful conversation with our audience. Available on all platforms. Listen on Spotify here: https://lnkd.in/dwFENePA

Have you ever felt that you're around a supportive family? I did—twice last week! 💡 A 5-day program of pure learning from the best mentors, exchanging knowledge with a family of entrepreneurs who genuinely want to help, just like the mentors. Proud to be part of "THE PIONEERS - Sanabil Startup Unlocked B1" at 500 Global | 500 MENA. We’re the first, but not the last! 🚀 Special thanks to: ✨ Carrie Liauw: Regional Director, 500 Global-MENA. Like an elder sister with her smile, support, and care throughout the program. ✨ Rawan Khaldoun Aladwan Program Manager, KSA. A source of love and kindness, ensuring we had everything we needed, including amazing food! ✨ Amal Dokhan: Welcomed us on Day 1 and supported us even when unwell. You’re a gem! ✨ Alaa Ibrahim: The one who kept the show running with peaceful vibes and seamless connections. ✨ Abdulrahman AlJiffry : An elder brother whose 1 minute saves 2 years of trial and error—thank you for your guidance! ✨ Bedy Yang: A name synonymous with belief in founders and empathy—your time and insights were invaluable. To the mentors: ✨ Graham Kennedy: The godfather of Product Strategy and Investment. Your wisdom made us trust in ourselves and our vision. ✨ Ee Ling Lim: A safe space for reflection and well-being. We all needed that! ✨ Christian Cruz: The go-to for out-of-the-box thinking. ✨ Nicholas Ho: For the efficiency and scientific precision every startup needs. ✨ PohSoon Tew: For believing in us Lahint Business Services Joint-Stock Company and onboarding us into this amazing family. ✨ Rosa Cai: For keeping everything on track with positivity. ✨ Karim Selim: For welcoming us every day with energy and music. ✨ Fahad Alharbi: For guiding entrepreneurs across Sanabil Investments with a visionary spirit. To all who made this program unforgettable—thank you! 🙏 This isn’t the end; it’s just the beginning. We’re part of the family now! ❤️

🚀 Welcome Iris Sun to the Global AI Pitch Summit Silicon Valley 2025!🚀 Iris Sun is a dynamic tech venture investor with expertise in M&A, early-stage investments, and strategic growth. Currently part of the Global Investment Team at 500 Global, Iris supports transformative startups across diverse industries. She has led investments in cutting-edge companies like d-Matrix, Kubit, and Ridge Security. Think you can pitch to our guests and expert judges?Join us on January 12-13, 2025, at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California, or via a global live stream. Apply now to compete for the "Top 3 Most Innovative AI Startups" title. 🔗 Registration Link: https://lnkd.in/eh8fPjsz 🌐 For more details, please visit: http://globalpitch.ai 💡 Special Giveaway: We’re giving away 500 free copies of Stanford GSB Professor Ilya Strebulaev’s national bestseller, The Venture Mindset, signed by Ilya himself! Like, comment, or repost this LinkedIn post, and join us in person to claim your copy.

A big Thank You to YB Minister Fahmi Fadzil for hosting me at the Malaysian Parliament last week. 🎉 He shared his immense happiness in the work we did in the last 1 year in Malaysia to connect some NADI centers and surrounding community in key islands like Pulau Bum Bum, Pulau Aman and others, savings millions of Ringgits for the telcos and governments in undersea cables. Together, we discussed a plan in 2025-26 to expand the impact Transcelestial's current CENTAURI + upcoming long range and space capabilities can have over the next 2 years to other islands and communities in the Peninsula can look forward to. 🛰️🗼🏝️ I look forward to deepening our work with his team and the team at MCMC. 🙏 A huge shoutout 🎉 to Khailee Ng (500 Global) for making this happen. I feel blessed that we have investors who go above and beyond in making Transcelestial's goal of Ubiquitous Affordable Broadband Internet a reality and are equally committed as the team to see it through. 💪 cc Vishal Harnal cc Dinesh Kummaran for the continued vision of driving our strategy in APAC 🚀 Details on Islands Connectivity Projs in Malaysia: 1) https://lnkd.in/g2jxGcKk 2) https://lnkd.in/gyUZw7bf Find out more at transcelestial.com or contact [email protected] #lasercomms #malaysia #visitmalaysia #broadband #spacetech

Last month, Sustainability Page participated in JETRO’s J-StarX Silicon Valley Extended Program by 500 Global! 🌟 We joined 14 other inspiring Japanese startups and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to accelerate our global journey, gain insights from industry leaders, and connect with an incredible international community. 🌏 Program Highlights 🚀 ✨ Japan Startup Product Open House at SVB Experience Center: We showcased our platform to 160+ tech enthusiasts and gained invaluable feedback. ✨ Office Visits to Tech Leaders: Huge thanks to Carta, NVIDIA, Okta, and others for sharing their wisdom and opening their doors to us. (Got a chance to meet the famous Peter Walker who I've been following on Linkedin for a while!) ✨ Workshops & Mentorship: Learned from some of the best, including Keyvan Peymani, Janko Milunovic, Jina K., Pere Codina, Daniel Idźkowski 🇵🇱/🇺🇸, Dane Baker, and Christine Tsai, on scaling globally and building impactful startups. ✨ Demo Day Preparation: Sharpened our pitch and gearing up to share our vision with global audiences. This journey wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing support of JETRO Startup, 500 Global, especially Jeff Matsuda, Misaki Majima, and all the incredible peers we met along the way. Special thanks to our mentor, Deb Bardhan for your guidance along the way! We’ve returned with fresh insights, strengthened connections, and renewed energy to bring sustainability transparency and action to businesses worldwide! 🌱 #500Global #JETRO #Sustainability #Startups #GlobalExpansion #SiliconValley #Innovation #Entrepreneurship

We’re heading into the new year strong in MENA! 500 Global has four startup programs in MENA designed to support founders across every stage—from Idea to Series A. Whether you’re refining your concept, building your MVP, or ready to scale, there’s a program for you! 🌍✨ Explore the lineup: Sanabil Startup Unlocked by 500 Global An immersive 5-day bootcamp in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, helping aspiring founders turn their ideas into actionable next steps. 500 Global in Egypt: Seed Bootcamp A 5-day intensive bootcamp in Egypt for pre-seed and seed-stage founders to gain clarity, develop strategies, and tackle specific challenges with global mentors. Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global Designed for tech startups with demonstrated traction, this 12-week in-depth program guides founders through growth-focused strategies to expand their potential in MENA and beyond. 500 Global in Egypt: Scale Up Program A 7-week program empowering Egyptian Pre-Series A and Series A startups to amplify their market presence, scale operations, and connect with global networks. No matter where you are in your startup journey, we have a program to support you. 👉 Check out the programs here for more information and apply today. https://500.co/founders

Wrapping Up 2024: 18 Days to Go 🚀 We started this year OCTA with a goal: Make collecting payments faster and easier for businesses. Here’s where we landed: - $2.25M raised 💰 - 14 people building and shipping - $86M+ in invoices synced - $11M in payments processed - Payments made 41% faster ⚡ - DSO cut by 54% 📉 We joined the Sanabil Investments Accelerator (500 Global, Batch 7). We earned SOC 2, PCI, and ISO27001 compliance 🔒. 7,074 commits and counting. Deployed over 2,000 updates. And we’re not done yet. To everyone who’s supported us: thank you. 🙌 To the team who made this possible: you’re amazing. 💪 2025, we’re ready. 🚀 #OCTA #YearInReview #StartupJourney #Fintech #AccountsReceivable

RavenRiskAi was proud to be amongst 8 companies to present at Western Angels’ Demo Day on December 5th. The venue: the always awe-inspiring Art Gallery of Ontario.  The Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship hosted the event, successfully advancing their mission to foster entrepreneurship from and in Western's ecosystem and across Canada. They certainly met and exceeded that mission (it is likely performance review time, so just doing my part!), by assembling an inspiring group of founders and a terrific group of investors. The energy amongst the participants was palpable, and it didn't take long for founders and teammates to root for and cheer their peers on as they took the stage!  I was proud to be included; those 4 years at UWO are finally starting to pay off! I addressed two key trends: the continued shift of credit assets from public to private markets, and how emerging AI technologies can now help transform credit investing and corporate lending. At RavenRiskAi, we are in the vanguard of combining advanced AI and machine learning with our deep financial expertise to deliver real-time credit assessment solutions for our customers. A huge thank you to Western, the Morrissette Institute, Eric Morse, Kiran Bains, John MacDonald, Sarah Buck and many more who pulled out all the stops.  I also arrived during the night of Toronto's first snow storm of the year; the streets were beautiful (which of course gave way to the inevitable slush) although the traffic wasn't! A great day. Morrissette Entrepreneurship RavenRiskAi Kiran Bains 500 Global Samin Atique