Canvas Ventures

We are thrilled to announce that Shoreline, a pioneer in applying generative AI to automate cloud operations, has been acquired by NVIDIA, effective July 3. Shoreline CEO Anurag Gupta and the Shoreline team will be joining NVIDIA DGX Cloud to improve reliability and reduce manual labor. This is a major milestone for Shoreline and further validation of Canvas Ventures' expertise in identifying and cultivating companies at the earliest stage that can transform our businesses and lives through AI. We extend our warmest congratulations to Anurag and the entire Shoreline team as well as our co-investors in this process: George Mathew at Insight Partners, Vab Goel at NTTVC, and Evgenia Plotnikova at Dawn Capital. This is just the beginning for harnessing the transformative power of generative AI to radically streamline cloud operations, drive operational efficiency and reliability at global scale across data centers, public clouds, and edge deployments. We can't wait to see what new frontiers Shoreline and NVIDIA will open up together in the generative AI ecosystem.

Wealth management is in a state of flux, with a fast evolving investor class and the increased mobility of financial advisors looking to run more independently and efficiently, all while growing their books of business. Ritik Malhotra and the Savvy Wealth team have found a strong footing in supporting entrepreneurial-minded wealth managers who don’t want the red tape of bigger banks, nor the operational costs of opening their own firms solo.  Canvas is pleased to announce our support and investment in Savvy Wealth's Series A. As part of the investment, Rebecca Lynn and Justin Pirzadeh will be joining the Savvy board. 🌟 🔗 FORTUNE EXCLUSIVE: https://lnkd.in/eQz92etF

Having invested in Lending Club (LC), Check (acq Intuit), and Future Advisor (acq BlackRock), I've always been interested in wealth management businesses. They represent one of the largest asset classes in the US economy, and a market where tech can both improve investment returns and minimize operational costs. Today, we want AI to solve EVERYTHING, but at the end of the day, wealth management is inherently human. Ritik Malhotra spent the time talking to 100+ advisors to understand precisely where AI can -- and should -- help advisors do what they do best (and supercharge the rest). Thrilled to back him and the team at Savvy Wealth as lead investor in their Series A, announced today in Fortune Term Sheet. (Thank you Allie Garfinkle for getting the story so so right!) This team has an all star cast and a proven track record in quickly scaling up to a platform supporting 30+ financial advisors that manage >$700M in client assets at a 5x YoY growth clip.

There's lots of talk about how getting acquired is the new going public. Despite investing in several now-public companies (Doximity, Luminar, Lending Club), I fully believe in this position. It takes a special kind of founder to want to be a public company CEO. That said, startups are bought, not sold, and there's no worse signal than putting up a "for sale" sign. I spend a lot of time counseling my CEOs on how to think about this issue. It's not as simple as raising your hand and saying "I'm ready!" Building toward a win-win-win acquisition starts with identifying a banker who really truly knows your market and can act as a pseudo corp dev person. Make them EARN your business. This is exactly how we got great transactions done with Gabi (acq Experian), Casetext (acq Thomson Reuters) and Future Advisor (acq BlackRock). Several signs are pointing to M&A gaining even more favor through the second half of this year: * Founders are increasingly seeing the benefits: Only 15% of entrepreneurs surveyed by Techstars recently said they aspired to go public. https://lnkd.in/gqsvU_jt * The investor community is primed: Morgan Stanley predicted deal volumes could rise by as much as 50% in 2024, after the lowest activity in almost two decades in 2023. And private market investors have accumulated a total of $8.1 trillion in unallocated capital. Link here: https://lnkd.in/gbtbAdFR * My favorite hot tip: Companies that are poised to go public often want to demonstrate strength and growth in market and do so through acquisitions. Look at the next class of potential public companies that could use your customers or product for growth and assess for their cash positions.

Impressive new launch by the Thrive Global team! The Thrive AI Health Coach will be an essential tool for both prevention and for optimizing the treatment of disease through an AI personal context engine that understands the user and generates personalized AI-driven insights; proactive, multimodal, expert-level coaching as well as nudges and recommendations unique to each user across the five behaviors.

So much fun joining Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde and Nick Laster of Lykos Global Management LP yesterday at the #BloombergInvest conference to talk about the state of VC, private company fundraising and valuations, and what it takes to help a founder drive their company to an outcome. I always tell founders when we back them at Series A or Series B that they need to know where they would land the plane if they had to and how that would work. At Canvas Ventures, we work very early on to help them figure out what it would mean to be profitable. What people in our ecosystem do we need to actually partner with very early? And we encourage our founders to go out and do that years before the IPO word even comes into their board deck. It's all about helping them look outside of their existing company and think very strategically. You can watch the full 18-minute discussion here: https://lnkd.in/gJxsvpYh

Is the IPO "drought" over? What corners of the market has AI yet to impact? What is really happening across the fundraising environment for early-stage companies? I'm looking forward to talking shop with Caroline Hyde of Bloomberg News and Alex Clavel of SoftBank Investment Advisers at #BloombergInvest on June 26 in New York. Come watch our panel, From Financing to IPO: Building the Companies of the Future. What burning question do YOU want to hear us discuss? Get tickets here: https://shorturl.at/zoJzX Bloomberg Live

If you’re an early-stage startup and you’re exclusively thinking about digital channels for customer acquisition, you’re making a big mistake.   The average person sees 5,000 to 6,000 digital ads a day. Every. Single. Day. My companies that have seen true breakout success don’t just rely on digital; they blend in "old-school" physical tactics and creative strategies that also give them helpful customer insights to incorporate back into the product as they build. I'm talking TV, direct mail, and yes, billboards. Thank you to Euphonia X., Camille Ricketts, Peter Walker and the teams at Lob and Tatari for sharing their advice for this piece. What successes have you seen as an early-stage company with old-school GTM tactics? Curious to learn from others’ successes!

Exciting news from one of our portfolio companies, Flyhomes, who today launched the world’s first AI-powered home search portal. The move comes after Flyhomes acquired Sam Altman-backed AI real estate startup ZeroDown back in January. Full story in Geekwire: https://lnkd.in/g7QK6eDf

Thank you to Rebecca Lynn at Canvas Ventures and Marcie Vu at Greycroft for hosting the most amazing G.O.A.T AI Ladies Dinner! Rebecca and Marcie went all in on the GOAT theme, hosting the event at a literal goat farm in Pescadero! Evening included seeing and petting the goats, touring the cheese factory, and tasting cheeses before sitting down to eat. What a group of smart, talented, accomplished executive women who collectively have many decades of AI experience, starting in this space long before it was trendy. Lucky me for meeting these rockstar ladies. Thank you for sharing stories about your career journeys and life lessons. Lots of takeaways about AI, leadership, being a women in tech, and much more. Evening was filled with terrific conversation, delicious food, and much humor. Fiona Tan Lara Hood Balazs Julie Choi Shelby Heinecke Diane Bryant Tiffany Freitas Michelle Lee Christa Quarles Erika Rottenberg Aisling MacRunnels Tracy Keim Alyssa Simpson Rochwerger Crazy bonus to the night. Our tour guide pulled me aside and said, "I think we are related" And we are! Found a long lost cousin!! As an aside, for companies looking for highly qualified, deep AI technologists who are also incredible humans for their board directors, there is no shortage of super qualified women to fill those seats!! #AI #womenintech #womenonboards