Welcome to EVELUTION IS GREAT!
Welcome to EVELUTION IS GREAT, the #inaugural edition of INP Capital’s monthly newsletter! This series is your gateway to transformative insights and the latest updates from the forefront of technology investing. Aligned with INP’s mission, "Invest in Evolution, Emerge with Greatness," we highlight how massive markets and legacy industries are evolving and how we’re capitalizing on the opportunities within this global wave.
Let’s kick off 2025 with some exciting news!
🚀 Team Highlights
We Made "The 50"! 🎉
INP Capital has been recognized in CVCA’s "The 50", an annual guide showcasing Canada’s top venture capital firms. This recognition highlights our commitment to empowering bold entrepreneurs, backing transformative technologies, and driving global impact.
A heartfelt thank you to our investors, partners, and portfolio companies for helping us achieve this milestone. It’s only the beginning!
💡 Portfolio Highlights
GrubMarket Launched AI-Powered Catchweight Management Features! 🎉
GrubMarket has introduced cutting-edge Catchweight Management capabilities on its AI-powered WholesaleWare ERP platform, revolutionizing how food wholesalers and distributors handle variable-weight products like seafood, proteins, and cheeses. 🥩🧀🐟
Mike Xu, CEO of GrubMarket, explains: “Catchweight products are notoriously difficult to manage in traditional systems. WholesaleWare’s new capabilities are a game-changer for streamlining operations and ensuring profitability.”
With these new AI-driven tools, businesses can:
✅ Accurately track inventory by pounds, cases, or pieces.
✅ Enhance traceability to meet stringent food safety standards.
✅ Streamline operations with automated bulk receiving and updates.
✅ Customize labeling for tailored business needs.
✅ Utilize flexible units of measure for operational precision.
Founded in 2014, GrubMarket has scaled rapidly, surpassing $2 billion in revenue in 2024, transforming the U.S. and Canadian food supply chain.
GrubMarket Acquires Sally Produce!
GrubMarket has acquired Sally Produce, a leading provider of specialty Asian produce serving 100+ business customers, including major grocery chains like 99 Ranch Market across Northern California and Washington. Based in Gilroy, California, Sally Produce operates a 40,000-square-foot warehouse, ensuring efficient distribution along the West Coast. This strategic acquisition strengthens GrubMarket’s regional presence and expands its specialty produce offerings.
🌍 Industry Insights
🔍 Looking Back: The State of VC in 2024
The ups and downs: Global venture capital faced another challenging year, marked by high interest rates, geopolitical tensions, and an extended exit drought, before a major Q4 rebound led by #AI restored some optimism. While VC fundraising declined overall, secondary funds—which provide liquidity for early investors and entry points for new ones at mutually favourable valuations—hit a record $100 billion in 2024. The US remained dominant, accounting for nearly 60% of total global VC funding, while Asia saw a sharp decline, driven by weak exits and China’s economic slowdown. Canada showed promising growth, fuelled by strong government backing such as the $2.4B AI initiative and a thriving innovation ecosystem.
AI dominance: AI was the undisputed king of venture investments, accounting for over 40% of total US VC funding in 2024. We witnessed some mega VC rounds at or above $4 billion, including #Databricks ($10B), #OpenAI ($6.6B), #xAI ($6B), #Waymo ($5.6B), and Anthropic ($4B). This had some questioning whether we are in an AI bubble. Further shaking market sentiment was the recent showcase by Chinese AI startup #DeepSeek, which claimed to have achieved comparable language model performance with a fraction of the hardware and infrastructure investments of its US counterparts—triggering a trillion-dollar selloff in AI-related tech stocks. We’ll take a deeper dive into this in our next issue.
A seismic shift in the players: Beneath the VC fundraising winter, a new generation of managers is emerging. Among some 850 new managers surveyed (approximately half of all new VC firms launched globally), data shows an industry that is becoming younger (46% under 40), more diverse (27% women and non-binary) with more outsiders (48.8% transitioning from other sectors). This shift signals a fundamental rewriting of the venture capital playbook, bringing fresh perspectives and new investment strategies to the ecosystem.
The spring thawing is coming: With inflation stabilizing and the Fed lowering rates, capital markets are set for broad relief. The US is poised to enter an era of deregulation and investment-friendly fiscal policies, including lower taxes and economic stimulus measures. This shift could accelerate IPO market recovery, fuel startup growth, and revitalize venture investment, setting the stage for a more dynamic innovation landscape.
Dawn of the AI-Driven Productivity Supercycle: After an initial AI boom dominated by tech giants pouring jaw-dropping capital into AI infrastructure and LLM training, 2025 is set to usher in broader, more diverse applications. AI-driven SaaS is beginning to transform legacy industries, while deeptech sectors like smart robotics and alternative energy continue gaining momentum. DeepSeek has proven that the AI arms race is no longer exclusive to billion-dollar players, marking the start of a true AI-powered gold rush—where nimble startups, armed with niche market insights and a few top-tier engineers, could redefine entire industries in ways we can’t even fathom today.
Hard winters forge the strongest seeds: After three years of exit drought and fierce capital competition, the startups and VC managers emerging in 2025 may be the most resilient and best-positioned for long-term success. The "smart money" knows this—family offices and institutional investors are shifting more capital into alternative investments and early-stage ventures, drawn by higher return potential and attractive valuations. Just as Facebook, Uber, and Tesla rose from the dot-com bust, the next generation of unicorns may just be breaking ground—and we’re watching closely.
📢 Stay in the Loop!
We’ve got a big year ahead, and this newsletter is just the beginning!
📌 Coming Next Month: "2025: The Year AI Commercialization Takes Off? – a Deep Dive into DeepSeek"
Stay tuned for venture insights and events!
Here’s to an incredible 2025—we’re so glad to have you on this journey with us.
Cheers,
The INP Capital Team
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