Umbrex is pleased to welcome Susanne Michelle Gruda with SMG Ventures. Susie has spent the last several years in venture capital and family offices helping to scale portfolio companies and advise on ventures investment decisions. She has also led fundraising ($100M+) for an investment fund and 6 portfolio combines. She has a deep understanding in all things sales, marketing, go-to-market, strategy, fundraising and venture capital. Prior to that, she was Google’s Global Head of ROI, helping Google’s largest clients ($500M+)…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Martin Band. Martin is a Software-as-a-Service growth stage Chief Product Officer, CTO and CEO with experience in over 40 SaaS SMEs, Oracle and Salesforce as well as Boston Consulting Group and Schlumberger. Martin is a leader and enabler of hyper-growth and mentor to entrepreneurs. He has extensive experience with Private Equity / Venture Capital. Martin’s speciality is SaaS product strategy and management and software engineering management. He implements global best practices, tailored to a client’s…

Jay Jung shares a case study on negotiating venture capital term sheets that helped their client increase their valuation by 80% and double the capital raise. Most founders are not deal makers. In contrast, most investors are highly experienced deal makers. One of our Client Companies received a term sheet from a well-known VC in the industry. The VC was the client’s top pick as a potential investor. The Company was very excited; receiving investment from such a prominent firm…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Sertac Yeltekin with Zingforce Ventures. Mr. Sertac Yeltekin is the Founder and Managing Director of Zingforce Ventures “Z-Force”, a firm specialized in venture building, advisory and social finance based in Singapore. He is also the Co-founder and General Partner of Purpose Venture Capital, a firm investing in early stage tech companies with scalable impact prospects. Mr. Yeltekin has 27 years of experience in the financial sector as a senior manager and consultant. He is the Co-Founder…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Odd Utgård with The Real Consultancy.  Odd  spent two years with McKinsey in Oslo following his graduation from the London School of Economics. After McKinsey, he spent several years working with high tech startups and spin-offs from research institutes and universities, before founding the leading Norwegian tech incubator and seed fund – StartupLab. Odd’s key expertise is in growth and strategy, with a keen eye for business improvement opportunities and analytics. He lives in Oslo,…

  Raising venture capital for a startup is not an easy task, however, Jay Jung shares a case study that details the problems involved and the steps taken to ensure successful funding on a non-tech, mid west company seeking investment funding.  Embarc Advisors successfully advised a Client Company, located in the Midwest, with their first external fundraise of $10 million. The Challenge: The Client Company faced numerous challenges in positioning their story and attracting attention from top investors. As an…

  Tommy Kim provides an article that explains the differences between Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC). Private Equity (PE) vs. Venture Capital (VC). You suddenly realize that you are being presented with two similar, yet different types of capital sources. PE and VC investment management businesses offer investors different types of return on capital using unique risk profiles in long-term illiquid assets. Whether you are interested in this side of the business as entrepreneurs and CEOs seeking capital…

  Jay Jung shares a case study that explains how his company helped a client with their fundraising process, and increased their valuation by 80% and doubled the capital raise. One of our clients received a term sheet from a well-known VC in the industry. Our client was very excited as getting an investment from this firm was a strong sense of validation in the industry. However, the valuation was significantly lower than what they were hoping for. The client…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Seline Karakaya with Excelerate Global.  Seline Karakaya is Founder and Managing Director of Excelerate Global, a venture capital and private equity advisory group. In this capacity, Seline has worked with closely with companies ranging from start-ups to multi-nationals to support their growth priorities. She works closely with founders, CEOs, and Boards of Directors—often as an interim CXO—on the most pressing issues, from hiring to pricing, strategy to fundraising, organization to business development. Prior to founding…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Luke Xie with Lux Advisors.  Luke is a former McKinsey Business Analyst with the strategy practice and has been independent consulting since 2013. He has operating experience across early & late stage start-ups including Airbnb, Sentio (consumer hardware), and Coda Automotive (electric vehicles). Luke also has venture capital experience from working at Romulus Capital (early stage) and RocketFuel (blockchain). He has functional expertise in digital strategy, due diligence, entrepreneurship, growth, innovation, and support. Luke lives in Los Angeles…