In April, the team at Labster announced they had closed a $21 million Series B, led by Owl Ventures, with participation from Balderton, Northzone, Swisscom Ventures and existing investors.

Labster provides fully interactive virtual laboratory simulations for students from all over the world to explore lab experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and general sciences at their own pace. Labster's groundbreaking simulations have been proven to increase participation in STEM curricula, while simultaneously increasing learning outcomes and improving retention rates.

On the announcement, Lars said, "Labster is making STEM education more easily accessible and engaging for students around the globe by providing unique, interactive experiences in laboratory environments that are typically inaccessible to most people."

Read more about the announcement on Balderton's site, and in TechCrunch.

Build with Balderton

The European liquidity gap — why it matters, and how to fix it. Since we launched Europe's first 'secondary' venture fund, Laura has spent 5 months talking to Europe's fastest-scaling, growth-stage startups. See what she's learnt about startups and the need for liquidity.

You can also read Laura's guide for how executives should think about timing, structuring and executing a secondary transaction here.

Scaling your brand — lessons from the experts. In April, in partnership with JamJar Investments, we welcomed a full house to Balderton HQ to discuss scaling a startup brand, with panellists including Richard Reed, the former founder and co-CEO of Innocent Drinks; Russell Davies, the CMO of Bulb; and Peter Semple, the CMO of Depop. The event was moderated by Balderton's Isabel Bescos, the former head of strategy at BlaBlaCar.

Read a summary of these brand experts' point of view here.

Events at Balderton this month

Going Global — What it takes — shared experiences from European tech leaders

Bernard Liautaud - Going global, what it takes

Last month, we welcomed entrepreneurs and investors to portfolio company Aircall's office in Paris to discuss what it takes for startups to go global. Bernard and Suranga were joined by portfolio company executives Poppy Gustafsson, CEO of Darktrace, Max Bittner, CEO of Vestiaire Collective and Laurent Bride, CTO and COO of Talend.

See photos and a summary of the discussion here and read Caye's Medium post.

SEO London alums come to Balderton

We were also delighted to welcome alums from SEO London to Balderton HQ in April, to learn about the venture industry and learn more about career opportunities.

Catch the Balderton team at the following events

3rd May - Suranga will be delivering the keynote at the 15th anniversary of London Business School's MultipleX
7th May - Lars will be judging the LBS Launchpad final in London
7th May - Magda will be meeting startups in the FTMO Accelerator
9th May - Magda will be at the Maria 01 Nordic Scalers event
10th May - Daniel and Laura will be at the J.P. Morgan Technology Innovation Symposium
13th May - Rob will be speaking an Economist event, on "Are corporates the new startups," in London
15th May - Caye and Maxime will be hosting an exclusive VivaTech pre-launch event with our friends at 50Partners, with speakers discussing 'Building a winning team - what it takes.' The event will be an opportunity for networking and cocktails with your peers at 50Partners' 'Le Loft'. Please email Caye if you wish to attend.
16th May - Laura will be speaking on the Startup Stage at VivaTech on 'Finding a Golden Needle in a Haystack,' on how venture firms scout for deals
16th - 18th May - Laura, Caye and Maxime will all be at VivaTech, meeting startups and judging the Female Founder entrants
17th May - Bernard will be speaking on Stage One at VivaTech, with Nik Storonsky of Revolut and Melanie Perkins of Canva, on the topic 'Building Unicorns Outside Silicon Valley'
3rd - 4th June - Magda will be at Nordic Next
6th - 7th June - Caye will be at the Lisbon Investor Summit
12th-13th June - Caye will be at SaaStra Europa, Paris
13th - 14th June - Laura, Rob and Colin will be at NOAH Berlin

Highlights from the news this month

Our portfolio companies

Rachel Swidenbank, vice president of Marketplace at Depop, spoke to Business Insider about how they have managed to create a retail experience which perfectly aligns with Gen Z's shopping habits.

Charlie Delingpole of ComplyAdvantage talked to Forbes about the importance of mentors and people you can trust for good advice, what what biographies he recommends to students.

Handelsblatt wrote about how Maximilian Bittner, CEO of Vestiaire Collective, is driving the platform's expansion into the US and Asia.

Luke Lang of Crowdcube wrote an article for The Telegraph about how digital banks are ushering in the 'age of the consumer," and why crowdfunding and fintech make good bedfellows.

Darktrace was listed by the Financial Times as one of Europe's top ten fastest growing companies.

The Balderton team

Lars contributed his thoughts to a piece in the Financial Times 'How Uber Changed Silicon Valley,' commenting on the positive impact ex-Uber employees are having the tech ecosystem. “A decade from now I believe the value and societal impact of companies founded by ex-Uber employees will surpass that of all the companies founded to date by ex-employees of FAANG companies [Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google]. Their unique experience at Uber has encouraged those founders to tackle enormous challenges that will transform society.”

Bernard wrote a piece for Les Echos about going global from the beginning. "Start-up : viser l'international, dès les premiers pas."

Bernard was interviewed by Challenges on the future for French startups. "L'investisseur Bernard Liautaud veut secouer les start-up françaises."

Alice wrote for UKTN on how, and when, to choose a PR comms agency for your Series A startup.

Balderton is hiring

Want to join the Balderton team? We have positions open. Apply on our Workable portal here.

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