Hello, I'm Emily. Welcome to Tech World, your quick roundup of some the top technology news
stories from across the globe.
This month, we have a $200m funding round, a controversial resignation, the return of
Google Glass and more. For this episode’s Hot Topic interview, we spoke with Richard
Goold from EY about exit strategy.
Indoor farming startup Plenty raised a whopping $200m investment round led by SoftBank Vision
Fund. The funds will help Plenty roll out its vertical indoor farms globally. The farms
can reportedly produce crops at yields 530 times greater than that of a typical field.
July was also the month Dave McClure resigned as general partner of 500 Startups. The news
followed the publication of a New York Times report claiming he had sent inappropriate
messages to a female entrepreneur.
Vantiv is to buy UK payment processing firm Worldpay for £3.85 per share, which works
out at around £7.7bn. The exact pricing will depend on Vantiv’s share price when the
deal closes. Assuming the deal does go through, the company will be run by two CEOs and be
co-headquartered between London and Ohio.
Uber has formed a partnership with Yandex, the Russian search giant and operator of the
ride-hailing service Yandex.Taxi. The companies will combine their taxi services in Russia
and several other Eastern European countries under a new, yet-to-be-named company.
Meanwhile, Google Glass is back. The tech behemoth's smart glasses weren’t well received
at all when they went on sale in 2014, but the firm has released a new version nonetheless.
This time, they’ve released Glass Enterprise Edition, a version aimed not at consumers,
but at workers.
That’s it for our top global tech news roundup, but keep watching to see this episode’s
Hot Topics interview.
We spoke with Richard Goold from EY about exit strategy.
Hi Rich, thanks for joining us. So we're going to speak about exit strategy today. So first
of all can you tell us what the different types of exit are?
So most people think of an exit as a private sale to a strategic buyer, but there are IPOs
and we're beginning to see some IPOs coming back into the market again, but also increasingly
we're seeing partial exits, because growth-stage investors come in and can buy part of an entrepreneur's
stake.
Should exit be the ultimate goal for all tech founders?
Well it's certainly true that some entrepreneurs build their companies to sell them, but not
all of them. I think many entrepreneurs just want to build a company that's going to change
the world and do something really exciting. In fact, most of the biggest exits are in
that second category.
And at what point should founders plan for an exit?
So I think, in many ways, planning starts from day one. You need to have your house
in good order and you need to have the systems and governance in place so that if an acquisition
were to happen, a buyer wouldn't find problems and, really, the relationships are fundamental,
because many companies get sold to a company they have had a relationship with for a very
long time. So building strategic relationships early is key for every entrepreneur.
So once a firm feels like it's at the stage where it wants to exit, and it's going through
the process, how do they then decide on the best buyer?
Well, some of it is just around money, but a lot of it is around culture as well. Your
investors, your advisers are going to have a view, but ultimately, an entrepreneur typically
wants to have their company – their baby – be successful in someone else's hands.
So finding some form of meeting of minds around the cultures is really important.
And how can a company know when it's the right time for them to exit?
Well, I think there's a lot of touch and feel around that and, again, some of that will
go to what your investors think, but taking a lot of advice – taking advice from your
advisory board or the broader professional services community is important. I think much
of it is driven around what they buyers want, though, and the buyer's timing. And to get
the best value, what you really want to do is get your startup just at the front of an
innovation cycle. Because, typically, in a new area, the best values are always going
to be paid for early acquisitions in any new technology area.
Ok, fantastic, thank you Richard.
Great to see you.
That’s all for this episode. Thanks for watching and see you next time.