Paul

GP @20VCfund. Obsessed with investing. 2x Father.
Investor in: @SolveIntel @ClickHouseDB @FireworksAI_HQ @FuseEnergy @Rivanindustries @airwallex and more

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@namespacelabs @mintlify 😍 looks pretty slick

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@Benbburman @wolfejosh Thank you for the kind words Ben!

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

Nvidia acquires Hugging Face for ~$12.9bn. But who gets the 💰? My usual breakdown below 👇

*Investors are sharing ~$7.3bn of profits on <$400m invested. A cool ~20x blended.*

*1) The single biggest winner here? Lux Capital.* 👑

Lux is taking the crown for the most $ returned in this transaction. The two rounds they led (Series A & Series C) generated ~$2.6bn combined. They also participated in the Series B.

Congrats to @wolfejosh and team. The $15.0m Series A alone will return ~132.5x the capital invested, or ~$2.0bn. The most lucrative round in absolute $ returned.

*2) Backing an exceptional team paid off with a >1,000x return for Betaworks and the angels* 📈

The story few people know: Hugging Face started life as a chatbot for lonely teenagers... You sent it a selfie and a sad emoji, it told you it understood. Quite far from where it landed!

That is why backing an exceptional team in @ClementDelangue, @Thom_Wolf and @julien_c is always the right thing to do. It paid over 1,000x for Betaworks, Kevin Durant and Thibaud Elziere.

*3) Founders and team are crushing it: not taking too much dilution along the way paid off* 👏

I estimate they will share ~$5bn in proceeds, assuming no secondary was taken along the way. A life changing outcome for them and many employees.

Taking a 15% attributed option pool at exit, this would mean ~$2bn for the team and >$3bn to share for the three co-founders. Legendary!

*4) Salesforce Ventures is cementing its reputation as one of the very best corporate VCs.* 🥇

Salesforce is adding Hugging Face to its long list of successful exits: Snowflake, Zoom, DocuSign, nCino, Auth0... Very few investors can claim as many successes, let alone corporates.

The $235m round they led returned $675m in just three short years. Meanwhile, Salesforce's own stock has been flat for the period. Capital well invested!

*5) This is a little bit of a heartbreak: but I wanted to congratulate @joinstationf here:*

Hugging Face walked into StationF as a 4-person team on day one, June 2017. Back when it was a chatbot for teenagers. They went through multiple corporate programs (Microsoft, Ubisoft, then Naver). Unfortunately they were not investing or taking equity at the time - but they contributed to making it possible. And so for that: hats off.

And of course, congratulations to all others involved: Addition, Sequoia, Coatue and many others. No one will be left out!

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@thogge As you say my friend!

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@Mattisani Soon Insiders x 20VC on the board 🫶🏼

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@goelrishabh @huggingface Yes

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@geoffwoo @breeves08 Yup, bunch of legends at Lux!

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@Jeffreyw5000 @Lux_Capital They are. @wolfejosh and team are absolute legends.

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@dwightchurchill @HarryStebbings It's already a pretty bold claim tbh 😂 But I'll take it

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@launcher_ai @HarryStebbings Also the coolest tbh

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@KrauliCapital @HarryStebbings So we can't appreciate each other's content and help each others as partners? 😂

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@cryptonoobini @HarryStebbings Correct.
Most of the time it turns out it helps to do so ;)

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@HarryStebbings @rodriscoll @jasonlk Incredible show! 🔥

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@roxannevarza @huggingface @joinstationf You WILL get the next one! Just make sure you text me when you see it 😂🙌

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@Thales_deMalet @tiboel Thibaud is a legend. We need more Thibaud's

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@JonathanKam_ @_yaksan Depends where the founders are located :)

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@grantmac_ Team &gt; Idea!

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@suhitanantula Thanks so much man

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@Patrick_Newton1 @KDTrey5 Total legend on and off the court 🏀

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@nielsplanck42 I'M FRENCH DUDE. And I think my investing track record it pretty decent so far :)

[Paul @PaulBonnet]

@reecechowdhry @HarryStebbings convinced me that my messy numbers brain had something to give. Credit to him 🙌

And thank you 💕 To many more deals together!