Veligera

XtraLit attracts Korean investors

XtraLit has received a $15 million investment from a public Korean company, G&One Energy.

The companies are now planning to organize a joint production facility for lithium extraction from the waters used in the geothermal energy production process.

XtraLit passed the competitive selection for the Chilean business accelerator

XtraLit became the winner of the SQM Lithium Ventures program competition. The goal of the SQM accelerator, created under the largest lithium mining corporation in Chile, is to find a technological partner for lithium extraction using DLE technology.

The Republic of Chile ranks the world second in terms of Li production and third in terms of global reserves.

XtraLit is the only winning company with DLE technology out of 160 submitted projects.

The excitement around AI is returning interest in investing in High-tech

Against the background of increased interest in AI technology, many analysts, including Bank of America chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett, note an increase in investments in private and public technology companies.

The growth of the NASDAQ-100 and S&P 500 indices since the beginning of 2023 only confirms the opinion of experts.

We are closely following the trend of market recovery in High-tech companies, with AI remaining the key driver.

How Companies Go Public through IPOs

In 2022, more than 440 companies entered the US stock exchanges through the IPO procedure, S**C is not taken into account in this number. Only 38% of these company's shares are trading this year at prices higher than the placement prices. The most impressive amount of funds in the framework of the IPO attracted the manufacturer of electric vehicles Rivian Automotive — almost $ 12 billion.

Obtaining funds for the further development is the main goal pursued by companies when they decide to issue shares for public sale. There is serious work and tangible expenses behind the successful entry into the stock exchange.

The process of IPO — the Initial Public Offering of shares, for the acquisition of an unlimited number of persons, is usually divided into several stages.

The lithium-ion battery market expects multiple growth in the coming years

The growing global demand for electricity, the development of renewable energy sources, the spread of electric motors - these processes pose a especially acute issue of energy storage and storage in the modern energy sector.

Almost no alternative solution at the moment is the technology of lithium-ion batteries, the demand for them is growing constantly. According to Professor Rashid Yazami (Singapore), a member of the international committee of the Global Energy Prize, director of KVI Holdings, the global production of lithium-ion batteries can grow fivefold. In 2020, it was 325 GWh, by 2025 it will reach 800 GWh, and by 2030 — 1650 GWh.

Rystad Energy gives even higher figures and predicts an increase in global demand for batteries from 580 GWh in 2021 to 9 terawatt-hours in 2030.

The main catalyst for growth will be the transition to electric cars by 2030-2040. The one third of the increase in demand will be provided by the renewable energy sector.

The development of the industry and related technologies goes in three main directions:
- lithium mining;
- production of lithium-ion batteries;
- efficient energy storage - increasing the power of the batteries themselves.

is the field of cybersecurity gaining popularity among investors?

In 2022, the information security market beat a number of historical records:
the global volume of venture investments in cybersecurity reached $21.8 billion, showing an increase of 2.5 per year;
10 companies have received the status of "unicorns", stepping over the assessment of $1 billion;
the total amount of investment transactions amounted to $77.5 billion.

According to experts, 2023 will be another year of achievements: the rapid growth of ratings and the number of “unicorns” will continue.

The company's entry into the stock exchange is an important and expected event for an investor. After becoming public, the company gets access to capital, acquires a certain status and becomes famous. The income of business shareholders, especially in the field of Pre-IPO investments, largely depends on how this process will take place.

The most well-known way to enter the stock exchange is an initial public offering, or IPO. A comparatively complex, lengthy and costly process for companies.

Faced with IPO problems, some projects and their investors are exploring alternatives to this method: S**C (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) and direct listing.

Each method has something that attracts investors, and something that carries additional risks. When do projects choose to use dummy companies, and when do they make a direct public offer on the stock exchange? Which well-known brands have recently chosen alternative IPO options?

Meet Alexander Nikolaev - our commercial director!

He’s an entrepreneur, speaker, and executive with over 10 years of experience in high-tech and online media companies. Alexander is the co-founder and managing partner of a multiscreen platform for broadcasting and watching TV channels.

He has been engaged in venture capital investments since 2016. And now he’s focused on technology startups and is constantly on the lookout for the next big thing. Whether it's identifying promising startups or helping to guide them to success, Alexander's experience and expertise are second to none.

He’s a sought-after speaker and has been invited to speak at conferences and events all over the world. His insights and advice are highly respected by industry leaders and startup founders alike.

If you have any questions to Alexander, you’re welcome to ask them in the comments!

The VC market has faced a decline in investor confidence leading to limited growth rounds and lower valuations for seed and series A rounds. Despite this, VC funds managed to raise an impressive $151 billion in the first three quarters of the year, surpassing previous full-year fundraising records. This funding has been concentrated in a smaller number of larger funds, but even new fund managers have shown resilience.

Read more in our carousel.

Why you should not be afraid to invest in private companies
The cyclical nature of the economy, the alternation of ups and downs of stock markets: how these processes affect public and private companies, explains Oleg Kuzmin, a leading analyst at Veligera Capital Fund.

AI in Human Resources Management: Europe's most expensive startup and the world's largest internal communications company

The global human capital management market will grow from $22.3 billion in 2021 to $32 billion by 2026 with an average annual growth rate of 7.5% — this calculation was published by the analytical publication Reportlinker. The main growth factors are the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies into human resources management (HR) processes.
For HR specialists, AI opens up opportunities to save time and increase productivity. The HR management sector is also a "promising market" for hundreds of startups in the field of HR and artificial intelligence.

Read more in our carousel.

Virtual Reality Industry: what will become the driver of explosive growth in the next decade

According to the forecast that was published by Bloomberg in June 2022, the augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) market will reach $454.73 billion by 2030 with an average annual growth rate of 40.7%.
At the same time, PwC predicts that virtual reality will become the fastest growing segment from 2020 to 2025 among all traditional and digital content formats.

Almost every third American already owns an AR/VR device, 15% are planning such a purchase in 2022. The total number of virtual reality users worldwide has reached 171 million.

Individual industries and trends will set the pace for the further spread of virtual and augmented reality, attracting significant investments in the development of immersive technologies.

The world of entertainment

Computer games are becoming more and more interactive. Developers use AR and VR technologies to create realistic images with sound and other sensory capabilities. Augmented reality and virtual settings simulating a physical experience allow gamers to play in a multidimensional space and control it with the help of their body movements.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the priority of digital communication not only for professional contacts, but also for entertainment. In particular, football fans appreciated the opportunity to watch live broadcasts of sports events in 360 O format without leaving home. At the same time, augmented reality in online mode will provide the user with information about weather conditions, the speed and trajectory of the ball, the player's track record, and so on. The same applies to music shows, theatrical performances, concerts and amusement parks.

The growing possibilities of immersion in virtual characters will significantly contribute to the growth of the augmented and virtual reality market during the forecast period.

Retail and e-commerce

The pandemic caused a sharp turn in the culture of online shopping, and the bans imposed on fitting and returning goods forced sellers to think about how to help buyers make a choice. Augmented reality technologies have allowed to "revive" goods with the help of smartphones and give consumers the opportunity to try them out before buying. Bright examples of AR in the e-commerce sector are the Loreal application, which helps customers virtually try on makeup, and Lenskart, which allows customers to determine how glasses will look on them. Further development of immersive technologies will allow testing large equipment and trying on furniture in a virtual interior. According to experts, such opportunities will actively stimulate the market to move forward.

Education and development of new skills

Holographic 3D models and VR tours of historical monuments, remote places improve learning outcomes in school classrooms. AR and VR in higher education allow students to quickly understand abstract concepts and gain practical experience in VR modeling with minimal risks. Moreover, training flights in virtual reality provide realistic training for pilots without putting their lives in danger. It is expected that due to the improvement of the quality of medical education using 3D models, the safe development of procedures and manipulations, healthcare will become one of the main sectors that have benefited from virtual reality. A 2019 study published in The Bone & Joint Journal showed that virtual reality training improves the surgical effectiveness of total hip arthroscopy by 83%, which is a significant result.

Intelligent production

Car manufacturers are implementing virtual reality to reduce the time between the initial design and the creation of a physical model. The need to create a material prototype completely disappears. Engineers and technicians receive information and access to model management in the augmented reality interface. The use of digital doubles in production allows them to visualize local defects and problems much faster. Dangerous scenarios can be easily reproduced, and the risks are subsequently eliminated.

Companies combine AR/VR technologies to optimize and maintain production. The use of augmented reality allows them to attract less engineers to manage factories and equipment located in different locations. Smart helmets help to understand drawings and complex instructions, increasing the overall efficiency of employees. For example, the global consumer goods manufacturer Unilever has implemented an AR solution at one of its European plants. That solution allows production technicians to work remotely with experts. Field specialists can share their vision of the situation with a remote engineer in order to quickly and promptly respond to the problem and optimize the workflow. As a result, Unilever announced that it had achieved a halving of the downtime of the production plant.

Over the past few years, we have seen that augmented and virtual reality are increasingly being used in healthcare and trade, in entertainment and media, in manufacturing and the aerospace industry, in the defense sector and education. It seems that in the near future there will hardly be an industry where they will not use virtuality.

Veligera Capital Fund invests in XtraLit

XtraLit owns an innovative technology for the direct lithium extraction (DLE) from salt lakes, associated oil waters and geothermal sources. The company's activities are aimed at solving the problem of lithium deficiency. The active development of electric transport creates a growing demand for this metal — 74% of lithium goes to the production of batteries.

The limited supply of lithium and the rapidly growing demand for it have already led to a 10-fold increase in prices for the metal itself over the past year and a half. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that the demand for lithium by 2040 will grow 42 times compared to 2020. Currently, lithium is mined using spodumene ores (Australia - China) and saturated salt brines (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia). It is impossible to quickly increase production with the use of current technologies, and in 20 years the lithium resources will be exhausted.

The XtraLit solution allows to increase production by deploying DLE technology on the basis of existing enterprises (oil, chemical), as well as to obtain metal from geothermal sources. The technology is cost-effective and does not harm the environment.

Detailed presentation of the XtraLit project can be found by the link:https://www.veligera.com/documents/xtralit.pdf

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