The post-pandemic world is a tantalizing mix of new challenges and opportunities for startups. Both VCs and founders have to react fast to the new environment. They’ve switched from their growth hats last year to multi-hued adaptation hats.
Take the case of Vertex Ventures, which has funds in the US, Israel, China, India and Southeast Asia. It led a series A+ funding round of $8.9 million in Malaysian startup StoreHub in January, before Covid-19 was declared a pandemic. StoreHub, whose cloud-based POS (point of sale) system helps restaurants and retailers digitize business, was serving 13,000 customers across Southeast Asia and wanted to use the capital to push expansion.