Connexa Capital is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies with strong business fundamentals and sustainable growth strategies. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Connexa Capital managing partner Jonathan Beda to learn more about the firm.
Jonathan Beda’s Background
What is Jonathan Beda’s background? Beda said:
“I spent several years in business development at Zumba Fitness before leading the company’s first spin-off with Zumbini, an early childhood education concept. While building Zumbini, I began to syndicate investments in venture-backed startups through SPVs, which were comprised of individual members from my network who could add material value to the startups we invested in. Fortunately, this model worked well, as we were able to add material value to our portfolio companies and, ultimately, drive compelling returns for our investors. With Zumbini operating profitably, I stepped back from my operating role and partnered with an experienced group of entrepreneurs in my network to launch Connexa Capital, a new investment firm built to scale the investment strategy we executed with our SPVs.”
Evolution Of Connexa Capital’s Thesis?
How has Connexa’s thesis evolve over time? Beda noted:
“The core tenets of our investment thesis have remained consistent. We have always taken a generalist approach, prioritizing economic fundamentals over any specific industry vertical. We seek to invest in companies that have proven product-market fit and generate attractive and scalable unit economics. Once invested, we seek to add value through our extensive network, augmented by our diverse and experienced group of Executive Partners and Limited Partners. We were originally focused on consumer businesses but have recently prioritized B2B software and tech-enabled services, as scaling consumer businesses has become much more difficult in the wake of a challenging digital marketing environment. However, we remain industry agnostic and are interested in consumer businesses that possess strong and sustainable economic fundamentals.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the firm’s biggest milestones? Beda cited:
“We have recently launched our firm and are excited to have recently announced the closing of our debut fund. We were fortunate to oversubscribe our $20 million fund in a challenging fundraising environment.”
Investment Success Stories
When asking Beda about investment success stories, he highlighted:
“We have had the privilege to work with great entrepreneurs across a variety of industries. While most of our portfolio remains active and unrealized, we have had several portfolio exits, including Home Chef (acquired by Kroger for nearly $700M) and Halo Cars (acquired by Lyft). Several other portfolio companies, including Terra Kaffe and Material Bank, have proceeded to raise additional capital since we invested. Our fund portfolio consists of nine companies that have all recently completed capital raises and have since demonstrated promising growth.”
Differentiation From Other Firms
What differentiates your firm from other firms? Beda concluded:
“We believe most early-stage venture investing is skewed toward qualitative assessment of industry trends and management teams. While these elements are critical, we also rely on data-driven, quantitative financial analysis to inform our investment decisions. I believe we place a disproportionate amount of value on strong economic fundamentals for a firm investing primarily in Seed – Series A rounds. Our firm also benefits from access to an extensive global network of relevant contacts thanks to our experienced and highly engaged group of Executive Partners and Limited Partners. We have and will continue to leverage our network to provide substantial value to our portfolio companies.”
