Maha Ibrahim on fintech
From ANGEL: Canaan’s Maha Ibrahim on fund sizing, distribution strategies & early VC days | E1687 · · ThisWeekinStartups
“A lot of the financial services investments that have been born out of low interest rate environments are not sustainable businesses in higher interest rate environments.”
On , Maha Ibrahim, Partner at Canaan Partners at Canaan Partners, spoke about fintech during ANGEL: Canaan’s Maha Ibrahim on fund sizing, distribution strategies & early VC days | E1687 on ThisWeekinStartups.
About Maha Ibrahim
Maha Ibrahim, a general partner at Canaan Partners, discussed her experience in venture capital and the firm's investment strategies on the podcast *ANGEL* in February 2023. Ibrahim noted that her first day at Canaan was March 23, 2000, and that "about two weeks later we went into a nuclear winter for several more years." She stated that Canaan is a series A investor and that by the time a company goes public, the firm has typically been involved for seven to twelve years. Ibrahim said that after a company goes public, Canaan aims to "get off the board within a year" to distribute or sell stock, adding that "our job is to put money back in the hand of our limited partners; it's not to sit on public stock." Ibrahim commented on the venture capital environment, stating that "we as a venture class made the bet that a low interest rate environment was going to last for a decade plus as opposed to the door being shut in 2022." She said that "a lot of the financial services investments that have been born out of low interest rate environments are not sustainable businesses in higher interest rate environments." Ibrahim also said that when she has lost money, "it's almost always not because the founder sucked or the tech sucked — it's because I got the timing wrong." She expressed bullishness on security, workforce management, and education technology, stating that "EdTech needs to be disrupted in a big, big way."