Best Nights VC invests in startups combatting our “epidemic of loneliness”

“Loneliness is a huge epidemic that people are suffering from, and lots of companies are trying to conquer this,” says Andrea Rosen, portfolio manager at Best Nights VC (BNVC), the venturing arm of German spirit maker Mast-Jägermeister. “Anything that is leveraging tech and platforms for people to engage from online to offline is definitely what we’re interested in.”

Four years ago, the Covid pandemic led to a sharp rise in online socialising, bringing with it a rise in social isolation that society is still dealing with. Now, says Rosen, the move from offline to online is seeing a slow, but steady, reversal, and Best Nights is backing companies that are part of this trend.

“What we are investing in is the engagement from online to offline. We’re making sure that there is this asset where people can and have the mechanisms to come back full circle to actually meeting up again.”

BNVC’s portfolio includes startups like Thursday – a dating app that only works on Thursdays, the day of the week other than the weekend that people are most likely to go out – as well as LGBTQ-focused groups and events app Lex, and Gen-Z social app 222. All leverage technology to help people meet in the real world and, in a way, relearn the art of meeting people face-to-face.

Rosen believes that apps that straddle online and offline meetings have a higher chance of success relative to other social media.

“When we look at the past and we look at social media, everything was more going towards the masses. How can we connect the masses? How can we connect everyone? It’s not about connecting everyone with what we’re looking at now. It’s about connecting people who are like-minded,” she says.

Investing in culture

Any investor needs to know their market — the trends, where the demand is, what’s no longer sought after. For BNVC, the market is culture itself.

Other CVCs may invest along their own supply chain — which for Jägermeister would be food and beverage — but BNVC invests in the places that you might see the parent company’s alcoholic liqueurs. In other words, it invests in culture and nightlife.

“The beauty of what we do isn’t rocket science. I think it comes down to the fact that most of the companies that we’re already looking to invest in have sort of that cultural power. We’re looking for ones that are revolutionising the future of nightlife and bringing those social interactions,” she says.

“We’ve been in business for so long that we have this whole nightlife network. There’s so many synergies that we can offer [startups].”

To stay on top of culture, you really have to love it and – perhaps more importantly – live it. Being an active musician and DJ herself, Rosen has a direct line into where things seem to be heading.

“We can discuss reporting, but at the same time, we can also say, hey let’s go to this club or let me help you with this network, or let me bring this to you,” she says. “I think that this is something that you’ll see as a pattern in our fund – we’re all people that really respect nightlife and culture and love being out.”

Startups that BNVC has backed include the likes of speaker manufacturer Soundboks, event planning marketplace Together, customised group travel company TourHero, “create-it-yourself” experience platform Realtainment and festival app platform Woov, among others.

A shifting nightscape

The nightlife economy is facing some challenges. Higher costs of living and economic uncertainty have led to decreased attendance at nightclubs and bars, as younger people are leaning towards smaller gatherings in house party environments, or outdoor events.

“We see that the trend is not that [nightlife] is just suffering, but also that it’s evolving. As they say, if you can’t beat them, join them. And I think we’re going to be seeing this a lot with the trends as well as the companies that are trying to engage in nightlife. They’re going to just have to engage differently,” says Rosen.

People don’t stop spending money altogether, they just spend it differently. They still want to spend time with their friends, just in different places than before.

Impact

So how do you assess the potential cultural impact a startup can have? True to its name, the unit looks for how many “best nights” and experiences its startups can provide. That measure varies from company to company.

“We’re looking at their social impact, not just the financial impact,” says Rosen. “Just in 2023, our 14 portfolio companies across seven countries provided almost 22 million people with a best night.”

Rosen doesn’t see these “best nights” as simply a hedonistic pursuit. The quality of a city’s nightlife, she says, has implications for its economy.

“We look at nightlife as a strategic asset. We’re looking at how it makes it essential for cities to be competitive, or even attractive for top talent,” says Rosen. “We’re looking at how we can foster this cultural impact and how our companies foster this impact by supporting spaces and experiences that bring people together, even empowering idea exchange and community building.”