Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of December 26, 2022. CyberCube Raised $50M Series C

Yes, it's that time of the year again.  Really really quiet week in Silicon Valley in terms of funding and M&A events...  But not so quiet on the other side of the world.  I am back in Hong Kong then onto Singapore for the holidays. It's so beautiful here when the city's buildings all compete in a battle for the grandest, brightest, and wackiest displays. Everyone in Hong Kong is dying to come out after three years of COVID lockdown.  Excitement and hope are in the air. =) 

This will be the very last newsletter of 2022. The year was not a great for tech and venture, but I am hopeful for 2023 but with great caution. Hope all of you can take sometimes to reflect, reset, think, set goals and get ready for 2023. Onward and forward!  

Here are a few great reads for this week:

• 💰💰 State of the Enterprise M&A Markets - Coupa Software to Be Acquired by Thoma Bravo for $8 Billion.  This will be the beginning of a tidal wave of private equity acquiring SaaS companies.  I really like David Sacks comment on this acquisition in terms of setting a benchmark on how much PE firms are paying for public SaaS companies right now.  At $8 billion, Thoma Bravo is paying $81 per share in cash (a 77% premium to the unaffected stock price).  8.4X of next 12-months forward revenue. 10.4X of the last 12 months trailing revenue. Their recorded 2022 revenue was $725 Million, 34% year-over year growth. The public company multiple seems so much lower than expectations of private company founders (usually 20-50X or even 100X in 2021).  Listen to David Sacks' comments on All-In podcast. 
• ⬇⬇Q3 2022 Venture Financing Report - The median pre-money valuation for all stages are trending downward. Read more on Cooley. 
  • Series D or later - $3.5 billion in May 2022 ⬇ $527 million in September 2022
  • Series C - $502 million in June 2022 ⬇ $130 million in September 2022,
  • Series B - $164 million in June 2022 ⬇ $90 million in September 2022
  • Series A - $58 million in June 2022 ⬇ $45 million in September 2022
  • Seed - $18.6 million in June 2022 ⬇ $17.6 million in September 2022
• 🤓 I just used #ChatGPT to build my 2023 travel list. Check out my video on Twitter.
  • 1. Build a list of top 10 most populated cities in the world
  • 2. Convert the list to JSON
  • 3. Convert to CSV file
• 🇨🇳 China estimates 250M people have caught Covid in 20 days  Chinese officials estimate about 250M people, or 18% of the population, were infected with Covid-19 in the first 20 days of December, as Beijing abruptly dismantled restrictions that had contained the disease for almost three years. The estimates — including 3M people, or 2.6% of the population, who were infected on Tuesday alone.  My friends in China are pretty either sick or depressed at home right now.  Read more.
• 📚 Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell - Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone and Nest.  My favorite quote > "Adulthood is your opportunity to screw up continually until you learn how to screw up a little bit less." Good read for the holidays. =) Check it out on Amazon or Audible. 

See you in 2023 - year of the Rabbit! 🐰! 

This week a total of 6 startups raised $286.4M in funding, 0 M&As:

• $175M goes to 1 Enterprise startup
• $50M goes to 1 InsurTech startup
• $31M goes to 1 Autonomous Vehicles startup
• $18M goes to 1 BioTech startup
• $2.4M goes to 1 Healthcare startup
• $10M goes to 1 Home Tech startup