PitchBook News - When VC goes overboard

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The Weekend Pitch

January 8, 2023

Presented by Deloitte

(Caroline Suttie/PitchBook News)

When it comes to startups, having a diverse and experienced board of directors can be a key factor to success.

As we head into this new year, the general consensus in the VC world is that funding will be harder to come by and times will be leaner in terms of running a business. Having a strong board with a big name on it is likely to come in handy both in terms of expertise and optics.

But what happens when one of those board members is also a member of a dozen others?

Overboarding, as the practice of accumulating board memberships is known, has been on many minds recently, particularly with publicly listed companies, which are taking a stance against it. According to PwC's 2022 Annual Corporate Directors survey, nearly half of respondents stated that an independent director shouldn't hold more than three board seats.

Loading up on directorships isn't unusual in the venture world. Around 15% of VC investors who have board seats hold more than four, according to PitchBook data. Examples include Khosla Ventures co-founder Samir Kaul, who holds 19 board positions according to his LinkedIn profile, and Index Ventures partner Mike Volpi, who is on 16 boards.

This is The Weekend Pitch, and I'm Leah Hodgson. You can reach me at leah.hodgson@pitchbook.com or on Twitter @LeahFHodgson.

Trivia

Generative AI funding deals have been the focus of a lot of attention in recent years, and deal value in the sector has risen steadily since 2017. As of Dec. 23, 2022, what was the combined value of funding rounds for generative AI startups?

A) $1.14 billion
B) $845 million
C) $1.37 billion
D) $2.01 billion

Find your answer at the bottom of The Weekend Pitch!

A Tale of Two Trends in VC

(Genja/shutterstock)

Ready to be done with 2022? Not so fast. Q4 saw ups and downs and was a tale of two trends: While VC exit activity continued its steep decline—dipping below $10 billion for the first time since 2013—fundraising reached new highs, topping $162.6 billion to mark the second consecutive year exceeding $150 billion.

What's behind these opposing trends? Our first look at our upcoming PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor has the data on deals, exits and fundraising for the year. It was the best times, it was … the strangest of times.

A field guide for tech's
next supercycle

(Shutter_M/Shutterstock)

What comes after SaaS, smartphones and social media? In some ways, more of the same—the postdigital era will remain very digital, writes Paul Condra, head of Emerging Tech Research at PitchBook.

But the growth drivers of the past decade are maturing, and a new cycle of innovation is underway. It will be distinct from the last because technology, politics and economics are adding new ingredients to the cauldron of innovation.

Wrapping up December

(Pedro Talens/Shutterstock)

Before diving headfirst into the new year, it's important to take a minute to look at where we came from.

From major deals and unicorn creation to largest IPOs and returns across indexes and sectors, our latest Global Markets Snapshot has the datasets that PitchBook's Institutional Research team kept an eye on to understand the state of global equity, debt and commodities markets in December.

Want a sneak peek? US and European stock indexes bucked positive trends to end the month down, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rounded out the year above the line.

Quote/Unquote

"This is dysfunctional, and I hate it myself. I can understand if the public does, too."

—US Rep.-elect Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, on the election for US House speaker, as quoted by The New York Times.

Stay tuned

Keep an eye out for these insights and research reports coming out this week.

Agtech, Fintech and Mobility Tech Public Company Comp Sheet and Valuation Guides

Grid Storage Beyond Lithium

2023 PitchBook Benchmarks (as of Q2 2022)

Q4 2022 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor

2022 Annual US PE Breakdown

Private Market Infrastructure

Trivia

(Je-nar/Shutterstock)

Answer: C)

Through Dec. 23, 2022, there were 78 generative AI funding rounds for a combined value of $1.37 billion.

This edition of The Weekend Pitch was written by Leah Hodgson and Chris Noble. It was edited by Chris Noble and John Moore.

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