PitchBook News - Foodtech's road to recovery

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The Daily Pitch: VC

March 8, 2023

The Daily Pitch is powered by PitchBook’s industry-defining research and best-in-class data

In today's Daily Pitch, you'll find:

From generative AI in restaurants to food production in space, our latest report explores VC trends and opportunities in foodtech.

A look at the 10 most active PE investors in the European food and beverage sector.

Salesforce's VC arm has raised a $250 million fund for generative AI—its largest fund yet.

Today's Top Stories

Generative AI takes a bite out of foodtech

Foodtech VC funding is finally on the road to recovery. After three quarters of declines, deal value stabilized in Q4 2022, and the sector notched its second-largest quarterly deal count on record.

Bioengineered foods was the only segment to see positive year-over-year growth in Q4, but PitchBook analysts expect investment across foodtech to fully recover as broader market conditions improve.

Our latest Emerging Tech Research details recent VC activity in foodtech and ranks the most active accelerators, PE and VC investors, and strategic acquirers in the sector. The report also highlights emerging opportunities in sugar alternatives, generative AI in the food industry and food production in space.

read the preview

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Drive Capital launches seed program in 5 non-coastal cities

(Dmitrijs Kaminskis/Shutterstock)

Today, Ohio-based Drive Capital announced an $80 million program that will invest in startups across five developing tech hubs: Chicago, Atlanta, Columbus, Denver and Toronto.

Chris Olsen, Drive's co-founder, is convinced that migration away from the coasts will give rise to strong tech companies. Indeed, PitchBook data shows that in 2022, VC activity in the 30 states where Drive invests held up better than the broader US VC ecosystem.

Recommended Reads

AI startups are making significant technological advancements, but can they actually make investors money? [Financial Times]

From embroidery to aviation, a surprising number of industries still rely on the floppy disk—and they're running out. [Wired]

As Lego expands into video games and taps the Chinese market, it's further outpacing its rivals. [The Wall Street Journal]

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The Daily Benchmark: 2011 Vintage Global Funds-of-Funds

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VC Deals

Noema Pharma, a Swiss biotech company that focuses on central nervous system disorders, has raised 103 million Swiss francs (around $108 million) in a Series B led by Forbion and Jeito Capital.

Marketing software specialist SOCi has secured a $120 million investment led by JMI Equity.

The Believer Company, a game studio led by former Riot Games VP Michael Chow, has landed a $55 million Series A led by Lightspeed. Andreessen Horowitz also participated, among others.

Threecolts, which designs software for ecommerce businesses, has raised $90 million led by Crossbeam Venture Partners and General Global Capital. The funding includes a Series A as well as a pre-A investment and some debt, TechCrunch reported.

Biopharmaceutical startup Lenz Therapeutics has secured an $83.5 million Series B led by Sectoral Asset Management.

Plus One Robotics, which makes robotics systems for use in logistics, has raised a $50 million Series C led by Scale Venture Partners.

Motive Ventures has led an €11 million Series A for NX Technologies, a German provider of a digital payment management platform.

Unitary has secured $8 million from Plural and angel investors. The startup offers contextual AI technology to automate content moderation.

Switzerland's Relai, which offers a bitcoin investment app, has raised $4.5 million in a round led by Ego Death Capital.

Trawa, the provider of a renewable energy purchasing platform, has raised €2.4 million led by Speedinvest and Magnetic.

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PE Deals

Apollo Global Management, Ares Management and Blackstone, among others, are expected to grant a record-setting $5.5 billion direct loan to The Carlyle Group, the Financial Times reported. Carlyle plans to use the loan to acquire a 50% stake in Veritas Capital-backed healthtech company Cotiviti.

TPG has bid $1.22 billion to take over InvoCare, an Australian funeral services provider. TPG has already acquired a 17.8% stake in the Australian Securities Exchange-listed company.

UK fashion brand In The Style is proposing to sell its only operating subsidiary for £1.2 million to Baaj Capital so it can avoid bankruptcy.

CVC Capital Partners is taking a 20% stake in the Women's Tennis Association for $150 million, Sky News reported. The deal will value WTA at $750 million.

UK-listed oil and gas service company Wood Group has rejected the latest buyout proposal from Apollo Global Management, saying the firm undervalued it. The offer, Apollo's fourth, valued the company at 237 pence per share, a 3% increase from their previous proposal.

Communications solutions provider Pavion, formerly known as Corbett Technology Solutions, has acquired enterprise security company Netronix as part of a strategy to deepen its security integration.

CI Capital Partners has sold business event management company PRA to EagleTree Capital. Since CI Capital first acquired PRA from Core Capital Partners in 2017, the events business closed nine add-on acquisitions.

Blue Sage Capital and Insight Equity have invested in Clearly Clean Products, a Pennsylvania-based plastic food packaging manufacturer.

Enterprise software-focused firm Luminate Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Ease Inc., which makes auditing software for manufacturing plants.

Exit & IPOs

Japanese marketing giant Dentsu has struck a £533 million deal to buy Tag, a UK-headquartered content production group backed by Advent International, The Guardian reported. Tag is a subsidiary of Williams Lea, which Advent acquired in 2017.

Riverstone Holdings-backed Carrier Energy Partners II, an upstream oil and gas company, has sold a stake in an Eagle Ford Shale play in south Texas for $145 million.

KKR has sold four self-storage properties located in Austin, Phoenix and Riverside, California for roughly $80 million, in two separate transactions.

Fundraising

Stockholm-based Node Ventures has launched its debut fund with a target of 800 million Swedish kronor (around $76 million). The vehicle will be used to back early-stage startups in the Nordic region in areas including deep tech, platform technology and digital entertainment.

Chart of the Day

Source: PitchBook's 2023 Nordic Private Capital Breakdown

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PitchBook News - Foodtech's road to recovery

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