PitchBook News - Hydrogen's storage dilemma

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The Daily Pitch: VC

April 14, 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:

Our emerging space brief details the challenges and outlook for hydrogen storage.

To close the PE valuation gap, sellers find ways to contribute financing and sweeten deals.

Despite climate tech's rocky start to the year, there are plenty of reasons for optimism.

Today's Top Stories

Squeeze, freeze or bond? Unpacking hydrogen's storage dilemma

Hydrogen has long been viewed as a future fuel thanks to its potential to decarbonize sectors like long-distance transport and high-heat industrial processes. But its physical properties—a little hydrogen takes up a lot of space—make the element a nuisance to store and transport.

Our latest emerging space brief on hydrogen storage details the technological approaches, such as compression, low-temperature liquid storage and chemical carriers, as well as the limitations and outlook for the segment.

read it now

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PE sellers use earnouts, seller's notes to close deals

(Mario7/Shutterstock)

In a cooling deal market, PE buyers have more power to demand attractive terms from sellers, such as deferred payments and earnout provisions.

Market participants say a widening valuation gap, caused by heightened economic uncertainty and a tight credit market, has incentivized sellers to agree to deal sweeteners.

Recommended Reads

How China changed the game for countries in default. [Financial Times]

Warren Buffett wants to hold the executives of failed banks accountable, but his suggestions are unlikely to be popular among his peers. [Fortune]

Why private equity is getting into the business of buying its own debt. [Bloomberg]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

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VC valuations

2514

People

646

Companies

34

Funds

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The Daily Benchmark:
2012 Vintage Global Funds-of-Funds

Median IRR

16.71%

Top Quartile IRR

21.86%

1.93x

Median TVPI

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Industry Ventures Partnership Holdings II-A

Cendana Capital

Schroder Adveq Technology VII

*IRR: net of fees

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People

Spark Capital has hired former OpenAI product head Fraser Kelton as a venture partner focused on early-stage AI startups.

VC Deals

Torl BioTherapeutics, which develops therapeutics for cancer patients, has secured a $158 million Series B led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Alentis Therapeutics, which develops treatments for cancer and fibrotic diseases, has raised a $105 million Series C led by Jeito Capital.

BioVentrix, a medical device company focused on heart failure, has raised a $48.5 million Series A led by Andera Partners.

Biomanufacturing company Wheeler Bio has raised a $31 million Series A led by Charles River Laboratories and Echo.

ThayerMahan, a naval surveillance and defense company, has raised a $30 million Series C led by The Chertoff Group's MC² Security Fund.

LMS365, which offers an online learning management system, has secured $20 million in a round led by Blue Cloud Ventures.

Singular has led a $13 million Series A for Thynk.Cloud, which provides software to the hospitality sector.

Crowd-sourced camera network Natix has raised $3.5 million in a round led by Blockchange Ventures.

Don't miss our upcoming webinar

Amid green shoots of optimism, stubborn economic uncertainty continues to hinder risk markets, leaving issuers, leveraged loan investors and direct lenders scrambling for deals—especially in the M&A landscape. This webinar examines trends defining the leveraged loan, private credit, high-yield bond and CLO ecosystems. Key topics include:

While refinancings have emerged in the US leveraged loan segment, higher-reward LBO and M&A deals remain scarce.

With an overall constraint on issuance, the burgeoning private credit segment is having to become more creative to land deals.

After a grim 2022, the high-yield bond market took flight—but an unsettled inflationary environment could be cause for concern.

Register now to secure your spot.

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PE Deals

IBM is considering selling its weather business, which could be worth more than $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. It is likely a PE firm would be the buyer in the event of a sale.

Clearlake Capital Group and Symphony Technology Group have agreed to sell Archer Technologies, a SaaS integrated risk management provider, to Cinven.

Thoma Bravo is weighing the sale of IT company ConnectWise to another PE firm, with Bain Capital as a front-runner, industry news site CRN reported.

Traub Capital Partners has invested in Sabatino Tartufi, which manufactures and distributes truffle-based products from facilities in Italy and Connecticut.

Metric Capital and Scope have acquired a majority stake in Danish toy-maker Maileg. The co-founders of the company retain a significant stake in the business.

Listed PE firm Foresight has invested £2.5 million in the UK's Sprint Electric. The company designs and manufactures drives for controlling industrial motors.

Exit & IPOs

TotalEnergies is considering a bid for Neptune Energy, which could sell for roughly $5 billion, Bloomberg reported. The London-based oil and gas company has backing from CVC Capital Partners, The Carlyle Group and China Investment Corp.

CVC Capital Partners may sell its 21% stake in Malaysian fast food franchise QSR Brands for 1.2 billion Malaysian ringgit (around $272.6 million), Reuters reported.

Apollo Global Management-backed Italian gambling company Lottomatica has plans to raise €425 million through a Milan IPO this spring.

Fundraising

Lux Capital has closed Lux Ventures VIII on $1.15 billion. The VC firm's largest fund to date, it targets early-stage investments in deep-tech science.

Investment management firm Wellington Management has closed its Biomed II fund with $476 million to invest in next-generation medical treatments.

Mutual life insurance company MassMutual has closed its second MM Catalyst Fund with $100 million to invest in Black-, Latino- and Indigenous-led startups in Massachusetts, as well as startups in overlooked rural areas.

Investors

Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder is reportedly nearing a deal to sell the NFL team to Josh Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, and other investors for $6 billion, which would break a record for the league.

Chart of the Day

Source: Q1 2023 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor

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PitchBook News - Hydrogen's storage dilemma

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