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PitchBook News - Vice and the fragility of digital media

Plus: AI FOMO and fashion envy at SALT, venture lenders swoop in to save startups, climate tech's rocky ride, fixing the supply chain & more
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The Weekend Pitch
May 21, 2023
Presented by Masterworks
(Joey Schaffer/PitchBook News)
This week, media brand Vice Media filed for bankruptcy. Its downfall is not only a blow to its backers but also underscores the challenges of turning a profit on digital content in an era of rampant disruption.

Vice, which started in the 1990s as a Quebec-based culture magazine, spent the last decade reinventing itself as a digital media empire producing written content, video and podcasts. In 2017, the group—already backed by Disney—raised $450 million from TPG Capital at a $5.7 billion valuation. With its bankruptcy, Vice's creditors, Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management, and Monroe Capital, have agreed to buy the company for $225 million.

The deals come weeks after another digital media group, BuzzFeed, shut down the last of its news department; the parent company revealed it would lean more on AI to generate its content. Given the fate of both companies, potential investors of the next big digital media property will be cautious about the future of the business model and what the next wave of disruption—specifically the rise of AI-generated content—may bring.

This is the Weekend Pitch, and I'm Andrew Woodman. You can reach me at andrew.woodman@pitchbook.com or on Twitter @adwoodman.
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Reporter's notebook: SALT tackles AI FOMO and fashion envy

Anthony Scaramucci (SALT iConnections New York)
At the SALT conference in New York this week, financiers floated calls about the role of AI in investing, the enduring appeal of tokenization and the uses of cold hard cash. They also traded notes on fashion and grooming.

Asset managers, allocators, and service providers convened at the Glasshouse event center to talk shop. Some spent as much as $10,000 for the privilege.

Our reporters arrived by subway—not a private helicopter, the mode of transport suggested by the conference coordinator—at the event hosted by Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director and founder of SkyBridge Capital.
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Trivia
The pandemic intensified interest in all facets of the supply chain, and investors made bets on startups to help untangle the hiccups. But VC investment dropped in Q1 of this year, continuing a downward trend. How many deals closed during the first quarter of this year?

A) 76 deals
B) 145 deals
C) 45 deals
D) 195 deals

Find the answer at the bottom of The Weekend Pitch!
 

Climate tech's rocky ride

Can concrete really go green? What about steel? There's money to be made in both of these notoriously hard-to-abate, heavily emitting industries, according to our Q1 2023 Carbon & Emissions Tech Report.

Carbon and emissions tech startups are having a rocky ride, but they're also demonstrating resilience. Dive deeper to understand why.
 

Mending links in the supply chain

(Morrowind/Shutterstock)
The supply chain tech industry has maintained a laser focus on covering weak points in the global supply chain exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Deal counts and value dropped in Q1, and freight tech companies felt the retreat most.

Still, the freight tech industry is highlighted for the potential of autonomous trucks to strengthen the supply chain in our recent Emerging Tech Research on Q1 2023 trends in the sector.
 

Business development companies seize the moment
Hercules Capital and its venture lending peers may become heroes to some VC-backed startups facing the gauntlet of a burning cash runway this quarter.

Our latest analyst note on public business development companies' (BDCs') venture lender earnings shows just how hot the market is for debt financing among VC-backed companies and explains the income gains that BDCs are logging in a high-interest rate environment.
 

Quote/Unquote
"There's billions of uninvested capital in the venture ecosystem globally. Most of it was raised in the last three years. That capital will be deployed, maybe not tomorrow, but as we look over the next three to five years, that capital absolutely will find its way into companies."

—HSBC's head of technology and healthcare David Sabow, a former SVB executive, during an interview with PitchBook.
 

Recommended Reads
Japan's new military might is rising in a factory in Hiroshima. [Bloomberg Businessweek]

Google breakout star Marissa Mayer attempts to step out of her own shadow with her startup, Sunshine. [The Information]

The looming El Niño could cost the world trillions of dollars. [Wired]
 

Stay tuned
Keep an eye out for these fresh insights and research reports coming out this week.
  • Q1 2023 Enterprise SaaS Report
  • Q1 2023 Medtech Report
  • Q1 2023 Global Private Market Fundraising Report
 

Trivia
Answer: D)

In Q1, 195 deals were closed in the supply chain tech vertical. You can read more about those deals and trends in our Q1 2023 Supply Chain Tech Report.

This edition of The Weekend Pitch was written by Andrew Woodman, Jessica Hamlin, Rosie Bradbury, Claire Simpson and Jacob Robbins. It was edited by James Thorne, Ron Prichard and Laural Hobbes.

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