PitchBook News - Bland foodtech stocks get a dash of AI

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The Daily Pitch: VC

July 10, 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:

Foodtech companies hold their own on the public markets

GTCR's investment in Worldpay may signal that lenders are willing to fund large LBOs

A new business model aims to shake up infrastructure industries

US VC funding for female founders falls back to 2020 levels

The VC downturn has finally reached Africa

Today's Top Stories

Tech's new recipe: Generative AI serves up optimism for public foodtechs

The performance of foodtech stocks kept up with the wider market in Q2, but no segment stood out above the crowd. Generative AI adoption bumped some companies to new heights, and the technology has settled into several niches across the sector.

Our Q2 2023 Foodtech Public Comp Sheet and Valuation Guide tracks stock performance, valuations and market caps—as well as forecasts for revenue, EBITDA and earnings per share—for key publicly traded companies. It touches on sectors including kitchentech, meal kits, online grocers and restaurant marketplaces.

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Can decentralized infrastructure providers disrupt the status quo?

Physical multibillion-dollar infrastructure industries like wireless telecoms, sensor networks and cloud servers have long held the status quo, but decentralized physical infrastructure networks, or DePINs, could upend them with a new business model.

These networks, which use token incentives to help offset the huge capital expenditures required to build physical infrastructure, are the focus of our latest analyst note. DePINs may still have a way to go before they are ready for prime time, but VC deal trends indicate investors are bullish on the new vertical.

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A Message From SS&C Intralinks

APAC dealmakers contend with shifting economic and geopolitical trends

The APAC region drives significant private market value on the global stage, and dealmakers in the region are contending with recent challenges, including rising tensions between the US and China and a slower fundraising environment. Investors are flocking to experienced managers, while developing economies seek to capitalize on new partnerships to sustain growth. SS&C Intralinks' Private Dealmaking in APAC report details PE and M&A activity in the region, including sector analysis and cross-border investment trends.

Read the report here

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VC funding for US female founders continues to decline

Female-founder dealmaking by half-year
(PitchBook News)

Six months into the year, it's becoming increasingly clear that 2021 and the first half of 2022 were outliers for US VC investment in female-founded startups, according to our US VC female founders dashboard.

Companies with at least one female founder have raised $13.4 billion across 1,537 deals in 2023, the lowest deal value since the H2 2020 and the fewest deals since H2 2018.

Software remains resilient: Software providers with at least one female founder have raised $3.8 billion in 2023. The pharmaceutical and biology industry ranks in second with $3 billion.

Notable deals include a $450 million Series C for AI research company Anthropic, founded by Daniela and Dario Amodei, and a $275 million Series B for gene-editing startup Metagenomi, started by Jill Banfield and Brian Thomas.

explore the dashboard

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VC investment retreats from African market

(Lubo Ivanko/Shutterstock)

Africa's venture ecosystem has seen its second consecutive quarterly decline in deal count as the continent feels the impact of the broader VC downturn.

Check out our snapshot of the African market to see how the continent has fared across venture dealmaking, fundraising and exits this year.

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Worldpay deal may signal banks again open to bigger deals

(Ivan Kruk/Shutterstock)

GTCR said late last week it will buy a 55% stake in Worldpay, the merchant business unit of Fidelity National Information Services.

The deal, which valued Worldpay at $18.5 billion, is one of the largest leveraged buyouts announced this year. The PE buyer was able to fund the deal with $8.4 billion of debt committed by banks, offering a ray of hope for a revived appetite among Wall Street lenders for large buyout debt.

Recommended Reads

Binance unravels as executives flee and layoffs proliferate amid federal investigations. [The Wall Street Journal]

For thousands of years, mathematicians have adapted to the latest advances. Are they ready for artificial intelligence? [The New York Times]

Firms like Brookfield and The Carlyle Group are buying up polluters and promising to scrub them clean. [Institutional Investor]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

86

People

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Companies

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The Daily Benchmark:
2016 Vintage Global Secondaries Funds

Median IRR

18.18%

Top Quartile IRR

23.97%

0.71x

Median DPI

Select top performers

Industry Ventures Special Opportunities Fund III

Timber Bay Fund I

Greenspring Secondaries Fund II

*IRR: net of fees

29 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Indonesian aquaculture company Efishery has raised a $200 million Series D at a $1.4 billion valuation. The round was led Abu Dhabi-based investor 42XFund, which is backed by G42 and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund.

ChargeX, a Munich-based developer of electric car charging infrastructure, has raised a €11.5 million Series B led by UVC Partners.

French collaborative data governance startup DataGalaxy has secured $10 million from investors including AV8 Ventures, Newfund and Orange Ventures.

Eurazeo has led a €6 million investment in Colvin, a Barcelona-based marketplace for flowers and plants.

Berlin-based contract management platform ContractHero has secured €2.15 million from investors including Venista Ventures, Coparion and VR Ventures.

Don't miss our upcoming webinar

With soaring interest rates and investors weighing the possibility of a recession, the credit markets have slowed precipitously in 2023. In our upcoming webinar, LCD experts will examine recent trends, along with what lies ahead. Key topics include:

Loan issuance is down across the board, prompting investors such as CLOs to scramble for assets.

Leveraged loan defaults are emerging at a pace not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic onset, due to rising rates.

Signs of stress have emerged as the private credit sector—which still commands a large slice of the lending market—has not proven immune to challenging economic conditions.

Register now to secure your spot.

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PE Deals

KKR has agreed to acquire a 54% stake in wholesale Peruvian fiber optic network ON*NET Fibra de Peru and plans to invest an additional $200 million in the company.

STG has acquired and recapitalized Wrike, a work management platform formerly owned by Vista Equity Partners and Elliott Investment Management.

IK Partners has acquired UK medical imaging and teleradiology provider Medica Group.

Equistone-backed Timetoact Group has acquired Stagil, which offers solutions for businesses using Atlassian products. The deal is Timetoact's sixth acquisition since Equistone bought the business in 2021.

Exit & IPOs

Danish medical company Coloplast has agreed to pay up to $1.3 billion for Kerecis, a biological wound care company that uses fish skin to improve healing. Coloplast is raising equity to finance the deal, of which $1.2 billion will be an upfront cash payment.

L Catterton is exploring a potential IPO for German sandal maker Birkenstock, Bloomberg reported, adding that the offering could value the company at more than $6 billion.

Cloud hosting company DigitalOcean has acquired cloud computing startup Paperspace for $111 million in cash. The acquisition is meant to improve DigitalOcean's AI offerings.

Fundraising

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has committed €80 million to Poland-based Enterprise Investors' 10th PE fund.

Investors

777 Partners, which leases jets to airlines that the firm also backs, has been in talks with Boeing and ATR that could result in more than 100 new aircraft orders, Reuters reported.

Portfolio Companies

Chinese regulators fined fintech giant Ant Group nearly $1 billion in the culmination of a yearslong crackdown that began in earnest when the company's IPO was blocked by authorities in late 2020. The government also ordered Ant to shutter its medical expense crowdfunding business Xianghubao and to compensate customers.

Corporate M&A

The European Commission is investigating Amazon's planned $1.7 billion acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot over concerns that the deal would restrict competition.

Chart of the Day

"Through Q1 2023, the TTM (trailing twelve-month) deal count skewed heavily toward the content segment. ... Despite intense competition and rising customer acquisition costs, our conversations with investors emphasize that outstanding content development is the likely path to outsized returns."

Source: Gaming VC Trends Deep Dive

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PitchBook News - Bland foodtech stocks get a dash of AI

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