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The Daily Pitch: VC

September 12, 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:

Discover the top 100 colleges ranked by startup founders

Analysts examine how tighter credit conditions have affected GPs' use of capital call lines

SaaStr investors plot a course through the software "recession"

Brookfield Asset Management and Societe Generale plan to launch a fund to help meet demand for private debt

Today's Top Stories

PitchBook Universities: Top 100 colleges ranked by startup founders

(Joey Schaffer/PitchBook News)

PitchBook's annual university rankings are back for 2023. Our list compares schools by tallying up the number of alumni entrepreneurs who have raised venture capital in the past 10 years.

Stanford is No. 1 overall in the undergraduate and graduate rankings. For undergraduate alumni, UC Berkeley trails at No. 2 by just two founders.

Harvard's MBA program is far and away the top school for founders with business degrees—its 1,691-alumni founder count is 55% more than No. 2 Stanford.

In Europe, Oxford and Cambridge are neck and neck: Oxford is No. 1 for undergraduate alumni, but Cambridge takes the top spot among graduate school alumni.

see the rankings

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A changing environment for capital call lines

Fund managers often tout the benefits of capital call lines, a common bridge financing tool used by private capital funds. But skeptics argue these lending facilities artificially inflate a fund's paper return—and a turn in the interest rate cycle, coupled with a pullback in bank lending, has negated some of this tool's advantages.

Our latest analyst note covers how capital call lines impact fund performance, the costs and risks associated with these facilities, and how tighter credit conditions have altered their use by GPs.

read it now

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A message from Deloitte

Is the exit slump coming to an end?

After the exit boom just a couple years ago, exit activity has slowed substantially for expansion-stage companies. Just 441 exits were completed in the first half of 2023 relative to 1,246 in 2022 overall. However, this state of affairs may be shifting. Deloitte’s latest edition of the Road to Next series explores exit trends in depth, with highlights including:

Analysis of key exit metrics such as median exit sizes and valuations in the context of decreased volume
Insights from Deloitte stakeholders regarding the prospect of the exit window reopening
Datasets associated with exit readiness, such as tallies of capital raised prior to exit, ages of companies currently exiting, and more

Read it now

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Reporter's Notebook: Gen AI offers hope at SaaStr

David Sacks (left), founder and general partner of Craft Ventures, and Jason Lemkin, founder and CEO of SaaStr
(Michael O'Donnell Photography)

Last week in San Mateo, the sun shined brightly and a DJ blasted upbeat electronic music at the entrance to SaaStr, the world's largest annual SaaS-focused conference. But the mood at the conference seemed more tempered.

Investors differed on whether we're in a software "recession" or witnessing a "SaaS-acre." Luckily, generative AI gave conference attendees a reason for optimism as investors rapidly raise the bar for funding software companies.

Recommended Reads

Tesla and China risk leaving Volkswagen on a road to nowhere. [Bloomberg]

A visual breakdown of which electricity sources power the world. [Visual Capitalist]

Can Singapore hold on to its reputation as Asia's "safe haven"? [Financial Times]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

8

VC valuations

2514

People

630

Companies

25

Funds

See what our data software can do

The Daily Benchmark:
2012 Vintage European PE Funds

Median IRR

13.94%

Top Quartile IRR

18.68%

1.29x

Median DPI

Select top performers

Main Capital III

Livingbridge 5

HgCapital Mercury 1

*IRR: net of fees

24 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Kedaara Capital has agreed to invest $229 million in India-based Perfios' Series D. The startup offers financial data analysis software and tools.

Satellite startup Open Cosmos has raised a $50 million Series B from ETF Partners, Trill Impact and A&G.

Solar utility startup Erthos has secured $24 million in funding led by Capricorn Investment Group.

Ecommerce startup AMP has raised an $18.5 million Series A from investors including Jungle Ventures and Openspace Ventures.

Buyandship, a Hong Kong-headquartered eccomerce startup, has raised $10 million in the first close of its Series B led by Cool Japan Fund.

Strategy game maker GamePhilos has raised an $8 million seed round led by Xterio and Animoca Ventures.

Materials company DetraPel has raised $7.6 million in a Series A led by Material Impact.

Don't miss our upcoming webinar

J. Thelander Consulting and PitchBook will explore how compensation at investment firms has changed in recent years. Across a range of positions from managing general partners to entry-level analysts, our experts—including Jody Thelander—will discuss base salaries and bonuses, along with the best practices for fund structure, including fund formation and carried interest.

Register to secure your spot.

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PE Deals

KKR is making an additional equity investment of more than $1 billion in insurance provider USI Insurance Services, making it the largest stakeholder.

KKR has raised its stake in Indian retailer Reliance Retail Ventures to $250 million at a $100 billion valuation, bringing the firm's total equity stake to 1.42%.

Affinity Partners, Jared Kushner's private equity firm backed by PIF, is buying a $150 million stake in Shlomo Holding's car and credit division, according to reports.

UK supermarket chain Morrisons is in talks to sell its petrol forecourts to Motor Fuel Group in a deal that could have an enterprise value of up to £2.5 billion, Sky News reported. Both companies are owned by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

Five Point Energy is forming a water infrastructure network through a joint venture with US shale oil producer Diamondback Energy.

TPG, Tokyo Electric Power Company and Brookfield are in talks to buy a minority stake in Indian renewables company JSW Neo Energy, according to reports.

Exit & IPOs

Adamantem Capital is putting Australian electrical and industrial distribution company Legend up for sale just four years after taking the company private, the Australian Financial Review reported.

Fundraising

Fund-of-funds Cendana Capital has raised $470 million across multiple new vehicles, TechCrunch reported. Most of the capital will be used to back seed-stage fund managers.

Biotech-focused Sofinnova Venture Partners has closed its 11th flagship fund on $500 million, according to SEC filings.

Chart of the Day

"The average deal size so far in 2023 is £120.3 million, half the average deal size in 2022 and hitting a seven-year low. The smaller deal structure is highly characteristic of add-ons, which tend to be popular in periods of market uncertainty."

Source: PitchBook's 2023 UK Private Capital Breakdown

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