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The Daily Pitch: VC

March 27, 2020

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Today's Top Stories

The ripple effects of coronavirus on emerging technologies

The roads to San Francisco sit in silence as the tech hub's millions of residents are under lockdown. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News)

Venture-backed startups are facing an ever-shifting environment and a largely uncertain future amid the coronavirus outbreak. But, as our latest analyst note shows, there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

VC deal value dropped 28% during the Great Recession, but deal count fell just 5%—and it rose for angel & seed deals, suggesting that, while deals may be smaller, startups can still find investors. However, the impact of the current pandemic is expected to vary widely across different emerging tech sectors:

Healthtech, foodtech, the internet of things and mobility tech are likely to be the most severely affected

Enterprise sectors, such as cloudtech and information security tech, will experience a relatively low impact

The ripple effects on several other verticals, including fintech and supply-chain tech, will range from moderate to significant

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More coronavirus news: Continuing coverage from PitchBook

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What $2T in stimulus does—and doesn't do—for private markets

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Alex Wong/Getty Images News)

An emergency relief bill that aims to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak is up for a vote in the US House of Representatives today after passing the Senate earlier this week.

Organizations will benefit from hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, but some PE- and VC-backed companies may not qualify because of how the Small Business Administration's rules treat portfolio companies. Meanwhile, most taxpayers will get a check, and the tech industry's vast number of gig workers are eligible for unemployment benefits.

Here's what else the relief package means for private companies:

Recommended Reads

The secondaries market could offer some profitable options for VC investors seeking liquidity. But first, they'll have to wait. [TechCrunch]

In these desperate times, more Americans than ever are turning to GoFundMe for help. [The New York Times]

Just when citizens need knowledge the most, the coronavirus is killing local news. [The Atlantic]

The St. Patrick's Day flight that left Newark for Boston 50 years ago was supposed to be routine. In the end—after the hippie-led hijacking—it ended up changing how America flies. [The Boston Globe]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

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Today's Headlines


	The Daily Benchmark
	2006 Vintage Global PE Funds with less than $250M
	VC Deals
	Plastiq banks $75M
	Dremio picks up $70M
	Stripe leads $20M Series A for Fast
	Helm.ai comes out of stealth mode with $13M
	Portfolio Companies
	Lime's valuation could fall by $2B
	Airbnb plans to house 100,000 healthcare workers
	Exits
	Microsoft to acquire Affirmed Networks in 5G push
	Fundraising
	DBL Partners eyes $450M fund
	Fort Ross banks $235M, adds partner

The Daily Benchmark

2006 Vintage Global PE Funds with less than $250M

Median IRR

4.90%

Top Quartile IRR Hurdle Rate

7.74%

1.07x

Median TVPI

Select top performers

Ampersand 2006

BB&T Capital Partners/Windsor Mezzanine Fund

SW Pelham Fund III

*IRR: net of fees

16 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Plastiq banks $75M

Plastiq has raised a $75 million Series D led by B Capital Group. The San Francisco-based company is the developer of a fintech platform used by small and medium-sized companies to manage payments and access working capital. Plastiq was valued at $220 million in 2018, according to PitchBook data.

Additional Investors:

Accomplice VC, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Top Tier Capital Partners

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View 31 competitors »

Dremio picks up $70M

Insight Partners has led a $70 million Series C for Dremio, which offers a platform to help store and manage data. Founded in 2015, the company was valued at $110 million in 2018, according to PitchBook data.

Additional Investors:

Norwest Venture Partners, Cisco Investments, Lightspeed, Redpoint Ventures

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View 60 competitors »

Stripe leads $20M Series A for Fast

Fast, the San Francisco-based developer of a fintech platform that enables consumers to securely log in to websites without passwords and complete purchases, has raised $20 million in a round led by online payments company Stripe. Founded in 2019, Fast plans to use the funding in part to advance its Fast Checkout tool, which facilitates one-click ecommerce purchases.

Additional Investors:

Index Ventures, Susa Ventures

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View similar company »

Helm.ai comes out of stealth mode with $13M

Helm.ai has emerged from stealth and announced $13 million in seed financing from investors including Sound Ventures and SV Angel, according to TechCrunch. Founded in 2016, the Menlo Park-based company is a developer of autonomous vehicle software that's based on unsupervised deep learning technology.

Additional Investors:

Fontinalis Partners, A.Capital Ventures, Binnacle Partners, Amplo

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View similar company »

Portfolio Companies

Lime's valuation could fall by $2B

Scooter and bike rental startup Lime could see its valuation decline by 83% from $2.4 billion to $400 million in an upcoming funding round, according to The Information. The company reportedly only has enough cash to last a few months, and layoffs are expected. In January, Lime CEO Brad Bao announced the micromobility startup would depart 12 markets as part of a push for "financial independence." GV, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP and Coatue Management have backed the company.

View details

View 19 competitors »

Airbnb plans to house 100,000 healthcare workers

Airbnb is waiving fees and encouraging hosts to offer their homes for free as a way to provide housing for healthcare workers and others involved in tackling the coronavirus outbreak. The company aims to help 100,000 medical workers find free or subsidized housing around the world.

View details

View 33 competitors »

Exits

Microsoft to acquire Affirmed Networks in 5G push

Microsoft has agreed to buy mobile networking startup Affirmed Networks to bolster its 5G capabilities. The Massachusetts-based software company was valued at $888 million in February 2019, according to PitchBook data. Its investors include Lightspeed, Centerview Capital Technology and Bessemer Venture Partners.

View details

View 43 competitors »

Fundraising

DBL Partners eyes $450M fund

DBL Partners has set a $450 million target for its fourth namesake fund, according to an SEC filing. Headquartered in San Francisco, the firm makes investments in sectors including cleantech and healthcare, and has backed companies like electric mobility startup Wheels and Zola Electric, a solar energy provider. DBL Partners closed its third flagship vehicle on $400 million in 2015.

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View 57 investments »

Fort Ross banks $235M, adds partner

Fort Ross Ventures has closed its second fund on $235 million, which the firm will use to stake startups based in the US, Israel and Eastern Europe. In addition, the Menlo Park-based firm has hired as a partner Sharin Fisher, who previously spent nine years working in cyber-intelligence at Unit 8200, the electronic surveillance arm of Israel's military.

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View 25 investments »

Chart of the Day

"In 2019, there was $52.3 billion in buyout and growth equity transactions spread over 143 deals. That is down from the 2014 peak of nearly $100 billion amongst 392 deals when oil prices reached their pinnacle last decade. Deal activity has been dominated by North America where 103 of the 143 total transactions globally took place. Europe has been a consistent number two even as it has also seen falling deal counts over the last few years."

Source: PitchBook's 2019 Annual Real Assets Report