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The Daily Pitch: VC

May 22, 2024

The Daily Pitch is powered by PitchBook’s industry-defining research and best-in-class data

In today's Daily Pitch, you'll find:

Startups strive to develop geologic hydrogen tech for commercial decarbonization

Middle-market firm Patient Square sets the bar at $6 billion for its second fund

Defense-tech startups Scale AI and Anduril rake in billion-dollar VC checks

Emerging manager Eir Partners wraps up $496 million in a four-month fundraise

Warburg Pincus and Temasek cinch a top European PE insurance deal

Today's Top Stories

Scale AI, Anduril drive billion-dollar checks for AI military tech

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey
(Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images)

Venture-backed companies serving the defense industry have had a lucrative week as global conflicts erode old taboos about investing in technology bound for the battlefield.

Accel-backed Scale AI just inked a $1 billion Series F at a $13.8 billion valuation. Meanwhile, Anduril, which is developing unmanned weapons systems, is reportedly in talks to raise $1.5 billion at a $12.5 billion valuation.

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Hydrogen good as gold to cleantech VCs

It's only in the last few years that geologic hydrogen, also known as white or gold hydrogen, has been considered a viable industrial-decarbonization approach. Its commercial scalability is still up in the air. But startups like Koloma, Eden and 45-8 Energy are rapidly changing the landscape of hydrogen energy, according to our latest Emerging Tech Research.

Hydrogen, along with renewable battery storage, has emerged as a particularly popular investing segment within cleantech. Its total VC deal value was up 70.6% quarter-over-quarter in Q1, driven by big raises from Sunfire, Koloma and Inocel.

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Exclusive: Patient Square Capital seeks over $6B for 2nd healthcare fund

(Volodyar/Getty Images)

Patient Square Capital, a middle-market investor in the healthcare services sector, is in the process of raising its second fund, this time with a target of over $6 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Last year the firm led by Jim Momtazee, a KKR healthcare deal veteran, raised $3.9 billion for its inaugural fund, surpassing its original goal of $3 billion. The new fund is expected to close some time in 2024.

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Eir Partners swiftly closes $496M sophomore PE fund

(Lourdes Balduque/Getty Images)

Eir Partners Capital has hit the hard cap for its second fund, raising nearly $500 million from various investors. The close comes as middle-market PE funds started the year out strong with robust fundraising activity.

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VC fuels the supply chain flow

The collapse of logistics specialist Convoy and management shakeups at Flexport have rattled dealmaking in the supply chain tech industry.

But more than $2 billion was still raised across 129 deals in Q1—a quarter-over-quarter increase of roughly 17% and 24%, respectively, according to our recent Emerging Tech Research. Analyst Jonathan Geurkink covers the key players and trends, including how regulatory changes may affect the space.

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Warburg, Temasek snag SRG in big European insurance deal

(PBNJ Productions/Getty Images)

Warburg Pincus and Singapore state-backed investor Temasek have bought UK insurance intermediary Specialist Risk Group for about $1.3 billion, marking PE's largest European insurance sector deal this year.

There's been a wave of PE investment and consolidation in a fragmented insurance sector in recent years. Total global deal value in the sector saw three consecutive quarters of growth through the end of March, and earlier this month, the sector saw its largest PE buyout in a decade globally.

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Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

20

VC valuations

1940

People

708

Companies

30

Funds

See what our data software can do

The Daily Benchmark:
2021 Vintage Global Real Assets Funds

Median IRR

7.59%

Top Quartile IRR

15.53%

0.03x

Median DPI

Select top performers

QL Capital Partner Fund

Infracapital Greenfield Partners II

Waterous Energy Fund II

*IRR: net of fees

37 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

AltruBio, a San Francisco-based biotech startup developing cancer and autoimmune disease treatment, raised up to $225 million in a Series B led by BVF Partners.

H, a French AI startup formerly known as Holistic, raised $220 million from investors including Accel, Amazon, Samsung and UiPath, according to reports.

OneStock, a stock management software startup based in France, raised $72 million from Summit Partners.

LabGenius, a UK-based drug discovery company, raised £35 million in a Series B led by M Ventures, the VC unit of Merck.

London's Zen Educate, which offers an online marketplace that matches schools and teachers, raised $37 million in a Series B and acquired Aquinas Education.

Bay Area-based WitnessAI, a startup developing safety features around AI usage, raised a $27.5 million Series A led by GV and Ballistic Ventures.

Austin-based Expressable, which provides online speech therapy, raised a $26 million Series B led by HarbourVest Partners.

Resilience, a French healthtech company that remotely monitors cancer patients, raised $25 million in a round led by Picus Capital and Red River West.

XGS Energy, a Bay Area-based renewable energy startup, raised an additional $20 million for its Series A. The new funding was led by Valo Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures.

Reev, a Munich-based provider of software for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, raised €10 million in a round led by Future Energy Ventures and Blue Earth Capital.

Oxford Endovascular, a UK-based medical device startup that hopes to reduce occurrences of brain hemorrhages, raised £8 million in a Series A.

PE Deals

KKR has acquired a significant minority stake in Mumbai-based Infinx, which offers an AI-driven healthcare revenue cycle.

Blue Point Capital Partners has acquired personal protective equipment manufacturer National Safety Apparel.

Kinderhook Industries has invested in solid waste collection company Apex Waste Solutions.

Marlin Equity Partners has made a majority growth investment in Baxter Planning, a supply chain SaaS platform developer. The company's previous majority shareholder, Polaris Partners, will retain a significant minority stake.

Exits & IPOs

Chicago-based Tempus, a VC-backed startup developing technology to process medical data using AI, has filed for an IPO. Tempus was founded in 2015 and was last valued at $10.25 billion in late 2022.

TPG and PAG Asia Capital have sold their shares in NYSE-listed commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Phillips 66 has agreed to acquire natural gas services company Pinnacle Midland from Energy Spectrum Capital for $550 million in cash, Bloomberg reported.

As part of a strategic partnership with ICG, Los Angeles-based PE firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners is returning significant capital to its shareholders and has reduced its stake in Law Business Research.

Cybersecurity company Lumifi Cyber has acquired cloud-managed IT security company Netsurion from PSG.

Fundraising

The Carlyle Group raised 430 billion Japanese yen (approximately $2.8 billion) for its fifth Japan buyout fund.

Dallas-based Paceline Equity Partners closed its second opportunities fund on $780 million.

London-based VC firm ETF Partners closed its fourth fund on €285 million. ETF invests in startups across Europe developing environmentally sustainable technology.

Vertex Ventures Japan has launched its debut fund with a target of 10 billion Japanese yen (about $64 million) to continue developing the startup ecosystem in Japan.

Investors

GCM Grosvenor has invested in a new healthcare investment firm, Invidia Capital Management, founded by former Goldman Sachs Asset Management partner Jo Natauri.

Chart of the Day

Source: Private Capital's Path to $20 Trillion

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PitchBook News - Defense tech's $1B+ week

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