PitchBook News - Hedosophia fuels up fusion startup

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The Daily Pitch: VC

June 4, 2024

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

Challenger bank Monzo posts its first annual profit

Investment at the earliest stages in generative AI is slowing

Our latest Global Markets Snapshot breaks down one month of trends in the equity, debt and commodities markets

Our Quantitative Perspectives report covers what's ahead for the buyout market

Today's Top Stories

Ian Osborne's Hedosophia leads $100M round for pre-revenue fusion startup

(Artur Debat/Getty Images)

Hedosophia, a low-profile VC firm founded by financier Ian Osborne, has typically made software-focused bets in startups such as AI-powered voice specialist PolyAI, financial software provider Qonto and ecommerce company Gopuff.

But its latest investment publicly signals a new area of interest for the firm: fusion energy. Hedosophia just led a $100 million Series A for Xcimer, a pre-revenue fusion-tech startup, the company announced today.

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May wrap-up: One month in global markets

Our latest Global Markets Snapshot breaks down a month of trends in the equity, debt and commodities markets, tracking returns across a range of indexes and sectors. It also features private market activity, including major deals, fundraising, IPO performance, lending volume and unicorn creation.

In this monthly digest, we provide the datasets that the PitchBook Institutional Research Group is keeping an eye on.

read it now

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Medtech VCs stay active despite tough conditions

Medtech VC investment rebounded significantly to $3.3 billion in the first quarter as investors piled into high-quality companies despite historically low deal volume, according to our recent Emerging Tech Research.

The largest deal went to Freenome, an early cancer-detection startup, which raised a $254 million late-stage round led by Roche Venture Fund.

Public medtech valuations have stabilized, and there are pockets of rising valuations in the medical devices, consumer health and life sciences sectors. But exits remain scarce.

The report also covers emerging opportunities in cardiac arrest prevention and treatment as well as whole-body scans.

read the preview

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Why economic growth doesn't equal a buyout boom

The tailwinds that have propelled buyout fund performance over the past decade will die down in the coming years. While buyout dealmaking rebounded slightly at the beginning of the year, activity remained below its historical average, where it's likely to remain until interest rates come down.

Our recent Quantitative Perspectives report breaks down how strong economic growth, low unemployment and above-target inflation have diverted the Federal Reserve's focus away from lowering interest rates, a development that has a material impact on the buyout market.

read the report

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Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

19

VC valuations

2122

People

816

Companies

33

Funds

See what our data software can do

The Daily Benchmark:
2017 Vintage Global Real Assets Funds

Median IRR

10.43%

Top Quartile IRR

15.48%

0.33x

Median DPI

Select top performers

Twin Oaks Production Partners Fund

Ridgemont Equity Partners Energy Opportunity Fund

EIV Capital Fund III

*IRR: net of fees

60 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

People

New York-based PE firm Coalesce Capital has appointed Curtis Roby, James Hearty and Christian Diez to serve as managing directors, with Hearty and Diez also serving as head of business development and CFO, respectively.

VC Deals

BioBTX, a Dutch developer of renewable aromatics technology, has raised over €80 million from investors including Invest-NL, Carduso Capital and Covestro.

San Francisco-based Ashby, a startup using AI to automate recruiting processes, raised a $30 million Series C led by Lachy Groom.

Gireve, a Paris-based B2B digital platform for electric mobility, has secured €20 million from Partech and existing investors.

Madrid-based edtech startup Bcas has raised €17 million in a round led by MyInvestor and Actyus.

Chicago-based co-working and accelerator startup Workbox raised a $17.5 million Series A led by Chicago Atlantic. The funding includes a follow-on option to raise an additional $5.5 million.

PE Deals

New Mountain Capital made a growth investment in Chicago's Grant Thornton, which is now the largest accounting firm with PE backing, The Wall Street Journal reported.

English Premier League team Everton FC will not be acquired by 777 Partners after the Miami-based firm failed to complete the deal before it expired.

Inflexion agreed to invest in Brussels-based events company Easyfairs alongside Cobepa.

Chicago-based dental instrument manufacturer HuFriedyGroup was acquired by an affiliate of Peak Rock Capital.

Golub Capital agreed to invest $200 million in Nassau Financial Group as part of a strategic partnership. Golub will become the largest minority equity holder in Nassau.

Bay Area-based Verta, a startup developing AI model management software, was acquired by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice-backed Cloudera.

Portfolio Companies

PE-backed Mexican restaurant chain Rubio's Coastal Grill, based in California, has closed 48 stores throughout the state. Golub Capital and Mill Road Capital last reinvested in the company as part of a recapitalization in 2020.

Exits & IPOs

New York-based PE firm JC Flowers sold First Bank Romania to Intesa Sanpaolo, a Milan-listed banking group.

Blackstone is considering selling Japanese consumer healthcare company Alinamin Pharmaceutical in a deal that could value it at around 300 billion Japanese yen (around $1.9 billion), Bloomberg reported.

Eurazeo agreed to sell its 25% stake in Spanish PE firm MCH Private Equity.

Mutares is in talks to sell French home repair company Repartim to an institutional investor.

Artelon, a previously VC-backed biotech startup developing tissue reconstruction methods, was acquired by NYSE-listed Stryker.

Fundraising

Stockholm-based VC firm Creandum has closed its seventh fund on €500 million, targeting seed and Series A investments in Europe.

Boston-based VC firm Anzu Partners is teaming with JA Green & Co., a Washington, DC-based lobbying group, to raise a $100 million fund for tech startups that focus on national security.

Copenhagen-based early-stage investor Dreamcraft Ventures has closed its second fund on €66 million.

Chart of the Day

Source: Q1 2024 European VC Valuations Report

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PitchBook News - Hedosophia fuels up fusion startup

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