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The Daily Pitch: VC

April 28, 2020

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Today's Top Stories

Automation Anywhere lays off staff, shifts focus to the cloud

CEO Mihir Shukla speaks in November in San Francisco.
(Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Automation Anywhere has announced plans to let part of its workforce go, citing lower growth than expected before the coronavirus pandemic, according to a LinkedIn post from CEO Mihir Shukla.

The SoftBank-backed startup reportedly began laying off more than 10% of its employees Monday, according to Axios.

The company expects growth in the "high double digits," but lower than it experienced last year. A faster growth rate will "likely return in the midterm" but timing is uncertain, Shukla said.

Automation Anywhere was valued at $6.8 billion after a $290 million Series B led by Salesforce Ventures last November, according to PitchBook data.

The company has seen an increased emphasis on business services delivery in the cloud, and will therefore shift its focus to cloud and hybrid-cloud options "offering new solutions with faster ROI" by combining many of its products. The company said the strategy was in place before the pandemic.

More coronavirus news: Continuing coverage from PitchBook

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Tracing implications for real assets funds from past crises

(jada photo/Moment/Getty Images)

Travel, retail spending and oil prices have all plummeted in the midst of global lockdowns, hurting the credit standings of many real estate tenants and limiting cash flows for major infrastructure fund holdings.

PitchBook's latest research note explores what real assets investors should anticipate as the pandemic's ripple effects continue to spread, using historical data to see how infrastructure and real estate funds have fared in past times of crisis:

read it now

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A message from SS&C Intralinks

Is the oil and gas M&A cycle doomed?

Rarely has a market been more complex and volatile than oil and gas is currently. The abrupt and potentially short price war between OPEC members, geopolitical stress and a glut of investment in US shale have all combined to produce a frothy and fraught environment for dealmaking and production.

Where does the oil and gas M&A cycle go from here, especially for PE? SS&C Intralinks has published a market brief, drawing from PitchBook datasets, detailing the key trends in the current environment and considerations for investors going forward.

Read it now

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Ask PitchBook

Wondering how the pandemic is affecting your segment of the private markets? Looking for an explanation of which companies will benefit from government relief programs? Curious about what's driving a recent trend you've noticed?

Send us an email at press@pitchbook.com, and the news team will track down the answers you're seeking.

Thanks to all those who submitted questions for our first Ask PitchBook article, which explored distressed-debt investing.

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Recommended Reads

The pursuit of federal loans for coronavirus relief has put many startups in a thorny place: The money would be helpful, but they know plenty of other businesses need it even more. [The New York Times]

A secretive group of scientists and business tycoons has been working to shape the US response to COVID-19, a sort of Manhattan Project for the virus era. [The Wall Street Journal]

An interview with Thomas Piketty, a "rock star" of economics, on how financial inequality around the world has shaped the global response to a pandemic. [New York]

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Quick Takes


	The Daily Benchmark
	2014 Vintage Global Buyout Funds
	People
	Atomico hires new partner, principal in London office
	VC Deals
	Erasca banks $200M
	Compass Pathways rakes in $80M Series B
	Rome Therapeutics launches with $50M
	Actym Therapeutics secures $34M
	Insight Partners leads $25M round for Templafy
	Codota pulls in $12M
	Portfolio Companies
	Instacart on track to deliver first profit
	Exits
	Google looking to buy D2iQ
	Fundraising
	OMERS launches new $750M venture fund
	Investors
	Sequoia China, Starbucks partner on Chinese tech investments

The Daily Benchmark

2014 Vintage Global Buyout Funds

Median IRR

17.00%

Top Quartile IRR Hurdle Rate

24.00%

1.45x

Median TVPI

Select top performers

Nautic Partners VII

Consonance Private Equity

BVIP Fund VIII

*IRR: net of fees

78 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

People

Atomico hires new partner, principal in London office

Atomico has brought on Sasha Astafyeva as a consumer-focused partner and Terese Hougaard as a principal in its London office, according to a Medium post. Astafyeva joins the firm from Felix Capital, where she worked as a principal, while Hougaard previously worked as a partner at CapitalG, Alphabet's growth equity investment fund. Atomico is a VC firm founded by Skype's Niklas Zennström.

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VC Deals

Erasca banks $200M

Erasca, a developer of oncology therapies, has raised a $200 million Series B co-led by Arch Venture Partners and Cormorant Asset Management. The San Diego-based company raised $64 million in March 2019 at a $114 million valuation, according to PitchBook data.

Select Additional Investors:

City Hill Ventures, Invus, Terra Magnum Capital Partners, Colt Ventures, LifeSci Venture Partners

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Compass Pathways rakes in $80M Series B

Mental health startup Compass Pathways has received an $80 million investment from new and existing investors including Atai Life Sciences, Founders Fund and Soleus Capital. Founded in 2016 and based in London, the company uses psilocybin, a naturally occurring compound in psychedelic mushrooms, to help with treatment-resistant depression.

Additional Investors:

Able Partners, Camden Partners, Perceptive Advisors, Skyviews Life Science, McQuade Center for Strategic Research and Development

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Rome Therapeutics launches with $50M

GV and Arch Venture Partners have co-led a $50 million Series A for Rome Therapeutics, which is developing therapies to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. Partners Innovation Fund also participated in the funding. GV general partner Krishna Yeshwant and others have joined the company's board.

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Actym Therapeutics secures $34M

Actym Therapeutics has raised a $34 million Series A co-led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and Panacea Venture, with participation from investors including Illumina Ventures. Founded in 2017, Actym is developing immunotherapies to treat cancer.

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Insight Partners leads $25M round for Templafy

Enterprise document creation and automation startup Templafy has raised a $25 million Series C. Insight Partners led the round, with support from Dawn Capital, Seed Capital and Damgaard Company. The Copenhagen-based company will use the capital to expand its presence in North America. Founded in 2014, Templafy has secured nearly $70 million in total funding.

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Codota pulls in $12M

Codota, a developer of software that uses AI to help programmers prevent errors and write code more quickly, has raised $12 million from E.ventures, Khosla Ventures, TPY Capital and Hetz Ventures. Founded in 2013, the Tel Aviv-based company was valued at $13.6 million in 2017, according to a PitchBook estimate.

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Portfolio Companies

Instacart on track to deliver first profit

Instacart is expecting around $10 million in net profit for April, after seeing grocery sales of about $700 million in each of the first two weeks of the month, according to The Information. This will reportedly be the first time Instacart has turned a profit; it lost over $300 million in 2019. Backed by D1 Capital Partners, Coatue Management and Sequoia, the San Francisco-based company was valued at $7.87 billion in 2018, according to PitchBook data.

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Exits

Google looking to buy D2iQ

Google is in discussions to acquire cloud software startup D2iQ (formerly Mesosphere) for a price that would fall below the $775 million valuation it reached in 2018, Axios reported. The startup laid off 13% of its staff, or 34 workers, earlier this month, according to Business Insider. Khosla Ventures, Microsoft, T. Rowe Price and Koch Disruptive Technologies have all backed D2iQ.

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Fundraising

OMERS launches new $750M venture fund

The venture arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System has announced a $750 million fund that will be used to back early-stage tech companies in North America and Europe. The vehicle is the pension fund's first transatlantic venture, according to The Globe and Mail. Founded in 2011 and based in Toronto, OMERS Ventures has backed companies including Rover, Shopify and Hopper.

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Investors

Sequoia China, Starbucks partner on Chinese tech investments

Sequoia China and Starbucks have partnered to make strategic co-investments in Chinese technology businesses. Starbucks is also looking to forge commercial partnerships with food and retail tech companies in the region. Based in Beijing, Sequoia China's portfolio includes payments specialist Airwallex and autonomous vehicle startup Pony.ai.

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View 941 investments »