Wiz, CrowdStrike buzz lifts cybersecurity VCs

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The Daily Pitch: VC

July 26, 2024

Presented by Fidelity Private Shares^SM

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

Is the collapse of Google's $23 billion Wiz deal good news for cybersecurity?

Alibaba's Baichuan picks up $691 million as China's tech giants try to catch up to AI rivals in the US

Apollo Global Management agrees to buy parcel delivery service Evri in a key UK logistics deal

PitchBook Benchmarks offer the latest fund performance data across PE, VC and more

Today's Top Stories

Cybersecurity investors bullish on deal revival after Wiz, CrowdStrike news

Google's record $23 billion deal to acquire cybersecurity company Wiz has fallen apart, but the news isn't bringing VCs down—it's energizing them.

After a lag in VC deal and exit activity, some investors expect the Wiz deal's collapse to jolt the cybersecurity industry forward.

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Alibaba-backed Baichuan raises $691M as China seeks to catch up on AI

(CFOTO/Getty Images)

Alibaba took part in a fresh $691 million round for Chinese generative AI unicorn Baichuan, the third major AI VC round that the Chinese ecommerce giant has joined this year.

The investment comes as the Chinese government and its tech companies try to promote AI development and innovation in order to remain competitive with US rivals.

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PitchBook Benchmarks for private markets

PitchBook Benchmarks provide a detailed snapshot of the latest data for closed-end fund returns across strategies. The new edition is now available, updated through Q4 2023 with preliminary data for Q1 2024. It features PDFs and visualizations that break down the data by geography and fund type. Additional data and vintage years are available in Excel data packs for PitchBook clients.

see the data

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Climate-tech fundraising bounces back

Fundraising for climate-tech companies is on the upswing in 2024, with fund value already on track to exceed numbers from 2023, according to our recent Emerging Tech Research. While 2022 marked a peak in climate-tech investment, the decline over the last two years is largely a part of wider VC deal trends and not necessarily indicative of the strength of climate tech itself.

Eighteen climate funds have closed so far in 2024, with five exceeding $300 million each. Emerging firms still make up over half of VC climate-tech investors so far in 2024, though the ratio of experienced to emerging firms is becoming more balanced as new climate regulations see widespread acceptance.

read the preview

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Apollo to buy UK parcel service Evri in $3B+ deal

(Richard Baker/In Pictures/Getty Images)

Apollo Global Management has agreed to acquire British parcel delivery company Evri from Advent International for £2.7 billion (about $3.4 billion), the largest PE buyout in the UK logistics sector in the past five years.

The deal is bigger than all buyout transactions combined in UK logistics last year, when 21 deals amounted to nearly $480 million.

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Old VC funds breathe new life into secondhand stakes trading

(Smith Collection/Getty Images)

It isn't as easy now for investors to pick up secondhand stakes in VC-backed companies as cheaply as they became accustomed to in the past year or so.

A confluence of trends has been heating up the secondary market: Several investors have assembled new and larger secondary funds, and private markets sentiment is improving. Across the board, secondary sales are no longer coming with price markdowns as sharp as before.

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Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

8

VC valuations

2262

People

773

Companies

16

Funds

See what our data software can do

The Daily Benchmark:
2013 Vintage US PE Funds

Median IRR

23.93%

Top Quartile IRR

32.13%

2.19x

Median DPI

Select top performers

Clarion Investors II

Accel-KKR Capital Partners IV

Harren Investors III

*IRR: net of fees

78 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Astranis, a startup developing satellites for broadband communications, raised a $200 million Series D led by Andreessen Horowitz and BAM Elevate.

Imperative Care, a medtech company specializing in treatments for stroke patients, raised up to $150 million in a Series E led by Ally Bridge Group.

IntelePeer, a startup building AI-powered communications systems, raised $140 million in debt and equity. Savant Growth and VantagePoint Capital Partners co-led the growth funding.

Chainguard, a Washington-based startup developing security solutions for open-source software, raised a $140 million Series C led by Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed and IVP.

Payt, a Dutch accounting SaaS startup, has raised €55 million from Partech.

Oceano Fresco, a Portuguese sustainable seafood company, has raised €17 million in a round led by Indico Capital Partners.

Bunch, a Berlin-based developer of private markets investment software, has raised $15.5 million in a Series A led by FinTech Collective.

Deepc, a Munich-based company that has developed an AI operating system for radiologists, extended its Series A with €12 million co-led by Sofinnova Partners and Bertelsmann Investments.

Primary Portal, a London startup that has developed a digital platform for capital market processes, received €8.9 million led by DB1 Ventures for the first stage of its Series A.

Meisterwerk App, a Berlin-based enterprise SaaS startup, raised a €6 million Series A led by Semapa Next.

PE Deals

NYSE-listed edtech company Instructure will be acquired by KKR in a deal that values the company at about $4.8 billion.

Bally's will be acquired by hedge fund Standard General, the company's largest stockholder, in a deal valuing Bally's at about $4.6 billion.

Summer Fridays, a Los Angeles-based cosmetics brand, received a growth investment from TSG Consumer Partners.

Inx Software, an Australia-based developer of workforce management software, received an investment from Accel-KKR that gives the firm majority ownership of the company.

IK Partners agreed to invest in Octime Group, a French developer of workforce management software, and Sansidor, a testing, inspection and related services provider based in the Netherlands.

One Equity Partners has taken a controlling stake in Comau, an Italian company specializing in industrial automation and advanced robotics, alongside automaker Stellantis.

3D Investment Partners has offered to acquire Tokyo-listed film production company and distributor Tohokushinsha for as much as $575 million.

CVC Capital Partners agreed to acquire HiSERV, a German company that leases aviation ground service equipment.

Exits & IPOs

Cold-storage warehouse operator Lineage has raised $4.44 billion in its IPO.

Mankind Pharma is nearing a deal to buy injectable medicine developer Bharat Serums and Vaccines for $1.5 billion from Advent International, Bloomberg reported.

Sifi, an Italy-based company developing eye care treatments, could be sold by firm 21 Invest in a deal valuing Sifi at around €500 million, Bloomberg reported.

Brown Europe, a manufacturer of metal components used in aerospace technologies, has been sold by Tikehau Capital to STS Metals.

LogicStream, a Minneapolis-based developer of software for healthcare system pharmacies, has been acquired by PE-backed QuVa Pharma.

Jiangsu Lopal Tech is exploring a sale of its Indonesian manufacturing unit that could raise about $200 million, Bloomberg reported.

Fundraising

Volpi Capital, a London-based PE firm that invests in software and data companies, has closed its latest fund on €428 million.

Chart of the Day

Source: Q2 2024 European Venture Report

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Wiz, CrowdStrike buzz lifts cybersecurity VCs

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