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The Weekend Pitch

August 4, 2024

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

(Joey Schaffer/PitchBook News)

As the need to decarbonize clashes with soaring energy demands, the world faces an unprecedented energy challenge requiring a vast amount of capital.

And private investors are poised to play a pivotal role in supplying the money.

I'm Andrew Woodman, and this is The Weekend Pitch. You can reach me at andrew.woodman@pitchbook.com or on X @adwoodman.

In the UK, this energy conundrum is particularly acute for the newly seated Labour government, which intends to bolster the nation's energy security while fulfilling its own climate-policy pledges, all the while facing a yawning £22 billion (about $28 billion) hole in its budget.

Even before new finance minister Rachel Reeves recently acknowledged that the UK's finances were "worse than expected," she made it clear that the government would lean on private investors to reach its development goals. The UK alone is estimated to need about £900 billion in capital outlays to hit its net-zero target by 2050.

The UK is almost a microcosm of a worldwide energy transition quandary—where the amount of investment needed, globally, is closer to $125 trillion. While each market faces its unique set of circumstances and advantages, the same structural trends and questions remain: Where do we get the money?

Trivia

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates speaks at the Global Solutions Summit in May. (Annette Riedl/Getty Images)

Bill Gates-backed climate VC fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures raised a huge amount of capital for its third flagship fund, according to filings reviewed by PitchBook. How much has the firm raised so far?

A) $356 million
B) $1.3 billion
C) $789 million
D) $839 million

Find your answer at the bottom of The Weekend Pitch!

Keeping score: Our annual
manager performance rankings

(Colin Anderson Productions/Getty Images)

PitchBook's Global Manager Performance Score League Tables rank an asset manager's various fund families by strategy, using a proprietary methodology. The latest edition is now available to help LPs cut through the opaque process of evaluating a manager's track record.

Typical benchmarking metrics that scrutinize a fund manager's firm-level performance regardless of asset class can be too wide—and focusing on funds by IRR quartiles can be too narrow. That's where our Manager Performance Scores come in, providing an objective measure of a fund family's track record. Our league tables rank the top-performing families in 10 select strategies. Who led the way?

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Global payments highlight
enterprise fintech's upswing

(Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images)

VC funding for the enterprise fintech industry broke a downward trend with modest growth in Q2 2024. According to our latest Emerging Tech Research on the sector, startups in the sector raised $4.6 billion, up more than 27% quarter-over-quarter, across 315 deals.

Among the sector's most notable companies are startups focused on B2B cross-border payments models, simplifying global transactions between companies. A spotlight on Airwallex provides a taste in our recent cross-border payments deep dive.

Share:

VC information security funding
surges amid AI demand

(Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images)

Information security startups brought in $3.6 billion in VC funding in the second quarter—a more than 20% increase over Q1, according to our new Emerging Tech Research on the area.

Propelling the surge is a demand for more advanced security measures as generative AI continues to evolve, with more startups experimenting with applications for threat detection and security testing. Our analysts cover the trends, deals and emerging opportunities in the sector.

Share:

Quote/Unquote

“The Democrats realize now that this is an important group of American voters and that the hostile approach—even if they don’t want to be necessarily pro—the hostile approach is wrong.”

—Veteran PE crypto investor Daniel Tapiero, speaking to PitchBook about what a Harris or Trump presidency could mean for the industry.

Stay tuned

Keep an eye out for these insights and research reports coming out this week:

Q2 2024 Infrastructure SaaS Report
Q1 2024 PitchBook Private Capital Indexes
Q2 2024 Healthcare Services Report
Q2 2024 US VC Valuations Report
Q2 2024 Agtech Report

Trivia

Answer: D)

Breakthrough Energy Ventures raised $839 million toward its third flagship fund. You can read more about that fund and other climate-focused ones in this article.

This edition of The Weekend Pitch was written by Andrew Woodman and Jacob Robbins. It was edited by Clarinda Simpson and Ron Prichard.

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PitchBook News - investors' $125 trillion challenge

Trivia

Keeping score: Our annual
manager performance rankings

Global payments highlight
enterprise fintech's upswing

VC information security funding
surges amid AI demand

Quote/Unquote

Stay tuned

Trivia

Older messages

Ranking 2,000+ fund families

DFJ banks $1B+ for growth fund

Bill Gates' climate VC raises $839M for new fund

Our annual manager performance rankings

Cross-border payments at a crossroads

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PitchBook News - investors' $125 trillion challenge

Trivia

Keeping score: Our annual manager performance rankings

Global payments highlight enterprise fintech's upswing

VC information security funding surges amid AI demand

Quote/Unquote

Stay tuned

Trivia

Older messages

You Might Also Like

Keeping score: Our annual
manager performance rankings

Global payments highlight
enterprise fintech's upswing

VC information security funding
surges amid AI demand