Sample our final data from VC's tough year

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The Daily Pitch: VC

January 7, 2025

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

🤔 What's in store for PE fundraising in 2025 after a 20% drop? LPs will prioritize managers with strong anchor investors. The US could have another slow year. Emerging managers may catch a break. Here's what else we're hearing.

🛕 VC fundraising in India grew 77% last year after Accel's $650 million fund gave the region a last-minute boost. An IPO boom in the world's fastest-growing large economy has helped lure LPs. Read more

Plus...
• Crime safety app Citizen is back on the fundraising trail
• Our analysts' guide to the ins and outs of benchmarking

Global VC markets weather another tough year

2024 was supposed to be a year of recovery for VC. While it wasn’t all doom and gloom, it didn’t produce the exits and returns needed to fuel fundraising.

Still, dealmaking remained fairly robust: In the US, our estimates put the final tally ahead of 2023. The high amount of dry powder accumulated in 2021 and 2022 has supported steady equity interest in VC. Then there's the impact of AI: Nearly 30% of completed US investments last year were made into AI companies.

Ahead of our full report next week, dive into data packs covering the global and European VC ecosystems, in addition to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor First Look at US data.

see the data

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Crime safety app Citizen targets $42M in fundraising push

(Design Pics/Getty Images)

The parent company of crowdsourced crime-tracking app Citizen is targeting $42.5 million in its latest fundraising push—four years after the once-buzzy company last publicly raised outside venture capital. Last valued at nearly $500 million in 2021, the company has since showed signs of distress.

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Benchmarking: Context is everything

With more types of investors moving into private markets, understanding what is and is not appropriate for benchmarking various investment decisions has never been more critical.

Benchmarking needs differ from allocator to allocator, according to our recent analyst note. But the consequences of fund managers and limited partners alike missing benchmarks are real. Consider that in November, a local Canadian government axed the 10-person board of Alberta Investment Management when their results trailed internal expectations.

The note breaks down, plainly, the ins and outs of evaluating investment decisions, including levels of decision-making, how and why benchmarks are created and selected, and how investors can apply them appropriately.

read it now

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Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

7

VC valuations

2726

People

836

Companies

70

Funds

See what our data software can do

The Daily Benchmark:
2020 Vintage Global Secondaries Funds

Median IRR

20.30%

Top Quartile IRR

25.96%

0.13x

Median DPI

Select top performers

Pantheon Private Debt PCO II

RCP Secondary Opportunity Fund III Overage Fund

W-Prime IV

*IRR: net of fees

26 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Orbis Medicines, a Copenhagen-based drug discovery startup, raised a €90 million Series A led by NEA.

Chile-based Buk, a developer of human resources software, raised a $50 million Series B led by Headline at a $850 million valuation.

Cozey, a direct-to-consumer furniture startup based in Montreal, is raising a $25 million round, Axios reported.

General Proximity, a biotech startup specializing in drug discovery, raised $16 million in pre-seed and seed funding rounds. The pre-seed was led by Y Combinator and Jim Dahl, and the seed was led by Felicis' Aydin Senkut.

Copenhagen-based Hervolution Therapeutics, which develops treatment for diseases related to aging, raised a $11.7 million Series A led by the Serum Institute of India.

RoboForce, a startup building robots to work in dangerous labor conditions, raised $10 million from investors including Myron Scholes, Gary Rieschel and Carnegie Mellon University.

PE Deals

An Apollo Global Management and BC Partners-led consortium is exploring a $5.6 billion deal for a controlling stake in the environmental services unit of GFL Environmental, Bloomberg reported.

CC Capital Partners offered $1.8 billion to acquire Australian wealth manager Insignia Financial, outbidding Bain Capital's previous offer, Bloomberg reported.

Digital Edge, a Singaporean data center operator, raised $640 million in equity and $1 billion in debt from new and existing investors.

Sauer Brands, a Virginia-based condiment producer, has been acquired by Advent International from Falfurrias Capital Partners for about $1.5 billion, Bloomberg reported.

A majority stake in German fintech Solaris has been acquired by SBI Holdings for about €100 million, Bloomberg reported.

Ackerley Sports Group is looking to renew its bid for South African rugby team Springboks' commercial rights, Bloomberg reported.

L Catterton took a majority investment in Japanese denim brand Kapital.

PBS Biotech, which develops products for the cell therapy industry, raised $17 million in growth capital from Avego Management.

Exits

Barnes & Noble and Waterstones, the US and UK bookshop chains owned by James Daunt, are looking for a possible combined IPO in London or New York, the Financial Times reported.

Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, filed for a US IPO. The company is expected to be valued over $5.38 billion.

Aspen Insurance, a UK-based specialty insurer, filed for a $4 billion listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shawbrook, a UK-based commercial lender backed by BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital, is in talks to file for a London IPO, Sky News reported.

Fundraising

Z Venture Capital, a Japan-based VC firm and a subsidiary of LY Corporation, launched a new fund targeted at 30 billion yen ($190 million).

Corporate M&A

Disney's Hulu + Live TV business is merging with FuboTV to create a combined venture.

Chart of the Day

Source: M&A 2024: Rebounding from rates and regulations

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Sample our final data from VC's tough year

Older messages

Private wealth's lifeline for emerging VCs

New year, new PE?

How to benchmark well

PE investment jumped 22% in 2024

AI generates nearly 1 in 4 new startups

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