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The Daily Pitch: VC

January 10, 2025

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

🦾 AI startups grabbed a third of VC investment globally last year—and nearly half of all dollars in North America. Investors question whether the right kinds of AI companies are getting capital. Full story

🏃 There's a new runner in the weight-loss drug race. London-based Verdiva Bio launched with a $411 million Series A to develop lower-cost drugs. Read more

Plus...
• Which of Europe's "soonicorns" will reach a €1 billion valuation?
• Dealmakers see M&A rebound under new FTC

PitchBook Benchmarks for PE, VC, and more

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 Q2 2024 with preliminary quarterly returns through Q3. It features tables and charts 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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Europe’s ‘soonicorns': Who’ll top €1 billion valuation in 2025?

(Sanja Baljkas/Getty Images)

Europe is expected to see an uptick in unicorn creation this year following a muted 2024.

Which companies could join the herd? We’ve compiled a list of some VC-backed European names that could exceed a €1 billion valuation this year.

read the list

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M&A 2024: Rebounding from rates and regulations

(Sakchai Vongsasiripat/Getty Images)

The M&A market navigated a year of delicate recovery in 2024, marked by private equity's resurgence and regulatory hurdles.

With new FTC leadership on the horizon, dealmakers anticipate opportunities in 2025.

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Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

13

VC valuations

2872

People

691

Companies

31

Funds

See what our data software can do

The Daily Benchmark:
2021 Vintage Global Debt Funds

Median IRR

10.70%

Top Quartile IRR

13.50%

0.23x

Median DPI

Select top performers

Star Asia Japan Special Situations V

GoldenTree Distressed Fund IV

BDCM Opportunity Fund V

*IRR: net of fees

117 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

People

Wiz hired Fazal Merchant as the cloud security company's new president and CFO as it prepares for an IPO.

VC Deals

Healthcare AI startup Innovaccer, the developer of cloud software for healthcare organizations, raised a $275 million Series F from investors including B Capital Group, Banner Health, Danaher Ventures and more.

Hippocratic AI, a startup developing LLMs for healthcare tasks, raised a $141 million Series B led by Kleiner Perkins at a $1.64 billion valuation.

XOCEAN, a Dublin-based ocean data platform, raised €115 million from investors including S2G Ventures, Climate Investment and Morgan Stanley.

Biotech company A2 Biotherapeutics, which specializes in cell therapies, raised an $80 million Series C from investors including The Column Group, Samsara BioCapital and more.

Air, the developer of an AI-powered branding and marketing platform for creative assets, raised a $35 million Series B led by Avenir Growth Capital.

Qualified Health, a startup providing infrastructure for generative AI in healthcare, raised $30 million in seed funding from investors including SignalFire, Healthier Capital, Town Hall Ventures and more.

Grand Games, an Istanbul-based gaming studio, closed a $30 million Series A led by Balderton Capital.

Power grid monitoring technology developer Gridware raised a $26.4 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital.

PrettyDamnQuick, a startup providing order management services for retailers, raised a $25 million Series A led by PeakSpan Capital.

PE Deals

Data intelligence company DDN, which supports deployments of generative AI and LLMs, raised $300 million via an investment from Blackstone.

De La Rue, a printer of bank notes in the UK, received a take-private offer of £245 million for the entire business from Disruptive Capital and Pension SuperFund Capital.

Medical software provider Modernizing Medicine is in talks to be sold by owning firm Warburg Pincus in a deal that could value the company over $5 billion, Reuters reported.

Investindustrial agreed to acquire Eurovetrocap, an Italy-headquartered packaging manufacturer.

VE Partners agreed to acquire Inproba, a Netherlands-based oriental food ingredients maker.

Unison Therapy Services, which provides therapy to elementary, middle and high school students in underserved populations, has been acquired by Ascend Capital Partners.

Exits

Semiconductor company Ampere Computing is in talks to be acquired by SoftBank and Arm Holdings, Reuters reported.

Germany-based drugmaker Stada, which is owned by Bain Capital and Cinven, is preparing for a 2025 IPO.

Fundraising

The Vistria Group raised $3 billion for its fifth fund targeted at investments in healthcare, education and financial services companies, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Eurazeo and Astorg led the fundraising of Ardian’s continuation fund for Syclef, a French refrigeration and air conditioning systems installation specialist.

Blackstone raised over $1 billion for its latest infrastructure fund targeting investments from wealthy individuals, according to SEC filings.

Smartfin closed its third growth fund on €250 million targeting B2B tech companies.

Belgium-based Capricorn Partners held a €51 million first close for its second VC health-tech fund.

Chart of the Day

Source: A rough year for Europe’s PE-backed IPOs gave just a handful of winners

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PitchBook News - AI gets a third of VC cash

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