Are VC's biggest stars retaining their value?

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The Daily Pitch: VC

March 7, 2025

Presented by Fidelity Private Shares^SM

👜 PE investors have been going gaga for Japanese consumer brands, which logged more than a third of PE deal value in the country last year. The Carlyle Group's $639 million take-private of fast-food chain KFC Holdings Japan and Bain Capital's $338 million take-private of outdoor brand Snow Peak led the way. In the US and Europe, consumer deals are far less popular. Read more

🛒 The ecommerce VC landscape closed out 2024 with a mix of resilience and recalibration, our latest Emerging Tech Research shows. While quarterly deal count inched up, total funding took a dip as investors zeroed in on bigger rounds—pushing the median late-stage valuation up a staggering 84% year-over-year.

The big bets? AI-driven personalization, conversational commerce and next-gen fraud prevention—signaling a shift to smarter, more adaptive tech. Preview the report

Plus...
• PE deals that are going through the roof
• A $5.5 billion purchase by Bain Capital comes in among Japan's largest PE deals in a decade
• The Nordic market's VC struggles as its PE fundraising rebounds

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Dynamic rankings of VC-backed giants: The PitchBook 100

(Mara Potter/PitchBook News)

SpaceX. ByteDance. OpenAI. The world's most valuable VC-backed companies sit at the convergence of public and private markets. For equity investors, they're both a barometer for tech's next big thing and an asset class in their own right.

The PitchBook 100 ranks the most valuable venture-backed companies globally and offers insights into their secondary trading activity. Valuation estimates from secondary platforms offer a critical pulse check during a challenging period for VC-backed businesses.

explore the rankings

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Nordic VC struggles as PE fundraising rebounds

Nordic VC underperformed broader European dealmaking in 2024, with declining deal value and a shrinking investment/exit ratio.

Our latest Nordic Private Capital Breakdown reveals that VC exits lagged Europe's recovery last year, with the SaaS industry leading in volume and manufacturing setting the pace for value.

PE deal activity remained stable, dominated by buy-and-build strategies, as carveout deal value surged 45.2% YoY. PE fundraising rebounded strongly, with €33.2 billion raised, driven by a mix of new and established funds.

read it now

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Valor's add-on the latest in PE's roofing deal spree

(Andy Sacks/Getty Images)

Valor Exterior Partners, backed by lower-mid-market PE firm Osceola Capital Management, has acquired roofing services provider Roofing King. The move is part of Valor's efforts to consolidate roofing companies and other regional exterior home services providers in the US Northeast.

Despite a muted dealmaking environment, this corner of the home improvement market has attracted burgeoning PE interest. In 2024, the number of PE investments in roofing companies hit an all-time high of 82, according to PitchBook data.

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Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

10

VC valuations

2529

People

537

Companies

34

Funds

See what our data software can do

The Daily Benchmark:
2017 Vintage Global Funds-of-Funds

Median IRR

18.15%

Top Quartile IRR

21.00%

0.31x

Median DPI

Select top performers

Top Tier Venture Velocity Fund 2

HighVista Private Equity VII

Top Tier Venture Capital VIII

*IRR: net of fees

38 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

People

Goldman Sachs has appointed David Dubner as chief operating officer of global M&A, Reuters reported.

Easterly Asset Management appointed Deb Tobin as chief compliance officer of the firm's investment advisory unit.

VC Deals

Defense-tech startup Shield AI raised $240 million at a $5.3 billion valuation in a round led by L3Harris and Hanwha Aerospace.

Turing, a coding provider for AI projects, raised a $111 million Series E at a $2.2 billion valuation led by Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad.

PetScreening, a pet policy management software provider for property managers, raised a $80 million Series B led by Volition Capital and Guidepost Growth Equity.

Climate-tech startup Spiritus, which focuses on carbon capture, raised a $30 million Series A led by Aramco Ventures.

Crogl, which builds AI for cybersecurity researchers, raised a $25 million Series A led by Menlo Ventures, as well as a previously unannounced $5 million seed led by Tola Capital.

Healthtech Lumata Health, which specializes in ophthalmological care, has raised a $23 million Series B led by LRVHealth, McKesson Ventures and Cencora Ventures.

Bioplastics startup ReSource Chemical has raised $15 million in a round led by Khosla Ventures and Fathom Fund.

PitchBook webinar: Private Credit Analysis & Outlook

What can private market participants expect in the year ahead? Join our guest speakers from throughout the private credit segment and in-house analysts as they share the most impactful trends in the current market environment and their insights on possible developments throughout 2025. This webinar will also feature results from our latest proprietary private credit market survey and a Q&A with our panelists. Key topics include:

The direct lending landscape, including volume estimates, uses of proceeds and terms.

What's next in the private credit vs. broadly syndicated loan market tug-of-war.

Trends in private credit ratings, credit quality, and the Morningstar DBRS outlook for 2025.

Register now to secure your spot.

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PE Deals

Partners Group agreed to acquire Australia-based GreenSquare Data Centers for A$1.2 billion (about $760.4 million).

Financial services investor Corsair Capital has acquired a majority stake in IDNow, which uses AI-powered identity verification. The firm initially invested in 2019.

Crestview has acquired Smyth Companies, a provider of labels and packaging solutions, from Novacap.

The Stephens Group has invested in online recreational safety education specialist Kalkomey Enterprises.

Middle-market investor Rubicon Technologies has made a majority investment in CollegeNET, a software provider specializing in higher education.

Aurora Capital-backed Cold Chain Technologies has acquired Global Cold Chain Solutions, which transports temperature-sensitive goods.

Interlock Equity-backed Apply Digital has acquired Ragnarok, a personalization marketing specialist.

Exits

Buy-now, pay-later fintech giant Klarna aims to price its IPO in early April, targeting a valuation of over $15 billion on the NYSE, Bloomberg reported.

Messaging app provider Discord is in talks with investment banks about an IPO, The New York Times reported. The company was last valued in 2021 at $14.7 billion in a $500 million Series I led by Dragoneer Investment Group.

American Express has agreed to acquire Center, an expense management company last valued in 2023 at $600 million and backed by Top Tier Capital Partners, Durable Capital Partners and Mango Capital. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Lone Star-backed Portuguese lender Novo Banco could hold an IPO in Q2 or Q3, Bloomberg reported.

PE-backed Genesys, a customer engagement software developer, has delayed its IPO due to market volatility, The Information reported.

Fundraising

400 Capital Management closed it fourth private credit fund on $1.39 billion, surpassing its original $1 billion target.

Investors

Apollo Global Management and Motive Partners launched Lyra Client Solutions. The company is a spinout from Apollo's client services division and has received capital from both firms.

Buchler Phillips, a London-based corporate recovery and restructuring firm, launched a new PE investment arm, Bronzewood Capital.

Eurazeo saw a threefold increase in realizations in 2024 to €3.4 billion.

Corporate M&A

Semiconductor supplier Onsemi is in talks to acquire Allegro MicroSystems in a deal that would give the target company an enterprise value of $6.9 billion.

Chart of the Day

Source: 2024 European All In: Female Founders in the VC Ecosystem

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You are so very welcome ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

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PlayToEarn Newsletter #263 - Your weekly web3 gaming news ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Are VC's biggest stars retaining their value?

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