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As games resume, sports media tries to rebound from advertising 'wasteland'
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| Oakland Athletics pitcher Jake Diekman wears his mask during a recent workout at RingCentral Coliseum. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) |
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The COVID-19 pandemic has put live sports in the US on pause, creating an unexpected challenge for media companies like Sports Illustrated and The Athletic as both searched to find viable business models.
The last few months have resulted in lost advertisers, layoffs, sudden shifts in strategy and other cost-cutting measures. With sports tentatively returning, will either company be able to bounce back?
That remains unclear: |
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'Now what?': Read the latest Private Market PlayBook
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2020 is a year defined by change. In six months, the world has been altered in ways that once seemed unimaginable, and humankind is scrambling to adapt.
In the tech world, this means everyone from new founders to experienced investors is reassessing their approach, a trend explored in the latest edition of the quarterly Private Market PlayBook. A few highlights:
- Now what?: Disaster forces venture investors to ditch the usual script
- Black Lives Matter: What's our responsibility in this struggle?
- The great unlocationing: How fully remote work could dramatically reshape the economy
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A message from West Monroe
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Private equity investing through uncertainty—2020 midyear review and outlook
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What are your predictions for the remainder of the year?
It's hard to believe 2020 is halfway over. This new reality may be here to stay, and while the worst may not be over, it is possible to be cautiously optimistic that better days are ahead.
Join PitchBook and West Monroe for a lively discussion on July 16, recapping an unprecedented and eventful first half of the year. An expert panel will recap the best and worst PE deal trends from Q2 and provide an outlook to help you navigate the remainder of the year.
Register for the July 16 webcast |
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Rivian loads up with $2.5B as investors scramble for electric vehicles
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| The R1T electric truck is one of three models that Rivian plans to deliver starting next year. (Courtesy of Rivian) |
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Rivian has banked another $2.5 billion in a round led by T. Rowe Price, bringing the electric vehicle maker's haul to more than $5 billion in just over a year. The latest investment is Rivian's largest yet on its road to 2021 commercialization.
New investors Soros Fund Management, Coatue, Fidelity Management & Research and Baron Capital Group joined the round alongside existing investors Amazon and BlackRock. T. Rowe Price also led a $1.3 billion investment in Rivian last December.
Next year, the Plymouth, Mich.-based company will launch its first two models, the R1T truck and R1S SUV, and expects to deliver its first electric delivery vans for Amazon. Ford and Rivian are also reportedly collaborating on a vehicle despite the cancellation of an SUV project with Ford-owned Lincoln earlier this year.
Last week, investors buoyed Tesla's market cap to dethrone rival Toyota as the world's most valuable carmaker. And California-based electric vehicle manufacturer Fisker is reportedly being targeted as an acquisition by a blank-check company backed by Apollo Global Management. |
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Workplace diversity and pay equity data now in demand among job seekers
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| (Zia Soleil/Getty Images) |
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In the wake of nationwide protests against racial injustice, many companies are increasingly facing pressure to reveal workplace diversity statistics.
As a multitude of newly laid-off workers navigate job listings, there has been a spike in demand for data on employee diversity and pay equity. Data providers including J. Thelander Consulting are aiming to make such information more transparent.
- Job seeker searches for the term "diversity" increased by around 222% year-over-year, according to data from employment marketplace provider ZipRecruiter
- Today, Thelander unveiled its online compensation data platform, Complander, offering information about staff-level positions from employees at more than 5,000 private companies and investment firms
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Marqeta readies for potential IPO
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Payments provider Marqeta is laying the groundwork for a potential public debut, according to Reuters. The Oakland, Calif.-based company reportedly plans to interview investment banks for help with an IPO that could come this year or in 2021.
In May, Marqeta secured $150 million, which more than doubled its valuation to $4.3 billion. Banks have reportedly told the company it could garner a significantly higher market value in a public listing.
The fintech company doubled its revenue from 2018 to 2019. And this year, it is experiencing even more growth due to surging online payments processed through its platform for customers such as Instacart, DoorDash and Square, according to Forbes.
Marqeta has raised over $400 million in the past year, according to PitchBook data. Its backers include Goldman Sachs, Visa and Coatue. |
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Wondering how the economy reopening will affect your segment of the private markets? Looking for insight into which industries are likely to bounce back faster than others? Curious about what's driving a new trend you've noticed?
Email us at ask@pitchbook.com, and the news team will choose a question and track down the answer. |
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The band formerly known as the Dixie Chicks has returned with a vengeance ahead of the release of its first studio album since 2006. [The New York Times]
Looking to buy a new passport? Some cash-strapped Caribbean nations are offering them for a discount. [Bloomberg]
Willful ignorance may have enabled the coronavirus to wreak devastation in the Texas panhandle. [The New Yorker] |
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Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:
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EQT Ventures founding partner to leave firm
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| Hjalmar Winbladh is leaving EQT Ventures, the Swedish venture capital firm he helped launch in 2015, as first reported by TechCrunch. The entrepreneur and investor indicated on LinkedIn that he is working on a stealth project to be launched in 2021. Winbladh has founded several startups, including the dotcom-era messaging company Sendit, which Microsoft acquired in 1999. |
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Beekeeper secures $10M Series B extension
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Merger talks send stock soaring for Apollo-backed SPAC
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| Shares in Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp. closed Friday up nearly 55% from their Thursday open after reports that the special-purpose acquisition company could soon strike a deal to acquire Fisker, a venture-backed maker of electric vehicles. Trading under the SPAQ symbol, Spartan Energy finished the week with a market cap of nearly $1.2 billion. The company raised $480 million in a 2018 IPO after its formation by executives at Apollo Global Management. |
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Amazon sent TikTok removal message in error
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| Amazon sent a message to employees Friday instructing them to delete the TikTok app from their mobile devices, but later said the email was sent in error, according to reports. The correspondence reportedly said the app wouldn't be allowed on devices that access Amazon email, due to security risks. TikTok was removed from app stores in Hong Kong last week, and India recently banned the app countrywide. |
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NCino boosts IPO price range
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| NCino, a startup that sells bank operating software, has raised the price range for its upcoming IPO to $28 to $29 per share, up from its initial range of $22 to $24 each; it plans to register more than 8.7 million shares. The North Carolina-based company is backed by Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures and others. |
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Silver Peak Systems eyes possible sale at around $1B
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| Networking company Silver Peak Systems is looking at a potential sale that would value it at around $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. Santa Clara-based Silver Peak is also reportedly working with a financial adviser. The company is backed by investors including Greylock Partners and TCV; it was valued at $465 million after a funding round in mid-2018, according to PitchBook data. |
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Uber, NEA veterans seek $100M for new fund
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| Former Uber executive Rachel Holt and former NEA partner Dayna Grayson are raising $100 million for their debut venture capital fund, which will focus on sectors including robotics, AI and 3D printing, The Wall Street Journal reported. Holt and Grayson joined forces earlier this year to form Construct Capital, which is based near Washington, DC. |
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Vision Fund head targets pandemic-era businesses
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| Rajeev Misra, the head of SoftBank's Vision Fund, said at a virtual tech conference last week that he plans to emphasize investments in food delivery, healthtech and distance learning during the pandemic, according to CNBC. The Japanese firm reportedly took a stake in Chinese online tutoring platform operator Zuoyebang recently. |
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"Companies with any kind of institutional backing are less willing to sell today. This means many PE firms have turned to companies without backing, which tend to be smaller, family-owned businesses and likely add-ons. This bears out in the data, as the median buyout size dipped for the first time since 2015, and the share of non-institutionally backed companies as a proportion of buyouts rose to the highest we have seen since 2009."
Source: PitchBook's Q2 2020 US PE Breakdown |
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