Female founders lose ground amid COVID-19

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The Daily Pitch: VC

October 8, 2020

Like our newsletter? The data comes from the PitchBook Platform — our data software for VC, PE and M&A

Today's Top Stories

Quarterly VC funding for female founders drops to three-year low

(CoWomen/Unsplash)

The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a disproportionate blow to female business owners in the US, and 2020 is shaping up to be one of the worst investment years since 2017 for startups led by women.

We broke down the data and spoke with a few women in the VC space to explore some of the factors contributing to the funding decline:

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Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

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VC valuations

1508

People

476

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22

Funds

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Quick Takes


	The Daily Benchmark
	2012 Vintage Global Debt Funds
	VC Deals
	Cerebral raises $35M Series A to support mental health
	Shogun banks $35M
	Alexis Ohanian's new fund makes first investment
	Exits & IPOs
	Momentus to go public in $1.2B SPAC deal
	Carlyle's HireVue buys AllyO from VCs

The Daily Benchmark

2012 Vintage Global Debt Funds

Median IRR

7.14%

Top Quartile IRR Hurdle Rate

10.97%

1.28x

Median TVPI

Select top performers

LEM Real Estate High Yield Debt Fund III

TPG Opportunities Partners II

Catalyst Fund Limited Partnership IV

*IRR: net of fees

39 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Cerebral raises $35M Series A to support mental health

Cerebral has raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from other investors including Westcap, Liquid 2 Ventures, Gaingels and Air Angels. The San Francisco-based mental health startup provides medication management and telemedicine therapy services for anxiety and depression.

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Shogun banks $35M

Shogun, the provider of a platform that helps merchants build out their online stores, has pulled in a $35 million Series B led by Accel. Initialized Capital, VMG Partners and Y Combinator also joined the round. Over 15,000 ecommerce brands use Page Builder, one of the California-based startup's core products.

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Alexis Ohanian's new fund makes first investment

Dispo, a social media company co-founded by YouTube star David Dobrik, has raised a $4 million seed round led by Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six, marking the fund's first investment. Los Angeles-based Dispo, formerly known as David's Disposable, allows users to take photos that aren't made available until the next morning—an experience meant to mimic the nostalgia of taking pictures with a disposable camera.

Select Additional Investors:

Unshackled Ventures, Sofia Vergara, Shrug Capital, Weekend Fund

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Exits & IPOs

Momentus to go public in $1.2B SPAC deal

Space transportation startup Momentus plans to go public through a merger with Stable Road Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company. Momentus will receive about $310 million from the deal, which values the combined company at $1.2 billion. Prime Movers Lab led the seed and Series A rounds for Santa Clara-based Momentus, which has also received backing from Tribe Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures and Y Combinator.

View details

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Carlyle's HireVue buys AllyO from VCs

HireVue, a developer of virtual interviewing and hiring technology that's owned by The Carlyle Group, has acquired AllyO, the creator of a recruitment chatbot and other hiring software. Based in Palo Alto, AllyO had raised prior venture backing from Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and others, reaching a $161 million valuation last year, according to PitchBook data.

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Chart of the Day

"While interest in more opportunistic strategies has grown due to the economic duress caused by the pandemic, demand for direct lending funds—which usually make up the bulk of private debt fundraising— has waned considerably. Fundraising for direct lending funds totaled just $18.2 billion across 17 vehicles through the first half of the year."

Source: PitchBook's H1 2020 Global Private Debt Report