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Affirm, SoFi may herald new fintech boom

Visa abandons $5.3B Plaid deal; Checkout.com takes Europe's unicorn crown; SoftBank sells off $2B+ in Uber stock; Cockroach Labs valued at $2B
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The Daily Pitch: VC
January 13, 2021
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Affirm, SoFi herald potential boom in new fintech listings
A group of fintech companies could follow Affirm and SoFi to the public market in 2021. (Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images)
Some of the largest fintech companies in the US are lining up public offerings and SPAC mergers, bolstered by pandemic-era growth and higher stock market valuations.

Affirm and SoFi are set to be the first on the scene—a potential predictor for whether the fintech industry stands a chance of topping last year's record high for VC-backed exits. And IPO hopefuls like Robinhood and Klarna could follow.
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Top PE lobbying group pauses its political donations after Capitol riot
Supporters of President Trump rallied outside the US Capitol last week before storming the building. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
The American Investment Council, a lobbying organization for the private equity industry, has decided to pause political donations after rioters supporting President Trump broke into the US Capitol last week and terrorized lawmakers during a rally to protest the results of the presidential election.

The move came after a growing number of companies and investors withdrew support for politicians who opposed certifying the votes.
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Visa abandons Plaid takeover after DOJ antitrust pressure
When Visa's purchase of Plaid was announced last January, it was a landmark deal and one of the largest venture-backed fintech exits on record. In November, the Justice Department sued to stop the acquisition on the grounds that it gave Visa a monopoly over the online debit space.

At the time, Visa hotly disputed the argument, calling it "legally flawed" and saying the company planned to defend the merger. Instead, Visa has walked away from the deal.
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Checkout.com crowned Europe's top unicorn as valuation hits $15B
The company has raised $830 million over the last two years.
(Courtesy of Checkout.com)
Online payments startup Checkout.com has become Europe's most valuable VC-backed company following a $450 million Series C.

The London-based startup nearly tripled its valuation to $15 billion with a round led by Tiger Global. Greenoaks Capital joined the fundraise, as did existing investors including Insight Partners, DST Global and Blossom Capital.

Checkout.com has now raised $830 million in the last two years. Although founded in 2012, it wasn't until May 2019 that the company closed its Series A, which was followed a year later with a $150 million Series B at a $5.5 billion valuation. The new round will help fund Checkout.com's international expansion, with a particular focus on the US. Simultaneously with the Series C, the company announced new offices in New York and Denver.

Checkout.com's payments platform processes transactions for clients including Grab, Farfetch and Klarna, which became Europe's then-most valuable fintech startup when it reached a $10.65 billion valuation in September.
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Reach out to connect@pitchbook.com to get your deals properly credited, so you may feature in our industry, region and deal type rankings.
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Recommended Reads
Around $140 billion worth of bitcoin is believed to be held in lost digital wallets. And the star-crossed early adopters who can't access their fortunes are dying to get it all back. [The New York Times]

With a new investment in carbon capture technology, United Airlines is taking a notable step toward reckoning with the aviation industry's serious pollution problem. [The Washington Post]

Demand for environmental, social and governance funds is booming. But that doesn't change the fact that most new ESG efforts are doomed to fail. [Institutional Investor]
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Quick Takes
  The Daily Benchmark  
  2014 Vintage Global Secondaries Funds  
  People  
  Techstars names Maëlle Gavet as CEO  
  VC Deals  
  Tessera Therapeutics banks $230M+  
  Cockroach Labs hits $2B valuation with new round  
  Edtech startup secures new funding  
  Workato brings home $110M Series D  
  Spark Capital leads $30M round for Reggora  
  Exits & IPOs  
  EV maker Proterra to go public in $1.6B SPAC deal  
  Talkspace nears SPAC deal  
  Byju's to buy tutoring specialist for $1B  
  Investors  
  SoftBank offloads $2B+ in Uber stock  
 
 
The Daily Benchmark
2014 Vintage Global Secondaries Funds
Median IRR
13.80%
Top Quartile IRR Hurdle Rate
17.90%
1.31x
Median TVPI
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13 Funds in Benchmark »
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People
Techstars names Maëlle Gavet as CEO
Startup accelerator Techstars has announced that Maëlle Gavet has taken over as CEO of the company to replace outgoing chief David Brown, who will continue to serve on the board. Gavet was most recently COO of real estate tech company Compass and previously an executive vice president of operations at the Priceline Group. Techstars also appointed co-founder David Cohen as chairman of the board.
View details
 
View 2,657 investments »
 
VC Deals
Tessera Therapeutics banks $230M+
Tessera Therapeutics has raised more than $230 million in a Series B co-led by Alaska Permanent Fund, Altitude Life Science Ventures and SoftBank's Vision Fund 2. Based in the Boston area, the company is a developer of engineering technology designed to treat diseases by writing therapeutic messages into the human genome.
Additional Investors:
Flagship Pioneering, Qatar Investment Authority
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Cockroach Labs hits $2B valuation with new round
Cloud database startup Cockroach Labs has raised $160 million at a $2 billion valuation. The round was led by Altimeter Capital, with support from Greenoaks, Lone Pine and others. The company's revenue and customer base have both doubled in the past year, helped by a shift to cloud services during the pandemic. New York-based Cockroach raised $86.6 million in May 2020 and its total funding now stands at $355 million.
Additional Investors:
Benchmark, Index Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Tiger Global, GV, Bond Capital
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View 32 competitors »
 
Edtech startup secures new funding
Prodigy has raised C$159 million (around $125 million) in a Series B led by TPG Growth. Based in Ontario, Canada, the startup offers an edtech platform designed to help students learn via games and other resources. TPG Growth principal Jacqui Hawwa and TPG Capital partner David Trujillo will join the company's board. With over 100 million users worldwide, Prodigy has expanded beyond North America to operate in the UK, Australia and India.
Additional Investor:
Canadian Business Growth Fund
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View similar company »
 
Workato brings home $110M Series D
Workato has reached a valuation of $1.7 billion after raising $110 million in a round led by Altimeter Capital and Insight Partners, with participation from Redpoint Ventures and Battery Ventures. Based in the Bay Area, the startup is the developer of a platform that helps companies integrate their apps and securely automate business workflows. In 2019, Workato raised a $70 million Series C at a $500 million valuation, according to PitchBook data.
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Spark Capital leads $30M round for Reggora
Reggora, which offers real estate appraisal software for mortgage lenders, has raised a $30 million Series B led by Spark Capital. Boston Seed, 1984, Shine Capital and Greenpoint Partners also participated in the funding.
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Exits & IPOs
EV maker Proterra to go public in $1.6B SPAC deal
Proterra, a designer and manufacturer of heavy-duty electric vehicles, has agreed to a reverse merger with blank-check company ArcLight Clean Transition Corp. The deal values Proterra at $1.6 billion and includes a $415 million PIPE investment from backers including Daimler, Franklin Templeton, Chamath Palihapitiya, Fidelity Management & Research and BlackRock. Investors have poured more than $650 million into Proterra, valuing it at $1.1 billion in 2019, according to PitchBook data.
View details
 
View 15 competitors »
 
Talkspace nears SPAC deal
Talkspace is closing in on a merger with a SPAC led by managing partners at hedge fund Hudson Executive Capital that would take the online therapy provider public, Bloomberg reported. The deal could reportedly raise over $200 million in equity and value the combined company at more than $1.5 billion. Talkspace has raised over $100 million in private backing from investors including Spark Capital, SoftBank and Revolution; it was valued at $310 million in 2019, according to PitchBook data.
View details
View 44 competitors »
Byju's to buy tutoring specialist for $1B
Indian online education company Byju's has agreed to pay $1 billion to acquire Aakash Educational Services, an operator of brick-and-mortar tutoring centers in India that's backed by Blackstone, Bloomberg reported. In November, Byju's was reportedly close to raising new funding from BlackRock and T. Rowe Price at a $12 billion valuation; its existing backers include Tiger Global, Bond Capital and General Atlantic. Blackstone has backed Aakash since 2019.
View details
 
View 4 competitors »
 
Investors
SoftBank offloads $2B+ in Uber stock
SoftBank has sold over $2 billion in Uber stock, an SEC filing shows. The conglomerate's Vision Fund sold 38 million shares at $53.46 apiece, yet it still holds 184.2 million shares of Uber. SoftBank also holds stakes in ridehailing companies around the world, including China's Didi Chuxing, India's Ola, and Singapore's Grab.
View details
 
View 165 investments »
 
Chart of the Day
"Software has been a refuge for investors during the COVID-19 pandemic, as stay-at-home orders accelerated adoption of digital entertainment, ecommerce, education, and healthcare technologies, and as companies continued to invest in productivity tools for their now primarily remote workforces. The SaaS business model is seen as particularly attractive because it combines recurring revenue streams with the potential for low-capital-intensity growth."

Source: PitchBook's 2020 Annual US PE Breakdown
Who's in the newsletter today?
People
David Brown
David Cohen
David Trujillo
Jacqui Hawwa
Maëlle Gavet
Investors
1984
Alaska Permanent Fund
Altimeter Capital
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Battery Ventures
Benchmark
BlackRock
Blackstone
Blossom Capital
Bond Capital
Boston Seed
Canadian Business Growth Fund
Chamath Palihapitiya
DST Global
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Fidelity Management & Research
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Flagship Pioneering
GV
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Greenoaks
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Index Ventures
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Shine Capital
SoftBank
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T. Rowe Price
TPG Capital
TPG Growth
Techstars
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Companies
Aakash Educational Services
ArcLight Clean Transition Corp
Byju's
Checkout.com
Cockroach Labs
Compass
Didi Chuxing
Farfetch
Franklin Templeton
Grab
Klarna
Lone Pine
Ola
Priceline Group
Prodigy
Proterra
Reggora
Talkspace
Tessera Therapeutics
Uber
Workato
 
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