PitchBook News - Measuring VC's pandemic resilience

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The Daily Pitch: VC

August 20, 2021

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

Today's Greeting

In today's Daily Pitch, you'll find:

Our latest Quantitative Perspectives report.

An analysis of why public PE firms are on a hot streak and how they could keep it going.

Today's Top Stories

Measuring VC's pandemic resilience

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the US venture capital industry set several records in the past year and has continued its robust performance in 2021.

PitchBook's latest Quantitative Perspectives report provides a data-driven analysis on how the industry is charging full steam ahead, including insights on the correlation between public and private markets, mounting optimism from nontraditional investors and why the SPAC market has yet to establish itself as a game-changing exit route. Highlights from the report include:

With large tech stocks including Amazon and Netflix driving the market upward, institutional investors are increasingly seeking value in the next crop of VC-backed tech companies.

Investors have concentrated their capital into fewer industries over the past 15 years. IT hardware and energy are among the sectors seeing the largest reduction in capital investment.

Already in 2021, mega-funds have nearly eclipsed 2020's annual record. With the supply of capital higher than estimated demand, companies are securing funding more quickly than expected.

In recent months, de-SPACing activity seems unable to keep up with SPAC announcements. This could indicate a lack of worthy SPAC targets, and that capital may be returned in the coming year as many SPACs come up against the two-year deadline to deploy capital.

read the report

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How public PE firms notched a sizzling Q2

(sitox/Getty Images)

It's a good time to be a publicly traded private equity firm.

Blackstone, KKR, Apollo Global Management, The Carlyle Group and Ares Management all reported robust performance across their business segments during the second quarter of 2021, according to our recent analyst note examining the PE giants. Topics in the research include:

How firms have taken advantage of market tailwinds to speed up fundraising, dealmaking and exits.

How some firms have deployed M&A in the insurance space or other strategies to bolster their total assets under management.

Why fund performance has continued to outpace the public equivalents, leading to growth in share prices and a boost in future distributable earnings available to shareholders.

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A message from Affinity

The definitive guide to CRM for venture capital

Customer relationship management software for venture capital firms is the foundation for how investment opportunities are found and completed. By bringing together a firm's complete relationship network—along with the ability to manage deals—VC CRM platforms can have a material impact on the performance of any fund or partner.

A CRM is designed to increase your effectiveness as a firm by helping automate, standardize and optimize your dealmaking process—all while helping you make the most of your relationship network in a single platform that contains your most valuable data.

Download the guide to learn how VCs can get the most from their CRM to close more quality deals faster.

The definitive guide to CRM for VCs

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Recommended Reads

Minimalist phone designers are here to revolutionize communication technology, and they're piquing venture capitalists' interest. [The Wall Street Journal]

Investors are earmarking trillions of dollars for sustainability, but is anyone looking at how the money is actually used? [Bloomberg]

How fintechs are challenging the steep fees banks charge people trying to send money back home to their families in other countries. [Financial Times]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

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VC valuations

1306

People

392

Companies

24

Funds

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Quick Takes


	The Daily Benchmark
	2016 Vintage European Real Assets Funds
	VC Deals
	Databricks to raise round at $38B valuation
	Ample drives off with $160M
	Tiger Global leads $50M round for Nacelle
	Enable secures $45M Series B
	RepairSmith picks up $42M
	Metabase nabs $30M
	Diamond Age banks $8M seed round
	Exits & IPOs
	Illumina completes Grail acquisition amid legal concerns
	Fundraising
	Northwestern forms university accelerator

The Daily Benchmark

2016 Vintage European Real Assets Funds

Median IRR

9.86%

Top Quartile IRR Hurdle Rate

11.07%

1.28x

Median TVPI

Select top performers

Tembo Capital Mining Fund II

Partners Group Direct Infrastructure 2016

Antin Infrastructure Fund III

*IRR: net of fees

12 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Databricks to raise round at $38B valuation

Data management company Databricks is in talks for a new round of funding led by Morgan Stanley that would bring in at least $1.5 billion and value the company at $38 billion, Bloomberg reported. The San Francisco-based company was valued at $28 billion after raising $1 billion in February. It has also reportedly considered an IPO this year. Databricks' analytics platform helps organizations manage large data resources and AI workloads in the cloud.

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Ample drives off with $160M

Ample, a developer of technology that quickly swaps depleted electric vehicle batteries for fully charged ones, has raised a $160 million Series C. The round was led by Moore Strategic Ventures with participation from other investors including Thai oil and gas company PTT and Disruptive Innovation Fund. The round puts the San Francisco-based startup's total funding at $230 million. Ample currently operates five battery swapping stations in the Bay Area for participating Uber drivers.

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Tiger Global leads $50M round for Nacelle

Nacelle, an ecommerce infrastructure developer, has raised a $50 million Series B from Tiger Global. The funding comes six months after the Los Angeles-based startup closed its $18 million Series A. The capital will be used to accelerate Nacelle's go-to-market and product development.

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Enable secures $45M Series B

Enable has raised $45 million in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Menlo Ventures and Sierra Ventures. The San Francisco-based company is the developer of rebate management software intended to help manufacturers and distributors manage trading agreements with suppliers and customers. Sean Jacobsohn, partner at Norwest, will join the company's board.

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RepairSmith picks up $42M

RepairSmith has raised a $42 million Series B from investors including TI Capital, Mercedes Benz, Porsche Ventures and Spring Mountain Capital. Founded in 2018, the Los Angeles-based company is a provider of mobile repair and maintenance services for car owners and fleet operators across six states in the US.

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Metabase nabs $30M

Metabase has raised a $30 million Series B led by Insight Partners, with participation from NEA and Expa. The San Francisco-based company is the developer of an open-source business intelligence platform designed to help companies measure, analyze and share their data.

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Diamond Age banks $8M seed round

Diamond Age has raised an $8 million seed round led by Prime Movers Lab and Alpaca VC, with participation from Dolby Family Ventures and Calm Ventures, among others. The Bay Area startup is focused on automating the construction process by developing a suite of robotic tools that reduce the manual labor required to build new homes by more than half.

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Exits & IPOs

Illumina completes Grail acquisition amid legal concerns

Gene-sequencing tool manufacturing giant Illumina has completed its acquisition of Grail despite a pending antitrust challenge from the FTC and an ongoing legal battle in Europe. Grail, which was founded inside Illumina and spun out in 2017, is a developer of liquid biopsies for early cancer detection. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company has raised $2 billion in private funding from a long list of investors including Arch Venture Partners, GV and Johnson & Johnson Innovation. The FTC's complaint alleges that Illumina's control of Grail would reduce innovation in the US multi-cancer early detection test market. The trial is scheduled to start next week. Illumina said that it will hold Grail as a separate unit and accept whatever the court decides.

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Fundraising

Northwestern forms university accelerator

Northwestern University has announced its plan to form a technology accelerator to support startups created by university faculty in health, life sciences and related fields. The Illinois General Assembly is allocating $50 million to the accelerator and university trustee Kimberly Querrey is donating $25 million to the project.

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