PitchBook News - Global M&A nears new milestones

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The Daily Pitch: VC

October 28, 2021

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

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

Our Q3 Global M&A Report, tracking the record-setting pace of M&A activity last quarter.

Online pharmacies and drug delivery companies like Truepill are capitalizing on a big market opportunity.

Today's Top Stories

Global M&A deals top $3.4T through Q3 en route to record year

The global economic recovery continued to fuel surging M&A activity in Q3, with over 27,000 deals and $3.4 trillion in combined deal value recorded in the first nine months of the year. Despite potential macroeconomic headwinds, global drivers of M&A remain intact, and both Europe and North America are on pace to easily break records in Q4.

Our Q3 Global M&A Report, sponsored by Liberty GTS and RBC Capital Markets, recaps a relentless quarter of dealmaking as the world works out the long-term effects of the pandemic. Among the highlights:

Dealmakers in North America remain undeterred by labor shortages and inflationary pressures, closing over 4,600 deals worth a combined $708 billion in Q3.

Europe's three largest-ever quarters for M&A deal volume were the first three quarters of 2021, with the total annual count already over 12,000.

High stock prices are driving a rise in transactions financed at least partially by stock. Such deals have accounted for nearly half of all M&A transactions, up from 40% in 2020.

read it now

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Truepill raises $142M for powering online pharmacies and diagnostics

(Yulia Reznikov/Getty Images)

Truepill has raised a $142 million Series D at a $1.6 billion valuation. Started as a prescription delivery service in 2016, the company has since added diagnostics and telehealth services to its offering.

The fragmented online pharmacy landscape includes legacy players such as Walgreens and CVS, as well as myriad VC-backed startups including SoftBank's Alto and Capsule, which last raised $300 million at a valuation of over a billion.

While the pharmacy industry seems increasingly crowded, it can likely absorb many providers. Consumers spend over $300 billion annually on prescription drugs, with still only a small percentage of orders filled online, according to PitchBook estimates.

TI Platform Management and Initialized Capital participated in the round for Truepill, which acts as a white-label pharmacist to direct-to-consumer providers like Hims, and is now expanding to work with larger players, including health plans and life science companies.

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Partner Perspectives

Denver's historic year of venture activity

Across 193 completed financings, a record sum of $2 billion has been invested within the Denver startup ecosystem already this year. Bridge Bank's latest venture ecosystem review summarizes key investment trends in the Denver metro area, with highlights and analysis including:

How the gradual evolution of the Denver ecosystem over the past three decades has culminated in record growth.
The growing role of outside investors.
A promising upswing of fundraising in the past few years.

Read the report

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Recommended Reads

Investors like KKR and Blackstone are pouring money into music rights as the asset class booms in the streaming era. [Financial Times]

How India's political legacies could position the country to become a champion of climate change. [The New Yorker]

Not yet bogged down by the bureaucracy of older industries, the cannabis market is attracting distributors quickly. [Forbes]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

19

VC valuations

1814

People

485

Companies

31

Funds

See what our data software can do

Quick Takes


	A message from RBC Capital Markets
	How are LBOs influencing the M&A market?
	The Daily Benchmark
	2012 Vintage North American Debt Funds
	VC Deals
	Footwear brand Rothy's in talks to raise funding at $1B+ value
	Immunai brings in $215M to treat cancer
	Flight automation startup nabs $200M
	Legal tech startup rebrands, scores $200M
	ShiftMed scoops up $45M for healthcare staffing tech
	Gluware raises $43M
	Tiger Global leads $35M round for QuickNode
	Autofleet fills up with $20M Series B
	Visa backs credit card startup Deserve
	Exits & IPOs
	Nubank files to go public

A message from RBC Capital Markets

How are LBOs influencing the M&A market?

Driven by an accommodating low-rate environment, economic recovery and financial sponsors putting significant private capital to work, M&A volume has reached record levels. In the first half of 2021, about one quarter of deals sized $1 billion or larger were private equity acquisitions, and the market saw almost half a trillion dollars of new LBOs. Moving into 2022, "We have strong tailwinds in the economy and a lot of uninvested private equity capital that wants to be deployed," according to RBC's John Cokinos.

Will private equity continue to drive M&A activity? Where are PE firms diversifying across sectors? How is leveraged finance making an impact on the market?

Learn why complex deals are the future for private equity from RBC Capital Markets' industry experts.

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The Daily Benchmark

2012 Vintage North American Debt Funds

Median IRR

8.21%

Top Quartile IRR

10.72%

1.27x

Median TVPI

Select top performers

TPG Opportunities Partners II

Central Valley Fund II

Abry Senior Equity IV

*IRR: net of fees

40 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Footwear brand Rothy's in talks to raise funding at $1B+ value

Rothy's, a washable footwear brand, is said to be in discussions to raise new funding that could value the San Francisco-based company at more than $1 billion, Bloomberg reported. Goldman Sachs Investment Partners led the company's last round of funding with a $35 million investment in late 2018.

View details

View 10 competitors »

Immunai brings in $215M to treat cancer

Immunai has raised a $215 million Series B led by Koch Disruptive Technologies. The New York-based company is developing therapeutics that reprogram the immune system to treat cancer and other diseases. 8VC, Alexandria Venture Investments and Piedmont also participated in the funding, among others.

Additional Investors:

Talos VC, ICON

View round

View similar company »

Flight automation startup nabs $200M

Skyryse has raised $200 million in a Series B co-led by Fidelity Management & Research and Monashee Investment Management, with support from Republic Capital, Infinite Capital, Fortistar, SV Pacific Ventures, Fontinalis Partners and others. The Los Angeles-based company is a developer of flight hardware and software automation systems for the aviation industry.

Additional Investors:

ArrowMark Partners, Eclipse Ventures, Embedded Ventures, K3 Ventures, Raptor Group, Rosecliff Venture Partners, Venrock

View round

View similar company »

Legal tech startup rebrands, scores $200M

Ontra, formerly known as InCloudCounsel, has raised a $200 million Series B led by Blackstone. The San Francisco-based company is the creator of a contract automation and intelligence platform for the legal industry. Ontra, which operates across North America, Europe and Asia, raised a $40 million Series A in 2019.

Additional Investor:

Battery Ventures

View round

View similar company »

ShiftMed scoops up $45M for healthcare staffing tech

ShiftMed, the Virginia-based provider of a workforce management and on-demand staffing platform for the healthcare industry, has raised $45 million in financing led by Panoramic Ventures and Healthworx. Existing backers Blue Heron Capital, Motley Fool Ventures and 3TS Capital Partners also participated in the round. ShiftMed's tech is used by over 60,000 credentialed healthcare professionals.

View round

View 30 competitors »

Gluware raises $43M

Gluware has raised $43 million in a round led by Bain Capital, with support from Acadia Woods Partners. The Sacramento-based company's network orchestration platform is intended to help enterprise customers manage and automate multi-vendor networks and reduce outages.

View round

View 67 competitors »

Tiger Global leads $35M round for QuickNode

QuickNode has raised a $35 million Series A led by Tiger Global. The Miami-based company is the developer of a platform that's designed to help software developers access nodes and integrate with blockchain infrastructure. QuickNode raised a $5.3 million seed financing in March.

Additional Investors:

Seven Seven Six, Soma Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, Crossbeam Ventures Partners

View round

View similar company »

Autofleet fills up with $20M Series B

Tel Aviv-based Autofleet has collected $20 million in a round led by Keyframe Capital, with participation from Fujitsu Ventures, Goodyear and existing backers. The startup's tech helps vehicle fleet owners optimize operations and launch new business models to direct underused vehicles to on-demand mobility services like ridehailing. Autofleet operates in over 12 countries.

Additional Investors:

MizMaa Ventures, Maniv Mobility, NextGear Ventures

View round

View 9 competitors »

Visa backs credit card startup Deserve

Deserve, the developer of a credit card application platform that allows consumers to activate and provision their cards in digital wallets, has received a strategic investment from Visa. The Bay Area-based company works with financial institutions, fintech startups, consumer brands, universities and others.

Select Existing Investors:

MasterCard, Ally Ventures, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Mission Holdings, Sallie Mae

View round

View 29 competitors »

Exits & IPOs

Nubank files to go public

Nubank, a Sao Paulo-based digital banking specialist, has confidentially filed for an IPO with the SEC and Brazil's Comissão de Valores Mobiliários. The company raised $750 million in a round led by Berkshire Hathaway this past June.

View details

View 15 competitors »

Chart of the Day

"While buyouts dominated the fundraising landscape, capital raised for growth equity vehicles accelerated materially. In H1, €2.3 billion was raised across growth funds, already surpassing 2020's full-year total. The uptick was mainly driven by the closing of the €1.1 billion T2 Energy Transition Fund."

Source: PitchBook's 2021 France & Benelux Private Capital Breakdown

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drug delivery companies big market opportunity The Daily Pitch

PitchBook News - Global M&A nears new milestones

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