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The Research Pitch

November 20, 2021

Two PitchBook reports that we've since reinvented as interactive web pages were released this week.

Be sure to check them out:

Ranking the top universities for VC-backed founders

Q3 2021 Global League Tables

How beverage robots leverage automation to increase profit margins in foodservice

The last time you went to a restaurant, who made your drink?

The next time you dine out, the answer could be a robot.

Beverage robot startups have raised $149 million since 2020.

The restaurant industry is a challenging place to be successful—and one of the biggest obstacles is finding and scheduling labor.

The pandemic has exacerbated that issue, making it difficult (if not impossible) for some restaurants to maintain operations.

Some businesses are solving this issue by turning to robots like Miso Robotics' Sippy to automate key-but-repetitive tasks.

Food and labor costs can eat away at profits, but beverages often have higher profit margins than food items.

Robots like Botrista's DrinkBot create premium beverages that increase profits and provide consumers with a personalized product and experience.

Beverage robots can help restaurants with labor constraints.

Our latest foodtech analyst note explores major trends driving the demand for beverage robots and provides an overview of emerging startups in the nascent industry, including Botrista, Cafe X and Somabar.

Click to download our research on beverage robots.

Feel free to reach out with any questions, feedback, or if you would like to discuss the research.

Best,

Alex Frederick
Senior Emerging Technology Analyst

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Petershill Partners PLC: Analyzing the public company and its implications

Goldman Sachs Asset Management's decision to combine and publicly list two GP stakes funds is a major step forward for the minority stakes space.

The company now trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker PHLL.

This one-off offering comes to market as public investors have gleefully greeted newly listed firms including Bridgepoint and Antin Infrastructure.

PHLL promises to give LPs liquidity over time and offers public market investors the ability to invest in a diversified portfolio of extremely high quality and quickly growing GPs.

Based on these metrics alone, the portfolio is likely to trade near the top of the alts managers multiple range.

However, the portfolio is somewhat opaque and some investors are finding it difficult to value.

Moreover, a couple of hedge fund stakes and an eventual ratcheting up of GSAM's fees may detract from the share price.

To dive into the minutiae surrounding this listing, including how it compares to other alts managers, considerations for future Petershill funds, how to think about valuation, and more, click to download my full analysis.

As always, please reach out if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Wylie Fernyhough
Senior Analyst, Private Equity

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Market Updates

Private capital fundraising is regaining momentum.

Through Q3, the combined year-over-year fundraising total effectively reached a break-even point after a declining trend for several quarters, according to our latest Private Fund Strategies Report.

Venture capital and private debt, in particular, are showing pronounced signs of strength, while funds of funds and real estate have struggled.

But each strategy has a different story, and we break down all the latest data across 33 pages and 93 charts—and it's free!

read the free report

VC valuations in Europe have continued their record highs at each quartile and financing stage.

Indeed, it's been an unprecedented year, as eager investors continue to chase after the incredible returns that the venture industry has generated.

The pace of new unicorns in Europe dropped slightly in Q3, but exit valuations remain historically strong. Check out all of our new data:

read the free report

Emerging Tech Research

Web3 & DeFi was the most popular industry when it came to early-stage funding from top VCs in Q3.

But what other emerging market segments stood out?

Our Emerging Tech Indicator offers a differentiated look at which new products and technologies are raising funds from the most successful VC investors.

We also highlight record highs for ETI-related funding and a crazy amount of $100 million-plus deals at the early stage:

read the free report

INSURTECH: VC funding has eclipsed $4 billion in back-to-back quarters for insurtech startups—marking the industry's two biggest quarters ever.

When all's said and done, 2021's capital invested total will be multiples ahead of past annual records, as young companies continue to transform a fragmented industry that has historically been slow to adopt tech.

A couple of notable trends in the space, highlighted by our analysts:

Life insurance rebounded strongly during the pandemic, fueled by younger consumers buying policies through digital channels.

New technologies like AI and predictive analytics are making insurance securitizations a viable alternative to reinsurance.

read an executive summary

AI & MACHINE LEARNING: Exits are starting to outpace investments when it comes to VC activity in the AI & ML industry.

Through Q3, AI exits this year have already surpassed $166 billion, more than triple last year's total.

Yet amid these big-ticket listings and acquisitions, our analysts have identified a few emerging investment opportunities in the space:

E-commerce recommendation engines are achieving the highest growth in consumer AI.

Startups are achieving competitive results for edge AI efficiency compared to leading AI inference engines.

The US Department of Defense is reforming its procurement processes to better work with AI startups in national defense.

read an executive summary

Webinars & Events

Join our analysts Hilary Wiek and Cameron Stanfill on Dec. 1 for a wide-ranging discussion on private fund performance, including a spotlight on venture capital.

We'll go over all the latest insights across asset classes and strategies.

We'll also dive into the performance of sector specialists and deal-level returns for VCs.

Register here

Deal Commentary

Fintech analyst Robert Le weighs in on a report from The Information that private equity giant KKR plans to lead an investment in crypto startup Anchorage at a roughly $3 billion valuation:

"This deal highlights the importance of enterprise-grade custodial services within the crypto industry.

"While traditional financial institutions like Fidelity and BNY Mellon also offer custody of digital assets, we believe that blockchain-native startups like Anchorage and Fireblocks have an advantage in providing a wider range of services including compliance, staking, and tokenization.

"To better compete and build out more robust digital asset services, we expect banks and other financial institutions to make acquisitions of startups in this space like Blockdaemon, BitGo, and AlphaPoint."

Robert Le

Senior Emerging Technology Analyst
Fintech

Information security analyst Brendan Burke weighs in on Lacework's $1.3 billion funding round at an $8.3 billion valuation:

"This VC deal value is the highest we have tracked in information security by a factor of two and achieves a record valuation for a round prior to a Series F.

"Lacework is a cloud workload protection vendor focused on behavioral analysis of cloud resources including containers and serverless scripts.

"Lacework brings a 'positive security' approach to cloud security by determining a baseline of approved behavior in complex cloud environments and then detecting deviations from that baseline.

"As part of this round, the company acquired infrastructure-as-code security startup Soluble to expand its addressable market to secure DevOps.

"We estimate the cloud security market will reach $2.5 billion in 2021 while secure DevOps contributes a $1.9 billion opportunity.

"The company disclosed over 200% revenue growth in Q1 2021."

Brendan Burke

Senior Emerging Technology Analyst
Information Security

In the News

Our insights and data featured in the press:

Amazon made a big bet on Rivian, but it's also connected to several other autonomous and electric mobility startups: "Amazon is sort of hedging its bets on all of this innovation." [CNBC]

Mental health startups are booming by convincing major companies that they can help fight burnout. [Insider]

Global infrastructure fundraising has been robust, as LPs increase their allocations because of strong returns and as an inflation hedge. [Axios]

Why digital bank N26 is no longer focused on expanding to the US and prioritizing European growth instead. [Insider]

If you're a journalist interested in interviewing our analysts or requesting data, contact our PR team.

ICYMI

Highlights from our other recent research:

Market updates

Thematic research

Emerging Technology Research (free previews)

Enterprise Healthtech
Foodtech
Mobility Tech
Information Security
Introduction to Climate Tech: A Taxonomy Overview

Coming next week (subject to change)

Real Assets Report
DACH Private Capital Breakdown (sneak peek)
The use cases and model architectures driving AI & ML mega-exits

Thanks for reading! Feel free to email us any time with feedback, questions or tips!

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PitchBook News - Your robot will serve you now

Older messages

Ranking Q3's most active investors

Why VC exits are accelerating in AI

Web3, DeFi attract top VCs

Europe's VC valuations continue upward march

The finance world wakes up to the climate crisis

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