China's VC dealmaking resilient, uncertain

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The Daily Pitch: VC

March 21, 2022

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:

VCs invested nearly $114 billion in Greater China last year, but the future remains uncertain.

The growing size of PE-backed exits became a ubiquitous storyline in 2021, but current market volatility could force the trend to falter.

Bessemer Venture Partners' Ethan Kurzweil discusses the firm's allocation of $250 million to invest in the crypto market and the launch of its decentralized autonomous organization.

Today's Top Stories

VC dealmaking in Greater China remains resilient, but uncertainty looms

VCs invested a near-record $113.8 billion in the Greater China region last year—a remarkable total given tightened regulations from Beijing on foreign IPOs that should have drastically affected the venture market.

The impact could still occur, according to our H2 2021 Greater China VC Report, as investors active in the region signal that they may take a more cautious approach. Still, strong dealmaking across a range of sectors and stages underscores the importance of Greater China to global investors. Highlights from the report include:

Capital continued to flow in from abroad, with more than 950 deals including participation from an investor based outside the region.

The IT hardware sector set records in both deal value and count, with the final figures increasing 86% and 26% year-over-year, respectively.

Exit value totaled a record $239 billion, a significant portion of which came from IPOs, highlighting VC liquidity's reliance on healthy public markets.

Fundraising continued to fall, with the lowest total raised since at least 2015 and with a third consecutive year of declining fund count.

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Q&A: Bessemer Venture Partners' big bet on Web3

(ArtemisDiana/Getty Images)

The global appetite for blockchain and cryptocurrency startups has reached a fever pitch, as investors seek to get in on the ground floor of nascent areas such as Web3, decentralized finance and NFTs.

PitchBook sat down with Bessemer Venture Partners' Ethan Kurzweil to discuss the firm's allocation of $250 million to invest in the crypto market and the launch of its decentralized autonomous organization.

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A message from Twin Brook Capital Partners

Team building for today & tomorrow

Twin Brook Head of Underwriting Kim Trick and Director Jennifer Dzwonchyk discuss their individual paths to the direct lending space and what they're focused on as they support the continued growth of the firm's team.

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Corporate card startup Ramp raises $750M as venture debt bandwagon rolls on

(Courtesy of Ramp)

Corporate card startup Ramp has raised $750 million, including $550 million in debt, in a round valuing it at $8.1 billion.

Ramp is one of several fintech startups to raise debt funding as a way to scale operations and launch new business verticals while minimizing founder dilution.

The venture debt market has been growing quickly for most of the last decade. Brex, Ramp's main rival, has itself begun making venture debt loans, competing with incumbents in the lending industry.

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Market volatility could reshape 2021's wave of PE mega-exits

(creisinger/Getty Images)

The growing size of PE-backed exits became a ubiquitous storyline in 2021, but current market volatility could force the trend to falter.

US mega-exits activity, which refers to transactions of $1 billion or more, had an unprecedented year, with 75 PE-backed companies listed at valuations above the $1 billion mark—a record far beyond previous annual numbers. The median size of PE-backed public listings hit $1.8 billion by the end of 2021, according to our recent analyst note on mega-deals and exit activity.

PE firms seized on unusually high valuations to list their portfolio companies, and as public multiples rose—thanks to government stimulus measures and solid corporate earnings amid the pandemic recovery—mega-sized IPOs boomed.

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Recommended Reads

How one energy company CEO is trying to keep the lights on in Ukraine. [The New York Times]

Amid global talks full of greenwashing and obfuscation, there's a basic, underlying reality: The era of large-scale combustion has to come to a rapid close, and we have the tech to make it happen. [The New Yorker]

Some venture funds are abandoning caps to gather up more capital amid strong demand for venture assets. [The Wall Street Journal]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

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100

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Quick Takes


	The Daily Benchmark
	2016 Vintage Global VC Funds
	VC Deals
	Optimism raises $150M Series B
	FanCraze brings in $100M
	Ramen VR picks up $35M
	Delivery startup Buyk files for bankruptcy after Russia sanctions

The Daily Benchmark

2016 Vintage Global VC Funds

Median IRR

32.27%

Top Quartile IRR

41.77%

2.13x

Median TVPI

Select top performers

Medicxi Ventures 1

Red Dot Capital Partners

BY Capital 1

*IRR: net of fees

71 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Optimism raises $150M Series B

Optimism has raised $150 million at a $1.65 billion valuation in a round co-led by Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz. The New York-based company is a developer of decentralized infrastructure designed to scale ethereum.

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FanCraze brings in $100M

FanCraze has raised a $100 million Series A co-led by B Capital Group and Insight Partners, Bloomberg reported. The company is the developer of an NFT platform designed to trade officially licensed digital cricket collectibles.

Select Additional Investor:

Cristiano Ronaldo

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Ramen VR picks up $35M

Ramen VR has raised $35 million in a round led by Anthos and Dune Ventures. Based in the Bay Area, the company is a developer of video gaming software for virtual reality, desktop and mobile platforms.

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View similar company »

Delivery startup Buyk files for bankruptcy after Russia sanctions

Grocery-delivery startup Buyk has filed for bankruptcy and is shutting down after sanctions against Russia restricted access to its funding. The company launched operations in New York City and Chicago in 2021.

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View similar company »

Chart of the Day

"Unsurprisingly, the bulk of VC fundraising in 2021 took place in the UK & Ireland, DACH, and France & Benelux ecosystems. The three regions contributed €16.7 billion—equivalent to 76.6% of the aggregate capital raised across Europe. Funds in the UK & Ireland led the way, with €6.7 billion."

Source: PitchBook's 2021 Annual European Venture Report