PitchBook News - US VC faces a market full of headwinds

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The Daily Pitch: VC

April 6, 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:

The US VC industry is facing multiple headwinds amid an uncertain start to 2022.

A timeline of pivotal moments for Sequoia during global managing director Doug Leone's reign.

Climeworks is the latest carbon tech company to receive VC funding as scientists issue dire warnings about Earth's future.

Today's Top Stories

US VC faces a market full of headwinds

Three months into 2022, the US venture industry sits at a crossroads. Headwinds including public market volatility, interest rate hikes and the war in Ukraine have coalesced to shift VC away from its constant growth trajectory. Deal value totaled $70.7 billion in Q1, the lowest figure since 2020, and IPOs came nearly to a halt.

Some areas of VC have yet to show much of a shift however, with corporate VC participation and first financings at or near record totals, according to a first look at the data from our upcoming PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.

The full report, sponsored by Insperity and JP Morgan, will be released next week.

get the data

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Timeline: How Sequoia's rainmakers navigated decades of VC highs and lows

Roelof Botha (Brian Ach/Getty Images)

Sequoia entered a new era this week with the announcement that Roelof Botha would take over from Doug Leone as its global chief.

Leone's final few years have been marked by change, including the rollout of a novel fund structure and rapid growth of the firm's operations in China and India.

Here's a timeline of pivotal moments for Sequoia during Leone's reign.

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A message from Ansarada

What's driving corporate divestment in 2022?

Uncertainty continues to reign over the market in 2022. Rising inflation and interest rates, pressing climate concerns, geopolitical issues and unrest are all impacting the deal world. Companies are refocusing when it comes to their future strategies.

Divestment is an often-underrated tool in the M&A toolset for strengthening portfolios and bringing attention back to core business. The ESG agenda, technological change and political activism are all driving divestment in this climate.

With COVID-19 in the rearview mirror and concerns like supply chain disruption still ahead, companies have every reason to reflect and re-evaluate. Business leaders are reviewing their strategies to assess what still matches their future goals, versus what will generate more value under new ownership.

Is it time to let go? Download the free 2022 Divestment Drivers report.

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Exclusive: BlackRock seeks $2B for new co-investment fund as interest grows

(Erik McGregor/Getty Images)

BlackRock is back in the market to raise its fifth co-investment fund, targeting $2 billion.

The private equity giant has raised more than $300 million for the new vehicle, according to people familiar with the fundraising.

The fund aims to capitalize on the growing appetite among large pension funds and other institutional investors seeking to lower the costs of their private equity portfolios and exercise more control over their investments.

Recommended Reads

Since divorcing Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott has set her sights on changing the world. Here's how she quietly worked to give away $12 billion in only two years. [Fortune]

Inside one designer's quest to help demystify what life is like for those with autism. [Fast Company]

From innovation and collaboration to supply chain risks and sustainable social development, Japan's top CEOs reveal their biggest takeaways from the pandemic. [Institutional Investor]

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Quick Takes


	The Daily Benchmark
	2016 Vintage North American Secondaries Funds
	VC Deals
	Remote valued at nearly $3B with $300M round
	SoftBank participates in $150M round for Clarify Health
	Cybersecurity specialist Coro reveals $80M in new funding
	Data.world snaps up $50M
	Tiger Global leads $27M round for Appwrite
	Rattle secures $26M
	Drone startup vHive lands $25M
	Venus Aerospace raises $20M
	Portfolio Companies
	Fintech startup Fast to close up shop

The Daily Benchmark

2016 Vintage North American Secondaries Funds

Median IRR

27.66%

Top Quartile IRR

38.51%

1.60x

Median TVPI

Select top performers

Industry Ventures Secondary VIII

Greenspring Secondaries Fund II

Pomona Capital IX

*IRR: net of fees

27 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Remote valued at nearly $3B with $300M round

Remote has secured a $300 million Series C led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2. Accel, Sequoia, Index Ventures and others also backed the funding, which values the provider of an HR platform for building and managing global remote workforces at almost $3 billion. Remote was valued at some $1 billion after raising $150 million in 2021.

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SoftBank participates in $150M round for Clarify Health

Clarify Health has collected a $150 million Series D led by SoftBank, with support from BlackRock, Insight Partners, KKR, Aspenwood Ventures and others. The round values Clarify at $1.4 billion, Bloomberg reported. The startup offers a cloud-analytics and payments platform for life sciences companies and healthcare payers and providers.

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Cybersecurity specialist Coro reveals $80M in new funding

Coro has announced a $60 million Series C led by Balderton Capital, with support from Jerusalem Venture Partners. The startup, which offers a cybersecurity platform for middle-market businesses, revealed it has raised $80 million in financing over the past six months.

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Data.world snaps up $50M

Data.world has collected $50 million in Series C financing from lead investor Goldman Sachs. Other investors in the round included Prologis Ventures and Shasta Ventures. Based in Austin, the startup offers a cloud-native SaaS data catalog that's used for data discovery, data governance and other insights.

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Tiger Global leads $27M round for Appwrite

Appwrite has raised a $27 million Series A led by Tiger Global. The Tel Aviv-based company helps developers quickly construct applications by providing prewritten APIs for common development tasks.

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Rattle secures $26M

Insight Partners has led a $26 million Series A for Rattle, the developer of a no-code platform that enables sales teams to access and manage Salesforce and other go-to-market systems directly from collaboration tools like Slack.

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Drone startup vHive lands $25M

Israel-based vHive has raised a $25 million Series B led by PSG, with support from Octopus Ventures and others. The startup's software enables enterprises to use drones to autonomously capture and analyze data from field assets such as cell towers and cranes.

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Venus Aerospace raises $20M

Venus Aerospace has raised a $20 million Series A led by Prime Movers Lab. The Houston-based startup is developing a zero-carbon emission hypersonic aircraft that will enable one-hour global travel.

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Portfolio Companies

Fintech startup Fast to close up shop

In an announcement on the company's website, Fast CEO and co-founder Domm Holland has revealed that the fintech startup will shut down. The San Francisco-based company's platform was used by ecommerce businesses to provide customers with single-click logins and checkouts. Fast raised previous funding from Index Ventures, Susa Ventures, Stripe, Sugar Capital and others.

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