 Venture capital investments in China reached $130.6B for 2021, according to the research firm Preqin. That figure set a new record for the country and is up about 50% compared to the $86.7B total the year before. The funding gains come despite the regulatory crackdown on domestic tech champions such as Tencent, Alibaba, and Didi. More: 
- The growth comes with a caveat: The country’s investors and founders have pivoted from consumer internet businesses toward technologies like semiconductors, robotics, and enterprise software.
- Chinese chipmakers and other semiconductor startups received $8.8B in funding in 2021, over six times higher than the $1.3B funneled to comparable U.S.-based companies.
- The funding being pumped into biotech hit $14.1B last year, up ten-fold since 2016.
The latest fallout from the crackdown: - New Oriental Education & Technology Group fired 60,000 employees, making it the biggest disclosed layoff since China embarked on a wide-ranging crackdown on private enterprises over a year ago.
- The firm saw its revenue fall 80% after ending all K-9 tutoring services following Beijing’s overhaul of the digital education sector last July.
- Edtech companies were effectively prohibited from offering their services for profit. The once-booming sector promptly began flatlining.
Not everyone is hurting: - Chinese executives have been selling stock en masse in recent years. Many sales go unnoticed due to loopholes with Form 144, which must be filed when foreign executives plan to sell restricted stock.
- According to research by the Financial Times, many of the sales appear to show the characteristics of insider trading.
- The husband and wife co-founders of online English tutoring platform 51Talk began selling their stock in April as rumors of the blanket ban began circulating. They had cashed out $4.3M by July.
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 Shares of 11 enterprise software stocks that debuted via traditional IPO last year are trading up 12% since Friday’s close, reports The Information. That is a stellar performance compared to tech stocks in general, which are down on average by 21% from their initial price. More: - Furthermore, the recently-debuted enterprise tech stocks are doing better than their predecessors, which have sunk 12% in the last year.
- Byron Deeter, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, anticipates that this will encourage enterprise tech companies to take the plunge this year despite other companies delaying their offerings due to the choppy market.
- Still, many will wait until Q2 in order to have a full fiscal year of audited financials and may reduce their initial pricing ranges.
- On average, revenue for the enterprise software companies that went public in 2021 grew by a compound annual rate of 56% each quarter in 2021, 17 points higher than the broader enterprise software sector.
- Keith Weiss, an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley, attributes the strong performance of these companies to their cloud-based technology and flexible pricing models.
- The growth of the latest batch of enterprise SaaS companies has not been enough to buoy the sector at large: Over the past six months, shares of both new listings as well as older companies have decreased 17% on average.
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Bolt, the micro-mobility startup hailing from Tallinn, Estonia, raised $709M (€628M) at a valuation of $8.4B (€7.4B). Sequoia and Fidelity co-led the round with participation from Whale Rock, Owl Rock, D1, G Squared, Tekne, Ghisallo, and others. More: - The round comes just four months after it raised $680M (€600M) Series E at a valuation of over $4.5B (€4NB), also led by Sequoia.
- Bolt now has over 100 million customers in 45 countries and more than 400 cities using its services, which include on-demand ride-hailing, shared cars and scooters, and restaurant and grocery delivery.
- The company had only 75 million customers as late as August when the company announced its previous round.
- The eight-year-old company prides itself in paying 10-20% more than its rivals for drivers, giving it an edge in a market plagued by lack of supply.
- It began its rollout in Eastern Europe and Africa and built strong unit economics. This helped it expand quickly in Western Europe, where returns are higher but regulations are tighter.
- According to Crunchbase, it has raised $2B to date.
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French challenger bank Qonto raised $552M (€485M) Series D led by Tiger Global and TCV. The fresh funding brought its valuation up to $5B (€4.4B). The firm emphasizes business bank accounts due to their prevalence as a way for companies to move money around. More: - That is different from enterprise-focused fintechs in the U.S., such as Brex and Ramp, which focus on providing corporate cards.
- Other participants in the round included Alkeon, Eurazeo, KKR, Insight Partners, Exor Seeds, Guillaume Pousaz, Gaingels and Ashley Flucas, Valar, Alven, DST Global, and Tencent.
- Qonto has 220,000 clients and plans to “reach 1 million SMEs by 2025,” co-founder and CEO Alexandre Prot said.
- Pricing ranges from €9 per month for a basic freelancer account to €249 per month for enterprise accounts.
- It also wants to boost its headcount to 2,000 from today’s 500 by 2025.
- It operates in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
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Viennese edtech platform GoStudent raised $340M (€300M) at a valuation of $3.4B. The round was led by Prosus NV and included Deutsche Telekom, SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, and Tencent Holdings. The firm will use the funds for expansion and acquisitions. More: - Specifically, it is looking to bring educational content producers onto its team.
- It is also considering an IPO in the next few years.
- With the new funding round, the company became Austria’s most-valuable startup.
- GoStudent offers online tutoring for schoolchildren from kindergarten through year 12 across 22 countries.
- Its sales grew 700% in 2020 to about $34M (€30M) in monthly bookings.
- It has raised $670M (€590M) in total funding to date.
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 Today's Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - Virtue Diagnostics (Singapore), IVD company focused on infectious disease, cancer, and chronic diseases: $100M B led by Sequoia China, Morningside Ventures, participation from ORIZA Holdings, Lilly Asia Ventures, PerkinElmer Ventures.
- Avenge Bio (Natick, Ma.), cell-based immunotherapeutic products for the treatment of intractable solid tumors: $45M A from Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund, CAM Capital, participation from Longitude Capital, Rock Springs Capital, Pappas Capital.
- Akura Medical (Campbell, Calif.), thrombectomy device: $25M A led by Cormorant Asset Management, participation from The Capital Partnership, PA MedTech VC Fund, et al.
- Headversity (Calgary, Canada), preventative mental health training technology:...
Want to read about all of today's funding in one place? The funding roundup is only available to free users on Mondays and Fridays. Upgrade to Inside VC Premium for either $10/month, or $100 billed annually, to receive the full list in every issue! For a limited time, we are offering a 14-day free trial. Click here to sign up! | | | |
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- P2P car-sharing platform Turo filed for a U.S. IPO. No terms were disclosed. It generated $149.9M in revenue in 2020, giving it 6% growth YoY. Its net losses were $97.1M in the same period.
- nCino, a cloud banking platform provider, acquired SimpleNexus, a cloud-based, mobile-first homeownership software company, for $270M.
- Tiger Global's hedge fund reportedly clocked a 7% loss in 2020. The negative result is the fund's third; it lost 15% and 16% in 2016 and 2008, respectively.
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 |  | Inside VC's writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master's degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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