 Private capital fundraising has totaled $293.1B over 560 vehicles so far this year, entailing a slowdown from the pace from 2021, according to PitchBook data. However, the deceleration is not so extreme compared with expectations, given 2021’s $1.3T total dry powder haul distributed over 3,392 funds. More: - Given the pace from last year, portfolio companies can be relatively sure that there will be capital to service their needs, though this will vary from case to case.
- LPs will probably begin rethinking their allocations as the situation in the public markets remains uncertain.
- As they evaluate their strategies, GPs may find themselves in a situation where calling down capital becomes more difficult, especially as funds already comparatively overexposed to private strategies experience trepidation about doubling down.
- However, given that investment teams tend to meet only once per quarter, this effect could be substantially delayed.
- Beyond that, most LP agreements include strong penalties for refusing to honor commitments.
- Though there is no evidence that defaults are limited, if the macro environment shifts the incentivization to a degree high enough, such events could begin occurring.
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Top-tier food delivery startup Wonder Group raised $350M last month, bringing its total debt and equity haul to date to $900M. According to sources, the latest infusion valued the startup led by Jet.com founder Marc Lore at $3.5B, over twice as much as its previous reported valuation of $1.4B. More: - The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, which joined Wonder Group’s list of tier 1 investors, including GV, Accel, New Enterprise Associates, General Catalyst, and Forerunner Ventures.
- Wonder aims to combine two culinary business models:
- On the one hand, it seeks to build a network of truck-based restaurants serving meals drawn from chef-driven menus.
- On the other hand, it also wants to deliver its meals directly to customers at their homes.
- Currently, the service is only available in a cluster of New Jersey suburbs. It will be expanded to other parts of the state later this year, followed by other U.S. regions by 2035.
- Founded in 2018, Wonder is supposed to become a superapp for food nationwide, says Lore.
- Lore gained notoriety by selling Quidsi, an e-commerce site for household goods, to Amazon in 2010 for $500M, followed by a sale of Jet.com to Walmart in 2016 for $3.3B.
The wider lens: - The size of the round is somewhat astounding, given the current funding environment.
- Moreover, the food delivery domain has been suffering since it crashed from its highs during the depths of pandemic lockdowns.
- Lore notes that, had the round been completed six months earlier, it would have been at a significantly higher valuation.
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 The multiples for SaaS companies in Q2’22 have fallen to 2016 levels, according to Blossom Street Ventures’ Sammy Abdullah. The average public SaaS business is trading at 7.5x revenue while the median is 6.3x, according to a survey of 123 companies. More: - SaaS companies growing above the median of 25% are benefiting from better multiples, 8.4x on average and 7.9x at the median.
- The gap between the top companies of 1.6x has grown to its lowest level since Q1’20, highlighting a correction for some of the most overvalued companies from 2021.
- For comparison, the median SaaS multiple ranged from 4.6x to 14.1x with an average of 8.4x during the period under observation, dating back to Q4’14.
- While the SaaS business, in general, is healthy with little debt and median balances of $463M, burn is high with an average EBITDA of -$32M.
- The median EBITDA margin for the companies observed was -12%, due largely to the high payroll expenses faced by SaaS companies.
- Still, given healthy growth rates of 25% in the median, the high burn rate should not be a problem long term.
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Overair has raised $145M for its electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL). The California-based company’s latest round came from Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Aerospace, the defense and information technology unit and aircraft engine units of an eponymous South Korean conglomerate. More: - Overair is a spinoff from Karem Aircraft, which is developing manned and unmanned tiltrotor aircraft with heavy military backing.
- As such, the company has benefitted from years of military-grade research and thinks it can complete a prototype of its experimental aircraft Butterfly by the second half of 2023.
- To date, it has raised $170M, including a $25M Series A round led by Hanwha in 2019, which gave the South Korean firm a 30% stake.
- As part of today’s funding, Hanwha will provide electric motors and battery packs for the startup’s eVTOL prototypes.
- Overair’s head of business development Josh Aronoff told TechCrunch that, while Hanwha will open up the South Korean market to the company, it is targeting a U.S. launch as its first step.
- Specifically, it will look toward the Northeast corridor for its rollout with the idea that its aircraft will make travel between highly productive cities faster and easier for the highest echelons of the business community.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - Dren Bio (Foster City, Calif.), clinical-stage biopharmaceutical: $65M B led by Aisling Capital, HBM Healthcare Investments, participation from Pfizer, ArrowMark Partners, Revelation Partners, et al.
- Proscia (Philadelphia, Pa.), digital and computational pathology solutions: $37M C led by Highline Capital Management, Triangle Peak Partners, Alpha Intelligence Capital, participation from Scale Venture Partners, Hitachi Ventures, ROBO Global, et al.
- Sesame (New York, N.Y.), online medical care marketplace with only patients and physicians: $27M B led by GV.
ClimateTech - Moleaer (Carson, Calif.), nanobubble tech to treat water to combat scarcity in industry and agriculture: ...
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- Act Venture Capital, based in Dublin, Ireland-based VC outfit, reached the first close of its sixth fund to place investments on early-stage ventures. So far, it has raised 80% of its $146M (€140M) goal thanks to backing from LPs including European Investment Fund, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Enterprise Ireland, and AIB.
- Brazilian hardwood pulp producer Suzano launched a $70M fund to invest in Seed and Series A rounds for companies involved in climate technology, bio-based products, agroforestry, and sustainable packaging.
- Dcode Capital has pulled in $50M to fund companies and speed up the process by which they get contracts with the federal government. Prior to raising today’s funding, Dcode didn’t make bets or take equity stakes but rather operated as a stage-agnostic accelerator.
- Florida’s The LegalTech Fund raised $28.5M for its latest vehicle, which it will use to pursue its global strategy.
- MFS Africa, a pan-African payments platform, has raised a $100M Series C-extension in equity and debt led by Admaius Capital Partners. The Series C round now totals $200M and saw participation from AfricInvest FIVE, CommerzVentures, Vitruvian Partners, and AXA Investment Managers.
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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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