Several large corporations are continuing to invest in technology startups as venture capital and institutional funding dry up. This trend is being seen "across our portfolio firms," according to Christophe Bourque, a general partner at White Star Capital, a situation that is highly unusual. More: - The venture funding pullback resulted in many technology firms reducing their growth rate to focus on being revenue positive and having sufficient bank balance to weather the anticipated tough market conditions.
- Large firms now have a window of opportunity to obtain a competitive edge by funding early-stage startups developing cutting-edge technologies, with the intention of purchasing the firm after the technology has matured.
- Corporates are also guiding startups, providing access to their networks, and facilitating other resources in addition to investing capital.
- The Dentons law firm's venture technology group's partner Andrea Johnson noted that "Great companies can be built during a downturn" but cautioned startups against depending heavily on corporate funding.
- She warns of corporate backers swaying the board into adopting a different business strategy or even abandoning the company in favor of a new competitor.
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Institutional cryptocurrency trading and credit management platform FalconX’s valuation rose to $8B at its recent fundraising. The GIC- and B Capital-led Series D funding round brought in $150M. Although the funding in the current round was less than the $210M secured by the firm in its preceding Series C fundraiser, the company’s valuation more than doubled from $3.75B 10 months ago. More: - The recent capital influx brings the company’s total funds secured to date to over $430M.
- Thoma Bravo, Wellington Management, Adams Street, and Tiger Global Management participated in the round.
- Despite the cryptocurrency market dip, the firm reported its strongest customer growth during the first quarter of the year.
- FalconX intends to use the fresh funding to further develop its product, acquire companies, and grow its team.
Zoom out:
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Electric Hydrogen raised $198M in equity and debt financing from its Series B funding round. The Boston, Massachusetts-based company is developing electrolyzers for sustainable and cost-effective production of hydrogen. The funding was led by Fifth Wall Climate Tech. More: - S2G Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Capricorn Partners, Energy Impact Partners, Prelude Ventures, and Trinity Capital along with strategic investors including Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Equinor Ventures, Honeywell, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Rio Tinto contributed to the funding round.
- The company intends to use the proceeds to scale its electrolyzer technology and build pilot projects to demonstrate large-scale fossil-free hydrogen manufacturing for industries.
- With a global emission reduction target of 30%, Electric Hydrogen wants to assist the steel, ammonia, and freight-intensive industries in lowering their global GHG emissions.
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Seattle-based fusion power startup Zap Energy has raised $160M from its Series C round. Lowercarbon Capital led the funding. The company will use the funds to build its prototype fusion reactor. More: - Zap’s approach differs from the other three dozen global startups working on solving the world’s energy challenge by using the “sheared flow Z-pinch” technique for controlled fusion reactions.
- The advantage of a fusion-based power plant is that it would eliminate any radioactive byproducts that typically arise from fission reactions used in current nuclear plants.
- According to co-founder Uri Shumlak, each reactor core could generate 50 megawatts of electricity, which would be sufficient to power 8,000 households.
- The company has bagged a total of $202.8M in funding to date from investors including Chevron Technology Ventures and Addition, the latter of which led the preceding $27.5M Series B round in May 2021.
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Shell Ventures, DCVC, Valor Equity Partners, Addition, Energy Impact Partners, and Chevron Technology Ventures joined the funding.
- Bill Gates and Chris Sacca also participated in Zap’s recent round.
Zoom out: - The Fusion Industry Association reports that there are 35 fusion companies across the globe, and private funding in the field has risen to over $4B.
- Notable investors in the field include Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, and John Doerr.
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FTSE 250-listed investment firm IP Group launched its cleantech investing venture arm named Kiko Ventures. Kiko’s debut fund capital of $450M (£375M) has been provided by IP Group, consisting of $245M (£200M) from its flexible capital platform and $215M (£175M) of existing assets. The flexible capital is expected to be deployed over the next five years. More: - Kiko’s new fund will follow the evergreen investment principle of IP Group, wherein the profits gained from successful exits will be reinvested in new startups, ensuring the sustainability of the fund.
- The firm is looking to invest across seed- and series A/B-stages or in public markets in clean and regenerative technology companies working to address climate change and protect the environment.
- The team, led by Robert Trezona as Kiko’s founding partner, has previously nurtured several successful cleantech startups, including fuel cell firm Ceres Power, projectile fusion power startup First Light Fusion, and autonomous mobility software developer Oxbotica.
Zoom out: - A record-setting $40B in dedicated venture capital was raised for the climate tech industry last year.
- The trend of raising new dedicated funds has continued this year, with several European investors raising new funds.
- Notable recent climate-focused funds include Astanor Ventures’ $325M fund, World Fund’s $365M fund, and 2150’s $286M (€270M) fund, amongst others.
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Prime Trust, a financial infrastructure company powering fiat transfer, KYC, and cryptocurrency trading platforms, closed its Series B funding round with $107M in financing. The Las Vegas-headquartered company will expand its product offerings, including wealth, DeFi, and Web3 products; boost its recently launched Crypt IRA product; venture into new markets; scale its business; and improve the security of the platform with the incoming funds. More: - Investors participating in the funding included a mix of new and existing backers, including FIS, Fin Capital, Mercato Partners, Kraken Ventures, Commerce Ventures, Gaingels, GateCap Ventures, and others.
- The firm has ~700 fintech and digital asset clients, including notable crypto platforms such as Binance US, Dapper Labs, FTX, and Swan.
- The fundraise brings the total raised by the firm to over $170M, including a Mercato Partners-led $64M Series A round in July last year.
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- Brookfield Asset Management raised a $15B fund to accelerate the transition to a net-zero carbon economy. $2.5B capital from the fund has already been deployed into solar power, battery storage, and other decarbonization technology startups.
- Canadian data management and governance platform for enterprises, Ataccama, secured $150M (CA$194M) in growth funding from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities. The company, which had been bootstrapped until the recent funding, was valued at $550M, per sources close to TechCrunch.
- Alladapt, a California-based biopharmaceutical firm developing prescription therapeutics for mediated food allergies, received $119M financing. Enavate Sciences led the financing, joined by Gurnet Point Capital, Allerfund, Novartis, Red Tree Venture Capital, and WestRiver Group.
- InsurTech startup Ledger Investing secured $75M in financing led by WestCap. The Series B funding round saw contributions from Teachers' Venture Growth, Intact Ventures, SignalFire, MassMutual Ventures, Allegis Capital, and Accel.
- Indian edtech platform Leap is closing in on the unicorn club, with its valuation almost touching the $1B mark, at its Owl Ventures-led $75M Series D funding round. Steadview Capital, Paramark Ventures, Jungle Ventures, and Sequoia Capital India participated.
- Salesforce DevOps tooling solution Gearset received $55M in funding led by Silversmith Capital Partners.
- Insight Partners led a $41M Series B funding into Appsmith, an open-source low-code for internal development teams, along with backing from Accel, Canaan Partners, and OSS Capital.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | 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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