 US VC fundraising by year Venture Capital fundraising this year is expected to surpass 2021’s record despite the current market downturn. According to Pitchbook, VC funds closed a total of $142.1B in 2021. So far this year, VC funds in the U.S. have closed on $137.5B. LPs have been inundated with an unprecedented number of VC firms returning to market earlier than expected with larger fundraises. More: - Some LPs like pension funds and endowments have strict asset-allocation targets that limit how much venture exposure they can have on their balance sheet.
- Many LPs have not been able to renew commitments with every one of their VC partners.
- According to PitchBook, these allocation constraints have disproportionately affected smaller and newer VC firms.
- Some experts do not expect VC fundraising to increase significantly through the remainder of the year; most fundraising happens in the first half of the year.
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KKR equity capital markets team head David Bauer expects the IPO window for tech startups to open in the first quarter of 2023. IPO listings for technology startups declined 90% from 124 last year to 12 so far this year. Late-stage startups will seek a mix of equity and debt financing until the market improves, according to Bauer’s interview with the Information. More: - A number of companies expecting to list in the public market this year, such as Reddit Inc. and Ampere, have postponed their IPO plans.
- Proceeds from IPOs of technology companies have amounted to $512M, down from $58.7B last year.
- 10 companies from KKR’s portfolio that were planning to go public in 2022 have also put their plans on hold for the moment.
- Equity and debt deals are now being used by such companies to access capital before their plans for an IPO are materialized.
- Bauer mentions Airbnb’s 2020 deal, where it borrowed $1B in debt and equity financing from Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners at an 11% interest rate, as a case in point.
- KKR is looking for venture-backed companies to partner with to take public.
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Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek has steadily quadrupled its investments into life sciences and agriculture firms in a bid to solve food-related challenges faced by the nation. As of March this year, the firm's investments in the sector totaled $26.7B, up from $5.7B in 2015. Temasek's assets under management total $290B. More: - Anuj Maheshwari, the head of agri-food investments at Temasek, is spurred by the challenge as he notes that "this industry produces a third of greenhouse gases, and a third of what it produces actually just goes to waste."
- By investing in technologies like offshore fish farming and vertical farming, Singapore hopes to offset its low agriculture output, which currently amounts to only 10% of the nation's food supply.
- The nation hopes to cover 30% of its food demand by backing innovative startups.
- Temasek's recent investments in the life sciences and agriculture sector include Impossible Foods Inc – in which it was not only an early investor but also led the firm's Series E funding round – and fish feed marketplace eFishery.
- It also acquired Olam Group Ltd, a food staples trader that trades over 45 million tons of coffee, palm oil, rice, and other staples annually; and an 85% stake in micro-irrigation firm Rivulis.
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Carmot Therapeutics raised $160M in a Series D funding round led by investors including The Column Group, RA Capital, Deep Track Capital, Willett Advisors, and Horizons Ventures. Carmot is a clinical-stage biotech company applying its proprietary drug discovery platform, Chemotype Evolution, to discover and develop disease-modifying therapies in metabolic disease and cancer. More: - In addition to financing, RA Capital will hold a Board Observer seat at Carmot.
- Carmot plans to use the new funds to complete phase 1 and 2 studies of some proprietary therapies.
- Carmot was founded in 2008 by Stig K. Hansen, Ph.D., and Daniel A. Erlanson, Ph.D.. The company has raised $235M in funding so far.
- Carmot is based in Berkeley, California.
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Corporate travel management company Spotnana has raised $75M in a Series B funding round led by Durable Capital Partners LP, with participation from existing investors Madrona Venture Group, ICONIQ Growth, Mubadala Capital, and Blank Ventures. The self-proclaimed "travel-as-a-service" company offers a cloud-based toolset for booking and managing travel for travel management firms, corporations, and other tech firms. More: - Spotnana was founded in 2019 in New York and has raised $116M in total funding.
- It raised a $41M Series A last September and a $7M seed round in 2020.
- The global business travel market is expected to reach $2T by the end of the decade.
- Spotnana aims to rebuild the infrastructure of the travel industry to eliminate barriers between suppliers and travelers.
- Co-founder and CEO Sarosh said the company's mission is to bring freedom, simplicity, and trust to travelers everywhere.
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San Diego, California-based cross-channel marketing and data management platform provider Cordial closed its Series C funding round with $50M in funding. NewSpring led the financing, joined by ABS Capital. The new funds will help the company to increase its product offerings, expand its global presence, accelerate product development, and grow its team. More: - The fundraising brings the total funds raised by the firm to date to $85M.
- Upfront Ventures led the firm's $6.5M Series A funding round in early 2017, followed by PeakSpan Capital-led $15M Series B funding in mid-2018.
- Over 600 brands are leveraging Cordial's platform to deliver personalized marketing messages.
- Notable clients include Revolve, Backcountry, and Purple.
- The firm reports that its platform has helped clients achieve a 250x return on investment.
- Cordial's CEO and co-founder, Jeremy Swift, estimates the total addressable market size to be $8B.
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- Following the recent market downturn in the crypto market, VCs are rethinking their investment strategies in the space. Blockchain startups with B2B models have appeared unaffected by the volatility in the crypto markets and are still raising $100M-plus rounds compared to their consumer-facing counterparts.
- In the first half of this year, VC funding for femtech firms totaled $840M.The most active investors in Femtech include Alumni Ventures, Y Combinator, SOSV, ImpactAssets, Social Starts, Precursor Ventures, and Human Ventures.
- Primary care technology company Elation Health received $50M in Series D financing co-led by Generation Investment Management and Ascension Ventures. Threshold Ventures, Ascend Partners, and Jonathan Bush contributed to the funding round, which brings the firm’s total funds secured to date to $108.5M.
- Invictus Growth Partners provided a $43M majority strategic investment to partner relationship management platform Allbound Inc.
- Open-source cloud-based Postgres platform Neon Inc secured $30M in Series A-1 financing led by GGC Capital. Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, and Elad Gil backed the investment.
- ABB and Export Development Canada led a $30M Series A funding into BrainBox AI, an autonomous HVAC technology provider for real estate clients.
- Super Coffee, the No. 3 ranked bottled coffee brand in the U.S. behind Starbucks and Dunkin’, is replacing the negatives with only positive ingredients.*
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. Vanessa Omeokachie is a Researcher at Inside. Her interests include finance, tech, and startups. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending music festivals, and traveling. | | | | 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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