Dropping valuations of portfolio companies resulted in SoftBank posting a $5.8B loss across its Vision funds and Latin American fund in Q4 2022. The firm posted losses for the fourth straight quarter but took solace in the fact that losses were below Q3's total of $10B. At the end of December 2022, SoftBank reported it had $6.5B in capital available for deployment from its funds. The Japanese venture firm will continue making investments in "defense mode." More: - SoftBank's mature portfolio investments' net fair value is over $37B, per the firm.
- The firm's portfolio value took massive hits after it lost $9B in Didi and $5.1B in WeWork.
- The Vision funds and Latin American fund went from cumulative gains of $66B to a loss of $6.6B.
- The firm slowed its investments to $350M in the quarter, a fraction of its peak quarterly outlay of $20B in 2021 and 95% less than its average quarterly deployment of $6B five years ago.
- In Q2 and Q3 2022, the firm invested $300M in startups each.
- In Q4, SoftBank invested 49% of its capital in startups that had over $1B in revenue.
- SoftBank Group's founder and CEO, Masayoshi Son, was absent from the earnings call.
- The firm expects to see signs of recovery from H2 2023 or early 2024.
- The firm may consider increasing commitments to Fund 2 or launching a new Fund 3 entirely once it exhausts the remaining capital from the $56B Vision Fund 2.
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Sequoia Capital's permanent structure fund has $13.6B in capital available, per SEC filings reviewed by TechCrunch. It is unsure how much of the money will be available for deployment, as a part of the funds is tied up in shares of portfolio companies. More: - The California-based VC firm restructured its organization to merge all its existing funds into a single permanent structure with an open-ended liquid portfolio called The Sequoia Capital Fund in October 2021.
- The firm still has sub-funds, such as the recently announced $195M seed fund, that are allocated capital from the permanent fund.
- Having become a registered investment advisor, the firm could reorganize its structure at the time, giving it the opportunity to hold public stocks of portfolio companies after IPOs.
- Sequoia's limited partners had a lock-in period of two years — ending in the second half of 2023 — before they could redeem their stakes in the fund.
- At the end of December 2021, the firm had over $85B worth of assets under management.
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Partech's Africa II fund held a first close at $263M (€245M) against an initial target of $250M (€230M). The fund, its largest Africa-focused fund yet, aims to back over 20 Series A and B startups across Africa. Due to the overwhelming interest from limited partners, the firm increased its target to $300M. More: - Fund II will invest in fintech, healthtech, logistics, mobility, and edtech.
- Individual ticket sizes will range from $1M to $15M.
- Limited partners in the current fund include anchor investor German development bank KfW along with other investors, such as Bpifrance, International Finance Corporation, European Investment Bank, and British International Investment.
- The Partech Fund I closed at $143M in 2018, which invested in 17 startups across nine countries.
- In the last two years, Partech has launched a $750M growth fund and a $100M seed fund.
Zoom out: - Last year, African startups secured over $5B in venture funding.
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Australian startups secured $5.1B (A$7.4B) in venture funding in 2022, down 30% from the previous year's tally of $7.3B (A$10.6B), per the State of Australian Startup Funding report. VCs invested $900M (A$1.3B) in fintech startups, followed by $830M (A$1.2B) in enterprise software startups. More: - While six startups cemented their unicorn status, many previous companies are at risk of falling below the $1B mark due to the drop in valuations globally.
- Airwallex was able to raise a $100M Series E extension funding in October at a $5.5B valuation, the same as its previous fundraiser.
- VCs raised record-setting dry powder, with Blackbird raising Australia's first-ever $1B fund.
- Blackbird, along with other notable investors Airtree and Square Peg, raised a cumulative $2.4B in funds in the year.
Zoom out: - Venture funding dropped globally by 35% in 2022.
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San Francisco-based drone imagery solutions developer DroneBase secured $55M in venture funding to further develop AI-enabled advanced drone inspection software and expand its global footprint. The company also rebranded its name to Zeitview to reflect its commitment to developing advanced inspection software. More: - Valor Equity Partners led the fundraiser with participation from Union Square Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Euclidean Capital, Energy Transition Ventures, and Hearst Ventures.
- Zeitview has secured $114M in total funding to date.
- The firm uses drones to capture images and thermal readings of physical infrastructure, such as wind turbines and solar panels.
Zoom out: - Drone startups secured $7B in venture funding in 2021.
- Per Global Market Insights, the overarching aerial imaging sector is forecasted to be worth $25B by 2032.
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Australian digital-asset payment platform CryptoSpend is in talks with investors to raise $3.5M (A$5M) Series A funding. The company is aiming for a valuation ranging from $21M (A$30M) to $35M (A$50M), roughly four times higher than the firm's previous valuation. More: - CryptoSpend launched a Visa card in late 2021 that allows users to spend their digital assets.
- Despite the tough fundraising environment for crypto firms, CryptoSpend is raising fresh funds to scale operations to cater to the rising demand.
- The firm claims that it has a customer base of 17,000 users.
- Reportedly, the firm had seen revenues increase six times since Q2 2022.
- Co-founders Richard Voice and Andrew Grech confirmed the company's plans to expand into New Zealand later this year.
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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 and 1972 Fords. | |
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