In February 2023, $18B of venture funding was deployed in global startups, marking the first time since February 2020 when the totals dipped below the $20B mark, per Crunchbase. Funding deployment in February dropped 63% YoY and 43% MoM. Late-stage startups saw the most reduction in financing, with funding falling 73% YoY. More: - Funding deployed into early-stage startups dropped 52% YoY.
- Crunchbase expects that Series B, C, and D-stage firms will struggle to raise follow-on funding in the current environment.
- Chamath Palihapitiya's VC firm Social Capital has reduced late-stage financings due to a lack of opportunities.
- Sequoia Capital backed out of portfolio company Citizen's latest funding round that is expected to dilute existing investors' stake by a ratio of 10 to 1.
- Despite the drop in funding, VCs such as Bain Capital and SignalFire were able to close funds worth $1.9B and $900M, respectively.
Zoom out: - Global startups raked in $48.8B in venture funding in February 2022.
| |
The University of California has invested in 20 funds launched by Sequoia Capital since 2018 as a limited partner, half of which have seen a markdown in value, per documents seen by Business Insider. Since the data was from June 2022, a further decline in valuations is expected as private tech markets deteriorated more in the second half of the year. Despite the decline in valuations, the funds could potentially provide satisfactory returns by the end of their respective tenures since Sequoia is "widely considered to be one of the most successful venture firms of all time," per Business Insider. More: - University of California's endowment is worth $28B, and it has invested $800M in Sequoia's funds since 2018.
- The university received $43M in cash distributions from recent investments.
- Sequoia's 2020 U.S. Growth IX Fund, 2018 China seed-stage fund, 2021 U.S. fund, and 2022 fund have seen valuation markdowns of 5%, 9%, 10%, and 15%, respectively.
- The University of California committed $232M to the 2022 Sequoia Capital Fund, of which it already deployed $147M.
| |
 A message from CONSTANT CONTACT Grab customers’ attention with SMS marketing. In today’s complex world, email marketing alone isn’t enough. You need to develop a rich customer engagement strategy to get a leg up on the competition and improve customer relations. Email marketing with SMS is easily scalable, timely, and powerful. It has the ability to deliver the right messages to your customers at the right times, leading to improved engagement and a huge return on your investment. Join our webinar and enhance your customer experience by using social, email, and text to drive engagement and sale. In this free webinar, you’ll learn: - How each channel moves people closer to your business
- How to harness the strengths of each channel
- How to create a great experience that impacts your bottom line
With plans starting at $9.99, you can deliver the right messages to your customers at the right times. Join Our Webinar
| |
Utah-based startup Consensus raised $110M in equity funding led by Sumeru Equity Partners. Per Crunchbase, the fundraiser is a Series C funding round. The platform helps sales teams create automated interactive video demos to share with prospective customers. More: - The fresh funding brings the firm's total capital raised to date to $139M.
- Founder Garin Hess said Consensus "uses a proprietary personalization engine, then gathers data analytics for the sales team to help drive alignment in the buying group."
- Hess claims that the firm was able to grow its revenue by 60% in 2022.
- The firm's notable customers include Oracle, Autodesk, and Coupa.
Zoom out: - Consensus' competitors include Demostack and Arcade, both of which raised $34M and $7.5M, respectively, last year.
| |
Columbus, Ohio-based venture firm Drive Capital debuted a new seed-stage program armed with $80M in capital. The firm will invest in startups that are still in "driveway" across five tech hubs, namely Chicago, Atlanta, Columbus, Denver, and Toronto. Individual check sizes in pre-seed and seed rounds will be $500,000. More: - Drive earmarked capital toward the new initiative from the $1B it raised in July 2022.
- The firm now has over $2.2B worth of assets under management (AUM).
- Per Pitchbook, venture funding deployment "hardly receded" in the 30 states that Drive Capital invests in despite VC dealmaking slowing by 31% across the U.S.
Zoom out: - Drive Capital's co-founder Mark Kvamme split up from the VC firm to establish his own $500M impact fund dubbed Ohio Fund in late November last year.
| |
 A message from IMPACT Best practices for engaging and managing influencers It's time to transform your influencer marketing into an influencer partnership program. What's it take to do that? Going beyond recruitment and onboarding to full life cycle influencer relationship management. Find out about what it takes to manage influencers throughout the Discover, Recruit, Onboard, Engage, and Optimize stages in this handy infographic. Download now
| |
San Antonio, Texas-based Plus One Robotics secured $50M in Series C financing led by Scale Venture Partners. The AI-powered robotics firm will use the proceeds to increase production capacity, scale the business, and boost its marketing efforts in North America and other regions. More: - To date, the firm has raised $94M in total funding, the last of which came in the form of a $33M Series B round led by McRock Capital and Translink Capital in April 2021.
- Both Series B lead investors participated in the recent funding, joined by Top Tier Capital Partners, ROBO Global Ventures, Tyche Partners, and others.
- Notable clients include FedEx, DHL, and Pitney Bowes.
Zoom out: - Plus One Robotics estimates parcel handling automation to be a $128B global market.
- It estimates that 80% of warehouses currently need manual parcel handling.
| |
New York-based venture firm Muus Capital Partners secured $50M in capital commitments towards its Convergence Fund II. The firm will invest in 25 early-stage climate startups. More: - This is Muus's first fund to get funds from outside limited partners.
- Muus has already backed nine startups with the funds, the most notable of which are renewable power startup BrightNight, low-cost electrolysis equipment maker Aepnus, and smart heat pump manufacturer Harvest Thermal.
- Muus has earmarked capital from Fund II to make seven follow-on funding investments in Series B-stage companies.
- Fund II's predecessor fund backed 25 startups.
- Individual ticket sizes ranged from $500,000 to $1.5M.
| |
Quick Hits: - Demonstrating security and compliance can be time-consuming and expensive. Until you use Vanta. Start a free trial.*
- Sebastian Duesterhoeft joined Lightspeed Ventures Partners' growth team in a partner role.
- Venture MLS appointed David Anderson as its venture partner. Anderson formerly founded LionDesk, which was acquired by Lone Wolf in 2021.
- Recast Capital unveiled Recast Accelerate, a program that backs women-led early-stage venture funds in the U.S. The program received support from Melinda Gates's company Pivotal Ventures.
- Security orchestration, automation, and response platform Revelstoke secured $20M in Series B funding led by SYN Ventures and CleakSky Security.
- ONL Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for retinal diseases, raised $15M in Series C funding led by Bios Partners.
*This is sponsored content.
| |
| |
 |  | 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. | |
| |
| |
Comments
Post a Comment