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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - 🤝 6% QoQ drop in global tech M&A dealmaking
- 👥 Most active U.S. investors in August
- 💰 Antler's €150M fund
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | 1,877 global tech M&A transactions were completed in Q2 2023, down 6% QoQ. The deal pace is the slowest in the last three years. Despite the slowed dealmaking, aggregate valuations slightly surged to $1.1T. More: - M&A dealmaking slowed by 9% QoQ in the U.S., trailing Europe for the sixth straight quarter.
- Despite the slowed pace, target companies in the U.S. fetched higher valuations than their European counterparts.
- 41% of U.S.-headquartered target companies were valued at more than $100M.
- Median valuations of M&A targets nearly doubled to $45M, reversing the dip seen in the previous two quarters.
- M&A targets backed by institutional investors were able to close deals at 1.4 times their valuations from the last funding rounds.
- Big tech companies were involved in just one M&A deal in Q2 due to the increased pushback from antitrust regulators.
Q: Do you think M&A dealmaking will pick up pace by this year's end? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | Alumni Ventures was the most active investor in the U.S. for the second straight month in August, per Crunchbase. 
What the numbers say: Alumni closed nine deals in August, lower than the previous month's 12 deals. Despite the drop, Alumni retained the honors for being the most active investor in the month, as no other firm could ink double-digit deals. In the same month last year, Gaingels, Insight Partners, and Soma Capital topped the charts with 16, 12, and 10 deals, respectively. What happened: Despite a global slowdown in VC funding deals, Alumni has maintained its consistent pace this year, closing out 75 investments in U.S. startups to date. Notable deals include participating in climate management and accounting platform Persefoni's $50M Series C round and home electrification software maker Treehouse's $10M Series A round. Relevance: Khosla Ventures and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund jointly held the second place in the standings with eight deals each. The former has picked up its pace of investment in the second quarter of the year, inking 20 deals to Q1's tally of 17. Meanwhile, Founders Fund has cooled off its investment pace. Despite the slowed pace, Founders Fund led Elon Musk's brain computing interface startup Neuralink's $280M funding round and participated in fintech Ramp's $300M and cyber insurance startup Resilience's $100M funding rounds. | | | |
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| 3 | | European early-stage VC investor Antler secured €50M ($53.5M) for its second Nordic fund. The capital raised at the first closing is a third of the firm's target of €150M ($160M). The firm will back tech startups across Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. More: - The new fund will support pre-seed to Series A investments, while the firm's other fund, Elevate, will support startups until the Series C stage.
- The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, Investinor, Formue, Ferd Impact, and Nysnø Climate Investments have backed the new fund.
- Antler's Nordic Fund II is five times larger than its predecessor, which bagged €30M ($32M) in 2021.
- The first fund backed 144 early-stage startups across the Nordic region, 40% of which are working on having a positive social or environmental impact.
- The startups backed through Antler's Nordic Fund I have a combined value of $490M.
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| 4 | | Boston-based artificial intelligence startup Zapata is set to go public via a SPAC merger with former IndyCar driver Michael Andretti's blank check firm Andretti Acquisition Corp. Zapata bagged a $200M valuation at the merger. The firm intends to capitalize on being one of the first AI companies to list on the public markets. More: - Zapata's CEO Christopher Savoie said that the listing will help the startup gain credibility with its customers, which includes the U.S. government and several Fortune 1000 companies.
- Andretti said that Zapata has a "compelling go-to-market strategy and ambitious growth plan" and a "tremendous enterprise revenue opportunity."
- Andretti's IndyCar team, Andretti Autosport, has been using Zapata's software to analyze and improve the performance of its race cars.
- To date, Zapata has raised $64M from investors, including Comcast Ventures, BASF, Bosch, and Honeywell.
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| 5 | | German climate tech VC firm World Fund defied the venture fundraising dip to bag over €50M ($53.5M) in capital commitments toward its new fund. The firm will back startups working on developing technology solutions for a sustainable world. More: - World Fund said, "As a climate tech VC, we are driven by tackling the climate crisis and only invest in technologies with scalable businesses and significant emissions savings potential. We support startups from the early to growth stage, focusing on energy, food and agriculture, manufacturing, buildings, and mobility."
- The latest fund received backing from KfW Capital, renewables-focused energy firm Ignitis Group, and an undisclosed German reinsurance company.
Zoom out: - Climate tech-focused VC fundraising dropped by 57.6% between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023, per Bloomberg.
- A white paper published by the World Fund notes that funding needs to increase by 590% for the climate tech sector to $4.35T annually to meet the decarbonization targets.
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| 6 | | Today's Funding: Biotech - Mariana Oncology, a biotech startup developing cancer treatment using radiopharmaceuticals, raised $175M in Series B funding. Deep Track Capital and Forbion co-led the funding round with participation from Atlas Ventures, RA Capital Management, Eli Lilly, Nextech Invest, and others.
CleanTech - Boston Metal, a global metal technology solutions startup that is decarbonizing steel manufacturing, closed its Series C funding round at $262M. ArcelorMittal SA led the funding with additional backing from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Aramco, Baillie Gifford, BHP Ventures, and Prelude Ventures.
Energy - Ascend Elements, a battery materials and recycling startup, secured $542M in fresh funding, consisting of $460M in Series D and $82M in additional investments. Decarbonization Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, and Temasek co-led the funding.
Enterprise software - Vendor management software maker Certa closed its Series B funding round at $35M. The round was led by Fin Capital and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, with additional support from Tru Arrow Partners, Point72 Ventures, BDMI, Aglae Ventures, Mantis VC, and GOAT Capital.
Fintech - Swedish fintech platform Treyd secured $12M in Series A extension funding round. Initial Series A round lead investor Nineyard Equity also led the extension round, with additional backing from Antler, Zenith VC, and J12 Ventures.
FoodTech - Food-recycling startup Mill Industries has raised $70M in Series C funding against a target of $100M, sources informed Axios. Prelude is currently leading the round, with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, GV, and Energy Impact Partners participating in the round.
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 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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