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| Here's a look at today's VC briefing. - ⏳ Private capital fundraising timelines widened to 15.8 months
- 🇪🇺 European AI startup funding surges
- 💰 Singular raises $435M to invest in European startups
We have also rounded up the top late-stage funding rounds of this week. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Private capital funds took 15.8 months on average to raise capital by this September, per Pitchbook. The timeline has been the longest since 2012. More: - The median time taken by private equity firms to close their funds increased from 12 months at the end of 2022 to 13.9 months in Q3 2023.
- Several PE firms have raised the targets for their funds, further elongating the fundraising process.
- Pitchbook's senior strategist Hilary Wiek said, "If existing LPs aren't writing large enough checks or coming back at all, GPs will have to look elsewhere for capital, and that's going to have to take longer."
- So far this year, CVC Capital Partners secured $28B (€26B) in capital commitments for its Fund IX, whereas Clayton, Dubilier & Rice bagged $26B for its Fund XII.
- The latter is the second-largest buyout fund on record.
Zoom out: - Total private fundraising activity slumped by 27.4% YoY due to limited exit options for limited partners and scarcity of institutional capital for additional funds.
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| 2 | | VCs deployed $697.4M in late-stage and beyond global startups this week between Dec. 9 and Dec. 15, per Crunchbase data. E-commerce startups raked in 49% of the funding this week, thanks to Udaan's $340M funding round. Biotech, healthcare, and fintech startups nabbed 24%, 9%, and 8% of the financing, respectively. 
Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - B2B e-commerce startup Udaan raised $340M in Series E funding led by British retail bank M&G's investment arm. Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global participated in the round. Per sources, the round was a down round, which lowered the firm's valuation from its peak of $3.1B in 2021.
- Clinical-stage biotech startup Bicara Therapeutics closed its oversubscribed Series C funding round at $165M. Braidwell LP and TPG co-led the round, joined by Deerfield Management, Farimount, Aisling Capital, and others.
- Calyxo, a healthcare startup making medical devices for kidney stone treatment, closed its Series D at $50M. Avidity Partners led the round, joined by Questa Capital and CRG.
- Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC led a $46M Series C round into Indian B2B fruits marketplace Vegrow. Investors participating in the round include Prosus Ventures, Matrix Partners India, Elevation Capital, and Lightspeed.
- Micro-lending startup Aye Finance raked in $37M in Series F funding led by British International Investment (BII).
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| 3 | | Funding for AI startups is surging in Europe despite the region not being a central ground for the AI sector. French generative AI startup Mistral AI took the honors for being the top-funded AI startup in Europe, thanks to its recent $487M round led by Andreessen Horowitz, which valued the firm at $2B. More: - To date, 16 other European companies have collectively pulled in over $1B.
- Synthesia is ranked second on the most funded European AI startup list curated by Crunchbase, with a recent $90M Accel-led Series C round propelling the firm to a unicorn valuation in June.
- Stability AI, another unicorn AI startup in Europe, bagged a $101M round last year.
- Other non-unicorn startups that made the list include identity verification and fraud detection generative AI startup IDVerse, AI coding assistant platform Diffblue, and AI-powered content creation firm Haiper, which have raised $45M, $36M, and $13.8M to date, respectively.
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| 4 | | French VC firm Singular secured €400M ($425M) in capital commitments towards its second fund. The firm is a generalist fund that invests primarily in European startups. More: - The second fund's size is nearly double its debut fund, which closed at €225M ($245M).
- All the investors in the first fund returned for the second fund.
- The majority of the fund's backers were large pension funds, sovereign funds, and family offices with $10B of assets under management.
- 33% of startups in Singular's portfolio were based in France.
- Notable startups in Singular's portfolio are cancer care startup Resilience, corporate mental health service firm moka.care, data monitoring platform Soda, real-time analytics API startup Tinybird, and hospitality-focused software company Thynk.
Zoom out: - European startups raised $45B this year, per Atomico's state of European tech report.
- In 2022, European startups raked in $85B in funding.
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| 5 | | Early-stage venture capital firm Playground Global has secured $410M capital toward its Fund III. The firm intends to invest in early-stage deep tech and science startups across next-gen computing, logistics, automation, infrastructure, decarbonization, and engineered biology sectors. More: - The Palo Alto, California-based firm's recent fundraising pushes its assets under management to over the $1.2B mark.
- Playground Global is focusing on seed and Series A companies, with initial check sizes ranging from $1M to $20M.
- The firm counts data startup MosaicML and 3D printing firm Velo3D as its most successful exits.
- Databricks acquired MosaicML for $1.3B earlier this year, while Velo3D went public in 2021.
- Playground Global has backed d-Matrix, Ideon Technologies, Amber Bio, Infinimmune, and Atomic AI with the recent fund.
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| 6 | | Today's Funding: Biotech - Single-cell sequencing biotech firm Parse Biosciences, formerly known as Split Biosciences, raked in $50M in Series C funding. Soleus Capital led the round with Bioeconomy Capital, Marshall Wace, Sahsen Ventures, and Saras Capital.
- Novel small molecule therapeutics discovery platform Deep Apple Therapeutics secured $52M in Series A funding led by Apple Tree Partners.
Cleantech - Tetra, a cleantech firm helping homeowners transition to clean energy, bagged $10.5M in seed funding led by Greycroft, Gutter Capital, Lerer Hippeau, and 1sharpe Capital.
Fitness - German sports, wellness, and corporate fitness club Urban Sports Club raised €95M ($102.5M) in fresh funding led by Verdane. HV Capital, b2venture, and ProSiebenSat1 participated in the round.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - The Kubernetes Cookbook is your comprehensive companion, equipping you with the knowledge and techniques to harness the full potential of Kubernetes.*
- Motivate Venture Capital announced a $81M fund, which has been anchored by two global financial service institutions.
- WaterBridge Ventures hired Sapna Goyal, the former executive of B2B e-commerce unicorn startup Udaan.
- Consulting and analytics firm Pioneer Management Consulting launched its venture capital arm, Pioneer Ventures Group, to invest in biotech startups.
- Savvy billionaires are hedging their portfolios with farmland. New REIT goes public, and stock price increases 12.20% in its first quarter opening.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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