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| Here's a look at today's VC briefing. - 🤝 General Atlantic acquired Actis to venture into sustainable infrastructure investment business
- 🚀 HashKey raised $100M in funding amidst crypto funding slump
- 🇮🇱 Israeli cabinet approved stimulus package for startups
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | American growth equity firm General Atlantic acquired British infrastructure-focused buyout firm Actis for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will broaden its footprint in the sustainable infrastructure investment business. More: - Actis will retain the brand name and be housed under General Atlantic's new dedicated sustainable infrastructure arm.
- Chairman and senior partner Torbjorn Caesar will continue to lead the firm, and it will have complete autonomy over its investment decisions.
- General Atlantic's assets under management crossed the $96B mark with the addition of Actis' $12.5B of assets.
- Actis has raised over $25B in capital since its inception and has 17 offices globally.
- The move is part of General Atlantic's new strategic priority, where climate investing is a core business.
Zoom out: - The acquisition news comes just a month after General Atlantic confidentially filed to go public as early as this year.
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| 2 | | HashKey Group cemented its unicorn status with a new $100M Series A funding round led by OKV Ventures. Relevance: HashKey operates one of Hong Kong's two licensed crypto exchanges and provides crypto trading, venture funding, and asset management services in Hong Kong and Singapore. The firm reportedly received a pre-money valuation of $1.2B at the current round. HashKey intends to use the proceeds to further develop its Web3 ecosystem and expand its product portfolio with new licensed products. The firm started offering trading services to retail investors last August and has already garnered more than 155,000 users since. 
What the numbers say: HashKey's new funding round comes amidst a global crypto funding slump, which started in the 2022 market rout but worsened in 2023 due to the failure of prominent firms, including FTX. Global crypto startups bagged $9.5B in VC funding last year, about two-thirds lower than the previous year, per Bloomberg. Funding continued to slide in the last quarter of 2023 despite a surge in Bitcoin prices. However, investors remain optimistic about the sector, especially after the SEC approved 11 applications for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds last week. | | | |
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| 3 | | The Israeli Finance Ministry and the Israel Innovation Authority approved a stimulus package to boost the nation's tech industry and solidify its status as a global technology hub. The stimulus package consists of two initiatives: a startup fund for direct investment in startups and an investment fund to invest in Israeli VC funds. More: - The government will inject 500M shekels (~$132.5M) annually into pre-seed, seed, and Series A stage startups that are having difficulty raising capital.
- Through the funds-of-fund program, the government will invest over 4B shekels ($1.1B) in local VC funds over the next five years.
- The stimulus package is aimed at startups working on breakthrough innovation.
Zoom out: - VC funding for Israel's startups nearly halved from $19B in 2022 to $10B in 2023.
- Israel's high-tech sector accounts for 12% of employment, over half of the nation's exports, 25% of income taxes, and about 20% of the overall economic output.
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| 4 | | AGF Private Capital acquired a 51% stake in Kensington Capital Partners for $45M. While Kensington is giving up a majority stake, it will still retain "its investment and operational independence," the company said in a statement. With the acquisition, AGF will be able to strengthen its private credit strategy and alternative asset investment capabilities. More: - Kensington has about $2.6B worth of assets under management and invests in VC, growth equity, and mid-market buyouts.
- In April 2023, it held the first close of its third VC fund at CA$158M ($117M) against a target of CA$290M ($215M).
- The firm is a part of the Canadian government's Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative.
- All three of Kensington's senior managing directors, Tom Kennedy, Richard Nathan, and Eamonn McConnell, will continue in their existing leadership roles but will start working closely with AGF's private capital head, Ash Lawrence.
- AGF has about $42.8B of assets under management and serves over 80,000 investors across North America and Europe.
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| 5 | | Twitter's former head of developer platform, Amir Shevat, established an early-stage focused VC firm called Darkmode Ventures. The firm raised a $5M fund, which will be used to primarily invest in 35 software startups in Israel. More: - The firm has already backed 12 startups to date, including product integration platform Merge, data security compliance automation startup Drata, AI coding assistant Tabnine, and social media app Bluesky.
- Average check sizes will range from $100,000 to $200,000.
- Shevat purposely kept the debut fund's size small, adding, "There is a trend of small funds in Silicon Valley that provide much better returns for investors. If you raise $5M, you have to return $15M, but if you raise $500M, you have to return $1.5B."
- Darkmode's other co-founders include Vareto founder Kat Orekhova and Yobs founder Rapha Danilo.
- The firm's first fund is backed by limited partners Bain Capital, Foundation Capital, Innovation Endeavors, and AngelList Fund.
- In addition, the fund also received backing from GPs from funds like ICONIQ and Afore Capital and executives from Meta, Google, Coinbase, and Stripe.
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| 6 | | Today's Funding: Energy - Swedish clean energy tech solutions startup Aira bagged €145M ($158M) in Series B funding to continue market expansion, introduce monthly payment solutions, broaden its product portfolio, and scale up manufacturing capabilities. Altor, Kinnevik, and Temasek led the round, joined by Collaborative Fund, Creades, Lingotto, Nesta Impact Investments, and Statkraft Ventures.
Fintech - Fintech infrastructure startup Prometeo raised $13M in Series A funding to continue its expansion across Latin America. Antler Elevate led the round, with additional support from PayPal Ventures, Samsung Next, DN Capital Partners, Cometa, and Magma Partners.
Food and beverages - Indian cloud kitchen startup Wow Momo Foods secured $42M in Series D funding from Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, The Indian Angel Network, Lighthouse Funds, and Oaks Asset Management. The firm intends to use the capital to grow its brand, strengthen the distribution of its FMCG arm, and support R&D.
Healthcare - Sleep diagnostics and monitoring solutions provider Onera Health closed its Series C round at €30M ($32M). EQT Life Sciences and Gimv co-led the round, with additional backing from Innovation Industries, Invest-NL, imec.xpand, BOM, and 15th Rock. Onera will use the incoming funds to accelerate manufacturing and expedite the clearance process for its second-generation polysomnography system in Europe and the U.S.
Transportation - Dutch pension fund PGGM led a €304M ($331.4M) Series B funding round into French EV charging startup Electra. Bpifrance, Eurazeo Infrastructure, Serena, Rive Private Investment, and 574 Invest participated in the round. The firm intends to use the proceeds to expand its fast-charging network across Europe.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Are you creating the unique user journeys your customers demand? You can by Mastering Personalization with AI.*
- 38 IPO listings have been completed so far this year, of which 34 belonged to the Asia Pacific region. India has been the most active nation in IPO listings, with 11 already on the board, followed by China with eight and Indonesia with seven.
- Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins warned that valuations of private companies are "going nuts again" due to the AI frenzy.
- Zeal Capital Partners appointed Stafanie Thomas as its managing director. She is tasked with leading the company's Inclusive Investing initiative, which started with the Barclays Black Formation Investments (BBFI) program.
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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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