| |
| Here's a look at today's VC briefing. - 📃 Large LPs are wielding their bargaining power to secure special terms.
- 🔼 AI sector defied investors' slowdown expectations.
- 💰 Life sciences VC firm ORI Capital raised a $260M second fund.
We have also rounded up the top late-stage funding rounds of this week. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Large limited partners are asking for better terms in funds, such as lower fees, deal flow covenants, and oversight over deals, than other investors. Ropes & Gray's partner Vincent Ip has seen a surge in the number of specialized "funds of one" or separately managed accounts in the last 12 to 18 months. More: - Deal terms have tipped in LP's favor due to the higher demand for VC funds and a lack of capital available.
- As a result, LPs are willing to offer better deal terms to LPs investing a large chunk of capital into their funds.
- The tailored accounts are structured as stand-alone rather than linked with the flagship funds.
- Special deal terms and SMAs might be a great way for newer firms and emerging fund managers to build credibility with key LPs.
- However, GPs must be mindful of the impact of SMAs on arrangements with existing LPs.
|     | |
| 2 | | VCs deployed $963.5M in late-stage and beyond global startups this week between Feb. 17 and Feb. 23, per Crunchbase data. AI startups raked in 37% of the funding this week. Battery, healthcare, and cloud security startups nabbed 17%, 15%, and 8% of the financing, respectively. 
Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - Battery recycling firm Ascend Elements raised $162M in Series D funding from Just Climate, Clearvision Ventures, and IRONGREY. The new funding adds to the company's $542M funding round from last fall.
- Lightspeed Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures co-led a $150M Series C funding round into generative AI-powered medical documentation startup Abridge. Other investors in the funding round include Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Wittington Ventures, and CVS Health Ventures.
- Medical Microinstruments bagged $110M in Series C funding led by Fidelity Management & Research. Deerfield Management, Wellington Partners, BioStar Capital, RA Capital Management, Andera Partners, and Fountain Healthcare Partners.
- AI chip startup Recogni secured $102M in Series C funding led by Celesta Capital and GreatPoint Ventures. Other participants in the round include HSBC Holdings Plc and Tasaru Mobility Investments.
- Frontier Medicines closed its Series C funding round at $80M. Deerfield Management and Droia Ventures co-led the round, joined by Galapagos NV, DCVC Bio, MPM Capital, and RA Capital Management.
| | | |
| A message from our sponsor, Snappy. |  | | Discover the unmatched experience of enterprise-level gifting with Snappy. Whether you're looking to appreciate your employees or reward clients, Snappy makes it easy to send meaningful gifts. Get started for free or talk to one of our gifting experts. Why do thousands of the world's top companies love gifting with Snappy? - Convenience: No lengthy contracts or minimum orders are required.
- Extensive Options: Select from a vast array of high-quality gifts from top-tier brands or customize your own branded swag.
- Efficiency: A quick and straightforward process lets you send gifts in seconds.
- Personalization: Allow recipients to handpick their preferred gifts.
- Logistics: Snappy handles shipping, eliminating the need for recipient addresses.
- Trustworthy: Thousands of 5-star Google reviews from happy employees.
Get Started for Free | |
|
| 3 | | The AI sector has demonstrated robust VC activity in the first two months of this year, defying investors' expectations of a slowdown. AI startups bagged just $2.2B in VC funding in January 2024, per Crunchbase. Only two AI startups, Rebellions.ai and Kore.ai, managed to raise mega funding rounds of more than $100M in the month. However, funding has already crossed the $2.6B mark in the first three weeks of February, with a half-dozen mega funding rounds, beating investors' expectations. More: - The biggest funding round in the AI sector went to Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI, which secured a $1B funding round led by Alibaba Group Holding and HongShan.
- Other mega funding rounds that closed in February include Lambda's $320M Series C round at a $1.5B valuation, Sierra's $110M at a $1B valuation, and Recogni's $102M Series C round.
- Additionally, Scale AI and Perplexity AI are reportedly planning to raise fresh funding at hefty valuations.
| | | |
| 4 | | Life sciences VC firm ORI Capital secured $260M in capital commitments towards its second fund. The firm will invest in early-stage biotech startups working on diagnostics, therapeutics, and drug delivery for cancer, metabolic disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. More: - ORI Capital emerged with a $200M debut fund in Jan. 2016.
- The firm has had several successful exits from the debut fund, including CG Oncology, which went public last month at a market cap of $3B; Semma Therapeutics, acquired by Semma for $950M; and Kymab, which Sanofi acquired for $1.1B in 2021.
- As a result of these successful exits, ORI returned the $200M from the debut fund back to investors and is set to deliver more returns.
- ORI has built an internal platform that collates data from various VC funding databases, clinical trial repositories, and other sources.
- The firm will use the data to source deals for the second fund.
- The platform already tracks about 31,000 companies, 5,000 healthcare fund managers, 65,000 researchers and clinicians, and 17,000 healthcare industry professionals.
| | | |
| A message from our sponsor, Digify. |  | | Looking to improve your LP engagement? Digify offers an enterprise level investor portal at SMB pricing. Its flexible and intuitive data rooms help you with: ✅ Seamless integration into your existing workflows with API
✅ Reduce repetitive steps in your workflow via app integrations.
✅ Automatically watermark sensitive documents.
✅ Effortlessly protect and distribute your files to multiple LPs simultaneously
✅ Provides actionable insights for document viewing, guiding you on the best time to follow up with LPs. Trusted by leading PE/VC firms like Matrix Partners, Brevan Howard and Polychain Capital. Learn More | |
|
| 5 | | Canadian VC firm Golden Ventures closed its fifth fund at $100M. The fund is looking to invest in seed-stage startups across AI, climate, blockchain, and quantum computing. Golden Ventures wants to ink about 30 deals from the fifth fund. The new fund's size is the same as its predecessor, which closed in 2021. More: - The firm started as a sector-agnostic investment firm in 2011 and narrowed its focus on the Canadian tech ecosystem later.
- Over the past 13 years, it has backed about 100 startups in the seed stages.
- Notable exits include storytelling platform Wattpad (acquired by Naver) and online ordering platform SkipTheDishes (acquired by Just Eat).
- Limited partners backing the fifth fund include BDC Capital, ECMC Group, Foundry, HarbourVest Partners, Kensington Capital Partners, Northleaf Capital Partners, RBC, Teralys Capital, University of Chicago, Vintage Investment Partners, and Deloitte Ventures.
| | | |
| 6 | | Today's Funding: Battery - Thermal battery startup Antora Energy raised a $150M Series B funding round led by Decarbonization Partners, a joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek. Emerson Collective, GS Futures, The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures participated in the round.
Biotech - Reprieve Cardiovascular, a biotech startup developing intelligent fluid management solutions for heart failure patients, emerged from stealth with a $42M Series A round co-led by Lightstone Ventures and Sante Ventures. Deerfield Management, Genesis Capital, and Arboretum Ventures joined the funding round.
Blockchain - Andreessen Horowitz invested $100M into blockchain infrastructure startup EigenLayer through a Series B funding round.
Healthcare - MBF Healthcare led a $24.7M Series B round into Carewell, a startup developing marketplace for family caregivers. Existing investors Sageview Capital and Headline participated in the round.
PropTech - Construction permitting process simplification platform PermitFlow bagged $31M in Series A funding led by Kleiner Perkins. Other participants in the round include Felicis, Altos Ventures, Initialized Capital, Y Combinator, and ConTech.
Retail - Crisp, a startup offering actionable retail data about inventory and sales, extended its Series B funding round by $20M. Existing investors Blue Cloud Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Spring Capital, and 3L provided the equity funding. Additionally, the firm secured a $30M debt facility from TriplePoint Capital.
| | | |
| |
| Upcoming Events | | MAR
7 | | Portfolio Diversification - Learn from knowledgable experts on the latest trends in alternative investment assets like private equity, crypto, real estate, and the art market. | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
| |
 | Snappy is the award-winning, all-in-one gifting company that spreads joy, shares gratitude, and takes the guesswork out of gifting. | |
|
 | Use Digify to build investor portals, share sensitive documents, and track LP interest. | |
|
| |
Comments
Post a Comment