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| Here’s a look at today’s VC briefing. - 💰 MassPRIM allocated $111M funding to three VC funds.
- 🇪🇺 European VC funding halved in 2023 compared to the record-high of 2021.
- 🇯🇵 Japan is considering allowing VC firms to hold crypto tokens.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (MassPRIM) committed $111M to three VC funds. $51M was earmarked for two Spark Capital funds and $60M for Flagship Pioneering's ninth flagship fund. The pension fund has allocated 17.1% of its total capital to private equity investments. More: - The Boston-based firm has $100.9B worth of assets under management.
- MassPRIM invested $34M in Spark Capital Growth Fund V and $17M in Spark Capital VIII fund.
- To date, the pension fund has invested in 11 funds launched by Spark Capital, a VC fund that invests in media, entertainment, and technology startups.
- The firm has also been investing in funds raised by healthcare, technology, renewable energy, and agriculture-focused investor Flagship Pioneering since 2004.
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| 2 | | European startups raised $52B in VC funding in 2023, per a Crunchbase report referred by Entrepreneur. 
What the numbers say: Funding dipped 38% compared to the 2022 tally of $86B and halved compared to the record high of $118B from 2023. Despite the dip, funding remained above pre-pandemic levels. Late-stage startups were impacted the most due to the dip, with funding reaching the lowest level since Q3 2020. Where to see the impact: There are two opposing views about the VC funding environment in 2024. Some industry insiders believe the funding should increase as VCs are sitting on large reserves of dry powder. However, others believe that funding might not increase, as "there is uncertainty in the market for 2024; it is the election year with over 50 countries going to the polls. This brings a bit of anxiety to investors," per ISDI's Head of Impact Accelerator Jesús Tapia. | | | |
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| 3 | | Japan is considering easing its strict regulations for the crypto sector by allowing investment limited partnerships, including venture firms, to hold digital assets directly. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's administration will submit a revised bill that seeks to amend the nation's Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Act in the current session of Japan's parliament. More: - The move is part of Kishida's broader ambition of reinvigorating the nation's economy.
- One of the core aspects of the strategy is easing up on strict regulations in token listings and taxation and supporting the growth of Web3 firms.
- If successfully passed, the law will help crypto startups in the nation offer tokens to VC investors instead of equity.
Zoom out: - Investors remain bullish about the sector's prospects despite the failure of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the anti-money laundering charges levied at Binance.
- VC funding for the sector saw a slight surge in the last quarter of 2023.
- Global crypto startups raised $9.3B in VC funding from 1,643 rounds last year, about a third of the $29.2B invested in 2022.
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| 4 | | Partech closed its second Africa fund at $300M (€280M), higher than its initial target of $247M (€230M). While the fund invests in seed to Series C stage startups across Africa, it will mostly deploy its funds in Series A and Series B stages. More: - The firm intends to back about 20 companies, with initial check sizes ranging between $1M and $15M.
- The firm invested in 17 startups through the first fund, including Wave, TradeDepot, Yoco, and Reliance.
- Partech primarily backs startups across fintech, agritech, health tech, retail, FMCG, and banking sectors.
- It has already backed South African orchestration platform Revio, an unnamed Egyptian proptech, and Senegalese e-commerce startup.
Zoom out: - Partech's new fund comes as global VCs and institutional investors pull back from Africa.
- Investment activity halved in 2023 compared to the previous year, per Partech.
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| 5 | | Former Coinbase VC executives Stephanie Song, Brian Fernandez, and Anand Chaturvedi established a new startup called Dili. The firm automates investment due diligence and provides AI-powered portfolio management solutions for private equity and venture capital firms. Dili analyzes financial data from unstructured documents, handles due diligence requests, and searches for the company's lesser-known facts online. More: - Dili, which graduated from Y Combinator, recently added support for automated comparable analysis and industry benchmarking.
- The firm has raised $3.6M in VC funding from Allianz Strategic Investments, Rebel Fund, Singularity Capital, Decacorn, Pioneer Fund, NVO Capital, Amino Capital, Gaingels, and Hyper Ventures.
Zoom out: - Gartner predicts that over 75% of VC and early-stage investors will use AI and data analytics for executive reviews by 2025.
- Dili's competitors in the space include Wokelo, Ansarada, AlphaSense, and Thomson Reuters.
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| 6 | | Today's Funding: Biotech - Bioptimus, a French startup building a universal AI foundational model for biology, emerged from stealth with a $35M seed funding round led by Sofinnova Partners. Bpifrance Large Ventures, Frst, Cathay Innovation, Headline, Hummingbird, NJF Capital, Owkin, and Top Harvest Capital joined the funding round.
- Non-invasive, AI-powered arrhythmia analysis platform Vektor Medical bagged $16M in Series A funding co-led by Solas BioVentures and TVM Capital Life Science.
Fashion - Planity, an online booking platform for hair and beauty salons, raised $48M (€45M) in Series C funding led by InfraVia Capital Partners. Existing investors Crédit Mutuel Innovation, Revaia, and Bpifrance Digital Venture participated in the round.
Fintech - German fintech startup Monite extended its seed funding round with an additional $6M, bringing the total raised under the round to $16M. Valar Ventures led the extension round, with backing from existing investor Third Prime.
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 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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