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| Here's a look at today's VC briefing. - ↩️ Sequoia Capital has withdrawn its bid to remove former partner Michael Moritz from Klarna's board.
- 🦄 Only two of the top 10 most valuable startups in Europe are profitable, says Pitchbook.
- 🤝 Seedcamp sold a 19% stake in its third fund to Molten Ventures for €8.5M ($9.2M).
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Sequoia Capital has decided to withdraw its attempt to remove former partner Michael Moritz from the board of directors at buy-now-pay-later startup Klarna. Instead, Sequoia's partner Matthew Miller, who initiated the move against Moritz, will step down from the board. More: - Sequoia's managing partner Roelof Botha had reportedly backed the move to oust Moritz, sources informed FT.
- In a statement, Sequoia said, "Upon a fuller assessment, we've withdrawn our [emergency general meeting] request. We fully support Michael as chairman of Klarna, and as we have already stated, we're excited to continue to back [Klarna chief executive] Sebastian [Siemiatkowski] and Klarna on their path to IPO and beyond."
- Apparently, Moritz's departure could have potentially created a split in the board due to differing allegiances.
- Klarna's valuation has plummeted from its peak of $46B in 2021 to $7.6B.
Zoom out: - Moritz spent 40 years at Sequoia, leading the firm's investments into Google, PayPal, and Klarna.
- He left the firm last year, after which he surrendered the Sequoia-linked board seat at Klarna.
- Moritz was asked to remain with Klarna in an independent capacity.
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| 2 | | Revolut and SumUp are the only two confirmed profitable companies amongst the top 10 most valuable unicorn startups in Europe, per Pitchbook. 
What the numbers say: Europe has about 140 unicorn startups worth over €1B ($1.1B) each. Most of the unicorn startups had opted for a hypergrowth strategy, which means that the majority of them were operating at a loss. Amongst the two unicorns that are confirmed to be profitable, British challenger bank Revolut posted adjusted EBITDA of £45M ($54M) in Q4 2023, significantly higher than the £500,000 (~$631,500) EBITDA reported in the previous quarter. Mobile payments company SumUp has posted a positive EBITDA since Q4 2022 and reported a pre-tax profit of £1.2M ($1.5M) in the returns filed for 2022. Relevance: Checkout.com, the highest-valued unicorn in Europe, has reportedly been profitable for years, claims CEO Guillaume Pousaz. However, it is hard to verify the claims as it has not published global accounts. In filing from 2022 for its U.K. business, the firm reported a pre-tax loss of $126M. Swedish buy-now-pay-later fintech startup Klarna reported a loss for the entire financial year of 2022 but posted a gain of $13M in Q3 2023. Mobility firm Bolt is expecting to be profitable this year as it gears up for an IPO in 2025. | | | |
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| 3 | | British VC firm Molten Ventures paid €8.5M ($9.2M) for a 19% stake in Seedcamp's third fund, which closed at $30M in 2014. Molten had previously acquired stakes in Seedcamp Fund I and II through secondary transactions. The firm claims this secondary strategy has already delivered 2.5x returns. More: - Approximately 50% of the Seedcamp's third fund's investment capital came from the European Investment Fund.
- Notable startups backed by the third fund include Revolut, Pleo, Grover, WeFox, Thriva, and Curve.
Zoom out: - Last year, Molten Ventures acquired LSE-listed Forward Partners in an all-share deal worth £41.4M ($52.2M).
- Molten made the acquisition to bolster its market position in the European VC market.
- The firm gained access to Forward Partners' portfolio of 43 startups.
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| 4 | | New York-based investment firm Hack VC raised a $150M fund to invest in early-stage cryptocurrency startups. The firm has already deployed a third of the fund. Hack VC plans to back decentralized finance (DeFi), real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and blockchain infrastructure solutions. More: - The firm also wants to invest in startups at the intersection of crypto and AI.
- It has already backed enterprise-focused generative AI copilot startup Jasper AI and blockchain AI coprocessor firm Ritual.
- Hack closed its previous fund at $200M in 2022.
- The firm has backed 100 startups to date, including blockchain startup Mysten Labs, Ethereum infrastructure firm Consensys, layer-1 blockchain firm Sui, decentralized wireless network firm Helium, and financial firm Amber Group.
- Hack VC had also invested in Terraform Labs and BlockFi, both of which collapsed last year, along with Three Arrows Capital and FTX.
- The firm has about $425M worth of assets under management.
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| 5 | | Ibex Investors secured capital commitments worth $106M towards its fourth Israel-focused fund. The Ibex Israel VC II LP will invest in about 15 early-stage Israeli startups across the software, cybersecurity, and infrastructure sectors. The Denver, Colo.-based firm typically leads or co-leads deals for startups from pre-seed to pre-IPO stages. More: - The fourth fund's size was slightly larger than its predecessor, which closed at $100M in 2020.
- Ibex has grown its Israel division to seven with the recent addition of partner Aaron Rinberg and associate Alon Cinamon.
- The firm has backed about 40 startups in Israel since its first Israel-focused fund launched in 2012, the most notable of which are BeamUp, Appwrite, Honeycomb, Visionary.ai, and Weka.
- Ibex previously focused on cybersecurity, enterprise software, and AI startups in Israel.
- The new fund pushed the firm's assets under management over the $1B mark.
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| 6 | | Today's Funding: AI - Moonshot AI, the Chinese generative AI firm behind chatbot Kimi Chat, raised $1B in fresh funding at a valuation of $2.5B. Alibaba and HongShan led the round.
- 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.
Battery - 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.
Healthcare - Oula, a maternity clinic startup that combines obstetrics with midwifery, raised $28M in Series B funding co-led by Revolution Ventures and Maverick Ventures. Other participants in the funding round include GV, Female Founders Fund, 8VC, Alumni Ventures, and Great Oaks.
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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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