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| Here’s your daily VC briefing: - 🎯 SoftBank to double down on AI investments after reporting profits in two consecutive quarters
- 🦄 11 startups joined the unicorn board in April 2024, with two each from AI, web3, and e-commerce sectors
- 🌍 Accel raised $650M for eighth fund to back European and Israeli startups
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | SoftBank Group plans to double down on AI investments and committed about $5B for strategic investments this year, up from $3.9B invested in fiscal year 2023. Despite reporting profits for a second consecutive quarter, SoftBank ended the fiscal year 2023 with a net loss of $1.5B (227.6B yen). The successful IPO of chipmaker Arm helped offset losses from its Vision Funds and almost doubled its net asset value from the end of March last year to a record high of $178.4B (27.8T yen). More: - The Japanese investment firm has about $39.7B (6.2T yen) dry powder available for investments.
- In addition to AI, the firm plans to invest heavily in logistics, robotics, and autonomous driving sectors.
- Earlier this year, SoftBank led a $1.05B round into driverless car startup Wayve and a $280M Series E funding round into navigation company Mapbox.
- SoftBank is making the new investments from the parent company instead of the Vision Fund.
- The firm posted a $4B gain in the last three months of 2023.
- The firm reportedly plans to create a $100B AI chip manufacturing venture and acquire Nvidia-rival Graphcore.
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| 2 | | In April 2024, 11 startups turned unicorns after crossing the $1B valuation mark, per Crunchbase. 
What the numbers say: The unicorn creation rate last month was higher than the six unicorns minted in the same month last year, but was a quarter of the 40 startups added to the board in April 2022. The AI, Web3, and e-commerce sectors each added two new startups to the billion-dollar valuation club. The U.S. minted six unicorns, with Germany, France, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, and Australia contributing one each. Two startups, cybersecurity firm Rubrik and cash reward startup Ibotta, exited the board after their respective IPO debuts in April. Relevance: The most notable startup to cement its unicorn status was AI drug discovery biotech startup Xaira Therapeutics, which emerged from stealth with a massive $1B Series A round led by Arch Venture Partners and Foresite Capital. Other entrants to the unicorn club include AI software engineering firm Cognition, AI-chatbot maker Perplexity AI, online auto parts retailer Autodoc, social video commerce app Flip, blockchain platform Berachain, layer 1 blockchain Monad, data security company Cyera, business forecasting platform Pigment, financial services infrastructure firm QI Tech, and Mexican-themed restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez. | | | |
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| 3 | | VC firm TrueBridge Capital Partners secured $1.6B from existing and new limited partners towards five new funds. This brings the firm's total assets under management to over $7.5B. More: - The largest fund is the $884M TrueBridge Capital Partners Fund VIII, a fund-of-funds that will continue the firm's strategy of investing in top-performing, early-stage tech venture capital funds.
- $189M of the capital is earmarked for its TrueBridge Seed & Micro-VC II fund and $253M for its TrueBridge Direct Fund III.
- The former fund will invest in seed and micro-VC managers, while the latter will help TrueBridge make direct investments in mid- to late-stage tech startups alongside prominent VC firms.
- Capitalizing on the growing secondaries market, TrueBridge launched its first $230M secondaries fund to acquire stakes in top funds and companies being liquidated by limited partners.
- The firm also raised $62M towards its first dedicated blockchain fund.
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| 4 | | Accel, the VC firm behind early bets on Facebook and Spotify, raised $650M for its eighth fund. The firm plans to invest in 25 to 30 early-stage European and Israeli startups. The eighth fund's size is the same as the firm's early-stage fund in the U.S., which was announced in Dec. 2023. More: - Accel has backed more than 200 startups in the region, including Supercell, BlaBlaCar, Doctolib, and Check24.
- Notable current portfolio companies include cybersecurity firm Cyera, care home marketplace Lottie, and AI video startup Synthesia.
- While remaining sector-agnostic, Accel sees significant AI opportunities in Europe, particularly in applied use cases versus foundational models, where the U.S. currently holds an advantage.
Zoom out: - Europe now boasts over 360 venture-backed unicorns and attracted $66B in startup funding last year, up from just $1B when Accel first arrived in the region 25 years ago.
- VCs invested €16.3B ($17.6B) in European startups in the first three months of this year, up 19% compared to Q1 2023's tally of €13.7B ($14.8B), Pitchbook.
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| 5 | | Biotech investor Sands Capital bagged $555M in capital commitments for a new life sciences fund, called Life Sciences Pulse Fund III. The Arlington, Va.-based VC firm plans to invest in therapeutic, diagnostic, and medical devices, and life sciences tools companies. More: - The firm has raised three life science funds to date, collectively worth $1.3B.
- Sands Capital manages $54B worth of assets across private and public investments, $5B of which are in life sciences and healthcare domains.
- So far in 2024, Sands has participated in a $170M Series D funding round for BioAge Labs, a $150M Series A-1 round for Avenzo Therapeutics, and a $128M Series C round for Alamar Biosciences.
Zoom out: - Sands Capital's fundraise comes amidst a flurry of new life science funds raised by firms like ORI Capital, Canaan, and Earlybird.
- Additionally, Regeneron committed an additional $500M to its corporate venture arm dedicated to biotech investing.
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| 6 | | Today's Funding: Blockchain Climate tech - Sustainable battery recycling firm cylib raised €55M ($59.5M) through a Series A funding round co-led by World Fund and Porsche Ventures. Joining the lead investors are Bosch Ventures, NRW.Venture, Vsquared Ventures, Speedinvest, and 10x Founders.
Healthcare - Medicare navigation platform Chapter secured $50M in Series C funding. XYZ Venture Capital led the round, with additional support from Narya Capital, Addition, Susa Ventures, and Maverick Ventures.
- SmarterDx, an AI startup that provides clinical review and quality audits for medical claims, bagged $50M in Series B funding. Bessemer Venture Partners, Flare Capital Partners, and Floodgate Fund participated in the Transformative Capital-led funding round.
Robotics | | | |
| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Norrsken's second impact investing fund closed at €320M ($346.5M), higher than its initial target of €250M ($270.7M). The new fund will invest in climate, biotech, and energy sector startups in Germany, the U.K., and the Nordic nations.
- Agri-foodtech sector-focused VC firm PeakBridge secured $187M in capital commitments towards its second growth fund, exceeding its initial target of $100M. The firm plans to invest about $10M in 16 to 20 companies.
- Nonprofit organization Accion raised $152.5M towards its Accion Digital Transformation Fund, to invest in financial institutions serving small businesses.
- GV's former partner Terri Burns launched her own VC firm called Type Capital to back early stage startups across digital consumer, developer tools, and AI sectors.
- The Ohio Department of Development awarded $3M to Bold Opportunities Fund I, a VC fund that aims to raise $30M.
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 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Karan Chafekar | |
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 | JobsOhio exists to help companies and their people thrive and make Ohio your competitive advantage. | |
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