 Tiger Global, SoftBank, and Insight Partners led or co-led $73B in funding rounds in 2021, reports Crunchbase. That figure represents 12% of all venture and private equity into venture-backed startups. The three firms saw an aggregate of 41 portfolio companies go public with a valuation at or above $1B, compared to 11 in 2020 and just five in 2019. More: - Tiger Global’s total round count of 335 was bested only by Y Combinator’s 797 and Techstars’ 436. Of course, Tiger Global’s growth equity strategy means that it deployed substantially more capital than either of the two seed-stage funds.
- It led a funding round, on average, on four out of every five working days.
- Insight Partners was not too far behind and led a round on slightly more than three working days per week.
- SoftBank led, on average, more than two investments per week, on par with Andreessen Horowitz, the most active venture firm in 2021.
- Tiger and SoftBank have stepped up their investment pace by 400% YoY, while Insight accelerated by 190%.
- SoftBank has the highest average round of the three firms, with 83% of its investments being placed in late-stage companies. An astounding 57% of its deals were valued at $1B or more.
- While SoftBank’s portfolio has the highest percentage of unicorns at 61%, Tiger Global has a higher total unicorn count in its portfolio with 176 companies.
- Insight places its bets slightly earlier, meaning fewer unicorns in its portfolio ranks.
- Ben Savage of Clocktower Technology Ventures sees the massive increase of liquidity into the private technology market changing what it means to be a venture capitalist.
- He predicts that venture as an asset class will not only be in long illiquid assets but a mix of liquid assets as well over the next five to 10 years.
- This could lead to traditional ventures firms moving upwards to become crossover firms as public and private markets begin to become more similar.
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 Dealogic data show that new SPACs raised $12B per month in October and November. The Wall Street Journal reports that around three SPACs have been created per day in December, below Q1’s record pace. The growth brings the total funding for startups from SPACs in the next two years to around $160B. More: - That figure is still well below the dry-powder quantities from VC and PE, which total $440B and roughly $310B, respectively, according to Preqin.
Not all rosy news: - An exchange-traded fund that tracks companies that went public through SPACs is down about 25% for the year.
- An ETF of companies that recently undertook traditional IPOs has slumped roughly 15% in the past quarter.
- Of the almost 200 companies that have gone public through SPAC deals this year, about three-quarters have share prices below the SPAC’s listing price, according to SPAC Research. Nearly 40 companies have lost more than 50% of their value.
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New Chinese regulations will require companies operating in industries banned from foreign investment to seek a waiver from a negative list before proceeding with share sales in foreign offerings. Given that tech companies are almost without exception banned from taking foreign investment, the new rules will hamper their fundraising efforts. Still, the regulators did not flat out ban VIEs (Variable Interest Entities), which are frequently used by tech companies to access foreign capital on public markets. More - Overseas investors in such companies will be forbidden from participating in management, with their total ownership to be capped at 30%, with a single investor holding no more than 10%.
- The China Securities Regulatory Commission further proposed that all Chinese companies seeking IPOs and share sales abroad should be required to register with the securities regulator.
- The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index dropped 1.1% overnight following the announcements. The Hang Seng Tech Index slipped as much as 1.6% in Hong Kong trading Tuesday, dragged down by losses in Tencent and Meituan.
- The move is the latest regulatory reaction to Beijing’s ire over Didi’s NYSE listing, which set off a maelstrom affecting the country’s largest tech companies.
- Didi itself has reportedly restricted its employees from selling their stock in the company, which has lost 60% or about $38B of its value since its listing in New York.
- When the lockup period, which was set to expire this week, will end is unknown. The ride-hailing giant has proposed delisting from the NYSE.
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MetaMap, the operator of a digital trust and reputation management platform, raised a $70M Series B, bringing its funding to date to $84M. Formerly known as Mati, MetaMap will also move its flagship tech hub to India and boost its staffing to 150 from 30. More: - The funding round was led by Tribe Capital, with participation from Craft Ventures, Alameda Research, Titan Capital, and angel investors including Jerry Murdock.
- MetaMap offers products across three buckets: compliance merits, financial merits, and work merits.
- Its client base contains 370 companies, including Binance, Mercado Bitcoin, and Allianz.
- It currently focuses on companies in Latin America and will begin targeting Indian companies in 2022. It has already announced several partnerships.
Some Context: - Incode Technologies recently raised a $220M Series B led by General Atlantic and SoftBank’s Latin America-focused fund. The company operates an ID verification platform used by American Express and Citigroup and was valued at $1.25B.
- General Atlantic’s Martín Escobari estimated the biometrics and authentication market to be a $12B opportunity in the U.S. and Latin America.
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New Delhi-headquartered GlobalBees raised around $110M at a $1.1B valuation to become India’s latest unicorn. The round was led by Premji Invest, with participation from Steadview Capital and existing investors Lightspeed, SoftBank, and FirstCry. More: - GlobalBees operates a Thrasio-like platform, acquiring and partnering with digitally native brands within categories such as beauty, personal care, food and nutrition, and sports and lifestyle.
- Its revenue rate is about $1M to $20M. It is currently in talks to acquire another 15 brands to add to its portfolio.
- It previously raised one of India’s biggest Series A rounds this year, pulling in $75M in fresh equity from FirstCry, Lightspeed, and others. It also secured $75M in debt funding.
Zoom out: - With 800 brands, India is well on its way to becoming a fast-growing market for direct-to-consumer brands.
- That high-octane growth is what helped GlobalBees achieve unicorn status so quickly (it was founded this year), bringing the country’s total this year to 41 freshly minted unicorns.
- GlobalBees’ model Thrasio required two years to enter the unicorn echelon.
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True Global Ventures 4 Plus (TGV4 Plus), an investor in late-stage equity Web3 blockchain companies, has raised $25M to pursue its global strategy. The firm has a distributed presence in 20 cities, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Moscow, Stockholm, Paris, Madrid, Warsaw, New York, San Francisco, and Vancouver. More: - The firm took early stakes in both Animoca Brands, which produced blockchain-based games and spent five years listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and The Sandbox, a blockchain-based 3D open-world game.
- Additionally, it invested in Forza Ikonia in November, in addition to Pinktada and PictureThis just this month.
- The fund’s goal is to expand its portfolio to a total of 13 companies.
- TGV4 Plus focuses on three verticals in the Web3 ecosystem: infrastructure, blockchain-based financial services, and entertainment like play-to-earn games, GameFi, metaverses, and NFTs.
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- Online pharmacy for generic medicines DiRx raised an additional $4.25M Series A to expand its previously announced $5.75M round to a total of $10M. The round saw new and returning participants.
- Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends, will pay $100M to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit. The payment will be divided between the ~2,300 women who claimed that the company systematically paid them less than their male colleagues.
- Activist investor Starboard took a 6.5% stake, valued at $800M, in GoDaddy, a web domain hosting platform. The hedge fund’s plans are not yet known. GoDaddy is valued at $12.7B.
- Feeling a little overwhelmed by the past year’s IPO bonanza? Check out Crunchbase’s chronological list of the year’s tech debuts.
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 |  | Inside VC's writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master's degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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