 Venture-backed exits for U.S. companies hit a total value of $774B in 2021, a 168% YoY increase. The total estimated count provided by PitchBook came to 1,875 deals over twelve months, with the last two quarters bringing an estimated 500 deals each. More: - The latest figures indicate a breakout from long-term trends. Between 2018 and 2019, the exit value was up 103.6%, while the exit count was only up 3.4%.
- Public listings in Q4 alone brought in $180B in total value over 72 listings.
- Continuing a reversal that began in 2017, over 40% of VC-backed listings came after companies had raised a Series D round or higher. A strong majority of listings chrome from Series C+ companies.
- Almost 90% of the total reported deal value came from public listings. The value of acquisitions as a percentage, which came in at 80% in 2016, has been falling precipitously for years.
- Though they still make up a small percentage of the total exit count, the largest deals have been increasing in frequency over time. The largest segment for deals comes from those priced between $100M and $500M.
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London-based instant delivery startup Zapp has raised $200M co-led by Lightspeed, 468 Capital, and BroadLigh Capital. Other participants included Atomico, Burda Vorwerk Ventures, and Sir Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One champion. The company has raised $300M to date. More: - Zapp did not disclose its valuation, nor did it offer insights into how many customers/orders it has processed to date.
- The U.K. convenience grocery market was estimated at $57.8B (£43B) in 2021 alone. Zapp currently competes with Getir, GoPuff, Jiffy, Deliveroo, and others for a slice of that pie.
- The company is active in London, Manchester, Cambridge, Bristol, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. It is also running a soft launch in Paris.
- A previous article by PitchBook reporting the round claimed that rival Gorillas, hailing from Berlin, was an investor. Zapp denied that claim but did not comment on reports that a Singaporean state fund was involved.
- That Gorillas could have been involved in the round despite its status as competition seemed plausible: Instant delivery companies have a habit of investing in one another. Delivery Hero is a large stakeholder in Gorillas itself.
- In terms of the magnitude of other instant-delivery funding rounds, Zapp’s $200M is actually on the small side. German competitor Flink raised $750M last year, while Gorilla’s pulled in $1B.
- Compared to other companies that offer less variety of certain products, Zapp offers consumers multiple brands of things like tequila and ice cream. It can accommodate consumer habits of ordering larger baskets of goods less frequently.
- Competitors need their customers to order frequently, and relatively little.
- Zapp claims that around 66% of its orders are profitable.
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The FCC has announced $1.2B in funding for companies providing broadband access in rural areas. The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is active across 32 states and 23 companies. More: - The Commission’s previous waves of funding for such companies totaled $9.2B and saw SpaceX receive an $886M subsidy to deploy its satellite internet network in rural areas.
- The funds were distributed in Dec. 2020.
- SpaceX and other recipients were subsequently warned to stop using the funds to provide service for well-connected areas.
- In addition to the Opportunity Fund, The FCC announced the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan, which will double the number of audits and verifications performed this year compared to 2021. The results will be made public.
- The latest round of funding is the biggest to date and is intended to bring broadband to 1 million new areas.
Context: - Frequently ignored by watchers of startups, telecoms startups are starting to get attention from VCs. Check out this list of seven telecom unicorns.
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Best of Last Week M&A - Switzerland-based bank UBS will buy U.S.-based robo-adviser Wealthfront for $1.4B in an all-cash deal.
- Savvy Gaming Group, a Saudi-backed studio, bought two tournament/league operators, ESL and FACEIT, for a total of $1.5B.
- The crypto VC firm Pluto Digital will go public through a reverse takeover of the NFT project incubator NFT Investments in a $130M deal.
- Online car-buying marketplace Cazoo has acquired brumbum.
- German instant delivery startup Gorillas acquired Frichti, a French startup that delivers both ready-to-eat meals and groceries, for an undisclosed sum. Frichti had raised $114M to date.
- AccuWeather acquired France’s Plume Labs, an air pollution data platform, for an undisclosed sum.
- Atlassian acquired AI company Percept.AI for an undisclosed sum.
IPO - WeTransfer, the European cross-border transfer platform, canceled its Amsterdam IPO, citing volatile markets.
- High-speed connectivity provider Credo priced its shares bottom-range during 2022’s first big IPO. The company raised $200M in the downsized offering and was valued at $1.4B.
- Knightscope, provider of advanced physical security technologies, raised $22M during its IPO. The company now trades on the Nasdaq.
- Saudi Arabia-based Elm, a digital security firm, is seeking to raise up to $820M in an IPO. The company is owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which has gone deeper into public markets this year by investing about $10B more into listed stocks.
SPAC - The digital asset trading platform Apifiny Group will go public through a $530M merger with Abri SPAC I.
New Funds - One of the largest and most prolific venture capital firms in all of Asia, Matrix Partners China, is looking to raise at least $1.5B for its largest fund ever.
- Accel-KKR is expected to close its latest $1.25B growth capital fund next month, according to sources. The fund initially targeted $850M.
- Infravia Capital Partners, a French PE outfit, closed on $565.8M (€501M) for its latest growth equity fund. The fund will target European B2B tech scale-ups.
- Cherry Ventures closed a new fund at $340M (€300M) to invest €1M to €3M in pre-seed and seed-stage rounds for European founders. The Berlin-based firm has a sector-agnostic strategy.
- Viola Ventures closed its sixth fund to invest in early-stage companies with $250M. The firm now has $1.25B in AUM.
- Deloitte, the world’s largest consulting agency, has raised a $150M venture fund to back early-stage Canadian companies. Companies must have at least $1M in ARR to qualify for the firm’s investments, which will come in between $2M and $10M.
- South Korean internet giant Naver Group is launching a $100M fund for metaverse creators through its Naver Z subsidiary.
- Singapore-based Blockchain Founders Fund launched a second fund with $75M in commitments from NEO Global Capital, Appworks, Baksh Capital, Octava, and others.
- Portuguese VC firm Indico Venture Partners raised a $55.7M (€50M) fund to invest in startups tackling problems with the oceans, known as Blue Technology.
- Decasonic, a Web3-focused investing outfit hailing from Chicago, closed its maiden fund at $48.8M.
- Berlin-based Inflection raised a new $40M crypto-focused fund.
- Strong investor demand has led crypto hedge fund Ikigai Asset Management to launch its first venture capital fund at $40M.
- This Week in Fintech, the popular fintech newsletter run by Nik Milanovic, the head of business development and strategy for Google Pay, is launching a venture fund. The fund is about halfway to its $10M goal.
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 Today's Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - Ractigen Therapeutics (Nantong, China), RNAa tech: $30M A led by Entrée Capital, participation from Flint Capital, Homeward Ventures, Almeda Ventures, Operator Partners, et al.
- Sensi.ai (Tel Aviv, Israel), AI-powered virtual care management platform: $14M A led by Entrée Capital, participation from Flint Capital, Homeward Ventures, Almeda Ventures, Operator Partners, et al.
Consumer - The Vets (New York, N.Y.), tech-enabled pet care platform: $40M Seed from Target Global, PICO Venture Partners, Bolt Ventures.
- Brimore (Egypt), social e-commerce platform: $25M led by International Finance Corporation, Endure Capital, participation from Fawry, Flourish, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, et al.
Data/Analytics - Canvas (San Francisco, Calif.), spreadsheet-based workspace that lets business teams make independent decisions without SQL training: $4.2M led by Sequoia, participation from Abstract Ventures, SV Angel, et al.
DevOps - Deazy (Bristol, U.K.), developer marketplace platform: $6.7M A from Puma Private Equity.
Enterprise - Vyapar (Bengaluru, India), accounting software for both mobile and desktop: $30M B led by WestBridge Capital, participation from IndiaMart, India Quotient, Fortytwo.vc.
- Dashworks (San Francisco, Calif.), internal search engine for companies: $4M led by Point72 Ventures, participation from South Park Commons, Combine Fund, Garuda Ventures, GOAT Capital, Unpopular Ventures, Starling Ventures.
Fintech - Pennylane (France), legacy accounting replacement platform connecting with third-party services: $57M B from Sequoia Capital, Global Founders Capital, Partech.
Greentech - Naava (Helsinki, Finland), green walls with living plants that produce outdoor air for indoor environments: $7.8M led by Nidoco AB, participation from Mika Ihamuotila, Tesi, Mikael Hed, Benoit Wiesser, Teemu Päivinen, Antero Vartia, Butterfly Ventures, et al.
Industrial - Vanti Analytics (Tel Aviv, Israel), AI-based defect detection platform for manufacturers: $16M A led by Insight Partners, participation from True Ventures, MoreVC.
Insurtech - OneShield (Marlborough, Mass.), software for property and casualty insurance companies: $50M led by Pacific Lake Partners, participation from Bain Capital Credit, Maven Equity Partners, et al.
Did you enjoy reading about all of today's funding in one place? The funding roundup is only available to free users on Mondays and Fridays. Upgrade to Inside VC Premium for either $10/month, or $100 billed annually, to receive the full list in every issue! For a limited time, we are offering a 14-day free trial. Click here to sign up! | | | |
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- TLcom Capital, an Africa-focused VC firm, is looking to raise a second fund at $150M to continue its early- and late-stage investing strategy.
- Without even accounting for marketing and other overhead, instant-delivery startups in NYC are hemorrhaging money. The Wall Street Journal reported that VCs pumped $5.5B into the six instant-delivery players in the city, with over 90% deployed last year.
- South Korean proptech startup Zigbang will acquire Samsung's home IoT unit at an estimated $85B.
- Bolt, the Estonian company providing ride-hailing and delivery services, wants to expand its workforce in Africa by 200,000 drivers. It recently raised $709M and is active in 45 countries.
- While funding numbers continue to soar, many VCs are becoming increasingly concerned about the state of public markets. Some have begun to report renegotiated late-stage rounds, and others are beginning to predict a wave of down rounds.
- We all know stocks are a great way to grow your money. But they're not the only way. That's why we've been reading the Alts newsletter.*
*This is a sponsored post.
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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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