Bain Capital's venture capital division, Bain Capital Ventures, received capital commitments worth $1.9B for its two new funds. The funds will invest in fintech, infrastructure, application software, and commerce technology startups. More: - $1.4B of the capital is earmarked for seed to growth-stage investments, with the remaining $493M for late-stage opportunities.
- The funds are the firm's largest venture funds to date, surpassing the previous $1.3B funds launched in 2021 to invest in early-stage startups.
- The latest funds will invest in conjunction with the $500M crypto fund announced in April 2022.
- With the close of the latest funds, the firm now has over $12B in AUM.
- The firm invested between $20M and $30M from its previous funds into emerging seed-stage funds.
- BCV also announced Noah Breslow, the former CEO of OnDeck, as a partner.
- Breslow will work alongside Leslie Crowe and Allison Braley.
Zoom out: - In mid-February, Bain Capital closed a $2.4B Tech Opportunities fund for mid-market buyouts.
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Industry Ventures is raising a new fund, dubbed Secondary X fund, in a bid to capitalize on VCs that are liquidating their stakes in portfolio startups at heavy discounts in the secondary market amidst the ongoing venture funding slump. Venture capitalists are reportedly liquidating their stakes at steep discounts, as high as 50%, as exit opportunities dry up, per Industry Ventures' pitch deck seen by Financial Review. The situation is dire for venture funds that are nearing the end of their lifecycle and have to resort to such measures to rebalance their portfolio and return capital to LPs. More: - Industry Ventures intends to write individual checks between $5M and $75M in late-stage startups that are three to five years from a potential exit event and are reporting $20M to $200M in revenues along with a 30% to 40% growth.
- The VC firm expects to pick up stakes at a discount of 10% to 50%.
- Per its calculations, VCs liquidated their stakes at 68% of net asset values (NAV) in 2022, representing a 32% discount from the 88% NAV figures from 2021.
- It expects the values to drop further to 60% NAV in 2023.
- Industry Ventures had previously picked up stakes in Facebook, Twitter, and Airbnb at heavy discounts over its two-decade-long existence.
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The Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) published new rules that will be in effect starting May 1 in a bid to weed out "fake private funds." The new rules increased the minimum paid-in capital threshold for private equity and hedge funds to 10M yuan ($1.4M), five times higher than the present threshold. The minimum threshold limit increase is estimated to impact almost half of the PE and VC firms, per Redbud Capital. More: - Established domestic firms and foreign investors are set to benefit from the new rules as they will reduce market competition.
- Per the revised rules, senior management and legal representatives are required to own a minimum 20% stake in the business.
- In addition, the new rules prohibit controlling shareholders from transferring their ownership for a period of three years.
Zoom out: - Assets under management (AUM) for private funds reached 20T yuan ($2.8T), up eightfold since 2015.
- AMAC data shows that there are 23,667 entities with less than 10M yuan managed capital, representing 27% of the market.
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Sequoia Capital India and SEA's managing director Shailendra Singh remained confident over VC prospects in India, adding that "In the long term, we are all underestimating the market." Sequoia, which raised $2.85B worth of funds in July, said that the capital allocation strategy has changed slightly, with the firm now focused more on seed-stage investments. Late-stage investments have taken a hit, with the firm making limited investments while taking up more concentrated positions. More: - When asked about governance breaches in portfolio firms, Singh said that individual VCs are unable to push governance efforts in portfolio businesses unless all investors act in harmony and urge the founders to make the required adjustments.
- He added that the firm intends to address the governance issue with the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and other VCs in the region to build pragmatic governance processes.
- Singh said, "If you are pre-IPO, $50M plus revenue, you should have more independent people, internal and external auditors."
Zoom out: - Sequoia received flak recently after reports of suspected financial irregularities emerged at a few of its portfolio startups, namely BharatPe, Zilingo, Trell, and GoMechanic.
- Indian car servicing platform GoMechanic was one of the recent startups embroiled in the controversy.
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Czech VC firm Orbit Capital hired Wiktor Namysl as a general partner. The move comes as the firm pivots its strategy to back tech growth startups across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The firm recently held the first close of its latest fund at €42M ($44.4M) against a target of €200M ($211.6M). More: - Namysl was formerly the managing partner of McKinsey in Poland.
- Namysl has backed startups DocPlanner, Booksy, Omnipack, and other startups as an angel investor.
- He joins Radovan Nesrsta, Orbit's general partner.
- The latest fund aims to back 12-14 startups across the region.
- Individual ticket sizes will range from €6M ($6.3M) to €15M ($15.8M).
- Orbit's portfolio companies include edtech firm Preply, hotel management platform Mews, booking platform Booksy, and grocery delivery startup Rohlik.
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Biotech firm Paratus Sciences emerged from stealth with a $100M Series A funding round. The firm intends to develop a drug discovery platform to solve inflammation, viral infection, and other illnesses by studying the biology of bats. More: - Paratus is led by CEO Amir Nashat, who previously led projects at Dewpoint Therapeutics and Kojin Therapeutics.
- In order to overcome the negative perception of conducting research on bats and tampering with their biology, the company remained in stealth over the last year.
- Given the current challenging climate for biotech companies, the business is open to partnerships in the future.
- Polaris Partners, Arch Venture Partners, ClavystBio, EcoR1 Capital, and Leaps by Bayer co-led the current financing, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments.
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- Chinese pharmaceutical firm Oricell Therapeutics raised $45M in a Series B1 funding round led by RTW Investments and Qatar Investment Authority. The round is an add-on to the $125M Series B round from last July.
- South African car subscription service provider Planet42 secured $75M in debt financing from Rivonia Road Capital, adding to the firm's recent equity fundraising.
- ESG technology platform Novata secured $30M in Series B funding led by Hamilton Lane, with participation from the Ford Foundation and S&P Global.
- Remote working and workplace flexibility provider Gable secured $12M in Series A funding co-led by SemperVirens and Foundation Capital.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | 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 and 1972 Fords. | |
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