| | In today's Daily Pitch, you'll find: - An analysis of where the top VCs focused their technology investments in the second quarter of 2021.
- After years of speculation, TPG has begun its journey toward the public markets.
- Eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker is looking to go public via a direct listing on the NYSE.
| | | | | | | | | | Fintech garners the most attention from top VCs in Q2 | | Our Emerging Tech Indicator report provides a quarterly overview of startups receiving seed and early-stage investments from a select group of top-performing VC firms, and is meant to offer perspective on the products and technologies driving growth opportunities.
In the second quarter of 2021, our analysts tracked 211 such deals involving the top 15 VC firms. Key takeaways from the report include: - The top five areas of technology investment in Q2 included fintech at $920 million, followed by enterprise SaaS, health and wellness tech, decentralized finance, and ecommerce.
- ETI deal activity reached $5 billion across the 211 deals, compared with the $6 billion raised across 197 deals in Q1.
- Our analysts recorded eight ETI deals of over $100 million in Q2, compared with 12 in the previous quarter. The largest deal in Q2 was a $185 million Series A for Forte, the developer of a blockchain-based economic platform.
| | | | | | | | | | TPG planning $10B IPO amid PE stock gains | | After years of speculation, TPG will finally join the small group of private equity giants on the public markets. The firm has brought on JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to underwrite its upcoming IPO, The Wall Street Journal reported, with a previous report indicating the move could value the storied investor at around $10 billion. It's believed that the firm could begin trading by the end of 2021. - TPG has fended off IPO rumors since at least 2018, opting to stay private while its rivals tested the public markets. The firm has made some management moves this year, with Goldman alum Jon Winkelried becoming sole CEO in May and co-founder Jim Coulter becoming managing partner of Rise Climate, an impact investing vehicle that held a first close of $5.4 billion in July. Winkelried was previously co-CEO alongside Coulter.
- TPG's decision comes as public PE shops Blackstone, KKR, The Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management have seen their shares surge over the past year, buoyed by increased fee-related earnings and strong investment returns in a thriving US market. The firms also benefited after changing their tax structures from publicly traded partnerships to C-Corps, making their shares more widely available on public indices.
- News of TPG's listing comes after UK-based Bridgepoint went public in July on the London Stock Exchange at a valuation of £2.9 billion (about $4 billion). Blue Owl Capital, a publicly traded investor that specializes in GP stakes deals and investments in pro sports teams, also made its debut earlier this year when Owl Rock Capital and Dyal Capital Partners merged with a blank-check company.
Related read: Is private equity less of an 'alternative' when it goes public? | | | | | | | | | | A message from SS&C Intralinks | | | | Why the secondary market is becoming the first priority for PE fund managers | | Under the pressure of burgeoning competition and a need for increased portfolio diversification, private equity firms are now reaching across other alternative strategies. The second half of 2020 saw a dramatic upswing in secondaries dealmaking, and secondaries fundraising in this period reached a mammoth $85.8 billion raised across 38 funds.
Download our new report, 2021 Alternative Investments & Secondaries Market Brief, which analyzes new PitchBook data for trends and insights on how the secondaries market is evolving and maturing. We examine: - Private fundraising vs. secondaries fundraising, by type and region
- Secondaries capital overhang
- Volume and scale growth in secondaries
- Growth prospects for alternatives and secondaries
Be the first to get secondaries insights. Download this report today. | | | | | | | | | | Warby Parker to go public via direct listing | |  | | (Anna Efetova/Getty Images) | | | Warby Parker is going public via a direct listing on the NYSE, the eyeglasses retailer said. In June, the New York-based company confidentially disclosed its intention to publicly list its stock. - Warby Parker, founded in 2010, has previously raised $536 million, and was last valued at $3 billion after a private round in 2020, according to PitchBook data.
- The company said in its prospectus that it's unprofitable but revenue is growing. Warby Parker lost $55.9 million in 2020 versus a break-even year in 2019. Revenue rose to $393.7 million in 2020 from $370.5 million in 2019.
- The company listed its top institutional shareholders as Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, General Catalyst, D1 Capital Partners and Durable Capital, but the size of their ownership stakes wasn't disclosed.
| | | | | | | | | | Betting the farm on sustainable agtech | |  | | (SimonSkafar/Getty Images) | | | The agricultural industry is at the heart of a global sustainability push to find a way to feed billions of people while confronting climate change.
Our recent analyst note—the second in a series on ecological food supply systems—explores environmental threats to agriculture and the technology that has been developed to face them. Examples include: - To improve soil health, startups are developing lightweight machinery and analytics that promise more precise and automated farm work.
- Water reclamation systems and microbial treatments are being deployed to curb the impact of synthetic fertilizer, a major pollutant.
- Drought and water scarcity have helped drive investment in irrigation tools and indoor-farming startups.
| | | | | | | | | | Why a generation of female entrepreneurs can't escape the infamous legacy of Elizabeth Holmes. [The New York Times]
During the pandemic, executives were forced to turn to video conferencing for their IPO roadshows. Now they don't want to go back. [Financial Times]
Even with billions of dollars in funding behind them, farmtech startups are still susceptible to bumps in the road. [The Wall Street Journal] | | | | | | | | | | | Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: | | 454 Deals | 1710 People | 470 Companies | 24 Funds | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2012 Vintage Global Venture Funds with more than $250M | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ramp snags $3.9B valuation in latest round | | | Ramp, the developer of a corporate credit card and spend management platform, has raised a $300 million Series C at a reported valuation of $3.9 billion. The round was led by Founders Fund, with participation from a long list of other investors including Redpoint Ventures, Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital. The investment comes less than five months after the New York-based company closed a $115 million Series B at a valuation of $1.6 billion. | | | | | | | | Grafana Labs hits $3B valuation | | | Data analytics startup Grafana Labs has raised $220 million at a $3 billion valuation. Sequoia and Coatue co-led the Series C round, with participation from Lightspeed, Lead Edge Capital and GIC. Grafana's open-source platform for data observability and visualization is used by customers including Bloomberg and PayPal. The company was valued at $325 million last year, according to PitchBook data. | | | | | | | | Brazil's Cora banks $116M | | | Cora, a Brazil-based lender for small and medium-sized businesses, has raised a $116 million Series B led by Greenoaks Capital and joined by others including Tiger Global, Tencent and Kaszek. It has been less than six months since Ribbit Capital led the fintech startup's $26.7 million Series A. Cora intends to use its new funds for product development and to build out a credit offering. | | | | | | | | Khatabook nabs $100M Series C | | | Khatabook has raised $100 million at a nearly $600 million valuation in a round co-led by Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures. The Bengaluru-based company is the developer of a fintech platform designed to help small and medium-sized businesses digitize bookkeeping and expense management operations. | | | | | | | | Upstream Security picks up $62M | | | Israel-based Upstream Security has raised a $62 million Series C led by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance. The company is the developer of a cybersecurity and data analytics platform intended to protect connected vehicles and smart mobility services. | | | | | | | | Urbint secures $60M Series C | | | Urbint has raised $60 million in a round led by Energize Ventures. The New York-based company is the developer of an AI-based risk assessment platform that predicts threats to critical infrastructure and ensures worker safety. Urbint was valued at $100 million in June 2020, according to PitchBook data. | | | | | | | | | Sora has raised $14 million in a round led by Two Sigma Ventures. Founded in 2018, the San Francisco-based company is a developer of HR automation software that helps companies perform repetitive HR processes, sync employee data, promote worker engagement and more. | | | | | | | | | | | | Blackstone closing in on $1B takeover of Interplex | | | | | | | | | TA set to back asset management software company | | | TA Associates has agreed to make a growth investment in PDQ, a provider of IT asset management software for small and medium-sized businesses. Founded in 2001 and based near Salt Lake City, PDQ has more than 18,000 customers across the education, tech, manufacturing and government sectors. | | | | | | | | Mainsail partners with Centerbase | | | Mainsail Partners has made a growth equity investment in Centerbase, a Dallas-based provider of legal billing and practice management software for mid-size law firms. Mainsail co-founder Gavin Turner, partner Taylor McKinley and principal Jason Frankel will join Centerbase's board of directors. Operating out of San Francisco and Austin, Mainsail typically targets B2B software companies in the US and Canada. | | | | | | | | Audax acquires provider of vehicle protection products | | | Audax Group has purchased Covercraft Industries, a Pauls Valley, Okla.-based manufacturer of custom vehicle protection products, from Century Park Capital Partners. Covercraft produces automotive covers, seat covers, front end masks, dashboard covers, window sunscreens and other products. Century Park acquired a majority stake in the company in 2015. | | | | | | | | | | Waymo rolls out pilot service in San Francisco | | | Self-driving car company Waymo has launched a robotaxi pilot program in San Francisco. The service will initially be available by invitation only, operate in limited parts of the city and be offered free of charge. Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has raised $5.5 billion in private outside capital from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Silver Lake. | | | | | | | | | | | | Summit's Aka Brands registers for IPO | | | Aka Brands, which offers a direct-to-consumer fashion platform, has filed with the SEC to go public. Launched by Summit Partners in 2018, the San Francisco-based company has grown to include fashion brands such as Princess Polly, Petal & Pup and Rebdolls. | | | | | | | | ForgeRock files for public debut on NYSE | | | ForgeRock, a provider of digital identity and access management solutions, has filed for an IPO on the NYSE. The San Francisco-based company, which is backed by investors including Riverwood Capital, KKR and Accel, reported a $20 million net loss on $85 million in revenue for the first half of 2021. ForgeRock has raised over $230 million in private capital and was valued at $767.5 million in April 2020, according to PitchBook data. | | | | | | | | | | Apollo eyes $500M for SPAC deals | | | | | | | | | | " ... [S]eed-stage investments have reached a median pre-money valuation of $8.0 million, further reinforcing the statistic that seed-stage valuations have not seen a YoY decline since 2009. As with other stages, valuation statistics at the seed stage are heavily influenced by major tech hubs such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, where a majority of the seed-stage deal activity occurs."
Source: PitchBook's Q2 2021 US VC Valuations Report | | | | | | | | | | | | | Who's in the newsletter today? | | People | | | | Investors | | | | Companies | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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