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In today's Daily Pitch, you'll find: - A Silicon Valley VC firm with strong ties to Russia discusses the risks of further sanctions and their potential impact on capital calls.
- Our 2021 Global League Tables, ranking the top investors, advisers and more across PE and VC.
- Private market dealmaking in the Nordic countries has soared to new heights.
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| California VC firm backed by Russia navigates a global crisis | |  | Fort Ross Ventures is named after a Northern California outpost set up by Russian explorers in the 19th century.
(Buyenlarge/Getty Images) | | | Fort Ross Ventures was launched in Silicon Valley more than seven years ago with the backing of the now-sanctioned Sberbank, Russia's oldest and largest financial institution.
As Russia faces growing worldwide condemnation of its assault on Ukraine, Fort Ross has to confront the possibility, no matter how low, that the firm's other Russia-based LPs, who are primarily tech entrepreneurs, could end up being sanctioned as well.
"Obviously we are not the only fund with Russian LPs. I don't want to name them, but I do know that many top-tier, very well branded VCs in the valley and also in Europe have Russian money," said Victor Orlovski, a general partner with Fort Ross. | | | | | | | | | | Ranking the most active investors of 2021 | | Last year was marked by a blistering pace of investment, with PE and VC firms breaking records across the board. The most active PE firm in the world closed 249 deals last year, and the busiest VC firm notched 364.
Curious who else led the way? PitchBook's interactive Global League Tables are now available for 2021, spanning the full spectrum of activity in the private financial markets. The tables rank everything from the most active law firms in the venture space to the busiest PE investors by region. | | | | | | | | | | VCs take aim at semiconductor innovation | |  | | (Weiquan Lin/Getty Images) | | | Semiconductor startups had a robust 2021 as investors increased expectations for chipmakers to fuel higher efficiency and greater utility in AI processing.
While VC-backed startups are unlikely to overtake the likes of Nvidia and Intel, this push could help them step up the development of competitive chip architectures needed for specific use cases in 2022. | | | | | | | | | | Nordic private market dealmaking soars to new heights | | The Nordic region saw record levels of both private equity and venture capital investment last year. PE activity rebounded from its previous slump with an unprecedented number of deals driving it to new heights. On the VC side, outsized rounds and a boom in late-stage financing produced stellar results.
Our 2022 Nordic Private Capital Breakdown explores the VC and PE markets in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland in 2021, showcasing major trends and key sectors. Highlights include: - The Nordic PE market recorded 1,064 deals worth an aggregate €108.3 billion—year-over-year increases of 101.1% and 175.2%, respectively.
- Growth equity dealmaking skyrocketed as the steep proliferation of unicorns significantly increased the number of investable targets.
- Late-stage deal value accounted for 81.8% of the region's overall VC total with its most-valuable startups completing some of Europe's biggest rounds.
- Nordic PE exit activity dwarfed its previous record in 2017, but VC exits failed to beat record values.
| | | | | | | | | | As major US cities recover from the pandemic, San Francisco is getting left behind. [Bloomberg]
Just as with diseases like malaria and HIV, rich countries are rushing to declare the pandemic "over" while the Global South continues to struggle. [The Atlantic]
As public pension funds try to divest from Russia, stock market closures and the illiquidity of certain private assets are making it more than difficult. [Institutional Investor] | | | | | |
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| | Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: | | 15 Deals | 91 People | 66 Companies | | | | | | |
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| 2018 Vintage Global Debt Funds | | | | | | |
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| Atomic picks up $40M Series B | | | Atomic has raised $40 million in a round co-led by Mercato Partners and Greylock Partners. Based in Salt Lake City, the company is a developer of a digital financial platform designed to manage online payroll transactions. | | | | | | | | Espresso Systems locks in $32M | | | Espresso Systems has raised $32 million in a round led by Greylock Partners and Electric Capital. The company is developing scaling and privacy solutions for Web3 applications. | | | | | | | | | AssemblyAI has raised a $28 million Series A led by Accel. Based in the Bay Area, the company is a developer of speech recognition software designed to automate audio transcriptions. | | | | | | | | | Disco has raised a $20 million Series A led by Felicis Ventures. Based in the Bay Area, the company is a developer of digital tools intended to help brands manage partnerships, marketing and merchandising operations. | | | | | |
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| Hellman & Friedman stakes Splunk | | | Hellman & Friedman has acquired a 7.5% stake in San Francisco-based software provider Splunk. The minority stake is worth about $1.4 billion, according to reports. | | | | | | | | KKR presses pause on GfK sale | | | KKR has halted its plans to sell German consumer research group GfK after failing to get enough interest from buyers, Unquote reported. Strategic buyers including Kantar, NielsenIQ and NPD Group are said to have withdrawn interest. KKR could now look at a possible initial public offering for the company. | | | | | | | | Accel-KKR backs UK ticketing platform | | | Accel-KKR has invested in Masabi, a UK company that offers a ticketing platform used by public transit agencies. Existing investors Shell and Smedvig Capital also participated in the round. | | | | | |
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| Don't miss our Insurtech Update and Outlook webinar | | Join PitchBook for a webinar on March 9 covering our recent 2021 Annual Insurtech Report. PitchBook senior analyst Robert Le will discuss the report's findings, notable market activity and insurtech industry outlooks, including: - The current backdrop of struggling public insurtech companies and possible impacts on the private markets.
- Insurtech companies gaining the most traction and emergent areas of interest to investors.
- Current industry trends and market outlook.
Register now to secure your spot | | | | | | | |
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| Blue Owl plans London IPO for Dyal | | | | | | |
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| Alumni Ventures repays $4.7M to settle SEC charges | | | Alumni Ventures has agreed to repay $4.7 million to affected funds and pay a $700,000 penalty to the SEC to settle charges that the VC firm made misleading statements about its management fees and engaged in interfund transactions that breach fund operating agreements. | | | | | | | | Apollo eligible for S&P 500 | | | Apollo Global Management could soon be listed in the S&P 500 index following the completion of its acquisition of insurer Athene in January. By replacing the firm's multi-class voting share structure with a single class, the merger eliminated the barrier to Apollo's inclusion in the US stock market benchmark. | | | | | |
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"The median PE buyout EV/EBITDA multiple came in at 12.6x in 2021, dropping nearly three turns from 2020. We expect multiples to remain in the low- to mid-double-digit territory, largely buoyed by strong European equity prices."
Source: PitchBook's 2021 Annual European PE Breakdown | | | | | |
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