Women's leadership startup Chief becomes a unicorn

G Square closes $550M+ continuation fund; SoftBank to slow investments; LayerZero Labs lands $135M; Black Crow AI raises $25M
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The Daily Pitch: VC, PE and M&A
April 1, 2022
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In today's Daily Pitch, you'll find:
  • Chief, a private network that supports and connects women executives, has reached a unicorn valuation with its latest funding round.

  • London-based G Square Healthcare Private Equity has collected more than $550 million for a continuation fund that will extend its hold on three portfolio companies.

  • Our 2021 Annual Fintech Report explores emerging opportunities in market segments ranging from consumer finance to digital assets and alternative lending.
Today's Top Stories
Chief, a network for women executives, hits unicorn status
(Ponomariova_Maria/Getty Images)
Chief, a private network that supports and connects women executives, has raised a $100 million Series B at a valuation of $1.1 billion.

For Chief co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan, the idea for the company came from a personal place.

"We were getting more senior in our careers and spending all of our time managing our teams, but no longer really had a community for ourselves. They say that it's lonely at the top, but it gets lonely at the top a lot earlier for women," Childers told PitchBook.
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VCs pump cash into fintech startups at record pace
The fintech industry continued its unrelenting pace of growth in 2021 by raising $121.6 billion, a 153% year-over-year increase in terms of global VC deal value.

On the exit front, fintech startups generated nearly $332 billion, driven primarily by public listings of companies including Coinbase, Nubank, Robinhood, Wise and Affirm.

Our 2021 Annual Fintech Report digs into major trends that shaped the industry globally, comprehensively assessing emerging opportunities across market segments such as alternative lending, consumer finance, capital markets and digital assets.
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Partner Perspectives
Fueling health care innovation
Private equity is playing an increasingly important role in life sciences. Over the past decade, PE firms have sponsored almost 1,000 companies in the life sciences ecosystem—including contract research organizations, staffing providers and drug ingredient manufacturers.

Today, however, PE firms are starting to finance the drugs themselves. In 2021, Bain Capital and NovaQuest Capital Management injected $125 million into Cerevel Therapeutics to help finance the entire Phase 3 trials of its promising therapy for Parkinson's disease.

In conjunction with PitchBook, the American Investment Council has released Improving Medical Technologies: Private equity's role in life sciences. PE's role as an innovative capital provider is much more extensive than many realize.

To download the report and learn more, click here.
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G Square closes $553M continuation fund to ride secondaries growth
(Alexandr Kolesnikov/Getty Images)
London-based G Square Healthcare Private Equity has collected €500 million (about $553 million) for a continuation fund to extend its hold on three portfolio companies.

The new fund, backed by Eurazeo, Schroders and other investors, will allow G Square to complete a wind-down of G Square Capital I, a 2011 vintage fund, and provide liquidity to investors in G Square Capital II, a €350 million vehicle that closed in 2017.

Continuation funds have grown in popularity during recent years as PE firms seek innovative ways to hold their investments for longer.
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Robots, Russia, SXSW and more: Our top 8 articles of March
Fort Ross Ventures, featured in our first article below, is named after a California outpost set up by Russian explorers in the 1800s.
(Buyenlarge/Getty Images)
From recent exclusives to our best data visualizations and analyses, here are some of our best articles of last month.

Exclusive: California VC firm backed by Russia navigates a global crisis

Exclusive: Venture lenders turn more conservative on deal terms as startup valuations cool off

Exclusive: Joseph DaGrosa targets accredited investors with new platform

SXSW stage is a collision of weed, metaverse, NFTs, acid and saving the planet

The great robot awakening: Mobile machines take over the supply chain

'Pandemic platforms' offered a new vision of the internet

War's ESG dilemma for investors: Solve short-term needs or confront long-term goals

Mapping the pandemic's effect on venture funding in US states
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Recommended Reads
As hospital companies post record profits during the pandemic, patients and providers are concerned that financial returns and quality care are two very different things. [Fortune]

As COVID-19 restrictions end, offices are encountering a sick-pay problem. [Wired]

One shipping container headed from a factory in China to a warehouse in the US tells the story of what happens when globalization breaks down. [The New York Times]
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Quick Takes
  The Daily Benchmark  
  2015 Vintage Global VC Funds  
  A message from Upwork  
  Accelerate growth through talent transformation  
  VC Deals  
  LayerZero Labs lands $135M  
  Docker collects $105M Series C  
  Black Crow AI raises $25M  
  Manifest Climate secures new funding  
  Spark Capital leads $20M round for VideaHealth  
  PE Deals  
  Carlyle raises $2.1B for Fortitude Re  
  HighPost buys two fitness companies  
  PE-backed Altus acquires Croker  
  THL set to take over IMO  
  Bain weighs Toshiba takeover bid  
  Exits & IPOs  
  Navis considers $300M sale of footwear materials supplier Texon  
  Investors  
  Masayoshi Son calls to slow investments, raise cash  
 
 
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The Daily Benchmark
2015 Vintage Global VC Funds
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Top Quartile IRR
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Select top performers
Index Ventures Growth III
Trinity Ventures XII
Summit Partners Venture Capital Fund IV
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63 Funds in Benchmark »
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A message from Upwork
Accelerate growth through talent transformation
On this season of the In Visible Capital podcast, Upwork has partnered with PitchBook to highlight the latest innovations driving growth for private equity and portfolio companies.

Hear industry leaders discuss how cloud-based solutions like tech clouds and talent clouds help get to market faster, how strong practices of ESG can attract top talent, and how flexible workforce models produce impactful results. Because without the right team to execute, the strategy only gets you so far.

Listen to Upwork's segments on innovation in private equity at upwork.com/pitchbook.
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VC Deals
LayerZero Labs lands $135M
LayerZero Labs has been valued at $1 billion after raising $135 million in a round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, FTX Ventures and Sequoia. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the company offers an omnichain interoperability protocol that allows decentralized apps to build across multiple blockchains.
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Docker collects $105M Series C
Docker has raised $105 million in a round led by Bain Capital Ventures. The Palo Alto-based business offers a platform to help developers build, share and run applications. The funding values the company at $2.1 billion.
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Black Crow AI raises $25M
Black Crow AI has raised a $25 million Series A led by Imaginary Ventures. The New York-based company's machine learning infrastructure platform provides predictive analytics without using code.
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Manifest Climate secures new funding
Manifest Climate has raised a C$30 million (about $24 million) Series A co-led by Business Development Bank of Canada and Climate Innovation Capital. Based in Toronto, the company offers a climate intelligence platform designed to help organizations identify and manage climate risks and opportunities.
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Spark Capital leads $20M round for VideaHealth
VideaHealth has raised a $20 million Series A led by Spark Capital. Based in the Boston area, the company provides an AI-based dental platform to manage patient diagnosis and treatment.
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PE Deals
Carlyle raises $2.1B for Fortitude Re
The Carlyle Group has raised $2.1 billion in equity capital for portfolio company Fortitude Re. Carlyle has also agreed to provide the multiline reinsurer with M&A, transaction origination and execution, capital management and other services in exchange for a recurring fee. The new strategy is expected to increase Carlyle Global Credit's fee-earning assets under management by $50 billion.
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HighPost buys two fitness companies
HighPost Capital has purchased Centr, a personalized digital health and fitness platform founded by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth. The firm has also acquired Inspire Fitness, a California-based designer and manufacturer of fitness equipment. The two companies will be combined and operate under the Centr name.
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PE-backed Altus acquires Croker
AE Industrial Partners-backed Altus Fire and Life Safety has acquired Croker, a provider of fire, life safety, emergency preparedness and business resilience programs in the US Northeast. Established in 1911, Croker operates through three subsidiaries. Altus has been a portfolio company of AEI since May 2021.
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THL set to take over IMO
Thomas H. Lee Partners has agreed to purchase a majority stake in Intelligent Medical Objects from Warburg Pincus. The company is a provider of healthcare data enablement and clinical terminology solutions for physician groups, hospitals, clinics and others. Warburg Pincus has backed IMO since 2016.
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Bain weighs Toshiba takeover bid
Bain Capital is considering a takeover bid for Toshiba, The Wall Street Journal reported. Effissimo Capital Management, which holds nearly 10% of the Japanese conglomerate's shares, said in a regulatory filing that it would be open to selling its stake to Bain.
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Exits & IPOs
Navis considers $300M sale of footwear materials supplier Texon
Navis Capital Partners is weighing the sale of its footwear materials supplier Texon for around $300 million, Bloomberg reported. Texon supplies nonwoven and cellulose materials used in shoes for companies including Nike and Adidas. Texon employs more than 400 employees and has business dealings in 90 countries.
View details
 
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Investors
Masayoshi Son calls to slow investments, raise cash
SoftBank is planning to slow down investments due to the recent tech stock sell-off and China's regulatory crackdown, the Financial Times reported. The asset manager, which has seen the value of its holdings fall significantly in recent months, is considering liquidating assets to raise cash, according to the report.
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