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Former U.S. President Harry S. Truman famously once said, “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.”
The same holds true for funding cycles. As investors and founders continue to reel from the truly unbelievable circumstances kicked off in 2020 by the global COVID-19 pandemic, one can’t help but harken back to the dramatic impact of the 2008 financial crisis. READ MORE
It’s been almost two years since the killing of George Floyd provided the spark for a racial reckoning in the United States, which inspired many public and private institutions globally to renew their focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). Within the last year, numerous private equity (PE) firms have accelerated efforts to ensure tangible strides in the diversity of their workforce. In this article, we step back to examine recent North American statistics, assess the industry’s progress to date, and contemplate PE’s DE&I priorities for the next year. READ MORE
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse called on regulators to interpret oversight powers more broadly to cover hedge funds, private equity firms and more. READ MORE
Former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt explained the many "concerns" surrounding a special purpose acquisition company or (SPAC) on Wednesday as new rules are expected to be revealed.
"There have been a lot of concerns about conflicts of interest," he said. "There have been concerns about the over-exuberant description of potential benefits and the like." READ MORE
Inflation is defining the market for the first time in more than 30 years. The consumer price index increased by roughly 7% in 2021, the largest jump since 1982. Faced with higher input costs, middle-market businesses and their private equity sponsors are having to adjust their expectations for growth and profitability, and in some cases, rethink their approach to M&A. READ MORE
Despite uncertain market conditions, VC investments in Web3 initiatives remain uninterrupted. In fact, with a total of 182 project fundings, February has set a new record—and investments categorized as Web3 account for the majority of that investments. READ MORE
According to the World Bank, in 1979 the total volume of securities trading was just over $600 billion. Ten years later, in 1989, it was ten times higher. The absolute record was set in 2015, when the stock market turnover exceeded $100 trillion.
The advent of the age of finance was spurred by tech solutions. The digitalization of this industry started somewhere in the early 1970s, when the Nasdaq stock exchange began operations in the United States, running entirely on a computer network. By the early 1990s, more than 40% of all transactions were made using online tools. READ MORE
The sky’s the limit for some venture funds.
Venture firms are increasingly lifting or rejecting caps on fund sizes to respond to strong demand and gather up more capital to deploy into startups, lawyers and investors say. READ MORE
The first quarter of the year is just about over, and it’s been a dud for IPOs. But that’s driven a flurry of interest in and lower prices for startup shares on secondary markets including EquityZen.
The U.S. IPO market had its slowest first quarter in six years, with only 18 IPOs raising around $2.1 billion, according to IPO research firm Renaissance Capital’s latest quarterly review. READ MORE
Him For Her and Crunchbase today released the third annual Study of Gender Diversity on Private Company Boards which revealed that women now hold 14% of seats on the boards of the most heavily funded private companies. This increase from 11% in the prior year reflects a slower rate of change than the gains observed in last year's study. At the same time, the percentage of board seats held by women of color remains unchanged at 3%. Strikingly, life sciences companies outperform technology companies on board-diversity metrics. This collaborative study analyzed the boards of 500 private, venture-backed companies based in the U.S., each with at least $100 million in funding. READ MORE
Despite the flourishing of work from anywhere during the pandemic, it still matters where a startup is located. That's because, as I wrote in Startup Cities, regions of the world differ in the vitality of their local Startup Commons -- a collection of regional resources that at best provide an irresistible attraction for capital and talent or at worst repel both.
This comes to mind in considering the flow of venture capital around the world in 2021. A striking conclusion is that on a per capita basis, capital flows into Israel were a whopping 28 times more than those in the U.S. READ MORE
Amid a hotly competitive market, there may be a better way for asset owners to tap into popular startups — without vying for access to the top venture capital managers.
Venture debt is a burgeoning section of the market which has long been dominated by just a few players. That is now changing, according to Zack Ellison, chief investment officer at venture debt firm Applied Real Intelligence. READ MORE
A venture capital fund backed by sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich appears to be trying to wipe any trace of its operations since he was sanctioned by the United Kingdom and European Union as the Kremlin wages war on Ukraine. READ MORE
As accountants for more than 650 venture-funded startups, we see tons of terrible financial advice being hoisted onto startups and their founders.
Some of the most common questions we hear from founders include: What valuation should I take? What should the CEO be paid? How fast should we try to grow? What vendors should we use? READ MORE
Cybersecurity is a concern for all industries, but some, like venture capital and private equity, are more attractive targets due to the nature of the data they collect and process. Investment firms work with highly sensitive financial data on a daily basis, and its confidentiality is essential for the smooth running of their business operations. READ MORE
Not all VCs are created alike and not all startups are at the idea stage. All VCs are difficult to tap, but some more so than others. Some are more expensive and others more controlling. You need to find the right VC source at the right stage if you want to create wealth and control it. Here is a guide to the key types and what they do. READ MORE
Most women know the dismal statistics when it comes to venture capital funding: In 2020, only 2.3 percent of financing went to all female-founded companies. Although the pandemic has disproportionately impacted women, female founders and their investors are emerging in 2022 with unprecedented resilience. Last year, women raised more venture capital dollars and executed more exits at greater valuations than at any point in the past decade. This momentum represents a historic turnaround for female entrepreneurs. How have those gains been made possible? The answer: investments made by other women. READ MORE
Increased specialization, a re-emphasis on founder/investor fit and more diversity across the board are in the cards. READ MORE
When it comes to the IPO valuations of companies in the innovative space, public markets aren’t buying what late-stage venture capitalists and investment bankers are selling. Roughly a third of the companies that went public through IPOs during the past four years are trading below their previous private valuations as of March 2022. In ARK Invest’s weekly newsletter “ARK Disrupt,” analyst Maximilian Friedrich suggests that this means that “public market investors are rejecting the late-stage and IPO valuations set by venture capitalists and investment bankers.” READ MORE
The supply of capital in the VC industry is increasing rapidly, helping startup founders push their preferences in term sheet negotiations.
After several years of shrinking, the capital supply-and-demand ratio changed over the last few quarters of 2021, coinciding with robust VC fundraising activity in 2020 and 2021, according to the latest PitchBook VC Quantitative Perspectives report. READ MORE