For venture capitalists, investing in climate tech isn’t a leap of faith

“Every major change we've seen in our society, those changes have been led by startups,” says David Miller, managing partner at Clean Energy Ventures, while we’re discussing the role of venture capital in tackling climate change.

The clearest route to averting the worst impacts of climate change is to dramatically reduce our use of fossil fuels, but doing so will require innovators to develop new or nascent technologies to help wean us off our carbon addiction. Meanwhile, with a certain amount of global warming already locked in, other entrepreneurs will have to create solutions to help humanity adapt to the world’s growing climate catastrophes. READ MORE

SPAC deal is among 2023's largest M&A transactions

A pending $23 billion deal between Black Spade Acquisition Co. and VinFast Auto Pte. Ltd. would mark the largest M&A transaction involving a special purpose acquisition company in almost two years.

Black Spade and VinFast, an electric-vehicle maker, announced an agreement in May for the transaction, the second-largest M&A deal announced in 2023 and one of nine $10 billion-plus M&A deals announced through the first five months of the year. READ MORE

Talent Continues to be the Driving Force Behind Private Equity Firms

It has never been harder to attract top talent to private equity and PE portfolio companies. “We’re seeing a huge reluctance to leave jobs for anything less than top brands, and successfully recruiting out the absolute all-stars is requiring more than just outsized economics,” said Jordan Brugg, global head of private equity for Spencer Stuart. So, what can PE firms do? A recent report from Spencer Stuart lays out a few ideas. Start the process early. “It bears repeating that the war for talent has never been more fierce, so you need to move extremely fast when you see someone who fits,” the Spencer Stuart report said. “As a result, our clients are spending more time at the outset before launching searches to get all the stakeholders in agreement; candidates can smell misalignment. This means you need to iron out the business strategy, the case for the role, and the compensation parameters early on.” READ MORE

Private equity bought out your doctor and bankrupted Toys“R”Us — here’s why that matters

Brendan Ballou is the author of Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America. Brendan is also a federal prosecutor, and served as special counsel for private equity in the antitrust division at the Department of Justice. (Although, he will be the first to tell you, the book does not reflect the views of the DOJ.)

Now, the idea behind private equity or PE is simple: a private equity firm gathers up a bunch of cash, raises some investor cash, and takes on a lot of debt to buy various companies, often taking them off the public stock market. Then, they usually install new management and embark on aggressive cost cutting and turnaround programs mostly because they have to pay down all that debt pretty fast. The company can then be sold or taken public again for a hefty profit. But don’t worry — if it doesn’t work out, the PE firms are extracting fees at every step of the process, so they get paid no matter what happens. READ MORE

Smaller VCs are having an impact on diverse investors and founders

Smaller funds, those that have $50 million or less in assets under management, are helping to usher in a new wave of diversity within venture capital. And the reasons for this are simple.

The latest crop of investors stems from historically overlooked or marginalized communities that are setting up funds and then investing back in those funds. “Small funds operate with a sense of purpose, leveraging their limited resources to drive positive change and foster diversity in the entrepreneurial landscape,” B. Pagles Minor, the founder of DVRGNT Ventures, told TechCrunch+. READ MORE

5 charts: Big GPs set the tone for fundraising

In nearly every corner of the private markets, fundraising totals are lower today than a year ago. That's what many GPs are saying, and their laments are borne out in the data, according to PitchBook's Q1 2023 Global Private Markets Fundraising Report.

Over the 12-month period that ended in March, investment funds dedicated to PE, VC, real assets, real estate, private debt and funds-of-funds raised anywhere from 15% to 64% less than what those strategies raised the prior year. READ MORE

Revealed: the top 20 global venture capital firms

Only five of the top 20 best-performing venture capital firms around the world are based outside the US and only one is European, according to the 2022 HEC-Dow Jones Venture Capital Performance Ranking.

The top place is taken by IT specialist New York-based IA Ventures, with Australia-based internet and software investor Blackbird in second place. 

The size of the US VC market is much larger than any other country, so the prominence of American firms is not surprising. READ MORE

These 3 Charts Show It’s Not Easy Being A Seed Startup These Days

U.S. seed startups have been the least affected by the venture funding downturn. But these companies are competing in a more crowded field than ever for investor attention and will likely have to wait longer to raise their Series A rounds — if they’re able to at all — an analysis of Crunchbase data shows.

To paint a clearer picture of the state of the U.S. seed market, let’s break it down into three charts. READ MORE

These Are The Top Universities For Funded Founders

Every year or so at Crunchbase News, we tally up which U.S. universities graduate the highest number of recently funded startup founders. And each time, we see mostly predictable results, with a few surprises in the mix.

This time around, we saw minimal flux at the top of the list. The leading universities for funded founders are Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, and Harvard. The top business schools are Harvard, Stanford and Wharton. READ MORE

There’s No Easy Exit for Companies Backed by PE and VC

The true value of private equity- and venture capital-owned companies — a source of much debate — can be hard for outsiders to know. But Verdad Advisers’ founder Dan Rasmussen and senior analyst Chris Satterthwaite have figured a way to peek behind the curtain — and what they’ve found is not pretty.

“The clock is ticking” for private equity, Rasmussen told Institutional Investor. “The margin picture was bad and has gotten worse, the debt picture was bad and has gotten a lot worse, and the valuation picture was bad and has gotten a lot worse.” Combined, it’s “pretty scary,” he said. READ MORE

8 Reasons Why VC Could Only Have Developed In The U.S.

Venture capital (VC) is the 3rd rail of venture financing. It is highly charged and mostly misunderstood. The assumption is that there is a shortage of VC, implying that more VC will result in more home runs, more wealth, and more job creation. Yet, a few VCs earn most of VC profits, and very few entrepreneurs benefit from VC.

VC was developed in the U.S. The first VC fund was in Boston and Silicon Valley has perfected the funding strategy. So VC is not only an American invention, but it could only have been developed in the U.S. Here is why. READ MORE

Filings reveal PE and VC returns amid escalating write-downs

Some high-profile venture capital and private equity firms are slashing the valuation of their holdings, causing billions in apparent profits to evaporate as the economic downturn undermines the sustained growth of the last 13 years.

The California Pension System, the largest pension system in the U.S. whose investments are sprinkled across the globe, injected $368.8 million into Silver Lake Partners’ 2015 V fund. In the quarter ending September 2021, the value on that return stood at $668.3 million. However, by the same quarter in 2022, this figure was reduced by $100 million, according to documents released by the pension firm in response to a request for public records made by TechCrunch. READ MORE