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Venture funding to cybersecurity startups in the third quarter saw a slight uptick from Q2, but was still down 30% year to year.
According to Crunchbase data, cybersecurity startups raised nearly $1.9 billion through 153 deals announced in Q3, a 12% increase from the $1.7 billion raised in 181 deals the previous quarter. The number of deals represents a 15% dropoff. READ MORE
Private equity firms have historically paid little attention to the art and science of leadership. Yes, PE investors recognize that they need strong executives overseeing the companies they acquire. They examine target-company leadership when considering an acquisition, and they often install new top-level leaders, particularly in the CEO and CFO roles. They give portfolio company leaders tough targets and rich financial incentives to align the interests of management and investors. But that’s about it. READ MORE
Corporate executives leading private equity backed companies may have noticed delayed liquidity events. If this is your concern, you are not alone.
The median holding period for PE-backed portfolio companies is now 5.6 years, the highest value since we started tracking this metric in 2000.
Trends in portfolio holding periods across 23 years and three major economic downturns provide valuable insights for the M&A industry. READ MORE
On September 29, 2023, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) announced the rollout of the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technology (SBICCT) Initiative, a joint effort between the SBA and the DoD to increase private capital investment in critical technologies vital to U.S. national security interests. READ MORE
Is the artificial intelligence (AI) bubble set to burst soon?
It will likely happen in the next year, Yanev Suissa, the founder of venture capital firm SineWave Ventures, told Seeking Alpha in an interview published Saturday (Oct. 14). Still, that doesn’t mean the technology isn’t worthwhile, he added.
“AI is the next revolution in tech, but it’s also been around forever,” Suissa said. “It’s one of those things that’s going to pop and it’ll be a huge pop. And then it’ll sort itself out, right?” READ MORE
On October 8, 2023, in an effort to improve the diversity of venture capital investment in the state, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill No. 54 (SB 54) into law. SB 54 requires venture capital companies (VCC) to collect and report information about their funding determinations, including demographic information for the founding teams of each VCC’s portfolio companies, to the state’s Civil Rights Department (CRD). READ MORE
Investment and grants in climate tech startups have fallen just over 40% over the last 12 months, but that plunge is less precipitous than the broader venture capital industry globally, analysts at PwC said in a report released on Tuesday.
The report on the state of climate tech described investors as narrowing their focus to areas that need it most, such as heavy industries; climate tech has a "growing share of a muted market" hobbled by global economic and political conditions. READ MORE
Your startup is gaining momentum and you’re ready to raise capital to scale.
Great, but from whom?
Not all capital is created equal and choosing the right investment partner could be critical to your next phase of growth. Chances are you’ve started to compile a list of well-known VCs to target, but how do you evaluate the investors to determine who would be the best fit? READ MORE
The third quarter's average U.S. venture capital exit value was $166 million, according to data from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. It has been less than $100 million for six straight quarters and was $26 million in the second quarter. A year ago, it was $55 million. Looking back to 2012, average exit values peaked in the second quarter of 2021 at $559 million. READ MORE
Linus Liang loves working with founders to build companies from the ground up. After eight years at venture capital firm Signia, Liang set out on his own this year, co-founding Kyber Knight Capital, a San Francisco-based firm that invests in early-stage tech companies, particularly those in artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and media. Kyber Knight's inaugural $120 million fund launched in June, with limited partners including former eBay and HP CEO Meg Whitman and former Walt Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner.
With his new fund, Liang's investment strategy has radically shifted in response to the boom in artificial intelligence startups, which he calls "the most exciting opportunity we've seen in a decade." READ MORE
Autumn on planet Earth didn’t start until the equinox a few weeks ago, but the axis shifted months ago in Startupworld, where VC winter has desperate founders smashing up the furniture for firewood.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
We’re definitely in a down market, but for entrepreneurs who are eager to build and scale, venture capital is always scarce. READ MORE
Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial kicked off this week in a Manhattan federal courthouse. The disgraced crypto wunderkind faces seven counts involving fraud and conspiracy charges related to the implosion of crypto exchange FTX.
The spectacularly colossal nature of SBF’s downfall has impacted not only the crypto startups and venture funding in the sector, but also venture capital in general. READ MORE
As I venture deeper into the VC landscape, I'm struck by the overwhelming prominence of "reactive, short-term investments." This approach does more than just pump up valuations—it sends ripples through startups and the broader venture ecosystem while challenging the very foundation of Silicon Valley's historic allure. READ MORE
To say it has been a tough time to be a startup founder over the past two years is an understatement. We all know that venture capital funding has been down, valuations are down, interest rates are up, and the predicted merger boom has yet to materialize (although deals are still happening). Throughout the summer, there were many news stories about a purported wave of startup shutdowns that have resulted from the economic rollercoaster we have been on, warning those numbers could increase as we move into late 2023. READ MORE
MRL stands for management rights letter. U.S.-based venture capital investors will often ask for an MRL as a condition to closing a financing. Founders will often ask us, “what is an MRL?” and “why does this investor need one?” READ MORE
The venture capital market in the U.S. has another quarter of declines.
The number of venture deals in the three months ending Sept. 30 dropped 24%, to 2,715, compared with the prior quarter, according to data from PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor First Look. Total funding declined 12% to $32.7 billion. READ MORE
Global venture funding in the third quarter of 2023 reached $73 billion — up a bit quarter over quarter and down 15% from the $86 billion invested in Q3 2022, Crunchbase data shows.
Despite the uptick quarter over quarter, this is the second lowest quarter since funding started to slide in 2022. The startup world is now five to six quarters into the current funding decline, Crunchbase data shows. READ MORE
Cybersecurity risks are omnipresent. September’s hack of MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment showed just how vulnerable companies can be, no matter how large or small.
Institutional asset owners and asset managers, and private equity firms especially, are uniquely positioned to be victims of cyberattacks, with “treasure troves of sensitive information,” as one technology manager put it, there for the taking. Any cybersecurity incident can have drastic consequences for the firms, their portfolio companies and their sensitive information. READ MORE
U.S. venture capital exit values appear to have staged a bit of a comeback in the third quarter, while fundraising and total transaction values faltered, PitchBook-National Venture Capital Association's U.S. Venture Monitor showed.
There was a total of $35.8 billion worth of exits in the third quarter, up from a combined $6.6 billion in the second quarter and an increase from $16.4 billion in the third quarter of 2022. However, there were fewer exit transactions in the third quarter (216) than in the second quarter (256) and the year-earlier quarter (298). READ MORE
The global venture capital market is in a slump.
There was some hope that the potential halo effect of several long-awaited tech IPOs in the United States trading well and slowing interest rate hikes could spur VCs to be freer with their checks, but venture investment trends instead dipped, per preliminary data from PitchBook. READ MORE