| |
| |
| Agtech sector grows to decade high with $1.6B in Q3 | | VCs throughout the world invested $1.6 billion in agtech companies last quarter, bringing the year's total to $4.2 billion. Although the capital raised in Q3 marks a 14% drop from Q2, the sector has already hit a decade high for annual deal value, with the total through Sept. 30 surpassing the full-year amount for 2019.
Agtech valuations had been rising steadily for the past several years, according to our Q3 Emerging Tech Research report on the sector, but that has shifted. Through Q3, median pre-money valuations fell 9.5% from 2019—a sign investors may be pricing in risk from the COVID-19 pandemic. Other takeaways include: - Only four agtech exits closed in Q3, continuing a trend of historically low exit activity, but the year is still on pace to exceed 2019
- Growers are increasingly relying on digitization and ag marketplaces to boost profits and broaden customer bases
- The pandemic has exacerbated labor shortages, emphasizing a need for automation
| | | | | | | | | | Shamrock stakes sports agency that represents Tiger Woods, other stars | |  | | Tiger Woods has been a client of Excel Sports Management since 2011. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images) | | | Los Angeles-based private equity firm Shamrock Capital has made a minority investment in Excel Sports Management, a major agency whose partners represent some of the biggest stars in the world of sports, according to a Forbes report. The deal comes about a month after Shamrock made another notable investment in the entertainment space, acquiring the rights to Taylor Swift's first six albums for a reported $300 million.
Excel is led by agents Mark Steinberg, Jeff Schwartz and Casey Close, each of whom has their own area of expertise. Steinberg is the longtime agent of Tiger Woods and a representative of several other prominent golfers. Schwartz represents dozens of NBA players, including stars such as Blake Griffin and Nikola Jokic. And Close is a prominent baseball agent who previously represented Derek Jeter and now works with Zach Greinke, Freddie Freeman and other notable names.
News of Shamrock's investment in Excel came the same day as another significant deal in the sports management space, as major Hollywood agency Endeavor reportedly bought a stake in BDA Sports Management. BDA is a prominent basketball agency led by Bill Duffy, whose clientele includes Luka Doncic and Sabrina Ionescu. | | | | | | | |
|
| A message from InCloudCounsel | | |
| Insourcing high-volume contracts costs 10x more than expected | | Cumbersome as it may be, processing high-volume repetitive contracts (think NDAs and service agreements) is a necessary part of operations for nearly every business. Often, companies manage these processes internally, assuming salary costs are lower than alternative options.
However, costs such as IT, real estate and travel, as well as intangibles like opportunity costs, task-switching and employee turnover, are rarely accounted for, despite their huge impact on the bottom line.
While insourcing may seem sensible on the surface, new and innovative legal technology solutions have since expanded the list of options. Given the rise of these alternatives, companies must reassess the allocation of their resources by comparing these focused, cost-effective providers to the true cost of insourcing.
Click here to download InCloudCounsel's latest white paper to learn how to calculate your own insourcing costs. | | | | | | | |
|
| | A newly discovered cache of documents is giving outsiders their clearest glimpse yet of the roles forced labor and coercion play in China's massive cotton industry. [BBC]
Blackstone is mulling the launch of a unique new business line that would allow the firm to profit off the data it gathers from its wide array of portfolio companies. [Bloomberg]
Inside the implosion of the $35 million startup meant to fix the Democratic Party. [Recode] | | | | | | | |
|
| | Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: | | 428 Deals | 1498 People | 470 Companies | 29 Funds | | | | | | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| 2005 Vintage Global Venture Funds | | | | | | |
|
| |
| |
| CD&R brings on new adviser | | | Akhil Johri has joined New York-based private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice as an operating adviser. Johri is a current Boeing board member who previously worked for more than 30 years at United Technologies, which completed a mega-merger with Raytheon earlier this year. He was CFO at United Technologies from 2015 to 2019. Johri's responsibilities at CD&R will include recruiting financial and audit talent to the firm's portfolio companies. | | | | | | | | | JMI Equity has promoted Larry Contrella to general partner and Maggie Schmitt to CFO. Current CFO Randy Guttman will now become JMI's head of operations. Contrella has worked at the firm since 2010, while Schmitt came aboard in 2009. JMI is a growth investor based in Baltimore that primarily targets the software sector. | | | | | | | | Longtime pharma executive to advise KKR | | | | | | |
|
| |
| Zenoti reaches unicorn status following $160M Series D | | | Zenoti, a provider of cloud-based software for salons and spas in more than 50 countries, has raised $160 million at a valuation of over $1 billion. Advent International led the funding, with Tiger Global and Steadview Partners also participating. Zenoti has seen 100% year-over-year growth in 2020, spurred in part by the adoption of software that minimizes in-person interaction during the pandemic. The startup raised a $20 million round in August 2019. | | | | | | | | Workplace productivity specialist banks $100M | | | ClickUp has raised a $100 million Series B led by Canadian investor Georgian, with participation from Craft Ventures. Founded in 2017, the San Diego-based company is a developer of workplace productivity software for users including Netflix, Uber and Airbnb. ClickUp was valued at $183 million in June, according to PitchBook data. | | | | | | | | Social investment startup raises $65M | | | Accel has led a $65 million Series C for Public, the creator of an investment platform that allows members to own fractional shares of stocks and ETFs, interact with other investors and share ideas within a social networking community. Lakestar, Greycroft and Advancit Capital also participated in the funding. | | | | | | | | Sequoia leads round in fintech startup | | | Sequoia has led a $45 million Series B in Vise, an AI-powered investment management startup. Other investors in the round included Allen & Company, Founders Fund and Greenoaks Capital. The round brings Vise's total funding thus far to over $60 million. Since its Series A in May, the New York-based company has quadrupled its customer base. | | | | | | | | Uhnder secures $45M Series C | | | Uhnder has raised $45 million in a round led by Sensata Technologies. The Austin-based company is a developer of digital radar software intended to replace traditional analog frequency modulation. Founded in 2015, Uhnder was valued at $150 million in 2018, according to PitchBook data. | | | | | | | | Meghan Markle backs oat milk startup | | | The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has made her first foray into venture capital and backed Clevr Blends, Fortune reported. Founded in 2019, Clevr makes and sells a range of instant probiotic lattes made with oat and coconut milk. The female-led startup is based in Southern California, where Markle and her husband Prince Harry live. | | | | | |
|
| |
| Apollo to purchase ATM company for $2.3B | | | Apollo Global Management and Hudson Executive Capital have agreed to acquire Cardtronics, a Houston-based operator of ATM machines, for $35 per share in cash in a deal that values the company at $2.3 billion, including debt. The purchase price marks a 35% premium to Cardtronics' closing price Dec. 8, the final day before a joint offer was announced. The deal comes after Apollo and Hudson offered to buy the company for $31 per share. | | | | | | | | I Squared to sell Grupo T-Solar in $1.8B add-on | | | | | | | | | Inflexion inks financial data deal | | | European private equity investor Inflexion has launched an offer to acquire Infront, a provider of financial data, news and analysis. The Norwegian company's board of directors unanimously recommended the bid, which is worth nearly 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner (about $171 million), or 34.40 kroner per share. The proposal represents a 10% premium to the closing price of Infront's shares in Oslo on Monday. | | | | | | | | KKR's Artlist purchases Motion Array for $65M | | | Artlist, which offers digital content-licensing services, has acquired Motion Array, a Delaware-based provider of subscription video-template services, for $65 million. The deal comes after KKR and Elephant Partners invested $48 million in Israel-based Artlist at the start of the year. | | | | | | | | TA Associates does growth deal with Benecon | | | | | | |
|
| |
| Flying taxi service Blade to go public in SPAC merger | | | | | | |
|
| |
| Westlake Village BioPartners rakes in $500M for new funds | | | Early-stage investor Westlake Village BioPartners has raised $500 million across two new funds. The firm raised $70 million for its first opportunity vehicle, which will be used to make follow-on investments at the Series B stage or later. It also collected $430 million for its second flagship fund, which will go toward incubating and investing in startups at the Series A, B and later stages. Westlake was founded in 2018 and is based in the Los Angeles area. | | | | | | | | Periscope procures $225M from LPs | | | Periscope Equity, a lower-middle-market investor based in Chicago, has closed its second flagship private equity fund on $225 million. That's more than double the size of the firm's debut, which closed on $104 million in 2018. Periscope invests mainly in the tech-enabled services and software sectors. | | | | | | | | XYZ Venture Capital picks up $80M for sophomore fund | | | | | | | | | Slack launches second VC fund with $50M | | | | | | |
|
| |
| |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment