I visited London last week, and while the weather was chilly, venture capital activity in the UK is starting to warm up.
The value of deals in the UK has been posting a steady recovery this year, with deal value in Q3 hitting £5.3bn, up for two consecutive quarters, according to a new PitchBook report.
Elsewhere today, we dig into why founders might be waiting longer to announce their new funding rounds, Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk's new multi-billion-euro investment to ramp up production and whether your company needs a fractional C-suite executive.
Missed great investment opportunities hidden within your network? It’s time to move beyond spreadsheets. Join Affinity with Generation IM to discuss using relationship intelligence to source deals on December 5.
What founders should consider before they announce their new funding round
Not many startups are getting fresh cheques right now. But those who are getting funded this autumn are facing a second-order quandary: how, and when, to announce the new round.
Back in the heady days of 2021, companies raced to announce their new fundraises. But that’s changed recently, says Point Nine's Pawel Chudzinski. He contends that founders are getting more strategic when thinking about announcing their new deal instead of putting out a press release the moment they’ve signed the term sheets. “If it's hard to fundraise right now, and I'm not hiring a lot… what's the upside of the announcement?" he says of founder's considerations, adding that there are companies in his portfolio that have raised and not announced yet.
He suggests founders are thinking more about hitting milestones: "It's just much more thoughtful and it's not like an automatic thing you do" — unlike in 2021.
That’s also what I’m hearing from Philippe von Klitzing, partner at Peak Capital, who says he’s noticed several companies in the last few months announcing deals closed a while back. Others are still sitting on announcements. For one of Peak's investments in the energy management system space, von Klitzing says they had discussions around getting the announcement out to niche industry publications in order to attract potential customers — not just to drum up general tech buzz around the raise.
This waiting game is all a bit surprising to me: I’d imagine startups would be jumping at the chance to announce any new capital amid the stagnant funding environment. So, what should founders consider when they’re planning to announce?
Chudzinski says companies should weigh the pros and cons of announcing sooner or later: advantages could be getting attention from the broader tech industry, potential hires, potential investors and potential customers.
On the flipside, there are reasons to hold off, like if announcing sooner would attract unwanted competition. Chudzinski also points out that founders should think about when they want to raise their next round and perhaps wait to announce their latest funding until they're ready to talk to new investors (he notes that later-stage investors, in particular, definitely take funding announcements as a big signal to reach out).
Of course, it's easier to be patient when the market is slow. We'll likely see the return of the speedy announcements once things pick back up again...
💊 Weight-loss drug Ozempic maker, Novo Nordisk, said it will invest over €2bn to expand its French production site to meet the frenzied demand for its drugs.
The Danish company has seen its stock soar over 200% in the last three years, as the popularity of drugs like Ozempic, designed for diabetics, has skyrocketed.
📉 French insurtech Luko wasplaced in receivership last weekafter its €14m deal with insurer Admiral broke apart at the end of last month.
Luko won't have any say in the deal terms during the public bidding process. Bids for Luko's main business, Demain ES, will be due December 13.
It's also a bad turn of events for Luko's backers, which include Speedinvest and Accel, who've funnelled €69m into the company to date.
💰 British Patient Capital, the UK-based investor which is a big backer of VC funds — and startups — invested £287m into its core fund of funds and coinvestments in the year ended March 2023.
According to PitchBook, BPC has had the highest number of LP investments in VC funds in the UK in the last three years.
BPC says it now has 70 funds managed by 40 different venture and venture growth firms in its portfolio.
Car companies have been involved in $2.7bn worth of European tech deals so far in 2023, according to data from Dealroom.
It's the second highest year on record, below 2021's $3.5bn.
The largest deals participated in by car companies all went to gigafactories.
📈 The UK has now seen three consecutive quarters of deal value growth this year, according to new PitchBook data.
The value of UK VC deals in Q3 hit £5.3bn, up from £4.3bn in Q2 and £3.5bn in the first quarter.
It's not all good news, though: the number of deals has continued to decline this year. There were 590 deals funded in Q3, down from 731 in Q2 and 820 in Q1.
🔮 Eleanor's also hosting a free, online Sifted Talks with Multiple Capital, Dawn Capital and Puzzle Ventures on December 6. They'll be using their crystal balls to predict what's in store for VC in 2024 — sign up here.
🎤 Miriam Partington also has a seat at the moderator's table on December 13. She's joined by We Are Human, Balderton and Slack, who'll unpack how founders can reset their routine and (actually) get shit done — sign up here.
🗣️ Sifted's next pitch event is coming to you live on December 12 – featuring five early-stage female-led SaaS startups currently fundraising. The event is exclusive to Pro subscribers, and you can sign up here.
Munich-based Floy, which is using AI to help radiologists diagnose difficult-to-discover abnormalities, raised €5.4m in seed funding. HV Capital led the round and was joined by investors including All Iron Ventures, 10x Founders, xdeck and SB21.
Pisa, Italy-based Aptus.AI, which is using AI to help companies read and understand regulations, raised €3m in funding. P101 led the round and was joined by CDP Venture Capital.
Barcelona-based Ocean Ecostructures, which is focused on restoring marine biodiversity, raised €1.6m in funding from Ship2B Ventures, Inclimo Climate Tech and BStartup of Banco Sabadell.
