The most active VC investors in Q2 2021 are pumping the brakes

Data speaks louder than my words, so let’s have a look. I asked the PitchBook team to pull venture capital’s 10 most active U.S. Investors from the second quarter of 2021, then compare those figures to this year. Here’s what they found, in this little nifty chart I put together:

All of last year’s top investors have pumped the brakes in the second quarter, versus last year. (Please note that this data is as of June 28, so there may be a few straggler deals.)

CB Insights has pegged a 23% global decline in venture funding this quarter, compared to last. To be sure, funding levels have been historic over the last two years—but a drop by nearly one-quarter drop is nothing to sneeze at.

Investors are writing fewer checks—and smaller ones. That being said, there’s still a lot of activity happening, and firms are continuing to launch new funds—and really don’t seem to be having much trouble getting their LPs to buy in.

Will this hold true after LPs digest those second quarter’s performance returns? That raises a question…

Does VC/PE quarterly investment performance matter to LPs? It’s a question I posed on Twitter last Friday and one I plan to keep exploring. If you are an LP, I’d love to hear from you. Please reach out! GPs–what are you hearing?

And now for this month’s timely cartoon, brought to you by Ian Foley:

See you tomorrow,

Jessica Mathews
Twitter:@jessicakmathews
Email: [email protected]
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Jackson Fordyce curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- VulcanForms, a Burlington, Mass.-based digital manufacturing company, raised $355 million in funding. Eclipse Ventures, Stata Venture Partners, Fontinalis Partners, D1 Capital Partners, Standard Investments, Atlas Innovate, Boston Seed Capital, Industry Ventures, and the Simkins Family invested in the round. 

- Zilch, a London and Miami-based buy-now-pay-later platform, raised an additional $50 million in Series C extension funding. Ventura Capital, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Gauss Ventures, DMGVentures, M&F Fund, and Limited Ventures invested in the round. 

- Oxford Quantum Circuits, a Reading, U.K.-based quantum computing company, raised £38 million ($46.45 million) in Series A funding. Lansdowne Partners and The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners led the round and were joined by investors including BritishPatient Capital, Oxford Science Enterprises, and Oxford Investment Consultants.

- Modular, a Los Altos, Calif.-based A.I. Developer platform, raised $30 million in funding. GV, Greylock, Factory, SV Angel, and other angels invested in the round. 

- Onomondo, a Copehnagen-based cellular network operator, raised $21 million in Series A funding. Verdane led the round and was joined by investors including Maersk Growth, People Ventures, and The Danish Growth Fund.

- Current Foods, a San Francisco-based plant-based seafood company, raised $18 million in seed funding. Electric Feel Ventures, Astanor Ventures, Tenacity, and GreatPoint Ventures and Union Grove managing partner Ray Lane invested in the round. 

- Quantum Source, a Rehovot, Israel-based quantum computing company, raised $15 million in seed funding co-led by Grove Ventures, Pitango First, and Eclipse Ventures.

- Seatti, a Munich-based collaborative workspace management platform, raised €3 million ($3.13 million) in seed funding co-led by ActonCapital and Partech.

- Profasee, a Miami-based pricing platform, raised $2.3 million in seed funding led by defy.vc. 

PRIVATE EQUITY

- A consortium led by HRL Morrison & Co.Agreed to acquire FiberLight, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based fiber infrastructure provider, for about $1 billion. 

- Norwest Equity Partners acquired QTI Fibers, a Dothan, Ala. And Colfax, N.C.-based designer and manufacturer of technical fibers and fabrics, from Highlander Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

- Peninsula Research Associates acquired Headlands Research, a San Francisco-based clinical trial site. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

- Thrive MSP acquired Edge Technology Group, a Greenwich, Conn.-based IT services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

OTHER

- WNS acquired Vuram, a Tamil Nadu, India.-based enterprise automation services company, for $165 million. 

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- Drive Capital, a Columbus, Ohio-based venture capital firm, raised $1 billion across two funds: $400 million was raised for their venture fund and $600 million was raised for their expansion stage fund. 

- Endeavor, a New York-based venture capital firm, raised $292 million for a fourth fund.

- Bloomberg Beta, a New York-based Bloomberg backed venture capital firm, raised $150 million across two funds. $75 million was raised for a fourth fund and $75 million was raised for their opportunity fund.