July was another good month for U.S. fundraising, as commitments continued to soar.
Through the first seven months, 242 funds raised more than $26.3 billion, compared with 190 funds raising just over $20.2 billion in the year-earlier period. That’s increases of 27 percent in number of funds and 30 percent in commitments raised.
Meanwhile, M&A activity, IPOs, and deals declined in July. The following stats are based on preliminary data from Thomson Reuters.
Fundraising (value up 8.7%)
In July, 48 U.S.-based funds raised nearly $5.2 billion in commitments, compared with 43 funds raising more than $4.7 billion the month before, a 8.7 percent increase in money raised. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the way, closing its 12th main fund at $750 million and its third select fund at $1.05 billion. A total of 22 of the funds raised in July were under $10 million in size.
Deals (value down 2.8%)
The cumulative deal count dropped in July, and the amount invested for U.S. companies also fell from the month prior. A total of 307 U.S.-based companies raised more than $7.3 billion in July, compared with 383 deals raising over $7.5 billion in June. That’s a 2.8 percent drop in dollars invested and a 20 percent decline in deals. In July, the largest venture deal was by online legal advice platform LegalZoom, which raised $500 million from Francisco Partners, Franklin Templeton Services, Neuberger Berman and GPI Capital.
M&A (value down 73%)
In July, eight VC-backed companies were acquired, with four disclosing transaction prices for a combined deal value of $830 million. That’s half the 16 venture-backed companies selling in June, including four with disclosed details, for a combined transaction total of nearly $3.1 billion. The largest sale in July was genetic-screening firm Counsyl, which Myriad Genetics purchased for $375 million.
IPOs (value down 37%)
In July, 10 venture-backed companies went public on U.S. exchanges, a healthy number but still 44 percent below the 18 that debuted in June. The combined value of the July IPO proceeds fell 37 percent to almost $1.4 billion from $2.2 billion the month before. In July, all but one of the VC-backed IPOs were in biotech or healthcare, including the largest venture-backed IPO of the month, Rubius Therapeutics, which raised $277 million in proceeds. The lone tech startup to go public in July was Tenable Network Security, which raised $229 million.
Source: Thomson Reuters.
