Private Equity
Private equity could be the last resort for startups struggling to exit
Startups are in a difficult spot. But the good news is that some untraveled and overgrown exit paths have a chance of opening up this year.
Top Tier Capital lands $1.05B to invest in funds and startups
Despite the mixed recent news on inflation, capital’s still flowing healthily into Silicon Valley. Case in point, Top Tier Capital, the San Francisco-based VC and private equity firm, today announced…
Featured Article
In a slow year for enterprise tech M&A, there were few standout deals
It was a slow year in enterprise technology M&A, and the total was the second lowest since we started compiling the data in 2018.
Clearlake and Insight reach $4.4B deal to take software maker Alteryx private
Alteryx, an Irvine, California-based software company developing data science and analytics products, today announced that it’s agreed to be acquired by private equity firms Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners…
Featured Article
Why Rover’s $2.3B sale price makes good sense
The Rover deal is expensive, but it has some notable caveats that tell us quite a lot about the state of the market for tech, and tech-enabled, companies.
Featured Article
Tiger Global chieftain Scott Shleifer transitions to advisory role after wild ride
Tiger Global Management is going through a major management change. Per a message that founder Chase Coleman sent this afternoon to investors of the 22-year-old venture- and hedge-fund outfit and obtained by TechCrunch, Coleman is taking over both the outfit’s public company investing and private equity businesses, while the longtime head of the latter, Scott…
LeapFrog’s new fund to double down on financial and healthcare sectors in Africa and Asia
LeapFrog Investments, a private equity firm that is keen on the financial and healthcare sectors, plans to raise $1 billion for a new fund targeting businesses in “global growth markets,”…
Featured Article
Why PE firm Alitheia is banking on women in Africa
African women-founders find it incredibly hard to raise capital from private markets, and even banks, a gap that “gender-lens” funds like Alitheia IDF exist to bridge. Alitheia IDF was co-founded by Tokunboh Ishmael and Polo Leteka in 2015 as a private equity fund to back the often marginalized founders. Through the $100 million Alitheia IDF,…
AI company Hypergiant Industries snapped up by PE firm Trive Capital
Private equity firm Trive Capital has acquired Hypergiant Industries in a deal that will furnish the Texas-based AI company with capital to “build even faster,” Hypergiant CEO Mike Betzer told…
SUSE, the German Linux vendor and acquirer of enterprise tools like Rancher and NeuVector, has had its fair share of owners since it was founded in 1992. There was Novell,…
New Relic’s sale tells us much about the value of middling growth today
It appears single-digit revenue multiples are all that’s within reach of unprofitable tech companies with growth rates in the low double-digits.
AngelList expands into private equity with acquisition of fintech startup Nova
AngelList, an organization that started out by teaming up founders with early-stage investors, is expanding into the private equity space. And it’s acquired a Y Combinator-backed fintech startup in the…
Gamified e-learning platform Kahoot gets $1.7B acquisition offer from Goldman Sachs, Lego and more
Big moves ahead for Kahoot, the Oslo startup that’s built a popular platform for users to create, share and play education-focused “games”, played by billions of students and adults over…
Corporate executives might be making a lot of noise about ESG, but when it comes to investors, sustainability concerns appear here to stay.
Signs point to robust PE buyout activity in 2023 supported by lower market volatility, falling valuations, a more stable interest rate environment and large pools of available capital.
A new kind of PE fund plans to roll up German startups into potential unicorns and bigger exits
European startups have always suffered from the perennial startup problem: how to exit? However, in Europe the problem has always been particularly acute. How many large European industrial or corporate…
3 ways PE firms can ensure relevant due diligence for M&A targets ahead of a recession
It’s critical for due diligence providers to analyze a company’s business segments and product lines to identify the range of its exposure to potential issues.
Featured Article
Private equity dominated the top 10 enterprise M&A deals in 2022
It was a funny year in enterprise tech M&A, one in which the majority of activity came from private equity firms: As tech stock values plunged throughout the year, these companies went bargain hunting. They saw companies with lots of upside being vastly undervalued in the brutal market conditions of 2022. But curiously, the year…
Private equity could be gearing up to shop for vulnerable tech companies
Given that private equity has been rich for some time, and tech valuations didn’t collapse overnight, why haven’t we seen more Coupa-esque deals in recent quarters? Because capitulation takes time.
Thoma Bravo adds record $32B in new capital to fuel buyout funds
There has been widespread speculation that investors are sitting on substantial amounts of money for investing in startups and for acquisitions, depending on the firm’s goals. Today, private equity firm…
Featured Article
Investors sound the alarm about possible private equity tech deals
Coupa’s investors worry that its current value doesn’t reflect a possible lucrative future. Are they right?
Thoma Bravo buys third identity company this year with $2.3B ForgeRock acquisition
Thoma Bravo knows what it likes, and apparently it likes identity access management — a lot. Today the firm announced its intention to acquire ForgeRock for $2.3 billion, the third…
With public stock valuations way down, it’s surprising we aren’t seeing more aggressive M&A activity from acquisitive companies and private equity alike.
Sardine raises $51.5M led by a16z to sniff out fishy fintech transactions
As fintechs become more efficient, so too do fraudsters. “Faster instant payments mean faster fraud,” Sardine CEO and co-founder Soups Ranjan told TechCrunch. That’s the thesis behind his startup, which…
‘Just break even’ may be the worst possible advice for startups in turbulent times
A significant number of companies are following popular advice to try and break even, but the sad truth is that this is probably the worst possible advice for most startups…
Featured Article
Stop spending so much time on your product when pitching to investors
It’s natural for founders to live and breathe for their customers and product, but the dirty little secret of fundraising is that your investors are extraordinarily unlikely to care about your product
TechCrunch+ roundup: Growth activation metrics, 3 keys to Series B, pitch deck teardown
The investors I’ve spoken to recently are still open to good ideas, but when they come from founders who are already working toward product-market fit, it boosts their confidence.
After the Figma-Adobe deal, which design startups are acquisition targets?
News that Adobe will buy upstart design software unicorn Figma for $20 billion was the single largest event in startup land this week, a surprise upset over the Ethereum Merge…
Allocations just got valued at $150M to help private equity funds lure smaller investors
Interest in alternative investments such as private equity, real estate and crypto continues to surge, and Miami-based fintech startup Allocations is riding the wave. Less than three years after its…
The alternative asset class needs new infrastructure — who will build it?
Just as traditional alternatives are becoming a consistent part of the modern portfolio, a new era of alternative assets is emerging, fueling a broader and more fragmented landscape for investing.
