Hurun released its Global Venture Capitalists 2022 Half-Year report today. Globally, there are 1,312 unicorns with a combined valuation of $4.1T. The unicorn count was up 24% since the latter half of 2021.  

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• To date, Sequoia has participated in funding rounds of 328 startups that were valued at above $500M. 
• SoftBank, Tiger Global, and Tencent followed in second, third, and fourth places, respectively. 
• According to the report, the most valued unicorns globally were Douyin Group, SpaceX, and Ant Group, with valuations of $200B, $125B, and $120B, respectively.
• Over 45% of the unicorn startups were from fintech, business management solutions, and healthcare sectors.
• Over 13% of the startups valued at $500B or more are headquartered in San Francisco, followed by 9% in New York, 7% in Beijing, and 5% in Shanghai.
• Globally, venture funds invested more than $600B capital. 
• 71% of the venture capital firms were founded in the U.S., followed by 21% in China. 
• The report can be viewed here.

New York-based instant grocery delivery startup Jokr is looking to raise new Series C funding, as confirmed by sources to The Information. The firm is expecting between $35M and $50M in the current round. Jokr expects its pre-money valuation at the current round to be $1.3B, slightly higher than the firm’s $1.2B valuation last December. 

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• The Series C round terms are in favor of investors and include a 1.4x liquidation preference. 
• According to sources, the round will be led by G Squared and GGV Capital. 
  • The latter led the firm’s $170M Series A round in July 2021, along with Balderton Capital and Tiger Global. 
• All Series A investors are reportedly participating in the current round, along with Greycroft and Activant Capital. 
• To date, the firm has raised $430M in equity and debt financing, with the last fundraise coming in the form of a $260M Series B financing in Nov. 2021. 
• The firm has posted heavy losses this year and recently announced that it would pull out of the U.S. market to focus on the Latin American region. 
  • According to internal documents, the firm was losing $10M per month until July. 
  • Its revenue between March and July was $12M per month. 

Zoom out:

• Fellow instant delivery startups Gopuff and Gorillas are looking to raise $300M and $250M, respectively, through equity and debt funding.

San Francisco-based programmable cell therapy startup Arsenal Biosciences raised $220M in financing from its Series B funding round. Incoming funds will help the firm advance its therapy programs into clinical development and grow its therapeutics pipelines. 

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• The firm is developing therapeutics for solid tumor malignancies. 
• The funding round saw participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Byers Capital, Emerson Collective Investments, Hitachi Ventures, and other new investors. 
• Existing backers, including Kleiner Perkins, Waycross Ventures, Euclidean Capital, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), and the University of California, participated in the fundraiser. 
• The firm had raked in $85M in Series A financing in Oct. 2019.

New Philadelphia, Ohio- and Los Angeles, Calif.-based commercial vehicle manufacturer Battle Motors closed its Series B funding round with $150M financing. Battle Motors produces diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG), and electric trucks for last-mile delivery and recycling purposes. 

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• Names of the investors in the current round were not disclosed. 
• The firm raised $120M in Series A financing in Dec. 2021. 
• The firm acquired Crane Carrier Company in 2021. 
• By introducing automation, the firm was able to increase manufacturing throughput at its production facility in Ohio from 1 truck per day to 6 trucks per day. 
• Incoming funds will enable the firm to scale manufacturing in a bid to further raise its throughput to 16 trucks per day. 
• Funds will also be used to grow EV manufacturing and fill backlogs.
• The firm’s client list includes 750 municipal customers across the U.S. and Canada.

Real estate and construction startup backer Building Ventures raised $95M for its second fund, per Axios. The venture firm traditionally backs startups in early stages. Twenty-five corporate investors contributed to the fund as limited partners. 

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• Two-thirds of the limited partners consist of design and construction companies. 
• Individual check sizes for seed stage firms will range from $1.5M to $3M. 
• Building Ventures expects to back 20 companies from the funds raised for the current fund. 
• It has already backed five startups from the new fund. 
  • Startups backed through the new fund include change order software firm Extracker and construction crew hiring platform Skillit. 
• The Boston-based firm raised $53M for its Fund I in Dec. 2018.

Developer tools-focused startup investor Heavybit launched a new $80M fund. The San Francisco-based firm is looking to back ~24 early-stage startups, from pre-seed to Series A stages. The new fund will also enable the firm to make follow-on investments into existing portfolio companies. 

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• The new fund is the firm’s fourth and is double the size of the previous fund. 
• The firm raised $30M for its third fund and received an additional $10M from existing partners. 
• According to Heavybit, 70% of companies in its third fund have raised successive financing or have been acquired.
• Tom Drummond and James Lindenbaum established Heavybit, with its initial two funds supporting its accelerator program. 
  • Lindebaum was co-founder of Heroku, which was acquired by Salesforce for $212M. 
• Notable portfolio companies include Snyk and LaunchDarkly, currently valued at $8.5B and $3B, respectively.

Quick Hits:

• Origin Investments’ IncomePlus Fund has seen its 27th consecutive month of positive returns, generating 18.7% over the past 12 months.*
• Baring Private Equity Asia Ltd. has secured $11B in capital commitments toward its latest fund. This year, PE transactions are down 30% compared to the previous year. 
• OIF Ventures raised $140M toward its oversubscribed third fund for backing early-stage startups. The firm is considering launching a growth fund next year. 
• PSG led a $100M financing into Bitwarden. Battery Ventures participated in the funding round. 
• Indian space tech company Skyroot raised $51M in Series B funding. GIC led the financing. 
• Virtual and augmented reality hardware and software maker Varjo received $40M from its Series D funding round. EQT Ventures, Atomico, Volvo Car Tech Fund, Lifeline Ventures, Foxconn, and Tesi participated in the funding round.
• Real-time behavioral intelligence and online shopping marketing platform ZineOne secured $28M from its SignalFire-led Series C funding round.

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