According to CB Insights, the global venture ecosystem continued to cool off in Q1’23 as funding decreased 13% quarter-over-quarter to pre-pandemic levels. Thank goodness Stripe needed more $, or the Q1 2022 stats would be horrid! However, there appears to be plenty of VC cash for those already profitable, as reflected in many of our Top 5 VC Deals of the week.
While fewer VC firms participated in funding deals last quarter, repeatable names stand out- Andreessen Horowitz, Tech Stars, Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator…and more have kept VC funding flowing in 2023. Others have stepped back, perhaps waiting for better news or better opportunities. Time will tell, as we are early in the year.
Some notable trends this week:
- This week’s #2 (PhonePe) has secured another $100M award to match The Top 5 from 2/21/23 $100M #1 spot reflects that momentum is building @PhonePe!
- Startups and tech cos are gathering the money- numerous deals this week on repeat for additional funding, represented in our Top 5 and other deals we’re following.
- Altruist, this week’s #1 received a significant award from well-known wealth industry veterans (they know what the industry needs, so they might as well fund it, right?)
Up next are this week’s Top 5 VC Deals…
1Clear Street
$270M, Series B2 | Equity | NYC | Capital Markets | Prysm Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, IMC Investments, Walleye Capital, Belvedere, NEAR Foundation, McLaren Strategic Ventures, Validus Growth Ventures | https://www.clearstreet.io/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Clear Street Markets is a successful market-making firm specializing in quantitative trading. We couple the latest technical innovations in high-performance computing and statistical modeling with an in-depth understanding of trading to provide liquidity to global electronic markets across all asset classes…”
2Altruist
$112M Series D | Equity| CA | WealthTech| nSight Partners, Adams Street Partners, Bill McNab, Ron Carson, Marty Bicknell | https://altruist.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Altruist is on a mission to make independent financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible. We’ve built an all-in-one platform that reduces barriers for financial advisors to deliver great advice. Advisors using Altruist can work more efficiently and substantially lower operating costs, enabling them to grow on their own terms and help more people…”
3PhonePe
$100M, Capital | Equity | India | Payments | General Atlantic | https://www.phonepe.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“PhonePe is a mobile payments app that allows you to transfer money instantly to anyone, by using just their mobile number. Our goal is to make digital payments so easy, safe & universally accepted that people never feel the need to carry cash or cards again.”
4Elevate
$28M, Capital | Equity | CO | FinTech | Anthemis, Fin Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Greycroft, Bowery Capital, Firebolt Ventures | https://www.elevate.inc/
Website Overview:
“Your benefit plans, your way. Easily build and customize your benefits plans with our configurable attributes that bring your exact concepts to fruition…”
