Technology
Sources say General Catalyst is working on a “follow-on” fund worth up to $1 billion
General Catalyst, certainly one of Silicon Valley’s largest enterprise capital firms, is preparing to launch a so-called “follow-on fund” worth between $800 million and $1 billion, according to a person conversant in the plans.
The follow-on fund consists of a portion of the shares that the VC firm holds in portfolio firms. From approx $25 billion by way of assets under management for 2023, the precise composition of General Catalyst’s follow-on fund portfolio is still being determined. However, it’s going to likely take stakes in Stripe, Gusto and Circle, the person added. The company recently hired Jefferies as a further investment advisor.
Once the fund is created and investors are found for it, General Catalyst’s original limited partners could have a alternative: sell their shares and money out, making room for brand new investors, or remain invested within the follow-on fund (a process called “rolling”). ‘
Although private equity firms have long used follow-on funds, this mechanism has only recently gained popularity amongst enterprise capitalists, largely due to the low variety of IPOs and slowing M&A activity. This has forced some large enterprise capital firms to use the secondary market to return capital to their limited partners.
In July, for instance, Bloomberg reported that NEA sold shares in 11 portfolio firms, including Databricks and Plaid, to secondary investors who collectively paid $540 million for assets. Lightspeed is currently within the technique of selling a group of existing businesses valued at as much as $1 billion to used buyers.
Like NEA and Lightspeed, General Catalyst’s follow-on fund will consist of late-stage startups which have increased in value for the reason that company first invested within the asset.
General Catalyst didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The primary advantage of a follow-on fund, as opposed to simply selling the shares to one other buyer in a secondary market transaction, is that it allows VC investors to proceed to manage the shares while retaining any future advantages from them. Follow-on funds are also considered more founder-friendly than secondary sales of shares of individual startups because they don’t introduce latest owners into the startup capitalization table. The same VC fund stays invested, albeit through a different fund.
VC funds have been more willing to sell on secondary markets currently as some LPs tell them they’ll reduce on their investments in one other VC fund in the event that they don’t receive at the least a few of the money returns on older investments.
While follow-on funds are generally useful to enterprise capital funds, they will pose a conundrum for some limited partners. Because secondary partnerships sell stock at a significant discount to current valuations – typically 20% to 30% from current valuations – when selling shares, limited partners cannot only take a haircut to existing valuations, but additionally forgo potential increases in stock prices.
Still, one General Catalyst limited partner told TechCrunch that given the shortage of liquidity from enterprise capital investments, his pension fund would at all times select to money out reasonably than move into a follow-on fund.
The person didn’t say when this LP would receive this chance, and Top Contributor is unable to estimate this. Follow-on funds are complex transactions that may take anywhere from six months to a 12 months to sell. These transactions may additionally fail completely. Last 12 months, Tiger Global tried to sell a sort of follow-on fund called a strip portfolio, which sells only a portion of its holdings in each company. However, it couldn’t find a buyer willing to pay a price that the corporate considered fair, PitchBook reported.
When Shasta Ventures asked its limited partners earlier this 12 months to approve a follow-on fund that was valued at 35% below carrying value, the corporate’s investors voted against the deal, – Axios reported.
In April, the Financial Times reported that General Catalyst would commit capital worth almost $6 billion to the brand new core fund. The latest fund has still not been announced. When TechCrunch asked for more details about its fundraising efforts last week, the corporate declined to comment.
Technology
US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident
Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.
In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”
Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.
Technology
It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500
Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.
The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.
The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.
More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)
Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.
The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.
Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.
Technology
Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers
According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.
However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.
Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
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