Extra Crunch Tuesday: In 2020, VCs invested $428M into US-based startups every day

Extra Crunch Newsletter

Tuesday, January 19, 2021 • By Walter Thompson

Welcome to Extra Crunch Tuesday Image Credits: Nigel Sussman Last year was a disaster across the board thanks to a global pandemic, economic uncertainty and widespread social and political upheaval. But if you were involved in the private markets, however, 2020 had some very clear upside — VCs flowed $156.2 billion into U.S.-based startups, “or around $428 million for each day,” reports Alex Wilhelm. “The huge sum of money, however, was itself dwarfed by the amount of liquidity that American startups generated, some $290.1 billion.” Using data sourced from the National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook, Alex used today’s column to recap last year’s seed, early-stage and late-stage rounds. In subsequent columns, he’s taking a closer look at trends in European startup investment, fintech, “and what we can garner regarding China and India.” If you have any hard data about Africa-based startups, please contact him at alex.wilhelm@techcrunch.com. Thank every much for reading Extra Crunch — have a great week. Walter Thompson Senior Editor, TechCrunch @yourprotagonist Read more

15 steps to fundraising a new VC or private equity fund Image Credits: Cristian Bortes/EyeEm / Getty Images We frequently walk founders through frameworks for seeking startup funding, but last Friday, we pivoted to the other side of the table. After co-writing two columns about “flexible VC” models last week, Versatile VC founder David Teten wrote a solo post that lays out his fundamentals for creating a new VC or equity fund. Step one? Before you start soliciting LPs, recruit a core team and build out as much of the firm as you can. “The more baked you are, the more investable you are,” says David. Read more

Extra Crunch Live is back in 2021! Sponsored by TechCrunch Get expert feedback on your pitch deck from experienced founders and VCs! Read more

Bustle CEO Bryan Goldberg explains his plans for taking the company public Image Credits: Bustle Digital Group Senior Writer Anthony Ha interviewed Bustle Digital Group CEO Bryan Goldberg to get his thoughts on the state of digital media. Their conversation covered a lot of ground, but the biggest news it contained focuses on Goldberg’s short-term plans. "Where do I want to see the company in three years? I want to see three things: I want to be public, I want to see us driving a lot of profits and I want it to be a lot bigger, because we've consolidated a lot of other publications," he said. Read more

It may not be as glamorous as D2C, but beauty tech is big money Image Credits: Laia Divols Escude/EyeEm / Getty Images The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is not a huge fan of personal-care D2C brands merging with traditional consumer product companies. This month, razor startup Billie and Proctor & Gamble announced they were calling off their planned merger after the FTC filed suit. For similar reasons, Edgewell Personal Care dropped its plans last year to buy Harry’s for $1.37 billion. In a harsher regulatory environment, “the path to profitability has become a more important part of the startup story versus growth at all costs,” it seems. Read more

Lessons from Top Hat's acquisition spree Image Credits: Bryce Durbin In the last year, edtech startup Top Hat acquired three publishing companies: Fountainhed Press, Bludoor and Nelson HigherEd. Natasha Mascarenhas interviewed CEO and founder Mike Silagadze to learn more about his content acquisition strategy, but her story also discussed “some rumblings of consolidation and exits in edtech land.”   Read more

Twilio's CEO says wisdom lies with your developers Image Credits: Steve Jennings Companies that build their own tools “tend to win the hearts, minds and wallets of their customers,” according to Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson. In an interview with enterprise reporter Ron Miller for his new book, “Ask Your Developer,” Lawson says founders should use developer teams as a sounding board when making build-versus-buy decisions. “Lawson's basic philosophy in the book is that if you can build it, you should,” says Ron. Read more

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