The Good Times Don’t Stop Rolling In Tech

Morning Report: Trying to get back into the swing after Thanksgiving? Here’s a quick primer of money movement in the startup space to get you back into the mix. 

As 2017 comes to a close, there is scant indication that the Good Times will end shortly.¹ There have been recent signals of vitality in public markets, alternative markets, and private markets.

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First, the Nasdaq set a new all-time record high today. We start here as I suspect most tech-heads didn’t know that the Nasdaq set yet another all-time high. After all, doing so has become commonplace for the exchange, which is up just under 28 percent for the year.

But those returns are nothing on cryptos, a collection of tokens and coins that are now worth more than a quarter trillion dollars. Yes, cryptos are worth more than $250 billion, as of roughly yesterday, according to CoinMarketCap’s market value chart. Cryptos are now, in fact, worth over $262 billion.

No list of bullish indicators this far into the current business-technology cycle would be complete without ridesharing raising another stack of cash. Lyft is our friend, here, raising $500 million more. The deal, an extension of its last round, could drive Lyft’s valuation to $11.5 billion. And the $500 million follows a recent $1 billion injection. There is, it seems, no amount of money that the market will not put into the competitive, unprofitable sector.

However, there is even more new money at work inside of startups. The recent Cambrian explosion of venture shops is something to behold. The Wall Street Journal recently reported the following:

Since the start of 2013 through September of this year, 516 venture capital funds were raised by U.S.-based firms new to the sector, including a record of 133 last year and another 87 in this year’s first nine months—on pace for a slight downtick—according to data compiled by Dow Jones VentureSource. The five-year total is double the level raised in the prior five years. The bulk are small funds with less than $100 million.

The same piece goes on to quote Mike Maples — a recent guest on Equity, a venture-themed podcast that Crunchbase News produces with TechCrunch — as saying that LPs in the new funds are “not going to get a good venture return.”

Meanwhile, Zuck’s family office wants to get into buyouts, of all things. Because why not?

In short, things are scooting about as if it was June and every VC in the land still had open allocation. Why that’s the case, and if this pace is sustainable, we leave to you.

1. This lack of indication could be indication itself.

From the Crunchbase Daily:

Lyft seeks another $500M

• Lyft is looking to raise another $500 million as an extension to the $1 billion it closed last month in a round led by Alphabet’s growth fund, CapitalG, Axios reports. The investment would reportedly bring Lyft’s post-money valuation to $11.5 billion.

Seedcamp raises $55M for fourth fund

• Seedcamp, a Europe-focused seed investor, has raised £41 million ($55 million) for a fourth fund that aims to invest in 100 startups across the continent. To date, the ten-year-old, London-based firm has backed 250 European startups.

Rothenberg portfolio weathers scandal

• When a venture firm gets in hot water, will its problems extend to portfolio companies? In an effort to see how investor scandals might affect associated startups, Crunchbase News took a look at performance of companies backed by troubled Rothenberg Ventures.

Chinese auto startups see record investment

• China-based auto startups are seeing a surge in venture funding, with 2017 deal count and investment totals at the highest point in years, a Crunchbase News analysis finds. The latest big funding recipient is TuSimple, an autonomous trucking startup that just raised a $55 million Series C round.