Top 5 Venture Deals of March.

March was a tough month for venture capital investments, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, had an indelible impact on venture capital financing. In spite of this, there were some big rounds and we’ll talk more about them below.

Stripe, $6,5B

Sector – Fintech.
The largest round of March went to payments giant Stripe, but it is not a typical late-stage growth round. The South San Francisco-based company raised $6.5 billion in the first round at a valuation of $50 billion. The valuation is down significantly since the March 2021 round was valued at $95 billion, and earlier this year it was reported that the round would be valued at $60 billion. The company will use the new cash to provide liquidity to current and former employees, as well as to offset tax costs that will arise when the company changes the terms of its employee stock awards. Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and General Catalyst participated in the deal.

Rippling, $500M

Sector – Human Resources.
Rippling, a personnel management company based in San Francisco, was involved in the collapse of SVB, its main banking partner. As a result, 50,000 employees across its client base were at risk of not receiving their paychecks on Friday. The company invested $130 million of its own capital to support those customers. To pay their salaries on time, Parker Conrad, Rippling’s CEO, turned to existing investor Neil Mehta of Greenoaks, who led and closed a $500 million Series E financing that valued the company at $11.25 billion, the same amount as the May 2022 Series D financing.

Adept AI, $350M

Sector – Ai.
Adept AI announced it had raised $350 million even amid news of a Silicon Valley bank. The new funding, led by General Catalyst and Spark Capital, reportedly gives the startup a valuation of at least $1 billion once it receives funding. Spark Capital also reportedly led the Anthropic round. Adept is developing AI models that don’t just respond to text commands – like a chatbot – but actually turn those commands into actions. In theory, the company’s generative AI could help users perform tasks from browsing the Web to navigating enterprise software tools. The company previously closed a $65 million Series A round. Nothing seems to be stopping generative AI startups from raising large sums of money.

Anthropic, $300M

Sector – Ai
Just weeks after raising hundreds of millions of dollars from Google, we learned that Anthropic is raising another round of $300 million from a pre-investment valuation of $4.1 billion. Spark Capital was the lead investor in that round. Last month, Google invested between $300 million and $400 million in the startup. The deal comes just two weeks after Microsoft’s massive $10 billion investment in OpenAI was revealed. Anthropic’s AI chatbot, Claude, is in closed beta mode, but a document detailing its goals suggests that it will fight harmful cues by explaining why they are dangerous or wrong. Prior to this year’s massive fundraising, Anthropic, which, with limited revenue, raised $704 million in Series A and Series B in 2022, Series B was led by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

Element8, $200M

Sector – Telecommunications
According to recent data from the Pew Research Center, about a quarter of U.S. residents don’t have home broadband Internet access, and in rural areas the figure is even lower. Element8, a Dallas-based Internet service provider, is looking to change that and has raised a $200 million strategic investment from Digital Alpha to help do so. Element8 also announced it has acquired Oklahoma City-based high-speed Internet service provider AtLink Services for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2015, the company received its first outside funding.

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We have summarized the results of the past month and hope you found the information helpful. Stay tuned for more information.