AdAstra

AdAstra's founder and managing partner Yulia Kim was recently nominated by Forbes to the prestigious Forbes Cyprus Women in Tech award. The award brought to light a constellation of incredible women running successful businesses and possessing outstanding professional qualities, yet so fragile and feminine, as was beautifully evident at the awards ceremony. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees and best of luck in your professional journeys!

Nominee 5️⃣ — Yulia Kim: Capital Markets Catalyst

Yulia Kim, a seasoned corporate finance professional, excels in developing Cyprus' capital markets. With over two decades of investment banking experience, she has a notable track record in IPOs, M&A, and capital raising.

The recent discussions on interest rates and SHEIN's upcoming public market debut have rekindled enthusiasm for . Nevertheless, in November, four out of six major IPOs in the USA were priced below their anticipated ranges, which to us suggests the lack of conviction. The others in the queue to the newly opened window should feel headwinds. While the market tends to be accessible to high-quality companies experiencing profitable growth, businesses considering entering the public markets must temper their valuation expectations. As the festive season approaches, a few preparing companies are deciding to postpone their IPOs to the next year hoping for a more IPO-friendly environment.



Fortegra, Air Astana, Klarna, Reddit, SBE - Varvit, Norconsult

IPO digest | November 2023 The recent discussions on interest rates and Shein's upcoming public market debut have rekindled enthusiasm for IPOs. Nevertheless, in November, four out of six major IPOs in the USA were priced below their anticipated r...

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 in 3Q23
Today we want to share the key takeaways from the just-released CB Insights 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭. The quarterly general funding is staying low and slow, not surprisingly, given the punishing interest rates and geopolitical environment.
Global funding showed $30.5 bn in 9M23, down 61% from 2022 with 2849 deals recorded, less than half of the 2022 full-year number. In 2Q and 3Q23 the number of deals fell steadily by roughly a fifth in each, as per CB Insights statistics.
Across the 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, the US led the pack with $3.5 bn total check and 310 deals followed by Asia with $2 bn and 167 deals and Europe with $1.3 bn and 181 deals. Notably, the US has gained the deal share by 5pp to 41% at the expense of its peers.
Turning to the 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, VCs continued to claim the largest share at 28% of the total in 3Q23, roughly in line with the 5Y 31% average.
Looking at the 𝐬𝐞𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, Digital Lending attracted $1.7 bn with Insurtech and Payments as distant seconds ($1.1 bn), the rest being split between Capital Markets Techs, Banking, and Wealth Tech.
We highlight here the median deal size hovering in the $3-5 m range in 2019-24, while the averages ranged $14-29 m, indicating large outliers originating on the Private Equity side, particularly on mega-round funding in the US (7 deals) and Asia (5 deals).
: nothing to write home about as the birth rate remains slow. The quarter saw just 2 names entering the club in 3Q23 in the US (BitGo and Kin Insurance) compared to 1 in Asia (Micro Connect) and yawning zeros elsewhere in the world.
Looking at the 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, we notice 135 M&A exits against 144 in 2Q23 and 178 in 1Q23, while and **Cs showed a sharp pick up in activity in percentage terms, albeit from a very low base with 9 and 3 events respectively. The US led the global exit share with 36% of the total roughly in line with the last 4 years' quarterly average. In the IPO space, we highlight 4Paradigm (China) raising $3.8 bn followed by CAB Payments (the UK) with $927 m, and Yondervision (China) raising $87 m. The S**C events included Better ($7.7 bn) and Roadzen ($967 m), both in the US.