“And by having as much of the Insight (team) available to many sizes of companies, we help facilitate our ability to get connected with these companies wherever they might be.” “One of the best ways to be positioned for Series B is to have already done a Series A and, likewise, the best way to do Series C is to have already done Series B,” Hinkle said. Hinkle said the firm isn’t focusing on a certain letter of the alphabet, but instead picks products and management teams it’s excited about. The database shows Insight’s first early-stage deal as involvement in Altitude Software’s $10 million Series B in August 1999. The company’s seed and early-stage deals go as far back as the late 1990s, according to Crunchbase. Nearly 28% are for Series A stage companies, and more than 31% have been Series B stage companies, Crunchbase data shows. Of the disclosed deals it has taken part in so far this year, 4.3% are seed-stage raises. While Insight is often considered a “growth-stage” investor, it conducts a fair share of early-stage investing as well. “We’re not doing anything the market is evolving so quickly, we’re trying to keep up with it.” Where Insight invests “The number of software companies being created is exploding, so we’re trying to meet these companies where they are, and that pace is what we’re trying to keep up with,” Hinkle said. The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to digital work and life further accelerated that Insight has accelerated its pace of investing to catch up with the rapid growth of the software sector, Hinkle said. It also led or co-led 82 funding rounds this year, a 32% year-over-year increase.Įven if other investors are pulling back, Insight isn’t. So far in 2022, the firm participated in 118 funding rounds, most recently Semperis’ $200 million Series C, Xendit’s $300 million Series D, and TradeLink’s seed round, according to Crunchbase data. That’s around triple the number of deals the firm participated in during 2020, when Insight invested in 85 funding rounds, including 83 in venture-backed companies.Īmid a slowing venture market this year– global venture funding in April reached a new 12-month low–Insight has actually picked up its investment pace. Last year, Insight Partners participated in 250 funding rounds, with 242 of those in venture-backed companies, according to Crunchbase data. “We remain as excited today as we were in ’95 about software’s ability to continue changing the world.” What slowdown? “And 2020 was clearly a year where we saw a lot of software adoption accelerated in part because of COVID,” Hinkle said. There are some notable exceptions over the course of the firm’s history, however, like WeWork, the co-working giant, and meal kit delivery provider HelloFresh. Taking a glance at Insight’s most recent investments, the software focus remains true. So the firm started placing bets on the software sector. The thought was that hardware “would commoditize to zero,” according to Hinkle, and that innovation would instead happen on the software layer. Since the firm’s formation in 1995, its focus has been on investing in software companies. Hinkle joined Insight in 2003, and his prior investments include companies such as Twitter, Chegg and Turnitin. We chatted with Ryan Hinkle, managing director at Insight, to learn more about the firm’s strategy with its large new fund, especially given the market downturn, and to understand more about its record 2021. In fact, Insight ranks only behind Tiger Global Management in terms of leading or co-leading investments so far this year, per Crunchbase data. Even against the backdrop of a global pullback in venture spending, the firm is still going strong.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |