When President Joe Biden gave China’s ByteDance an ultimatum last month—to either sell TikTok or be banned in the U.S.—dozens of state pension funds were quietly swept into the crosshairs.
After all, behind the $9.5 billion of venture capital that has been poured into ByteDance since 2012 is a sprawling list of U.S. pension funds (and yes, the endowments, nonprofits, insurance companies, and family offices, too).
So how many state pension funds have exposure to ByteDance? Good luck trying to find out.
One of the things I find to be most frustrating covering the private markets is the stunning lack of data. What you can find is usually self-reported. And if you’re filing FOIA requests, the data is hardly ever reported in a uniform way, making it extremely difficult to analyze. So I was intrigued when Andrew King, a venture capitalist focused on national security startups, sent me a report that his advocacy organization, Future Union, had put together on ByteDance. The report pulled publicly available information to track which pensions, endowments, and nonprofits invested in the VC and PE firms that back ByteDance, and it seemed to be the most comprehensive tally to date of how many states were exposed.
But when I reached out to the dozens of pension funds on this list to check the numbers, I got a slew of emails and calls back: We have no exposure; That number isn’t right; We aren’t invested in any venture capital funds; No direct exposure.
That’s the thing. Venture capital firms don’t have to disclose which specific fund they used to invest in a company. Nor do most pensions have to disclose their individual startup holdings. So simply pulling the data of which LPs are invested in which funds isn’t sufficient—an investor in Coatue might not have any exposure to ByteDance, for example. We just can’t know the extent of exposure limited partners have to individual companies.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about something like this. When Russia invaded Ukraine, venture capital funds had to scramble to figure out if any of their LPs were on the newly implemented list of banned entities. Some venture funds apparently didn’t even know who it was that had written them checks. Compliance got very messy.
Now, with global tensions rising around the world, we can only expect to see more of this sort of thing, especially given how entangled U.S. venture capital has become with the rest of the world’s wealth. VC funds have been pouring money, and accepting it, across borders for decades—sometimes to much controversy. There’s no dataset I’m aware of that will lay out precisely how much U.S. capital is sitting in foreign startups, nor how much foreign capital is sitting in U.S. funds and companies.
About a dozen pension funds and endowments have gotten back to me over the past couple days regarding ByteDance. Nearly all of them declined to comment on the record, though a few of them volunteered their level of direct exposure to ByteDance. The New York State Teachers’ Retirement System has approximately $47.6 million exposed to ByteDance. The Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund said, through its private equity investment in a KKR Asia Fund, it had invested $900,000 into ByteDance, which is now worth approximately $3 million. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, through its foundation, has less than $1,500 invested. The Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System said it has a “small position” in ByteDance through an investment in a buyout fund. Some other LPs have more indirect exposure—through positions in funds that had invested in startups acquired by ByteDance. The Maryland State Retirement & Pension System said that, if it did have exposure, it would be indirect through a blind pool investment and “de minimis in amount.”
These are only a few names. Firms like Sequoia Capital China (now separate from Sequoia and renamed HongShan), General Atlantic, Susquehanna International Group, Coatue, Tiger Global, SoftBank, KKR, and Carlyle Group all have money tied up in ByteDance—to name a few. That’s money the firms have been given to invest by a laundry list of LPs, most of whom have zero disclosure requirements.
Congress is increasingly focused on challenging foreign investments that could pose a threat to U.S. security, including through a China-focused committee set up last year that has investigated Shein, Temu, and a handful of VC firms. And yet Congress has no way to actually measure the scope, or impact, of any actions it takes on the retirement funds within their communities.
For now, the U.S. government’s crackdown on Bytedance isn’t on track to make much of a dent in pension plan returns—secondaries markets data from Caplight shows ByteDance shares have been pretty resilient, trading at $120.94 in private transactions, which suggests a valuation of around $202 billion. That’s a haircut from the price of a reported Bytedance share buyback a few months ago, but still a heaping valuation that will likely be a windfall to many LPs.
But a U.S. ban or forced sale of TikTok—and the outcome of TikTok’s lawsuit to challenge either—could still end up wreaking havoc on the company’s valuation. What exactly is at risk here? I wish I could tell you.
Asking Andy…In this week’s “Ask Andy” column, Bonobos cofounder Andy Dunn tackles a question from a founder looking to step back and focus more on their mental health as they’re losing passion for their startup. And he charts out how he thinks about growth: “Grow slower. Growth is overrated. Capitalism loves hyper growth. But company culture loves solid, compounding growth.” Read the whole column here, and you can ask Andy a question here. —Allie Garfinkle
See you tomorrow,
Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: [email protected]
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
– Hysata, a Wollongong, Australia-based electrolyser company, raised $111.3 million in Series B funding. bp Ventures and Templewater led the round and was joined by existing investors IP Group Australia, Kiko Ventures, Virescent Ventures, Hostplus, Vestas Ventures, and others.
– Datology AI, a Redwood City, Calif.-based automated data curation platform designs to help companies train AI models, raised $46 million in Series A funding. Felicis Ventures led the round and was joined by Radical Ventures, Amplify Partners, Elad Gil, M12, and the Amazon Alexa Fund.
– XTEND, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of an AI-powered, human-supervised operating system for drones and robots, raised $40 million in Series B funding. Chartered Group led the round and was joined by Clal-Tech and others.
– Nivoda, a London, U.K.-based diamond and gemstone marketplace, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Avenir Growth Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Headline, Abstract Ventures, and Canaan Ventures.
– RunPod, a Mt. Laurel, N.J.-based cloud provider for AI applications, raised $20 million in seed funding. Intel Capital and Dell Technologies Capital led the round and were joined by others.
– Triomics, a San Francisco-based company using generative AI to streamline workflows for cancer centers, raised $15 million in Series A funding from Lightspeed, Nexus Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator.
– ChangeEngine, a San Francisco and London, U.K.-based platform designed to combine internal marketing and people teams, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Threshold Ventures led the round and was joined by Struck Capital and Bonfire Ventures.
– Ciba Health, a New York City-based digital therapeutics and online healthcare platform designed to provide care to patients with chronic diseases, raised $10 million in Series A funding. DigiTx Partners led the round and was joined by E12 Ventures, 3CC Capital, Plug and Play Ventures, and angel investors.
– Altera, a San Francisco-based developer of digital beings designed to have human traits, raised $9 million in seed funding. Patron and First Spark Ventures led the round and was joined by a16z SPEEDRUN and others.
– Pascal, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of climate-friendly heat pumps, air conditioners, and refrigerators, raised $8 million in seed funding. Engine Ventures led the round and was joined by Khosla Ventures and existing investor Blindspot Ventures.
– Token Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based machine-first identity security platform, raised $7 million in seed funding. TLV Partners and SNR led the round and were joined by angel investors.
– Greenboard, an Austin, Texas-based provider of compliance and operations software for financial services, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Base10 Partners led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Wayfinder Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Twenty Two Ventures, Rogue Capital, Transpose Platform, and others.
– Composabl, a San Francisco-based developer of AI agents for manufacturers, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Momenta Ventures led the round and was joined by Hannah Grey VC, Ridgeline, Exposition, Remus, and angel investors.
– In-House Health, a Denver, Colo. and Tel Aviv, Israel-based AI-powered scheduling and management platform for modern nursing teams, raised $4 million in seed funding. NEA and TMV led the round and were joined by existing investors Vine Ventures and Longevity Venture Partners.
– Mycocycle, a Bolingbrook, Ill.-based company that uses fungi to transform organic waste into reusable materials, raised $3.6 million in a seed extension. Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group led the round and was joined by TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good and others.
– Crestal Network, a San Francisco-based proof-of-performance service marketplace for Web3 developers, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding from Lingfeng Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Kyro Ventures, Veris Ventures, Smape Capital, and others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
– American Clinical Research Services, backed by Latticework Capital Management, acquired Elixia, a Hollywood, Fla.-based clinical research network in the nephrology, neuroscience and infectious disease fields. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Boomi, backed by TPG and Francisco Partners, acquired the federated API management business of APIIDA and API management assets from Cloud Software Group. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Veterinary Pharmaceutical Solutions, backed by Granite Creek Capital Partners, acquired Diamond Animal Health, a Des Moines, Iowa.-based animal compounding pharmacy, Financial terms were not disclosed.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
– Silver Lake, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based private equity firm, raised $20.5 billion for their seventh fund focused on companies in the technology sector.
– EnCap Investments, a Houston, Texas-based private equity firm, raised approximately $1.5 billion for their second Energy Transition Fund focused on companies in decarbonization, low carbon fuel, and carbon management.
