Good day. While late-stage investments helped buoy venture capital fundraising in the second quarter, exits underperformed. 

The quarter saw 147 exits, putting the exit count for the year on pace to finish at its lowest level since 2011, according to a report from PitchBook Data Inc. and the National Venture Capital Association. In comparison, the venture industry notched 1,072 and 1,062 exits in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Initial public offerings and buyouts of venture-backed companies accounted for the sharpest drop. Both are on track to reach roughly half of 2019’s totals.

Last quarter’s exits were valued at roughly $21 billion, bringing the half-year total to about $45 billion. At this pace, exits will finish the year at pre-2017 values, the report notes.

As a point of optimism, the report notes that data startup Palantir Technologies Inc. and work-management software company Asana Inc. could both launch sizable IPOs and boost exit figures by year’s end.

And now on to the news...

The graduate. AngelList has become a popular website for startups to raise seed funding. Now some AngelList investors have gone on to raise their own traditional venture funds. The latest angel to graduate is Zach Coelius, founder of Coelius Capital, which has raised $45 million after Mr. Coelius backed hot startups on AngelList such as Cruise Automation Inc., WSJ Pro’s Tomio Geron reports.

• Mr. Coelius has also committed to providing access to many deals done through his fund to his AngelList followers, he said. This means that in addition to the money that his fund invests, he will enable his approximately 2,000 AngelList followers to invest as well.
   
• Coelius's new capital includes two funds, a $15 million early-stage focused fund and a $30 million later-stage focused opportunity fund that could grow in size.
   
• Coelius's sole limited partner is Industry Ventures, a firm that buys secondary stakes in venture funds and startups while also investing in venture funds and startups through a fund-of-funds.

Under review. SoftBank Group Corp. is exploring alternatives including a full or partial sale or public offering of British chip designer Arm Holdings, which the Japanese conglomerate bought four years ago for $32 billion, The Wall Street Journal’s Dana Cimilluca and Cara Lombardo report. The review, on which Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is advising, is at an early stage. It isn’t known how much interest financial or industry players might have in Arm, and it is possible SoftBank will ultimately choose to do nothing.

Funds

Enlight Growth Partners raised a $110.6 million fund, according to a regulatory filing. The Shanghai-based firm invests primarily in the technology, media and Internet-enabled consumer sectors.

Energy investor Cottonwood Venture Partners raised $62.1 million for its CVP Energy Technology Fund II LP, a filing said. Earlier this year, the Houston-based firm participated in a funding round for industrial rental equipment marketplace Hitched Inc.

People

Event marketing automation software provider Banzai named Kurt J. Bilafer as chief revenue officer. Mr. Bilafer has held a number of sales and marketing roles at Amazon, SAP, WePay and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In March, Seattle-based Banzai raised a $7 million Series A round from investors including DNX Ventures and Vulcan Capital.

Exits

Foodee Inc. acquired office catering peer Chewse for an undisclosed amount. In addition to the deal, Canada-based Foodee raised $13 million in equity led by BDC Capital, along with debt from an unnamed Canadian bank. Chewse was backed by investors including Foundry Group.

Auth0 Inc., a Bellevue, Wash.-based developer of identity-authentication software, closed a $120 million Series F round, bringing the company’s valuation to $1.92 billion. Salesforce Ventures led the funding, which included participation from additional new investor DTCP, along with existing backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Meritech Capital, World Innovation Lab, Trinity Ventures, Telstra Ventures and K9 Ventures.

Pricefx, a German cloud-pricing software developer, raised $65 million in Series C financing. Funds advised by Apax Digital led the round, with additional support from Digital+ Partners.

Lattice, a San Francisco-based employee performance management startup, secured $45 million in Series D funding. Tiger Global led the round, with participation from Frontline Ventures, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital Partners, Fuel Capital and Y Combinator.

NS1, a New York-based application traffic management provider, completed a $40 million Series D round. Energy Impact Partners led the investment, with Partner Shawn Cherian joining the company’s board.

Komaza, a Kenyan sustainable forestry startup, closed $28 million toward a targeted $33 million Series B round. Novastar Ventures along with limited partners AXA Investment Managers and FMO co-led the funding, which also included participation from Mirova’s Land Degradation Neutrality Fund.

Traceable, a San Francisco-based application security monitoring platform, launched with $20 million in Series A funding from Unusual Ventures and BIG Labs.

Abacus.AI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research and cloud services provider formerly known as RealityEngines.AI, picked up $13 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures led the round, which included participation from Decibel Ventures and others. Mike Volpi from Index and Ram Shriram will join the board.

Beekeeper AG, a Zurich-based mobile workforce platform, added $10 million in Series B financing, bringing the round total to $60 million. Energize Ventures led the add-on portion, with participation from HighSage Ventures, SwissCanto, Thayer Ventures, Swisscom, Investiere, Alpana Ventures and Swiss Post.

TradeDepot Inc., a Nigerian business-to-business ecommerce platform for consumer goods in Africa, secured $10 million in pre-Series B financing co-led by Partech, International Finance Corp., Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative and MSA Capital.

CYR3CON, a Tempe, Ariz.-based cybersecurity prediction software platform, landed an $8.2 million round of financing. Pivotal Group led the investment, with participation from Trumpf Ventures, 3Lines Venture Capital, DF Enterprises, Hike Ventures and others. Pivotal’s F. Francis Najafi will join the board, along with former NSA deputy director Bill Crowell.

Sourcegraph, a San Francisco-based code search and intelligence provider, added $5 million in Series B funding from Felicis Ventures. In March, the company raised $23 million toward the round from Craft Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Goldcrest Capital and others.

Orbital Witness, a London-based provider of legal services for real-estate transactions, was seeded with a £3.3 million ($4.1 million) investment. LocalGlobe and Outward VC led the round, with Seedcamp and JLL Spark also participating.

• Virtual camp, it turns out, isn’t much more fun than remote school was
   
• Searching for Video? Google pushes YouTube over rivals
   
• TikTok, bracing for scrutiny in Australia, seeks to reassure lawmakers
   
• U.K. to ban Huawei from its 5G networks amid China-U.S. tensions

• Amazon to test Dash Cart, a smart grocery shopping cart that sees what you buy (TechCrunch)
   
• Axon says it’s a software firm, but its Tasers still dominate the news (Bloomberg)
   
• Venture Capital firms pushed to take historically black colleges as LPs (The Information)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Tomio Geron, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc, @tomiogeron, @ychernova, @BrianPGormley, @marcvarta.