Astella raises $150 million in fund anchored by Spectra
Last year, the VC returned BRL 230 million to investors
Written by Luiza Ferraz and originally published at Pipeline — Valor Econômico
Astella is about to close its fifth fund. The company is close to the target of US$ 150 million (approximately R$ 780 million), which should make the closing possible next month. Spectra will act as an anchor, a role it has played since the second fund of the house.
With clear shots at companies such as Omie and RD Station, which secured a hefty sum with the sale to Totvs, Astella has more than 40 startups in an agnostic portfolio that ranges from pre-seed to series B — after that, only if it’s a well-deserved follow-on.
“There are people who like to be the Karate Kid, grow up with money, in a hurry, but there are people who like to be Mister Miyagi, who like to pick up their coats and let them go, with tactical movements and resilience. We like to get closer to this type of entrepreneur, who is generally more disciplined and ends up having a differentiated go-to-market strategy”, compares Edson Rigonatti, co-founder of Astella.
With the thesis, the manager returned R$ 230 million to investors last year alone. In fund two, the multiple of invested capital was 6.68x, meaning almost R$7 returned for every R$1 invested — well above the first harvest, when the multiple was 1.74x. Funds 3 and 4 are still in the maturation phase and therefore do not have closed return numbers.
“Many people think that venture capital is a paper game, which values but doesn’t really give a return. With the return of fund 2, we are 268% above the global top decile”, says Rigonatti, taking into account a collection made by Cambridge Associates. “The scale here is different in terms of the aggregate amount of money, but, speaking of return for investors, we are able to give a return equal to or greater than that of foreign funds”, he adds.
As for the timing of tech corrections, added to the series of layoffs and cases of operations closing in the country, Rigonatti does not see it as a surprise. “What we have seen in recent years, particularly in 2020 and 2021, is a detachment from the natural rhythm of the market. We knew that we were at a very fast pace and that at some point it would get back to normal.”
Astella assesses the market through five vital signs: graduation rate, average time between stages, size of rounds, traction at each stage, and valuation. Valuation and graduation rate are still being calibrated, he says. “There were so many people who passed a year without merit in recent years, that the general statistics still haven’t come back. These metrics I think we only correct at the end of the year or beginning of next year.”
With more than BRL 1 billion in assets under management, Astella was founded by Rigonatti and his partner, Laura Constantini. The pair met when he worked at Lucent Technologies in 1998 and she at Credit Suisse as an analyst. In 2003, they founded an M&A boutique, Cicerone Capital. And a few years later, in 2008, they decided to create Astella.
The manager evaluates, on average, 100 startups per month and closes deals with about two every 30 days. Some are currently in the final stages of analysis and may still enter the remaining capital of fund four or already engage the portfolio of fund five.
