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[End scene.] Have a great weekend, everyone.:)
Before we go, we leave you with this week's StrictlyVC Download, featuring half a dozen stories that you may have missed this week or might want a better handle on, from why the public markets nosedived, to what's happening at Hopin, to VC Bill Gurley's advice to founders and newer VCs as valuations fall back to earth.
Giant thanks to equity crowdfunding outfit SeedInvest for sponsoring this week's episode. NowRx has already raised $43 million via SeedInvest's platform, and it's just one of hundreds of other startups to raise funding from the more than 600,000 investors on SeedInvest's platform. To learn more, visit: go.seedinvest.com/vc.
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The Nasdaq dropped 4.2% today, bringing its losses for the month to more than 13%, its worst showing since October 2008. The index is down 21% this year, its worst start to a year on record.
In related news, Amazon shares fell 14% today, their biggest one-day drop since 2006(!), bringing their losses for the year to 26%. The company posted its first quarterly loss in seven years—a result that reflected broad economic trends related to a slump in online shopping, higher costs from inflation and supply-chain woes, and market jitters over electric-vehicle startups, notes the WSJ.
Twitter is having a meltdown moment. During a company-wide meeting today, employees demanded answers to how managers planned to handle an anticipated mass exodus prompted by Elon Musk, reports Reuters, which was listening and suggested afterward that no one sounded satisfied by what they heard. After the meeting, one Twitter employee told Reuters there's little trust in what executives have to say at this point. "The PR speak is not landing. They told us, 'Don't leak and do a job you are proud of,' but there is no clear incentive for employees to do this."
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| USV Quietly Announces $625 Million Across Two New Funds |
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Union Square Ventures (USV), the 19-year-old, New York-based venture firm, has raised $275 million for its eighth early-stage fund and $350 million for its fourth opportunity fund, the firm announced in a blog post yesterday.
In sharing news of the two new vehicles, firm partner Andy Weissman and the firm's general counsel, Samson Mesele, wrote that USV plans to "invest our new funds around the same thesis as our previous funds: we are looking for opportunities in the market that align with our Thesis 3.0." (USV has written previously that this updated thesis centers on "trusted brands that broaden access to knowledge, capital, and well-being by leveraging networks, platforms, and protocols.)
Relatedly, USV will continue to invest in "both Web2 and Web3 companies and projects," the post states.
Early last year, when Weissman announced in a similar blog post that USV had raised $250 million for its seventh core fund, he wrote explicitly that as in USV's "last several funds," the firm planned to invest roughly 30% of the capital in crypto-related investments and that it intended to hold tokens, and equity, in early-stage blockchain-related projects.
One of these newer, related bets is Polygon, a platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development.
More here.
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Coherent, a four-year-old, Hong Kong-based outfit that says it creates customized APIs out of business logic housed inside spreadsheets, has raised $75 million in Series B funding. Maverick Capital led the round, joined by a mix of new and previous investors, including Owl Rock, GreatPoint Ventures, Cathay Innovation, and Franklin Templeton. VentureBeat has more here.
VisionNav Robotics, a six-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based company that specializes in autonomous forklifts, stacking vehicles and other logistics robots, is the latest industrial robot maker from China to get funded. The Shenzhen-based automated guided vehicle (AGV) startup has snagged 500 million yuan (around $76 million) from a Series C extension round led by Meituan, China’s food delivery giant, and 5Y Capital, a prominent venture capital firm in the country.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Clerk, a four-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based startup whose digital advertising network, called Grocery TV, provides screens (initially in the checkout aisle) that brands and retailers can leverage, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Sageview Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Concert Health, a six-year-old, San Diego-based behavioral health medical group, raised $42 million in Series B funding led by Define Ventures. Other backers in the round include Healthy Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners, Townhall Ventures, CommonSpirit Health, and Advent Health. MedCity News has more here.
Enveil, a six-year-old, Fulton, Md.-based developer of privacy-focused search and analytics tools, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by USAA. Other backers include Mastercard, Capital One Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta, among numerous others. TechCrunch has more here.
Kard, a six-year-old, New York-based rewards infrastructure API that helps any company that issues a payment card build a customized rewards program for its cardholders, has raised $23 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round, joined by Fin Capital, s12f, Underscore VC, and angel investors. More here.
Madison Reed, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based hair coloring beauty brand, has raised $33 million in new funding led by Sandbridge Capital, with participation from Marcy Venture Partners. The company, which is using some of the capital to grow its brick-and-mortar business (it operates so-called color bars), has now raised around $250 million altogether. Forbes has more here.
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52 North Health, a four-year-old, Cambridge, U.K.-based clinical A.I. and medical device-based system for cancer patients -- its first product can be used by patients outside of hospital to monitor their risk of neutropenic sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication of chemotherapy -- has raised £1 million ($1.26 million) in funding led by Cambridge Enterprise. Tech.eu has more here.
Advanced Ionics, a five-year-old, Milwaukee, Wi.-based company developing industrial electrolyzers that produce hydrogen — a key component of materials like metal, glass and plastic — in a way it says is more sustainable and costs less than the current fossil fuel-derived hydrogen, has raised $4.2 million in new funding led by Clean Energy Ventures. More here.
Ribon, a six-year-old, Brazil-based platform that offers a gamified charitable giving experience, has raised $3.5 million in post-seed funding led by Valor Capital Group. Other backers in the round include Bitkraft, Kenetic, Flori Ventures, 2TM funds, Yield Guild Games CEO Gabby Dizon, and Balancer CEO Fernando Martinelli. LABS has more here.
TruckBook, a four-year-old, Rocklin, Ca.-based platform that supports independent owner-operators of trucking companies with load booking and other services, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Moneta Ventures. Sacramento Inno has more here.
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Wondering why LPs are emailing you with basic requests even after you launched an investor portal? Most portals lack the key features that drive LP adoption: integrated digital subscriptions, a consumer tech-grade UI, and the ability to visualize all your data (not just documents). Juniper Square completely reimagined the investor portal to give your LPs the absolute best experience. Join firms like Haun, GSV, Viewpoint, and more who give their LPs the experience they deserve with Juniper Square.
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Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick could walk away with as much as $520 million after Microsoft completes its planned purchase of the videogame company, according to new securities filings. They show that Kotick would receive $14.4 million in severance if he is terminated or quits under a variety of circumstances within a year of a change of control at the company. They also show Kotick owns 4.3 million shares and has the right to acquire another 2.2 million—potentially worth just over $500 million combined at the $95-a-share deal price, observes the WSJ.
From Bloomberg: "Lex Van Dam launched a private club for the investment firms of the super-rich during one of the worst periods of the pandemic. Now, as the world reopens, the former Goldman Sachs Group proprietary trader’s business is bustling. Van Dam set up SFO Alliance in May 2020 as an invitation-only club for those in the secretive world of family offices to explore investment ideas. Over the past two years, the London-based group has hosted almost 100 events and ballooned from just a handful of firms to about 250 globally, with combined assets under management of at least $500 billion." More here.
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On the one hand: The billionaire crew that encouraged Elon Musk's Twitter takeover.
But also: Elon Musk's Starlink, the SpaceX-run satellite service, has become a lifeline for Ukrainians.
Instacart searches for a direction as its pandemic boom fades.
Carvana's financial troubles spilled over into debt markets this week when the online used-car dealer struggled to sell bonds and was forced to turn to Apollo Global Management for $1.6 billion to salvage the deal. Carvana went public in 2017. The WSJ takes a look here.
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SeedInvest takes the pain out of the fundraising process, allowing founders to spend less time pitching investors and more time building. SeedInvest has a community of more than 600,000 individual investors, who combined have played a role in successful raises for more than 250 startups. Whether you’re raising Seed to Series B, SeedInvest is ready to help you get there. Learn more and apply to raise.
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