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Chinese tech companies are quietly pulling back from doing business in Russia under pressure from U.S. sanctions and suppliers, says the WSJ. It reports that "several" major companies are curtailing shipments in Russia without making any public announcements. More here.
The war in Ukraine, as seen on Russian TV.
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| Chingona Ventures Lands $52M to Fund Overlooked Founders in Massive Markets |
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Chingona Ventures, a three-year-old, Chicago-based venture outfit that invests in pre-seed startups, primarily in the Midwest and primarily founded by overlooked individuals who are focused on massive markets, has closed a new fund with $52 million in capital commitments. Limited partners in the new fund include PayPal Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Melinda Gates’s Pivotal Ventures, Foundry Group, and the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer’s Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, among others.
It’s a huge step up from the outfit’s $6 million debut fund and a sign of confidence in Samara Hernandez, an engineer who spent six years at Goldman Sachs before joining the venture firm Math Venture Partners in 2015 as an investor and then striking out on her own in 2019 with Chingona, where she remains the firm’s sole general partner.
While it’s a little too early to judge the success of her portfolio, Hernandez has been active, managing to work checks of between $100,000 and $250,000 into 27 companies with that first fund, and investing in eight more with her second effort. Among these portfolio companies is Career Karma, a four-year-old startup that matches employees and contractors with job training programs (and which raised $40 million in January) and Suma Wealth, a financial wellness platform for the Latino community that has raised $6.6 million to date, per Crunchbase data.
Both startups underscore Chingona’s areas of interest, which include fintech startups, as well as startups focused on health and wellness, food tech, and the future of learning.
They also play to Hernandez’s strengths, including an understanding of the massive and growing Latino market in the case of Suma Wealth. (Hernandez, who was born in Mexico and raised in the U.S., notes that one of every four kids being born today in the U.S. is Latino, yet that Latinx companies still attract less than 1% of venture capital funding in this country.)
More here.
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Material Bank, a four-year-old startup based in Boca Raton, Fla., that is creating a marketplace for sampling of architectural, design and construction materials (think paints and wood panelings), raised $175 million in funding. Brookfield Growth led the financing, and Fifth Wall also contributed. The company has raised a total of $323.2 million. Bloomberg has more here.
Redcliffe Lifetech, an eighteen-year-old startup based in Noida, India, that has developed a suite of low-cost diagnostic tests for consumers, raised $61 million in funding. The financing was led by LeapFrog Investments, with additional participation from Healthquad, Schroders, LC Nueva, Growth Spark Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, and Alkemi Venture Partners. The company has raised a total of $76.1 million. Financial Express has more here.
Viaphoton, a two-year-old startup based in Aurora, Il., that makes tools to reduce the time to design fiber architectures for data centers, raised $80 million led by Trinity Capital. The company has raised a total of $106 million. VentureBeat has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Cometh, a Web3 gaming studio based in Paris, raised a $10 million seed round. The co-leads were White Star Capital, Ubisoft, and Stake Capital; Serena Capital, Shima Capital, and IDEO Colab Ventures also participated. CoinDesk has more here.
Heard Health, a three-year-old Seattle-based startup that provides back-office services to therapists, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Footwork VC; Founders Co-Op and Act One Ventures also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $11.3 million. Axios has more here.
Kinetix, a two-year-old startup based in Paris that enables the no-code creation of 3D animations, raised $11 million. Angel investor Adam Ghobarah led the round, joined by Sparkle Ventures. The company has raised a total of $11 million. VentureBeat has more here.
LootRush, a one-year-old Web3 gaming platform based in San Francisco, raised $12 million in seed funding. Paradigm led the deal, with additional participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and assorted angels. Blockchain News has more here.
Synerise, a nine-year-old startup based in Krákow, Poland, that uses AI to develop behavioral datasets for use in online targeting, raised a $23 million Series B round. Carpathian Partners led the deal. The company has raised a total of $42.2 million. The SaaS News has more here.
Team Liquid, a 22-year-old e-sports company based in the Netherlands, raised $35 million in funding at a $415 million valuation led by Ares Management, with additional participation from Revolution Growth and Hiro Capital. Sports Business Journal has more here.
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Cheq, a one-year-old startup based in Wilmington, De., that allows businesses to accept crypto payments, raise $2 million in pre-seed funding. Connect Ventures led the deal, joined by Semantic Ventures, firstminute Capital, and assorted angels. Tech Funding News has more here.
Kabata, a 17-month-old startup based in Los Angeles that is making smart dumbbells, raised $2 million from Courtside Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, and Tribe Capital, as well as NBA athlete Zaza Pachulia, Golden State Warriors EVP Kirk Lacob, AngelList founder Naval Ravikant, Caraway Home founder and CEO Jordan Nathan, and Bonobos co-founder and CEO Andy Dunn. TechCrunch has more here.
Optivolt, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based startup that says it has developed shade tolerant solar systems to power electric devices and machines, just raised $8.2 million in seed funding led by Atlas Innovate. Other investors in the round included Social Impact Capital, Alpha Bridge Ventures, City Light Capital and Peter Relan, the first investor in Discord. Optivolt has now raised $10.1 million altogether. More here.
Seaspire, a four-year-old skincare startup based in Boston, raised $3 million in seed funding led by The Engine; MassMutual, MassVentures, Alumni Ventures, Safar Partners, and angels also participated. BizWomen has more here.
Tomorrow Farms, a one-year-old startup based in New York that's developing animal-free foods for consumers (it's not revealing what foods just yet), raised $8.5 million in seed funding. The lead was Chris Sacca's Lowercarbon Capital; Maveron, Valor Siren Ventures, Simple Food Ventures, and SV Angel also chipped in. The company has now raised a total of $10.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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Bausch + Lomb yesterday priced its IPO below a marketed range to raise $630 million, dimming hopes that the biggest U.S. listing in almost four months might lead a market rebound. The shares slid today in their debut today, too, opening at $18.50 (their target range was initially $21 to $24) and closing the day at $16.
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Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek said today he’s pouring $50 million into the music streaming service, whose shares last month hit their lowest point ($95.22) since it listed as a public company on the NYSE. Tweeted
Ek earlier: “I’ve always been vocal about my strong belief in Spotify and what we are building. So I am putting that belief into action this week by investing $50M in $SPOT. I believe our best days are ahead..."
Elon Musk's modest abode: The Daily Mail (of course) takes readers to the small Texas ranch a block from SpaceX Starbase where Musk lives part of the time, complete with rocket-shaped kids' playhouse and Tesla solar panels.
A California judge today dismissed a lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against Twitter over its decision to suspend his accounts in the fallout of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge James Donato rejected Trump’s argument that Twitter was operating as a “state actor” when it suspended his account in January 2021, calling it not plausible.
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TikTok's work culture doesn't sound . . .good. "Former employees described weight fluctuation, stress or emotional lows so severe they sought therapy," reports the WSJ. "One said she felt such pressure to be present during back-to-back meetings at TikTok that she bled through her pants rather than excuse herself to get a tampon."
Inside Musk's big plans for Twitter.
Google’s cloud group has formed a Web3 team to capitalize on booming popularity of crypto. Former Citigroup exec James Tromans will lead the new group, whose efforts could include better management of blockchain nodes and software for exploring blockchain data in third-party applications. CNBC has more here.
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