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Coinbase revealed today that usage is declining and that it has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the first quarter, sending the stock tumbling in after-hours trading. Following the after-market report, shares traded around $61, a world away from the $381 where the stock opened trading when Coinbase went public a little over a year ago. The WSJ has more here.
Shares of Amazon have given up nearly all of their gains from the pandemic. The stock closed at $2,177.18 today, up just .06% from yesterday. The last time Amazon traded around these prices was on Feb. 20, 2020. CNBC has more here.
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| Tiger Global, Hit by $17B in Hedge Fund Losses, Has Nearly Depleted Its Newest VC Fund |
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Tiger Global is having a year.
According to a new report from the Financial Times, the low-flying-yet-seemingly-ubiquitous 21-year-old outfit has seen losses of about $17 billion during this year’s tech stock sell-off. The FT notes that’s one of the biggest dollar declines for a hedge fund in history.
As shocking, per the FT, according to the calculations of a fund of hedge funds run by the Edmond de Rothschild Group, Tiger Global’s hedge fund assets have been so hard hit that the outfit has in four months erased about two-thirds of its gains since its launch in 2001. (Ouch.)
The question is whether that trouncing will impact the firm’s venture business, which — like that of many other venture businesses — has ballooned rapidly in recent years. In 2020, the firm closed its twelfth venture fund with $3.75 billion in capital commitments. Early last year, it closed its thirteenth venture fund (titled XIV for superstitious reasons) with $6.65 billion before closing its newest fund, fund XV, with a massive $12.7 billion in capital commitments in March of this year.
Yet even that new fund — which reportedly took less than six months to raise and includes $1.5 billion in commitments from Tiger’s own employees — is almost fully invested already, according to a source close to the firm.
On the one hand, it’s not entirely astonishing to those paying attention that Tiger Global has put so much money to work already. It added 118 unicorn companies to its list of portfolio companies last year, according to Crunchbase News, and it continued to outpace every other investor in the first quarter of this year.
Those rounds, at least until earlier this year, were not small. In December, Tiger Global led a $1.8 billion Series B investment into the nuclear fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems. It November, it led a $600 million Series D round for the electric vehicle company Nuro.
The 78 deals it led in the first quarter of this year — including a $768 million Series E round for Getir, the Istanbul-based on-demand delivery service, a $530 million Series D round for the Paris-based online bank Qonto and a $273 million Series C round for French wholesale marketplace Ankorstore — wound up in companies that collectively raised $7.6 billion, Crunchbase News reported last month.
Still, $12.7 billion is a lot of money, and it’s not even June. (It's not even mid-May.)
The question begged, naturally, is how much money Tiger can collect for its next fund — and by when.
More here.
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Abnormal Security, a four-year-old startup based in San Francisco that combats email phishing attempts, raised a $210 million Series C round at a $4 billion valuation. The round was led by Insight Partners, with additional participation from Greylock and Menlo Ventures. The company has raised a total of $284 million. VentureBeat has more here.
Arcardia, an eight-year-old startup based in Washington, D.C.that has created an API enabling consumers to share their energy us with businesses, raised a $200 million Series E. The round, which was led by JP Morgan, values the company at $1.45 billion valuation. Triangle Peak Partners participated in the financing, as well as previous investors Camber Creek, Tiger Global Management, Wellington Management, and Drawdown Fund. The company has raised a total of $370.5 million. Axios has more here.
Brightseed, a five-year-old startup based in San Francisco that uses a machine learning platform to identify and categorize plant compounds, raised a $68 million Series B round led by Temasek; previous investors Lewis & Clark AgriFood, S2G Ventures, CGC Ventures, Germin8, and AgFunder also joined the round. The company has raised a total of $95.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Byrd, a six-year-old, Vienna, Austria-based company that's building a network of operations providing warehousing, delivery services and software for its e-commerce customers, raised a $56 million Series C round led by Cambridge Capital, with additional participation from Speedinvest, Mouro Capital, and Elevator Ventures. The company has raised a total of $78.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Certn, a six-year-old, Victoria, British Columbia-based company that provides AI-powered background screening solutions to enterprises, says it has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by B Capital. VentureBeat has more here.
Chainalysis, an eight-year-old, New York-based startup that sells services to detect and track crypto fraud, has raised a $170 million round of funding at an $8.6 billion valuation post-money valuation co-led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and an existing investor in the company, says The Information. The company had raised $366 million previously from investors. More here.
Faire, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace connecting retailers to indie brands globally, has raised a $416 million extension to its Series G financing, more than doubling the size of the round, the company confirmed to TechCrunch today. With the additional capital, Faire is now valued at $12.59 billion post-money, says the company, which has raised $1.4 billion altogether. Durable Capital Partners, D1 Capital Partners and Dragoneer Investment Group co-led the first tranche of the financing. More here.
Hugging Face, a six-year-old startup based in New York that is building a repository of machine learning modules, raised a $100 million Series C. The round, which was led by Lux Capital, values the company at $2 billion. Sequoia Capital, Coatue, and previous investors Addition, Betaworks, AIX Ventures, and Thirty Five Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $161.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.
KuCoin, a five-year-old crypto exchange based in the Seychelles that competes with Binance, Coinbase, FTX and Crypto.com among others, raised $150 million at a $10 billion valuation. The lead investor was Jump Crypto, with additional participation from Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners. The company has raised a total of $170 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Mashgin, an eight-year-old startup based in Palo Alto that makes touchless payment kiosks that use computer vision and AI, raised $62.5 million in Series B funding. NEA led the round; Matrix Partners also contributed. The company has raised a total of $73.7 million. Grocery Dive has more here.
MOMA Therapeutics, a two-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is looking to create new drugs based on a family of more than 400 enzymes, raised $150 million in Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Other backers in the round included Section 32, Pavilion Capital, Invus, LifeSci Venture Partners and earlier investors Third Rock Ventures, Nextech Invest, Cormorant Asset Management, Casdin Capital, Rock Springs Capital, Creacion Ventures, and Alexandria Venture Investments. The company has raised a total of $236 million. Fierce Biotech has more here.
Opn (formerly known as Synqa), a two-year-old digital payments processor based in Tokyo, raised a $120 million Series C extension from a syndicate made up of Japan Investment Corp., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and Mars Growth Capital. Reuters has more here.
Supabase, a two-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based open-source database-as-a-service (DBaaS) company, has raised $80 million in Series B funding led by Felicis. Earlier backers Coatue and Lightspeed also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $116 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Stord, a seven-year-old startup based in Atlanta that creates SaaS supply chain software for e-commerce businesses, raised a $120 million Series D at a $1.3 billion valuation. The lead was Franklin Templeton, with additional participation from Founders Fund, BOND, and Susa Ventures. The company has raised a total of $325 million. Atlanta Inno has more here.
Vention, a six-year-old startup based in Montreal that creates integrated software and hardware applications for manufacturing and warehouse businesses, raised a $95 million Series C round led by Georgian; Fidelity Investment Canada and previous investors White Star Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Bolt Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $138.8 million. The Robot Report has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Azumo, a six-year-old display maker based in Chicago that uses sunlight-readable, reflective “LCD 2.0” technology that it says can reduce LCD power consumption by as much as ten times, has raised $30 million in funding. Anzu Partners led the deal, joined by SABIC Ventures, VectoIQ, Dipalo Ventures, and Energy Foundry. More here.
Bookaway, a five-year-old startup based in Tel Aviv that enables consumers to book ground transportation through a network of 7,000 providers, raised a $35 million Series C led by Red Dot Capital Partners; Tenere Capital and previous investors Aleph, Corner Ventures and Entrée Capital also participated. The company has raised a total of $81 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Casa, a four-year-old, U.S.-based bitcoin storage company, has raised $21 million in funding led by Acrew Capital. CoinDesk has more here.
Common Energy, a five-year-old startup based in New York that provides project owners with a SaaS platform to manage and monetize complex, multi-tenant distributed generation projects, raised a $16.5 million round from S2G Ventures. Solar Builder has more here.
Domain Therapeutics, a twenty-one-year-old startup based in Strasbourg, France, that specializes in discovering in immuno-oncology drugs targeting G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), raised $42 million in Series A funds co-led by Panacea Ventures, CTI Life Sciences, and 3B Future Health Fund; adMare BioInnovations, Schroders Capital, Omnes, Turenne Capital, Theodorus, Viva BioInnovator, and previous investor Seventure Partners also took part in the financing. The company has raised a total of $89.4 million. EndPoints News has more here.
Dusty Robotics, a four-year-old startup based in Mountain View, Ca., that makes a robotic printer that prints up plans on construction sites, raised a $45 million Series B round. The lead was Scale Venture Partners. Previous investors Baseline Ventures, Canaan Partners, Root Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, and Cantos also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $68.7 million. Forbes has more here.
Mint House, a five-year-old startup based in New York that is building upscale corporate housing, raised a $35 million Series B round led by Mark Scheinberg. Revolution Ventures, Allegion Ventures, and Ingleside Investors also participated. The company has raised a total of $68.3 million. Skift has more here.
Oriient, a six-year-old startup based in Tel Aviv that provides advanced GPS services for indoor spaces, raised an $11 million Series A round; investors included OurCrowd, Regal Four, F2 VC, NGN Partners, and Future Energy Ventures. The company has raised a total of $15.1 million. Calcalist has more here.
Osmind, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that makes software to chart and update patient information and documents, with a focus on mental health, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by DFJ Growth. Other participants included Susa Ventures, General Catalyst, Future Ventures, Tiger Global, Pear VC and angel investors. Fast Company has more here.
Sencrop, a six-year-old, Lomme, France-based outfit selling subscription-based software to help farmers mitigate risks from extreme weather events to diseases that affect various crops, has raised $18 million in Series B funding led by JVP. TechCrunch has more here.
Slai, a 14-month-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based fast prototyping platform for machine learning apps, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Tiger Global, with additional investment from Y Combinator, Charge Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, Twenty Two Ventures and Soma Capital, along with angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
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AboveBoard, a two-year-old, New York-based executive hiring platform connecting qualified, diverse executives with board and full-time opportunities, has raised $6 million in funding from True, a global talent market placement platform. TechCrunch has more here.
Anja Health, a 16-month-old startup based in Los Angeles that freezes umbilical cord and placenta’s stem cells for future disease treatment purposes, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Seven Seven Six; Harvest Ventures and Crista Galli Ventures also chipped in. More here.
Cogniteam, a 15-year-old startup based in Tel Aviv that makes software packages for robots, raised a Series A round of $5.6 million. Investors included Seabarn Management’s Andrew Owens and Panthera family office members. The company has raised a total of $9.8 million. Robotics 24/7 has more here.
Eureka Robotics, a four-year-old startup based in Singapore that develops robots for precision handling, assembly, inspection, drilling, and other tasks, raised a pre-Series A round of $4.25 million led by UTEC; Touchstone Partners and previous investor ATEQ filled out the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Freeverse, a three-year-old startup based in Barcelona that enables companies (such as brands, game developers, or other content creators) to change NFTs based on how they are used by their owners, raised $10.5 million in Series A capital. The leads were Earlybird Venture Capital and Target Global; Adara Ventures, 4Founders Capital, soccer player Mario Götze, OneFootball CEO Lucas von Cranach, and others. The company has raised a total of $11.5 million. VentureBeat has more here.
Handspring, a one-year-old startup based in Newark, N.J., that aims to deliver pediatric mental health care over the web, raised a $6.2 million seed round. The deal was co-led by Newark Venture Partners and NextView Ventures, with additional participation from 25madison Ventures, Arkitekt Ventures, and Quantum Angels. MobiHealth News has more here.
Mentum, a one-year-old startup based in San Francisco that is fashioning customizable investment APIs for Latin American businesses interested in providing their customers with access to mutual funds, ETFs, and stocks, raised a $4.2 million round. The lead was Gradient Ventures, with additional capital provided by Soma Capital and Y Combinator. The company has raised a total of $4.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Rensair, a two-year-old startup based in London that makes a hospital-grade air purifier for businesses, raised a $7 million Series A. The round was led by Hoxton Ventures. Business Insider has more here.
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A $725 million ecosystem fund has been raised for the Flow blockchain platform. Backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Greenfield One, Liberty City Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and Dapper Ventures, the venture arm of Dapper Labs, which created the blockchain and uses it to power its collectibles marketplaces NBA Top Shot and the blockchain game CryptoKitties (which launched on the Ethereum blockchain but was set to expand onto the Flow blockchain as of last year). Decrypt has more here.
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Salesforce today announced that it will acquire Troops.ai, a six-year-old, bot-based service that integrates with Slack to make it easier for sales teams to retrieve and update data across Salesforce’s various systems. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Salesforce said that Troops -- which had raised $19.4 million from investors -- will become a part of Slack when the acquisition closes in Q2 2023, subject to customary closing conditions. TechCrunch has more here.
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SoulCycle founders Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler are now building a company -- Peoplehood -- centered on a kind of group therapy.
Bill Gates says he has tested positive for COVID-19. The 66-year-old wrote in a tweet today that he is experiencing mild symptoms and is "following the experts' advice" by isolating himself until he's healthy. "I'm fortunate to be vaccinated and boosted and have access to testing and great medical care," he tweeted.
Elon Musk weighed in on Tesla, SpaceX and his numerous other companies — along the one he's still trying to buy — during an 80-minute interview today hosted by the Financial Times. Here are some highlights.
Elon Musk also said he would allow Donald Trump back on Twitter, calling Twitter’s ban of Trump was a “morally bad decision.” “If there are tweets that are wrong and bad, those should be either deleted or made invisible, and a suspension—a temporary suspension—is appropriate, but not a permanent ban,” Musk said.
Mike "Beeple" Winkelmann tells Decrypt the next era of NFTs will focus on 'emotional connection and utility. More here.
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Whoa. Venture capital and private equity funds concentrating on the Greater China region raised just $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2022, according to estimates from industry data provider Preqin, down more than 90 percent over the same period last year. It's the smallest haul since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009. The Financial Times has the story here.
Get ready for the forever resignation(?). A new report from the research firm Gartner predicts that high levels of resignations will be a permanent fixture of the job market. Gartner estimates voluntary turnover will remain nearly 20% higher than it was before the pandemic. In a large company with 25,000 employees, that could translate to an additional 1,000 people quitting a year, notes Business Insider, which has the story here.
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The Emerson Collective venture team invests in startups that are positively impacting the world, and they're looking to bring aboard an associate with two to four years of relevant work experience. The job is in San Francisco or Palo Alto, Ca. Apply here.
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Carvana, a used-car retailer in the United States that raised at least $1.6 billion from venture investors before going public in 2017, announced 2,500 layoffs today. The staffing cuts, detailed in a filing with the SEC, are part of the company’s “previously announced plans to better align staffing and expense levels with sales volumes,” Carvana writes. TechCrunch has more here.
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Bolt built an $11 billion payment business on inflated metrics and eager investors, reports the New York Times.
Five years after its kickoff, SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund is being battered by the tech selloff, making for an embarrassing performance that lags behind the overall stock market since its launch, notes the WSJ.
Netflix could introduce its lower-priced ad-supported tier by the end of the year, a more accelerated timeline than originally indicated, the company recently told employees.
Trying to figure out stablecoin arbitrage? Here's a great explainer.
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