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Another week in the books! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Per the usual, our parting gift to you is the newest episode of StrictlyVC Download, featuring longtime VC Brad Feld of Foundry Group. Feld has just republished a second, and thoroughly updated, edition of a book he co-wrote long ago and that a lot of founders and newer investors might want to pick up.
Called Startup Boards: a Field Guide to Building an Effective Board of Directors and available for pre-order now (it comes out next week), it covers a lot of territory, from whether you should be chair of your own board, to managing independent seats, to how to (*cough*) remove a director. Given that boards are dealing with quite a bit of chaos suddenly and emotions are likely high, we thought you might enjoy the calming wisdom of Feld. We enjoyed chatting with him.
Much thanks to this week's podcast sponsor: SeedInvest, a crowdfunding platform with an enormous base of investors in search of innovative startups to fund. Founders, take note when you're looking to raise that first or second or even third round of funding. You can learn more and apply here.
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Tesla just filed its annual proxy statement with the SEC and revealed it plans a three-for-one stock split, and that board member Larry Ellison does not plan to stand for re-election. A stock split is cosmetic, notes CNBC, and could mean that smaller investors feel they can afford the stock, but those investors are minuscule compared to major institutions.
The SEC is investigating Goldman Sachs's asset-management arm over its funds that aim to invest based on environmental, social and governance standards, according to the WSJ. The probe is the latest known instance of regulators’ scrutiny of ESG investing, which has been a boon for asset managers that struggled in recent years to compete with low-fee index funds.
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| Wow, Facebook Really Knows How to Give Someone a Send-Off! |
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So much for that touching goodbye post to Sheryl Sandberg that Mark Zuckerberg posted just 9 days ago, when after a 14-year run at Facebook — now Meta Platforms — Sandberg said she was resigning from her post as COO. At the time, Zuckerberg called Sandberg’s planned departure the “the end of an era” and spoke glowingly of her as an “amazing person, leader, partner, and friend.”
Today, the Wall Street Journal reports — for the second time since Sandberg resigned — that Facebook has been investigating Sandberg since at least the fall for the possible misuse of corporate resources.
Under review: whether she had Facebook employees engaged in work that supported her Lean In foundation, whose mission it is to foster women’s leadership and workplace inclusion; whether she pulled Facebook staffers into the writing and promotion of her second book, “Option B,” which focused on overcoming the sudden death of her husband in 2015; and finally whether she diverted the time and attention of Facebook employees to her upcoming wedding this summer.
What a monster.
We don’t know who is leaking details of this investigation to the WSJ, but if the “people familiar with the matter” are trying to destroy her reputation, they’re doing a comically lousy job. (We reached out to Facebook for more information earlier and have yet to hear back from the company.)
For one thing, no one thinks Sheryl Sandberg is an angel. If they ever did, they reassessed many years ago, across numerous scandals, from Facebook’s obvious ambivalence about data privacy, to her handling of Facebook’s public relations after revelations of Russian interference on the platform in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. (While Zuckerberg launched an apology tour at first, she launched an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat Facebook’s critics.)
It plainly takes a certain kind of person to run a rule-bending company like Facebook, and you can’t help it grow into one of the most powerful companies in world history without getting even dirtier. Still, a newer story leaked to the Journal in April managed to further raise questions about Sandberg.
More here.
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Agilitas Energy, an eight-year-old startup based in Wakefield, Ma., that builds and operates clean energy storage systems, raised a $350 million round with an option to increase this amount to $650 million upon the completion of certain projects. CarVal Investors was the sole investor. More here.
Ancora Biotech, a one-year-old biotherapeutics startup based in based in Newark, Ca., that is developing cancer therapies based on three bispecific antibodies, raised a $60 million Series A co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and SR One. The company has raised a total of $70 million. Endpoints News has more here.
Tessa Therapeutics, a twenty-one-year-old Singapore startup that is developing two different types of anticancer drugs, raised a $126 million Series A round led by Polaris Partners, with additional funds provided by Temasek, EDBI, Heliconia Capital, and Heritas Capital. The company has raised a total of $256 million. FierceBiotech has more here.
Zipmex, a four-year-old South Asian crypto exchange based in Singapore, had been considering a sale to Coinbase, but now The Block reports that Coinbase has agreed to make a strategic investment in the company. The outlet also says Zipmex is looking to raise a $40 million Series B+ round at a $400 million valuation, with Babel Finance as a possible lead. Zipmex has raised a total of $52 million. The Block has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Arduino, a 17-year-old New York startup that is looking to bring its open source microcontrollers to enterprises, raised a $32 million Series B funding led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital, with Renesas, Anzy Partners, and Arm also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.
Boulder Care, a five-year-old startup based in Portland, Or., that provides virtual medical treatment and support for people overcoming substance use disorders, raised a $36 million Series B. Participants in the round included Qiming Venture Partners US, Goodwater Capital, Laerdal Million Lives Fund, First Round Capital, Greycroft, Tusk Venture Partners, and Gaingels. The company has raised a total of $50.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.
H1, a five-year-old New York startup that provides value-based care to Medicaid and dual eligible patients with disabilities using at-home care, raised a $23 million Series C extension from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Menlo Ventures, Transformation Capital, and Novartis Pharma AG, increasing the total size of its Series C previously announced in November to $123 million. The company has raised a total of $193.9 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.
Luminai, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that uses robotic process automation to connect to APIs and improve user workflow, raised a $16 million Series A round led by General Catalyst. TechCrunch has more here.
Maze, a four-year-old Paris startup whose software product research platform facilitates prototype tests and surveys for clients such as Hertz, Sony, Fidelity Investments, BNY Mellon, and Nubank, raised a $40 million Series B led by Felicis Ventures; additional investors included Emergence, Amplify, Partech, Seedcamp, Atlassian Ventures, Zoom Video Communications, and HubSpot Ventures. The company has raised a total of $57.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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Ancient8, a one-year-old blockchain gaming guild based in Ho Chi Minh City, raised $6 million in a funding round via a token sale co-led by Makers Fund and C² Ventures, with additional participation from Pantera Capital, 6th Man Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Folius Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, Th3ia Capital, Sky9 Capital, and Play Ventures. The company has raised a total of $10 million. The Block has more here.
Cloverleaf, a five-year-old startup based in Cincinnati, Oh., that has developed an automated coaching technology designed to bring out the best in workers and teams, raised a $9 million Series A led by Origin Ventures, with additional participation from ScOp Ventures, Mucker Capital, Queen City Angels, Airwing Ventures, 1809, and the JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund. The company has raised a total of $10.8 million. Fintech & Finance News has more here.
Floor, a year-old New York startup whose app aims to make non-fungible tokens (NFT) more accessible and understandable through NFT portfolio tracking, real-time price alerts, live activity for collections, and multi-wallet support, raised an $8 million round led by 6th Man Ventures; also participating were Hannah Grey VC, B Capital, Worklife Ventures, Collab+Currency, Exponent Capital, Eberg, and CoinDesk has more here.
Front, a two-year-old San Francisco startup whose app aims to provide users with a way to manage all of their investments and assets in one place, raised an additional $5.5 million in seed funding led by Streamlined VC, with WndrCo, Rembrandt VC, B3 Capital, CapitalX, and Stonks also participating. The company has raised a total of $10 million. More here.
Request Finance, a five-year-old Singapore startup in the crypto payments space that simplifies and automates invoicing, expenses, and payroll for both centralized and decentralized companies, raised a $5.5 million seed round from Animoca Brands, Balderton Capital, and XAnge. The Block has more here.
Tatsumeeko, a Singapore startup that operates an eponymous multiplayer game on Discord, iOS, Android, and the web, raised a $7.5 million seed round co-led by Delphi Ventures, BITKRAFT Ventures, and DeFiance Capital, with Binance Labs, Animoca Brands, Dialectic, and GuildFi also participating. The company has raised a total of $7.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Titan Casket, a six-year-old Boston startup that is selling caskets to consumers over the web, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Reformation Partners. More here.
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SeedInvest takes some of 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 and accredited investors, who combined have played a role in successful raises for 250+ startups. Whether you’re raising Pre-Seed to Series C, SeedInvest is ready to help you get there. Learn more.
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Layoffs are real, but: job postings for software developers in the U.S. are up 120% above an early 2020 pre-coronavirus pandemic baseline, according to data from recruitment site Indeed.com. ZipRecruiter, another job listings site, said the number of openings in the tech sector was strong, with about 1.6 jobs for every unemployed person in the industry. The Financial Times has the story here.
Revlon plunged 53%, the biggest one-day drop on record, after distressed debt news outlet Reorg reported that the cosmetics empire is preparing to file for bankruptcy. The company, controlled by billionaire Ronald Perelman, could file as soon as next week, Reorg said, citing unnamed sources. More here.
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As firms like Blackstone and Goldman Sachs boost their presence in Florida, top schools are bursting at the seams, and attracting big donations.
"Please be aware that we will be sending home all supplies, workbooks, and items we really should have just thrown away."
Food-departure rituals worth considering.
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The 15 Florida restaurants with Michelin stars.
This Pacific Heights manse just listed for $9 million, and having been to this home, it's going to go quickly, is our guess. (Relatedly, does anyone have $9 million we could borrow.)
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