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Uber is being sued by 550 women passengers across the U.S. who have alleged they were assaulted by drivers on the platform. The complaint, which was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court today, alleges that passengers were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed or otherwise attacked by Uber drivers, which, holy moly. More here and here and here.
Amid a stock market rout driven by fears of a looming recession, VCs have pulled back . . . but not as much as you might have guessed they would. The value of deals struck in the first half of 2022 dropped to $144.2 billion from $158.2 billion over the same period last year, according to new data from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. Reuters has the story here.
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How -- and why -- we hacked the efficient frontier: Markets today are more efficient than ever. So we were shocked when we discovered a $2 trillion asset class, with better risk-adjusted returns than equities, that had yet to be made investible. That’s why we became the first company to securitize it by filing it with the SEC. Now, we are on track to achieve more than $1.3 billion in AUM, and have realized a +29% net IRR, 3 years in a row. To join us, use this exclusive link.
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Animoca Brands, the eight-year-old, Hong Kong-based, seemingly ubiquitous blockchain gaming and venture studio, has closed another big round of funding -- $75.32 million -- at a pre-money valuation of $5.9 billion backed by Liberty City Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Alpha Wave Ventures, 19T, SG Spring Limited Partnership Fund and others. The raise represents the second tranche of funding following a $358.8 million raise in
January that was supported by Sequoia China, Winklevoss Capital, ParaFi Capital and 10T Holdings, among others. Cointelegraph has more here.
Areteia Therapeutics, a recently formed startup that's aiming to turn a failed ALS drug into a therapy for severe asthma, raised a $350 million Series A round led by Bain Capital Life Sciences, with additional participation from Access Biotechnology, GV, Arch Venture Partners, Saturn Partners, Sanofi, Maverick Capital, and Population Health Partners. MedCity News has more here.
Merlin Labs, a four-year-old, Boston-based outfit that just emerged from stealth with an autonomous flight system designed to be installed in existing aircraft, has raised $105 million in Series B funding co-led by Snowpoint and Baillie Gifford, with participation from GV. The company has now raised $130 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Preply, a ten-year-old Ukrainian startup that has built a marketplace where language tutors and would-be students of different languages connect for online learning sessions, raised a $50 million Series C round. Owl Ventures led the round, joined by Diligent Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Educapital, Evli Growth Partners, Swisscom Ventures, and Orbit Capital. The company has raised a total of approximately $100 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Safe, a five-year-old startup based in Gibraltar that aims to provide its retail and institutional investor client base with the ability to secure crypto assets, data, and identity via smart contracts and authentications using multiple private keys, raised a $100 million round led by 1kx, with Tiger Global, Kraken Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Blockchain Capital, and Coinbase Ventures also pitching in. CoinDesk has more here.
Tecton, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that automates the creation of real-time machine learning models, raised a $100 million Series C round led by Kleiner Perkins; also participating were Databricks, Snowflake Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Tiger Global. The company has raised a total of $160 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Agomab, a five-year-old startup based in Ghent, Belgium, that is working on a clinical-phase treatment for fibrostenotic Crohn’s disease, raised a $40.5 million Series B extension led by Pfizer; additional investors included Walleye Capital and Asabys Partners. The company has raised a total of $137.6 million. FierceBiotech has more here.
Arist, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that delivers "microlearning" content to employees via messaging tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, raised a $12 million in Series A round led by PeakSpan Capital, with additional capital provided by Rainfall Ventures. More here.
Blue Ocean Barns, a startup based in Redwood City, Ca., that has developed a seaweed-based digestive aid for cattle, raised a $20 million Series A led by Valor Equity Partners, with Tao Capital Partners also chipping in. More here.
Brightline, a three-year-old Palo Alto, Ca., startup that provides virtual behavioral health care for children, adolescents, and families, raised a $10 million Series C extension from Northwell Health. The company has raised a total of $219 million. MedCity News has more here.
Deci, a three-year-old startup based in Tel Aviv that is developing a platform to build and optimize text-, audio-, and image-analyzing AI models for their clients' apps and services, raised a $25 million Series B round led by Insight Partners; ICON and previous investors Square Peg Capital, Jibe Ventures, and Fort Ross Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $55.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Dedrone, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that produces systems that detect, identify, locate, and, if need be, neutralize approximately 300 different models of drones produced by over 65 manufacturers, raised a $30 million Series C-1 led by previous investor Axon. Other investors in the round included Aqton Partners, Menlo Ventures, Felicis Ventures, and Target Partners. DroneDJ has more here.
Incident.io, a one-year-old London startup that helps teams respond to software incidents via Slack, raised a $28.7 million Series A led by Index Ventures; additional funds were provided by Point Nine, Mantis VC, and Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger. The company has raised a total of $33.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Inflection Points, a recently formed startup focusing on corporate training and recruiting for Bitcoin and crypto companies, raised $12.6 million from Thiel Capital, Fifth Down Capital, XYZ Fund, Rose Park Advisors, Blockchange, and Third Prime. TechCrunch has more here.
KKday, an eight-year-old, Taiwanese travel e-commerce platform, has raised $20 million in extended Series C funding that brings the company's total funding to $95 million. The new tranche was led by Asia private equity firm TGVest Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Merkle Manufactory, a startup building a decentralized protocol for social networks called Farcaster, raised a $30 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors included Standard Crypto, Elad Gil and 1confirmation. The Block has more here.
Milk Movement, a Canadian startup that is developing cloud-based supply chain software for the dairy industry, raised a $20 million Series A led by VMG Catalyst, with previous investors Dynamo Ventures, Bread & Butter Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, and SOSV also chipping in. DairyReporter.com has more here.
Morpho Labs, a year-old, Paris-based blockchain lending protocol, has raised $18 million in funding co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Variant. More here.
Nexii, a three-year-old Vancouver startup that designs and manufactures low carbon buildings and products, raised a $35 million round at a $1.27 billion valuation. Horizon Technology Finance Corporation and Trinity Capital co-led the deal. Nexii has raised a total of $119.6 million. More here.
Provus, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that aims to automate the end-to-end process for services quoting via collaborative estimation, pricing, and quoting capabilities, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with Accel Partners, Storm Ventures, and Firebolt Ventures also ponying up. More here.
SmartBank, a three-year-old Japanese startup that has developed a Visa prepaid card and personal finance management app, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Globis Capital Partners, with Z VC, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance VC, DBJ Capital, and previous investors Global Brain and ANRI also joining in. TechCrunch has more here.
Xilis, a three-year-old startup based in Durham, N.C., that creates thousands of replicas of a patient’s cancer cells to to help doctors test different approaches to eliminate them, raised a $19 million Series A extension led by FPV Ventures. Additional investors included Alexandria Venture Investments and previous investors EQT Life Sciences, Mubadala, Pear Ventures, GV, Duke Angel Network, Catalio Capital Management, Two Sigma Ventures, Felicis Ventures, and Alix Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.
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The Cool Down, a Bend, Or., startup founded this year that aims to a trusted source for climate change content so that one day it can be a trusted voice in sustainable purchase recommendations, raised a $5.7 million round led by Upfront Ventures, with additional investment from Revolution, Jetstream, Swingbridge, and Niche Capital. Axios has more here.
CrushBank, a 7.5-year-old, Syosset, New York-based SaaS company that says it has trained IBM Watson to be an "engineer" that provides IT support, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by Arthur Ventures, with participation from ConnectWise co-founder David Bellini. More here.
DeltaStream, a startup based in San Mateo, Ca., that is developing a streaming database platform geared toward enterprise customers, raised $10 million in seed funding. NEA was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.
Fold Health, a one-year-old startup based in San Francisco that unifies many different applications such as payments, CRM, and marketing automation for health care providers, raised a $6 million round led by a group of angels, including former Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, SkyFlow CEO Anshu Sharma, Saama Technologies CEO Vivek Sharma, General Catalyst’s Anand Chandrasekharan, Iron Pillar’s Mohanjit Jolly, and Firebolt Ventures’s Gokul Rajaram. More here.
Fuell, a three-year-old Madrid startup that has developed a corporate card and expenses management platform, raised a €1.5 million round from Y Combinator and Fin Capital. The company has raised a total of $2.7 million. Finnovating has more here.
Kins, a one-year-old New York startup that offers a hybrid model for physical therapy that includes in-person visits and virtual care, raised a $4 million seed round led by W Health Ventures, with Redesign Health also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $7.2 million. More here.
Micropep, a six-year-old French startup that is developing crop protection products based on small peptides, raised an €8.75 million Series A-1 round led by Fall Line Capital; previous investors Supernova Invest, Sofinnova Partners, FMC Ventures, and IRDI/SORIDEC also participated. The company has raised a total of €21.3 million. AFN has more here.
Quadrata, a two-year-old startup based in Marina Del Rey, Ca., whose digital passport grants users a unique decentralized identity and allows Dapps to comply with know-your-customer anti-money laundering requirements, raised a $7.5 million seed round led by Dragonfly Capital. Additional investors included Franklin Templeton, Abra, GSR Ventures, Orange DAO, Fellows Fund, GreatPoint Ventures, and August Capital. Coinspeaker has more here.
SiTration, a two-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., whose filtration membrane technology can potentially eliminate the need for energy- and resource-intensive chemical and thermal separation methods used for the extraction of materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel from recycled electric vehicle batteries, raised a $2.35 million led by Azolla Ventures. The company has raised a total of $2.6 million. More here.
Syrup Tech, a two-year-old startup based in New York that says it can help companies predict how much inventory they need via software that can combine traditional transaction data with social media trends and even weather data, raised a $6.3 million round led by Gradient Ventures; additional investors included Flybridge Capital, Firstminute Capital, and Rackhouse Ventures. The company has raised a total of $7.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Tribute Brand, a three-year-old startup based in Zagreb, Croatia, that is developing "digital fashion" products for the metaverse, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Collab+Currency, with Alice Lloyd George, Lattice Capital, RED DAO, and Flamingo DAO also participating. Blockster has more here.
Wonder Robotics, an Israeli startup that is developing software to allow drones to stay safe while operating beyond the visual line of sight of their operator, raised a $4 million round led by Elron Ventures, with Besadno Investment Group joining in. Calcalist has more here.
Zazuu, a four-year-old London startup that helps African consumers understand and navigate the fee structures of different money transfer options, raised a $2 million round; investors included Launch Africa, Founders Factory Africa, Hoaq Club, ODBA VC, and Jonomi Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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Atlas Venture has gathered up more capital for biotech creation. Less than two years after disclosing a $400 million fund, the Massachusetts-based venture firm has reeled in $450 million in capital commitments for its 13th fund, bringing the total raised by Atlas since 2015 past the $2 billion mark. FierceBiotech has more here.
Booz Allen Hamilton, the Virginia-based, defense-focused IT consulting firm, today announced the launch of a corporate venture capital arm, Booz Allen Ventures, that will initially put $100 million toward “strategic” defensive and offensive technologies. The move signals Booz Allen’s desire to shape startups in areas it considers aligned with its core business, mainly AI and machine learning, defense, and cybersecurity. TechCrunch has more here.
Faction, formed as an offshoot of Lightspeed Venture Partners that's being managed by Sam Harrison, co-founder of Blockchain.com’s venture arm (where he remains a venture partner), and Banafsheh Fathieh, an internet and blockchain investor formerly with Prosus Ventures -- has raised $325 million in capital commitments so far for a debut fund, according to Fortune. Faction will be looking to back early-stage blockchain infrastructure projects. More here.
Oak HC/FT, the now eight-year-old, Stamford, Ct.-based venture firm co-founded by veteran investor Annie Lamont (who is also married to Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont), has closed its fifth and newest (and biggest to date) fund with $1.94 billion in capital commitments. The outfit, which focuses on healthcare and fintech outfits, closed its fourth fund with $1.4 billion in February of last year. More here.
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Unity Software, the San Francisco-based interactive gaming engine, announced this morning that it is buying a publicly traded Israeli app monetization company called IronSource for around $4 billion in stock. Existing Unity shareholders Silver Lake and Sequoia will buy a combined $1 billion of Unity convertible notes at merger close, said a press release. Unfortunately, the market doesn't love the deal. Shares of Unity fell 13% today after the merger agreement was announced (Unity
also lowered its 2022 guidance). IronSource, which lets game developers manage advertising and marketing, meanwhile surged 50%, jumping from roughly $2.23 per share to $3.28 per share. IronSource investors needed something to cheer, clearly. IronSource went public on the NYSE in June of last year in a merger with a blank-check company backed by Thoma Bravo that valued the company at $11 billion. Its market cap, even after today's run-up, is $3.35 billion. More here.
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Justworks, a 10-year-old, New York-based company that provides an outsourced payroll and human resources software platform to SMBs, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering on Wednesday. It had planned to raise $214 million by offering 7 million shares at a price range of $29 to $32, but postponed this past January. The company revived its IPO in March with a new blank filing, and most recently updated its prospectus just over two weeks ago. Renaissance Capital has more here.
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Crypto lender Celsius Network has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a month after it froze customer withdrawals. Celsius, which has $167 million cash on hand, said it took the step to stabilize its business and work out a restructuring for all stakeholders. The filing was done in the Southern District of New York. Bloomberg has more here.
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Microsoft today became the latest Big Tech company to cut jobs. Bloomberg reports that the Redmond firm is “realigning business groups and roles” after the close of its fiscal year (on June 30), even as the company intends to grow its headcount in the coming months. The layoffs reportedly affect less than 1% of Microsoft’s 180,000-person workforce and follow no clear pattern with respect to geography or product division. More here.
Tonal, the connected fitness equipment maker, is cutting 35% of its workforce, affecting all levels of its business, reports CNBC. The company employs about 750 people today, compared with a little more than 110 before the Covid-19 pandemic. More here.
Another direct-to-consumer lender is cutting jobs. LoanDepot announced yesterday that it will shed 4,800 people, which is fully 42% of its workforce. About 2,800 of them have already been sent packing, says The Real Deal. With demand for mortgages dropping, it adds, LoanDepot plans to make between $3.5 million and $4.5 million in severance and benefits payments in the second quarter alone.
ChowNow, a 12-year-old outfit that builds branded online ordering systems for restaurants, today announced layoffs internally, says TechCrunch, which reports that roughly 100 people were affected across teams including onboarding, operations, and sales. More here.
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Tesla AI and Autopilot leader Andrej Karpathy announced on Twitter today that, following a four-month leave of absence, he’s no longer working for the electric vehicle maker. “It’s been a great pleasure to help Tesla towards its goals over the last 5 years and a difficult decision to part ways." (Industry watchers wondered if this was coming, given Tesla CEO Elon Musk's antics of late.) CNBC notes that Karpathy’s departure follows the closure of a Tesla office in San Mateo, Ca., where data annotation teams
were helping to improve the company’s driver assistance technology. As for next steps, Karpathy said on Twitter that he has no concrete plans, but sources have previously told TechCrunch that Karpathy is considering some venture investing.
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Kids and teens now spend more time watching TikTok than YouTube, new data shows. TechCrunch has more here.
Having a baby in the U.S. costs around $20,000, according to research published today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Forbes has more here.
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SaaS, licensing or project-based? In this article, we cover the different types of revenue models, their financial characteristics, and the valuation multiples they attract in the markets. Allied Advisers published this report for entrepreneurs and investors to better evaluate how to price their product and services, and understand the impact on valuation and eventual exit implications associated with various revenues models.
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