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Hello, again, hello! We're back, despite United Airlines' best efforts to keep us in New York until our next birthday. (It isn't coming up.) We appreciate that some of you -- having not caught earlier messaging about our summer break -- worried about what happened to us. It's nice to be missed.:)
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SoftBank today reported a quarterly(!) loss of more than $23 billion after an investing spree gone crushingly wrong. “When we were turning out big profits, I became somewhat delirious, and looking back at myself now, I am quite embarrassed and remorseful,” firm founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said at a news conference this morning. The WSJ has more here.
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| Big Funds 'Screwing with Series A Market But Not Seed Market,' Says Veteran VC Mike Hirshland |
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Mike Hirshland is enjoying 2022. Despite the market’s zigs and zags, he has spent much of his time this past summer in Rhode Island, where relatives from afar have gathered on and off for an extended family reunion. He and partner Raanan Bar-Cohen were also able to close their fifth fund with $150 million in capital commitments at winter’s end — ahead of the stock market collapse that would follow. Indeed, the two now have around $375 million in assets under management at their 11-year-old venture firm, Resolute Ventures.
Yet another reason to feel cheery is what’s happening at their stage of the market, where after a rapid run-up, valuations are slowly but surely coming back down to earth, suggests Hirshland. He says that while Resolute’s pace has been “remarkably consistent,” leading to roughly 10 investments each year that draw initial checks from the firm in the $1 million to $1.5 million range, the “biggest departure” in its history was last year. It was then that both round sizes and valuations ballooned, prompting the firm to write bigger checks while also forcing it to walk away from “really big, really pricey seed rounds” with valuations so lofty that Hirshland feared their next round would be problematic.
That’s not to say it’s all been a walk in the park. Some of Resolute’s best-performing portfolio companies, including Opendoor and Bark & Co., have had their struggles since going public through tie-ups with special purpose acquisition companies.
Another of Resolute’s bets, Clutter — which is also backed by Sequoia Capital and SoftBank — has also found it harder to grow its business than it might have imagined earlier. The outfit merged with a rival in February to bolster its odds of succeeding, but Hirshland, who remains “quite bullish” on Clutter, admits that it isn’t always easy to profitably “move atoms.”
More here.
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Afresh, a five-year-old San Francisco startup whose software helps grocery stores reduce food waste, raised a $115 million Series B led by Spark Capital, with additional participation from Insight Partners, VMG Partners, Bright Pixel Capital, Maersk Growth, High Sage, and Innovation Endeavors. The company has raised a total of $147.8 million. Bloomberg has more here.
Betr, a new sports-gambling and media venture focused on micro-betting and cofounded by social media star Jake Paul, has raised $50 million in funding led by Florida Funders, Aliya Capital Partners and Fuel Venture Capital, with the final closing scheduled for this quarter, reports Bloomberg. More here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Dezerv, a year-old, Mumbai, India-based wealth management startup, has raised $21 million at $100 million valuation led by Accel. In September of last year, Dezerv raised $7 million in seed funding co-led by Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India, which re-upped this time around. LiveMint has more here.
Forage, a San Francisco fintech startup that was founded in 2019 and whose software helps grocers accept online SNAP payments, just raised $22 million in Series A funding. NYCA Partners led the round, joined by PayPal Ventures, EO Ventures and angel investors like Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta. Forbes has more here.
Geopagos, a nine-year-old fintech startup based in Montevideo, Uruguay, that enables companies to offer customers many different ways to pay, raised a $35 million round led by Riverwood Capital, with Endeavor Catalyst also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $35 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Homzmart, a three-year-old, Cairo-based furniture and home goods e-commerce platform, says it has raised $23 million in Series B funding including from STV, Impact46, Outliers Venture Capital, Rise Capital and Nuwa Capital. The outfit has now raised $40 million altogether. Reuters has more here.
KatKin, a three-year-old, Clerkenwell, England-based direct-to-consumer cat food brand, has raised €21.6 million in Series A funding led by Verlinvest and Perwyn. Earlier investor Octopus Ventures also joined the round, along with some strategic angel investors. Tech.eu has more here.
Kumospace, a two-year-old, New York-based company at work on immersive video chat that's built for groups, has raised $21 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Boldstart Ventures and others. The funding comes a year after Kumospace raised $3 million in a seed round spearheaded by Boldstart. TechCrunch has more here.
Project Solar, a two-year-old, Lehi, Ut.-based automated quoting system aimed at helping solar installers nab more business, has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Left Lane Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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Footprint, an eight-month-old, New York-based company that says it allows companies to securely onboard users, has raised $6 million in seed funding. Index Ventures led the round, joined by BoxGroup, Operator Partners, Lerer Hippeau, Palm Tree Crew, Not Boring Capital, K5 and numerous individual investors. More here.
Produze, a months-old Indian startup that is attempting to help local agri producers sell to international retailers, has raised $2.6 million in funding led by Accel. TechCrunch has more here.
Yoodli, a year-old Seattle startup with an AI-enabled software platform that analyzes speech to offer tips for improving communication skills, raised $6 million in seed funding. Madrona Venture Group and Cercano Management (formerly Vulcan Capital) co-led the round, joined by J4 Ventures, Ascend, and other angel investors. Geekwire has more here.
Zap-Map, a 10-year-old, Bristol, England-based app that lets users find and pay for the use of public EV charging stations, has raised £9 million in Series A funding. The American fuel card and payment provider Fleetcor led the round, joined by the regional energy company Good Energy. UKTN has more here.
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Axios, the digital media company founded five years ago that became renowned for its bullet-point writing style, has agreed to sell a majority stake in its business to Cox Enterprises for an amount that Cox did not announce, though both parties said Axios is currently worth $525 million. As part of the move, Axios, which had raised $55 million from investors (including Cox, NBCUniversal and Emerson Collective), will spin off its software arm, Axios HQ, into a separate, standalone company led by Axios president Roy Schwartz. Cox is meanwhile putting $25 million of cash on Axios's balance sheet to fund the company’s growth, reports the New York Times. More here.
SoftBank is selling at least part of its 9% stake in SoFi, part of a sweeping effort at the Japanese conglomerate to reduce costs and stem losses in the valuation of its Vision Fund investment portfolio. SoFi shares, which have declined 50% this year, dropped 3.5% in extended trading on the news. Bloomberg has the story here. SoftBank also said that it sold its remaining Uber holdings at some point between April and July. More in CNBC.
Global investment giant Vista Equity Partners has announced plans to acquire automated tax compliance software provider Avalara in an all-cash deal worth $8.4 billion. Founded in 2004, Seattle-based Avalara raised around $341 million ahead of its 2018 IPO, and like many companies, its market cap has been falling over the past year, dropping by roughly 60% to $6 billion by last month (though it bounced back up to more than $8 billion as of last week). TechCrunch has more here.
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Electric boat developer Forza X1 has the only IPO scheduled to price this week, notes Renaissance Capital. Spun out of Twin Vee PowerCats, the company aims to make and sell affordable electric boats for recreational sport use and to raise $15 million in its offering at a $50 million market cap. More here.
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Google is suing Sonos over patent infringement. Again. The search giant’s lawsuit document, seen by TechCrunch, targeted the recently introduced Sonos voice assistant, saying that Google has patents for “enabling voice assistant technology and providing improvements to the efficiency, reliability, and durability of voice-controlled and battery-powered devices,” and Sonos is using them without its permission. More here.
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Tom Alberg, the founder of Madrona Venture Group in Seattle who reportedly backed Amazon with one of its first investment checks at its inception, has passed away at age 82. Alberg suffered a stroke last month. The Seattle Times has more here.
Marc Andreessen, who has criticized anti-housing zoning in the past, is among other denizens of affluent Atherton, Ca., to help thwart a proposal to add multi-family overlay zones to the town, reportedly wrote to the Atherton Town Council in June: "I am writing this letter to communicate our IMMENSE objection to the creation of multifamily overlay zones in Atherton." Bloomberg has more here.
How globetrotting tech star Ankiti Bose built and lost one of Asia’s most vaunted startups.
Carlyle Group CEO Kewsong Lee has stepped down, reversing a changing of the guard set in motion just five years ago. His sudden exit, announced late yesterday, "follows tensions with the company’s old guard," reports Bloomberg.
Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey is planning a second act when he retires from the Amazon-owned grocer next month: building a chain of plant-based restaurants and wellness centers that offer fitness and spa services.
The judge who will decide whether Elon Musk should have to buy Twitter -- Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick -- has a record of quickly deciding urgent cases over imperiled corporate deals and has ordered buyers to close deals they wanted to ditch.
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Hyundai America Technical Center is looking for a full-time investment associate to join its Hyundai CRADLE Silicon Valley team in Mountain View, Ca. The right candidate will engage in corporate venture activities covering North America.
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Less than 1% of Netflix’s subscribers want to play its mobile games.
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Snapchat today rolled out its first set of parental controls.
Communications giant Twilio confirmed hackers accessed customer data after successfully tricking employees into handing over their corporate login credentials.
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Subverting a preppy classic.
For my next death-defying stunt, I will ride my bike in this bike lane.
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Diamond tennis bracelets have gone mainstream.
A pair of side-by-side Florida mansions that were completed in 2020 and built for identical twins and their families is coming on the market for $54 million. For their next home, one brother said he and his twin are considering living under one roof. “The umbilical cord will be reconnected,” he told the WSJ with a laugh, while his wife screamed into a pillow in a nearby room.
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CRC: 4841206 (07/22)
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