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Apple is in talks to make Apple Watches and MacBooks in Vietnam for the first time, marking a further win for the Southeast Asian country as the U.S. tech giant looks to diversify production away from China. Nikkei Asian has more here.
Investors that rely on statistical trading models are quickly unwinding bearish positions.
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You may not have noticed, but this $550m+ fintech platform has maintained a 15.3% track record, despite COVID, stock market volatility and the beginning of a recession. How? By cracking the code of a $1.7 trillion asset class that’s outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 2x in the last 25 years. Even more impressive? Through 5 exits, it has delivered an average 28.4% net IRR to investors. Follow this exclusive StrictlyVC referral link to learn more. See important Regulation A disclosures.
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BigPanda, a 10-year-old startup developing AI to audit changes in IT environments and recommend how to fix them, has raised $20 million in an extension of its Series E round. UBS Next and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital contributed to the tranche, bringing BigPanda’s total raised to $340 million. TechCrunch has more here.
DriveNets, a 7-year-old Israeli cloud-based networking startup, has raised $262 million in Series C funding led by D2 Investments. Other investors in the round include Bessemer Venture Partners, Pitango, D1 Capital, Atreides Management, and Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services. TechCrunch has more here.
HiBob, a seven-year-old, New York and Tel Aviv-based HR software company, just announced $150 million in Series D funding led by General Atlantic. The outfit has now raised $424 million to date and say it is valued at $2.45 billion. Business Insider has more here.
Incredible Health, a five-year-old startup based in San Francisco that has created a job-matching platform focused initially on nurses, raised an $80 million Series B round at a $1.65 billion valuation. Base10 Partners was the deal lead, while Andreessen Horowitz, Obvious Ventures, and Kaiser Permanente also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $97.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Orna Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based circular RNA biotech company, has raised $221 million in Series B funding from Merck, MPM Capital and BioImpact Capital. Gene Online has more here.
Senda Biosciences, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech company, has raised $123 million in Series C funding led by Flagship Pioneering, which formed the company in 2019. Other backers include Samsung Life Science Fund, Qatar Investment Authority, Stage 1 Ventures, and more than half a dozen others. The outfit has now raised $266 million to date. MedCity News has more here.
VidMob, an eight-year-old, New York-based software firm that provides tools and services for marketers to create and improve their digital advertising, just raised $110 million in a Series D investment round led by Shamrock Capital. The WSJ has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Agora, a three-year-old, New York- and Tel Aviv-based startup whose software aims to help real estate firms automate their back-office processes and increase their operational efficiency, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from Aleph. Commercial Observer has more here.
Fractional, a year-old, collective NFT ownership platform, said it has raised $20 million in Series A fundraising led by Paradigm. It is also rebranding as Tessera. The Block has more here.
HyperTrack, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that creates APIs for freight order planning, assignment, and tracking that constantly update based on past deliveries, raised a $25 million Series A. WestBridge Capital and Nexus Venture Partners co-led the round. The company has raised a total of $33.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
KeyCare, a Chicago startup that has developed a telehealth platform in partnership with medical records provider Epic Systems, raised a $24 million Series A. Investors included 8VC, LRVHealth, Bold Capital, and Spectrum Health Ventures. Fierce Healthcare has more here.
Modulate, a five-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that aims to fight toxic behavior in online games by analyzing not just what a player is saying but how the individual is saying it (it's looking for emotion, volume, prosody, and more), raised a $30 million Series A round led by Lakestar, with additional participation from Everblue Management and Hyperplane Ventures. The company has raised a total of $36 million. VentureBeat has more here.
Omni, a months-old, San Francisco-based remote-based business intelligence platform, raised $17.5 million in Series A funding (and disclosed it had earlier raised, and not announced, $9.4 million in seed funding). Redpoint led the round, after participating in the seed, which had been led by First Round (which re-upped). Others of the startup's investors include BoxGroup, Scribble Ventures, Quiet Capital, GV and numerous individual investors. More here.
Super Payments, a months-old, London-based payments startup whose app offers consumers cash back on purchases they make through the app (its founder had earlier founded Funding Circle), raised a $27 million round. The deal lead was Accel, while Union Square Ventures, LocalGlobe, and assorted angels also contributed. TechCrunch has more here.
Sync Computing, a three-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma, that claims to automatically optimize cloud resources, raised a $15.5 million Series A round ($3.5 million of which was debt) led by Costanoa Ventures, with The Engine, Moore Strategic Ventures, and National Grid Partners also participating. The company has raised a total of $22.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.
ThreatX, an eight-year-old Boston startup that helps enterprise clients secure their APIs, raised a $30 million Series B round. Harbert Growth Partners led the transaction, with additional investment coming from Vistara Growth and previous investors .406 Ventures, Grotech Ventures, and Access Venture Partners. The company has raised a total of $51.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Vividly, a five-year-old startup based in San Francisco whose tools help CPG companies manage trade promotions spend ranging from the creation of campaigns to promotion planning, forecasting and deductions management, raised an $18 million Series A round co-led by 645 Ventures and Vertex Ventures US, with additional funded provided by Costanoa Partners, Torch Capital, and Green Spoon Sales. TechCrunch has more here.
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Aceiss, a two-year-old New Canaan-based access observability platform, has raised $3.25 million in seed funding led by Canaan, with participation from Insight Partners and Connecticut Innovations. Business Insider has more here.
Bearing, a three-year-old shipping logistics startup based in Palo Alto that uses artificial intelligence to provide actionable insights for fuel efficiency, optimal routing, and vessel performance, raised $7 million in "post-seed funding" from Mitsui & Co. and AI Fund. The company has raised a total of $10 million. More here.
Happy Viking, a New York startup cofounded by Venus Williams that makes plant-based "superfoods," raised $2 million from Williams herself, sister Serena Williams, Kevin Durant, 35V, Michelle Wie West, and Megan Rapinoe along with Mates, Talent Resources Ventures, and Parallel, among others. AfroTech has more here.
Highbeam, a 17-month-old, New York-based banking service built for people building e-commerce brands on marketplaces like Shopify and Amazon, has raised $7 million in seed funding co-led by FirstMark and Mayfield. TechCrunch has more here.
Regression Games, a four-month-old, Philadelphia startup that says its AI-driven games will enable players to write code and AIs that control characters, debug strategies in real-time, compete for prizes in tournaments and top spots on leaderboards, has raised a $4.2 million seed round led by New Enterprise Associates, with additional funds provided by Andreessen Horowitz, BBQ Capital, and Roosh Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Rokoko, an eight-year-old, Copenhagen-based animation and motion capture company, has raised $3 million in funding led by the South Korean company Naver Z. TechCrunch has more here.
Serenity EHS, a three-year-old San Diego startup that helps clients monitor their environmental, health, safety and sustainability goals, raised a $5 million in seed funding led by Base10 Partners. The company has raised a total of $5.4 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Venue, a four-year-old, Los Angeles video conferencing platform, has raised a $4 million seed round. The lead was Accel; Stewart Butterfield, Anthony Casalena, and Job van der Voort also chipped in. TechCrunch has more here.
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Blackrock grabbed headlines this week when it published its proprietary “Three D’s” strategy for inflation-fighting investments: Diverse, Durable, Defensive. What checks all these boxes? Fine art. Diverse? Yes. Citi reports a near-zero correlation between art and traditional asset classes. Durable? You bet. Fine art outperformed the S&P 500 by 2x in the last 25 years. Defensive? Yup. Art sales grew 25% while stocks had their worst 6-month start in 50 years. With Masterworks, anyone can easily invest in art. Follow this exclusive StrictlyVC
referral link to learn more. See important Regulation A disclosures.
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Multi-asset social investment network and Robinhood competitor eToro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Gatsby — a fintech startup which also aimed to go head to head against Robinhood — for $50 million in a cash and common stock deal. The outfit had closed on $10 million in Series A funding last year, including from Techstars Ventures, Barclays Bank and Rosecliff Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence firm G42, backed by a key member of the oil-rich emirate’s ruling family, is setting up a $10 billion fund with a focus on technology investments in emerging markets. The G42 Expansion Fund will target late-stage growth companies, reports Bloomberg. More here.
Shima Capital, an 18-month-old, Bay Area-based early-stage venture firm looking to invest in disruptive crypto and web3 companies, has secured $200 million in capital commitments for its inaugural venture fund, including from Dragonfly, Bill Ackman, Animoca, OKex, Mirana Ventures, Republic, and politician Andrew Yang. Blockworks has more here.
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Kimberly Bryant is officially out from Black Girls Code, eight months after being indefinitely suspended from the organization that she founded 11 years ago.
Gen Z TikTok creators are turning against Amazon.
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Tencent's nearly two-decade growth streak came to an end after the Chinese tech giant posted its first quarterly revenue decline since it went public in 2004. Tencent’s April-to-June revenue dropped 3% from a year earlier to the equivalent of $20 billion, the company said today. The WSJ notes that China’s slowing economy further dented Tencent's online-advertising revenue, while its video game business continued to struggle from tighter regulations and weaker user spending.
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Startup workers discover that founders cashed out last year at them market's bubbliest (while they couldn't).
TikTok is launching a new sharing feature that will allow users to publish their TikTok Stories — a feature it has been piloting since last year — to rival social networks.
Facebook has a midterm strategy. Trump won’t be part of it.
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