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Friday! Before we take off (for bed; we are tired), we leave you with the newest episode of StrictlyVC Download! This week's featured guest is Jason Lemkin, a renowned founder, operator and VC who aired his concern on Twitter this week that board meetings for startups are no longer happening routinely, if at all, in a growing number of cases. (He thinks it's a terrible trend, by the way, one whose ripple effects will be obvious within a year's time). Lemkin is a lively conversationalist
with a strong point of view -- we think you'll enjoy this. We'll also have more on this topic soon.
Giant thanks to Morgan Stanley at Work for its support of this week's podcast (and newsletter; see below). Morgan Stanley at Work says it's helping more than 3,000 companies build a culture of ownership and drive workplace performance, largely through improving employees' financial wellness. To learn how it all works, visit morganstanley.com/strictlyvc.
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Stocks plummeted today after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a speech that the central bank won’t back off in its fight against rapid inflation. The DJIA dropped 3.03%, the S&P 500 fell 3.37% and the Nasdaq Composite slid 3.94%. Powell said the Fed's campaign to lower inflation by raising interest rates is “unconditional” even if it leads to pain for households, businesses and in turn stock prices.
The vaccine manufacturer Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech on today, claiming that its rivals’ Covid-19 shot violates the patents that protect its groundbreaking technology. Pfizer and its biotech partner, BioNTech, say they were caught off guard by the litigation. "Pfizer/BioNTech has not yet fully reviewed the complaint but we are surprised by the litigation given the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology and developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer," the companies said in a statement.
California has its first significant settlement under the state’s sweeping online privacy law, and it’s not with a tech company. “The kid gloves are coming off,” said California's attorney general of the case. NBC News has more here.
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The VC fund model is intended as just that — a model and framework for fund managers to test different inputs and scenarios. Grab your copy below for an overview of the key assumptions and inputs to the model. GoingVC, the venture ecosystem for emerging VCs, has developed a full VC fund model with input options to see different scenario outcomes for you to understand the different fund size and its inputs/outputs! Grab your copy here!
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Alma, a four-year-old New York startup that offers teletherapy software, billing and scheduling tools, and a community of other mental healthcare professionals as well as a directory to help patients find in-network providers, raised a $130 million Series D round led by Thoma Bravo. A mix of earlier and new investors also participated, including Cigna Ventures, Insight Partners, Optum Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, Primary Venture Partners, and Sound Ventures. The company has raised a total of $220.5 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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3T Biosciences, a five-year-old startup based in Menlo Park, Ca., that is focused on discovering and developing next-generation therapies by targeting specific areas in solid tumors, raised a $40 million Series A round led by Westlake Village BioPartners, with additional participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company has raised a total of $52 million. More here.
Animoca Brands Japan, a Japanese offshoot of Animoca Brands, the web3 and crypto platform, raised a $45 million round at a $500 million valuation. Investors included Animoca Brands and MUFG Bank. TechCrunch has more here.
eTheRNA, a nine-year-old Belgian startup whose mission is to overcome the current challenges facing the development of mRNA therapeutics, raised a €39 million Series B2 round. The round was led by Novalis LifeSciences with participation from Moderna co-founder Kenneth Chien; previous investors LSP (now known as EQT Life Sciences), PWV, Grand Pharma, Fund+, and Omega Fund also took part. The company has raised a total of $111.8 million. Labiotech.eu has more here.
Flyway, a one-year-old London startup that provides cleaning, rental, and marketplace services to owners of second homes, raised a $10 million round. Investors included Signal Ventures, Monday Capital, GroupRMC, and proptech entrepreneurs Florian Hagenbuch, and Alex Chatzieleftheriou. Tech.eu has more here.
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Alongside, a Seattle startup that is developing an app that interacts with students through a chatbot and guides them to resources like videos of other students experiencing similar issues, raised $5.5 million in seed funding led by Trilogy Equity Partners; additional investors included Pack VC and Madrona Venture Labs. GeekWire has more here.
Avium, a Singapore startup that is developing web3 entertainment products, raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Saison Capital; additional investors included East Ventures, Mirana Ventures, and Ricky Ow. Tech in Asia has more here.
BalkanID, a one-year-old startup based in Austin, Tex., that helps companies manage access to their systems, raised an additional $2.36 million in seed extension funding from K2G Tech Fund, GIT1K Club, Firsthand Ventures, MGV, and NKM Capital. The company has raised a total of $8.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Ceresa, a four-year-old startup based in Austin whose executive coaching platform is used by companies such as Nordstrom, Walmart, Blackstone, raised a $3 million round co-led by TTCER Partners, EduLab Capital Partners, and LiveOak Venture Partners with additional participation from Gaingels, Goodwater Capital, TXV Partners, and Notley. The company has raised a total of $4 million. More here.
PIN, which stands for power in numbers, has freshly raised a $5.6 million seed funding round led by Initialized Capital, with participation from GSR, NEA and Canaan. The six-month-old, New York-based startup aims to provide community-based venture funds (created by alums of a school, for example) with the back office framework, legal and tax support they need. More here.
Uplift Labs, a five-year-old, Palo Alto startup that has developed technology that uses two iPhones (and, soon, just one) to generate 3D motion capture for both elite athletes and general health and wellness patients, added $2.5 million to its January seed round of $3 million. Investors included NBA player Seth Curry, former volleyball player Callie Rivers Curry, former NFL player David DeCastro, Atma Capital, LAUNCH Fund, The Syndicate, and Ethos Fund. The company has raised a total of $8.5 million. SportTechie has more here.
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Cyberstarts, a four-year-old, cybersecurity-focused, seed-stage venture firm based in Jerusalem, says it has closed on $60 million in capital commitments for its third fund. Just a few months ago, the firm announced it had raised $200 million for a new opportunity fund; it is now managing $374 million in assets altogether. More here.
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Bruno Cucinnelli is opening a boutique at the upscale Stanford Shopping Center next month, so don't be surprised to see a sudden glut of cashmere and other vests that the designer sells for more than $3,000 apiece at your next Bay Area meeting. It's a smart move, lousy optics aside. As tweeted one observer in 2019, when a bloc of Silicon Valley bigs visited Cucinnelli in the medieval Italian hamlet of Solomeo where he works: "Pretty cool that Brunello Cucinelli got together with all of the 15 people who can afford to buy his clothes at MSRP."
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey says his biggest regret is that Twitter is a company at all.
Outgoing Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg wed marketing executive Tom Bernthal in Wyoming last weekend, and People was there (taking a *lot* of pictures).
Speaking of Meta, the vice president of its Horizon social media virtual reality software, Vivek Sharma, is leaving the company, a spokesperson told CNBC today. Sharma has been with the outfit for the past six years, holding high-ranking positions in marketplace and gaming, and most recently Meta's nascent metaverse-related business unit.
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U.S. messaging giant Twilio has confirmed hackers also compromised the accounts of some Authy users as part of a wider breach of Twilio’s systems. Authy is Twilio’s two-factor authentication (2FA) app it acquired in 2015. Twilio’s breach earlier this month, which saw malicious actors accessing the data of more than 100 Twilio customers after successfully phishing multiple employees, keeps growing in scale. TechCrunch has more here.
Netflix is considering pricing its new advertising-supported tier at $7 to $9 a month, half as much as its current, most-popular plan, which costs $15.49 monthly with no commercials. The goal is to attract subscribers who are willing to watch some ads in exchange for a lower monthly rate. Bloomberg has the story here.
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The six places European travel experts recommend for fall.
The Onion guide to BeReal.
How 50 Cent conquered television.
Interior designers and couple's clashes. (It's the “leading reason our studio decided three years ago to pursue more hospitality and commercial projects," one traumatized designer tells the WSJ.)
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'Your home is your castle,' taken to an extreme in Michigan.
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Morgan Stanley at Work can help transform equity compensation plans into a powerful driver of employee motivation, productivity and loyalty. With Shareworks’ modern technology and personalized service, Morgan Stanley at Work can help build a culture of ownership, so everyone feels invested in a company’s success. Learn more at morganstanley.com/StrictlyVC.
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