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Hello.:)
So, quickly: We did hear from Garry Tan about his move to Y Combinator to become its president and CEO. Unfortunately, he didn't answer some of our questions from yesterday (Monday), including about whether Initialized's investors have an out if they don't want to fund their commitments to his venture firm, now that he is leaving it.
Tan did answer a question that we know some of you are also asking: about whether as YC's new head honcho, he could funnel deal flow and other privileged information to the partners at Initialized to whom he is handing the reins. You have to read between the lines, but the answer here is seemingly that there is nothing formal in place to preclude this from happening -- that it comes down to Tan's judgment. Here are some of the things we asked and Tan's answers:
Us: Will initialized be given insight into what's happening inside YC or have any provisions been made to prevent this?
Tan: When I left YC, I was always careful to never ask YC partners “Who was hot?” Initialized did their own work. That doesn’t change with me on the inside. Initialized was built to be the ideal firm founders would choose because of the ethos, approach to founders (soft advisorship, not your boss) and what makes it extra unique is the large emphasis on team and services from that team. Few firms focused on pre-product-market fit seed do this. The very best ones do, and Initialized is one of them.
The fact is founders will meet and choose, and this is one of the key reasons why YC startups win: access to institutional knowledge of a community. YC’s job is to help them raise money that maximizes the chance of their success. The community has an investor database that helps them choose, and Initialized is top ranked there, and will be as long as it continues to do no harm and help. That doesn’t change either.
Us: What does it mean that you will remain a strategic advisor to Initialized next year? Will you remain on the boards you represent for Initialized or will these seats be turned over to other partners?
Tan: I’ll be a resource to the firm and our community. I’ve built long standing relationships with many of our founders. Some board seats stay with me under Initialized.
Us: You already had the reputational benefit of having been a YC partner. Initialized is killing it. Why go work for YC again?
Tan: I have a deep history with YC, it’s where I started and helped propel my career, as a founder and partner, and then an investor. It’s an incredible organization that’s doing important work for entrepreneurs. I believe I can make a positive change to impact the health of our startup ecosystem at YC.
I have said on several occasions that we built Initialized to outlast its founders, similar to how Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston passed the reins at YC. There was only one job that I would take outside of Initialized, and it’s this position with YC - it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The only reason I considered the position at YC was because I knew Initialized had the right leadership, team and infrastructure in place. Jen Wolf was my boss before I applied to YC and Brett was my co-founder. I've known them for many years. They're great leaders and investors and I have all the confidence that Jen and Brett have the experience, knowledge and track record to keep growing Initialized over the long term.
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Snap is planning to lay off approximately 20% of its more than 6,400 employees, according to The Verge. It says that the team working on ways for developers to build mini apps and games inside Snapchat will be severely impacted and that another team that will see layoffs is Snap’s hardware division, which is responsible for Spectacles and the Pixy camera drone that was recently canceled. Snap's shares have lost nearly 80%(!) of their value since the beginning of this year. More here.
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Animoca Brands, one of crypto’s most prolific investment houses, is raising $100 million in fresh funding led by Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, which is using convertible bonds, according to Bloomberg. The capital is an extension to a funding round first announced by Animoca in January, when the Hong Kong startup raised $359 million from backers including George Soros and the Winklevoss twins. Now valued at $6 billion, Animoca raised another $75 million in the same round earlier this summer. More
here.
EarlySalary, an eight-year-old, Pune, India-based consumer lending fintech, has closed its series D funding round of $110 million led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. Earlier backer Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Ltd. also joined the round, which is EarlySalary's largest by far. (Previously, it had raised $34 million altogether.) The Economic Times has more here.
MedGenome, a nine-year-old startup based in Foster City, Ca., whose genetic testing services provide information used in drug discovery and clinical trials for treatments in areas of oncology, diabetes, ophthalmology, cardiology, and rare diseases, raised a $50 million round. Novo Holdings was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $185.5 million. GenomeWeb has more here.
Proof, a members-only collective of 1,000 dedicated NFT collectors and artists that was founded by serial entrepreneur Kevin Rose, has raised $50 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Additional participants in the round include Collab+Currency, Flamingo DAO, SV Angel, VaynerFund and Seven Seven Six, which led a $10 million funding round in April for Proof. The Block has more
here.
Vilya, a Seattle startup that plans to leverage machine learning and other computational approaches to create a new class of medicines that precisely target disease biology, raised a $50 million Series A led by Arch Venture Partners. More here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Aleph Farms, a five-year-old startup based in Rehovot, Israel, that develops cell-based meat products, raised a $40 million round; investors included L Catterton, Strauss Group, VisVires New Protein, CPT Capital, Synthesis Capital, Food Tank, and Christensen Global. Food Dive has more here.
ESB, a four-year-old Indonesia-based restaurant management software as a service (SaaS) platform, has raised $29 million in Series B funding led by Northstar Group and Alpha JWC Ventures. The round also saw participation from earlier backers Beenext, Vulcan Capital and AC Ventures.The outfit has now raised $39.6 million altogether. Technode has more here.
Mavenoid, a five-year-old, Stockholm-based company that provides both human- and AI-enabled support and troubleshooting tools for hardware companies, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Smedvig Capital led the round, joined by Creandum, Mosaic, Point Nine Capital, NordicNinja and ABB Technology Ventures. The startup has now raised $40 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Olio Health, a five-year-old Indianapolis startup that has developed a workflow and collaboration platform for post-acute care, raised a $13 million Series A round led by Fulcrum Equity Partners, with Mutual Capital Partners also joining in. The company has raised a total of $15.5 million. PYMNTS.com has more here.
Pezesha, a six-year-old Nairobi startup that has built a scalable digital lending infrastructure that allows both traditional and non-traditional finance institutions to offer working capital to small African businesses, raised $11 million in equity and debt led by Women's World Banking Capital Partners; additional investors included Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, cFund, and Cardano. The company has raised a total of $12.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Protex AI, a 1.5-year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based startup whose software platform plugs into existing CCTV infrastructure and uses its computer vision tech to capture unsafe events autonomously in settings such as warehouses, manufacturing facilities and ports, has raised $18 million in funding. Notion Capital led the round, joined by Playfair Capital, Elkstone, Firstminute Capital, Flexport, and SCOR Ventures. Tech.eu has more
here.
Recurve, a seventeen-year-old San Francisco startup that has developed an open-source platform for virtual power plants that aggregate the capacity of distributed energy resources to enhance power generation and trading on the electricity market, raised an $18 million Series B round. Calpine Energy Solutions led, with Quantum Energy Partners, Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions, and previous investor Energy Foundry also contributing. The company has raised a total of $32 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Tarci, a three-year-old New York startup that collects and analyzes publicly available data on SMBs to generate insights for sales teams, raised a $17 million Series A round led by Sound Ventures, with additional investment from GFC and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Theranica, a six-year-old startup based in Netanya, Israel that says its device can treat migraine headaches through low-energy electrical pulses, raised a $45 million Series C round led by New Rhein Healthcare Investors, with additional participation from aMoon, Lightspeed Venture Partners, LionBird, Takoa Invest, and Corundum Open Innovation. The company has raised a total of $86 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.
Xterio, a startup based in Zug, Switzerland that is developing mobile and web3 games, raised a $40 million round. Investors included FunPlus, Makers Fund, FTX Ventures, XPLA, HashKey, Foresight Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Matrix Partners, and Animoca Brands. VentureBeat has more here.
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Atomic, a two-year-old startup based in Wellington, New Zealand, that develops apps that enable end users to communicate and transact within enterprise apps, raised a $4.5 million Series A round led by Movac, with additional participation from Rod Drury, K1W1, and Hoku. StartupDaily has more here.
Medu, a Mexico City startup that aims to create a line of sustainable, virus-resistant reusable personal protective equipment (PPE), including surgical gowns, head coverings and full-body suits, raised a $4 million seed round led by MaC Venture Capital, with Halcyon Fund also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.
Opkey, a seven-year-old startup based in Dublin, Ca., that has developed an AI-driven software test automation platform, raised an $8 million round. Vertica Venture Partners led the deal. AP News has more here.
Power, a San Francisco startup that aims to make clinical trials easier to navigate for patients by reducing medical jargon and connecting patients with researchers, raised a $7 million seed round co-led by Footwork and CRV, with additional capital provided by Artis Ventures, South Park Commons, and AirAngels. Axios has more here.
Stake, a two-year-old Dubai startup that is offering retail investors the opportunity to buy fractions of rental property in Dubai and earn regular income from their fractional investments, raised an $8 million Series A round. Investors included BY Ventures, MEVP, and Vivium Holdings. The company has raised a total of $12 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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Play Magnus Group (PMG), founded by world champion Magnus Carlsen, has accepted an $82.9 million acquisition offer from Chess.com. The deal is expected to be completed in six-to-eight weeks. Chess.com has more than 90 million members and hosts over 10 million games per day. PMG offers four chess playing and training apps for a bundled monthly subscription of $14.17, though according to the Financial Times, there have been rumors for some time that PMG was struggling. Earlier this year
some of its Oslo staff were laid off, while its flagship website chess24.com discontinued its French and German tournament commentaries, leaving only English and Spanish. Front Office Sports has more here.
Light Street Capital, a large investor in the software company Zendesk, says it will vote against its planned $9.5 billion takeover by Hellman & Friedman and Permira. Light Street founder and CEO Glen Kacher says the proposed deal is "not a great outcome for my investors." CNBC has more here on Kacher's alternative plan.
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Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani outlined succession plans for his $220 billion conglomerate, with his three children overseeing its businesses. “Reliance’s next-gen leaders are confidently taking over the reins across businesses,” Ambani, 65, said yesterday, referring to his son Akash, daughter Isha and youngest son, Anant. “Akash and Isha have assumed leadership roles in Jio and Retail respectively. They have been passionately involved in our consumer businesses since inception. Anant has also joined our New Energy business with great zeal.” Bloomberg has more here.
Dominic Lau has been promoted to partner at Ripple Ventures. He joined the outfit in the spring of 2018 after spending a couple of years at KPMG out of college and another year or so as an associate with the University of Waterloo Student Venture Fund. More here.
Karan Mehandru, a new managing director at Madrona Venture Group, is helping the 27-year-old firm open an office in Palo Alto. It's the first time Madrona is opening an office outside the Pacific Northwest. The Seattle Times has more here.
Netflix has found an executive to lead its plan for an ad-supported tier: Snap’s chief business officer and top ad exec, Jeremi Gorman. Gorman today told colleagues at Snap that she's leaving to join Netflix along with Peter Naylor, Snap’s vice president of ad sales for the Americas. The two are taking off in the midst of that aforementioned structuring (see "Top News"). The Verge has the story here.
Janelle Teng has been promoted to vice president at Bessemer Venture Partners. to VP. Teng joined the firm two years ago, leaving Salesforce as a product manager to become an investor. More here.
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki in 2014 quietly held talks about leaving Google to become Elon Musk’s second-in-command at Tesla, according to a new book on the video service by Bloomberg's Mark Bergen. CNBC has more here.
Shivon Zilis, an executive at Neuralink, who shares a set of twins with Elon Musk, has told colleagues the children were conceived via in vitro fertilization (which we'd heard from a source soon after the news broke). Zilis further insists she did not have a romantic relationship with Musk, according to Reuters. Why does it matter? Neuralink's employee handbook prohibits "personal relationships" between anyone who is in a more senior role due to potential conflicts of interest. Neuralink has reportedly accepted
Zilis's description of her relationship with Musk as non-romantic, allowing her to continue to work with him, but corporate governance experts are divided on whether it's problematic. More here.
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The Zumper National Rent Index shows the median national one-bedroom rent for a newly listed one-bedroom now at $1,486, up 11.8% over August 2021 — beating last month’s record high. More than half of US cities are showing double-digit rent hikes, with some over 30%. New York City continues to be the priciest place to be a tenant, with median one-bedroom rent up 39.9% year-over-year; those with two-bedroom apartments are paying 46.7% more. Bloomberg has more here.
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The instant delivery company Gopuff is seeking to borrow up to $300 million as a cash cushion, according to the WSJ. The SoftBank-backed outfit is nearing an agreement with bankers to establish a credit line known as a revolver loan to shore up its finances ahead of a potential economic downturn. People familiar with Gopuff’s spending tell the Journal the company had about $1.5 billion in cash after burning about $400 million in the first three months of this year. One Gopuff investor, Fidelity
Investments, cut the value of its stake by nearly 50% as of June.
Meanwhile, another SoftBank-backed business, Clearco, is doing some retrenching. According to TechCrunch, one month after cutting 25% of its staff, Clearco, which offers funding to tech founders in return for a fixed sum from future revenue, is walking back the international expansion it once touted as the future of the company. More here.
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