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Sorry this is hitting your inbox even later than usual; our email service provider has been having issues tonight.
One last mention that TechCrunch Disrupt is next week so a.) please come; it's going to be great and b.) expect these missives to be a little shorter as we'll be spending much of the week on site at the Moscone Center (less great but also could be worse).
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The Federal Trade Commission in recent years has launched antitrust probes into technology companies, examined credit card firms and moved to restrict drug, energy and defense-company mergers. At the same time, senior officials at the FTC disclosed more trades of stocks, bonds and funds, on average, than officials at any other major agency in a Wall Street Journal review of financial disclosures at 50 federal agencies from 2016 to 2021.
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| Some New VC Firms are Going Really, Really (Really) Niche |
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There are big, overarching top-down trends, and there are little-bitty baby trends that have a way of growing into bigger ones. A big trend right now, for example, centers on certain firms that passed out enormous checks to startup founders in recent years and drove valuations sky high in the process. It turns out this strategy doesn't work as well as they'd anticipated, and some of these same firms are now splitting up with some of their partners and asking their own investors for a lot less capital.
Another big trend? Venture firms that are more aggressively investing in publicly traded companies given that many have seen their share prices hammered in the downturn. (We began seeing this trend back in January and the WSJ notes that it is only picking up steam.)
Now here's a new baby trend that's interesting: new firms that are so niche that, at first glance, it's easy to laugh off their focus.
A venture firm focused solely dedicated to oral care and not something, um, a little broader? A firm that's focused on tech that can help detect and contain wildfires? (No way.) How about a venture firm that's dedicated to backing and building psychedelic businesses alone?
As it happens, these outfits exist, and two of three of them have this week announced moderate-size debut funds, while the third suggests it's on a path to doing the same. Viewed together, they create a picture of how the industry could potentially look over time.
Let's take the first firm, the one focused on oral health alone. Called Revere Partners, the New York-based outfit -- which counts among its partners Mark Zuckerberg's dentist father, by the way -- seems still to be raising a fund. (It announced in a late-September press release that it is "launching" its fund, which is code for: we don't exactly have a fund yet.)
You might imagine in this case that a lot of wealthy dentists are pooling their money together to invest in technologies that they know could upend their industry. That could well be what's happening. But give credit where it's due. Dental care is a huge market that's growing as the world's median age rises. It's expected to surpass $230 billion by the end of next year, according to the Office of the Actuary at the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of startup opportunities in the business -- and not a lot of breakout winners yet. (Think dental insurance, direct-to-consumer subscription products, telehealth services, private clinics, mobile dentistry services, dental implant surgery companies, the list goes on.)
More here.
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Ascidian Therapeutics, a two-year-old Boston startup that is developing an RNA medicine targeting ABCA4 retinopathy, including Stargardt disease, raised a $50 million Series A round. Previous investor Apple Tree Partners was the deal lead. FierceBiotech has more here.
GoHenry, a ten-year-old London startup that offers banking services to kids from ages 6 to 18, raised a $55 million round. Previous investors Edison Partners and Revaia led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $121.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.
NorthOne, a New York-based mobile app and web banking product that provides financial tools small businesses that have been underserved by financial institutions (though NorthOne relies on one, Bancorp Bank, for its own offering), has raised $67 million in Series B funding. Battery Ventures, Don Griffith, Drew Brees, Ferst Capital Partners, FinTLV, Next Play Capital, Operator Stack, Redpoint Ventures, Tencent and Tom Williams participated in the round, which brings the company's fundraising total to $90.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Odyssey Therapeutics, a one-year-old Cambridge, Ma., startup that is developing next-generation precision immunomodulators and oncology medicines, raised a $168 million Series B round led by General Catalyst. Additional support came from Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, GreatPoint Ventures, Catalio Capital, Walleye Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, and The Healthcare Innovation Investment Fund, as well as previous investors OrbiMed, SR One, Foresite Capital, Logos Capital, Woodline Partners LP, HBM Healthcare Investments, Colt Ventures, and Creacion Ventures. The company has raised a total of $386 million. Labiotech.eu has more here.
Puttshack, a five-year-old Chicago startup that is creating venues where adults can eat and drink while playing mini-golf (think Topgolf for putting), raised a $150 million round, BlackRock and Promethean Investments were the deal leads. The company has raised a total of $243.9 million. More here.
Skydance, the 12-year-old Hollywood studio run by David Ellison, was valued at more than $4 billion after raising $400 million in a strategic investment round led by KKR & Co. The Ellison family, which derives most of its fortune from David’s billionaire father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, also invested in the round and remains the company’s largest shareholder. Existing investors RedBird Capital Partners and Tencent Holdings participated too, the company said. Bloomberg has more here.
Uniswap Labs, a four-year-old New York startup that is the parent firm of the world’s largest decentralized crypto exchange, raised a $165 million Series B round at a $1.66 billion valuation. Polychain Capital was the deal lead; additional investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, SV Angel, and Variant. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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DataGrail, a four-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform helps companies comply with privacy regulations, raised a $45 million Series C round led by Third Point Ventures, with Thomson Reuters Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, Felicis Ventures, Operator Collective, Next47, and Cloud Apps Capital also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $84.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Elenas, a four-year-old Bogota startup that is trying to help women sell consumer goods online, raised a $20 million Series B round led by DILA Capital, with additional capital provided by FJ Labs, Endeavor Catalyst, IDB Lab, Broadhaven Ventures, Mercado Libre, Grupo Bolivar, and Leo Capital. The company has raised a total of $28.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Kyra, a five-year-old London startup that helps creators produce social media content and connect with advertisers, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Bonnier Ventures, with LionTree, Torch Capital, GMG Ventures, and Firstminute Capital also taking part. The company has raised a total of $22.3 million. The Information has more here.
Mercantile, a one-year-old New York startup that partners with professional associations to offer credit cards to small business owners, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Index Ventures and including First Round Capital, General Catalyst, SV Angel, Operator Partners, and Box Group. The company has raised a total of $22 million. Forbes has more here.
Metalenz, a six-year-old Boston startup that has developed ultra-small 3D camera lens technology for consumer electronics devices such as smartphones, raised a $30 million Series B round led by Neotribe Ventures, with additional participation from Intel Capital, TDK Ventures, 3 million Ventures, Foothill Ventures, and M Ventures. The company has raised a total of $47.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.
NeuroFlow, a five-year-old startup based in Wayne, Pa., that facilitates mental healthcare management for patients in between traditional office visits, raised a $25 million round led by SEMCAP Health. Technical.ly has more here.
Northstar, a six-year-old, Los Angeles-based startup that has developed personal financial management tools to help guide its customers through various financial and life situations (it's trying to strike deals with companies to offer these as an employee benefit), has raised $24.4 million in new funding led by GGV Capital. Other backers in the round include PayPal Ventures, Thomson Reuters Ventures and Canvas Ventures, along with earlier investors M13, Workday Ventures, Parade Ventures, Foundation Capital, Designer Fund and RRE. The company, founded by William Peng (who was working as a VC with Red Swan Ventures before diving in here), has now raised $40 million
altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Tatum, a London- and Miami-based startup that says its platform simplifies the creation of blockchain operations in single lines of code, incorporating features such as smart contracts, fee and payment solutions, real-time alerts, and crypto-exchange functions, raised a $41.5 million round led by Evolution Equity Partners, with Circle, Octopus Ventures, and Leadblock Partners also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $49.7 million. CoinDesk has more here.
Vanta, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based security compliance automation startup, says it has raised $40 million in an extension of its Series B funding round that closed in June, which valued the company at $1.6 billion. Notably, CrowdStrike, the publicly traded cybersecurity company, invested in the extension along with a number of individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Zen Educate, a five-year-old London startup that has built an online marketplace that algorithmically matches schools with the best available teachers, raised a $21.9 million Series A extension. Brighteye Ventures, Adjuvo, and Ascension Ventures funded the deal. The company has raised a total of $34 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Zerion, a six-year-old San Francisco startup has developed a cross-platform crypto wallet, raised a $12.3 million Series B round led by Wintermute Ventures; additional investors include Placeholder, Mosaic, Polymorphic Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Alchemy. The company has raised a total of $33 million. CoinDesk has more here.
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Capsule Corp Labs, a one-year-old French startup that has developed Ternoa, a Layer-1 blockchain that provides a technological stack to build utility NFTs, raised a $7.3 million seed round. Digital Finance Group, Omnes Capital, REVAM, and Ternoa co-led the deal. NFT Gators has more here.
Climatiq, a one-year-old Berlin startup whose API allows developers to embed carbon metrics into any piece of software, thus making it easier for organizations to assess the environmental impact of daily operations and processes, raised a $5.8 million seed round led by Singular and joined by previous investor Cherry Ventures. Business Insider has more here.
Dandi, a five-year-old New York startup that claims to have developed an analytics platform for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, raised a $3.7 million seed round. Springbank and Alleycorp Impact co-led the deal. More here.
Getaway, a five-month-old, Miami-based fractional ownership startup focused on luxury real estate that can be used like a time share (its tagline is "investments with a view"), has raised $4.4 million in funding from Cowboy Ventures, XYZ Ventures and Night Ventures, as well as $1.5 million in debt financing. TechCrunch has more here.
GreenPlaces, a Raleigh, N.C.-based "climate platform" that integrates with tools like Rippling and Workday to make sustainability reporting more seamless, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Felicis, with participation from Bull City Venture partners and numerous individual investors. More here.
nMachine, a 10-month-old, Washington-based startup that says it ships a full fledged no/low-code SDK that lets engineers assemble bespoke ops platforms for their cloud native infrastructure, has raised a $1 million in pre-seed funding led by Scribble VC and Tapestry VC, with participation from more than a handful of angel investors. More here
Nucleus RadioPharma, a new, Charlotte, N.C.-based company hoping to ensure cancer patients can access potentially life-saving radiopharmaceuticals by developing tech to modernize the clinical development, manufacturing, and supply chain of these therapies, has been created and seed funded (with $6 million) by the venture firm Eclipse Ventures and the Mayo Clinic, the nonprofit health organization. More here.
Otterspace, a Berlin startup founded this year whose application allows decentralized entities to reward participation and assign roles through NFT badges earned through specific behaviors, raised a $3.7 million round. Cherry Crypto and Inflection.xyz co-led the funding, with Bessemer Venture Partners, Coinbase Ventures, btov Partners, and Paua Ventures also opting in. The Block has more here.
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33N Ventures, a new, Portugal-based venture firm co-founded by two veteran cybersecurity and infrastructure software investors, is currently raising a €150 million ($145 million) fund that aims to invest in cybersecurity and infrastructure software companies across Europe, Israel, and the U.S. According to Calcalist, the outfit will target investments at the Series A and B stage, with an average ticket size of around €10 million ($9.7 million). More here.
Capital Dynamics, the 34-year-old, Zug, Switzerland-based global asset management firm, has raised €521 million in capital commitments for its ninth clean energy infrastructure fund. More here.
Next Play Capital, an eight-year-old, minority-owned venture firm in Redwood City, Ca., that's led by former NFL player and Superbowl Champion Ryan Nece, has closed its third fund with $200 million in capital commitments. Next Play aims to give under-represented investors diversified access to venture funds and venture-backed companies. More here.
Palo Santo, a two-year-old, New York- and Chicago-based venture firm that's exclusively focused on backing and building emerging psychedelic therapeutics companies, has garnered $50 million in capital commitments for its debut fund. More here. (See also today's column.)
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Andrei Cherny, the CEO and cofounder of nine-year-old, socially-responsible fintech company Aspiration, is stepping down from his post amid a delay in its plans to merge with a special purpose acquisition company. Bloomberg has more here.
Ashton Rosin has joined Lowercarbon Capital as a partner and head of capital formation. She joins the firm from Obvious Ventures. More here.
Felicis, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm, has hired Nancy Wang as a venture partner. Wang works full-time at AWS, where she oversees the P&L, product, and engineering for AWS's data protection and governance businesses. More here.
NYDIG, the bitcoin trading and banking firm, laid off about a third of its workforce last month, or roughly 110 people, reports the WSJ.
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European startup funding for third-quarter 2022 continued its fall, sliding to its lowest point in nearly two years. Funding totaled $16 billion, down 44% year over year from $28 billion, and down 35% quarter over quarter from $24 billion, reports Crunchbase News.
Meanwhile, dealmaking in the U.S. has stayed at historically high levels in recent months. According to quarterly data from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association, investors poured $151 billion into venture funds in the first nine months of this year, topping the previous *full-year* record of $147 billion set in 2021. Relatedly, early-stage companies in four markets -- healthcare, clean tech, energy and transportation -- attracted more funding in the first nine months than was the case for all of 2020. The Financial Times has more here.
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Activision Blizzard is facing yet another sexual harassment lawsuit that also alleges sexual battery, failure to prevent harassment, gender discrimination, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Ghostwriting tweets for VCs: the illuminating story of one founder's side hustle.
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Cytonics develops novel therapies to help those living with inflammatory diseases. The biopharma pioneer has raised over $18M to date. In its current round with SeedInvest, Cytonics pursues FDA approval on a leading therapeutic drug for osteoarthritis. This round closes soon. View important disclosures and risks associated with Equity Crowdfunding Investing by clicking here.
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