|
|
Top News
Vista Equity Partners said today it is the newest investor in Reliance Jio Platforms, which is India's largest mobile telecom provider and, very notably, an outfit that's beginning a big push into e-commerce. (It seemingly has Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart in its sights.) The private equity firm is investing $1.5 billion in the company in exchange for a 2.32% stake, meaning Reliance Jio Platforms' implied valuation is $65 billion. That's the same valuation at which Silver Lake invested earlier this month, when it wrote a $747 million check to the company. But it's a 12.5% premium over the deal that Facebook landed when it invested $5.7 billion in the company in late April, securing a 9.9% stake for its capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Ride-hailing giant Uber reported first-quarter results today and they weren't great, though CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed optimism that ride volume is picking up again after bottoming out in mid-April. CNBC has more here.
Bitcoin just shot above $10,000 for the first time since February. Coindesk has more here.
|
|
Sponsored By ...
With 30% more stretch than regular denim, a signature gusset, and antibacterial properties, DUER jeans are made to help you stay cool and comfortable throughout the day and night, without restricting your movement.
|
|
This Early Facebook Investor Wants to Find Smart Students a Job --- at the Next Facebook
For many college seniors, school is a time for self-exploration, considering options, leisurely contemplating the future.
Yet that’s rarely the case for computer engineering students who either attend the world’s best universities or rise to the very top of their classes. Almost immediately after choosing their courses during the first week of school, they typically find themselves at their college career fair, wondering if they should interview with the likes of Google or Facebook. And when they do, they often receive an offer with a signing bonus and often with a 48-hour exploding deadline.
The perception is that saying no means becoming forever blacklisted by that outfit. But serial founder turned investor Ali Partovi — who has enjoyed success over his career with, and alongside, twin brother Hadi — insists it’s smoke and mirrors. “There are only so many great students graduating, and there are way, way, way more jobs to be filled than there are CS graduates. Like, the students should be giving the companies deadlines.”
To get out that message — that students needn’t allow big tech companies to narrow their choices prematurely — Partovi is organizing something new. Through his four-year-old networking organization, Neo, and its associated venture fund, he is staging a kind of virtual matchmaking extravaganza on August 8 that introduces students to an entirely different kind of opportunity.
Called Neo Startup Connect, the idea is to introduce students who Neo has itself vetted to fast-growing — but stable — companies like the design software Figma, which just announced $50 million in Series D funding last week.
Partovi thinks there are opportunities to learn a wider number of things at companies that have closer to 100 people than tens of thousands. He also believes there’s a world of startups that might align better with students’ interests, if only they knew about them.
“Every day,” says Partovi, “I’ll be talking to a someone who is a top student from, let’s say, Princeton, and this person tells me that she’s passionate about healthcare and machine learning, and she has a job offer to join Goldman Sachs. And I’ll be like, ‘Why would you go join a bank or a hedge fund?'”
Of course, it’s in Partovi’s interests to foster all of these connections, too.
|
|
Massive Fundings
ASR Microelectronics, a five-year-old, Shanghai, China-based consumer electronics chip developer, has raised $119 million in additional Series D funding. China’s state-owned China Internet Investment Fund led the round, joined by Sequoia CBC Cross-Border Digital Industry Fund and GL Ventures. DealStreetAsia has more here.
Chehaoduo, a six-year-old, Beijing, China-based online used car and new car trading platform, has raised $200 million in additional Series D funding. Sequoia Capital China and the SoftBank Vision Fund were the investors. TechNode has more here.
Enflame Technology, a two-year-old, Shanghai, China-based artificial intelligence training platform, has raised $98.6 million in Series B funding. SummitView Capital led the round, joined by Shanghai Innovital Capital, Red Dot Capital, Redpoint Ventures China, Delta Capital, and Tencent, among others, also participated in the round. TechNode has more here.
Grail, a four-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based company that aims to develop blood tests to detect cancer earlier, when treatment can be more successful, has raised $390 million in Series D funding. New investors include the Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, plus two undisclosed investors. The company’s previous backers, including Illumina, also joined the round, it says. FierceBiotech has more here.
Lime, the three-year-old, San Francisco-based scooter rental startup, has raised $170 million in funding led by Uber; it was joined by Alphabet, Bain Capital Ventures, and GV. Under the deal, Uber will transfer its own electric bike and scooter division called Jump to Lime and the companies will further integrate their apps. Lime global head of operations and strategy, Wayne Ting, will become CEO of Lime while outgoing CEO Brad Bao will become chairman. More here.
Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based spin-out of Alphabet's urban innovation business Sidewalk Labs (it holds, operates, and invests in advanced infrastructure projects and tech startups applying innovations to these projects), has raised $400 million in Series A funding. Alphabet and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan are the backers. Fortune has the story here.
Symend, a four-year-old, Calgary, Alberta-based customer engagement platform that automates processes around debt resolution for telcos, banks, and utilities, has raised $52 million in funding. Inovia Capital led the round, joined by Ignition Partners, Impression Ventures, BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Fund, Mistral Venture Partners, and angel investor Markus Frind. VentureBeat has more here.
Ventus Therapeutics, a year-old, Montreal, Quebec-based biopharmaceutical company aiming to develop medicines that target the innate immune system, was raised $60 million in Series A financing. Versant Ventures, the company's founding investor, led the round, joined by GV.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Dtex, a 20-year-old, San Jose, Ca-based maker of endpoint security software, has raised $17.5 million in funding led by Northgate Capital, with participation from earlier backers Norwest Venture Partners and Four Rivers Group. TechCrunch has more here.
Groove, a 7.5-year-old, San Francisco-based sales engagement platform whose tools enable sales teams to monitor their communications with clients, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. Level Equity and Capital One Ventures co-led the round, joined by Uncork Capital and Quest Venture Partners. More here.
Knock, a six-year-old, Seattle-based maker of residential property management software, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. Madrona Venture Group led the round, joined by Lead Edge Capital and Seven Peaks Ventures. GeekWire has more here.
Owkin, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that deploys AI and federated learning for medical research, has raised $25 million in fresh funding from Bpifrance Large Venture, Cathay Innovation and MACSF (the French Pension Fund for Clinicians), as well as earlier backers GV, F-Prime Capital and Eight Roads. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Braid Health, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based developer of AI-powered diagnostic tools for radiology, has raised $9 million in seed and Series A funding. Lux Capital led the round, joined by 01 Advisors and Rucker Park Capital. More here.
Countingup, a three-year-old, London-based accounting automation startup, has raised £4 million in funding led by ING Ventures, with participation from Triple Point, CVentures, and Big Start Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Deep Render, a three-year-old, London-based machine learning startup that's developing media compression algorithms, has raised £1.6 million ($2 million) in funding led by Pentech, with participation from Speedinvest, among other investors. More here.
Hub Security, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup offering cybersecurity solutions for fintech and data storage, has raised $5 million in Series A funding. AXA Ventures led the round, joined by OurCrowd, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Hydrant, a three-year-old, New York-based wellness brand that sells an electrolyte mix, has raised $5.7 million in Series A funding. Coefficient Capital led the round, joined by Rx3 Ventures and earlier investors Soma Capital and Sixers Innovation Lab. TechCrunch has more here.
Qrvey, a five-year-old, Tyson, Va.-based business analytics platform, says it has raised $7.5 million in Series A in funding from the same investors who also participated in its angel and see rounds (though it's not naming these investors). MarTech Series has more here.
StorySlab, a 7.5-year-old, Syracuse, N.Y.-based digital sales company that creates custom tools for B2B sales teams, has raised $2.7 million in funding. Armory Square Ventures led the round, joined by RiverPark Ventures and TIA Ventures. More here.
Workstream, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based staffing automation startup, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Founders Fund and Basis Set Ventures. Other investors in the round -- which brings the startup's total funding to $12.5 million -- include Affirm CEO Max Levchin, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, Lattice CEO Jack Altman and Lucidchart CEO Karl Sun. TechCrunch has more here.
Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings
White Ops, an eight-year-old, New York-based bot mitigation and fraud protection firm, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division and ClearSky Security. According to Crunchbase, the outfit had previously raised at least $31 million, including from Grotech Ventures and Paladin Capital Group. More here.
|
|
New Funds
Cygni Capital, a new, San Francisco-based venture firm focused on AI, privacy, and blockchain, is looking to raise up to $25 million for its debut fund, per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios. Its founders are Thomas France, who previously cofounded the blockchain security company Ledger, and Nicolas Pinto, who is still listed on LinkedIn as a "deep learning ninja and evangelist" at Apple.
Runa Capital, a 10-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based early-stage venture firm, has raised $157 million in capital commitments for its third fund. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
Exits
The retailing giant Target, which already owns on-demand delivery service Shipt, is in the process of acquiring the tech assets of same-day delivery service Deliv. Deliv, founded eight years ago in Menlo Park, Ca., had raised more than $80 million in venture funding, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.
The gaming company Unity announced today that it's acquiring Finger Food Advanced Technology Group, a nine-year-old, Vancouver-based AR/VR studio best known for building custom software for enterprise clients. The 225-person team will be joining Unity, says TechCrunch, with Finger Food's CEO, Ryan Peterson, becoming Unity’s “VP of Solutions.” More here.
Zoom is acquiring Keybase, a 25-person start-up in New York, to add end-to-end encryption to video calls. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan put in a place a 90-day plan on April 1 to address the company’s security problems. He calls Keybase “the best tech and the best team” in video encryption. Keybase launched in 2017 as an encrypted chat app to compete with Slack. Terms of the transaction aren't being disclosed but the deal represents Zoom's first acquisition. CNBC has more here.
Zoox -- an ambitious self-driving car developer that's been trying to go the nuts-to-bolts route, rather than retrofitting existing cars -- is contemplating a sale, reports The Information. The startup, which has raised $1 billion from investors to date and was valued at $2.7 billion as of 2018, has hired Qatalyst Partners to help it find a buyer, says the outlet. It adds that Zoox is simultaneously looking to raise fresh equity in a deal that would allow it to remain independent for the time being. More here.
|
|
People
Adams Street Partners has promoted longtime partner Robin Murray to its Head of Growth Equity Investments.
Tesla's market value this week reached the threshold needed for CEO Elon Musk to collect the first chunk of a moonshot pay award, reports Bloomberg. The company's average trailing market capitalization over six months topped $100 billion at the close of trading; as a result, it says, Musk is eligible to unlock 1.69 million stock options, which he can exercise at $350.02 apiece for roughly $700 million. More here.
Matthew Prince, cofounder and CEO of infrastructure and security company Cloudflare, zoomed into the billionaire ranks today after the company stock hit an all-time high. The stock surged 18% on Thursday, ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings report, which went on to show total revenue growth of 48% year over year. Prince owns a 12.5% stake in the company. Forbes has more here.
|
|
Sponsored By . . .
Join TechCrunch editors for Pitchers and Pitches, a free, interactive elevator-pitch feedback session on May 13 at 4pm ET / 1pm PT. The TechCrunch team will give feedback and pro-tips to a select group of founders on how to best structure their elevator pitch. Sign up to participate now!
|
|
Essential Reads
A group of nine senators, including past presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, want to know why Amazon keeps firing COVID-19 whistleblowers.
|
|
Detours
San Francisco rapper, producer, and poet George Watsky just made history, live-streaming a run to break the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous freestyle rap.
|
|
Retail Therapy
The ultimate status symbol: an AI-enabled smart meat locker in your living room, next to the plant decor.
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 - |
|
|
|
|
|
