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May 11, 2020
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Top News
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said today that the company’s factory in Fremont, Ca. is open and has restarted production despite a stay-at-home order issued by Alameda County. Musk said in tweet today that he will “be on the line,” a reference to the assembly line at the factory where Tesla makes the Model X, Model S, Model 3 and Model Y. He added that “if anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.” TechCrunch has more here.
Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics believes new coronavirus infections tied to reopening businesses too quickly will send the economy further into tailspin — especially since there’s no vaccine. “If we get a second wave, it will be a depression,” the firm’s chief economist tells CNBC’s “Trading Nation. “We may not shut down again, but certainly it will scare people and spook people and weigh on the economy.”
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Reconnecting, Reluctantly, with Facebook
Haje Jan Kamps is a founder, photographer and journalist who logged time as a TechCrunch writer years ago and who has since launched a platform for virtual conferences called Konf. In a recent catch-up with him about work and life during COVID-19, we wound up talking at some length about Facebook, which is seeing record use across its social networking, messaging and live-streaming platforms right now and will likely continue to do so throughout this pandemic.
We asked Kamps, who joined Facebook around 2006 — which is when it first expanded beyond its roots on college campuses to enable anyone over age 13 with a valid email address to join — if we could share some of his thoughts as a kind of snapshot. They represent only his views and opinions, but they underscore a broader struggle that many Facebook users around the world — currently isolated from friends and family — are experiencing as their relationship with the tech giant evolves, and its power accordingly grows at an accelerated pace.
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Massive Fundings
Carbon Health, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based primary care provider that blends in-person and virtual care services, has raised $26 million in extended Series B funding from earlier backer DCVC. MobiHealth News has more here.
Carta, a nearly eight-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of cap table management and valuation software that's trying to create a private share trading platform to rival Nasdaq, has reportedly raised $180 million in new funding co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tribe Capital that values the company at $3.1 billion. Bloomberg reported last month that this deal was in the works. More here.
MemSQL, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based relational, real-time database used by organizations like banks, telecoms and other big companies to analyze large pools of fast-moving data across cloud, hybrid and on-premise environments, has secured $50 million in debt from Hercules Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Clyde, a nearly three-year-old, New York-based extended warranty startup that wants to help e-commerce businesses offer product protection, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Spark Capital, with participation from Crosslink, RRE, Rea Sea Ventures and others. TechCrunch has more here.
Shiprocket, a 3.5-year-old, New Delhi, India-based logistics aggregation platform that connects online retailers with logistics providers along the supply chain, has raised $13 million in Series C funding. Tribe Capital led the round, joined by Innoven Capital and earlier backer Bertelsmann India Investments. The company has now raised $26 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Validus, a five-year-old, Singapore-based peer-to-peer lending platform that connects accredited lenders with SMEs, has raised $20 million for its ongoing Series B+ round. The financing was co-led by Vertex Growth fund and Kuok Group’s Orion Fund, which is managed by K3 Venture Partners. Earlier investors also joined the deal. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Ai-Media, a 17-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based company that sells live and recorded captioning, transcription and translation services, has raised $6.6 million from investors, including CVC Emerging Companies Fund and Anzu Partners. The company also acquired Alternative Communications Services, a U.S.-based captioning service. MediaWeek has more here.
Archistar, a 10-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based property intelligence platform, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by AirTree Ventures. More here.
BurnAlong, a four-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based video platform that offers personalized well-being classes, has raised $4 million from backers like DM Wellness and CR2 Ventures. Technical.ly Baltimore has more here.
Hummingbird Bioscience, a five-year-old, Singapore-based developer of antibodies for cancer therapeutics, has raised $6 million in extended Series B funding led by SK Holdings, with participation from earlier backers Heritas Capital and Seeds Capital. The (now) $25 million round brings the company's total funding to date to $65 million. TechCrunch has more here.
JobHopin, a three-year-old, Vietnam-based job recruiting platform that uses machine learning to pair candidates with jobs in Southeast Asia, has raised $2.45 million in Series A funding from SEMA Translink, KK Fund, Mynavi Corporation, Edulab Capital Partners, NKC Asia and Canaan Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Primer, a months-old, U.K.-based fintech that wants to help merchants consolidate their payments stack and to easily support new payment methods in the future, has raised £3.8 million in seed funding led by Balderton Capital, along with TransferWise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus. The company's founders come from PayPal. TechCrunch has more here.
Stardog, a 15-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based enterprise knowledge graph platform, has raised $3 million in new Series B funding from Contour Venture Partners, Dcode Capital, and Presidio Ventures. More here.
Vochi, a year-old, Minsk, Belarus-based video editing and effects app, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Genesis Investments. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Summit Partners, the 36-year-old, Boston-based investment firm, is planning to raise roughly $960 million for its fifth venture fund, reports the WSJ. The target amount includes $900 million from limited partners and $63 million in commitments from the firm itself, according to documents presented to the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana and viewed by the news outlet. More here.
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IPOs
Pliant Therapeutics, a five-year-old, South San Francisco, Ca.-based developer of fibrosis treatments, has registered plans to raise $86 million in an IPO. The company has raised roughly $280 million in venture funding; its biggest shareholder is Third Rock Ventures, which still owns roughly one-third of the company. Renaissance Capital has more here.
Online used-car seller Vroom has filed confidentially for an IPO that it hopes to stage next month, reports the WSJ. Rival Carvana, a better-known online car seller, has seen its shares jump sevenfold since its 2017 IPO and despite a drop with the broader market in March, its shares have recovered to trade near record levels as online car sellers apparently opt for a digital-shopping and at-home delivery experience over visiting dealer lots (though we're astonished that people are buying cars from anyone right now ). More here.
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Exits
Saudi Arabia’s $320 billion sovereign wealth fund -- the Public Investment Fund -- is exploring a potential investment in Reliance Industries' digital unit, Jio Platforms, says Bloomberg. Any new investment into Jio Platforms will add to the $8 billion deal run that Reliance's billionaire chairman, Mukesh Ambani, has sealed in the past weeks. Facebook last month agreed to pay $5.7 billion for a 10% stake in the digital unit, while Silver Lake Partners and Vista Equity Partners have since said they would invest about $2.25 billion in total. More here.
Charles Schwab is acquiring some of the assets of 10-year-old, online broker Motif in an all-cash transaction whose value isn't being disclosed. Schwab will be hiring a majority of Motif’s development and investment talent. Motif's founder and CEO, Hardeep Walia, will join Schwab as part of its acquisition-related hiring of Motif’s staff. Motif had raised roughly $127 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Its backers include Foundation Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Ignition Partners, among others. More here.
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People
David Eraker, one of Redfin’s co-founders, is suing the high-tech real estate brokerage for patent infringement and intellectual property theft, alleging that the violations handicapped his current startup. Eraker claims Redfin copied technology that he developed after leaving the company that allows prospective homebuyers to take virtual 3D tours of properties. He's now suing Redfin and Madrona Venture Group in separate suits. Geekwire has the story here.
Jeffrey Katzenberg is blaming the pandemic for the rough start of his short-form streaming app Quibi, which is meant for phones and seen a paltry number of downloads, despite raising $1.8 billion before its spring launch. “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus,” Katzenberg tells the New York Times. “Everything.”
Damien Patton, the CEO of the Utah-based, venture-backed Banjo, will leave the company he founded following an investigative report that revealed his undisclosed involvement in shooting at a synagogue with KKK members at age 17. The startup announced the news today, saying it will transition “to a new, reconstituted leadership team effectively immediately.” TechCrunch has more here.
Fair.com, the car subscription startup backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from SoftBank and others, today announced that Bradley Stewart -- who was CEO of the aviation startup XOJet from 2013 to 2018, when it was acquired by Vista Global -- is its new CEO. TechCrunch has more here.
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Data
Investment between the U.S. and China is off to a weak start in 2020 and could worsen, according to a report published today by New York-based Rhodium Group, which cites political friction, regulatory tightening and market dynamics. Per its findings, and reported on earlier by the WSJ, China’s $5 billion of foreign direct investment into the U.S. last year was the lowest since the global financial crisis a decade ago, while $14 billion in American investment into China marked a small year-over-year increase but mostly reflected continuing investment plans. More here.
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Essential Reads
New details are emerging about Apple's highly anticipated over-the-ear headphones.
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Detours
How Jerry Stiller left everyone on "Seinfeld" in stitches.
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