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Top News
Stocks tumbled today after Anthony Fauci, the U.S.'s top infectious disease official, warned against a premature reopening of the economy and as traders assessed a dire outlook from Federal Reserve regional chiefs. More here.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey emailed employees today, telling them they’ll be allowed to work from home permanently, even after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown passes. (Some jobs that require physical presence, such as maintaining servers, will still require employees to come in.) It's a nightmare scenario for the commercial real estate industry, just as it might have been feeling encouraged by former Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt, who in a Sunday appearance on "Face the Nation," predicted that companies will need more office space after the pandemic, not less. Apple is also bucking the trend first established last week by tech giants Facebook and Google by making plans to return employees to its major global offices over a few months, according to Bloomberg.
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Secondary Market Players -- and Longtime Rivals -- Forge and SharesPost Merge in $160 Million Deal
Even amid a pandemic, there’s a race on to create a powerful, global private securities marketplace where private shares are traded as freely as public company shares on the Nasdaq.
In one lane is Carta, an eight-year-old maker of cap table management software with big ambitions to create a kind of private company stock market, one that the startup tells the Financial Times could debut this summer.
Nasdaq itself is in the race, having acquired in 2015 an earlier broker of private shares called SecondMarket. It has since used its Nasdaq Private Market business to provide software to private companies and investment funds that looking to do tender offers or share buybacks.
Now, two other companies that were long competing against one another are joining forces to boost the odds that they can survive and maybe thrive against the others. Pending regulatory approval, Forge, founded as Equidate in 2014, and Sharespost, founded in 2009, will merge under the Forge brand after agreeing to a $160 million cash-and-stock deal.
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Massive Fundings
Dingdong Maicai, a six-year-old, Shanghai, China-based online grocer, reportedly raised $300 million at a $2 billion valuation led last month by General Atlantic. Earlier backers Sequoia Capital China and Qiming Ventures also joined the round, says Reuters. More here.
DispatchTrack, a 10-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based company whose platform manages last-mile deliveries for smaller companies, has raised $144 million in funding (its first outside investment ever) from Spectrum Equity. TechCrunch has more here.
Waymo, the 11-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based driverless car unit of Google, has raised another $750 million for its technology, including from T. Rowe Price, Perry Creek Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and others. Waymo has now raised $3 billion in its first external round of funding, most of which closed in early March and that came from Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Mubadala Investment Company, Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz and AutoNation. The WSJ has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
GreenLight Biosciences, a 12-year-old, Medford, Ma.-based biotech company that's working on an mRNA vaccine to treat COVID-19 (it's a novel method that hasn’t yet resulted in a vaccine approved for human use, and GreenLight is among others exploring whether it could work), has raised $17 million in special purpose funding. The backing comes from new and existing investors, including Flu Lab, Xeraya Capital, and Baird Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
IRP Systems, a five-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that makes electric powertrain systems for a variety of e-mobility platforms, has raised $17 million in Series B funding. Fosun RZ Capital led the round, joined by JAL Ventures, among others. SiliconAngle has more here.
Lilt, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based AI-powered translation company, has raised $25 million in Series B funding. Intel Capital led the round, joined by Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, In-Q-Tel, and XSeed Capital. VentureBeat has more here.
Nanit, a six-year-old, New York-based startup that makes an enhanced baby monitor, has closed on $21 million in funding from earlier investors, including Jerusalem Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Rho Capital Partners. The company has now raised $50 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Paradox, a four-year-old, Scottsdale, Az.-based chatbot for HR and talent teams, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Brighton Park Capital. More here.
SiMa.ai, a 1.5-year-old, Bay Area-based company that's been building ultra low-power software and a chip solution for machine learning at the edge, has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Dell Technologies Capital. Other participants in the round include Amplify Partners, Wing Venture Capital and +ND Capital. The company has now raised $40 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Slice, a 10-year-old, New York-based company whose mobile app and site enable diners to order a custom pizza delivery from their local, independent pizzeria, has raised $43 million in Series C funding led by KKR. TechCrunch has more here.
UpKeep, a six-year-old, L.A.-based mobile-first platform for maintenance and operations collaboration, has raised $36 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from earlier backers Emergence Capital, Battery Ventures, Y Combinator, Mucker Capital and FundersClub. TechCrunch has more here.
Vise, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based AI-powered wealth management platform, has raised $14.5 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Founders Fund and Bling Capital. The company has now raised $16 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Alike, a months-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based digital health startup that's developing an AI-based system that helps patients monitor their own condition, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Pitango Venture Capital. Calcalist has more here.
Kronologic, a two-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based SaaS-based platform that aims to help turn sales leads into meetings, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Silverton Partners. Crunchbase News has more here.
LexCheck, a six-year-old, New York-based AI-driven legal technology platform, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Kli Capital, with participation from retired First Round Capital cofounder Howard Morgan and Clover Health CEO Vivek Garipalli. More here.
Monument, a New York-based telemedicine platform focused on alcoholism, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding from Lerer Hippeau, Collaborative Fund, Red Sea Ventures, NextView Ventures, Corigin Ventures, and Data Point Capital invested. TechCrunch has more here.
Northspyre, a three-year-old, New York-based loud-based intelligence platform for real estate owners, developers and project management firms, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Tamarisc Ventures. More here.
PathologyWatch, a two-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based software platform for dermatologists that promises them 24-hour access to digital slides and to a network of dermapathologists who can ostensibly help examine routine specimens faster, has raised $5 million in Series A funding. SpringTide Investments and Rock Creek Capital co-led the round. More here.
PlayPlay, a three-year-old, Paris-based startup behind a video creation tool that enables comms, marketing and social media teams to produce high-quality video content “in minutes,” has raised €10 million in Series A funding. Balderton Capital led the round, joined by Point Nine and Kerala Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Primer, a seven-month-old, San Francisco-based maker of homeschooling compliance tools, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding led by Founders Fund. Other investors in the round include Naval Ravikant, Cyan Banister and Village Global. Founder Ryan Delk was formerly the COO of Omni, a since-shuttered venture-backed rentals and item management company. TechCrunch has more here.
Resilia, a five-year-old, New Orleans- and New York-based SaaS business focused on helping nonprofits to better manage and report their finances, and enabling grant-making and philanthropic organizations more easily find who is working in areas of interest to them, has raised $8 million in funding. Backers in the round include the Louisiana-based investment firm Callais Capital and L.A.-based Mucker Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Rogue Games, a two-year-old, L.A.-based game publishing company, has raised $2 million in funding. Runa Capital led the round, joined by Mighty Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Grishin Robotics. VentureBeat has more here.
Sleeper, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based social and gaming platform for sports, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, which was joined by a slew of other investors. The company has now raised $27.3 million in funding. Crunchbase News has more here.
Span, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based maker of smart electrical panels that was founded by former Tesla exec Arch Rao, is announcing $10.1 million in funding that it closed in February. ArcTern Ventures led the round, with participation from Capricorn Investment Group, Incite Ventures (the venture firm of Nest Labs cofounder Matt Rogers) and earlier backers, including Congruent Ventures and Ulu Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Stellar Health, a two-year-old, New York-based web-based tool that delivers targeted recommendations designed to meet the new objectives of "value-based" healthcare models, has raised $10 million investment led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from previous investor Primary Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Tock, a six-year-old, Chicago-based restaurant reservation platfor, has raised $10 million in fresh funding from Valor Siren Ventures, a fund that raised $100 million from Starbucks last year to support next-generation food and retail businesses. The fund is run by Jonathan Shulkin of Valor Equity Partners, an earlier investor in Tock. We sat down with Tock's CEO Nick Kokonas in early February for the Upfront Summit, before the pandemic struck. CNBC has more on the new round here.
Ziva Dynamics, a five-year-old, Vancouver, British Columbia-based developer of advanced character simulation software, has raised $7 million in seed funding from Grishin Robotics, Toyota AI Ventures and Millennium Technology Value Partners’ New Horizons Fund. More here.
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IPOs
ZoomInfo, a Vancouver, Wa..-based business intelligence platform that's owned by The Carlyle Group and TA Associates, is moving forward with an IPO that could price as early as June. According to Bloomberg, the company could launch a virtual roadshow to market its stock as soon as this month. It could also confused traders, notes the outlet, given the brand is similar to Zoom Communications, the fast-growing video conferencing company that went public last year.
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Exits
Publicly traded Atlassian has acquired Halp, a three-year-old, Denver-based conversational ticketing solution for IT teams to assign, prioritize, and answer requests from Slack in a message-based interface. Deal terms aren't being disclosed. Halp had raised $2.7 million in venture funding from eonCapital and Matchstick Ventures, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.
Earnin, an eight-year-old, cash-advance startup backed by more than $190 million in venture funding, including from Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital, has acquired Tip Yourself, a five-year-old, Chicago-based savings app that encourages people to reward themselves for accomplishing a goal like sticking to a diet or finishing a project. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed, but Tip Yourself does not appear to have raised institutional funding. Chicago Inno has more here.
Twitter said today that it has acquired interactive mobile ad company CrossInstall, an eight-year-old company that was reportedly bootstrapped. No deal price was disclosed. All of CrossInstall’s 70 employees will be joining Twitter. CrossInstall is a mobile-only DSP focused on user acquisition, with its own home-grown bidder and proprietary creative offering, including playables and other interactive ad units. AdExchanger has more here.
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Essential Reads
Facebook has agreed to pay $52 million to current and former content moderators to compensate them for mental health issues developed on the job. In a preliminary settlement filed on Friday, the social network agreed to pay damages to 11,250 moderators, and lawyers in the case believe that as many as half of them may be eligible for extra pay related to mental health issues associated with their time working for Facebook. The Verge reported last year that moderators were working in dire conditions in Phoenix and Tampa. More here.
Tesla, in a showdown with California officials over the reopening of a major factory, continued to ramp up production today at its Fremont facilities, says the Washington Post, which observed workers’ cars filing up the company’s parking lot, with no signs of any enforcement actions by the local officials who sent a letter yesterday telling the company to cease production.
Uber has reportedly been in talks since February to acquire Grubhub in a deal that would unite two of the biggest players in the meal-delivery business at a time when the pandemic has sparked a surge in demand for their services. According to the WSJ, Uber first approached the Chicago-based company with an all-stock takeover offer; Grubhub recently proposed that Uber pay 2.15 of its shares for each Grubhub share, which Uber rebuffed as too high, and now the two sides are discussing a lower price. More here.
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