Facebook buys Giphy, Berkshire Hathaway dumps Goldman Sachs, and a DIY project for the very patient

May 15, 2020

Friday! We're a little zonked so sending out a shorter one tonight, but if you're looking for a podcast this weekend, check out our newest StrictlyVC Download, featuring Kevin Rose, who famously cofounded Digg before launching a long string of other apps and who is now writing checks full time on behalf of True Ventures. We talked wellness, raccoons, why he isn't giving up on cryptocurrency (but is kind over Ripple), and a whole lot more.

Thanks to TechCrunch for sponsoring this one. Learn more about its fun new Extra Crunch series here.

Hope you have a stellar weekend, everyone. More Monday.:)

Top News

House Democrats today narrowly passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief package, though Senate Republicans have pledged to block as the major parties struggle to find a path forward on the pandemic response, reports CNBC.

Both the Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general are likely to file antitrust lawsuits against Google—and are well into planning for litigation, according to WSJ sources. The Justice Department is moving toward bringing a case as soon as this summer, reports the outlet. At least some state attorneys general are meanwhile likely to file a case, probably in the fall. More here.

Amazon said today it will “make the appropriate executive available” to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on the company’s competitive practices, but stopped short of making its CEO Jeff Bezos available like committee members requested. More here.

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Massive Fundings

DigitalOcean, a nine-year-old, New York-based cloud infrastructure company, raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Access Industries, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.

Matterport, a nine-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based maker of 3D capture software, has raised nearly $40 million in new venture funding, per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios. The. company had previously raised a total of $155 million from investors, according to PitchBook. It also laid off one-third of its staff roughly one month ago, citing fallout from the coronavirus. More here.

Monzo, a five-year-old, London-based digital challenger bank, is in talks to raise upwards of £80 million at a £1.25 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times. That's quite a ways from the £2 billion post-money valuation it was assigned in June of last year when it raised its Series F round. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Clear Labs, a six-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based next-generation-sequencing diagnostics platform, has raised $18 million led by Redmile Group, with participation from earlier backers Wing VC, Menlo Ventures, Tyson Ventures, Khosla Ventures, GV, Felicis Ventures, and HBM Genomics. Crunchbase News has more here.

Clubhouse, a months-old, Bay Area-based voice-based social media app with less than 5,000 beta test users, has reportedly raised $12 million funding from Andreessen Horowitz at a post-money valuation of $100 million. Interestingly -- and some will surely think alarmingly -- part of a16z's investment -- $2 million -- was in secondary shares, suggesting Clubhouse's founder, Paul Davison, was able to cash out a bit already. Forbes, which reports has the story here.

Deep Labs, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company that has developed context-aware decisioning and risk systems, has raised the initial tranche of a $16 million round, it says. The backing came from Corsair Capital, Serendipity Capital and Gramercy Ventures. More here.

FalconX, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based institutional crypto trading platform, has raised $17 million in funding. Backers included Accel, Accomplice VC, Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Avon Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Immunai, a year-old, New York-based immune system mapping startup, has raised $20 million in seed funding co-led by Viola Ventures and TLV Partners. Crunchbase News has more here.

M17 Entertainment, a five-year-old, Taiwan-based startup that runs a slew of popular interactive streaming platforms, has raised $26.5 million in Series D funding led by Vertex Growth Fund. Other backers in the round include Stonebridge Korea Unicorn Venture Fund, Innoven Capital Singapore, Kaga Electronics, and ASE Global Group. The Tech Portal has more here.

Rebag, a six-year-old, New York-based luxury handbag marketplace, has raised $15 million in Series D funding led by Novator, with participation from earlier backer General Catalyst. The company has now raised $68 million altogether. Forbes has more here.

Virtana, a 12-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based application monitoring company for IT infrastructure, raised $15 million from HighBar Partners and Benhamou Global Ventures. More here.

Zenjob, a five-year-old, Berlin-based digital staffing service, has raised €27 million in Series C funding led by Forestay Capital. Other backers in the round include Redalpine, Acton Capital, Axa Venture Partners and Atlantic Labs. EU Startups has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Mindset Health, a three-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based startup providing app-based hypnotherapy, has raised $1.1 million in funding from investors including Fifty Years, Y Combinator, Gelt VC, Giant Leap VC and angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Syndio, a four-year-old, Seattle-based HR analytics platform focused on eradicating pay disparities, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. Emerson Collective and Voyager Capital co-led the round, joined by earlier backers Sirius, Contour Venture Partners, and Frontier Venture Capital. GeekWire has more here.

New Funds

Fintop Capital, a four-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based venture firm focused on enterprise-focused SaaS startups, says it has raised $126 million in capital commitments for its second fund. The firm's debut fund had closed with $50 million. More here.

G20 Ventures, a seven-year-old, Boston-based venture firm focused on East Coast enterprise startups, is raising $60 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing. The outfit has never announced fund close but according to earlier filings, it sought $63.5 million for its second fund. More here.

Grammy Award-winning artists the Chainsmokers are expecting to invest $50 million in startups through a newly formed firm, Mantis. Musicians Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, who were already investing in startups with their own personal capital, are raising a venture fund. Bloomberg has more here.

Exits

Facebook has agreed shell out around $400 million to acquire seven-year-old Giphy, the popular platform of sharable animated images, Axios reported earlier today. It says that Giphy, which had raised $150 million from venture investors, is "expected to retain its own branding, with its primary integration to come via Facebook's Instagram platform." It also notes that the deal is likely to be scrutinized by antitrust regulators who've grown concerned by the unprecedented reach of Facebook and several others of the tech giants. More here.

Data

The first quarter of 2020 was a very good one for gaming companies. A new report from NPD Group notes that sales hit a record $10.86 billion in the U.S. between January and March, marking a 9% increase over a year prior; $9.58 billion of that figure was from video game content. TechCrunch has more here.

Salesforce tells employees to stay home (if they want!), TIkTok plays it fast and loose, and another Twitter fight for Musk

Friday, May 15, 2020

The news you need to know May 14, 2020 Hello! It was another comically busy day(!), but a highlight was talking this afternoon to serial founder and investor Kevin Rose, who is writing checks full time

Facebook buys Giphy, Berkshire Hathaway dumps Goldman Sachs, and a DIY project for the very patient

Older messages

Salesforce tells employees to stay home (if they want!), TIkTok plays it fast and loose, and another Twitter fight for Musk

Bill Gates gathers the troops, Luckin loses its CEO, and quarantine parenting ("I have given up")

Tesla ramps up production, Twitter tells employees they can stay home, and how time works now (an update)

New Apple headphone details, Musk begs to be arrested, and a little Fauchi just for you

Nintendo's endurance, Tesla's newest fight, and a giant thank you to mothers everywhere

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