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May 18, 2020
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Top News
Some 108 million people in China’s northeast region are being elbowed anew into lockdown conditions amid a growing cluster of infections. Bloomberg reports that the number of infections isn’t growing as quickly as the outbreak in Wuhan that started the pandemic last December, but the reaction underscores China's fear of a second wave and suggests the re-opening process in China and elsewhere may prove fragile. More here.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son compared himself to Jesus in an investor call today, according to a report by the Financial Times. Son said that, just like Jesus, he is misunderstood. (And you thought it was bad when WeWork's Adam Neumann reportedly joked about becoming "president of the world.") More here.
Nasdaq is set to unveil new restrictions on IPOs, a move that will make it harder for some Chinese companies to debut on its stock exchange, according to Reuters's sources. While Nasdaq will not cite Chinese companies specifically in the changes, the move is reportedly being driven largely by concerns about some of the Chinese companies' lack of accounting transparency.
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Massive Fundings
SenseTime, a six-year-old, Hong Kong-based developer of facial recognition technology, is in talks to raise $1 billion in fresh funding at a $9.5 billion valuation, says the WSJ. It notes that the coronavirus pandemic has led to new uses for its tech, which "has been deployed for contactless temperature checks that can also detect whether passersby are wearing face masks. The devices have been used in office buildings, airports, schools and factory floors since mid-February in cities across China, according to company statements." SenseTime was valued at $7.7 billion at the end of 2018 after an investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund. More here.
SQZ Biotech, a seven-year-old, Watertown, Ma.-based cell therapy platform, has raised $65 million in Series D funding. Temasek led the round, joined by GV, Illumina Ventures, Invus, JDRF T1D Fund, NanoDimension, and Polaris Partners. Endpoints News has more here.
Wolt, a six-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based food delivery company, raised €100 million from prior backers ICONIQ Capital, Highland Europe, 83North and EQT Ventures. The only new investor added to the roster is Goldman Sachs’ Growth Equity unit. The company raised $130 million less than a year ago, but it said in a blog post last week that the coronavirus and the uncertainty it has created prompted it to raise more cash. Tech.eu has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Checkerspot, a four-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based high-performance materials company that designs materials at a molecular level, has raised $32.9 million in fresh funding, shows a an SEC filing that says the round is targeting $50 million altogether. The company is funded by Breakout Ventures, Illumina, and KdT Ventures, among others. More here.
GO1.com, a five-year-old, Brisbane, Australia-based workforce training platform, has raised $40 million in Series C funding co-led by Madrona Venture Group and SEEK, an online recruitment and course directory company. Other participants in the round include M12; new backer Salesforce Ventures, and Our Innovation Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
Holmusk, a five-year-old, Singapore-based digital therapeutics company, has raised $21.5 million in funding co-led by Optum Ventures and Health Catalyst Capital, with participation from earlier backer Heritas Capital. The Business Times has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Electric, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based automated IT platform for enterprises, has tacked on $7 million to a (twice) previously closed Series B round. Earlier backers 01 Advisors led the round, with participation from the Slack Fund. Electric had originally raised a $25 million Series B round led by GGV in January of 2019. In March of this year, just before the lockdown, the company says it reopened the Series B at a higher valuation to make room for 01 Advisors (run by former Twitter execs Dick Costolo and Adam Bain). TechCrunch has more here.
Fly Now Pay Later, a five-year-old, London-based payment tech startup that allows travelers to pay for their bookings over monthly installments after a quick credit check, has raised £5 million in Series A equity funding and another £30 million in debt funding. Revenio Capital led the round, joined by Shawbrook Bank and BCI Finance. Tech.eu has more here.
Gatt Technologies, a nine-year-old, Netherlands-based company that develops surgical hemostats and sealants, has has raised €10.5 million in Series B funding led by NGI, with participation from J&J Innovation and Oost. More here.
Quartz Systems, a San Francisco-based construction tech company that says it's leveraging advanced perception systems to understand everything on a construction site (notably, its cofounder and CEO is Jeremy Conrad, who cofounded the hardware-focused fund Lemnos), has raised $7.8 million in pre-seed and seed funding. Baseline Ventures led the round, joined by investors including Lemnos, Felicis Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta. More here.
Regulus Cyber, a four-year-old, Haifa, Israel-based maker of "anti-virus" software that aims to secure the communication and sensor suite of autonomous cars and trucks, robots, and drones, has raised $4 million in funding led by by SPDG Ventures, with participation from btov Partners and all previous investors. Globes has more here.
Pennylane, a four-month-old, Paris-based startup that brings together accountants and tech to help startup founders and small business owners manage their administration, has raised €4 million ($4.3 million) in funding from Global Founders Capital, Partech and Kima Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.
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New Funds
Closed Loop Partners, a six-year-old, New York-based venture firm focused on sustainability (and cofounded day New York's former deputy commissioner o sanitation, recycling, and sustainability under Mike Bloomberg), is looking to raise up to $50 million for its second fund, shows a new SEC filing. Among its most recent bets is Reterra, a 21-year-old, Houston-based company whose tech turns waste byproduct streams of PET plastic that are produced during the recycling process into high-value intermediary products. The firm wrote Reterra a $2 million check in early March. More here.
Northgate Capital, the now 20-year-old, San Francisco-based venture and private equity investment. firm, has garnered $70 million in capital commitments for its seventh venture fund-of-funds, shows an SEC filing that lists a $250 million target. More here.
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Exits
AppLovin, an eight-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based mobile marketing platform that counts KKR as a minority investor, has acquired mobile game maker Machine Zone for around $500 million -- one tenth of what investors thought the company was worth in 2016, says Bloomberg. Machine Zone had raised a whole lot of funding, too: $725 million from KKR, Menlo Ventures, Orient Hontai Capital, J.P. Morgan, Anthos Capital, SV Angel, and Baseline Ventures. More here.
Templafy, a six-year-old, Copenhagen-based maker of enterprise template management and document creation software that last month announced $25 million in Series C funding, has acquired Napp, a three-year-old, Copenhagen-based B2B sales enablement platform that doesn't appear to have raised (or announced anyway) outside funding. Financial terms weren't disclosed. MarTech Series has more here.
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People
Alibaba’s Jack Ma, China’s richest man, is stepping down from the board of SoftBank on June 25. Ma has become increasingly focused on education philanthropy over the last year. He stepped down as Alibaba’s chairman last September and there’s speculation that he’ll quit Alibaba’s board later this year. CNBC has more here.
Kevin Mayer, head of The Walt Disney Company’s direct-to-consumer and international business, is becoming the CEO of TikTok, as well as COO of the popular video app’s parent company ByteDance. Founder Yiming Zhang will continue to serve as ByteDance CEO, while TikTok President Alex Zhu (formerly the co-founder of the predecessor app Musical.ly), becomes ByteDance’s vice president of product and strategy. TechCrunch has more here.
"Microsoft was on the wrong side of history when open source exploded at the beginning of the century and I can say that about me personally," said Microsoft President Brad Smith during a chat hosted last month by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. "The good news is that, if life is long enough, you can learn... that you need to change," added Smith. The Register has more here.
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Layoffs
Uber has laid off another 3,000(!) people. It's also closing more than three dozen offices and re-evaluating big bets in areas ranging from freight to self-driving tech.
Bangalore, India-based food delivery company Swiggy has laid off 1,100 employees as the coronavirus drives more cautious behavior around ordering food online.
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Essential Reads
Another week, another big-name investor in Jio Platforms. This time it has agreed to sell its 1.34% stake to General Atlantic. General Atlantic's deal values the Indian telecom giant at $65 billion, the same number implied when both Silver Lake and Vista Equity Partners invested (separately) in recent weeks.
In what appears to be related news, SoftBank Group plans to seek buyers for about $20 billion of its shares in T-Mobile US as it takes steps to pare a years-long investment in the U.S. mobile-phone sector. Banks are working to round up investors for what would be one of the largest stock trades in market history, according to WSJ sources. SoftBank owns roughly 25% of T-Mobile after the U.S. cellphone giant’s recent merger with SoftBank-controlled Sprint.
Also seemingly related: How a pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas from SoftBank-backed DoorDash for $16.
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Detours
Is it safe to stay at a hotel? What to know before you check in.
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