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Top News
The company separately today teased a vision of remote work that uses augmented and virtual reality, with Facebook's head of AR and VR, Andrew ("Boz") Bosworth, tweeting a video of someone using floating displays that are quickly resized and rearranged with touch gestures.
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This Virtual Events Startup Just Landed $10.8 Million in Funding from Founders Fund and a16z
Run The World, a year-old startup that’s based in Mountain View, Ca., and has small teams both in China and Taiwan, just nabbed $10.8 million in Series A funding co-led by earlier backer Andreessen Horowitz and new backer Founders Fund.
It’s easy to understand the firms’ interest in the company, whose platform features every functionality that a conference organizer might need in a time of a pandemic and even afterward, given that many outfits are rethinking more permanently how to produce events that include far-flung participants. Think video conferencing, ticketing, interactivity and networking.
We’d written about the startup a few months ago as it was launching with $4.3 million in seed funding led by Andreessen partner Connie Chan, who was joined by a slew of other seed-stage backers, including Pear Ventures, GSR Ventures and Unanimous Capital. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the current climate, Run The World has received a fair amount of traction since.
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Massive Fundings
Amplitude, a 6.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a product analysis platform used by product teams, has raised $50 million in Series E funding. GIC led the round, joined by Sorenson Capital and earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, Battery Ventures, IVP, and Lead Edge Capital. Forbes has more here.
American Well, a four-year-old, Boston-based telehealth firm, has raised $194 million in Series C funding. Early and strategic investors Allianz X and Takeda participated. CNBC has more here.
Aspiration, a seven-year-old, L.A.-based fintech "challenger" bank, has raised $135 million in Series C funding. Alpha Edison led the round, joined by UBS O’Connor Capital Solutions, DNS Capital, and Radicle Impact, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Couchbase, an 11-year-old, Santa Clara-based maker of a NoSQL cloud database, has raised $105 million in Series G funding. GPI Capital led the round, joined by Accel, Sorenson Capital, North Bridge Venture Partners, Glynn Capital, Adams Street Partners, and Mayfield. TechCrunch has more here.
Day One Biopharmaceuticals, a two-year-old, South San Francisco-based cancer treatment maker, launched with $60 million funding from Canaan, Access Biotechnology, and Atlas Venture. FierceBiotech has more here.
Imperfect Foods, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based grocery delivery service of imperfect produce, has raised $72 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by Norwest Venture Partners, among others. CNBC has more here.
Magic Leap, the nine-year-old, Florida-based augmented reality company, has reportedly received a $350 million lifeline one month after slashing 1,000 jobs and dropping its consumer business. Noted by Business Insider and confirmed by The Information, CEO Rony Abovitz sent a note to staff announcing the funding, courtesy of unnamed current and new investors. More here.
Nautilus Biotechnology, a 3.5-year-old, Seattle-based startup focused on human proteomics, has raised $76 million in Series B funding. Vulcan Capital led the round, joined by Perceptive Advisors, Bezos Expeditions, Defy Partners and earlier backers AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bolt, and Madrona Venture Group. Nautilus was cofounded by Sujal Patel, a veteran entrepreneur who co-founded and sold Isilon Systems to EMC for $2.5 billion in 2010. GeekWire has more here.
Samsara Networks, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of IoT sensors and cameras, has raised $400 million in new funding in a down round that gives the company a post-money valuation of $5.4 billion, from an earlier valuation of $6.3 billion. Investors AllianceBernstein, Franklin Templeton, General Atlantic, Sands Capital Management, and Warburg Pincus were joined by earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Dragoneer, and Tiger Global Management. Bloomberg has the story here.
States Title, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based firm that's bringing more of the title and escrow processes online, has raised $123 million in Series C funding led by Greenspring Associates, with participation from Foundation Capital and Fifth Wall Ventures. Bloomberg has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Deel, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based payroll platform for remote workers, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. CNBC has more here.
Directly, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that trains customer service chatbots, has added $11 million to a previously closed Series B round, bringing its total to $31 million. Triangle Peak Partners and Toba Capital were the investors. VentureBeat has more here.
Ecwid, an 11-year-old, San Diego-based add-on online store builder for small and mid-size businesses, has raised $42 million in funding. Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and PeakSpan Capital led the round. More here.
ObvioHealth, a five-year-old, Orlando, Fla.-based virtual health research organization that allows subjects to participate in studies and trials from homes, has raised $17 million led by TKS1. More here.
Rent the Runway, the 11-year-old, New York-based clothing rental platform, is in talks to raise at least $25 million led by T. Rowe Price at around a $750 million valuation, which is down from the $1 billion valuation that its investors had assigned it previously. Bloomberg has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Cinchy, a four-year-old, Toronto-based data collaboration company, has. raised $10 million in Series A funding. Information Venture Partners led the round, joined by ScaleUp Ventures, Techstars, and Manulife Venture Capital. More here.
Clara Insurance, a year-old, Hoboken, N.J.-based supplemental benefits startup, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Two Sigma Ventures led the round, joined by Founder Collective, RGAX and SymphonyAI. More here.
Human Interest, a five-year-old. San Francisco-based 401(k) provider for small and medium-sized businesses, has tacked on $10 million in Series C funding to a previously closed round, bringing its total to $50 million and the company's overall funding to date to roughly $80 million. New backer Glynn Capital led the extension. TechCrunch has more here.
New Vector, a three-year-old, London-based developer of a decentralized communications standard, has raised $4.6 million in new funding from WordPress and Tumblr parent company Automattic. The capital extends an $8.5 million Series A that was announced last year and involved Notion Capital, Dawn Capital, and Firstminute Capital, and it brings the company's total funding to date to $18.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Skyflow, a year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based privacy API company, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding from Foundation Capital, with participation from former GE CEO Jeff Immelt and former AthenaHealth CEO Jonathan Bush. TechCrunch has more here.
VergeSense, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based office sensor platform with new tools designed to monitor the safety of offices as people return to work, has raised $9 million in funding. The round was led by Allegion Ventures, the corporate venture fund of security and access control company Allegion. Business Insider has more here.
Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings
Hudl, a 14-year-old, Lincoln, Neb.-based maker of sports video analysis and scouting software, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities. The Lincoln Journal Star has more here.
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New Funds
Amplify Partners, an eight-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based early-stage venture firm that invests in highly technical founders and which closed its last flagship fund in the fall of 2018 with $200 million in commitments, quietly closed a $20 million opportunity fund last month, per an SEC filing. More here.
Cyberstarts, a two-year-old, Israel-based venture firm that's focused on cybersecurity, is raising $100 million for its second fund, shows an SEC filing. The firm's debut fund had closed with $54 million. More here.
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People
Former Juul CEO Kevin Burns is in advanced talks to join SoftBank-backed digital pharmacy Alto, Axios reports. Burns worked for TPG Capital until leaving in 2014 to become president and COO of Greek yogurt company Chobani. He took over e-cigarette maker Juul in late 2017 and stepped down last fall.
SeventySix Capital, a 20-year-old, Philadelphia-based sports-tech focused venture firm, has brought aboard Michael Schreiber as a general partner. Schreiber joins from Altice USA where he was chief content officer. Before joining Altice in 2016, he spent more than five years as a senior VP with Comcast Cable. More here.
Apple TV+, now building up its arsenal in the streaming wars, is in the early stages of developing a series about Gawker, says Vanity Fair. According to its report: "The show was conceived and pitched by two former Gawker staffers, Max Read and Cord Jefferson, who have been working on scripts for the past couple of months with a writers room that apparently includes some other Gawker alumni. Read was Gawker’s editor in chief at one point, but stepped down in 2015 amid a controversy related to a post about an executive at Condé Nast (which owns Vanity Fair). He then landed at New York magazine, but resigned recently to concentrate on the show. "
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Data
Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. An NRP report says it's too early to say conclusively which individuals or groups are behind the bot accounts, but the researchers say the tweets appear aimed at sowing division in America.
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Essential Reads
India's telecom operator Jio Platforms just agreed to sell a 2.32% stake in its business to U.S. equity firm KKR in what is the fifth major investment the company has secured in just as many weeks (after General Atlantic, Vista Equity Partners, Silver Lake Partners, and Facebook). TechCrunch has more here.
Shopify will allow its 5,000 employees to work from home indefinitely, CEO Tobi Lutke said today. The company plans to keep its offices largely closed for the rest of the year as it re-designs its space for a “digital by default” mindset and adjusts to a remote work environment, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Offices will be limited to 20% to 25% capacity after that.
How the pandemic puts billionaires’ commitment to journalism to the test.
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Detours
The new trailer for "Tenet," Christopher Nolans' latest.
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Retail Therapy
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