|
May 28, 2020
Thursday! Hope yours went well.:)
|
|
Top News
Donald Trump signed an executive order today that looks to limit the broad legal protection that federal law currently provides to social-media and other online platforms. The order -- which is expected to draw immediate (and endless) court challenges -- aims to make it easier for federal regulators to hold companies like Twitter and Facebook liable if they're deemed to be unfairly curbing users’ speech. But Facebook has already pointed out how it's likely to backfire for Trump, noting that repealing or limiting section 230 would “restrict more speech online, not less” as it would "penalize companies that choose to allow controversial speech and encourage platforms to censor anything that might offend anyone.”
|
|
Sponsored By ...
The Qualified Small Business Stock tax exemption allows entrepreneurs and early stage investors to save on $10 million or more of their proceeds. A specialized tax adviser can help you create a sophisticated plan that rolls gains that did not qualify into other investments and maximize the long-term value of your stock. Upgrade your tax planning with an experienced CPA to help you capture more value. Harness Wealth provides access to some of the best tax advisers in the country. Get started now.
|
|
Massive Fundings
Benchling, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-based informatics platform for life sciences companies, has raised $50 million in new funding led by Alkeon Capital in a round that brings the company's total funding to $114 million and its post-money valuation to $850 million. Forbes has more here.
Mabwell Biotech, a three-year-old, Shanghai-based biotch that develops monoclonal antibodies and long-acting recombinant proteins, among other drugs, has raised $278.5 million in Series A(!) funding, led by the Chinese venture capital firm Shiyu Capital. Endpoints News has more here.
Pie Insurance, a three-year-old, Washington D.C.-based insurtech focused on worker’s compensation, has raised $100 million in new equity funding. Gallatin Point Capital was joined by earlier backers Greycroft, SVB Capital, Aspect Ventures, Elefund, and Sirius International Insurance Group. Crunchbase News has more here.
Starling Bank, the six-year-old, U.K.-based challenger bank founded by banking veteran Anne Boden, has raised an additional £40 million in funding, says TechCrunch. The capital comes from earlier backers Harry McPike and Merian Chrysalis Investment Company and adds to the £60 million raised in February this year. Starling has now raised £363 million altogether. More here.
Synack, a seven-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based bug bounty platform, has raised $52 million in Series D funding co-led by B Capital and C5 Capital. Other investors in the round include GGV Capital, GV, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Icon Ventures, Intel Capital, Kleiner Perkins, M12 and Singtel Innov8. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Accern, a six-year-old, New York-based company that makes workflow automation and risk management software for investment research, credit lending, and financial crimes, has raised $13 million Series A funding round led by Fusion Fund. Mighty Capital, Allianz Life Ventures, Vectr Fintech Partners and Viaduct Ventures. Forbes has more here.
Ascus Biosciences, a five-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based deep science animal health and nutrition company, has raised $46 million in Series B funding led by Temasek. Other investors in the round include Anterra Capital, Formation 8 and Cavallo Ventures. More here.
Bright.md, an eight-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based platform that assists primary care providers by gathering information from patients who submit clinical surveys, select pharmacies, and enter insurance information so they can be treated remotely, has now raised $16.7 million in Series C funding from B Capital, Seven Peaks Ventures and Concord Health Partners. The outfit originally closed its Series C with $8 million back in March. More here.
CaptivateIQ, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based sales commission automation company, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital. Forbes has more here.
Decibel, a seven-year-old, London-based analytics company that measures the “digital experience” of customers so that brands can recoup revenue that’s lost from a poorly functioning website or app, has raised a $40 million Series B round led by Perwyn, a family fund in the UK. The round also includes an initial investment of $17 million from Draper Esprit, Eight Roads Ventures and John Simon, via his Ventureforgood investment entity. Tech.eu has more here.
Dishcraft Robotics, a five-year-old, San Carlos, Ca.-based company whose commercial dishwater system cleans each dish individually using a rotating scrubber head, then inspects it for residual food, has raised $20 million in Series A1 funding. Grit Ventures led the round, joined by First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Fuel Capital, and Lemnos. TechCrunch has more here.
Podimo, a year-old, Copenhagen-based podcast and short-form audio platform that offers personalized recommendations for users and supports the content creators through a revenue-share model, has raised €15 million in funding led by 83North, with participation from earlier backers e.ventures and Heartcore. Tech.eu has more here.
Q32 Bio, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech company that's developing treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases (and was formerly known as Admirx), has raised $46 million in Series A funding. Atlas Venture led the round, joined by OrbiMed Advisors, Abingworth, Sanofi Ventures, the University of Colorado, and Children’s Hospital Colorado Center for Innovation. Endpoints News has more here.
Wasabi, a five-year-old, Boston-based cloud storage company, has raised $30 million in funding led by Forestay Capital, the technology innovation arm of Waypoint Capital. It previously raised $68 million in 2018. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Almanac, a year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes collaborative documentation tools, has raised $9 million in seed funding led by Floodgate. Other participants in the round include General Catalyst, Inspired Capital, Abstract, Shrug, Worklife, Indicator Ventures, Wing Venture Capital and Liquid 2 Ventures. SiliconAngle has more here.
Greyparrot, a year-old, London-based startup at work on AI-driven waste recognition software to monitor and sort waste at scale for recycling purposes, has raised £1.8 million in seed funding led by Speedinvest, with participation from Force Over Mass. TechCrunch has more here.
Meniga, an 11-year-old, Reykjavik, Iceland-based startup that says sells its digital banking technology to some of the world's biggest banks, has raised €8.5 million in funding from Groupe BPCE, Grupo Crédito Agrícola, and UniCredit. TechCrunch has more here.
Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha, a seven-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based maker of what it says are low-sugar kombucha drinks, has raised $3.5 million in additional Series A funding from KarpReilly. The new infusion brings the round to $7 million. FoodBev Media has more here.
RudderStack, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that offers an open-source alternative to customer data management platforms like Segment, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by S28 Capital. Other participants in the round included entrepreneur Florian Leibert and Salil Deshpande, a longtime VC who left Bain Capital Ventures last summer to form his own seed-stage fund, Uncorrelated Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Stork Club, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based maternity care platform, has raised $2.7 million in seed funding from Bowery Capital, and Slow Ventures, along with individual investors, including Arianna Simpson, a crypto investor who recently joined Andreessen Horowitz as a partner. Business Insider has more here.
Stringr, a nearly seven-year-old, New York-based startup that helps news organizations by pairing them with a vast network of videographers, has raised $5.75 million in new funding led by Thomson Reuters, with participation from previous backers G5 Capital and Advection Growth Capital. The company has now raised $7.25 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Toro, an 18-month-old, San Francisco-based company whose software aims to make it easier to monitor data models for outages and anomalies, has raised $4 million in seed funding co-led by Costanoa Ventures and Point72 Ventures, with participation from individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Tugboat Logic, a three-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based company that automates security certifications, has raised $8 million in funding led by Inovia Capital. More here.
Wiz.ai, a year-old, Singapore-based AI company that has developed a conversational talkbot platform, has raised $6 million inpre-Series A funding led by GGV Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.
|
|
New Funds
UBS Group plans to establish a new venture capital fund aimed specifically at backing financial technology companies. The Switzerland-based banking giant is planning to use the fund to make investments of between $10 million and $20 million in dozens of fintech companies, reports Bloomberg. More here.
|
|
Exits
Cisco continued its software acquisition spree, saying today it has purchased ThousandEyes, whose technology helps companies monitor their network for outages. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but a person familiar with the matter tells CNBC it was valued at roughly $1 billion. The start-up had raised over $110 million from venture investors, included GV, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital. More here.
|
|
IPOs
Industrious, a venture-backed workplace provider that counts WeWork among its rivals, is taking steps toward an IPO that could come as next spring, its CEO, Jamie Hodari, tells Bloomberg. On Monday, the company will add real estate veteran Mary Hogan Preusse as its first female board member. More here.
|
|
People
Chian Gong was promoted to partner at Reach Capital. Gong joined the firm during the summer of 2014 as an intern while finishing her MBA/MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School and Wharton. More here.
Karthic Jayaraman has joined TPG Capital as a London-based partner and co-lead of health care investing. He joined the outfit from the Carlyle Group, where he spent 20 years. More here.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk earned the first tranche of his massive incentive payout, shows a document filed with the SEC today. The tranche is comprised of about 1.7 million shares of Tesla, and would be valued around $775 million based on today's closing market value. Shares in Tesla closed at $805.81 this afternoon, and the options have a strike price of $350.02. CNBC has more here.
|
|
Data
Coronavirus-related layoffs are slowing, but 42%, or 11.6 million, of all jobs lost through April 25 due to Covid-19 will become permanent, according to the University of Chicago. Politico has more here.
|
|
Sponsored By . . .
Making connections in the venture industry has never been more important. Coming up June 3 & 4, the Global Corporate Venturing Digital Forum will bring together the industry's top investors and entrepreneurs for top-level content and extensive networking opportunities, all on an intuitive online platform. Make sure you're there! Take advantage of your 15% discount using the code STRICTLY15 during registration.
|
|
Essential Reads
Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz tells VentureBeat he's stepping down as CEO. He also confirmed today that the once heavily-hyped augmented reality startup has raised a new round of funding (though he isn't saying how much or from whom).
A new filing reveals that Tesla and SpaceX, both run by Elon Musk, are increasingly working together, including by sharing staffers.
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 - |
|
|
|
|
|
