|
June 1, 2020
Hello! Welcome back from a very long few days. Thank God for Saturday's successful SpaceX rocket launch. We'd all be having a collective nervous breakdown if not for that glimmer of good news. (We may be having one anyway.)
|
|
Top News
Uber, Lyft and DoorDash are suspending operations in some cities during curfew hours across the United States. CNBC has more here.
Executives across YouTube are encouraging their employees to take tomorrow off or cancel their meetings in solidarity with nationwide protests of police violence against African Americans, reports The Information. YouTube’s Chief Business Officer, Robert Kyncl, encouraged his roughly 1,200 reports to use the day to “focus on how to improve racial equity” should they choose not to log on.
Low-flying military helicopters used a wind-blowing tactic to break up crowds of protesters in Washington tonight. The tactic is often conducted with low flying jets in combat zones to scare away insurgents.
|
|
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
Genor Biopharma, a 13-year-old, Shanghai, China-based biopharmaceutical firm at work on therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, raised $160 million in Series B funding. Hillhouse Capital Group led the round. DealStreetAsia has more here.
Ligado Networks, a Reston, Va.-based satellite communications company that was formerly known as LightSquared (and after restructuring, emerged from bankruptcy in 2016 in its newest form), just raised $100 million in funding. The company isn't disclosing from whom. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Appway, a 17-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based company that provides software to help banks and others that transact with customers to build banking, mortgage, regulatory compliance and other service management tools, has raised $37 million in equity funding from Summit Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Arterys, a 13-year-old, San Francisco.-based medical imaging software developer for clinical AI products, has raised $28 million in Series C funding. Benslie Investment Group and Temasek Holdings led the round, joined by Fosun, Revelation Partners, Emergent Medical Partners, and Varian Medical System. More here.
Beacon, a two-year-old, London-based freight forwarding and supply chain finance company, has raised $15 million in Series A funding from investors including Amazon's Jeff Bezos and 8VC. Freight forwarding is a trillion dollar industry, and the e-commerce giant has been aggressively expanding its logistics operations as it tries to curb shipping costs. CNBC has more on the deal here.
Danggeun Market, the five-year-old, Seoul, South Korea-based startup behind Karrot, the country's largest neighborhood marketplace and networking app, has raised $33 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Goodwater Capital and Altos Ventures and brings the company's total funding to $40.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
PlusDental, a three-year-old, Berlin-based telemedicine service focused on dentistry, has raised €32 million in funding led by Ping An Global Voyager. Tech.eu has more here.
OTTO Motors, a five-year-old, Ontario-based division of 11-year-old Clearpath Robotics that sells self-driving robot technology and services to research and industrial clients, has raised $29 million in Series C funding. Kensington Private Equity Fund led the round, joined by BMO Capital Partners, Export Development Canada, and earlier investors iNovia Capital and RRE Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Syapse, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based precision cancer care company, has raised $30 million in funding. Revelation Alpine led the round, joined by earlier backers Amgen Ventures, Ascension Ventures, Intermountain Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Roche Finance, Safeguard Scientifics and Social Capital. More here.
Smaller Fundings
Belvo, a 12-month-old, Barcelona, Spain-based API fintech startup, has raised $10 million in funding co-led by Founders Fund and Kaszek of Argentina. TechCrunch has more here.
Bonusly, an eight-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based employee recognition and rewards platform, has raised $9 million in Series A funding from Access Venture Partners, Next Frontier Capital, Operator Partners, and seed backer FirstMark Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Cognosos, a six-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based IoT-based asset firm, has raised $4.5 million in funding, including from earlier backer Cox Enterprises and CheckFree founder Pete Kight. More here.
Floating Point Group, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based cryptocurrency trading platform, raised $2 million in funding, including from Naval Ravikant, BoxOne Ventures and Seabury Global Markets. More here.
Orbita, a five-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based provider of conversational AI-powered voice and chatbots for healthcare, has raised $9 million in Series A funding. Philips Health Technology Ventures and HealthX Ventures co-led the round, joined by Cultivation Capital and Newark Venture Partners. MobilHealth News has more here.
PickUp, a 1.5-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based platform for media companies making sports content (it's building a technology that it says will give fans a "shareable record of their opinion"), has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by KB Partners. More here.
Zeleros, a four-year-old, Valencia, Spain-based hyperloop company, has closed a €7 million funding round led by Altran, a French engineering consulting firm. Grupo Red Eléctrica, Goldacre Ventures, Road Ventures, Plug and Play, Angels Capital of Spain and MBHA also participated. Tech.eu has more here.
|
|
New Funds
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the eight-year-old, seed-stage venture firm run by investor Charlie O'Donnell, is targeting $20 million for its third fund, shows a new SEC filing that says the outfit has already secured $6.6 million in capital commitments. The firm had closed its second fund with $15 million in capital commitments in early 2016.
DCVC, the nine-year-old, Bay Area-based venture firm, is looking to raise $275 million for its second bio fund, shows a new SEC filing. The outfit had raised $250 million for its first bio-focused fund in 2018.
Harrison Metal, the 12-year-old, seed-stage, Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture outfit founded by Michael Dearing, has closed a new fund with $60 million in commitments. It's called Harrison Metal Endowment I shows a new SEC filing. The outfit had previously raised five funds, closing its last with $68 million in 2018.
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners -- now called HWVP -- is raising up to $75 million for its eighth fund, per an SEC filing. The firm has been in transition for years, as industry insiders know. We'd talked with partner Lars Leckie about its gradual downsizing back in 2015.
|
|
IPOs
NetEase is planning a secondary listing for its shares on Hong Kong's stock market next week, as "scrutiny of Chinese companies on Wall Street intensifies and wider US-China tensions rise," reports CNN Business. The Chinese gaming company said it was issuing more than 171 million new shares at a maximum price of 126 Hong Kong dollars ($16.26) each, offering no discount to NetEase's closing price in New York, where its stock has traded since 2000.
Tencent Holdings is in discussions to buy a stake in Warner Music Group as part of the record company’s IPO this week, says the WSJ. According to its report, Tencent is discussing an investment of $200 million; Warner Music is also working to line up institutions that, along with Tencent, would serve as anchor investors contributing a total of more than $1 billion toward a fundraising goal of as much as $1.8 billion.
Meet the secretive German family behind the $2.5 billion Peet's Coffee IPO.
|
|
Exits
Volkswagen Group just finalized its $2.6 billion investment into Argo AI, the Pittsburgh, Pa.-based self-driving car startup that came out of stealth in 2017 with $1 billion in backing from Ford. More here.
Publicly traded gaming company Zynga has agreed to acquire Peak, a Turkish mobile games company for $1.8 billion. The deal is the largest deal in the Zynga’s history. Peak raised $19 million between 2011 and 2013 from Earlybird VC, Hummingbird Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst and has two games -- "Toon Blast" and "Toy Blast" -- that have consistently ranked in the top 20 grossing iPhone games in the U.S. over the last two years. Business Insider has more here.
|
|
People
NBA legend Michael Jordan, commenting publicly yesterday on the widespread protests happening across the U.S.: "I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people of color in our country. We have had enough."
|
|
Layoffs
Stitch Fix, the San Francisco-based personal-shopping service and clothing retailer, today notified its roughly 1,400 California-based stylists, or about 18% of its total staff, that they will be losing their jobs, reports the WSJ. According to its report, those affected will have the opportunity to relocate and stay with the company, which says it soon plans to begin hiring 2,000 stylists in lower-cost locations like Dallas, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Minneapolis and Austin.
|
|
Sponsored By. . .
TechCrunch's renowned Startup Battlefield program features the best companies from across the globe, and one of the world's biggest launch platforms. Founders. This. Is. Your. Shot. Startup Battlefield applications are open for just a few more weeks. Disrupt will be available globally this year and span five days — September 14-18. Get your application in before it's too late!
|
|
Essential Reads
Hundreds of Facebook employees, in rare public criticism of their own company, today protested executives’ decision not to do anything about inflammatory posts posted by Donald Trump on the platform over the past week by refusing to do their work.
The cost of renting an apartment in the Bay Area plummeted in May. Rents for a one-bedroom apartment fell 9.4% in San Francisco compared with May of 2019. In Mountain View, rents fell 15.9% year over year, while in Cupertino, rents dipped 14.3%, according to the rental search engine Zumper. “This is real. We have never seen anything like it.” Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades tells the San Francisco Chronicle.
|
|
Detours
Spotify will add an 8:46-minute moment of silence to select playlists and podcasts on the platform to honor George Floyd, the 46-year-old who was arrested and killed in police custody on May 25.
|
|
Retail Therapy
Voyager camp chair with detachable cooler, because you're definitely going to need a drink.
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 - |
|
|
|
|
|
