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June 10, 2020
Wednesday!
We ran out of time for a column today, but there's no shortage of news as you'll see(!). More tomorrow.
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Top News
Amazon will stop police from using its facial recognition technology for a year while it waits for federal regulation of the surveillance tool, the company said in a blog post today. As NBC notes, the announcement "follows years of pressure from police reform advocates and privacy activists, including the American Civil Liberties Union, to stop marketing its facial recognition tool to police over concerns that it is racially biased and can be used to build an oppressive system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone." Either way, the moratorium has "major loopholes," reports TechCrunch.
Tesla’s stock price hit $1,000 for the first time today, meaning the car company has now passed Toyota in market capitalization and is the most valuable automaker in the world by that metric. The Verge notes the boom may tie in part to a big uptick in car sales in China.
Apple shares crossed another major milestone today, with its market cap surpassing $1.5 trillion during trading today. It is the first U.S. company to hit that number, observes 9to5Mac.
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens startup says it is the victim of “suspected arson,” with two separate fires started at the same facility in San Francisco, one early Monday morning and one last night at the same facility. Bloomberg has a bit more here.
The California Public Utilities Commission, which is the state government body responsible for licensing and regulating some transportation companies including Uber and Lyft, officially ruled that it will formally consider drivers of those companies to be employees and not contractors, in line with a newly enacted state law known as AB5. More here.
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Massive Fundings
Autobahn Therapeutics, a three-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based developer of regenerative medicines for CNS disorders, has raised $76 million in Series B funding. Arch Venture Partners and Cowen Healthcare Investments co-led the. round, joined by BVF Partners, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer Ventures, Invus, Section 32, Samsara BioCapital and Alexandria Venture Investments. BioSpace has more here.
Cue Health, a 10-year-old, San Diego-based company behind a health monitoring system and test cartridges, including test kits designed to diagnose COVID-19 (they're being reviewed now by the FDA), has raised $100 million in funding. The backing comes from Decheng Capital, Foresite Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and ACME Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
DNAnexus, an 11-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company whose cloud platform for governments, universities, doctors and pharmaceutical companies enable them to tap into DNA and other clinical data sets and collaborate on scientific research projects, has raised $100 million in Series G funding co-led by Perceptive Advisors and Northpond Ventures. Other participants in the round include GV, Foresite Capital, TPG Capital, and First Round Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Duck Creek Technologies, a four-year-old, Boston-based software provider for property and casualty insurers, has raised $230 million from new investors Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management and Whale Rock Capital Management ahead of a planned IPO, says Bloomberg. Earlier investors (some these include Dragoneer Investment Group, funds advised by Neuberger Berman, Insight Partners, and Temasek) also joined the round, it reports. More here.
Lycia Therapeutics, a three-month-old, South San Francisco-based biotech that's tackling protein degradation, has raised $50 million in funding from Versant Ventures, which incubated the company. FierceBiotech has more here.
NS8, a four-year-old, Las Vegas-based maker of fraud prevention tools within e-commerce marketplaces, has raised $123 million in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from AXA Venture Partners among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Xiaolinggou, a new energy vehicle (NEV) rental unit of Chinese automaker Geely, has raised nearly $97 million in Series A funding as its parent company ramps up efforts to adopt a new rental model. Investors included state-owned Ningbo Yincheng Group and an entity called Hangzhou Puzhao Technology that's wholly owned by Geely. DealStreetAsia has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Alpha Health, a two-year-old, South San Francisco-based startup seeking to help health systems automate insurance claims, including to circumvent billing errors and denied insurance claims, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by Costanoa Ventures, among others. The WSJ has more here.
CereVasc, a six-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based company that has developed a minimally invasive cerebrospinal fluid shunt for hydrocephalus (water on the brain), has raised $43.9 million in a Series A funding. Perceptive Advisors and Aton Partners co-led the round. Mass Device has more here.
Domino Data Lab, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based data science management platform, has raised $43 million in funding. Highland Capital Partners led the round, joined by Dell Technologies Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Coatue Management. VentureBeat has more here.
Ethyca, a two-year-old, New York-based startup that builds automated data privacy infrastructure and tools for developers and privacy teams so they can easily build products that comply with GDPR and CCPA privacy regulations, has raised $13.5 million in Series A funding. The backing comes from IA Ventures, SciFi VC, CAA cofounder Michael Ovitz, Warby Parker cofounders Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, Harry's cofounder Jeff Raider, and numerous others. The company has now raised $20 million altogether. More here.
Journera, a four-year-old, Chicago-based travel tech platform that aims to help travel companies and application developers unify the travel experience across airlines, hotels, ground transportation, restaurants, and entertainment providers, has raised $11.6 million in Series B funding. Andreessen Horowitz and B Capital led the round, joined by Pritzker Group Venture Capital and The Boston Consulting Group. Chicago Inno has more here.
Kyruus, a 10-year-old, Boston-based company that provides search and scheduling software to health systems, has raised $30 million in new funding from Francisco Partners. The round comes on the heels of a $42 million Series D round that Kyruus closed late last year. More here.
M1 Finance, a five-year-old,Chicago-based money management platform, raised $33 million in Series B funding. Left Lane Capital led the round, joined by Jump Capital and Clocktower Technology Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Noodle Partners, a seven-year-old, New York-based startup that helps colleges and universities create and manage online and hybrid programs, has raised $16 million in Series B funding. ValueAct Spring Fund led the round, joined by Lumina Foundation, among others. More here.
Planck, a four-year-old, New York-based AI-based data platform for insurance underwriting, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Team8 Capital. Earlier backers Viola FinTech, Arbor Ventures and Eight Roads also participated, alongside new strategic investors Nationwide and Hannover Digital Investments. TechCrunch has more here.
RapidSOS, an eight-year-old, New York-based emergency response company, has raised $21 million in funding led by Transformation Capital, with participation from C5 Capital and Laerdal Million Lives Fund. The round brings the startup's total funding to $107 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Squire Technologies, a five-year-old, New York-based barbershop management and point of sale software maker, has raised $27 million in Series B funding. CRV led the round, joined by. Tiger Global Management, the San Francisco 49ers organization, Charles Phillips, who is the former CEO and Chairman of Infor, and earlier backers. Built in NY has more here.
Viaduct, a nearly two-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based a machine learning startup that allows original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to glean insights from their connected vehicle data, has raised $11 million in Series A funding. Innovation Endeavors led the round, joined by Exor Seeds and BoxGroup. FreightWaves. has more here.
Wave, a four-year-old, L.A.-based company that creates digital avatars of artists and entertainers and hosts live online concerts, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Maveron led the round, joined by Griffin Gaming Partners, Upfront Ventures, and numerous high-profile individual investors, including Scooter Braun. The company has now raised $40 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Yugabyte, a four-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based SQL database company, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by 8VC. Other backers in the round include Wipro Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Dell Technologies Capital. Crunchbase News has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Axiom, a three-year-old, London-based DevOps platform, raised $4 million in seed funding. Crane Venture Partners led the round, joined by Fly VC, Mango Capital and LocalGlobe. TechCrunch has more here.
BioFlyte, a months-old, Albuquerque, N.M.-based developer of aerosol mass spectrometers that aim to identify microbes like spores, vegetative bacteria and viruses, bio-toxins, opioids, and other airborne threats to people's safety, has raised $1.25 million in seed funding led by Anzu Partners. More here.
Boom.tv, a five-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based esports platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Bitkraft Esports Venture led the round, joined by Crest Capital, PTW, Everblue, ImaginationVC, MTG Media Group, WTI, and H. Barton Asset Management. More here.
Canopy, a 15-month-old, Indianapolis, In.-based revenue intelligence platform, raised $2 million in seed funding. High Alpha Capital and Elevate Ventures co-led the round, joined by IU Ventures and Service Provider Capital. More here.
Chargeback, a nine-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based dispute management platform for merchants, has raised $6.6 million in Series A1 funding. Fintop Capital and Next Frontier Capital co-led the round, joined by Next Coast Ventures and Kickstart Fund. More here.
Codat, a 3.5-year-old, London-based startup that has developed a universal API for integrating with small business financial data sources, just raised $10 million led by Index Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
EnsoData, a five-year-old, Madison, Wi.-based company analyzing health data from wearables and medical devices, raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Zetta Venture Partners. Crunchbase News has more here.
Flatfile, a two-year-old, Denver, Co.-based startup looking to simplify the process of data onboarding, has raised $7.6 million in seed funding led by Two Sigma Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Afore Capital, Designer Fund, and Gradient Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
MPOWER Financing, a six-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based fintech platform for making educational loans to international and DACA students, has raised $9 million in funding, including from Breega, Potencia Ventures, AI8, Cometa, Zephyr-Peacock, 1776, Fresco Capital, 1994 LLC, and Goal Structured Solutions. Crowdfund Insider has more here.
Innovation Department, a six-year-old, New York-based platform that builds DTC brands, just raised $3.7 million in funding from investors including M13 Ventures, Long Light Capital, Synergis Capital, and Ambridge Capital. More here.
Protera, a five-year-old, Santiago, Chile-based AI-driven protein engineering company, has raised $5.6 million in Series A funding led by Sofinnova Partners, with participation from earlier backer SOSV. More here.
Vendr, a two-year-old, Boston-based company that aims to identify material cost savings for all of a customer’s net-new software purchases and renewals, has raised $4 million in new funding led by Craft Ventures. The startup had raised $2 million in seed funding last fall. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
SimpleLab, a seven-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based home water testing maker, raised an undisclosed round of funding from Craft Ventures, Spring Point Partners, and Mazarine Ventures. More here.
Genial Care, a months-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based digital mental health company focused on treating autism and other conditions, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Canary. More here.
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New Funds
Matrix Partners China, the 12-year-old, Beijing-based venture arm of Matrix Partners, has raised $750 million for its sixth fund, according to an SEC filing. The outfit had also raised $750 million for its fifth flagship venture fund, which it closed in 2018. The fund before that closed with $500 million in 2016. More here.
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IPOs
Cloud services company Rackspace Technology appears to be preparing to return to the stock market. The San Antonio-based company, which was taken private by Apollo Global Management in 2016, informed investors on a private call this week that it confidentially filed for an initial public offering, according to Debtwire, a financial data provider. Rackspace could be valued in an IPO at more than $10 billion, says the San Antonio Express-News. More here.
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Exits
Consolidation in the world of on-demand food ordering and delivery continues. Today, Just Eat Takeaway — the European company that only just got its own $7.8 billion merger approved by regulators in April of this year — said it's acquiring Grubhub in the U.S. for an enterprise value of $7.3 billion. Uber had reportedly been trying to join forces with Grubhub for more than a year to strengthen its Uber Eats business. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Rania Belkahia has joined EQT Ventures as a partner. She will be running a new office in France for the firm. Belkahia previously cofounded and was CEO of Afrimarket, an e-commerce platform in West Africa.
Former Juul CEO Kevin Burns has joined SoftBank-backed digital pharmacy Alto as president and COO, Axios reports. (It had separately reported last month that the two sides were talking.) 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.
Food delivery company Postmates has also made Juneteenth -- which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. -- a permanent company holiday, CEO Bastian Lehmann announced today on Twitter, one day after Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said his companies would be doing the same.
Tammy Mahn has Verizon Ventures as managing director based out of Tel Aviv. Mahn comes from recently from Agrination, an Israeli-Asian corporate consortium focused on Israeli agriculture and food tech companies. She was also previously an investor with Moonscape Ventures, the corporate investment arm of AGT International.
Gary Peat has joined Valor Ventures as a general partner in Atlanta, Ga. Peat previously ran his own seed-stage firm, which focused on B2B cloud software.
Reddit today named Y Combinator CEO Michael Siebel to its board; Seibel assumes the spot that Reddit cofounder (and former Y Combinator partner) Alexis Ohanian gave up last week, asking that he be replaced by a black candidate. More here.
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Essential Reads
Everybody into the pool: Following a seemingly endless string of funding announcements, TPG is now also reportedly looking to back the Indian telecom giant Jio Platforms with a billion dollar bet. The Economic Times has more here.
Sign of the times: Starbucks says it's planning to close up to 400 stores in the U.S. and Canada over the next 18 months while adding carryout and pick-up only locations.
Musical chairs, courtesy of SoftBank: SoftBank Group-owned U.K. chip designer Arm and its Chinese joint venture issued contradicting statements today over the removal of the local unit's CEO, a rare sign of tension at a key player in the semiconductor industry. The Nikkei Asian Review has the story here.
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Detours
And a public service announcement: super high potency weed does *not* get you higher, according to research published today in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
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