|
June 12, 2020
Friday! [Kicks open gate.]
Hope you have a summery and safe weekend, everyone. If you're missing your daily dose of SVC, check out our newest Download podcast, featuring Lo Toney, a former GV partner who today runs Plexo Capital, a fund of funds and direct investor in startups that are run primarily (but not exclusively) by people of color.
Toney has a lot of interesting things to say; he also has ties to at least 15 up-and-coming firms that listeners might want to start tracking.
Hope you enjoy it. More soon.:)
|
|
Top News
The Chinese government has stepped up its effort to spread disinformation on Twitter, creating tens of thousands of fake accounts that discussed protests in Hong Kong and the Communist Party’s response to the coronavirus, according to the social media company.
Zoom says it deactivated the accounts of pro-democracy Chinese activists based in the U.S. at the request of the Chinese government, intensifying concerns that Beijing is extending its attempts at censorship. The U.S.-based video conferencing company added that it has since reinstated the accounts, that it won't allow similar requests to impact users outside of mainland China, and that it will outline a new policy to address such requests later this month.
States may need to reimplement the strict social distancing measures that were put in place earlier this year if U.S. coronavirus cases rise “dramatically,” a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said today.
|
|
Sponsored By ...
Treble is a PR agency designed for times like these: agile, scalable, and focused on bottom-line results. The agency has two funding-centric offerings for VC firms and startups: 1) our VC Portfolio Funding Launch Accelerator Program, a 5-week PR sprint for elevating funding announcements on the national stage; 2) we've recently unveiled Elevate, a 10-week PR program focused on funding launch and two additional news campaigns. Our value prop is to increase investor awareness, drive top-line revenue growth & strategic partnerships and accelerate your path toward a successful exit. Check out our site here and contact us at newbiz@treblepr.com.
|
|
Lo Toney Has Ideas About How to (Really) Bring VC into the 21st Century
Last week, we suggested that for a truly diverse venture industry, the limited partners who provide investing capital to VCs -- institutions like universities and hospital systems -- need to start incorporating diversity mandates into their work. Say a venture firm wanted to secure a commitment from the University of Texas System; it would first need to agree, in writing, to pour a certain percentage of its capital into startups founded by underrepresented groups.
Given how fragmented the world of institutional investing, the idea might sound impracticable. But Lo Toney, one of a small but growing number of black VCs in Silicon Valley, suggests it might actually be inevitable. He points, for example, to pension funds like the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which manages the assets of 1.6 million employees, many of whom "look like me," says Toney. Imagine what might happen if they started asking more questions about who is managing their money.
Not that Toney is waiting on this development. He doesn't need to. As a former partner at Comcast Ventures, then GV, Toney was able to secure Alphabet as the anchor investor in his own investment firm, Plexo Capital, whose debut vehicle has been funding venture outfits, as well as making direct startup investments.
Now, with renewed attention being paid to the lack of people of color throughout the startup industry, Plexo has LPs knocking on its door again, and Toney's plans for that second fund involve not just helping his current fund managers but helping more investors of color form venture firms of their own.
It's an extension of work that's already in progress. Plexo, which closed its debut fund last year with $42.5 million -- including from the Ford Foundation, Intel, Cisco Systems, the Royal Bank of Canada, and Hampton University -- already has stakes in 20 funds, including Precursor Ventures, Ingressive Capital, Kindred Ventures, Equal Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, and Work-Bench.
Many are run exclusively or in part by people of color. "We have enough reports from the Harvard's and the McKinsey's of the world to show us that diversity at all levels matters," says Toney. "We see better performance from companies with diverse boards, public companies with diverse management teams; when there are diverse managers, we see better performance."
With his second fund, he's hoping to turn the dial even further.
|
|
Massive Fundings
Tongcheng Life, a two-year-old, Suzhou, China-based an online portal that facilitates group-buying of fresh produce, has raised $200 million in Series C funding. Joyy, a Nasdaq-listed, Guangzhou-based tech company that runs several social media and gaming platforms, provided half of the capital, joined by Engage Capital, Legend Capital, BAI, GSR Ventures, Oriza Holdings, Welight Capital, and Tongcheng Capital. AgFunderNews has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Conversa Health, a seven-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based patient engagement platform, raised $12 million in Series B funding co-led by Builders VC and Northwell Ventures, with participation from P5 Health Ventures, Nassau Street Ventures, and UH Ventures. The company has now raised more than $26 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Glyscend Therapeutics, a six-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based developer of an orally administered pill that aims to mimic the effects of gastric bypass surgery in patients with Type 2 diabetes, has raised $20.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Brandon Capital Partners and Santé Ventures. Australia's Financial Review has more here.
Haus Services, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based real estate startup that helps to finance home purchases by acquiring equity in the home (it was created by Uber co-founder Garrett Camp at his startup studio Expa), has raised $15.8 million in Series A funding round. BlueRun Ventures led the round, joined by Assurant Growth Investing, Leap Global Partners, Correlation Ventures, H.Barton Asset Management, Expa, Montage Ventures, and RIT Capital.
HeadLight, a 15-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based photo-based inspection technology company that was formerly called Pavia Systems, had raised $25.6 million in Series B funding led by Viking Global Investors. More here.
Headspace, the 10-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based meditation app, has raised $47.7 million in extended Series C funding according to an SEC filing. Crunchbase News has more here.
Kahoot!, a seven-year-old, Oslo, Norway-based learning platform company, has raised $28 million in funding. Northzone Ventures led the round. TechCrunch has more here.
MycoTechnology, a seven-year-old, Denver-based food tech startup that's focused on mushrooms, has raised $39 million in Series D funding. Greenleaf Foods, SPC, S2G Ventures, and Evolution Partners co-led the round. Built in Colorado has more here.
Energysquare, a five-year-old, Paris-based wireless charging startup that aims to enable multiple devices to charge at the same speed as classic chargers, has raised €3 million from Partech. More here.
Pinwheel, a year-old, New York-based API platform for income verification that was cofounded by Curtis Lee (he previously cofounded the car-parking service Luxe), has raised $7 million in seed funding. First Round Capital led the round, joined by Upfront Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Pipo Saude, a year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based provider of healthcare services for businesses and their employees, has raised $4.6 million in funding from Monashees and Kaszek Ventures, with participation from OneVC. TechCrunch has more here.
Sentropy, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based platform using AI to track hate speech, has raised $13 million in funding. Investors include Initialized Capital, King River Capital, Horizons Ventures, and Playground Global. TechCrunch has more here.
Tackle.io, a four-year-old. Boise, Ia.-based cloud marketplace business, has raised $7.3 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. More here.
Veros Systems, a 19-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based industrial asset monitoring company, raised $2.2 million in Series C funding. Shell Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Austin Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, and LiveOak Venture Partners. More here.
WiBotic, a five-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based company that develops wireless charging platforms specifically for robots, from drones to underwater vehicles, has raised $5.7 million in Series A funding. Investors included Junson Capital, SV Tech Ventures, Rolling Bay Ventures, Aves Capital, The W Fund and WRF Capital. GeekWire has more here.
Zeitworks, a four-year-old, L.A.-based business process improvement startup, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Madrona Venture Group led the round, joined by Jazz Venture Partners and Zillow cofounder Spencer Rascoff. GeekWire has more here.
|
|
IPOs
Mortgage giant Quicken Loans is apparently heading to Wall Street. The Detroit-based non-bank lender has confidentially filed with the SEC, the Financial Times is reporting; it adds that the listing could come as early next month and value Quicken Loans in the tens of billions of dollars. If you thought Quicken was already publicly traded, you aren't alone. Quicken was originally called Rock Financial; founder Dan Gilbert took it public in 1998 and the following year, at the height of the dot com bubble, Intuit purchased the outfit and renamed it Quicken Loans. In 2002, Gilbert led a small group of private investors that repurchased Quicken Loans from Intuit, and the company has been privately held since. More here.
|
|
Exits
AT&T is discussing a sale of its Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment gaming division in a deal that could fetch about $4 billion, according to CNBC's sources. More here.
|
|
People
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan say they are "disgusted" by Donald Trump's remarks on the nationwide protests against racial injustice. The couple was addressing, via email, a group of scientists who are backed by their nonprofit organization. The scientists recently raised concerns over Facebook's handling of Trump's posts on the platform.
Stephane Kurgan has joined Index Ventures as a venture partner based in London. He was most recently the chief operating officer of the social game company King.
|
|
Sponsored By . . .
Have an ambitious engineering roadmap but need to keep costs under control? Start hiring differently. Gemography finds you the most highly skilled engineers outside your zip code. They've helped companies like BulldoZair (YC S16), Trueface.ai (L.A) and Enigma (NYC) hire talented engineers from new pools like Morocco, Ghana and Portugal. Book a discovery call to learn more.
|
|
Essential Reads
A Facebook competition just revealed that deepfake detection is still a problem, with the winning algorithm able to spot challenging real world examples of deepfakes with an average accuracy of just 65.18 percent. The Verge has more here.
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 - |
|
|
|
|
|
