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Top News
Facebook earlier today removed advertisements posted on its platform by the Trump campaign that prominently featured a symbol used by Nazis to classify political prisoners during World War II. Twitter separately labeled a video posted by Trump of two toddlers — edited with a fake, misspelled chyron that read "terrified todler runs from racist baby" — as manipulated media tonight. You can see the original video, taken by the one of the boys' fathers, here.
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Mail.ru Cofounder Dmitry Grishin Has a New, $100 Million Fund
Grishin Robotics is an eight-year-old, Sand Hill Road venture firm that until now, has focused exclusively on the smart hardware industry. Yet a newly closed $100 million fund from family offices in the U.S. and Europe will see it widen its aperture a bit to include online gaming and interactive entertainment, productivity tools and education.
It only makes sense, says firm founder Dmitry Grishin, who is also co-founder and chairman of the Russian internet and gaming company Mail.ru Group. Grishin, like the rest of the world, has seen what people can accomplish from their homes during this pandemic -- and how they've managed to remain entertained. He doesn't think these lessons will vanish.
He certainly seems to has a knack for identifying interesting trends, with exits that include the smart-doorbell startup Ring, sold to Amazon in 2018 for $1 billion; the mesh Wi-Fi router company eero, sold to Amazon for $97 million in 2019; and scooter-sharing firm Spin, acquired by Ford Motor Co. for $100 million, also in 2018.
We talked with him earlier this week about what has his nine-person firm excited right now. Our conversation has been edited lightly for length.
You've historically focused on the U.S., with some focus on Europe via an office in London. Where did you wind up investing your last fund -- the $100 million vehicle that you closed in 2016?
We're mostly focused on the U.S. and Bay Area, though we have a few deals on the East Coast. We want to continue what we’re doing, but the idea is while we started in robotics hardware and IT, we want to extend [our scope to include] online gaming and some physical-to-digital gaming because we're seeing people staying home more and wanting to engage with their devices there. The co-founder of "Guitar Hero" [Kai Huang, who technically co-founded its video game publisher RedOctane] is now a senior advisor to our fund, too.
I’m very excited about gaming. I was a gamer all my life, and I have two small kids, and there's a lot to be done -- not just on the iPad but in a way that incorporates the physical [world], too.
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Massive Fundings
DoorDash, the seven-year-old, San Francisco-based on-demand food delivery service, has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is raising “approximately $400 million” in Series H round of funding. Earlier today, Axios reported that the company was looking for a roughly $400 million round at a post-money valuation of $16 billion. DoorDash clarified in a statement provided to TC that the valuation is slightly under the $16 billion mark. New investors Durable Capital Partners and Fidelity led the round. More here.
Geek+, a five-year-old, Beijing-based startup that makes warehouse fulfillment robots similar to those of Amazon’s Kiva, has raised $200 million in Series C funding led by GGV Capital, D1 Capital Partners, and V Fund, with additional participation from Warburg Pincus, Redview Capital, and Vertex Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Orca Bio, a five-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based company developing cell therapies that would serve as alternatives to conventional allogeneic bone marrow transplants, has raised $192 million in Series D funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and another investor that wasn’t disclosed. Other investors taking part in the round included 8VC, DCVC Bio, ND Capital, Mubadala Investment Company, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Kaiser Permanente Group Trust and IMRFA. MedCity News has more here.
Payfone, a 12-year-old, New York-based company that has built a B2B2C platform to identify and verify people using data gleaned from their mobile phones, has raised $100 million led by Apax Digital. TechCrunch has more here.
UiPath, a 15-year-old, New York-based software maker that helps companies automate routine processes, is in talks to raise funding that could value it at more than $10 billion, according to Bloomberg. UiPath was last valued in the spring of last year at $7 billion by its investors, which include Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Kleiner Perkins, and Accel. More here.
Zero Mass Water, a six-year-old, Scottsdale, Az.-based company seeking to make drinking water renewable, has raised $50 million in Series C1 funding. BlackRock led the round, joined by Duke Energy, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Material Impact Fund. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
BizCapital, a four-year-old, Rio de Janeiro-based online lender, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. DEG led the round, joined by MELI Fund, Quona Capital, Monashees, Chromo Invest, and 42K Investments. TechCrunch has more here.
Botkeeper, a five-year-old, Boston-based bookkeeping company, has raised $25 million in Series B funding. Point72 Ventures led the round, joined by High Alpha Capital, Republic Labs, Oakridge, Peak State and earlier backers. VentureBeat has more here.
Copado, a seven-year-old, Chicago-based DevOps platform for Salesforce, has raised $26 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners, which also led the company's Series A round. Other investors in the round include Salesforce Ventures, Lead Edge Capital, ISAI Cap Venture, and Perpetual Investors. More here.
Kaia Health, a four-year-old, New York-based digital therapeutics startup that uses computer vision technology for real-time posture tracking via a person's smartphone camera to deliver human-hands-free physiotherapy, just raised $26 million in Series B funding. Optum Ventures, Idinvest and capital300 led the round, joined by Balderton Capital, Heartcore Capital, and Symphony Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
MayStreet, an eight-year-old, New York-based company that develops market data systems for market makers and proprietary trading firms, has raised $21 million in Series A funding. Credit Suisse Asset Management's NEXT Investors led the round. More here.
Remessa Online, a four year-old, Brazil-based money transfer service, has raised $20 million in funding co-led by Kaszek Ventures and Accel. TechCrunch has more here.
Urbint, a five-year-old, New York-based provider of field safety information for utilities, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. Energy Impact Partners and Piva co-led the round, joined by Salesforce Ventures and National Grid Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Zerto, an 11-year-old, Boston-based IT recovery platform, has raised $33 million in funding from a long list of investors. Among them: Poalim Capital Markets, Bank Hapoalim, Claltech, 83North, Battery Ventures, Harmony Partners, IVP, RTP Ventures, and USVP. More here.
Smaller Fundings
Back Technologies, a two-year-old, Berlin-based company that's developing a platform that automates back-office HR and IT support tasks, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding. La Famiglia led the round, joined by Gradient Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Jupiter, a year-old, San Francisco-based grocery delivery startup, has raised $2.8 million in seed funding co-led by NFX and Khosla Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Perimeter 81, a 2.5-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based secure access startup, has raised $5.5 million in extended Series A funding led by Toba Capital. More here.
Outer, a 2.5-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based direct-to-consumer outdoor furniture brand, has raised $4.3 million in funding led by Mucker Capital. More here.
Plume, a year-old, Denver-based startup providing online access to hormone replacement therapy for the trans-community, has raised $2.9 million in funding led by General Catalyst and Slow Ventures, with participation from Springbank Collective. TechCrunch has more here.
Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings
DocASAP, an 8-year-old, Herndon, Va.-based engagement platform for health systems, raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Optum Ventures. More here.
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(Other) New Funds
Sam Altman, along with brothers Max and Jack, have formed an investment firm called Apollo that will invest $3 million into "long shot" startups in exchange for 20% of their equity. Max, the only Altman brother who isn't running a company already, will oversee the day-to-day operations. Forbes has more here.
Bullpen Capital, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based "post" seed stage firm, is looking to raise up to $150 million in capital commitments for its fifth fund, shows a new SEC filing. Bullpen had closed its fourth fund in the summer of 2018 with $140 million in capital commitments. More here.
One day after Google announced it was committing a fresh $175 million to plug into funds and startups led by Black founders and other underrepresented groups, Facebook has announced that it is committing $200 million to support Black-owned businesses and organizations as "part of a broader $1.1 billion investment in Black and diverse suppliers and communities in the U.S." More here.
Fly Ventures, a Berlin-based, seed-stage venture firm that invests in European startups within enterprise and deep tech, has raised a new €53 million fund three years after announcing its debut fund. The firm writes first checks of between €500,000 and €1.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Good Growth Capital, a three-year-old, Charleston, S.C.-based "majority women and minority owned" venture firm focused on the Southeast and New England, is looking to raise up to $100 million for its newest fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.
Hoxton Ventures, the London-based early-stage VC firm best-known for backing Babylon Health, Darktrace and Deliveroo, says it has closed its second fund with just short of $100 million in capital commitments. That's than twice the size of its debut fund, which it closed in 2013. TechCrunch has more here.
Menlo Ventures is raising capital for its latest flagship fund after announcing in $500 million for an early-growth vehicle last year, says the WSJ. For Menlo Ventures XV LP, the firm aims to collect $450 million to $500 million, according to prospective investors. Its predecessor flagship vehicle, Menlo Ventures XIV LP, wrapped up marketing in 2017 with $450 million. More here.
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IPOs
CureVac, a player in the hotly contested, global race for a coronavirus vaccine and soon to be partly owned by the German government, is working with Bank of America and Jefferies Financial Group on a U.S. initial public offering, according to Bloomberg's sources. More here.
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Exits
In its latest move to compete with pharmacy services, Walmart has bought the medication management software of CareZone, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose app lets users create medication lists, provides refill reminders, and helps facilitate medication delivery. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed but Walmart will acquire CareZone’s technology platform and key intellectual property it says. The startup had raised more than $160 million, with NEA leading its most recent funding round, according to Crunchbase. MedCity News has more here.
Mapillary, a seven-year-old, Sweden-based street-level imagery platform that scales and automates mapping using crowdsourced collaboration, cameras, and computer vision, has been acquired by Facebook, according to the company’s blog. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Per Crunchbase, Mapillary had raised $24.5 million in funding, including from Sequoia Capital and LDV Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Colin Kaepernick, the athlete-turned-civil-rights-activist, is joining the board of the blogging platform Medium; his new publishing company will also create stories for Medium about race and civil rights in the United States. More here.
Alexis Ohanian didn't tell Steve Huffman, his Reddit cofounder and the company's CEO, that he intended to resign from the board before announcing it publicly. The two also haven't talked since, Huffman has said. More here.
Devin Wenig, eBay's former CEO, insists he was as shocked as anyone to learn about his employees' bananas cyberstalking campaign against a blogger. More here.
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Essential Reads
Microsoft President Brad Smith tells Bloomberg it’s time for antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe to discuss tactics that Apple's App Store uses to take advantage of those who want to distribute their software. Microsoft competes with Apple services, and Apple's App Store rules have prevented Microsoft, among others, from launching new and popular cloud gaming services on the iPhone and iPad, notes the outlet.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is officially in. It announced today that it is investing $1.5 billion in the Indian telecom operator Jio Platforms for a 2.32% stake. Jio has now sold 25% in stakes to buyers that include Facebook, Silver Lake Partners, Vista Equity Partners, KKR, and General Atlantic. More here.
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Detours
Why to expect a baby bust, not a boom, from the pandemic.
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