Apple's reversal, Tesla's morning missive, and a gamer's sullied reputation is restored

June 19, 2020

Friday!

We're keeping this one short and sweet, but before we go: We had a really interesting conversation this morning with Tim O'Reilly, a founder, investor and longtime thought leader in Silicon Valley who isn't so sure we can solve systemic racism in the venture industry -- not without fundamentally reforming it first.

As you'll hear in this week's StrictlyVC Download, he makes a strong case for why the industry attracts outsize attention by the media, by institutional investors, and by founders of all skin colors. "It's a little like the lottery," says O'Reilly. Thanks to management fees, the "only sure winners are the VCs."

Wishing all of you amazing dads out there a very happy Father's Day.:)

More Monday.

Top News

What Juneteenth celebrations and marches looked like across the U.S.

Just before 8 a.m. PT today, Tesla’s head of human resources sent an email telling U.S. employees they could take the day off to observe Juneteenth. Moments later, HR head Valerie Capers Workman clarified that employees who chose to take the day off would be unpaid, according to an email viewed by TechCrunch. CNBC was the first to report the morning emails.

Apple said today that it will close nearly a dozen stores across four states where cases of the coronavirus have climbed, a reversal after reopening many of its U.S. stores for limited operation last month. The WSJ has more here.

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Massive Fundings

Palantir, the 17-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that sells software to government agencies and companies for managing and analyzing their data, has raised 54 billion yen ($500 million) from Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings. Bloomberg reports that the "cash lessens the need for Palantir to raise capital through an initial public offering. The company has been considering a direct listing of its shares on an exchange as an option, which would allow Palantir to bypass a roadshow and other formalities of an IPO, though it would not bring in new funds," according to the outlet's sources. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Big Health, a 10-year-old, San Francisco, Calif.-based digital therapeutics company focused on mental health, has raised $39 million in Series B funding. Gilde Healthcare and Morningside Ventures co-led the round, joined by Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Octopus Ventures, and Samsung NEXT. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Wise Systems, a seven-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based-based maker of dispatch and routing software, has raised $15 million in funding led by Valo Ventures, with participation from Gradient Ventures, Prologis Ventures, and E14 Fund. Forbes has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Acquire, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based customer engagement platform, raised $6.4 million in Series A funding led by Base10 Partners, with participation from S28 Capital and Fathom Capital. Crunchbase News has more here.

Apolicy, a year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-native policy orchestration platform, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by StageOne Ventures. More here.

HASH, an 16-month-old, New York-based maker of a browser-based tool for creating multi-agent simulations, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Root Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners. Crunchbase News has more here.

Mabl, a four-year-old, Boston-based startup whose codeless test automation framework aims to make continuous testing easier and more scalable, has raised $6 million in funding led by Amplify Partners. More here.

Milk Mantra, an 11-year-old, Bhubaneswar, India-bsaed startup that procures, packages, sells and delivers milk and other dairy products, has raised $10 million in debt financing from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. TechCrunch has more here.

PreVu3D, a three-year-old, Montreal-based maker 3D capture technology, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Brightspark Ventures. BetaKit has more here.

UNest, a two-year-old, North Hollywood, Ca.-based mobile app for college savings, has raised $9 million in funding. Anthos Capital led the round, joined by NBA All-star Baron Davis, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Artemis Fund, Draper Dragon, and Unlock Ventures. More here.

Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings

Shipper, a three-year-old, Indonesia-based logistics platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by Prosus Ventures, formerly known as Naspers Ventures. Earlier investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Floodgate, Y Combinator, Insignia Ventures, and AC Ventures also joined the round. The outlet e27 has more here.

New Funds

Adjuvant Capital, founded by veterans of the Gates Foundation-sponsored Global Health Investment Fund, is raising a fund that will be at least $200 million, according to SEC filings first flagged by Axios. Adjuvant founder and managing partner Glenn Rockman tells the outlet the firm was created in 2012 and closed a debut fund with $108 million to test whether it was possible to generate returns from areas that have historically been financed by philanthropy and governments, like fighting diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. Apparently, it can. More here.

A Chilean energy company, Copec, has formed a corporate venture arm called Wind Ventures that will write checks ranging from $1 million and $10 million into Series A-, B- and C-stage companies, with an eye on energy, retail and mobility startups. TechCrunch has more here.

IPOs

Ebang International, a 10-year-old, China-based bitcoin mining equipment maker, has launched a roadshow for a U.S. IPO that could raise as much as $126 million, reports Bloomberg. If successful, it notes, Ebang will "follow in the footsteps of larger rival Canaan Inc., which raised $90 million in an IPO last November after abandoning a plan to raise about $1 billion in Hong Kong." Ebang itself filed twice in Hong Kong before switching to the U.S., adds the outlet.

Exits

L’Oreal has agreed to acquire Thayers Natural Remedies, a 170-year-old, Easton, Ct.-based maker of skincare products, for a reported $400 million. The move suggests that L’Oreal is looking to strengthen its position in the natural skincare market. CityBizList has more here.

People

British media personality Katie Hopkins was permanently suspended from Twitter today for violating its hateful conduct policy. Hopkins, a conservative commentator, had one million followers on the platform. The social network, which banned Hopkins temporarily for a week in January, is not saying which tweets she had posted that led to the ban. The BBC has more here.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted tonight that the company will have to postpone its annual shareholder meeting which was scheduled for July 7 due to the coronavirus outbreak. “We will have to postpone annual shareholder meeting, as still no large gatherings allowed by July 7th. Not sure of new date, but am guessing maybe a month or so later,” Musk said in his tweet. He's likely in no rush, observes CNBC.

Data

The Financial Times looks at the top 100 companies according to market cap, and how much they've grown in 2020 amid the pandemic. The report underscores that big tech in particular has benefited, with Amazon's market cap up by roughly $401 billion, Microsoft's by $270 billion, and Apple's by $219 billion.

Essential Reads

Hong Kong residents are erasing their own internet histories ahead of China's big crackdown.

A former Facebook moderator says more must be done to block harrowing uploads.

Why Juneteenth matters more than ever.

Detours

Guinness once again recognizes Billy Mitchell as the first player to achieve a perfect Pac-Man score of 3,333,360 points in 1999 and the first player to reach 1 million points in Donkey Kong in 2005.

An "Interview with Alex."

"Unsubscribe," the zero-budget movie that topped the U.S. box office one day last week.

How safe is flying in the age of coronavirus? The record shows the risks aren't negligible. [Screams into pillow.]

Retail Therapy

It isn't too late for these Father's Day gifts.

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Apple's reversal, Tesla's morning missive, and a gamer's sullied reputation is restored

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