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June 22, 2020
Hello! Hope you had a great weekend.:)
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Top News
Donald Trump today signed an executive order temporarily halting work visas like the H-1B visa program for highly-skilled workers. The move was made to protect American jobs, but tech companies argue that it cuts off a critical source of foreign labor and will hurt the nation's ability to compete. Other work visas -- including L-1 visas, which are meant for executives who work for large corporations -- will also be halted through the end of this year.
Apple announced this morning that by year end, it will start shipping Mac computers that run on its own, in-house-designed silicon chips. The processors should introduce new levels of performance and lower power consumption, says the company.
Google said today that it will start identifying some misleading photos in its specific search tool for images with a fact-check label.
SoftBank will sell up to about 198 million shares of T-Mobile stock worth about $21 billion, it said today. The sale represents about 65% of SoftBank’s stake in T-Mobile and aims to free up cash as numerous of its other key investments come under pressure.
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Sponsored By . . .
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Massive Fundings
Cedar, a four-year-old, New York-based health care financial engagement platform for hospitals, health systems and medical groups, has raised more than $102 million in Series C funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. The round, which also featured $25 million in debt funding from JPMorgan, included additional participation from Kaiser Permanente and earlier investors Kinnevik, Thrive Capital, Lakestar and Founders Fund, among others. Crunchbase News has more here.
Checkout.com, an eight-year-old, London-based company whose API-based platform enables merchants to build checkout experiences that accept multiple forms of payments, has raised $150 million in Series B funding led by Coatue, with participation from Insight Partners, DST Global, Blossom Capital, and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC. The company is now valued at $5.5 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
Indigo Ag, a four year-old, Boston-based agtech startup that features an online grain marketplace and a carbon market to give farmers a financial incentive for sequestering carbon with regenerative agriculture (among other things), has raised $300 million in Series F funding, reports Axios. Backers include Riverstone Holdings and earlier investors Flagship Pioneering and Alaska Permanent Fund. More here.
Surrozen, a five-year-old, South San Francisco, Ca.-based biotech seeking to develop antibodies targeting specific tissues, has raised $50 million in funding, including from Euclidian Capital and earlier backers The Column Group, Hartford Healthcare Trust, Horizons Ventures. EndPoints News has more here.
Synqa, a seven-year-old, Bangkok, Thailand-based payments startup, has raised $80 million from Siam Commercial Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Corp and Toyota, among others. Reuters has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
3DBio, a five-year-old, New York-based bio-printing company trying to precision manufacture living tissues to allow replacement of individual patient's parts with tissues designed specifically for them, has raised $20 million, says Fortune. Backers include BlueSeed Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Western Technology Investment and Barer & Son Capital. More here.
Engrail Therapeutics, a newly launched, San Diego-based neuroscience startup, has raised $32 million in Series A funding entirely from Nan Fung Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Hong Kong property developer Nan Fung Group. Xconomy has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Afia, a four-year-old, Austin-based maker of frozen Mediterranean food, raised $1 million in funding from Unorthodox Ventures. More here.
Agamon, a two-year-old, London-based AI-driven radiology startup, raised $3 million in seed funding led by MMC Ventures, with participation from InHealth Ventures, Seedcamp, and Bayer G4A. Tech.eu has more here.
CognitOps, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based startup that's developing a warehouse management software platform, has raised $3 million in funding led by Chicago Ventures, with additional participation from Schematic Ventures, CEAS Investments, and Churton Ventures. The company had raised a separate $3 million seed round last year. DC Velocity has more here.
Deep01, a four-year-old, Taiwanese startup that develops software to help doctors interpret CT brain scans, raised $2.7 million in funding. ASUSTek led the round, joined by the Digital Economy Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
Energicity Corp, a five-year-old, Freetown, Sierra Leone-based developer and operator of microgrid utilities in West Africa, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
Horizon Quantum, a 2.5-year-old, Singapore-based startup building software for quantum computers, has raised $3.23 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital India, which was joined by earlier backers SGInnovate, Abies Ventures, DCVC, Qubit Protocol, Summer Capital and Posa CV. TechCrunch has more here.
Moneyfellows, a six-year-old, Cairo, Egypt-based fintech startup that facilitates digital "money circles," has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Partech and Sawari Ventures. Money circles are reportedly a popular way to save money in some regions of the world; friends or colleagues contribute a fixed amount each month to a pool, with a different member of the circle taking the lump sum as payout every month. Menabytes has more here.
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New Funds
Epidarex Capital, a life science venture firm with offices in Bethesda, Md., and Edinburgh, Scotland, has raised $126 million in capital commitments for its third fund. FierceBiotech has more here.
SWaN & Legend Venture Partners in Leesburg, Va., is raising up to $10 million for its third hospitality fund. More here.
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IPOs
Akouos, a four-year-old, Boston-based biotech developing gene therapies for hearing loss, plans to raise $125 million by selling 8.3 million shares priced between $14 to $16. The company's biggest outside shareholders include 5AM Ventures, NEA and Pivotal bioVenture Partners. The company had closed on $105 million in Series B funding just three months ago from 5AM, NEA and others. FierceBiotech has more on its strategy here.
Fusion Pharmaceuticals, a six-year-old, Hamilton, Ontario-based biotech developing medicines for solid tumors, revealed plans this morning to raise $125 million via an offering of 8.4 million shares priced between $14 to $16. The company's biggest outside shareholders include HealthCap, Adams Street Partners, and Varian Medical Systems. More here.
nCino, an eight-year-old, Wilmington, N.C.-based company that has developed a cloud-based operating system for financial institutions, has registered to go public without revealing how much it intends to raise. The company has raised funding over the years from Insight Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and T. Rowe Price, among others. More here.
SoftBank has reportedly scrapped its "IPO Readiness Group," which helped its portfolio companies with their IPOs. Business Insider's sources say SoftBank decided it was more effective and efficient for companies to outsource IPO prep. More here.
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Exits
ArcherDX, a seven-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based cancer-focused genomic testing company that recently registered to go public, has been acquired by the publicly traded genetics company Invitae for $1.4 billion. According to Crunchbase, the startup had raised roughly $150 million from investors, including Boulder Ventures, Longwood Fund, and Perceptive Advisors. The Motley Fool has more here.
Microsoft has acquired CyberX, a seven-year-old, Israel-based security startup that focuses specifically on detecting, stopping, and predicting security breaches on internet of things networks and the networks of large industrial organizations. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed but TechCrunch sources say it's in the region of $165 million. More here.
A nearly 16-year-old game development company in Orange County, Ready at Dawn, has been acquired by Facebook. The studio will now operate under Facebook's Oculus Studios banner, where it will continue to develop "VR content for gamers." Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. Ready at Dawn was cofounded and led by Ru Weerasuriya, who'd formerly been an artist at Blizzard Entertainment. IGN has more here.
Publicly traded ServiceNow has agreed to buy Sweagle, a three-year-old, Belgium-based configuration data management startup that had raised $4.05 million on a post-valuation of $11.88 million, according to PitchBook data. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.
Shift Technologies, a seven-year-old. San Francisco-based online retailer for used cars, is reportedly talks to merge with Insurance Acquisition Corp., a blank-check company backed by Cohen and Company. According to Bloomberg, which reported the talks, Shift is aiming to be valued at more than $500 million in the deal, while Insurance Acquisition is negotiating to raise an additional $100 million from institutional investors as part of the deal. More here.
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Data
The Ken takes a closer look at TikTok, Zoom, Facebook, Grab, Agoda, and a bunch of new apps that have recently made their way into phones in Southeast Asia. (Note: We finagled a free link for you to this package of stories as The Ken is a subscription site and the editor is a friend and former colleague.)
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Essential Reads
Here's everything that Apple announced today at its annual developer conference.
Move over, Zoom? Fastly, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose technology helps consumers more rapidly view and retrieve digital content and which went public last year one month after the video conferencing startup Zoom, is now the best-performing tech stock during the pandemic.
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Retail Therapy
The Zen Work Pod, when you need to get away (even, say, 15 feet away).
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