June 23, 2020
Tuesday! Hello.:)
|
Top News
Amazon is launching a $2 billion venture fund focused on reducing the impact of climate change. Called The Climate Pledge Fund, it will invest in companies across a number of industries, including transportation, energy generation, battery storage, manufacturing and food and agriculture, according to the company. As the WSJ notes, the "trillion-dollar Seattle-based company has come under pressure in recent years for its toll on the environment from delivering millions of packages to its customers each year." Indeed, the company separately revealed today that its carbon footprint rose 15% last year. More here
|
Sponsored By ...
Fun fact: Amazon went public in 1997 with $16 million in revenue and a market cap of $438 million. #ThoseWereTheDays. Unless you can write a $1 million check, it’s almost impossible to get exposure to early stage tech. Enter EquityZen. EquityZen allows accredited investors to invest in proven pre-IPO tech firms like Rivian Automotive and ByteDance through its pooled funds. Explore EquityZen’s secondary market today.
|
A Look at Tech Salaries (and How They Could Change as More Employees Go Remote)
Each year, the hiring platform Hired produces a look at tech salaries based on the data it says it gleans from hundreds of thousands of interview requests and job offers. This year, as in past years, it looked at salaries around the globe for software engineers, product managers, DevOps engineers, designers, and data scientists.
Of course, this year is a very funky year, one that, owing to the pandemic, looks to see an accelerated shift toward more remote work. So this year, Hired split its findings its two parts — pre COVID-19 and post. It published data about who was being paid what in 2019, but also how those numbers might change going forward, particularly if more companies adopt localized compensation as Facebook has said it will do with its own employees.
First, a look at the world before the coronavirus swept through and upended so much.
From San Francisco to London, everyone working in tech was seeing steady gains leading into 2020, according to Hired. San Francisco salaries jumped 7% last year, with the average tech worker pulling down $155,000 annually, followed closely by New York, where the average tech worker’s salary was $143,000 (up 8% from 2018); Seattle, where pay hit $142,000 (up 3%); and L.A. and Austin, where workers averaged $137,000. (In L.A, that represented an 8% bump from 2018; in Austin, it was 10%.)
In the U.S., project managers were paid the most, averaging $154,000. Software engineers were meanwhile paid on average $146,000; data scientists were paid $139,000; and designers were paid $134,000.
A question being asked increasingly in 2020 is how those numbers change if these same workers leave behind pricey cities like San Francisco and head to more affordable spots.
|
Massive Fundings
Swile, a four-year-old, Paris, France-based employee rewards and benefits company that creates digital meal vouchers used by employees, has raised €70 million ($78.7 million in Series C funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Bpifrance and Idinvest. Index had also led the company's Series B round. TechCrunch has more here.
Somatus, a four-year-old, McLean, Va.-based kidney care company, has raised $64 million in Series C funding. Longitude Capital and Optum Ventures co-led the round, joined by Deerfield Management Company, Blue Venture Fund, Flare Capital, and Town Hall Ventures. The company has now raised $105 million to date. Crunchbase News has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
BrightInsight, a three-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup whose platform aims to secure, manage and analyze medical device and software data, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from New Leaf Venture Partners and Eclipse Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Cazoo, a two-year-old, U.K.-based used car platform, has raised £25 million in funding, including from Draper Esprit, DMG Ventures, and General Catalyst. The company, which has raised £200 million altogether, is now valued at more than $1 billion. Sifted has more here.
DoNotPay, a five-year-old, U.K.-based subscription-based startup that has created dozens of bots to help consumers fight for their rights (say when it comes to an airfare refund), has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Coatue. Other investors in the round include Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Felicis Ventures, and Day One Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
EasyKnock, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that buys homes and rents them back to sellers, has raised $20 million in funding co-led by Blumberg Capital and QED Investors, with participation from FJ Labs, Correlation, Moderne, 7BC and Interplay. The Real Deal has more here.
Foldax, a seven-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based heart valve maker, raised $20 million in Series D funding. MemorialCare Innovation Fund led the round with participation from Angel Physicians Fund, Sayan Bioventures, and numerous earlier investors, including BioStar Capital and Kairos Ventures. MassDevice has more here.
Immuta, a six-year-old, Maryland-based automated data governance startup, has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Intel Capital. More here.
Neeva, an 18-month-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based search engine that looks for information on the web, as well as personal files like emails and other documents has raised $37.5 million in funding. Sridhar Ramaswamy, a former Google executive who was in charge of the company's advertising arm, founded the company and led its round along with Greylock (where Ramaswamy is also a venture partner), and early Google backer Sequoia Capital. The New York Times has more here.
Nylas, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps developers build features that connect to any email, calendar and contacts provider, has raised $25 million in Series B funding. 8VC and Round13 Capital led the round, joined by Spark Capital, ScaleUP, and Slack Fund. Crunchbase News has more here.
Rasa Technologies, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that has developed an open source-based platform for developers to build chatbots, voice apps and other services that employ conversational AI for interactivity, has raised $26 million in Series B funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by Accel, 468 Capital, Basis Set Ventures, and Mango Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Third Wave Automation, a two-year-old, Union City, Ca.-based autonomous forklift developer, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Innovation Endeavors led the round, joined by Eclipse Ventures, Homebrew, Toyota AI Ventures, and Heartland VC. VentureBeat has more here.
Urjanet, a 10-year-old, Atlanta-based utility account aggregator, has raised $14.7 million in Series D funding, including from Equifax, Oak HC/FT, CheckFree founder Pete Kight, Grotech Ventures and Correlation Ventures. More here.
Smaller Fundings
Armored Things, a four-year-old, Boston-based crowd intelligence software company whose main directive is to keep people safe in crowds through sensors and AI software that monitor crowd flow and predict threats, has raised $7 million in additional seed funding. Will Ventures led the round, joined by Splunk, Glasswing Ventures, iNovia, and MassVentures. American Inno has more here.
Barion Payment, a nearly five-year-old, Budapest, Hungary-based payments firm, raised €2 million ($2.3 million) from Financial Services Capital. More here.
Celsius Network, three-year-old, London-based lending platform, raised $10 million in funding from Tether.
GoStudent, a 3.5-year-old, Vienna, Austria-based online tutoring platform, has raised €8.3 million in Series A funding led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from DN Capital. More here.
Heka, a four-year-old, London-based company enabling employers to offer a number of third-party offerings as employee wellness perks, raised £1 million ($1.3 million) in pre-seed funding led by Playfair Capital. More here.
Quidnet Energy, a seven-year-old, Houston-based company that employs a form of hydroelectric energy storage to pump water under pressure into subsurface geological reservoirs to store energy, has raised $10 million in Series B funding. Backers in the round include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Evok Innovations, Trafigura, and The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust. Crunchbase News has more here.
Optimize.health, a 1.5-year-old, Seattle-based maker of remote patient monitoring software for medical practices, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from Bonfire Ventures. More here.
RenoFi, a two year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based technology home renovation loan platform, has raised $6.4 million in Series A funding from Canaan, with participation from Comcast Ventures and seed investor First Round Capital. More here.
Satelytics, an 11-year-old, Toledo, Oh.-based maker of geospatial analytics software, has raised $5 million from BP. More here.
Syncari, a year-old, Fremont, Ca.-based data automation platform, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by SignalFire. More here.
Todyl, a five-year-old, Denver, Co.-based security, networking and compliance company for distributed workforces, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding, including from TechOperators and Blu Venture Investors. More here.
Treehouse, a new, L.A.-based developer of cooperative games, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Transcend Fund and Playfish cofounder Kristian Segestrale, according to Axios. More here.
|
New Funds
A three-year-old, 10-person, Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm called Omega Venture Partners has been raising up to $100 million for its debut fund, shows an SEC filing. Omega was founded by Gaurav Tewari, who previously spent six years as a managing director with Citigroup and, before that, three years as a managing director with SAP Ventures. More here.
|
Exits
Dell is reportedly examining options that include a spinoff for its roughly $50 billion stake in VMware as the PC maker looks to boost the value of its shares. The WSJ has more here.
|
IPOs
BigCommerce, an 11-year-old, Austin, Tex. company that designs and develops software to make online storefronts, is planning a IPO this year, according to Bloomberg, which says the outfit is already working with Morgan Stanley on the offering, and that it could be valued at roughly $1 billion. According to Crunchbase, BigCommerce has raised roughly $220 million over the years, with backing from General Catalyst, Revolution, GGV Capital, and Goldman Sachs, among others.
|
People
The CEO of WarnerMedia’s digital sports site Bleacher Report, Howard Mittman, is stepping down amid concerns about the site’s revenue growth and complaints about a lack of diversity at the site’s top ranks. The Information has more here.
TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot announced today that she is stepping down from her role at the freelance labor marketplace. TechCrunch has more here.
Palantir, the data mining company, has added three people to its board of directors ahead of its expected IPO. Alexandra Wolfe Schiff, a WSJ reporter since 2013 and the daughter of famous novelist Tom Wolfe, joins as its first female director. Also brought onto the board: Zillow founder Spencer Rascoff and venture capitalist Alexander Moore of 8VC, who was an early Palantir employee. Bloomberg has more here.
|
Data
Countries where everyone wore masks have seen COVID death rates 100 times lower than projected, according to a new study out of Virginia Commonwealth University. Fast Company has more here.
|
Layoffs
New media outlets have been ravaged by the pandemic, and stalwarts are feeling the pinch, too. The New York Times is laying off 68 staffers, primarily in its advertising division, according to a memo from executives seen by The Hill. "The eliminations are taking place in parts of the company that have seen a significant immediate impact from the virus, but they also reflect long-term trends in our business and are fully consistent with the company’s strategy,” it says. More here.
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 -
|
|
|
|
|
|