|
Top News
Amazon has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to buy the six-year-old autonomous car developer Zoox, says The Information. It says it couldn't learn whether Amazon intends to use Zoox to automate vehicles that deliver goods to customers, but if so, Amazon could have its work cut out for it. Zoox has been building a self-driving vehicle that has no steering wheel so that it can drive in both directions, but "Amazon will likely still have to invest billions of dollars to make Zoox’s vehicles a reality," notes the outlet. Zoox's talks with Amazon were first reported by the WSJ in late May, and it was reported then that a deal would value Zoox at less than the $3.2 billion it was assigned by its private investors during its most recent funding round in 2018.
|
|
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.
|
|
Amid the Pandemic, This Newly Funded Travel Startup is Tackling the Stodgy Timeshare Market
The world is rife with me-too startups, which makes it all the more refreshing when a founder comes along that manages to find a broken market that’s hiding in plain sight.
That’s what Mike Kennedy appears to be doing with Koala, a young outfit determined to update the stodgy world of property time-share management, wherein people acquire points or otherwise pay for a unit at a timeshare resort that they intend to regularly use or swap or rent out (or all three).
It’s a big and growing market. According to data published last year by EY, the U.S. timeshare industry grew nearly 7% between 2017 and 2018 to hit $10.2 billion in sales volume.
It’s a market that Kennedy became acquainted with first-hand as a sales executive at the Hilton Club in New York, which, at least in 2018, was among 1,580 timeshare resorts up and running, representing approximately 204,100 units, most of them with two bedrooms or more.
Despite this growth, timeshares don’t jump to travelers’ minds as readily as hotel rooms or Airbnb stays, and therein lies the opportunity.
Part of the problem, as Kennedy see it, is that timeshares are harder to rent out than they should be. If a timeshare owner wants to reserve a week outside of the week that he or she purchased, for example, that person has to go through an antiquated exchange system like RCI (owned by Wyndam) or Interval International (owned by Marriott). Kennedy, who spent 10 years with Hilton, says he saw a number of his customers grow frustrated over time with their inability to better control their units’ usage.
The timeshare industry has also managed to alienate younger users, who it will eventually need and who might happily consider timeshares were they more visible and accessible. Not only is much of the timeshare market largely comprised of existing timeshare owners who are upgrading their timeshares over time, but outsiders aren’t really being marketed to or offered much control when they do discover timeshares.
|
|
Massive Fundings
SevenRooms, a 12-year-old, New York-based maker of guest management software that it sells to restaurants, hotels, and other public venues, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Providence Strategic Growth. TechCrunch has more here.
Sonder, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based company that leases apartments and turns them into furnished short-term rentals, has raised $170 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $1.3 billion. Fidelity Funds, Westcap and Inovia Capital led the round, joined by Spark Capital, Greenoaks, Valor Equity, Greylock, Atreides Capital, Tao Capital, and Lennar. The Real Deal has more here.
SpringHill, a five-year-old, L.A.-based cross-cultural media company company co-founded by LeBron James and his longtime business partner Maverick Carter, has raised $100 million from Guggenheim Partners, UC Investments, Elisabeth Murdoch, and SC Holdings. Bloomberg has more here.
Tanium, a13-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based company whose cybersecurity software allows customers to see all devices connected to a network and determine which may be vulnerable, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Salesforce at a $9 billion valuation. The company said it has now raised $900 million altogether, which suggests Salesforce is investing roughly $100 million in the company. CNBC has the story here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Aye Finance, a six-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based digital lending platform for small businesses, has raised $27.5 million in Series E funding. CapitalG led the round, joined by LGT Lightstone, Falcon Edge Capital, A91 Partners, and MAJ Invest. TechCrunch has more here.
Capital Markets Gateway, a five-year-old, New York-based startup that sells workflow and real-time data analytics tools that digitize capital raising for IPOs and follow-on offerings, has raised $25 million. Investors included Barclays, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley, along with earlier backers. GeekWire has more here.
ClickUp, a nearly three-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based workplace productivity platform, has raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Georgian Partners among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Enterome, a 12-year-old, Paris-based biotech whose lead therapeutic is for Crohn's disease, raised €46.3 million in Series E funding from SymBiosiss, Tekeda Pharma, and earlier backers Seventure, Health for Life Capital, Principia, Omnes Capital, and Nestlé Health Science. EndPoints News has more here.
Hopin, a year-old, London-based live online events platform, has raised $40 million in Series A funding. IVP led the round, joined by Salesforce Ventures, Accel, Northzone, Seedcamp, and Slack Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
Openly, a three-year-old, Boston-based platform that sells upmarket homeowners insurance through independent agents, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Gradient Ventures and Point Judith Capital Ventures. Insurance Journal has more here.
Polares Medical, a three-year-old, Lausanne, Switzerland-based clinical-stage medical tech company with a transcatheter mitral valve hemi-replacement system to treat patients suffering from mitral regurgitation, has raised $40 million. Longitude Capital led the round, joined by Decheng Capital, Endeavour Vision, IDO Investments, Earlybird VC, and Wellington Partners. More here.
Simcha Therapeutics, a two-year-old, New Haven, Ct.-based developer of drugs to modulate cytokine pathways, has raised $25 million in Series A funding from WuXi AppTec, Sequoia Capital China, and Connecticut Innovations. FierceBiotech has more here.
Ubble, a two-year-old, Paris, France-based biometric identification startup, raised €10 million ($11.3 million) in funding from Partech and Breega. Tech.eu. has more here.
7bridges, a four-year-old, London-based supply chain tech company, raised $3.4 million in seed funding co-led by Crane Venture Partners and LocalGlobe. Business Insider has more here.
Create & Learn, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based firm teaching computer science in small online groups, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding led by GSV Ventures. More here.
Digibee, a three-year-old, Sao Paulo, Brazil-based no-code integration platform, has raised $5 million in funding from GAA Investments and Laércio Albuquerque, who is the president of Cisco Brazil. More here.
Dorkee, a 1.5-old, New York-based platform that aims to helps landlords increase their revenues by decreasing vacancy time between tenants, has raised $5.7 million in seed funding led by New York landlord Simon Baron Development, along with the venture firms Corigin Ventures and Alpha Edison. Also participating: Stonehenge NYC and Bushburg Properties. Crunchbase News has more here.
Landed, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based startup offering a shared equity down payment program for essential employees -- starting with educators -- who wish to buy homes in the communities where they work, has raised $10.5 million in Series A extension funding. OMERS Ventures led the round, joined by earlier backer Initialized Capital. The company has now raised $22 million altogether. More here.
|
|
New Funds
Connect Ventures, an eight-year-old, London-based seed-stage VC that was an early investor in Citymapper and Typeform, has closed a new, $80 million fund. The commitments come from earlier and new LPs, including Top Tier Capital Partners, Isomer Capital, the U.K. taxpayer’s British Patient Capital, De Agostini, Big Society Capital, Draper Esprit and Korelya Capital. Connect’s last fund, raised in 2016, was around $62 million based on today’s exchange rate. TechCrunch has more here.
CAA and NEA have taken their shared love of abbreviating things and formed an investment partnership called Connect Ventures. The outfit has $100 million to start and will fund early-stage consumer-focused startups like Spire Animation Studios, a new feature animation studio from Brad Lewis. TechCrunch has more here.
Ingressive Capital, a three-year-old, venture fund that focuses on pre-seed and seed stage startups in Africa, has doubled the size of its debut fund to $10 million through new commitments from the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Plexo Capital, and Lagos-based Platform Capital. Quartz Africa has more here.
Recast Capital has launched as a fund-of-funds focused on emerging VC managers, reports Axios. It’s cofounders are Courtney Russell McCrea, formerly of Weathergage Capital, and Sara Zulkosky, formerly of Greenspring Associates. More here.
|
|
IPOs
Accolade, a 13-year-old, Seattle- and Philadelphia, Pa.-based healthcare benefits management platform, revealed plans last night to price 8.75 million shares at between $19 and $21, raising as much as $211 million in an IPO that values the company at around $1 billion. Its biggest outside shareholders include Accretive, Andreessen Horowitz, and Carrick Capital. GeekWire has more here.
Akouos, a four-year-old, Boston-based preclinical biotech developing gene therapies for inner ear disorders, raised $213 million by offering 12.5 million shares at $17, above the original range of $14 to $16, and in line with the upwardly revised share offering and price it filed this morning. At the offer price, Akouos raised 70% more in proceeds than originally anticipated in a funding round that values the security software vendor at $9 billion. Nasdaq has more here.
Grocery giant Albertsons today priced its IPO offering below expectations, and its existing shareholders sold fewer shares than planned, "marking a stumble for the IPO market after it had been revived by a string of strong offerings," observes the WSJ. The offering reportedly priced at $16 a share and raised $800 million through the sale of 50 million shares while the company planned for existing shareholders to sell 65.8 million shares at $18 to $20 a share.
Lemonade, a five-year-old, New York-based digital insurer for homeowners and renters, is preparing to go public at an implied valuation of between $1.3 billion and $1.47 billion, less than the $2 billion valuation its private investors assigned it during its most recent funding round (according to Pitchbook). The company's biggest outside shareholders are SoftBank Group, Aleph, General Catalyst, XL Innovate, Sequoia Capital Israel, and Thrive Capital, in descending order. TechCrunch has more here.
Relay Therapeutics, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech focused on solid tumors, has registered plans to raise $200 million in an IPO. The company's biggest outside shareholders include SoftBank Vision Fund and Third Rock Ventures. MedCity News has more here.
|
|
People
Lee Fixel, a former top investor at Tiger Global Management, is raising one of the largest new venture capital funds in history, reports the Financial Times: a $1.3 billion vehicle. More here.
The head of Uber Money, Peter Hazlehurst, is calling it quits as the ride-hailing giant focuses on rides and food delivery and puts its plans to become a financial services company on the back burner. Hazlehurst had joined the company two years ago. Bloomberg has more here.
Billionaire Robert Smith, the founder of Vista Equity Partners, has announced a new initiative that aims to limit student loans for students at historically Black colleges and universities. Called the Student Freedom Initiative, it will launch in the fall of 2021 at up to 11 HBCUs and offer science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors an alternative to private student loans. Unlike a scholarship, students will be required to pay back the support they receive from the initiative through income-based repayments. Inside Higher Ed has more here.
|
|
Essential Reads
Facebook is reportedly working to persuade its top advertisers not to pause spending on the social network, even as a boycott from a handful of marketers turns into a widespread revolt, with Verizon announcing today that it is pulling its ads from Facebook and Instagram "until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we’ve done with YouTube and other partners.” The moves tie to growing concerns that Facebook isn't doing enough about the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation on its platform.
A week after announcing store closures across four states, Apple said today it is closing yet more stores in Florida specifically as the numbers of people with COVID-19 surge.
A new, L.A.-based online professional network for Black talent, Valence, has launched a new initiative called the Valence Funding Network to link Black entrepreneurs with top partners at firms including Accel, Sequoia, GGV, First Round Capital, Bessemer Ventures, Greylock, Upfront Ventures and Collab Capital.
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 - |
|
|
|
|
|
