Instacart picks up more funding, TikTok tries to woo India anew, and Lucky's fortune turns

July 3, 2020

Friday! Hope you have a terrific July 4th, everyone.

Before we log off for the holiday weekend, we have a freshly minted podcast for you, wherein we look back at some of week's highs and lows, as well as talk with Morgan DeBaun, the founder of Blavity, a company that Forbes recently called America's Black millennial newsroom. As we learned from DeBaun, Blavity has challenges that are unique to what it's building; it also has a very big opportunity given its traction and the growing multicultural audience that it's chasing. If you're curious about the future of media, definitely check it out.

See you next week.:)

Top News

Another new record number of coronavirus infections were reported today: 57,497 confirmed cases, says the Washington Post. It's the seventh reported peak in nine days.

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Massive Fundings

Instacart, the eight-year-old, San Francisco-based grocery-delivery company, has raised $100 million in new funding atop the $225 million it announced last month, the company tells Axios. The fresh capital brings its valuation to $13.8 billion (from $13.7 billion). T. Rowe Price provided the new funding. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Veriff, a five-year-old, Tallinn, Estonia-based identity protection platform, has raised $15.5 million in funding from earlier backers Y Combinator and Mosaic Ventures and new investors NordicNinja VC and Change Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Shipup, a four-year-old, Paris-based company helping online retailers with the ‘post-purchase’ customer experience, has raised €6 million from Elaia and the Smart Cities Fund. Tech.eu has more here.

Exits

Distressed satellite constellation operator OneWeb, which had entered bankruptcy protection proceedings at the end of March, has completed a sale process, with a consortium led by the UK Government as the winner. The group also includes funding from India’s Bharti Global – part of business magnate Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises. TechCrunch has more here.

Byju’s, the nine-year-old, Bangalore, India-based education learning startup that last week landed a new round of funding led by Mary Meeker's firm Bond, has made a $300 million all-cash offer to acquire smaller peer WhiteHat Jr, says the Economic Times. It adds that WhiteHat Jr has been in the market to raise $50 million in fresh funding and been talking with Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global among others about a $350 million valuation. More here.

IPOs

Palantir Technologies, the Palo Alto-based data analytics company, is looking to raise a fresh $961 million in funding, says Pitchbook, even while it was recently reported that the company is planning to file confidentially for an IPO. Palantir started its latest fundraise in April and has so far nailed down $550 million from the Japanese corporations Sompo and Fujitsu; they've invested $500 million and $50 million, respectively. More here.

Chapter 11 Filings

Clothing retailer Lucky Brand has filed for bankruptcy, says the WSJ, with initial plans to close at least 13 stores and with a possible deal to sell its business to the operator of Aéropostale and Nautica brands. The L.A.-based brand, currently owned by the private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, owes $182 million to lenders and $79 million to merchandise vendors, according to new filing. More here.

People

Peter Thiel has reportedly told associates that he plans to sit out this year’s U.S. presidential campaign because he thinks re-election is increasingly a long shot. According to the WSJ, Thiel thinks it likely that the economy will be mired in deep recession in November and that any sitting president would be at a stark disadvantage to a challenger. More here.

Data

Why Americans say they are -- or aren't -- wearing face masks.

Trivia

The average weight of a cloud is estimated to be 1.1 million pounds(!).

Essential Reads

TikTok, now banned in India, tries to woo the country with the promise of new jobs.

Tesla has opened up reservations for its all-electric Cybertruck to customers in China, a move that will test the market’s appetite for its massive, futuristic vehicle.

Afterpay, a buy-now-pay-later company that went public in Australia four years ago and was criticized in 2018 because nearly a quarter of its income came from late fees (it has since capped these), is suddenly valued at around $18 billion. According to Australia's Financial Review, one likely driver is investors who want exposure to e-commerce as the coronavirus crisis pushes more shopping online. Afterpay competes with Affirm and Klarna, among many other still-private companies. More here.

Detours

Socially distancing dog.

Apple wants your iPhone to replace your passport and driver's license, too.

Everything you need to know to watch "Hamilton" this weekend.

Retail Therapy

Villa Radii.

In Taiwan, fake flights for travel-starved tourists.

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Instacart picks up more funding, TikTok tries to woo India anew, and Lucky's fortune turns

Older messages

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Hong Kong's new law, Discord's new haul, and a face mask to give you nightmares

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