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Top News
In a rare immigration policy reversal, the Trump administration abandoned a plan to strip international college students of their visas if they did not attend at least some classes in person. The policy, which would have subjected foreign students to deportation if they did not show up for class on campus, had thrown the higher education world into turmoil. The New York Times has more here.
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Massive Fundings
Karma Kitchen, a 2.5-year-old, U.K.-based startup that provides rentable kitchen space, has raised £252 million ($318 million) in Series A(!) funding. Karma Kitchen wants to become Europe's biggest kitchen space provider by opening 53 new sites across the UK and Europe in the next five years, though right now, it has just one commercial kitchen site in London, reports Business Insider, adding that the founders had initially only intended to raise £3 million ($3.8 million). More here.
Medly Pharmacy, a three-year-old, New York-based digital pharmacy, has raised $100 million in Series B funding. Volition Capital co-led the round with joined by earlier investor Greycroft, with additional participation from Horsley Bridge Partners (which doesn't make direct investments all that often), and Lerer Hippeau. Crunchbase News has more here.
Oatly, a 26-year-old, Malmo, Sweden-based oat milk company that entered the U.S. four years ago, just raised $200 million in growth equity funding led by The Blackstone Group at around a $2 billion valuation, reports the WSJ. Other backers in the round include Howard Schultz, Oprah Winfrey, Roc Nation, Natalie Portman, Orkila Capital, and Rabo Corporate Investments. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
GoTo Global, a 12-year-old, Israel-based mobility-as-a-service company that aims to cover the entire range of shared vehicles from cars and mopeds to bicycles and electric scooters, has raised $19 million in Series B funding. WeWork cofounder and former CEO Adam Neumann led the round through his family offices, 166 2nd Financial Services, joined by earlier investor Shagrir Group Vehicle Services, a publicly traded Israeli company. TechCrunch has more here.
Komaza, a 14-year-old, Nairobi, Kenya-based developer of sustainable forestry tech, has raised $28 million in Series B funding from AXA Impact Fund, Novastar Ventures, FMO, and Mirova. More here.
Nasuni, an 11-year-old, Boston-based cloud storage and file sharing services company, has raised $40 million in a new funding — $25 million in equity financing and $15 million in a debt facility. The round, which brings Nasuni’s total funding to $169 million, saw participation from a consortium of new and earlier (unnamed) investors. The credit facility is backed by Silicon Valley Bank. American Inno has more here.
The Browser Company, a new, New York-based startup that's looking to challenge Google's Chrome browser, has raised $5 million from investors, including LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner, Medium’s Ev Williams, Figma’s Dylan Field, Notion’s Akshay Kothari and GitHub’s Jason Warner. The startup is led by Joshua Miller, who previously served as the Obama White House’s director of product and is currently an investor at Thrive Capital, an investment firm founded by Josh Kushner. Before heading to the White House, Miller also sold a company called Branch that allowed groups of people to hold discussions and share links to Facebook for a reported $15 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Layer, an 18-month-old, Berlin-based startup whose web application adds collaboration and workflow features on top of MS Excel and Google Sheets, has raised $5.6 million in seed funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from earlier backer btov Partner and numerous notable individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Macro, a two-year-old, Boston-based startup that makes a customizable meeting interface built on top of Zoom, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding from FirstMark Capital, General Catalyst and Underscore VC. The company has now raised $4.8 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
MIP Diagnostics, a five-year-old, Bedfordshire, U.K.-based nanotech startup focused on synthetic polymer alternatives to antibodies, has raised £5.1 million in funding led by Downing Ventures, with participation from BGF, Mercia and Calculus VCT. More here.
NovaSight, a four-year-old, Israeli developer of an automated portable, eye-tracking system to treat so-called lazy eye, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Rimonci Capital. The company has now raised $16 million altogether, says Mass Device. More here.
Orbital Witness, a three-year-old, U.K.-based startup that's aiming to create a kind of universal risk rating for real estate, has raised £3.3 million in seed funding co-led by LocalGlobe and Outward, with added participation from Seedcamp and JLL Spark. TechCrunch has more here.
TradeDepot, a four-year-old, Nigeria-based SaaS platform that connects distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, has raised $10 million from Partech, IFC, Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, and MSA Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Lance Armstrong's venture fund, Next Ventures, has secured $32.5 million in capital commitments from 62 investors, shows a new SEC filing that lists a $75 million target for the fund. Armstrong has been in fundraising mode since roughly January of last year.
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IPOs
Datto, a 13-year-old, Norwalk, Ct.-based developer of cloud-based data backup software, is moving ahead with an IPO that could come as early as this year, says Bloomberg. Datto, which is owned by Vista Equity Partners, is apparently trying to decide whether it should list its shares this year or in 2021. The company has filed confidentially for an IPO in which it could be valued at more than $1 billion, according to the outlet's sources. More here.
Jamf, the 18-year-old, Minneapolis-based company that helps companies securely deploy all of their Apple products and that sold the majority of its business to Vista Equity Partners in 2017, has set its IPO terms, revealing plans to sell 16 million shares at between $17 and $19 each. Seeking Alpha has more here.
NCino, which provides cloud-based software for financial institutions, saw its stock surge more than 150% today, its first day of trading. Shares of nCino opened at $71 and were trading at $77.20, up 150% on the Nasdaq at midday. With roughly 89.2 million shares outstanding, NCino now has a market cap of $6.9 billion. Barron's has more here.
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People
Liam Booth, Facebook CEO's Mark Zuckerberg's former personal security chief, has again been accused of racist and sexist workplace conduct, a year after he stepped down in the face of similar claims.
A sad and gruesome story from the city that never sleeps: Fahim Saleh, a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur was today found in pieces at the New York condo that he owned. The New York Times has more here.
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Layoffs
Vox Media has informed its unions that it plans to cut jobs as advertising revenue has slumped in the first and second quarters. Vox was 40% off its revenue forecast for the second quarter and plans to miss its full-year target by 25%. CNBC has more here.
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Data
Almost 40,000 Robinhood accounts added shares of the automaker during a single four-hour span yesterday, according to website Robintrack.net, which compiles data on the investing platform. Bloomberg has more here.
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Essential Reads
Google is in advanced talks to buy a $4 billion stake in Jio Platforms of India, sources tell Bloomberg, saying it's looking to join rival Facebook in chasing growth in a promising internet and e-commerce market. Google was reportedly kicking the tires of Vodafone Idea, India's second-biggest telecom company, back in May. More here.
In addition to questions about TikTok as a potential national security risk in the U.S., WeChat is also becoming a target for Washington, with White House trade advisor Peter Navarro telling Fox Business that “[TikTok] and WeChat are the biggest forms of censorship on the Chinese mainland, and so expect strong action on that.” As TechCrunch notes, the apps' users are very different. WeChat is mainly used by Chinese diaspora and foreign businesses with a footprint or connection in China, while TikTok is primarily used by young users across international markets. More here.
Since TikTok was banned in India late last month in a purge of 59 Chinese apps, a Bangalore-based rival called Roposo been absorbing new users as fast as it can, telling Bloomberg it is sometimes seeing 500,000 new users per hour and that it expects to have 100 million users by the end of this month -- nearly double its user base before the ban. More here.
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Retail Therapy
An historic 260-acre estate that was built in 1900 for the Sulzberg family and sits in both Connecticut and New York, is for sale for $49.5 million, reports the WSJ. Among its amenities: an Olympic size pool.
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