Stocks drop, a record-breaking year for Chinese tech IPOs(?), and a plea from the U.S. Mint

July 24, 2020

Friday! [Turns up the Al Green.]

A quick reminder that beginning this Monday, we're taking a two-week summer break so we can be lazy blobs (and catch up on some needed sleep).

We'll be back August 10, but before we go, we just pulled a new StrictlyVC Download out of the oven and it is hot, with featured guest Karan Wadhera, who runs the cannabis-focused venture firm Casa Verde Capital with Snoop Dogg and who talked with us about the sector's wild ride over the last year -- as well as why sales are blazing right now. We had fun talking with him; hope you enjoy it, too.

More soon.:)

Top News

Stocks fell today, with tech shares struggling and U.S.-China tensions rising. “It’s really hard to see this volatility and all the uncertainty that it implies go away anytime soon,” said Johan Grahn, head of ETF strategy at Allianz Investment Management, to CNBC.

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Massive Fundings

Revolut, the five-year-old, London-based digital banking alternative for instant payment notification, free international money transfers, and global fee-free travel, the just announced that it has raised $80 million as part of its Series D round that it announced in February. The new influx of funding comes from TSG Consumer Partners.The round, which saw it raise $500 million led by TCV at a $5.5 billion valuation, now stands at $580 million; the valuation remains the same. TechCrunch has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Arrive Outdoors, a three-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based a gear rental platform for outdoor adventures, has raised $4.7 million in seed funding. Freestyle Capital led the round, joined by Science Inc., Corigin Ventures, Narrative Fund, AVG Basecamp Fund, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Buzz Solutions, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based AI image analyzation company that says its machine vision platform can help utilities better monitor transmission lines, towers and other infrastructure flaws, just raised $1.2 million in seed funding. Blackhorn Ventures led the round, joined by Ulu Ventures, Vodia Ventures, and Advisors.fund. Datanami has more here.

Claim Genius, a three-year-old, Iselin, N.J.-based startup that produces instant vehicle damage assessments, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding from Financial Link and SIRI Info Solutions. More here.

Levitate, a 2.5-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based marketing platform, has raised $6 million, including from Tippet Venture Partners, Bull City Venture Partners and angel investor (and Veeva Systems cofounder) Peter Gassner. TechCrunch has more here.

Matik, a 20-month-old, San Francisco-based platform for quickly generating personalized business presentations with dynamic content, has raised $3 million in seed funding. Menlo Ventures led the round, joined by BoxGroup and Oceans Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.

Mitiga, a year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based hybrid managed service for incident readiness and response, raised $7 million in seed funding from Rain Capital, Flint Capital, Gillot Capital, Clearsky Security, and DNX Ventures. More here.

LuminDX, a 2.5-year-old, Boston-based mobile app for identifying skin conditions, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Argon VC. American Inno has more here.

Proper, a seven-month-old, New York-based startup that's launching with a combination of sleep coaching and supplements, has raised $9.1 million in funding led by Casa Verde Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Religion of Sports, a three-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based sports media company co-founded by Gotham Chopra, Tom Brady and Michael Strahan, raised $10 million in funding. Investors included Elysian Park, Advancit, Courtside Ventures and LinkinFirm. Deadline has more here.

Sotero, a three-year-old, Burlington, Ma.-based data security startup, has raised $5 million in funding. Gutbrain Ventures led the round, joined by Boston Seed Capital and PBJ Capital. American Inno has more here.

Swoop, a nearly four-year-old, L.A.-based transportation booking startup focused on mom-and-pop transportation companies, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding from Signia Venture Partners, South Park Commons and several angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Turbo Systems, a three-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based no-code engagement platform that platform allows its clients with large field service teams to build mobile apps to use on the job, has raised $3.5 million in extended Series A funding. Mayfield led the round, joined by B Capital and Nassau Street Ventures. Silicon Valley Business Journal has more here.

IPOs

Dragoneer Investment Group, a growth equity firm known for investments in high-profile technology companies, is the latest investor to join the blank-check company rush. Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. filed today with the SEC for an IPO that would raise $600 million. The special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, plans to sell 60 million units at $10 each, according to the filing. Bloomberg has the story here.

Duck Creek Technologies, a 20-year-old, Boston-based company that sells software-as-a-service to insurers including Liberty Mutual, The Progressive Corp. and American International Group and is majority owned by Apax Partners, just filed to go public. The offering will be "closely watched by the startups in Greater Boston’s burgeoning insurance technology sector," says the Boston Business Journal.

How to use ETFs to play Ant Group’s historic Shanghai-Hong Kong dual listing, possibly one of the biggest IPOs ever.

Exits

Publicly traded Autodesk is buying Pype, a Herndon, Va.-based maker of automation software for construction project management that had raised venture funding from Blackhorn Ventures, among others. Deal terms aren't being disclosed. The Economic Times has more here.

People

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky really wants to talk about that IPO that may or may not happen this year.

Data

In the COVID-19 era, the very biggest privately held startups are the beneficiaries. Though the total number of big deals was roughly unchanged from a year ago, those below $100 million dropped 31% from the first half of 2019, with second-quarter deals for early-stage startups dropping to roughly 700, less than half the volume of the opening quarter, according to new Crunchbase data. More in the WSJ.

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Essential Reads

Why the big winner in Slack's Microsoft fight could be Google.

Tesla's renewable energy business could push company's worth into the trillions, says investor Chamath Palihapitiya.

The head of China Renaissance Group expects 2020 to be a record-breaking year for Chinese tech IPOs, despite the pandemic. “Right now the IPO market is sizzling hot,” said China Renaissance CEO Fan Bao to The Information. “There are a lot of deals in the pipeline.”

Detours

Twelve garden offices to escape from your family.

How the NBA is bringing virtual fans to its real-world games.

Coronavirus, killer hornets, and now a coin shortage.

Zoom to the Max.

Retail Therapy

A career-spanning collection by Banksy.

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Stocks drop, a record-breaking year for Chinese tech IPOs(?), and a plea from the U.S. Mint

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