More time for TikTok, passenger shaming, and the quarantine lives of wealthy tech CEOs

August 14, 2020

Friday! [Spontaneously combusts.] If we don't dissolve into a smoking smudge mark on the sidewalk this weekend (it feels possible), we'll see you back here on Monday. Hope you have a terrific weekend, everyone.

Top News

Donald Trump issued an executive order today that will force China’s ByteDance to sell or spin off its U.S. TikTok business within 90 days. The order is being seen as good news for TikTok, notes CNBC. Last week's executive order could have forced U.S. based app stores to stop distributing the TikTok app if ByteDance didn't reach a deal to divest from it in 45 days. More here.

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Initialized Capital Closes a $230 Million Fifth Fund, Without Alexis Ohanian

Initialized Capital, the early-stage venture firm that got its start inside of Y Combinator almost a decade ago and spun out of the organization roughly five years later, has closed its newest fund, with $230 million in capital commitments, co-founder Garry Tan announced on Medium earlier today.

The fund, its fifth, brings the assets that the San Francisco firm is managing to $770 million.

Tan also announced that Initialized has a new general partner in Brett Gibson, with whom Tan has partnered with time and again in the past. Gibson co-founded with Tan the blog platforms Posthaven and Posterous. He and Tan also later wrote software for Y Combinator, building the organization’s internal software systems.

Initialized has been much in the news recently.

More here.

Massive Fundings

Mission Bio, a nearly six-year-old, South San Francisco-based company that makes single-cell DNA analysis and precision genomics software, has raised $70 million in Series C funding. Novo Growth led the round, joined by Soleus Capital, Mayfield, Cota, and Agilent. TechCrunch has more here.

PayActiv, an eight-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup that enables employees to take out cash advances based on earned wages, has raised $100 million in Series C funding. Eldridge, a Greenwich, Ct. investment firm, led the round, joined by earlier backers Generation Partners and the Ziegler Link•Age Fund II. More here.

Wildlife Studios, a nearly 10-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile gaming company, has raised $120 million in funding led by Vulcan Capital; the company has now raised $250 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Cecelia Health, a 14-year-old, New York-based a telehealth company that's focused on diabetes and other chronic disease management and which provides a mix of human coaching and digital tools toward that end, has raised $13 million in Series B funding. Rittenhouse Ventures and Endo Investors led the round, joined by Boston Millennia Partners, SustainVC, and G100 Capital. More here.

Smaller Fundings

Cube, a two-year-old, New York-based maker of financial planning and analysis software, raised $5 million in seed funding. Bonfire Ventures led the round, joined by Operator Collective, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, and Techstars. TechCrunch has more here.

Help Lightning, a four-year-old, Birmingham, Ala.-based that helps service organizations through a technology that merges two real-time video streams, allowing someone to virtually reach out and touch what their service tech or customer is working on, just raised $8 million in funding. Resolve Growth Partners was the backer. TechCrunch has more here.

Joblist, a year-old, San Francisco-based jobs listing platform, raised $4 million in funding from a startup studio called Wilbur Labs. Business Insider has more here.

Thirty Madison, a four-year-old, three-based telemedicine startup developing a range of direct-to-consumer treatments for hair loss, migraines and chronic indigestion, has raised $47 million in new funding. Polaris Partners led the round, joined by Johnson & Johnson Innovation and earlier backers Maveron and Northzone. TechCrunch has more here.

Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings

Gymshark, an eight-year-old, U.K.-based fitness and accessories brand, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from General Atlantic in exchange for 21% of its business. The deal values the company at $1.3 billion. (We don't know whether this was the first outside funding for the company, though it looks like it.) More here.

IPOs

Workplace software firm Asana, which is planning to go public next month, is projecting a 66% increase in revenue this year, according to financial projections obtained by The Information. It says that as of last month, Asana was projecting it would boost revenue to $236 million for the 12 months to January, from $142 million in 2019; next year, Asana projects revenue will grow 51% to $355 million. More here.

Shares of CureVac soared today in their public debut, opening at nearly triple the $16 initial public offering price. The Germany-based clinical stage biotechnology company raised $213.3 million in the IPO, which was priced at the top of the expected range of $14 to $16 a share, and valued the company at about $2.82 billion. MarketWatch has more here.

People

Wonderschool CEO Chris Bennett on being a Black founder in Silicon Valley after George Floyd: "I honestly feel more safe."

Amazon's robotics boss, who defended the company when a VP Tim Bray resigned over employee firings, has abruptly quit — making him the third "Distinguished Engineer"to leave this year, reports Business Insider. Brad Porter is apparently leaving to join an AI startup. More here.

Data

A third of TikTok’s U.S. users may be 14 or under, raising safety questions. The New York Times has more here.

During the Trump administration, SEC enforcement of insider trading has dropped to its lowest point in decades, reports NPR, noting the decline took place before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and that the drop has alarmed experts and advocates who worry that flagrant illegal trading may go unchecked.

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Essential Reads

Facebook is taking a break from the role of villain to publicly villainize Apple over its revenue-sharing policy for in-app purchases. Facebook just rolled out a paid events feature in 20 countries that enables businesses to charge users for access to live video streams; it complains that Apple didn’t agree to waive its usual 30% fee for all transactions that take place within apps on its devices, and says Apple won’t let it process the payments using its own technology for iOS users. Bloomberg has the story here.

Apple is reportedly planning a Peloton-like fitness subscription.

The (ostensibly) luxe quarantine lives of Silicon Valley's elite.

Detours

A BBC weatherman who does his own closing music.

Goodbye, sweet Creamery.

How each state measures six feet of social distance.

Passenger shaming.

Retail Therapy

Zin all-electric speedboats.

Restflix. It's a streaming service dedicated to putting you to sleep, though you could also maybe just watch "Gotti."

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More time for TikTok, passenger shaming, and the quarantine lives of wealthy tech CEOs

Older messages

Epic goes to war, more bad news for Uber and Lyft, and a new prelude for Netflix

TikTok rethinks its India strategy, Lyft reports a limp second quarter, and the rise of the 'resistocrats'

Biden picks Harris, Tesla does the splits, and a bejeweled face mask (that could incite a revolution)

The fight for TikTok, the "worst" that never came, and the return of "wine windows"

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

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