The NYSE's direct listing plan gets green-lit, a COVID test is approved, and Jeff Bezos is worth *what* now?

August 26, 2020

Wednesday!

Top News

Regulators today approved a proposal from the New York Stock Exchange to let companies raise capital through direct listings, a decision that could potentially become a big deal, given that it creates a cheaper alternative to the traditional IPO. Previously, companies had only been permitted to use the process for existing investors to sell shares. The WSJ has more here.

In related news, tune for the newest StrictlyVC Download, coming out Friday. This week's podcast features IPO expert Lise Buyer of Class V Group, who has plenty of thoughts about direct listings, SPACs, and a lot of other things. (Spoiler alert: she thinks the "direct listing plus primary raise" is the "perfect alternative for companies that have insiders who want out, need money, but don't care where it comes from or about the valuation.") Stay tuned.

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Massive Fundings

Freenome, a six-year-old, South San Francisco-based blood diagnostics startup that's right now pursuing U.S. regulatory approval of a test to detect colorectal cancer, has raised $270 million in Series C funding. Bain Capital Life Sciences and earlier backer Perceptive Advisors co-led the round, joined a very (very) long list of other investors, including Fidelity, Janus Henderson, Farallon Capital Management, and Rock Springs Capital. More here.

PatientPop, a 6.5-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based healthcare tech company trying to automate many of the touch points of doctor-patient interactions, has raised $50 million in Series C funding. HLM Venture Partners led the round, joined by Commonfund, Vivo Capital and earlier investors Toba Capital, Transformation Capital, and SVB. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

ChartHop, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based maker of software that helps its customers build organizational charts that can be sliced and diced in a variety of ways, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, which earlier this year led the company's $5 million seed round. Forbes has more here.

Finix, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a payment processing infrastructure-as-a-service platform (it was also in the middle of a strange story involving Sequoia Capital earlier this year), has tacked on $30 million to its Series B round, capital that now brings the round to $75 million. Lightspeed Venture Partners and American Express Ventures led the new tranche, which brings Finix's total funding to $96 million. Crunchbase News has more here.

Grid, a two-year-old, Iceland-based SaaS startup that enables users to turn spreadsheet workbooks into visual and interactive websites so their data can be better communicated to various audiences, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by NEA, with participation from earlier investors BlueYard Capital, Slack Fund, Acequia Capital and others. TechCrunch has more here.

Socure, an eight-year-old, New York-based identity verification and fraud prevention startup, has raised $35 million. Sorenson Ventures led the round, joined by Citi Ventures, Wells Fargo, MVB Financial and earlier backers Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Flint Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Fox Robotics, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based developer of robotic forklifts, has raised $9 million in Series A funding. Menlo Ventures led the round, joined by earlier backers Eniac Ventures, SignalFire, and Famiglia. TechCrunch has more here.

Habi, a 1.5-year-old, Bogotá, Colombia-based startup that aims to quickly buy, renovate, then sell homes, as well as to match sellers and buyers, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Inspired Capital. Other participants in the round include 8VC, Clocktower, Homebrew, Vine, and Zigg. The company has raised $15.5 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.

Stem Disintermedia, a five-year-old, L.A.-based distribution and payments platform for independent musicians and labels, has raised $10 million in fresh funding led by Slow Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Aspect Ventures and Upfront Ventures. The round brings the company's total funding to $22 million. Crunchbase News has more here.

IPOs

Desktop Metal, a five-year-old, Burlington, Ma.-based metal 3D printing company that has raised $430 million over the years, announced plans today to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “DM” by merging with Trine Acquisition Corp. The black-check company announced its own IPO of $261 million in March of last year. TechCrunch has more here.

Dyne Therapeutics, a 3.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech startup focused on rare types of muscle diseases, filed for a $100 million IPO. The pre-revenue company has $165 million in funding, including from Atlas Venture, which owns nearly 30% of the company, and Forbion Capital, which owns roughly 20%; other investors collectively own another 38% of the company. More here.

Ribbit Capital, the eight-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based fintech-focused venture firm founded by Mickey Malka, is looking to raise $350 million for a blank-check company that would make acquisitions. To its credit, it does not include guaranteed founder shares, instead opting for a performance-based vesting structure (as observed by Axios). CoinDesk has more here.

Exits

Banking giant Capital One acquired Freebird, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based business-to-business startup whose predictive technology enables agents to sell flight insurance and rebooking services. Freebird had stopped offering its service to the public but earlier it had let travelers who faced a canceled flight or missed connection to skip the line and book a new ticket on any airline at no extra cost. Though terms aren't being disclosed, the startup had raised $16 million from investors, and the acquisition "signals an opportunistic move into travel for Capital One," says Skift. More here.

Cisco, which owns the WebEx video conferencing service, announced it is acquiring BabbleLabs, a startup that can help filter out background noise. More specifically, says TechCrunch, it uses artificial intelligence to enhance the speaking voice, while filtering out those unwanted background noises that seem to occur whenever you happen to be in a meeting. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed but BabbleLabs had raised $18 million from investors. More here.

People

Former HP CEO Leo Apotheker, who was CEO of Hewlett-Packard when it made its calamitous acquisition of the British software company Autonomy, registered plans three weeks ago to raise $460 million for a SPAC called Burgundy Technology Acquisition Corp. Now, that target has been pared back by 25%. Silicon Valley Business Journal has the story here.

Jeff Bezos is now worth $200 billion, making him the richest person in the world by a stunning $90 billion. (This is really getting gross.)

Google has appointed Halimah DeLaine Prado, one of the company’s most senior Black executives, as general counsel. She joined the firm nearly 14 years ago and will be taking over legal duties from Kent Walker, a senior vice president, effective immediately.

Pia d’Iribarne has stepped down as a Paris-based partner with the London-based VC firm Stride.VC, founded in late 2018 by former Accel partner Fred Destin and podcaster Harry Stebbings,. Before joining Stride, d'Iribarne spent three years as a vice president with Accel Partners in London. TechCrunch says that neither Stride nor d'Iribarne is commenting further.

Salesforce has cut about 1,000 jobs even as stock has record one-day surge. The cuts amount to about 2% of Salesforce’s workforce; employees affected will have 60 days to find a new position at the company, reports CNBC. More here.

Tweet of the Day

"I honestly don't give a f*ck about your SPAC right now." -- @DelRay

Data

A survey of 875 social media influencers shows that although roughly half have tried TikTok’s new rival Reels from Instagram, the ByteDance app is still more popular.

Essential Reads

A COVID-19 test that's made by Abbott, takes 15 minutes, and can be run without lab equipment was just granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. It will cost $5 and runs on a simple card that uses the same technology as a pregnancy test.

How TikTok's talks with Microsoft turned into a soap opera.

Epic confirmed today that the new season of "Fortnite" won’t be on iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Detours

The new pandemic flash point: your vacation.

Billie Eilish's Tiny Desk concert (from home).

NBA players turn frustration into action.

Retail Therapy

Chin Up coffee.

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The NYSE's direct listing plan gets green-lit, a COVID test is approved, and Jeff Bezos is worth what now?

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