U..S stocks rise again, TikTok disses Triller, and examining Elon Musk's newest new thing

August 28, 2020

Hope you have a terrific weekend, and, by the way, if you're trying to make sense of the current race to go public, check out the newest StrictlyVC Download. Recorded earlier today, this week's episode features IPO expert Lise Buyer, whose Class V Group provides strategic and logistical guidance to startups planning IPOs. She says from an economic standpoint, she's indifferent when it comes to regular IPOs, SPACs, or direct listings - she's paid the same regardless. Still, she definitely has strong thoughts about everything happening out there right now.

More Monday.:)

Top News

Pinterest has terminated a massive 490,000-square-foot lease in an unbuilt project in San Francisco, citing a shift toward more remote work amid the coronavirus pandemic, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. It says the company will continue leasing its existing offices instead and pay a one-time fee of $89.5 million to back out of the deal. The "cancellation is the strongest sign yet of how the coronavirus is reducing the tech sector’s once-voracious appetite for office space," notes the outlet.

Bloomberg is reporting that TikTok rival Triller and Centricus -- a London-based investment firm -- are the latest suitors looking to buy TikTok’s U.S. business with a $20 billion bid, joining Oracle and a recently combined Microsoft-Walmart effort to acquire the popular short-form video application. To which a TIkTok spokesperson said, "What's Triller?"

U.S. stocks rose so much today that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has now erased its losses of 2020.

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Steno Just Raised $3.5 Million to Become a Kind of Extension to Small Law Offices

The global legal services industry was worth $849 billion in 2017 and is expected to become a trillion-dollar industry by the end of next year. Little wonder that Steno, an L.A.-based startup, wants a piece.

More here.

Massive Fundings

Restream, a five-year-old, Austin, Tex,-based startup focused on simultaneous streaming to multiple online platforms, including YouTube and Facebook, has raised $50 million in Series A funding co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Insight Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Triumvira Immunologics, a five-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based cancer therapies developer, has raised $55 million in Series A funding led by Bayer and Northpond Ventures. Other investors in the round include Oceanpine Capital, Viva Biotech Holdings, Bloom Burton & Co. and the Centre for Commercialization of Cancer. Pharmaceutical Technology has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Fashionphile, a 21-year-old, Carlsbad, Ca.-based company that sells preowned luxury accessories like purses, bags, shoes, and jewelry, has raised $38.5 million in Series B funding led by NewSpring Growth. WWD has more here.

Pudu Robotics, a four-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based maker of indoor delivery robots, has raised nearly $15 million in extended Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital China, with participation from earlier backers Meituan, Everwin Investment, QC Capital, and Chengbohan Fund. The Robot Report has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Harbor, an eight-month-old, L.A.-based platform that aims to gamify the process of disaster preparedness, has raised $5 million in funding led by 25madison. TechCrunch has more here.

PrizePool, a year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based startup hoping to entice Americans to save more money by awarding them with cash prizes, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Accomplice, Bling Capital, Coatue, SciFi VC, and World Innovation Lab. The WSJ has more here.

N0t-Saying-How-Much Fundings

Fiddler, a nearly two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that aims to help companies gain more visibility into their production AI systems, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Lockheed Martin Ventures. CIO Applications has more here.

QMetry, a 12-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based quality assurance platform that aims to help Agile Testing and DevOps teams build, manage, and deploy their software faster, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking and Everstone Group. www.qmetry.com

New Funds

Draper Associates, the 35-year-old, Silicon Valley-based venture firm, is raising $170 million for its sixth fund and has closed on at least $82 million in capital commitments toward that end, shows a new SEC filing. closed on over $82 million for its $170 million-targeted sixth fund, per an SEC filing. More here.

OrbiMed, the 27-year-old, healthcare-focused investment firm, is raising $1.4 billion for its eighth venture fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.

IPOs

Twenty-seven(!) companies joined the IPO pipeline this past week. Renaissance Capital recaps what went down.

Exits

SoftBank Group says it will sell $12.5 billion of the stock it holds in its Japanese wireless operation, adding to massive asset sales that have helped the conglomerate get back on track after a costly series of bad bets on startups. Bloomberg has more here.

Fastly, a provider of content delivery networking services that went public last year, is buying Signal Sciences, a Venice, Ca.-based security monitoring and management company, for $775 million in cash and stock. Signal Sciences had raised $63 million from CRV, Index Ventures, and OATV, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

BlueCity, the owner of China’s biggest gay men dating app Blued (and, as of July, a publicly traded company), says it has acquired the six-year-old Chinese lesbian dating app LESDO, marking the first ever deal within the country’s LGBT market. Financial terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. Reuters has more here.

An international electronic warfare company, CACI International, has acquired a drone technology company in southern Montana for $350 million. Ascent Vision Technology develops and builds drone technology for military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. According to Crunchbase, the company had raised $5.9 million in funding over two rounds in recent years without disclosing its backer(s). The Billings Gazette has more here.

Essential Reads

Elon Musk demonstrated Neuralink's tech earlier today, using pigs implanted with brain-monitoring devices. Take a look.

Clash of the titans, Friday edition.

Detours

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has called for the elimination of daylight saving time, becoming our new favorite American academy.

College is everywhere now.

Rest in peace, Chadwick Boseman.

Retail Therapy

Champagne sabre.

A little Aston Martin.

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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?

Thursday, August 27, 2020

The news you need to know 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

Palantir pulls back the curtain, Triller's new tie-up, and former Goldman exec Gary Cohn launches a SPAC

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

The news you need to know August 25, 2020 Tuesday! Top News Palantir, the Palo Alto, Ca.-based data-analytics company known for taking on controversial work for the US government, filed paperwork today

TikTok just sued the Trump administration, General Atlantic and Sequoia are on team Oracle, and the IPO race is on, babies

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

The news you need to know August 24, 2020 Hello, welcome back! It's been a long day over at SVC headquarters, but we're still *very* energized about one particular development: next month, at

U..S stocks rise again, TikTok disses Triller, and examining Elon Musk's newest new thing

Older messages

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

Palantir pulls back the curtain, Triller's new tie-up, and former Goldman exec Gary Cohn launches a SPAC

TikTok just sued the Trump administration, General Atlantic and Sequoia are on team Oracle, and the IPO race is on, babies

TikTok pushes back, Apple responds to Epic, and a robe for the Zoom era

Uber and Lyft catch a break, Palantir decamps for Denver, and Airbnb kills the buzz

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