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September 1, 2020
And there goes Tuesday. More tomorrow.:)
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Top News
As widely predicted would happen, deal talks for TikTok’s U.S. operations have "hit a snag over the question of whether the app’s core algorithms can be included as part of a deal," reports the WSJ. The algorithms, seen as TikTok’s secret sauce, were considered part of the deal negotiations up until Friday, when the Chinese government issued new restrictions on the export of AI technology. Now everyone is scrambling to figure out whether the order means the algorithms need Chinese government approval for transfer, and if so, whether Beijing would sign off. If not, the question becomes whether one of TikTok's suitors might buy the company for its users, then develop new algorithms in an effort to keep them hooked on the app. More here.
Tesla said today it will sell up to $5 billion in new stock as the company seeks to take advantage of an unprecedented run up in its share price. The company's shares opened lower today on the news, then recovered.
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What Will a Wish IPO Look Like? We May Find Out Soon
Wish, the San Francisco-based, 750-person e-commerce app that sells deeply discounted goods that you definitely don’t need but might buy anyway when priced so low — think pool floats, guinea pig harnesses, Apple Watch knockoffs — said yesterday that it has submitted a draft registration to the SEC for an IPO.
Because it filed confidentially, we can’t get a look at its financials just yet; we only know that its investors, who’ve provided the company with $1.6 billion across the years, think the company was worth $11.2 billion as of last summer, when it closed its most recent financing (a $300 million Series H round). Meanwhile, Wish itself says it has more than 70 million active users across more than 100 countries and 40 languages.
The big question, of course, is whether the now 10-year-old company can maintain or even accelerate its momentum. It's not a no-brainer.
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Massive Fundings
Patreon, the seven-year-old, San Francisco-based crowdfunding site for content creators, has raised $90 million in funding Series E funding at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation, it announced this afternoon, hours after The Information reported a big round was in the works. New Enterprise Associates, Wellington Management and Lone Pine were new investors in this latest tranche; earlier investors Glade Brook Capital, Thrive Capital, DFJ Growth, and Index Ventures also joined the round. More here.
PropertyGuru Group, a 13-year-old, Singapore-based Southeast Asian online realty company, has raised a fresh $220.4 million from its earlier investors KKR and TPG Capital following its cancelled IPO in Australia last year. It cited market volatility at the time, says Reuters.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Bambuser, a 13-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based live video streaming app that has zeroed in on live shopping, has raised $45 million from Consensus Asset Management, Handelsbanken, Harmony Partners, Lancelot Asset Management, Tenth Avenue Holdings, and TIN Fonder. TechCrunch has more here.
Cosmose, a four-year-old, Warsaw- and Shanghai-based data analytics platform that gathers anonymized mobile phone data to help retailers inform their sales and advertising strategies, has raised $14.9 million in Series A funding. Tiga Investments led the round, joined by earlier investors OTB Ventures and TDJ Pitango. EU Startups has more here.
Hazel Health, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based telemedicine startup that provides remote care to children in grade school, including mental health services, has raised $33.5 million from Owl Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Uprising, UCSF Foundation Investment Co. and Centene Corp. CNBC has more here.
InCountry, a 15-year-old, San Francisco-based company that helps companies comply with local regulations when adopting SaaS products, has raised $18 million in extended Series A funding. Caffeinated Capital and Mubadala Capital led the newest tranche, joined by Accenture Ventures and previous investors Arbor Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Ridge Ventures, Bloomberg Beta and Team Builder Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Lumen Bioscience, a three-year-old, Seattle-based developer of biologic drugs for 'travelers diarrhea,' among other things, has raised $16 million in Series B funding. WestRiver Management and earlier backer Bioeconomy Capital co-led the round, joined by Avista Development and Columbia Pacific. Endpoints News has more here.
NeuroPace, a 23-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based developer of a neurostimulator that's designed to treat refractory epilepsy, just raised $33 million in new funding led by Accelmed Partners, with participation from Revelation Partners, Soleus Capital and earlier backers KCK Group and OrbiMed. Mass Device has more here.
PicnicHealth, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based company that aims to provide patients with a secure online dashboard that provides all of their medical records, as well as allows them to choose to contribute their data to scientific research, has raised $25 million in fresh funding. Felicis Ventures led the round; the company has now raised $40 million to date, including from Amplify Partners and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.
Pyramid Biosciences, a five-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based developer of precision therapies that aim to treat a broad range of genomically defined solid tumor cancers, has raised $28 million from Adage Capital Management, Averill Master Fund, and J.W. Childs Associates. More here.
Sarcos, a five, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based robotic exoskeleton startup that was spun out of the defense contractor Raytheon, has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Rotor Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Toss Lab, a six-year-old, South Korea-based creator of an enterprise collaboration platform, has raised $13 million in Series B funding to better stave off Slack, which is ramping up its investment in Asia. The round was led by SoftBank Ventures Asia, with participation from SV Investment, Atinum Investment, Must Asset Management, Shinhan Capital, SparkLabs and T Investment. TechCrunch has the story here.
Turing.com, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based automated platform that helps source, vet and ultimately connect developers with tech companies that need them for either short- or long-term engagements, has raised $14 million in seed funding led by Foundation Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Climax Foods, a 1.5-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based data science company that says it's trying to better understand how plants can be converted into products that taste better than their animal-based counterparts, has raised $7.5 million in funding. A long list of investors participated, included At One Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, S2G Ventures, and ARTIS Ventures. The company was founded by Oliver Zahn, who has been the data science lead at Google, SpaceX, and Impossible Foods previously. TechCrunch has more here.
Honcho, a 5.5-year-old, Denver, Co.-based maker of governance software that's aimed specifically at trying to prevent employees from creating damaging communications (it flags for words that can be interpreted as inappropriate or risky before it leaves someone's inbox -- as well as alerts management), has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by FINTOP Capital, with participation from numerous individual investors, including Peter Thiel. More here.
Klassroom, a four-year-old, Paris, France-based parent-teacher communication platform, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Bpifrance, with participation from numerous angel investors. More here.
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New Funds
Owl Ventures, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm focused on education tech, has closed on $415 million in capital commitments for its fourth early stage fund -- and $170 million in capital commitments for its first opportunity fund. TechCrunch has more here.
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IPOs
Rocket Internet's ill-fated experiment with public markets is over.
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Exits
German drugmaker Bayer AG has agreed to buy the four-year-old, New York-based online vitamin and health supplement company Care/of to expand its nutrition business, reports Bloomberg. It says Bayer is acquiring 70% of the startup in a transaction that values it at $225 million, and that Bayer will have an option to buy the rest by 2022. According to Crunchbase, Care/of had raised roughly $83 million from investors; its backers include Tusk Ventures, Bullish, Juxtapose, RRE Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. More here.
Dialpad, the company behind the popular video conferencing service UberConference, has acquired Highfive, a video conference startup that had raised $77.4 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Dimension Data. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Dialpad, which has raised $120 million from investors since its 2011 founding, according to Crunchbase, is led by cofounder and CEO Craig Walker, who previously sold GrandCentral to Google, help the company turn it into Google Voice. As TechCrunch Notes, Dialpad is "clearly aiming to double down on video" now.
Commercial satellite operator Intelsat, still operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is purchasing a large chunk of inflight connectivity provider Gogo’s business for $400 million. According to SpaceNews, Chicago-based Gogo had "sought for more than two years to sell the business unit, which struggled to make money because of intractable satellite capacity costs and expensive antenna installation subsidies Gogo gave to airline." More here.
Gong, a venture-backed company that searches unstructured data like emails and phone call transcripts and finds nuggets of data, last month closed on $200 million in Series D funding. Now it has used it to acquire an early-stage Israeli sales tech startup called Vayo for terms that aren't being disclosed. Vayo, founded in 2018, had raised just $1.7 million in seed funding, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.
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Essential Reads
"A strange phenomenon has emerged near Amazon delivery stations and Whole Foods stores in the Chicago suburbs: smartphones dangling from trees. Contract delivery drivers are putting them there to get a jump on rivals seeking orders," reports Bloomberg. With "joblessness rising and unemployment payments shrinking, competition for such work has stiffened, and more people rely on it as their primary income source." More here.
Mohammad bin Salman's team allegedly infiltrated Twitter to silence his critics -- and they got away with it. Wired takes a look here.
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Detours
We're all socially awkward now -- it's biological.
"A guy in a jetpack" is being investigated after pilots from two flights spotted him hovering 3,000 feet above L.A.
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