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August 31, 2020
Monday! Welcome back.:)
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Top News
According to CNBC, TikTok has chosen a bidder for its U.S., New Zealand and Australian businesses, and it could announce the deal as soon as tomorrow, with the apparent front runners being Oracle, and that Microsoft-Walmart tie-up. Still, some are wondering how a deal could go through given that this past weekend, the Chinese government updated its tech export list to include the artificial intelligence technology that TikTok uses. As CNBC notes, TikTok's parent company, Bytedance, has said it now needs a license from the Chinese government before it can sell to a U.S. company, which could take time.
Zoom shares rose as much as 25% in extended trading today(!) after the company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that were better than analysts had expected.
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Everyone is Racing to Go Public, Even Laird Hamilton's Young "Superfood" Company
This one is unusual: Laird Superfood, a five-year-old, 100-person, Sisters, Ore.-based startup that was cofounded by famed surfer Laird Hamilton and which makes plant-based packaged beverage products, filed today to raise up to $40 million in an IPO.
We’d reported on this company early last year in large part because it had attracted backing from WeWork, the co-working company that famously made a number of bets that were very afield from its business (including a maker of wave pools) before suffering a major meltdown last fall.
In fact, according to Crunchbase, WeWork Labs provided Laird Superfood with a whopping $32 million — the bulk of the $51 million it has raised altogether, per Crunchbase. (WeWork founder Adam Neumann has said that he surfed with Hamilton in Hawaii.)
At that time, WeWork’s investment was the strangest thing about the business, a largely direct-to-consumer business that makes “superfood” coffee creamers, beverage supplements that include “performance mushrooms,” Peruvian coffee beans, and an assortment of other things, like teas and hot chocolate.
This IPO may be even more curious.
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Massive Fundings
Adlai Nortye, a 4.5-year-old, China-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on immuno-oncology medicines, has raised nearly $100 million in Series C funding. Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting and Yingke PE co-led the round. Other participants included ATCG Holdings, ICBC Asset Management Company, and several funds affiliated with Yingke PE. DealStreetAsia has more here.
Eruditus, a 10-year-old, Mumbai-based company offering executive-level courses to students, has raised $113 million in Series D funding co-led by Leeds Illuminate and Prosus Ventures. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and earlier investors Sequoia India and Ved Capital also joined the round, which brings the company's funding to date to more than $160 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
DyeMansion, a five-year-old, Munich, Germany-based developer of additive manufacturing finishing systems, raised $14 million in Series B funding from Nordic Alpha Partners, UVC Partners, btov Partners, KGAL, and AM Ventures. Forbes has more here.
Erasca, a two-year-old, San Diego-based precision oncology startup trying to develop therapies that shut down key cancer pathways, has raised $36 million in extended Series B funding that brings the total round to $236 million. New investors include Partner Fund Management and OrbiMed. More here.
Movano, a two-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based health-tech startup that makes a wearable device that monitors users' glucose levels, has raised a $12.5 million bridge round from investors that the company is not naming. Tech Startups has more here.
Apna, a 17-month-old, Bengaluru, India-based recruitment platform for low-skilled workers, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed India and Sequoia Capital India. Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship VC also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Capchase, a five-month-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based online platform for rapidly getting cash from accounts receivable, has raised $4.6 million in seed funding from Caffeinated Capital, Bling Capital and SciFi VC, along with BoxGroup, ONEVC and a number of angels. TechCrunch has more here.
Dorian, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based platform that invites writers to turn their stories into games, play with friends, and make money from their work, has raised $3.25 million in seed funding led by March Capital Partners. Other participants in the round include VGames, Konvoy Ventures, London Venture Partners, Michael Chow (co-creator of the Twitch series “Artificial”), Andover Ventures and a talent management company, Night Media. TechCrunch has more here.
Narrative, a 4.5-year-old, New York-based data streaming platform that aims to simplify the buying and selling of information, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by G20 Ventures, with additional funding from earlier backers Glasswing Ventures, MathCapital, Revel Partners, Tuhaye Venture Partners and XSeed Capital. Narrative had previously raised $5.3 million in funding. TechCrunch has more here.
Semalytix, a five-year-old, Bielefeld, Germany-based startup behind a patient research tool that pulls in unstructured public data (blogs, forums, social media) and then applies algorithms to deliver insights into unmet needs and treatment experiences, has raised €4.3 million in Series A funding. The firm btov Partners led the round, joined by earlier backer Fly Ventures and several unnamed angels. TechCrunch has more here.
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(Other) IPOs
Compass Pathways, founded four years ago in the U.K. to explore the use of a psychedelic compound found in so-called magic mushrooms for treating depression, has filed for an IPO. The company, in which investor Peter Thiel owns a 7.54% stake, said it plans to list its American depositary shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker “CMPS”. Reuters has more here.
GoodRx Holdings, a nine-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based company that gathers information for more than 70,000 U.S. pharmacies to track drug prices and offers coupons to consumers for discounts, has filed for an $100 million IPO. The company was valued at $2.8 billion by its PE backers back in 2018. Reuters has more here.
NextPay Holdings, created last year by the merger of two Vietnamese payment companies, is reportedly eyeing one more private round of financing ahead of a 2022 IPO. DealStreetAsia says the round is likely to be between $60 million and $100 million. More here.
Reinvent Technology Partners, formed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Mark Pincus, has filed to raise $600 million for a blank check company that will shop from the tech sector. TechCrunch has more here.
"Perennial private aviation enigma" Surf Air says it has secured $200 million in funding as it seeks to go public, says Forbes, adding that the money is coming from Global Emerging Markets Group, an alternative investment group. The first $50 million will be available when the company goes public. Remaining funds can be tapped over the following three years. Surf Air earlier this year acquired Blackbird, a market for aviation flights. More here.
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Exits
U.S. hotel operator MCR Development, which operates more than 90 hotels, has agreed to purchase hotel property management software firm StayNTouch for $46 million after Donald Trump said the firm’s existing Chinese ownership poses a threat to U.S. national security. StayNTouch, a 50-person, Bethesda, Md.-based company founded in 2013, was acquired in 2018 by a company in Beijing. The WSJ has more here.
KKR is nearing a deal to sell Epicor Software to a group led by PE firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice for around $4.7 billion, including debt, according to the WSJ. A deal for the company, which makes back-office and sales software for manufacturing, distribution, retail and service-industry customers -- and which acquired a number of acquisitions under KKR's ownership -- could be announced this week if it doesn't fall apart, says the outlet, noting that KKR bought Epicor in 2016 for around $3.3 billion from Apax Partners. More here.
Reliance Retail, India’s largest retail chain, said over the weekend that it's acquiring most of the second largest bricks-and-mortar retailer in the country, Future Group. Specifically, it's spending $3.4 billion to acquire Future's retail and wholesaler business, as well as its logistics and warehousing business. As TechCrunch notes, the announcement "further complicates the future of Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart in India, the largest open market globally by users, where e-commerce still accounts for just 3% of all retail sales. India’s retail market is estimated to balloon to $1.3 trillion by 2025, up from $700 billion" last year. More here.
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People
And just like that, Elon Musk passed Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg today as shares of Tesla continued their rally following a forward stock split. Musk is now worth $115.4 billion compared with $110.8 billion for Zuckerberg, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, separately became the richest woman in the world today, with estimated assets valued by Bloomberg at $66.4 billion.
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Data
MBAs are usually swimming in job offers by now. Not this year, reports the WSJ. For its part, "PwC said it has no plans to hire up to 100 second-year MBA students as it usually does each fall." More here.
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Essential Reads
Facebook says it will block people from sharing news on Facebook in Australia rather than pay publishers for the content. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the country’s top competition authority, is drafting a bill for Parliament that would require both Facebook and Google to negotiate with media publishers and pay them for content that appears on their sites. Google has hinted that it might also have to cut off services in Australia.
Amazon just became one of only a handful of companies certified by the U.S. government to operate as a drone airline. The approval will give Amazon broad privileges to “safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers,” the agency said. The certification comes under Part 135 of FAA regulations, which gives Amazon the ability to carry property on small drones “beyond the visual line of sight” of the operator.
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