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September 8, 2020
Hello! Hope you enjoyed the long weekend.:)
We're currently steeling ourselves for TechCrunch's annual Disrupt show, happening next week, where we'll be on hand for numerous in-person and virtual interviews that we're so looking forward to, including with Peter Fenton of Benchmark, Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital, Conan O'Brien (yes, that one), Renata Quintini of Renegade Partners, Dayna Grayson of Construct Capital, Lo Toney of Plexo Capital, Ade Ajao of Base10 Partners, and even The Chainsmokers. And that's just a sampling of who will be there -- really. We might be a shell of our former self by the end of this one, but it's going to a truly great show, and broadcast from an amazing studio in San Francisco. Tickets are here if you haven't nabbed yours yet.
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Top News
Apple today filed counterclaims and responses in its legal battle with "Fortnite" creator Epic Games and is now seeking unspecified damages for Epic’s breach of contract. “Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store,” Apple said in the filing, adding that Epic has earned more than $600 million from its app store. CNBC has more here.
General Motors’s shares jumped today after it said it would help the electric-truck startup Nikola develop and manufacture new models. GM will provide electric batteries and fuel cells for Nikola’s trucks, including its future Badger pickup truck, which GM will manufacture at a still-undisclosed location. GM will in turn receive $2 billion in stock and a seat on Nikola’s board. The WSJ has more here.
Slack shares fell almost 20% after hours, as it reported earnings results that beat Wall Street expectations but showed slower growth than many expected. Specifically, Slack posted revenue growth of 49% year-over-year — the same as its pre-pandemic growth rate -- unlike Zoom, which recently reported an astonishing 355% year-over-year revenue increase. Business Insider has more here.
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Massive Fundings
Byju's, the nine-year-old, Bangalore, India-based education learning startup, has raised $500 million in funding that values it at $10.8 billion, according to a TechCrunch source (the company isn't confirming the amount or the valuation). Silver Lake led the round, joined by earlier backers Tiger Global, General Atlantic and Owl Ventures. More here.
Infoblox, a 21-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based company whose software that helps large companies manage their networks, has raised fresh funding from Warburg Pincus that values the company at more than $3 billion, says Bloomberg. Infloblox is controlled by another private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, which will now share equal ownership of the combined company. As Bloomberg notes, PE firms in recent years have "brought on their rivals to invest in their portfolio companies. A new partner can provide some return on investment while also setting a new valuation on an asset." More here.
Linkdoc, a six-year-old, Beijing-based provider of big data services that center around oncology, has raised $102.4 million in Series D+ funding. Investors in the round include CICC Capital, CBC Capital, Youshan Capital, iFOF and other investors. DealStreetAsia has more here.
Melio, a 2.5-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup whose tech helps small businesses digitally manage their supplier payments, just raised $144 million to fund its expansion in the United States. The company has a long list of investors, including Accel, Aleph, Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue Management, General Catalyst, LocalGlobe, Corner Ventures and American Express Ventures. Reuters has more here.
Mollie, a 16-year-old, Amsterdam-based company that offers a simple, API-based way to integrate payments into a site or an app, has raised €90 million ($106 million) in a Series B round of funding led by TCV. The company, which raised its first outside round last year, has now raised €115 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Ouster, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based developer of high-resolution digital lidar sensors for autonomous transportation, robotics, industrial automation, and smart infrastructure, has raised $42 million in Series B funding, including from Cox Automotive, Tao Capital Partners, and Fontinalis Partners. The company has now raised $140 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.
Rain Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Newark, Ca.-based cancer drug developer, has raised $63 million in Series B funding. Boxer Capital led the round, joined by Cormorant Asset Management, Samsara BioCapital, Janus Henderson, Logos Capital, and earlier backers BVF Partners and Perceptive Advisors. FierceBiotech has more here.
Tingyun, a 13-year-old, Beijing-based application performance management service platform, has raised $57 million in Series C funding. A unit of CICC Capital, Plum Ventures, Fengyuan Capital and other Chinese investment firms jointly invested. China Money Network has more here.
Thunes, a year-old, Singapore-based startup developing a cross-border payments network, has raised $60 million in Series B funding. The Africa-focused firm Helios Investment Partners led the round, joined by Checkout.com and earlier backers GGV Capital and Future Shape. More here.
Zymergen, a seven-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based synthetic biology startup at work on a range of materials, from polymers to pesticides, has raised $300 million in new funding led by Baillie Gifford, the U.K.-based funds giant, with participation from Baron Capital and a sovereign wealth fund that declined to be identified. Other investors included existing backers DCVC, True Ventures and SoftBank's Vision Fund. Bloomberg has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
BIMA, a 10-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based company that sells life and health insurance policies, along with telemedicine services, has raised $30 million in funding. CreditEase’s Fintech Investment Fund led the round, joined by LeapFrog Investments and insurance giant Allianz. TechCrunch has more here.
Hasura, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that makes available an open-source engine that provides developers a GraphQL API to access their databases, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Previous investors Vertex Ventures US, Nexus Venture Partners, and Strive VC also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Inversago Pharma, a five-year-old, Montreal-based preclinical-stage biotech company specializing in the development of new therapies focused on CB1 blockade, has raised $35 million in Series B financing. Forbion co-led the round with the Fonds de solidarité FTQ. Earlier investors also participated. More here.
Oncomfort, a three-year-old, Belgium-based maker of a virtual reality platform for treating pain and anxiety, has raised €10 million ($11.8 million) in Series A funding led by Debiopharm and Crédit Mutuel Innovation. More here.
Optimize.health, a five-year-old, Seattle-based startup that sells remote patient monitoring technology to health providers, has $15.6 million in new funding. U.S. Venture Partners led the round, joined by Foundry Group, Daher Capital, Openview Venture Partners, Bonfire Ventures, and SOSV. The company has now raised more than $21 million altogether. GeekWire has more here.
Sarbacane, a 19-year-old, France-based company behind a SaaS-based email and text marketing platform called Mailify, raised $27 million led by IDI. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Athennian, a four-year-old, Canada-based developer of legal entity management software, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Arthur Ventures led the round, joined by Round13 Capital, InterGen Capital, and ATB Financial, along with earlier investors. The company has now raised $10 million altogether. KM World has more here.
Freshket, a three-year-old, Thailand-based e-commerce marketplace for farmers, restaurants, and consumers, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Openspace Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
HumanForest, a new, U.K.-based shared and ad-supported dockless e-bike service that began testing its service in London in June, has raised £1.8 million ($2.3 million) in funding, including from Cabify founders Juan de Antonio and Vicente Pascual. TechCrunch has more here.
Lokalise, a three-year-old, Riga, Latvia-based localization software startup, has raised $6 million in Series A funding. The London-based investor Mike Chalfen led the round, joined by capital300 among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Silk and Sonder, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based mental wellness subscription company, raised $3.6 million in seed funding. Redpoint Ventures led the round. Crunchbase News has more here.
SenseHawk, a two-year-old, Saratoga, Ca.-based solar infrastructure intelligence platform, has raised $5.1 million in Series A funding led by Alpha Wave Incubation, with participation from earlier investor SAIF Partners. More here.
Skin Analytics, an eight-year-old, London-based skin cancer screening startup, has raised £4 million in Series A funding led by Hoxton Ventures, with participation from Nesta and Mustard Seed Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
ThoughtRiver, a four-year-old, London-based startup that sells contract pre-screening services to in-house legal teams and law firms, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Octopus Ventures led the round, joined by Crane, Local Globe, Entrée Capital, and Syndicate Room. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Brightspark Capital, a 21-year-old, Montreal-based venture firm, has raised a new, CAD$60 ($45.3 million) fund. More here.
Dawn Capital, the 13-year-old, London-based enterprise tech-focused venture firm, has close a new fund with $400 million in capital commitments to fund startups across data, the future of work, fintech, and security, it says. More here.
DNX Ventures, a nine-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based investment firm that focuses on early-stage B2B startups in Japan and the U.S., has closed its newest fund with $315 million in capital commitments. The firm focuses on cloud and enterprise software, cybersecurity, edge computing, sales and marketing automation, finance and retail. TechCrunch has more here.
Do Ventures, a new Vietnam-based venture firm, is raising $50 million for its debut fund and its halfway toward that target, reports TechCrunch. The firm was founded by general partners Nguyen Manh Dung, former CEO of CyberAgent Ventures Vietnam and Thailand, and Vy Hoang Uyen Le, previously a general partner at ESP Capital. Its first fund will focus on early-stage companies and invest in seed to Series B rounds More here.
SaaS Ventures, a four-year-old, Maryland-based early-stage venture firm that invests in enterprise tech companies in secondary markets throughout the U.S. and Canada, has held a first close of $20 million on its second fund. It first fund closed with $20 million in capital commitments in 2017. More here.
Superhero Capital, a five-year-old, Helsinki-based early-stage venture firm that makes seed investments in Finland and the Baltics, said it has held a first closed on its second fund with €30 million in capital commitments. The fund will remain open for new investors until the end of 2020, says its team. Silicon Canals has more here.
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IPOs
Former Goldman exec (and former Trump economic advisor) Gary Cohn raised $720 million today in an IPO for his new blank-check acquisition company -- 20% more than originally planned, reportedly. The vehicle will start trading on the NYSE on Wednesday. Reuters has more here.
Chinese voice-chat app Yalla Group filed for a U.S. listing today, looking to enter a rebounding market for initial public offerings against the backdrop of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington. The four-year-old company is among few Chinese social-media companies that are tapping the booming wireless-services market in the Middle East and North Africa, notes Reuters.
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Exits
BacklotCars, a six-year-old, Kansas City, Mo.-based dealer-to-deal automotive platform, is being acquired for $425 million by a Carmel, In.-based company called KAR Auction Services. BacklotCars had raised $50 million from investors, including Stripes, Origin Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Royal Street Ventures and KCRise Fund. Startland News has more here.
Progress, a publicly traded software company in Bedford, Ma., has agreed to acquire Chef, a 12-year-old, Seattle-based company that makes developer operation tools, for $220 million in cash. Chef had raised around $105 million, according to Crunchbase, including from Battery Ventures and DFJ. TechCrunch has more here.
An attempt to consolidate two online advertising competitors has fallen apart, reports TechCrunch. Taboola and Outbrain, startups that each provide publishers with ad-based content recommendation platforms, have called off a planned $850 million merger that would have valued the combined company at over $2 billion.
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People
María Auersperg, a former operations strategy for Lyft who worked briefly at Balderton Capital, has joined Mosaic Ventures in London as an investor. More here.
OMERS Ventures founder John Ruffalo announced today that he was paralyzed last week in a biking accident. (We're thinking of you, John.)
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Data
For better or worse, people in the U.S. are traveling again. On Friday, the Transportation Security Administration screened 968,000 travelers — a tenfold increase from the lowest levels during the pandemic, when daily screenings reached 87,000 in mid-April. The Washington Post has more here.
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Essential Reads
TikTok owner ByteDance is reportedly handing out cash bonuses to its 60,000-plus employees worldwide as the company faces the threats of countrywide bans and the sale of its growing US business. ByteDance told staff that eligible employees will be getting a bonus that's equivalent to half of one month's salary, reports Bloomberg. More here.
Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s retail business Reliance Retail just said it will raise $1.02 billion from Silver Lake, kickstarting a fundraising spree months after its sister venture Jio Platforms raised $20 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
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Retail Therapy
Persol pulls another cinematic favorite from the archives with the PO3260S.
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