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September 14, 2020
Monday! Hello.:)
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Top (TikTok) News
Business software provider Oracle said today that it is part of a proposal submitted by TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to the U.S. government in which it would “serve as the trusted technology provider.” While the details remain fuzzy -- details that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said today that the Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. will review this week -- Oracle is expected to work with TikTok to move data on American users to Oracle’s cloud-computing infrastructure and house that information only in the U.S.
Oracle, which is looking to burnish its cloud computing credentials, is joining with some of ByteDance’s U.S. investors, says the WSJ.
Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, the exact ownership structure for TikTok is still being debated, but some of ByteDance’s current investors (General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Coatue) are expected to be shareholders of the app and would be given voting control over TikTok, even though they may not own a majority of its shares.
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Massive Fundings
Airtable, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based spreadsheet-centric database and no-code platform, has raised $185 million in Series D funding almost exclusively from insiders. Earlier investor Thrive Capital led the round, joined by earlier backers Benchmark, Coatue, CRV, Caffeinated Capital, and newcomer D1 Capital Partners. Airtable has now raised $350 million and its post-money valuation is $2.6 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
Alibaba is in talks to invest $3 billion in Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab, according to Bloomberg. The Chinese e-commerce giant, a sole investor in the round, will reportedly spend a portion of the funds to acquire some of the Grab stock held by Uber. Bloomberg notes that the deal may represent one of Alibaba’s biggest bets on Southeast Asia since its first investment in Lazada in 2016 and that the deal would give it to data on millions of users in eight countries. More here.
Dream Sports, the 12-year-old, Mumbai, India-based parent firm of fantasy sports app Dream11, has raised $225 million in new funding as it builds an “end-to-end sports tech company” in the world’s second largest internet market. Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies, ChrysCapital and Footpath Ventures were the investors; they bought both primary and secondary shares. The deal values the company, which has raised roughly $325 million to date, at more than $2.5 billion, says TechCrunch. More here.
Escient Pharmaceuticals, a two-year-old, San Diego-based biotech focused on neuro-immuno-inflammatory and autoreactive diseases, has raised $77.5 million in Series B funding. Sanofi Ventures and Cowen Healthcare Investments co-led the round, joined by Redmile Group, Perceptive Advisors and earlier backers The Column Group, 5AM Ventures, and Osage University Partners. More here.
Klarna, the 16-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based payments company that Reuters last week was reported to be in fundraising talks, has closed a new, $650 million equity found led by Silver Lake, with participation from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, BlackRock and HMI Capital. Merian Chrysalis, TCV, Northzone and Bonnier have also acquired shares from existing shareholders, the company says. Bloomberg has more here.
Neogene Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Amsterdam-based developer of cell therapy for solid tumors, has raised $110 million in Series A funding. EcoR1 Capital, Jeito Capital, and Syncona co-led the round. FierceBiotech has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Attralus, a year-old, South San Francisco-based biopharmaceutical company focused on patients with systemic amyloidosis, has raised $25 million Series A funding led by venBio Partners led the round. More here.
The Pro’s Closet, a 14-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based pre-owned cycling brand, has raised $12 million in funding co-led by Foundry Group and Edison Partners, with added participation from Ridgeline Ventures. Daily Camera has more here.
Seeq, an eight-year-old, Seattle-based company whose analytics software is used by industrial manufacturers to collect and analyze data, has raised $28 million in extended Series B funding. Cisco Investments participated in the round, joined by previous backers Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Altira Group, Chevron Technology Ventures, Second Avenue Partners, and Next47, Siemens’ venture arm. The company has now raised $65 million altogether. GeekWire has more here.
Smaller Fundings
AaDya Security, a year-old, Detroit-based cybersecurity startup catering to small- and mid-size businesses, has raised $2.7 million in seed funding, including from Firebrand Ventures, 645 Ventures, and Next Coast Ventures. Pulse 2.0 has more here.
CashKaro, a seven-year-old, New Delhi, India-based company that has become one of the country's leading cash back and coupon sites, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Korea Investment Partners, with participation from returning investor Kalaari Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Courier, a year-old, Bay Area-based API platform with a no-code twist that helps developers add multi-channel user notifications to their applications, has raised $10.1 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Matrix Partners, Twilio and Slack Fund also joined the round. The company earlier raised a (previously undisclosed) $2.3 million seed round led by Matrix Partners, with participation from Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.
Decent, a two-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based insurance startup with health plans for small businesses and self-employed professionals, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. QED Investors led the round, joined by Vulcan Capital, Santander InnoVentures, Asset Management Ventures, Future Positive, Work Life Ventures, AirAngels, and Unpopular Ventures. The company has now raised roughly $18 million altogether. The Austin-American Statesman has more here.
Medefer, a seven-year-old, U.K.-based digital platform that connects GPs, consultants, and patients, has raised £10 million in funding led by Nickleby Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Superlist, a months-old, Berlin-based productivity startup for teams that was founded by Christian Reber, founder of the productivity app Wunderlist, has raised €2.5 million ($2.9 million) in seed funding from Cherry Ventures, says Reber. More angels are also joining the round, he announced in a tweet. More here.
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New Funds
Panasonic says it has launched Conductive Ventures II, with a commitment of $150 million, to invest in expansion-stage enterprise software and hardware technology companies in the areas including artificial intelligence, fintech, digital health, future of work, commerce, autonomous vehicle technologies, and advanced manufacturing, among others. Conductive closed its first fund with $100 million, money that it invested across 17 companies. More here.
Greenfield Partners, a firm with offices in New York and Israel that backs early growth stage companies, has closed a fund with $150 million in capital commitments. Initially established in 2016 by TPG Growth as an investment platform for early growth stage Israeli and Israel-related technology investments, Greenfield Partners is now an independent firm run by co-managing partners Yuda Doron and Shay Grinfeld. More here.
Javelin Venture Partners, a San Francisco-based, early-stage venture firm founded in 2008, has raised $50 million for its fifth fund, shows a new SEC filing that lists $50 million as the target. Javelin closed its fourth fund with $125 million in 2016, the same size as its third fund, which it closed in 2013. The filing lists general partner Noah Doyle alone; not included is longtime managing director Jed Katz. More here.
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Exits
Nvidia said yesterday it is acquiring chipmaker Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion. Arm will operate as a division of Nvidia and will remain headquartered in the UK, and, will “continue to operate its open-licensing model, while maintaining its global customer neutrality,” the company said. But the deal is still likely to face intense regulatory scrutiny. SoftBank bought Arm in 2016 for $31 billion. The Verge has more here.
Publishing group Red Ventures today announced that it is buying CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS for $500 million. The deal will include the eponymous CNET tech site, as well as ZDNet, Gamespot, TVGuide, Metacritic, and Chowhound. The news puts paid to speculation that had been circulating for months that ViacomCBS was looking for a buyer for CNET, which is now 25 years old, and the wider media group. TechCrunch has more here.
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IPOs
Altimeter Growth Corp., a Menlo Park, Ca.-based blank check company formed by Altimeter Capital founder Brad Gerstner, just registered plans to raise $450 million to "target a business in a secular-growth area of the technology sector." Renaissance Capital has more here.
GoodRx, an eight-year-old, consumer service that offers coupons on prescriptions redeemable at pharmacies that can save customer money on their prescriptions, is set to go public, but it firstt sold $100 million to Silver Lake through a private placement that will be set to the IPO price Silver Lake already owned 35.8% of the company, too. TechCrunch has more here.
Despite last week’s market declines, two big IPOs are rolling ahead this week, with Snowflake and JFrog both boosting their IPO price ranges this morning. TechCrunch has more here.
Ribbit LEAP, a blank check company create by Ribbit founder Meyer "Micky" Malka to acquire a fintech business, successfully raised $350 million. Renaissance Capital has more here.
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People
Billionaire Steve Cohen, who is currently the CEO and president of Point72 Asset Management, reached a deal to buy the New York Mets baseball team today for a reported value of about $2.42 billion. NBC News has more here.
Peloton's surge in popularity tripled founder John Foley's wealth, making him the latest billionaire minted amid the pandemic. More here.
Nicole Gavel was just recruited as the head of business development and strategic partnerships at Waymo. Gavel was most recently director of business development at Lyft and, before that, spent six years at Google as a strategic partnerships lead across numerous areas, from shopping to new ad products.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has (again) criticized fellow billionaire Bill Gates, this time over Gates's opinion that "electric vehicles will probably never be a practical solution for things like 18-wheelers, cargo ships, and passenger jets. Electricity works when you need to cover short distances, but we need a different solution for heavy, long-haul vehicles." Asked by a Twitter user on Saturday what he thought of Gates's views, Musk responded: "He has no clue." Business Insider has more here.
Class 5 Global, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund focused on emerging markets, has hired Youcef Oudjidane as a managing partner in Dubai to lead their continued expansion in the MENA region. Oudjidane was previously an investment manager with Dubai Future Foundation. More here.
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Data
TikTok said today it has surpassed 100 million monthly users in Europe. The company also has 1,600 employees in Europe, most of them in the U.K. and Ireland. Business Insider has more here.
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Essential Reads
YouTube today announced the launch of a new short-form video experience it’s calling YouTube Shorts. The feature will allow users, initially in India, to upload 15-second or less short-form videos using a new set of creator tools, including a multi-segment camera, similar to TikTok, speed controls, and a timer and a countdown feature. TechCrunch has more here.
According to the Financial Times, SoftBank execs have revived discussions about buying out public shareholders and taking the company private. More here.
Oops. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced in a press release on Friday a seizure of 2,000 boxes of “counterfeit” Apple AirPods, said to be worth about $400,000, from a shipment at JFK Airport in New York. But the photos in the press release appear to show boxes of OnePlus Buds, the wireless earphones made by smartphone maker OnePlus, which later tweeted to the CBP, "Hey, give those back back! 🙃"
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Detours
Certified young person Paul Rudd makes wearing a mask fun; no cap.
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Retail Therapy
A $140 million futuristic-looking "spaceship house" built for a billionaire.
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