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September 17, 2020
Thursday! (This week is flying.)
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Top News
Donald Trump is expected to decide on TikTok’s fate in the U.S. in the next day or so, sources tell CNBC. To address ownership concerns, says the outlet, ByteDance plans to do an IPO of global TikTok on one of the U.S. exchanges. Oracle will also own a minority stake that will be less than 20% of the new global TikTok, and Walmart will take a stake, though its size is still unknown. More here.
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Benchmark's Peter Fenton: "10 to 20 Years of Innovation Just Got Pulled Forward"
Earlier today at TechCrunch Disrupt, venture capitalist Peter Fenton joined us to talk about a variety of issues. Among them, we discussed how he's putting his stamp on Benchmark now that, 15 years after joining the storied firm, he's its most senior member.
Fenton said that he's mostly focused on ensuring that firm doesn't change. It wants to remain small, with no more than six general partners at a time. It wants to keep investing funds that are half a billion dollars or less because its small team can only work closely with so many founders. He also made a point of noting that Benchmark's partners still divide their investment profits equally, unlike at other, more hierarchical venture firms, where senior investors reap the biggest financial benefits.
We also talked about diversity because Benchmark -- which is currently run by Fenton, Sarah Tavel, Eric Vishria and Chetan Puttagunta -- is hiring one to two more general partners.
We talked about the opportunities that has Benchmark, and Fenton specifically, most excited right now.
Not last, we talked about why Benchmark, a Series A investor in both Uber and WeWork, seemingly took so long to address cultural issues within both companies.
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Massive Fundings
Affirm, the eight-year-old, San Francisco-based point-of-sale, buy now, pay later ender, has raised $500 million in Series G funding led by returning investor GIC, the wealth fund established by the Singapore government. Other investors in the round include Durable Capital Partners, a Maryland investment company, and earlier backers Lightspeed Venture Partners, Wellington Management Co., Baillie Gifford, Spark Capital, Founders Fund and Fidelity Management & Research Co. Affirm competes with Klarna, which announced $650 million in new funding earlier this week. PYMNTS has more here.
Boosted Commerce, a less-than-year-old, L.A.-based company that's acquiring businesses that list goods on Amazon, has raised $87 million and acquired six Amazon fulfillment centers. Investors include Torch Capital and CrossCut Ventures. Dot.LA has more here.
Finch Therapeutics, a 3.5-year-old, Somerville, Ma.-based biotech company with a lead candidate for recurrent C. difficile infection that's in the final stages of clinical development, just raised $90 million in Series D funding. New backers in the round include Baupost Group, Humboldt Fund, MSD Capital, MSD Partners, Octave Group, and OMX Ventures. BioSpace has more here.
Infarm, a seven-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based vertical farming company that has built a network of urban farms to grow fresh food closer to consumers, has raised $170 million in its first Series C funding close. LGT Lightstone led the round, joined by Hanaco, Bonnier, Haniel, and Latitude. TechCrunch has more here.
Olive, an eight-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based automation platform for hospitals intended to streamline their administrative processes, raised $106 million in financing. General Catalyst and Drive Capital led the round, joined by Ascension Ventures, Oak HC/FT and SVB Capital. The company has now raised $220 million to date. More here.
Ready, a four-year-old, New Orleans, La.-based on-demand health care startup that delivers home- and community-based services, has raised $54 million in Series C funding, including from GV. The company's other investors, who've now collectively provided it with $107 million in funding, include Deerfield Management Company, City Light Capital, Town Hall Ventures, and Frist Cressey Ventures. Home Health Care News has more here.
Synthekine, a two-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based biotech company engineering cytokine therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases, has raised $82 million in Series A funding. Canaan, The Column Group and Samsara led the round. FierceBiotech has more here.
Tonal, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based startup with a strength-training system, has raised $110 million in funding from investors including earlier backer L Catterton, along with Delta-v Capital, the Amazon Alexa Fund, NBA star Steph Curry and golfer Michelle Wie. The company has now raised roughly $200 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Aidoc, a five-year-old, New York-based AI-based radiology platform, has raised $20 million in extended Series B funding, including from Square Peg Capital. VentureBeat has more here.
Air, a 3.5-year-old, Brooklyn, New York-based cloud collaboration tool for visual work, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global Management led the round, joined by Lerer Hippeau, WndrCo, Slack Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, and Advancit Capital. Forbes has more here.
AirWorks, a 3.5-year-old, Boston-based maker of aerial mapping software, has raised close to $2.7 million in funding led by earlier investor MetaProp. Early last year, the company had raised $2.3 million in seed funding. More here.
Bunch, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup behind a social layer for multiplayer games, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. General Catalyst led the round, with participation from top game developers — including Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive Software -- among numerous others. VentureBeat has more here.
Buster + Punch, an eight-year-old, London-based luxury interior fashion label, has raised £7 million in funding. Mobeus Equity Partners made this second investment in the company, taking the total committed to nearly £10 million. More here.
eFileCabinet, a 19-year-old, Lehi, Ut.-based document management company, has raised $11.5 million in Series C funding. Allegis Capital and Signal Peak Ventures led the round, joined by Camden Partners, Allegis Nippon Life and Oquirrh Ventures. More here.
GoExpedi, a 3.5-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based company whose software helps energy companies order parts and equipment they need for their operations, has raised $25 million in Series C funding. Top Tier Capital Partners led the round, joined by Crosslink Capital, San Jose Pension Fund, CSL Ventures, Bowery Capital, and Hack VC. The WSJ has more here.
Humatics, a five-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based maker of a micro-location technology that helps identify with millimeter precision where objects are in relation to each other (and sells to construction, manufacturing, and medical industry companies, among others), has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Blackhorn Ventures led the funding, joined by Tenfore Holdings, Fontinalis Partners, Airbus Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, and Presidio Ventures. Built in Boston has more here.
Joint Academy, a six-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based company that connects patients who suffer from chronic joint pain with physical therapists, has raised $23 million Series B funding. Kinnevik led the round, with participation from H&M chairman Karl-Johan Persson and Alfvén & Didrikson. More here.
Factris, a 3.5-year-old, Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based fintech company that buys unpaid invoices from businesses and provide them with instant capital, has raised €5 million in Series A equity funding led by AB Ventures, the venture arm of the Arab Bank. Earlier backers Speedinvest and Optima Investments also joined the round. More here.
First AML, a three-year-old, New Zealand-based anti-money laundering startup, has raised $5.4 million in Series A funding. Bedrock Capital led the round, joined by Icehouse Ventures and individual investors. Stuff has more here.
Forage, a four-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that hosts company-backed free, open-access virtual internships and was formerly known as InsideSherpa, has raised $9.3 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other investors in the round include FundersClub, Y Combinator and Arizona State University. TechCrunch has more here.
GoTab, a four-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based contactless ordering and payment platform for hospitality companies, has raised $6 million from individual investors. More here.
HappySignals, a six-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based platform that measures the experiences the happiness and productivity of IT employees, has raised €4.7 million ($5.5 million) in Series A funding. Nauta Capital led the round, joined by Vendep Capital. EU Startups has more here.
Mobilize, a three-year-old, New York-based events management and volunteer recruitment platform for organizers, has raised $6 million in Series A funding. Sorenson Ventures led the round, joined by Kickstart. More here.
Narrator, three-year-old, New York-based customer data analytics platform, has raised $6.2 million in funding led by Initialized Capital, which was joined by Flybridge Capital Partners, Y Combinator, and individual investors, including Gmail creator Paul Buchheit. TechCrunch has more here.
Wisdom Gaming Group, a 1.5-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based e-sports content and marketing company, raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Excelsior Ventures. More here.
Zuper, a four-year-old, Seattle- and Chennai, India-based company that makes workforce and customer management software, has raised $1.1 million in seed funding. Prime Venture Partners led the round, joined by Gunderson Dettemer and Gemba Capital. GeekWire has more here.
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New Funds
Twitch cofounder Justin Kan and Robin Chan, who sold his gaming startup in China to Zynga, have founded a new seed-stage venture firm called Goat Capital that aims to invest a debut fund of $40 million (money it hasn't yet completely raised, sounds like). The idea is to invest between $500,000 and $3 million in nascent startups and to work with each of them closely, the duo tell TechCrunch.
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IPOs
Amwell, a Boston-based telehealth company that began trading on the New York Stock Exchange this morning at $18 per share, closed the day at $23.07 a share. You might remember that last month, Google agreed to invest $100 million in Amwell via a private placement in deal that will see Amwell move parts of its business from Amazon Web Services to Google Cloud. CNBC has more here.
Dyne Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech startup focused on rare types of muscle diseases, raised $233 million in its IPO. It priced 12.3 million shares at $19 (above range), for an initial market cap of $791 million, and its shares wound up closing today up 25 percent. More here.
Nuvei, Montreal-based payments company that supplies payment technology to the retail, travel, gaming and other sectors, went public today on the Toronto Stock Exchange and jumped 31% in its trading debut. It's "riding the wave of demand for technology shares that has swept the globe in recent months," notes Bloomberg. More here.
Oscar, the eight-year-old, New York-based health insurance company co-founded by Joshua Kushner and Mario Schlosser, has hired banks for a 2021 IPO, says Axios. The company has so far raised $1.5 billion in venture capital, including from Kushner's Thrive Capital, Alphabet and Founders Fund. More here.
Sumo Logic climbed 22% on its first day as a public company after a $326 million initial public offering, following even stronger trading debuts this week by Snowflake, which gained 112% in its first day of trading yesterday and JFrog, which rose 47%. Bloomberg has more here.
Unity, the 16-year-old video game software developer, priced its IPO tonight above the expected range in an offering that initially values the company at $13.7 billion. It sold shares at $52 apiece, after lifting the range yesterday to between $44 and $48. CNBC has more here.
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Exits
Indian edtech decacorn, BYJU’s said today it has acquired lab-like virtual simulation platform, LabInApp for an undisclosed amount. BYJU’s will use this investment to bolster its offerings and capabilities for the K-12 segment. Five-year old, LabInApp enables virtual simulation of lab equipment and experiments without requiring an expensive laboratory setup. More than 5,000 schools across India leverage the startup’s solution. LiveMint has more here.
Delivery Hero, the food delivery firm that went public in 2017, has agreed to acquire the Latin American operations of Glovo, a Spanish on-demand delivery service, for up to €230 million ($272 million). TechCrunch has more here.
JD Health, the online health care unit of China’s No. 2 e-commerce giant JD.com Inc., is planning to file for a Hong Kong initial public offering as soon as this month, according to Bloomberg sources who say the unit could raise at least $1 billion in the share sale. More here.
Music publishing giant Kobalt, whose roster includes Paul McCartney, The Weeknd, Dave Grohl, Childish Gambino and Lorde, responded to a story reported by Bloomberg last night that it's exploring a sale with a wordy “maybe.” Variety has more here.
Uber is looking to sell part of its $6.3 billion stake in China’s Didi Chuxing as it begins to shed minority holdings to raise cash, according to Bloomberg's sources. It notes the company is beginning to monetize stakes in other companies in an effort to boost the price of its own shares, which are currently trading at around $36, well below their IPO price of $45. More here.
Century 21 Stores is the latest retailer to file for bankruptcy, and it blames insurance providers for its collapse. The New York-based off-price retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today and said it's closing 13 stores along the East Coast. The company said it was forced to file for bankruptcy after insurance companies declined to pay its business interruption insurance claims worth $175 million. TheRealDeal has more here.
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People
Tina Hoang-To has joined Obvious Ventures as a partner in San Francisco. Hoang-To joins from TCV, where she focused on consumer internet investing. She previously cofounded and ran Wedding Spot, an online marketplace that connected engaged couples with wedding venues and was later acquired by Cvent. More here.
Uber has hired a new chief technology officer: Sukumar Rathnam, currently a VP at Amazon, where he has spent the past nine or so years, as reported earlier by The Information. Evidently, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on take on part of the role of CTO following the departure of the company's longtime CTO, Thuan Pham, back in April.
Instagram cofounder and former CEO Kevin Systrom has reportedly talked with TikTok about becoming CEO of the company, assuming a kind of spin-out gets approved. The New York Times says the talks are "preliminary, and no final decisions have been made."
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Data
The post-first-day returns of newly public high flyers this year is not encouraging, notes CNBC. Aside from Snowflake the 11 other IPOs this year that have popped more than 100% on the first day have averaged a negative 1% return from the first-day close.
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Essential Reads
Bloomberg says the Trump administration has now asked gaming companies to provide information about their data-security protocols involving Chinese tech giant Tencent, because of its financial stake in their businesses. Per its report, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which is chaired by the Treasury Department, has sent letters to companies, including Epic Games, Riot Games and others, to inquire about their security protocols in handling Americans’ personal data.
Spotify is facing a heated internal struggle with employees over whether it should host episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience" that some staffers described as transphobic, Vice reported today, adding that 10 meetings have already been held with various groups and individuals over their respective concerns. More here.
A woman in Germany died during a ransomware attack on the Duesseldorf University Hospital, in what may be the first death directly linked to a cyberattack on a hospital. The Verge has more here.
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