Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of September 21 2020. Airtable Raised $185M Series D

Hallelujah! I can finally breathe in San Francisco after days and days of over 200 AQI.  The little things in life like clear blue skies that we take for granted...

Bessemer has published many of its investment memos on companies such as Twilio, SendGrid, Linkedin, and Twitch to name a few. These are great reads and a reminder for all early-stage venture investors when evaluating a company.  I particularly love the Twilio seed investment memo written back in 2009 and it serves as a great guide for early-stage enterprise founders of today.

• The product speaks for itself - we built all of the functionality inherent in Grand Central in 5 minutes while on the phone with the CEO.
• Initial traction: $20k of MRR 9 months after launch.
• Strong customer references: Detailed customer stories with named customers like Google, Best Buy, Deutsche Bank
• Improving unit of economics: Blended gross margin of 56%.
• Relationship with the founder:  The team has been tracking the company for 13 months before committing to an investment.

Enjoy reading the full memo here.

Disclosure: Twilio is a 500 Startups' portfolio company (my previous firm). 

This week a total of 12 startups raised $573.5M in funding, 1 M&As, and 4 IPOs:

• $249.1M goes to 3 Enterprise startups
• $50M goes to 1 AI startup
• $1.5M goes to 1 Marketplace startup
• $110M goes to 1 Wellness startup
• $45M goes to 1 Education startup
• $25M goes to 1 Healthcare startup
• $79.9M goes to 3 BioTech startups
• $13M goes to 1 Cannabis startup