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October 7, 2020
Wednesday! Who knew a fly would steal the show tonight? It already has its own Twitter account with nearly 90,000 followers.
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Top News
Europe’s top competition official, Margrethe Vestager, said today she will make more use of injunctions, including in pending cases against big tech companies, after successfully forcing U.S. chip maker Broadcom to change its alleged anticompetitive practices. The WSJ has more here.
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Tech for Campaigns, Created to Get Dems Elected, On the Parties' Biggest Differences
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Yesterday, a 450-page "investigation on competition in digital markets" was published by the House based on 16 months of evidence gathering, including interviews with employees and past employees and others with first-hand knowledge of the inner workings of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple.
The picture it paints is of companies that have abused their power to enrich themselves in ways previously known and unknown. But House Democrats and Republicans disagree on some of the proposed remedies.
Likely, that doesn't surprise Jessica Alter, the cofounder of Tech for Campaigns, an organization that was once described as a Democratic Geek Squad owing to its mission to match volunteers from the tech world -- engineers, data scientists, product managers, marketing pros -- with Democratic campaigns in need of a winning digital strategy.
Alter, who says Tech for Campaigns's volunteer network now numbers more than 14,000, talked with us late last week about just how different the political parties are fundamentally, likening the Republican National Committee to a "conglomerate," and the Democrats's approach as far more decentralized -- often to the latter's disadvantage. Our conversation (which you can hear here) has been edited lightly for length and clarity.
You were previously a tech founder. For those who don't know you, why start this organization?
I was pretty uninvolved in politics. I was just a typical techie working at early-stage companies, and I'd started one as well. But in 2017, my cofounders and I got very frustrated. I think the crucible moment for me was the first Muslim ban. And given what our skill sets are and who we know, we decided, 'Let's just try to look at helping on the tech and digital front.'
We had a hunch that in the 2016 election, Trump sort of wiped the floor with [the Democrats] on tech and digital, and we were more right [about that hunch] than we wanted it to be.
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Massive Fundings
A2 Biotherapeutics, a two-year-old, Agoura Hills, Ca.-based company that's working on an engineered T-cell therapy, which uses an activating and blocking mechanism to selectively target cancer cells, has raised $71.5 million in Series B funding. Investors include Column Group, Vida Ventures, Samsara BioCapital, Nextech Invest, Casdin Capital, Euclidean Capital, UC Regents, and Hartford HealthCare Endowment. Endpoints News has more here.
Envisics, a 3.5-year-old, Buckinghamshire, England-based startup that makes holographic tech for cars, like enhanced “dashboards,” has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Hyundai, General Motors Ventures, SAIC Motors and Van Tuyl Companies (the family office of the Van Tuyl Group, which made a fortune in automotive dealerships and related services) all participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Tipalti, a 10-year-old, Israel-based company that develops automation software for global payments, has raised $150 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of more than $2 billion. Durable Capital Partners led the round, joined by Greenoaks Capital and earlier investor 01 Advisors. The company has now raised around $280 million altogether. Calcalist has more here.
Walden Biosciences, a months-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech focused on kidney disease, just raised $51 million in Series A funding. Arch Venture Partners and UCB Ventures led the round. FierceBiotech has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Abridge, a two-year-old. Pittsburgh, Pa.-based startup that helps patients better understand their medical plans of action, raised $15 million in seed and Series A funding co-led by Union Square Ventures and UPMC. Other backers include Bessemer Venture Partners, Pillar, and KdT Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.
Cerebral, a San Francisco-based telehealth startup that provides virtual mental health care and mail-order prescriptions for patients experiencing anxiety and depression, has raised $35 million in Series A funding. Oak HC/FT led the round, joined by Westcap, Liquid 2 Ventures, Gaingels, and Air Angels. Business Insider has more here.
Remotion, a nearly two-year-old, Bay Area-based startup at work on a workplace video platform for short, spontaneous conversations, says it has raised $13 million in funding, including a Series A led by Greylock and a seed round led by First Round. TechCrunch has more here.
Scribe Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Alameda, Ca.-based platform designed to help develop and engineer new therapeutics based on CRISPR for addressing specific diseases (notably, it was co-founded by Jennifer Doudna, one of the pioneers of CRISPR), has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.
Shogun, a 5.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based startup that enables companies to build goods and services sites that sit on top of e-commerce back-ends like Shopify, Big Commerce or Magento, has raised $35 million in Series B funding. Accel led the round, joined by Initialized Capital, VMG Partners, and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.
Atom Finance, a two-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based investment research and portfolio management platform, has raised $6 million in extended Series A round funding from earlier backers Greycroft and General Catalyst. The company originally closed the round with $10.6 million back in December. More here.
Bespoken Spirits, a nearly three-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based spirits company with a data-driven process to accelerate the aging of whiskey and create specific flavors, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding, including from Clos de la Tech owner T.J. Rodgers and baseball’s Derek Jeter. TechCrunch has more here.
Butterfly Medical, a six-year-old, Israel-based medical device company focused round implant that is positioned in the prostatic urethra for men suffering from BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) symptoms, also known as enlarged prostate, has raised $7 million in Series B funding. New Rhein Healthcare Investors led the round, joined by Israeli investor Mori Arkin and other earlier backers. Calcalist has more here.
Condense Reality, a 20-month-old, Bristol, England-based developer of content capture tech for AR, has raised $1 million in seed funding led by SFC Capital. More here.
DigitalBrain, a seven-month-old, Bay Area-based startup whose tech layer sits atop customer service software like Zendesk to streamline tasks and ease the job of customer service agents, has raised $3.4 million in seed funding. Moxxie Ventures led the round, with help from Caffeinated Capital, Unshackled Ventures, Shrug Capital, Weekend Fund, Underscore VC, Scribble Ventures, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Dispo, a nearly-year-old, L.A.-based app that was created by internet star David Dobrik and friend Natalie Mariduena and whose users snap a picture, then wait until the next morning for the photo “to fully develop” before they can order prints directly from the app to their home, has raised $4 million in seed funding. The new fund of Alexis Ohanian, Seven Seven Six, led the round. The WSJ has more here.
Evrything, a nine-year-old, London-based data insights company that caters to consumer brands, has raised $10 million. IDC Ventures led the round, joined by Sway Ventures, Generation Ventures, Fernbrook Capital, You & Mr Jones, Bloc Ventures, and UK Future Fund. More here.
Good Buy Gear, a four-year-old, Denver-based online used clothing marketplace focused around baby and children's items, has raised $6 million in Series A round of funding, led by Revolution Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Access Venture Partners and Relay Ventures. The company has raised now raise a total of $8 million. Crunchbase News has more here.
Lanturn, a two-year-old, Singapore-based startup combining corporate services and an internal platform that helps automate administrative work, has raised a $3 million in seed funding led by East Ventures and CoCoon Ignite Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Mandolin, a months-old, Indianapolis, In.-based maker of audio-visual livestream software designed to help artists, venues, and fans connect through live music, has raised $5 million in seed funding High Alpha Capital, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, and numerous other individual investors. More here.
Veritonic, a five-year-old, New York-based startup that sells data and insights about audio campaigns, has raised $3.2 million in Series A funding. Greycroft led the round, joined by Lerer Hippeau and Amazon’s Audible. More here.
Zira, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose software aims to help businesses more effectively schedule their hourly workforce, has raised $3.1 million in seed funding co-led by General Catalyst and Abstract Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
ACME, a two-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based venture firm co-founded by Scott Stanford (co-founder of Sherpa Capital) and Hany Nada (co-founder of GGV Capital), raised $246 million for its debut fund. It also promoted Tiffany Ho to principal. More here.
Bull City Venture Partners, an eight-year-old, Durham, N.C.-based venture firm focused on tech startups in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, is looking to raise up to $50 million for its fourth fund, shows a new SEC filing. More here.
Catalio Capital Management, a four-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based life sciences investment firm, has closed its second fund with $100 million, bringing the firm's total assets under management to $150 million, says the firm. More here.
The blockchain and fintech venture studio Draper Goren Holm -- a partnership between Josef Holm (cofounder of the LA Blockchain Summit), Alon Goren (cofounder of the Crypto Invest Summit), and longtime investor Tim Draper -- has announced the launch of a $25 million blockchain fund called “Fund 1.” According to the announcement, the money will be used for promising blockchain and fintech startups in Series A and seed investments. Bitcoin.com has more here.
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Going Public
U.S. insurance startup Clover Health will go public through a merger with blank-check firm Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp III in a deal valued at $3.7 billion including debt, the company said yesterday. The combined cash-and-stock deal includes a $100 million investment from Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya, and $50 million from Hedosophia. Reuters has the story here. (And Palihapitiya talked with CNBC about the deal here.)
Space cargo delivery startup Momentus has agreed to go public via a reverse merger that would value the company at just over $1.5 billion and in which it would secure a simultaneous $175 million investment from Capital Group, D.E. Shaw, Lerner Enterprises, Tribe Capital, and Axon Capital. Momentus is a 3.5-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based company that aims to effectively shuttle satellites between rockets and their intended orbits, with its first commercial mission slated for December. Axios has the story here.
Augmedix, an eight-year-old company that provides clinicians with hardware, smartphones or Google Glass to stream the clinic visit to a cloud-based platform and that has raised $82 million from investors, is going public via a merger with the blank-check company called Malo Holdings Corp. Subject to terms and conditions, the company's common stock will trade as an over-the-counter security, the company announced earlier today. More here.
Psst, If you're curious about all these SPACs, you'll want to catch this week's StrictlyVC Download, coming Friday.
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People
Claire Díaz-Ortiz, an early Twitter employee and angel investor, has joined the Latin American venture firm Magma Partners as a partner, where she will operate the Brava Initiative, a commitment from Magma and a number of partner funds to invest in at least 20 female-founded Latin American companies over the next three years. TechCrunch has more here.
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Essential Reads
Amazon has sent a legal notice to Future Group, India’s second largest retail chain, for breaching the terms of its contract by selling a significant portion of the business to Ambani’s Reliance Retail.
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Retail Therapy
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