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October 19, 2020
Hello there and welcome back.:)
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Top News
Intel just reached a deal to sell its flash-memory manufacturing business to South Korea’s SK Hynix for about $9 billion, in a move that would reorient the semiconductor giant away from an area of historical importance that has become increasingly challenged, observes the WSJ. More here.
SoftBank Group shares climbed to a new 20-year high today as investors rally behind founder Masayoshi Son’s more cautious strategy of selling assets, paring debt and buying back shares. The Tokyo-based company’s stock gained more than 3% to ¥7,244, the highest level since March of 2000 in the midst of the dot-com boom, reports Bloomberg. More here.
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Lee Fixel is Already Raising a Huge Second Fund
On Friday, former Tiger Global Management investor Lee Fixel registered plans for the second fund of his new investment firm, Addition, just four months after closing the first. According to a report on Friday by the Financial Times, the outfit spent last week finalizing the fundraising for the $1.4 billion fund, which Addition reportedly doesn’t plan to begin investing until next year.
Now a source close to the firm says the capital has not been raised. That’s perhaps good news for investors who were shut out of Addition’s $1.3 billion debut fund and who might be hoping to write a check this time around.
The mere fact that Fixel is back in the market already has tongues wagging about the dealmaker, one whose reluctance to talk on the record with media outlets seems only to add to his mystique. Forbes published a lengthy piece about Fixel this summer, in which Fixel seems to have provided just one public statement, confirming the close of Addition’s first fund and adding little else. “We are excited to partner with visionary entrepreneurs, and with our 15-year fund duration, we have the patience to support our portfolio companies on their journey to build impactful and enduring businesses,” it read.
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Massive Fundings
Dren Bio, a year-old, San Carlos, Ca-based developer of protein-engineering technologies, has raised $60 million in Series A funding. SR One and Taiho Ventures co-led the round. They were joined by BVF Partners, HBM Healthcare, Alexandria Venture Investments, and earlier backers 8VC and Mission BioCapital, which had previously provided the company with $6 million in seed funding. More here.
Hyperscience, a six-year-old, New York-based maker of process-automation software, has raised $80 million funding led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from new investor Bond and earlier backers, including Bessemer Venture Partners. The company has now raised $190 million altogether. AI Thority has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
AiFi, a nearly five-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based cashier-less retail startup, has raised $15 million in funding from Qualcomm Ventures, Cervin Ventures, TransLink Capital, and Plum Alley. VentureBeat has more here.
Chiper, a two-year-old, Colombia-based e-commerce platform for independent merchants, raised $12 million in Series A funding from Wind Ventures, Monashees, and Kaszek Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
ShopUp, a four-year-old, Dhaka, Bangladesh-based startup aiming to digitize millions of neighborhood stores in the country, has raised $22.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures. It's the first bet for both on a Bangladeshi startup. Veon Ventures, Speedinvest, and Lonsdale Capital also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to about $28 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Blubrake, a nearly five-year-old, Milan, Italy-based startup that has developed a safe anti-lock braking system for electric bikes, just raised $6 million in Series A funding led by e-Novia, with participation from Progress Tech Transfer, among others. Tech.eu has more here.
Canela Media, a 20-month-old, New York-based company behind a free streaming service that offers on-demand Latino-focused movies and TV entertainment through multiple platforms, has raised $3 million in funding. BBG Ventures and Reinventure Capital led the round, joined by Mighty Capital, Angeles Investors, Portfolia and Alumni Ventures Group. Citybizlist has more here.
Pimloc, a four-year-old, U.K.-based computer vision startup that has positioned itself as a “specialist search and discovery platform” for large image and video collections and live streams, has raised raised £1.4 million ($1.8 million) in seed funding led by Amadeus Capital Partners. Earlier investor Speedinvest and other unnamed shareholders also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Propseller, a two-year-old, Singapore-based real estate agency that combines a tech platform with in-house agents, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding. The round included Iterative, Hustle Fund, XA Network, Rapzo Capital, and numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Silent Eight, a seven-year-old, Singapore-based maker of software that combats money laundering and terrorist financing, has raised $7.5 million in new funding. OTB Ventures led the round, joined by Koh Boon Hwee (a general Partner at Altara Ventures) and SC Ventures. the company has now raised $15 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.
SunRoof, a seven-year-old, Vänersborg, Sweden-based solar roof developer, has raised €2 million in seed funding led by SMOK Ventures. More here.
Unit21, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup providing a no-code service that monitors for fraudulent activity online, has raised $13 million from A. Capital Ventures and Gradient Ventures, along with a long list of others, including VMWare founder Diane Greene and Plaid founder William Hockey. VentureBeat has more here.
Wayflyer, a 14-month-old, New York and London-based e-commerce, revenue-based financing and marketing analytics platform, has raised $10.2 million in seed funding. QED Investors led the round, joined by Speedinvest and Middlegame Ventures. More here.
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New Funds
Josh Buckley, a gaming founder who sold his first startup at age 15, is raising his second venture fund, according to the WSJ, whose sources say he has already circled on $100 million in capital commitments and is targeting $150 million. Buckley had reportedly raised roughly $50 million for his debut fund. (You might have noticed Buckley's name come up last month, when he co-led a $100 million Series A round in the social gaming startup Playco.) More here.
Knightsgate Ventures, a two-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based venture firm, is raising $25 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. More here.
New Frontier Capital, a Bozeman, Mt.-based venture fund, has raised $55.7 million in capital commitments for a third fund that is targeting up to $100 million, shows an SEC filing. The firm had closed its second fund with $37.8 million in 2017. More here.
SAIF Partners, the 18-year-old, India-based venture firm, has raised $400 million for a new fund and rebranded as Elevation Capital as it looks to back more early-stage startups regionally. The new fund is the firm's seventh for early-stage startups in India. Elevation's previous two funds were each $350 million in size, and the firm manages more than $2 billion in assets. TechCrunch has more here.
Sinovation Ventures, the 11-year-old venture firm founded by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, is in the process of raising a new, $1 billion fund called Sinovation Disrupt Fund, shows an SEC filing first flagged by Fortune. More here.
Source Code Capital, a Beijing, China-based venture firm, announced today on WeChat that it has closed its fourth RMB-denominated fund with 3.8 billion yuan (around $567 million), bringing its total assets under management to roughly $1.3 billion. The firm has five dollar-denominated funds that separately total around $1.5 billion in assets. The firm invests in IoT startups, along with intelligent manufacturing, robotics firms, and consumer-facing businesses. According to DealStreetAsia, it has a team of nearly 80 people. More here.
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Going Public
Billtrust, a 19-year-old, Lawrenceville, N.J.-based company whose offerings span credit decisioning and monitoring, online ordering, invoicing, cash application and collections, said today it will go public through a merger with the blank-check company South Mountain Merger Corp. in a deal valued at $1.3 billion, including debt. South Mountain Merger, led by former CardConnect CFO Chuck Bernicker, raised $250 million in June of last year. According to Crunchbase, Billtrust has raised $115 million over the years from investors. FinLedger has more here.
Foghorn Therapeutics, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based startup focused on the body’s chromatin regulatory system, has revealed plans to sell 7.5 million shares at between $15 and $17, which would give it a market value of $628 million if it were to price in the middle. Its biggest outside shareholder is Flagship Pioneering, which owns 44.4% of the company. Marketwatch has a little more here.
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Exits
Alibaba Group says it will spend about $3.6 billion to take a controlling stake in Sun Art, one of China’s largest big-box and supermarket chains. After the transaction is complete, Alibaba Group will own 72% of Sun Art, whose locations will be used to enhance its on-demand food delivery and logistics businesses. TechCrunch has more here.
Juniper Networks announced today that it is acquiring smart wide area networking startup 128 Technology for $450 million. This marks the second AI-fueled networking company Juniper has acquired in the two years, after purchasing Mist Systems in March 2019 for $405 million. 128 Technology was founded in 2014 and had raised $97 million from investors, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Joe Anderson, who spent the last 12 years with the life sciences investment firm Abingworth, has joined Sofinnova Partners as a partner on its crossover fund. Anderson is based in London.
Ben Bernstein, former CEO of Twistlock and later an SVP with Twistlock's acquirer, Palo Alto Networks, has joined Iconiq Capital as a partner. Bernstein is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Marc Brown, who spent the last 20 years working in corporate development at Microsoft, has joined the firm EQT as a partner and the head of EQT Growth. Brown is based in Seattle.
A $185 million consulting deal that SoftBank signed with WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann upon his departure last year is no longer in place. "I don’t think that consulting agreement is still in force,” Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure said of the agreement, speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference, held remotely today. “I think Adam may have violated some of the parts of the consulting agreement, so that’s no longer in effect.”
Former Travelocity CEO Carl Sparks is joining Interlock Ventures, a five-year early-stage venture capital firm based out of Texas and New York. “This will be the last thing I do in my career. This is it," he tells the Dallas Business Journal, dooming this his new gig.
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Data
Silicon Valley's workforce is reporting feeling more burned out than before the pandemic. A new survey from anonymous workplace chat app Blind found that 68% of tech workers feel more burned out than they did when they worked at an office. Business Insider has more here.
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Essential Reads
Apple just launched Apple Music TV, a free, curated, 24-hour live stream of popular music videos. The Verge has more here.
The SEC and the Justice Department are investigating HeadSpin, a mobile app testing company, over possible financial misrepresentations, according to The Information. The startup -- which was flying high back in February -- is also reportedly in the final stages of a recapitalization that will see it return $80 million in equity funding to select investors who apparently want out. More here.
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