China stops Ant in its tracks, Tesla's close call, and a QAnon supporter is headed to Congress

November 3, 2020

Top News

Bombshell: China today called a sudden halt to the IPO of Ant Group, anticipated to become the world’s biggest IPO. The Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended the listing after four regulatory agencies summoned Alibaba founder Jack Ma and the company’s top two executives to a closed-door meeting. Neither the regulators nor Ant has said in detail what was discussed at the meeting -- Bloomberg's sources suggest it suddenly has a number of new hoops through which to jump -- but competing against China’s politically connected financial institutions always came with risks. Meanwhile, the move has already cost Alibaba, which spun out Ant Group in 2011 and still owns one-third of the company, $60 billion in sold-off shares.

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Report: U.S. Visas Granted to Students from Mainland China Have Plummeted 99% Since April

It’s no secret that the Trump administration has pursued a variety of avenues to keep foreigners out of the U.S., including through a recent overhaul of the H-1B visa program for high-skilled foreign workers that will require employers to pay H-1B workers higher wages and narrow the types of degrees that would qualify an applicant — a move which has ready triggered numerous lawsuits.

Still, it may surprise some to learn that U.S. visas issued to students around the world have fallen as dramatically as they have this year. According to a new report in Nikkei Asia, citing U.S. State Department data, just 808 F-1 student visas were granted to applicants in mainland China between April and September’s end, which is 99% fewer than the 90,410 F-1 student visas granted during the same period last year.

The story is much the same for students of other countries: with 88% fewer F-1 visas granted to students in India, 87% fewer for students in Japan, 75% fewer for students in South Korea and 60% fewer for students from Mexico.

What’s going on? A confluence of factors, seemingly.

Coronavirus is most certainly among them, as families grow more hesitant to send their children to the U.S., which reported 93,581 new cases on Sunday alone, compared with 24 in China, 38,000 in India, 468 in Japan, 97 in South Korea, and 3,762 in Mexico.

More here.

Massive Fundings

Bukalapak.com, a 10-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based online marketplace, is raising $100 million in funding, including from Microsoft, at a valuation of between $2.5 billion and $3 billion, according to Bloomberg's sources. Earlier backers GIC and Emtek Group are also joining the round. In exchange for Microsoft's dollars, Bukalapak will reportedly adopt Microsoft’s Azure as its preferred cloud platform to support its more than 12 million merchants and 100 million customers. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Flock Safety, a 3.5-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based startup that works with police departments to provide video evidence to help solve nonviolent crimes via its solar-powered camera systems that read license plates and car details, just raised $47 million in Series C funding. Meritech Capital led the round. Atlanta Inno has more here.

InRiver, a 13-year-old. Malmö, Sweden-based product management company that enables retailers and manufacturers to use augmented reality, video and 3D imagery to sell their items online, has raised $32 million in funding. Lugard Road Capital led the round, joined by Verdane, Industrifonden, Zobito, and RoosGruppen. Built in Chicago has more here.

Shoulder Innovations, an 11-year-old, Holland, Mi.-based developer of shoulder replacement systems, has raised $21.6 million in funding co-led by USVP and Lightstone Ventures. Other backers in the round include Alumni Venture Partners, Wakestream Ventures, Biosciences Research & Commercialization Center of Western Michigan University, Invest Michigan, and Michigan Angel Fund. More here.

Smaller Fundings

3Commas.io, a three-year-old, Tallinn, Estonia-based crypto-asset management platform, raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Alameda Research. CoinDesk has more here.

Cado Security, an eight-month-old, London-based cloud-native cyber forensics and response platform, raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Ten Eleven Ventures. More here.

Momi Brands, a 1.5-year-old, Winston Salem, N.C.-based maker of a breast pump and an infant feeding system, has raised $1 million in seed funding. Kapstone Medical and Enventys Partners led the round, joined by Start100 Fund. More here.

SkyHive, a 3.5-year-old, Vancouver, Canada- and San Francisco, Ca-based-based workforce re-skilling platform that uses data to help workers recognize their skills gaps and figure out how to fill them through various educational content engines, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Investors included AllegisCyber Capital, Accenture, Workday Ventures, and the Partnership Fund for New York City. More here.

New Funds

Bronze Investments, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based impact fund founded by Stephen DeBerry, a former partner with Kapor Capital, is targeting up to $50 million for a new fund, suggests a new SEC filing. More here.

Powerhouse Capital, a nearly two-year-old, L.A.-based venture firm focused on startups in media, entertainment and interactive gaming is hoping/expecting to raise $75 million for its debut fund, suggests a new SEC filing. Powerhouse was founded by Ian Doody, who previously spent 11 years as a principal with the investment bank Evolution Media Capital. More here.

The Westly Group, the venture firm founded 13 years ago by Steve Westly, a former eBay exec who later served as the controller and chief fiscal officer of the state of California, is looking to close its fourth fund with $250 million, suggests a new SEC filing. The outfit had closed its third fund with $130 million in 2018.

Insight Partners, Precursor Ventures, and Hustle Fund also have new filings worth examining.

Going Public

Russian online retailer Ozon has filed for an IPO in the United States, it said today; Reuters's sources say the offering could raise at least $500 million for the company’s expansion. More here.

Jiya Acquisition, a biopharma-focused SPAC formed by Samsara BioCapital, filed for a $100 million IPO. The company is led by chairman Srinivas Akkaraju, founder and managing general partner of Samsara BioCapital and a former general partner at Sofinnova Ventures, and CEO and director Rekha Hemrajani, who has held various executive roles in the healthcare industry, most recently CEO of clinical-stage biopharma Aravive. Renaissance Capital has more here.

Renowned founder-investors Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus have already registered plans for a second special purpose acquisition company, called Reinvent Technology Partners Z, and it aims to raise $250 million. They raised a $600 million SPAC roughly a month ago. Renaissance Capital has more here.

Exits

Intel has acquired Cnvrg.io, an Israeli company that has built and operates a platform for data scientists to build and run machine learning models, and it will run it as an independent Intel company, it tells TechCrunch. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. Cnvrg had raised $8 million from investors. More here.

Data

In 1990, the U.S. and Europe produced more than three-quarters of the world’s semiconductors. Now, they manufacture less than a quarter. A chart-filled look at how that happened and what it means.

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