|
November 4, 2020
This may be the longest Wednesday on the books.:)
|
|
Top News
When will we know the winner? Time frames for key states.
Lyft and Uber drivers in California will remain independent contractors. The companies' shares soared on the news that Proposition 22 -- which the companies had heavily funded and that overrides a 14-month-old state law requiring their drivers to be classified as employees -- has passed.
California voters also just passed Proposition 24, a ballot measure that expands the state's existing privacy laws and scales back the amount of data that big tech companies are allowed to collect on people.
Portland, Maine meanwhile became the fourth U.S. city to ban the use of facial recognition by police and city agencies by passing a related ballot initiative. The tech was also banned previously in San Francisco, Boston, and Portland, Ore. More here.
|
|
Sponsored By ...
Venture capital firms can face legal threats from limited partners, employees, portfolio companies, vendors, and regulators. So how can you protect your firm? VCAP insurance is specifically designed to defend your firm against these claims and can act as a funding source for a settlement to avoid impact on your fund. Contact Founder Shield today to receive a free risk assessment.
|
|
Massive Fundings
eSign, an 18-year-old, Hangzhou, China-based company that was founded by a former Alibaba employee and which raised $100 million in Series C funding a year ago led by Ant Financial, has raised $150 million in Series D funding. Shenzhen Capital Group, Evergrande High-Tech Group, and Fortune Capital led the round. DealStreetAsia has more here.
Zego, a five-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based real-time voice and video cloud service, has raised $50 million in funding led by Tencent Holdings, with participation from Qiming Venture Partners and IDG Capital. Bloomberg has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Human API, a seven-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based platform that collects data from over 28,000 sources including wearable devices, hospitals, pharmacies, and laboratories and then shares the data (with patients’ consent) to medical providers, insurance companies, and businesses, has raised $20 million in Series C funding. Backers included Samsung Ventures, CNO Financial Group, Allianz Life Ventures, and Moneta VC. 150sec has more here.
MegaRobo, a four-year-old Chinese startup at work on lightweight intelligent collaborative robots and automation software, has raised $30 million in Series B round led by Sinovation Ventures. Liando Investment, Joy Capital, and Robert Bosch Venture Capital also participated in the round. Tech in Asia has more here.
The Protein Brewery, a year-old, Netherlands-based startup that's trying to commercialize fungi-based, allergen-free proteins to replace animal-based proteins, has raised €22 million in Series A funding led by Novo Holdings, with participation from Roquette Ventures and Unovis Asset Management. The company has now raised €26 million altogether. Food Navigator has more here.
Reflektion, an eight-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based customer engagement platform that aims to raise conversion rates and revenue for digital retailers, has raised $13.5 million. Backers in the round include London Technology Club, Clear Ventures, Intel Capital, Battery Ventures and Hasso Plattner Ventures. More here.
Skeleton Technologies, an 11-year-old, Tallinn, Estonia-based cleantech company that manufacturers ultracapacitor-based energy storage, just raised €41.3 million in funding from all of its earlier backers, who were joined by unnamed angel investors. Past investors in the company include Harju Elekter Group, UP Invest, and Firstfloor Capital, among others. EU Startups has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Emxys, a 14-year-old, Alicante, Spain-based company that makes electronics for instrumentation, data acquisition and control applications for aerospace, science and industrial applications, has raised €2 million in funding led by Mundi Ventures, with participation from CDTI. More here.
Math Global Foundation, a Singapore based firm behind a public blockchain company MathWallet, raised $7.8 million in extended Series A funding. Alameda Research led the round, joined by Multicoin Capital. More here.
The One Health, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company whose flagship product, FidoCure, uses genomic testing to identify possible cancer-causing mutations in dogs and recommend a personalized therapeutic treatment, has raised $10 million from investors. Polaris Partners and Borealis Ventures co-led the round, joined by earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz, Lerer Hippeau, Y Combinator, and Tau Ventures. Today's Veterinary Business has more here.
Talking Medicines, a 7.5-year-old, Glasgow, Scotland-based social intelligence company for the pharmaceutical industry, has raised £1.1 million in funding led by Tern, an outfit specializing in IoT-related investments; it was joined by the Scottish Investment Bank, Scottish Enterprise’s investment arm. More here.
Tilt Five, a three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based entertainment system that uses proprietary augmented reality glasses, a game board, and a wand controller to engage players in tabletop and video games in 3D holographic environments, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by SIP Global Partners. More here.
|
|
New Funds
10D, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based venture firm that previously operated as Ofek Ventures, announced a $110 million venture fund targeting early-stage startups. The firm was started by Yahal Zilka, Rotem Eldar and Itay Rand, and they're writing $1 million to $5 million in initial investments to startups, with follow-on investments of up to $10 million. Crunchbase News has more here.
645 Ventures, a seven-year-old, New York-based early-stage firm founded by former analysts at Goldman Sachs and Insight Partners, has raised $160 million for its third fund. It's a huge jump from the $40.6 million they'd raised for their second fund just two years ago. More here.
Aditum Bio, a year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm founded by Joe Jimenez, a former Novartis CEO, and Mark Fishman, the former head of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, has raised $133 million to launch and invest in half a dozen startups or so. One of these, announced on Monday, is Tempero Bio. Last December, they launched Teres Bio. Stat News has more here.
Hustle Fund, a three-year-old, San Carlos, Ca.-based pre-seed fund, has closed on at least $30 million in capital commitments for its second fund, show SEC filings. Hustle Fund first filed paperwork for the fund in May 2019, listing a target of $50 million. Its debut fund had closed with $11.5 million. Hustle Fund was created by Elizabeth Yin and Eric Bahn, two former 500 Startups partners. TechCrunch has more here.
True Beauty Ventures, an eight-month-old, New York-based venture firm focused on new beauty brands, has closed on $15 million for its $30 million-targeted debut fund, according to an SEC filing. You can learn more about the outfit and its founders here.
|
|
Going Public
Russian online cinema ivi has picked up Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan along with Russia’s VTB and Alfabank to arrange its IPO in the United States, according to Reuters's sources. A bit more here.
Meituan is considering a second listing in China as soon as next year after its Hong Kong shares more than quadrupled in the two years since its debut, according to Bloomberg's sources. It says the world’s largest meal delivery service has held initial discussions with advisers for the potential share sale in China,. Meituan, backed by Tencent Holdings, raised about $4.2 billion in its Hong Kong initial public offering in 2018. It now has a market value of about $224.6 billion. More here.
|
|
Exits
German drinks delivery startup flaschenpost (or ‘bottle post’) has been sold to food giant The Oetker Group for €1 billion. The Oetker Group interestingly attempted to create their own version of the service with their offer of ‘Durstexpress’, before deciding to acquire the four-year-old, Munich-based startup that promises to deliver drinks to customers’ doors in under two hours. EU Startups has more here.
|
|
People
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos this week has sold more than $3 billion worth of shares in his company, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission compiled by OpenInsider and reported by CNBC. The sales bring his total cashout in 2020 to more than $10.2 billion so far, which is a notable jump from 2019, when Bezos sold $2.8 billion worth of shares. Still, Bezos continues to own more than 53 million shares worth nearly $170 billion, making him the richest person in the world.
Soccer star Mesut Ozil is reportedly becoming a strategic advisor to a new venture firm in San Francisco called Class 5 Global that focuses on online ventures in emerging market. The Arsenal midfielder joins a growing list of sports stars to jump into startup investing, from David Beckham to Serena Williams to Kevin Durant. Bloomberg has more here.
Vista Equity Partners founder Robert Smith just bought a pair of North Palm Beach, Fla., properties from energy drinks entrepreneur Russ Weiner for $48.19 million, according to the WSJ. It says the deal closed last month, around the same time as Smith’s $139 million settlement with the Justice Department, the result of a lengthy criminal tax probe by the department.
|
|
Data
Two of Japan's major mobile carriers, SoftBank and KDDI, plan to invest a total of $38 billion into fifth-generation wireless networks in Japan over the next decade as the country looks to play catch-up in deploying the ultrafast technology. Nikkei has more here.
Here’s the final tally of where tech billionaires donated for the 2020 election.
|
|
Sponsored By . . .
Using data from billions of anonymized consumer transactions, Second Measure provides insight into company performance and consumer behavior. The self-service platform enables daily tracking and real-time exploration of 4,900+ public and private companies. Investors use Second Measure for screening and sourcing, diligence, and portfolio management. Request a demo.
|
|
Essential Reads
Cannabis legalization measures are set to pass in five states. As investor-strategist Bradley Tusk predicted in a recent StrictlyVC Download episode, "If you have a startup that can generate new tax revenue for city and state government, this is the best time you could ever imagine, because cities or states budgets have been decimated because of COVID. They desperately need revenue. And things that were harder sells before like mobile sports betting or recreational cannabis, or even psychedelics are all of a sudden going to be start pushed through much, much faster."
|
|
Detours
"Anybody know what to do when your Democracy does this?"
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences |
|
|
|
|
|
