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November 12, 2020
Ah, Thursday, we meet again.
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Top News
Donald Trump today signed an executive order prohibiting Americans from investing numerous Chinese companies the Trump administration says supply and otherwise support China’s military. How many Americans own such securities or even how much money is at stake is unclear, said White House officials. The WSJ has more here.
The Commerce Department said it won't enforce its order that would have effectively forced the Chinese-owned TikTok video-sharing app to shut down, in the latest sign of trouble for the Trump administration’s efforts to turn it into a U.S. company. The order was set to take effect today. The WSJ has more here.
According to the WSJ, Chinese President Xi Jinping personally made the decision to halt the IPO of Ant Group after controlling shareholder Jack Ma reportedly infuriated government leaders. More here.
The November 3rd election was the “most secure in American history” and “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” according to a statement issued this afternoon from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The statement follows numerous claims of election fraud.
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This Fintech-Focused Venture Fund Just Closed a $75 Million Debut Fund; Backers "Came out of the Woodwork"
It’s no secret that a massive digital transformation is happening within financial services companies and amid the growing number of non-financial outfits that are also adding financial products to their offerings.
Still, Sheel Mohnot, who was formerly a general partner at the fintech fund of 500 Startups, and Jake Gibson, co-founder of personal finance startup NerdWallet, were a little taken aback by investor interest in their fintech-focused early-stage venture firm, Better Tomorrow Ventures, or BTV.
The outfit just closed its debut fund with $75 million in capital commitments, exceeding their original $60 million target, and even one of their earliest investors, Michael Kim of Cendana Capital, expresses surprise. “Remarkably, they raised a lot of it during Covid,” says Kim.
We talked yesterday with the pair, who have already invested in 13 startups with the fund’s capital and, they say, led nine of those deals.
The good news is you’re focused on fintech. The bad news is that fintech valuations are going through the roof. How do you compete?
SM: It’s true. Everybody decided that what we’ve been talking about all along is in line with their beliefs too, after exits like Plaid and Credit Karma. Everybody became a fintech investor. And you’re right that that has led to an increase in valuations. To some extent that’s good, though. It’s meant that one of our companies has already had a pretty massive markup in part because of this phenomenon.
I also think we’re finding we’re able to win deals at better prices because we’re both founders. [Mohnot sold a company, FeeFinders, to Groupon 2012.] And all we do is fintech. So we tend to understand better what founders are building than generalist investors.
JG: I do think [these things] resonate in that we’ve been able to pay prices that we think make sense and to get the ownership we want. This isn’t the 4 on 16 game that others are playing. . .
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Massive Fundings
Menlo Security, an eight-year-old, Mountain View, Ca-based maker of secure web gateway software, has raised $100 million in Series E funding led by Vista Equity Partners at an $800 million valuation. CRN has more here.
Pharmapacks, a 10-year-old, Long Island, N.Y.-based e-commerce seller of health and beauty products, has raised $250 million from The Carlyle Group at a $1.1 billion post-money valuation. Earlier backers GPI Capital and JPMorgan Chase also joined the round. According to Crunchbase, the company has now raised roughly $470 million altogether from investors. Reuters has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Railsbank, a 4.5-year-old, London-based banking-as-a-service platform that aims to help everyone from marketers to product managers to developers launch and scale their own financial products, has raised $37 million. MiddleGame Ventures and Ventura Capital co-led the round, joined by Anthos Capital, Global Brain, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Moneta VC, Mitsui Fudosan, and Firestartr. TechCrunch has more here.
Signal Automotive, a three-year-old, L.A.-based platform focused around optimizing wholesale dealer trades, has raised $20 million led by Kayne Partners. More here.
So Good So You, a six-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based cold-pressed juice brand, has raised $14.5 million led by Prelude Growth Partners. Crunchbase News has more here.
Solv Health, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based patient booking and management platform, has raised $27 million led by Acrew Capital, with participation from MultiCare Health System, Light Street Capital, Benchmark, and Greylock. Axios has more here.
Springtide, a nine-month-old, New York-based multi-site practice treating children with autism, has raised $18.1 million in Series A funding co-led by Deerfield Management Co. and Optum Ventures. MobiHealth News has more here.
Truebill, a 5.5-year-old, Silver Springs, Md.-based personal finance and savings app, has raised $17 million in Series C funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, joined by Day One Ventures, Eldridge Capital, Cota Capital, and Firebolt Capital. Crunchbase News has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Bumped, a 3.5-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based consumer loyalty startup, has raised $10.4 million in Series A funding and $5 million in debt financing. Equity backers include Canaan Partners, Commerce Ventures, Oregon Venture Fund, and Valor Siren Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.
InFeedo, a four-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based company that's focused on employee retention and whose chatbot checks in with employees periodically, has raised $3.2 million in Series A funding led by Bling Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Nana, a three-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that runs a free academy to teach people how to fix appliances, then gives students the option of becoming a part of its own marketplace to connect them to people needing repairs — has raised $6 million in seed funding. Spero Ventures led the round, joined by Next Play Ventures (the new fund of former Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner), former Stripe employee Lachy Groom, and numerous others. The company has now raised $10.7 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
OthersideAI, a five-year-old, New York-based AI tool that will write your emails for you, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from Active Capital, Hustle Fund, Chapter One and others. TechCrunch has more here.
Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings
Popshop Live, a two-year-old. L.A.-based live-streaming app that enables individuals and businesses to sell products such as comic books and DIY crafts directly to customers, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding at a pre-money valuation of approximately $100 million, reports The Information. Benchmark is leading the deal, with Matt Cohler, a general partner who no longer activity invests on behalf of the firm, joining its board of directors. Lightspeed Venture Partners is also reportedly participating in the round, which follows $4.5 million in seed funding, including from Floodgate and Abstract Ventures. More here.
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Exits
Pipedrive, a 10-year-old, New York-based sales CRM tool for small and medium-sized businesses, has sold a majority stake in its business to the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in a deal that values the company at $1.5 billion, according to TechCrunch. TC further reporters that Pipedrive’s earlier investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Atomico, DTCP, and Rembrandt Venture Partners, will continue as minority investors in the company. More here.
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People
Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, the former chief product officer of SkyScanner and more recently the COO of GoCardless, is joining Index Ventures as a partner in London, says TechCrunch.
Top U.S. cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs, who worked on protecting the election from hackers but drew the ire of the Trump White House over efforts to debunk disinformation, has told associates he expects to be fired, reports Reuters.
A Google breakup should "be on the table," according to Senator Amy Klobuchar, whose name has been floated as a possible attorney general under President-elect Joe Biden. She spoke today during a virtual keynote speech for the American Bar Association
Zak Kukoff, an investor with Emergence Capital Partners for the last couple of years, is joining General Catalyst as a principal, he announced on Twitter yesterday.
Rob Meyerson, former president of Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, has joined as an operating partner the firm C5 Capital, which invests in the "secure data ecosystem." More here.
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Essential Reads
Twitter says it will maintain some of the changes it had made to slow down the spread of election misinformation, saying they were working as intended.
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Detours
Microsoft's plea: Please stop blowing vape smoke into your Xboxes.
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Sponsored By. . .
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