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November 19, 2020
Thursday! (Huzzah.)
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Top News
According to the Washington Post, state and federal investigators are preparing to bring antitrust charges against Facebook that will challenge its acquisition of both Instagram and WhatsApp, alleging the deals helped create an anti-competitive social networking juggernaut that has left users with few quality alternatives. It adds that state attorneys general are on track to file a lawsuit as early as next month. More here.
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Revolution is Raising $500 Million More
Revolution, the Washington, D.C.-based investment firm founded by AOL cofounder CEO Steve Case and former AOL senior exec Ted Leonsis, is raising $500 million for its fourth fund, shows a new SEC filing.
Asked about the effort earlier today, the firm -- one of whose executives is off to the White House in January -- declined to comment.
This new fund was was expected. It has been more than four years since Revolution announced its third growth fund, a vehicle that closed with $525 million in capital commitments. That’s a longer time between funds than we’re seeing more broadly across the venture industry, where teams have tended to raise new funds every two years roughly, but Revolution’s pacing could tie to its mission. The firm tends to invest primarily in what it long ago dubbed “rise of the rest” cities, where the cost of living and talent is less extreme.
It has in recent years formed Rise of the Rest seed funds, in fact, closing the second of these last year with $150 million in capital commitments.
Presumably, the firm’s investors have further taken note of some recent exits for Revolution.
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Massive Fundings
Cato Networks, a 5.5-year-old, Tel Aviv-based startup whose cloud platform centralizes the management of security across a company’s various networks and remote access points, has raised $130 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $1 billion. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, joined by Coatue, Greylock, Aspect Ventures, Acrew Capital, and Singtel Innov8. VentureBeat has more here.
D3 Bio, a newly launched, Shanghai, China-based precision medicine startup led by a former AstraZeneca exec named George Chen, has raised $200 million in Series A funding from Boyu Capital, Matrix Partners China, Sequoia Capital China, Temasek and WuXi AppTec. FierceBiotech has more here.
Elevation Oncology, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based biopharmaceutical company focused on cancers, has raised $65 million in Series B funding co-led by venBio Partners and Cormorant Asset Management. FierceBiotech has more here.
Kandou, a nine-year-old, Lausanne, Switzerland-based fabless semiconductor company, has raised $92.3 million in Series C funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Climb Ventures, and Swiss Select Opportunities. More here.
Medable, a 5.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based cloud platform with tools that allows sponsors, patients, providers and contract research organization to work together on clinical trials, has raised $91 million in funding. Sapphire Ventures led the round, joined by earlier backers GSR Ventures, PPD, and Streamlined Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Pharvaris, a five-year-old, Swiss developer of alternatives to injected therapies for treating a rare genetic condition called hereditary angioedema, has raised $80 million in Series C funding. Viking Global Investors and General Atlantic co-led the round, joined by Cormorant Asset Management and earlier backers Foresite Capital, Bain Capital Life Sciences, VenBio Partners and Venrock. Endpoints News has more here.
SellerX, a months-old, Berlin-based outfit that -- like a growing number of similar new startups -- plans to buy, roll-up, and grow businesses that rely on Amazon for payments, logistics and delivery, has raised $118 million. Cherry Ventures, Felix Capital and TriplePoint Capital co-led the deal, joined by Village Global and numerous notable individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
ZenBusiness, a 5.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based startup that helps other companies register their businesses, manage state and federal regulatory filings, and stay up-to-date with tax filings, has raised $55 million in Series B funding led by Cathay Innovation. Other backers in the deal include GreatPoint Ventures, Breyer Capital, Omega Venture Partners and earlier investors Greycroft, Lerer Hippeau, Interlock Partners, mark vc, and ATX Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Canvas, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that uses machine learning to install drywall at construction sites, emerged from stealth mode today, saying it has raised $19 million to date from investors including Innovation Endeavors, Obvious Ventures, Brick & Mortar Ventures, and Grit Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Chipper Cash, a six-year-old, San Francisco cross-border fintech startup that offers payments services in seven African countries, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Ribbit Capital led the round, joined by Bezos Expeditions, 500 Fintech, Deciens Capital, and One Way Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
ControlUp, an eight-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based way to monitor, troubleshoot, and remediate desktops, has raised $27 million in Series C funding co-led by JVP and K1 Investment Management. VentureBeat has more here.
Fireblocks, a two-year-old, New York-based digital asset custodian, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Paradigm led the round, joined by Cyberstarts, Tenaya Capital, Swisscom, Galaxy Digital, Digital Currency Group, and Cedar Hill Capital. Crunchbase News has more here.
FirstVet, a 4.5-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based startup that provides pet-owners with on-demand video consultations from veterinarians, has raised $35 million in new funding led by Mubadala Capital, with participation from Cathay Innovation and earlier backers OMERS Ventures and Creandum. The company has now raised $65 million altogether. More here.
Headway, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based marketplace through which visitors can find therapists who accept insurance for payments, has raised $26 million in Series A funding. Thrive and GV co-led the round, joined by Accel, GFC and IA Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Sofia, a two-year-old, Mexico-based health-tech startup whose app is focused around telehealth services, has raised $19 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures. Business Insider has more here.
Yubo, a 4.5-year-old, Paris-based social platform with a focus on people age 25 or younger (sorry, olds), has raised $47.5 million in Series C funding. Investors included Idinvest, Iris Capital, Alven, Sweet Capital, and Gaia Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Advisr, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based maker of sales software that says it helps salespeople to generate data-driven product recommendations in minutes, has raised $5.2 million in funding led by Granite Capital Management and Next Frontier Capital. The company has now raised $7.3 million altogether. More here.
CAST AI, a year-old, Miami Beach, Fla.-based multi-cloud company that says it helps developers deploy, manage, and cost-optimize applications in multiple clouds simultaneously, has raised $7.7 million in seed funding from TA Ventures and Florida Funders, among others. More here.
Cooper, a two-year-old, Amsterdam, Netherlands-based professional social network, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Comcast Ventures, with participation from LocalGlobe, 468 Capital, and Combine. TechCrunch has more here.
Datafold, a nine-month-old, L.A.-based platform for managing the quality assurance of data (and which recently passed through Y Combinator's accelerator program), has raised $2.1 million in seed funding from NEA. TechCrunch has more here.
Juni, a six-month-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based pre-launch startup that’s building a banking app and platform for e-commerce and online marketing entrepreneurs, has raised just over €2.1 million in seed funding led by Cherry Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Maude, a 3.5-year-old, Brooklyn, Ny.-based wellness company that sells bubble bath and massage oils, among other things, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding led by CASSIUS, with participation from True, Outbound Ventures, Vice Ventures, and Patina Brands. More here.
Nozzle.ai, a nearly three-year-old, London-based e-commerce and advertising platform for brands that sell on Amazon, has raised $2.6 million (£2 million) in funding. Investors include Parkwalk Advisors, The Angel CoFund, and UCL Technology Fund. More here.
Tourlane, a 4.5-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based online travel-booking platform for multi-day tours, raised $20 million in extended Series C funding from earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, DN Capital and Holtzbrinck Ventures. The round now stands at $67 million. TechCrunch has more here.
True Balance, a six-year-old, Gurugram, India-based payments app for underbanked consumers in the country, has raised $28 million in Series D funding from SoftBank Ventures Asia, Naver, BonAngels, Daesung Private Equity, and Shinhan Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Coatue Management, the 21-year-old, New York-based multi-strategy investment firm, has collected more than $2.33 billion so far for an investment fund it began raising last year, according to regulatory filings first flagged by the WSJ. In one filing on Friday, Coatue reported raising that amount for its Coatue Growth Fund IV LP from at least 272 investors. More here.
Financial Venture Studio, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based early stage fintech-focused venture fund, has closed its first fund with $13 million. Its founding team first worked together at the Financial Solutions Lab, a startup-focused incubator developed by the non-profit Center for Financial Services Innovation and funded by JPMorgan Chase. TechCrunch has more here.
Marathon Venture Capital, a 3.5-year-old, Athens, Greece-based seed-stage venture firm, has held a first close of its second fund with €40 million ($47 million). Investors include the European Investment Fund, HDBI, family offices and numerous Greek founders, among other individual investors. The outfit plans to write initial checks that range from €1 million to €1.5 million for between 15% and 20% equity in the startups that it funds. TechCrunch has more here.
Sound Ventures, the five-year-old, L.A.-based venture fund co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, has filed paperwork indicating plans to raise a third fund at $150 million. Notably, the firm filed paperwork for the same total in 2018 for its second fund. TechCrunch has more here.
Union Square Ventures, the now 17-year-old, New York-based venture firm, is raising its first climate-tech focused venture fund, according to the WSJ, whose sources say the fund is likely to close with between $100 million and $200 million in capital commitments. More here.
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Going Public
After filing confidentially to go public last month, the online gaming software maker Roblox publicly released its prospectus today. TechCrunch drills into what's what.
On the heels of a $660 million Series G funding round last quarter, retail investing platform Robinhood has recently hinted that it might pursue an IPO as early as next year, although co-founder and co-CEO Vlad Tenev tells Cheddar that he cannot confirm a date. More here.
Investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners is looking at an initial public offering by merging with a blank-check firm, reports Reuters. The boutique investment bank, founded by Joe Perella and Peter Weinberg in 2006, is expected to be valued at more than $1 billion, according to the outlet. More here.
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Exits
Hired, a recruitment service for tech jobs, has started a process to sell assets, pay off creditors and wind down the company, according to The Information. The company tells the outlet it's being acquired, though it sounds like perhaps only aspects of the business are being acquired as The Information says Hired is already separately working with a restructuring expert to sell the company’s assets and distribute any proceeds to its creditors. More here.
HuffPost has a new owner, with its current parent company Verizon Media reaching an agreement to sell the site to BuzzFeed in what the WSJ describes as a stock deal, though no terms have been publicly disclosed. Verizon Media is also making an investment in BuzzFeed and becoming a minority shareholder. As a BuzzFeed press release notes, the deal brings HuffPost full circle, given that BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti was also a founder of HuffPost. TechCrunch (also owned by Verizon Media) has more here.
Nasdaq said today that it's spending $2.75 billion in cash to acquire the Canadian fintech firm Verafin, which makes fraud detection and anti money laundering software. The WSJ has more here.
FireEye, the publicly traded security company, says it has shelled out $186 million to acquire four-year-old Respond Software, a company that helps customers investigate and understand security incidents, while reducing the need for highly trained (and scarce) security analysts. Respond had raised $32 million from investors, including CRV and Foundation Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Founders Fund partner Keith Rabois is joining Joe Lonsdale, Ajay Royan, and others in the circle of billionaire investor Peter Thiel in hightailing it out of the Bay Area. Unlike so many escapees, the former PayPal exec isn't headed to Austin but Miami Beach. “I think San Francisco is just so massively improperly run and managed that it’s impossible to stay here,” he tells Fortune.
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Essential Reads
Election misinformation often evaded YouTube's efforts to stop it.
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Detours
Why it's (still) so hard to buy that PS5 console and other coveted electronics for the holidays. Also, does anyone know where we can buy a PS5 console for the holidays? Asking for a friend. Okay, fine, we are asking for ourselves.
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Retail Therapy
Live like Jay Gatsby in this Newport manse originally commissioned by the Drexel family. Cost: $15.8 million.
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