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November 20, 2020
Friday! This week whizzed by, but(!) not too fast for us to talk with the one-and-only Jason Green, cofounder of Emergence Capital and a highly regarded enterprise investor. Green is genuinely nice but also smart. Consider that when asked about his biggest miss over the last five years, he doesn't just name the company but readily credits his fiercest rivals. "I think it's dangerous to assume that things would have turned out the same if if we had been investors in that company . . . I do believe the kinds of investors you put around the table make a difference in terms of the outcome of your company . . . maybe they found a better fit or a better investor for them to be successful."
Who says things like that? A smooth operator, people, that's who.
We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. Thanks to Web Summit for sponsoring this week's episode of the podcast. Note that Web Summit is taking place virtually this year, December 2nd through December 4th, and it features lots of speakers you may not want to miss.
More Monday.:)
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Sponsored By ...
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Andreessen Horowitz is Now Managing a Stunning $16.5 Billion
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has closed a pair of funds totaling $4.5 billion, the firm confirmed in a blog post this morning. The firm has raised $1.3 billion for an early-stage fund focused on consumer, enterprise, and fintech; and closed a $3.2 billion growth-stage fund for later-stage investments. The firm did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The funds may seem somewhat typical, given the size of new funds that venture firms have been raising in recent years, Still, these are extraordinary amounts given that a16z, with offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, was founded just 11 years ago.
As extraordinary, they bring the firm’s total assets under management to $16.5 billion.
It was just 20 months ago that a16z closed its most recent pair of funds — a $2 billion late-stage fund, and a $740 million flagship early-stage fund.
It also announced a separate, $515 million crypto-focused fund back in April of this year, its second such vehicle. And, in February, it rolled out its third biotech and healthcare investing fund, which closed with $750 million in capital commitments.
That’s a lot of capital to capture in one year. Then again, its limited partners have had reason to feel optimistic about its portfolio. In January, for example, the fintech company Plaid, whose Series C round a16z joined in late 2018, was acquired by Visa for a hefty $5.3 billion after raising roughly $310 million altogether.
The Justice Department recently sued to block the deal on antitrust grounds, but even if it’s unwound, industry observers like Plaid’s prospects.
The firm is also an investor in the soon-to-be-publicly traded accommodations marketplace Airbnb, though notably, according to Airbnb’s S-1, a16z does not own enough of the company to be listed on the filing, despite that it led the company’s Series B round in 2011 and despite that general partner Jeff Jordan sits on the company’s board and would need to list any ownership position as a result.
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Massive Fundings
Chainalysis, a six-year-old, New York-based company that sells cryptocurrency investigation and compliance software to global law enforcement agencies, regulators, and businesses as they work to fight illicit cryptocurrency activity, is raising $100 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation, it tells Forbes. Lee Fixel’s Addition is leading the Series C round, joined by earlier backers Accel, Benchmark, and Ribbit. More here.
Forter, a 7.5-year-old, Tel Aviv-based e-commerce fraud prevention company, has raised $125 million in Series E funding. Bessemer Venture Partners, Felix Capital and business development exec Itai Tsiddon co-led the round, joined by Sequoia Capital, NewView Capital, Scale Venture Partners, March Capital Partners, and Commerce Ventures. The round values the company at over $1.3 billion. VentureBeat has more here.
Imago Biosciences, an 8.5-year-old, San Francisco-based biopharmaceutical company with a treatment for a class of blood and bone-marrow disorders known as myeloproliferative neoplasms, has raised $80 million in Series C funding. Farallon Capital Management led the round, joined by Surveyor Capital, Irving Investors, Kindgon Capital Management, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates and by Blackrock Advisors. MedCity News has more here.
Loadsmart, a six-year-old, New York-based online platform that provides on-demand truckload booking services for businesses, has raised a $90 million Series C funding round co-led by funds under management by BlackRock and Chromo Invest. TechCrunch has more here.
Olist, a 5.5-year-old, Brazil-based platform that serves small brick-and-mortar retailers, making their products available in virtual storefronts within larger online marketplaces, has $58 million in a Series D funding. SoftBank Latin America Fund led the round, joined by Valor Capital Group, Península, VELT Partners, FJ Labs, and longtime VC Kevin Efrusy. More here.
OurCrowd, an eight-year-old, Israel-based crowdfunding platform, has raised $60 million in strategic funding from the Japan-based financial services group ORIX Corporation. TechCrunch has more here.
Stackline, a six-year-old, Seattle-based company that sells enterprise tools that help retailers and brands manage their e-commerce business, has raised $50 million in Series A funding from Goldman Sachs Growth Equity. The deal marks the company's first round of funding. Geekwire has more here.
Verbit, a nearly four-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that makes transcription and captioning software, has raised $60 million in Series C funding. Sapphire Ventures led the round, joined by Vertex Ventures, Stripes, HV Ventures, Clatech, and Vertex Growth. VentureBeat has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
AI21 Labs, a two-year-old, Israel-based natural language processing startup, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Pitango, with participation from TPY Capital. Calcalist has more here.
OpenPhone, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based business phone app that lets employees make calls, send texts and add context to their business contacts, has raised $14 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round, joined by Slow Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Y Combinator, Garage Capital, and Chapter One Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
TRANSFR, a 3.5-year-old virtual reality startup that uses immersive simulations for employee training, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Fireworks Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Album VC, Imagination Capital, and numerous individual investors. EdSurge has more here.
Small Fundings
Fenix, a five-month-old, UAE-based micro-mobility venture focused on the Middle East, has raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by Maniv Mobility. Wamda has more here.
Kea, a three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup whose first product is an automated voice assistant that it says helps busy restaurants take orders over the phone at a higher level of efficiency and consistency, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Marbruck led the round, joined by Streamlined Ventures, Xfund, Heartland Ventures, Deepcore, Barrel Venture, AVG Funds, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Paceline, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based fintech platform that tracks physical activity through wearables and also leverages customer spending data (through a linked credit card) to curate rewards, has raised $5 million in seed funding. Montage Ventures and Propel Venture Partners co-led the round, joined by Northwestern Mutual and BlackRock’s Mark McCombe as an angel investor. Crunchbase News has more here.
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New Funds
Work-Bench, an eight-year-old, New York-based early-stage venture firm focused on enterprise startups, is targeting up to $100 million for a third fund, shows an SEC filing. The firm had closed its second fund with $47 million in late 2018. More here.
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Going Public
Wish, the 10-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile digital shopping mall known for its rock-bottom pricing of strange but affordable tchotchke, has filed to go public. TechCrunch looks at the numbers here.
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Exits
JoyRun, a six-year-old, food and drinks delivery app that invited people find out who, nearby, was already heading out to a restaurant that they like, then tack on an order of their own, is seeing some of its assets sold to Walmart. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed, but Walmart reportedly plans to use part of the startup's tech to enhance its supply chain. Redwood City, Ca.-based JoyRun had raised $10 million from investors, including Floodgate and Norwest Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Snapchat, which helped pioneer the use of lenses on faces in photos and videos, appears to have acquired Voisey, a U.K. startup that features instrumentals that users overlay with their own voice to create short music tracks and videos. Terms of the deal haven't been disclosed. Voisey had raised only $1.88 million to date, per PitchBook data. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Bill Maris, the former CEO of GV who today manages his own investment firm, Section 32, has purchased the $18 million home of former NFL quarterback Carson Palmer, says TMZ. The home is in Del Mar, a beach city in San Diego, where Section 32 is based.
Robinhood, the popular stock trading platform, announced today that Vlad Tenev will be the company's sole CEO, ending a co-CEO arrangement that Tenev has enjoyed with cofounder Baiju Bhatt since the two cofounded the company after attending Stanford together. Tenev, who joined us at a StrictlyVC event in 2018, is the more "visionary and strategy-oriented of the two founders," says Fortune. The move is seen as part of the company's preparation to go pubic. Bhatt will remain on the company's board of directors.
Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn has now invested around £100 million ($132 million) of his personal wealth into start-ups, he tells CNBC.
Vox’s co-founder Ezra Klein and the site’s editor-in-chief, Lauren Williams, are both leaving the company, reports Axios. More on where they are headed, and what the moves mean for the company, here.
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Essential Reads
The federal government, which has some of the most sophisticated antihacking technologies in the world, is offering limited assistance to President-elect Joe Biden’s transition operation in securing its email and other communications, despite concerns that the team is likely a top espionage target for Russia, China, and other adversaries, sources tell the WSJ. More here.
Tesla has caught heat in the past for its battery packs bursting into flames, but a crash this week in Oregon suggests that electric vehicles might pose a fire hazard not just to themselves but to the surrounding environment, says Business Insider.
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Sponsored By. . .
Shareworks by Morgan Stanley. Curious about the state of secondary markets or why some companies are choosing to avoid the traditional IPO? Then join us for our inaugural, two-part Virtual Liquidity series this December and hear from industry thought leaders as they explore the evolution of secondary markets and the different paths to public markets. Visit the Shareworks by Morgan Stanley website to learn more. Shareworks by Morgan Stanley services are provided by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, member SIPC, and its affiliates, all wholly owned subsidiaries of Morgan Stanley. CRC 3315395 11/2020
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