|
November 24, 2020
Tu-tu-tu-tu-Tuesday. Turn and face the strange . . .
|
|
Top News
U.S. stock futures rose tonight night following a banner day for three of the for major market benchmarks. DJIA futures traded higher by 150 points, or 0.6%. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.7% CNBC has more here.
The initial batch of COVID-19 vaccines will go to states based on population. NPR has more here.
|
|
Sponsored By ...
How can VCs learn to value companies like the experts on Wall Street? It starts with building a more complex, cash-flow based model. GoingVC partnered with one of these experts to teach you how. Click here to download the model.
|
|
Talking Tech's Exodus, Twitter Labels, and Medium's Next Moves with Founder Ev Williams
Earlier today, we had the chance to talk with Twitter and Medium cofounder Ev Williams, along with operator-turned investor James Joaquin, who helps oversee the day-to-day of the mission-focused venture firm that they separately cofounded six years ago, Obvious Ventures.
We collectively discussed lot of venture-y things that may be of interest to many of you, so stayed tuned. In the meantime, we spent some time talking specifically with Williams about both Twitter and Medium and some of the day’s biggest headlines. Following are some excerpts from that chat, lightly edited for length and clarity.
A lot of tech CEOs have been saying goodbye to San Francisco in 2020. Do you think the trend is attracting too much attention or perhaps not enough?
I moved away from the Bay Area a little over a year ago, with my family to New York. I’d lived in San Francisco for 20 years, and I had never lived in New York, and thought, ‘Why not go? Now seems like a good time.’ Turns out I was wrong. [Laughs.] It was a very bad time to move to New York. So I was there for for six months, and quickly came back to California, which is a great place to be in a world where you’re not going into bars and restaurants and seeing people.
You moved when COVID took hold?
Yes. In March, Manhattan suddenly seemed not ideal. So now I’m on the peninsula.
I’m from San Francisco. It was really, for me, just honestly looking for a change. But an enabling factor that could be common in many of these cases is the fact that I no longer have to be in the office in San Francisco every day, [whereas] for most of 20 years [beforehand], all my work life was in an office in San Francisco, generally with a company I had started, so I thought it was important to be there.
This was pre COVID and remote work. But remote work was becoming more common. And I noticed in 2018 or so, with this massive number of companies that were in San Francisco — startups and large public companies and pre IPO companies — the competition for talent had gotten more extreme than it had ever been. So it got me — along with a lot of founders and CEOs — thinking about maybe the advantage of hiring locally and having everybody in the same office [was a pro] that was starting to get outweighed by the cons. . . And, of course, the tools and technology that make remote work possible were getting better all the time.
Given that you cofounded Twitter, I have to ask about this U.S. presidential transition that is maybe, finally happening.
|
|
Massive Fundings
Current, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based digital-only bank, has raised $131 million in Series C funding. Tiger Global Management led the round, joined by Sapphire Ventures, Avenir, Foundation Capital, Wellington Management Company, and QED Investors. The round brings the company's total funding to $180 million and assigns it a post-money valuation of $750 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Discord, the eight-year-old, San Francisco-based company that started as a game and evolved into a popular communications platform, is closing a round that values the company at roughly $7 billion, says TechCrunch. Past investors include Greylock, Index Ventures, Tencent, Benchmark and Spark Capital. More here.
Hippo, a nearly-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based next-gen insurance agency that offers home insurance products in almost three dozen states, has raised $350 million in its second megafunding of the year from Japan-based Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc. The company had separately raised $150 million in Series E funding in July, including from the corporate venture capital fund of Tokyo-based MS&AD Insurance. Silicon Valley Business Journal has more here.
Waterdrop, a four-year-old, Beijing, China-based insurance tech startup, has raised $150 million from earlier backer Tencent in order to expand into health-care crowdfunding, says Bloomberg. The company, which competes with Ant Group in the insurance tech sector, recently sewed up $230 million in Series D funding rom Swiss Re and other investors and is planning to go public with a targeted valuation of $4 billion, says the outlet. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Carbice Corporation, a 3.5-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based maker of materials involving carbon nanotubes that lower temperatures in product packaging, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Downing Ventures led the round, and was joined by Toyota AI Ventures. Hypepotamus has more here.
DefenseStorm, a six-year-old, Alpharetta, Ga.-based cloud-based cybersecurity and cyber-compliance management company, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. Georgian led the round, with participation from TTV Capital. The company has now raised $47 million altogether. More here.
Gatik, a 3.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup developing an autonomous vehicle stack for B2B short-haul logistics, has raised $25 million in Series A funding. Wittington Ventures and Innovation Endeavors led the round, joined by FM Capital, Intact Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, Dynamo, Trucks VC, Intact Ventures, and AngelPad. VentureBeat has more here.
HMBradley, a two-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based digital bank that helps customers prioritize saving by offering high interest rates, has raised $18.3 million in Series A funding led by Acrew Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Percepto, a 6.5-year-old, Bay Area-based maker of autonomous drones for inspections, has raised $45 million in Series B funding. Koch Disruptive Technologies led the round, joined by State of Mind Ventures, Atento Capital, Summit Peak Investments, Delek-US, U.S. Venture Partners, Spider Capital and Arkin Holdings. VentureBeat has more here.
Well Health, a 5.5-year-old, Santa Barbara, Ca.-based patient communications company, has raised $45 million in Series C funding. Lead Edge Capital led the round, joined by Martin Ventures, Jackson Square Ventures, Health Velocity Capital, Summation Health Ventures, Structure Capital, and Freestyle Capital. The company has now raised $75 million altogether. FierceBiotech has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Altana AI, a two-year-old, New York-based startup that's selling a shared artificial intelligence model of the global supply chain to help governments, enterprises, and financial institutions manage risk, has raised $7 million in seed funding. Amadeus Capital Partners led the round, joined by Schematic Ventures, AlleyCorp, and Working Capital. Cambridge Network has more here.
Audoo, a 2.5-year-old, London-based audio meter company that captures actual played music using real-time data to help performing right organizations digitize and streamline their processes, has raised £5.2 million ($6.2 million) in Series A funding. Investors included ABBA singer-composer Björn Ulvaeus and Tileyard London. More here.
Dija, a new, U.K.-based startup that will offer convenience and fresh food delivery by building out hyper-local fulfillment centers in urban centers, is reportedly raising $20 million funding led by Blossom Capital. The company's founders both worked formerly at Deliveroo. TechCrunch has more here.
Flyreel, a four-year-old, Denver, Co.-based startup that equips property insurance providers with ground-level interior and exterior property data to improve their underwriting and claims outcomes, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. IA Capital Group led the round, joined by Guidewire Software, Gradient Ventures, State Auto Labs, and Donan Engineering. Coverager has more here.
Hasty.ai, a 1.5-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based maker of annotation tools used to speed the work of machine learning engineers, data scientists and software developers, has raised raised $3.7 million in seed funding. Shasta Ventures led the round, joined by coparion and iRobot Ventures. More here.
Konnecto, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based customer intelligence platform for marketers, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding. TPY Capital led the round, joined by Differential Ventures, Magna Capital Partners, SeedIL Ventures, and Hike Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.
Mother Raw, a 4.5-year-old, Toronto, Ontario-based maker of plant-based dressings, marinades, dips, and condiments, has raised $6.1 million in Series A funding. Forage Capital Partners led the round, joined by Export Development Canada and Whitecap Venture Partners. More here.
Opteran, a months-old, Sheffield, England-based silicon chip maker that aims to give robots and machines improved senses and navigation, has raised £2.1 million ($2.8 million) in seed funding. IQ Capital led the round, joined by Episode1, Seraphim Capital, and the Northern Triangle Initiative. EU Startups has more here.
Phood, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based platform that's using waste tracking and analytics to cut food waste and help food businesses build more resilient food systems and supply chains, has raised $2 million in seed funding. New Stack Ventures and Story Ventures co-led the round. The Spoon has more here.
CharityVest, a four-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based fintech startup that enables users to create their own tax-deductible charitable giving accounts, known as donor-advised funds, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding. Investor Tom Blaisdell, formerly of DCM Ventures, led the round, joined by Teamworthy Ventures, Duro.vc, Sovereign’s Capital, and Promus Ventures. More here.
Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings
AppsFlyer, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based marketing analytics firm, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Salesforce Ventures as an extension to the $210 million Series D round it closed back in January of this year led by General Atlantic. The deal pegs the company's valuation at $2 billion up from $1.6 billion earlier in the year, it says. VentureBeat has more here.
|
|
New Funds
Day One Ventures, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm that differentiates itself in part by spearheading the public relations programs of its portfolio companies, has raised $52.5 million in capital commitments for its second fund. TechCrunch has more here.
Pandect Bioventures, a two-year-old, South San Francisco-based venture firm that says it provides seed to Series A and later funding to early-stage biotech and pharma companies, is raising up to $100 million for its debut fund and has already secured $33 million in capital commitments, shows a new SEC filing. More here.
|
|
Going Public
Metromile, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based company with a personalized pay-per-mile auto insurance offering, will combine with Insurance Acquisition Corp. II, a SPAC sponsored by Cohen & Company. The combined firm will have an estimated value of $1.3 billion. Metromile had raised $293 million in funding from NEA and Index Ventures, among others. Finledger has more here.
Ozon Holdings, the Russian e-commerce retailer that has been likened to Amazon, just raised $990 million in its IPO that values the company at $6.2 billion. "This is probably the most exciting IPO Russia has ever had in terms of investor interest," says Moscow-based investor Jacob Grapengiesser of East Capital, to Barron's. More here.
|
|
Exits
Data platform Splunk continues to make acquisitions as it works to build out its recently launched observability platform. After acquiring Plumbr and Rigor last month, the company today announced that it has acquired Flowmill, a Palo Alto-based network observability startup that had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Felicis Ventures and Amplify Partners, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Germany's HelloFresh, the world’s largest meal kit company, has agreed to pay $277 million to acquire Illinois-based Factor75, which specializes in health-focused ready-to-eat meals. The acquisition will give HelloFresh its first office in the Chicago metro area, along with Factor75′s four production and fulfillment facilities. The Chicago Tribune has more here.
Kahoot, a popular and well-funded startup that lets people build and share educational games, has agreed to spend up to $50 million to acquire Drops, a startup that helps people learn languages by way of short picture and word-based games Drops, based in Tallinn, Estonia, was bootstrapped. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
People
Elon Musk just became the second-richest person on the planet. His net worth, according to Bloomberg, is now $127.9 billion, $100 billion of which has been created this year owing largely to Tesla, whose shares have soared.
|
|
Sponsored By . . .
At Wizeline, we know that great software is built by great teams. We hire and develop top global talent and foster a working environment that celebrates creativity, encourages skill development, and allows for multidisciplinary collaboration. Need to accelerate your product roadmap? Learn more or reach out to consulting@wizeline.com today.
|
|
Essential Reads
Netflix, which has invested more than $500 million to gain a foothold in India in recent years, is learning it doesn't take much to upset various constituencies in the world’s second-largest internet market.
|
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 December 3 and December 10 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
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences |
|
|
|
|
|
