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December 14, 2020
Hi, welcome back! Quick mention: beginning next Monday, StrictlyVC is closing down the shop for two weeks so we can relax for a bit and take stock of (and say adios to) this lousy year. We'll be up and running -- all systems go -- again on January 4, and wishing all of you exceedingly happy holidays in the meantime.:)
Before we dive into things, if you are trying to get a handle on space investing, don't miss TechCrunch's two-day event Wednesday and Thursday this week, featuring roughly a dozen fireside chats and other interactive discussions, including with famed biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey and Lieutenant General John Thompson of the U.S Air Force. We're also helping to open the event with an investor panel that we expect will be instructive; more here.
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Top News
The scope of a hack engineered by one of Russia’s premier intelligence agencies became clearer today, when the Trump administration acknowledged that other federal agencies — the Department of Homeland Security and parts of the Pentagon — had been compromised. Investigators are struggling to determine the extent to which the military, intelligence community and nuclear laboratories were affected by the highly sophisticated attack, reports the New York Times.
Airbnb and DoorDash shares fell today after analysts downgraded the newly public companies' stock. Business Insider has more here.
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Lux Capital's Deena Shakir Sees Space and Other Frontier Tech Going Mainstream Right Now
Deena Shakir joined Lux Capital as a partner last year after spending seven years with Google, the last of them with GV, Google’s venture unit.
While Shakir seems to fit right in with the firm — known for its wealth of PhDs and moonshot investments — venture wasn’t something she was focused on as a career, as she told us during a lengthy interview last week. An Iraqi-American who grew up in Silicon Valley after her parents immigrated to the region, Shakir put herself through both Harvard, then Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service through a mix of merit scholarships and work and thought she might become a doctor or nab a PhD in anthropology.
Instead, an internship with the BBC saw her cover an historic White House speech, which led her to spend more than two years at the State Department, working for then Secretary Clinton. When she later headed home to be with her family, she was aware that she wanted to make an impact; she didn’t foresee making it through her investments, yet that’s what’s now happening.
If you don’t know Shakir, it’s worth listening to our full conversation here; in the meantime, here are some lightly edited excerpts that shine a light on where she is placing her bets and why.
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Massive Fundings
Grove Collaborative, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based seller of natural home and personal care products, just raised $125 million at a post-money valuation of $1.3 billion. Investors included the Counterpoint Global group at Morgan Stanley, Sculptor Capital, Nextview Ventures, and Glynn Capital. Yahoo Finance has more here.
Huice, an eight-year-old, Beijing, China-based maker of subscription software for retailers, raised roughly $100 million in Series C funding. GIC led the round, joined by Legend Capital, Hillhouse Capital, and SoftBank. Tech in Asia has more here.
Tink, an eight-year-old, Stockholm, Swedish-based maker of open banking and API tools, has raised €85 million ($103 million) led by Dawn Capital and Eurazeo Growth. TechCrunch has more here.
Zenoti, a 10-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based startup that develops software for the spa and salon industry, has raised $160 million in Series D funding at a post-money valuation of “well past $1 billion,” its founder and CEO tells TechCrunch. Advent International led the round, joined by Tiger Global Management and Steadview Partners. The startup has now raised $251 million altogether. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Arya, a seven-year-old, Noida, India-based lender to farmers in the country, has raised $21 million in Series B equity and debt funding led by Quona Capital, with participation from LGT Lightstone Aspada and Omnivore. The company isn't breaking out how much of the round is equity versus debt, or who its debt lenders are. TechCrunch has more here.
CG Oncology, a 10-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing oncolytic immunotherapies, has raised $47 million in Series D funding. Kissei Pharmaceutical led the round, joined by ORI Healthcare Fund, Camford Capital, and Perseverance Capital Management. More here.
German Bionic, a four-year-old, Augsburg, Germany-based developer of industrial exoskeletons aimed at supercharging human labor, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Samsung Catalyst Fund and MIG AG co-led, joined by Storm Ventures, Benhamou Global Ventures and IT Farm. TechCrunch has more here.
GoFor Industries, a four-year-old, Ottawa, Canada-based on-demand delivery company, has raised $20 million CAD ($15.7 million) in Series A funding. Builders VC led the round, joined by MetaProp, GroundBreak Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures and Panache Ventures. BetaKit has more here.
Indico, a seven-year-old, Boston-based maker process automation software, raised $22 million of Series B funding. Jump Capital and Sandbox Ventures led the round, joined by Nationwide's venture capital arm. VentureBeat has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Appboxo, a months-old, Singapore-based startup enables companies to launch mini-apps within their super apps (mobile wallet platforms can integrate e-commerce and lifestyle mini-apps, ride-hailing and lifestyle apps can include financial services, and so on), has raised $1.1 million in seed funding from Founders Fund, 500 Durians, Plug & Play Ventures and Antler. Tech in Asia has more here.
Branch Technologies, a 6.5-year-old, Chattanooga, Tn.-based company focused on construction-scale 3D printing, has raised $11 million in funding led by EquipmentShare, with added participation from Brick & Mortar Ventures, Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, and previous investors. More here.
Cledara, a two-year-old, London-based SaaS purchase and management platform to help companies manage their sundry software subscriptions, has raised $3.4 million in funding led by Nauta Capital, with participation from earlier backer Anthemis. TechCrunch has more here.
Dreamdata, a two-year-old, Copenhagen, Denmark-based platform that aims to give B2B companies more transparency into how they make their revenue, has raised $4.4 million in funding co-led by InReach Ventures and Crowberry Capital, with participation from Seedcamp, Futuristic.vc and Preseed Ventures. (Each also participated in the company's pre-seed round, which closed last year.) Tech.eu has more here.
Joro, a 2.5-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based startup whose app measures your carbon footprint in real-time as you shop and suggests new habits based on your behavior, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital, Expa and Amasia, as well as from numerous angel investors. Among them: James Park, the co-founder of Fitbit, and Rich Pierson, the co-founder of Headspace. TechCrunch has more here.
Nanotech, a 15-month-old, Houston, Tex.-based material science startup that's working on a line of spray-on coatings for both commercial insulation and fireproofing up to 1800 degrees Celsius, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by the Austin-based firm Ecliptic Capital. InnovationMap has more here.
Mombox, a nearly four-year-old, Boston-based direct-to-consumer company that sells a curated one-time kit filled with postnatal care products for new moms, has raised $500,000 in seed funding from Wayfund, TBD Angels and numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Tonic, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based that automatically creates mock data that preserves key characteristics of secure datasets so that developers, data scientists, and salespeople can work without breaching privacy, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. GGV Capital led the round, joined by Bloomberg Beta, Xfund, Heavybit, Silicon Valley CISO Investments and numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
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Going Public
Wish, the e-commerce marketplace, is expected to price tomorrow.
On the heels of gaming company Roblox deciding to postpone its IPO until next year, point-of-sale lender Affirm has made the same decision to pull back from the market, the WSJ reported this weekend. As with Roblox, the WSJ's sources cited extreme first-day pops last week in the shares of both DoorDash and Airbnb; both Roblox and Affirm will reportedly consider selling a larger portion of their shares and changing the mix of stock to be sold by the company, its employees and shareholders as they seek to mitigate any initial pop. More here.
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Exits
Private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners agreed to buy educational-software maker Pluralsight at $20.26 a share, or $3.5 billion including debt, the companies said in a statement over the weekend. Farmington, Ut.-based Pluralsight is a cloud based online-education platform for software developers that sells to both businesses and individuals. The WSJ broke the news. TechCrunch has some analysis here.
Reddit has acquired Dubsmash, a New York-based short-video platform that competes with TikTok and had raised more than $20 million from investors, including Index Ventures, Eniac Ventures, and Balderton Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Gaming powerhouse EA is acquiring the 34-year-old, publicly traded British game studio Codemasters for $1.2 billion, after edging out rival Take-Two Interactive Software, which was reportedly in talks to buy Codemasters for $1 billion last month. TechCrunch has more here.
The gaming company Roblox announced today that it’s buying a digital avatar startup called Loom.ai that has been focused singularly on creating more realistic human avatars. Terms of the deal aren't being announced, but Loom had raised $5.9 million in total funding from investors, including Y Combinator, Samsung Ventures, Anorak Ventures and Coelius Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
iCIMS, a 20-year-old privately held applicant tracking system, is acquiring a much younger startup, Altru, for undisclosed terms, though TechCrunch is told the cash-and-stock deal is valued at around $60 million. Altru, which powers pages on companies' websites that highlight videos from real employees addressing questions that potential hires might ask, had raised $1.3 million in 2018 from Birchmere Ventures, Active Capital and Techstars. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Pinterest has settled the gender discrimination lawsuit brought against it in August by former COO Francoise Brougher. Brougher alleged gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination. As part of the settlement, Pinterest will pay $20 million to Brougher and her attorneys, and both Pinterest and Brougher say they plan to jointly donate $2.5 million toward charities that advance women and underrepresented communities in the tech industry. TechCrunch has more here.
Oracle's billionaire founder Larry Ellison, told employees today that he isn't headed to Texas, even while the company moves its headquarters to Austin. As he explained it, he has already moved to the island of Lanai in Hawaii, most of which he owns already, and from where he is "using the power of Zoom" to work. Vox has the story here.
Perez Hilton, the early gossip blogger turned media personality, has been permanently banned from TikTok for violating community guidelines, effective Dec. 12. Among his many critics on the platform: fans of the influencers he tended to criticize.
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Secureframe helps companies get enterprise-ready by streamlining SOC 2 security compliance. Secureframe allows companies to get secure within weeks, rather than months and monitors 25+ services, including AWS, GCP, and Azure. Customers save an average of 50% on their audit costs. Schedule a demo and learn how!
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Essential Reads
Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to employees extending their work-from-home period to next September 1. However, the company says employees should live within a commuting distance to their assigned office, where they are expected to show up three days a week, according to a Q&A viewed by CNBC.
Collab, Facebook’s experimental app for making collaborative music videos, launched out of private beta testing today with a public release on the App Store.
SoftBank-backed Ola, India's ride-hailing leader, said today it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Tamil Nadu in India to set up what it claims will be the “world’s largest scooter manufacturing facility” in the South Indian state. Ola, which last year launched an electric unit that has been exploring battery swapping stations and two-, three-, and four-wheeler vehicle segments, said it will invest approximately $327 million into the factory. TechCrunch has more here.
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Retail Therapy
We're going to disagree that this home outside Joshua Tree National Park is the "height of rare and natural beauty," but it's . . . something (and it's for sale).
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Sponsored By . . .
Acquity Realty, which develops multi-family and office projects with partners like Apple and Cigna Realty Advisors, is looking for individuals and institutions interested in growing their capital in a tax-efficient manner. It’s developing a Qualified Opportunity Zone project just two blocks away from Google’s new 80-acre campus in San Jose. Over its last $1.2B of projects, Acquity has generated an IRR of 49.9%. To learn more, please visit acquityrealty.com or email Greg Ovalle at ov@acquityrealty.com.
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