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January 6, 2021
So . . . we didn't get much done today. You?
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We Americans also managed to set a separate (and very grim) milestone on the COVID front.
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VCs Dispense with Niceties During Capitol Riots: "Never Talk to Me Again"
It was hard not to feel emotional today, as the world watched for more than four hours as rioters stormed into and throughout the Capitol building in Washington to disrupt the certification of the election win of incoming U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden. They'd been encouraged earlier in the afternoon by outgoing President Donald Trump to head to the building and protest what he falsely claimed yet again was a stolen election, a lie he began to spread the evening of the U.S. election in November.
While members of Congress called on Trump to make a statement rebuking the rioters' actions from their undisclosed locations, he instead encouraged his supporters over Twitter, writing of the "sacred landslide election victory" that was "so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots" and later posting a video in which repeated his lies about a "landslide election that was stolen from us."
It was the first time in American history that supporters of the losing presidential candidate forcibly disrupted the official counting of electoral votes, as noted earlier in the evening by PBS. And while Trump's tweets were later deleted by Twitter for "repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy," the move was viewed by many as too little and too late, including by Silicon Valley investors, a wide number of whom let loose their fury toward the outgoing administration and its enablers.
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Massive Fundings
Dremio, a 5.5-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based self-service data company, has raised $135 million in Series D funding led by Sapphire Ventures at a post-money valuation of $1 billion. The company had raised $70 million in funding last March led by Insight Partners, which joined this newest round along with other earlier backers, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Cisco Investments. VentureBeat has more here.
Pax8, an eight-year-old, Greenwood Village, Co.-based company whose platform makes it simpler for IT services firms to centralize the provisioning and billing processes across multiple cloud applications, has raised $96 million in new equity funding. Catalyst Investors and Sageview Capital co-led the round, joined by previous investors. VentureBeat has more here.
Perfect Corp., a six-year-old Taipei City, Taiwan-based startup that's best known to consumers for its beauty app YouCam Makeup, which lets users “try on” virtual samples from more than 300 global brands, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs. The company has now raised around $130 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Roblox, the 16-year-old, Bay Area-based online gaming platform, has raised $520 million in new Series H funding at a purchase price of $45.00 per share led by Altimeter Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group. The Investment Group of Santa Barbara and Warner Music Group, along with several current investors, also joined the round, which values the company at $29.5 billion. The company separately announced plans today to go public this year via a direct listing. CNBC has more here.
Rivian, an 11-year-old, Plymouth, Mi.-based electric-truck startup, is close to raising a new round of funding valuing it at about $25 billion, says Bloomberg. The company has already raised $6 billion to date, including from Amazon, T. Rowe Price Group, BlackRock, Soros Fund Management, Coatue, Fidelity Investments and Baron Capital Group. Several of those backers are also participating in the new round, says the outlet. More here.
SalesLoft, a nine-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based sales management platform for teams, has raised $100 million at a $1.1 billion valuation led by Owl Rock Capital, with participation from Insight Partners, HarbourVest, and Emergence Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Senti Biosciences, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based gene circuit company, has raised $105 million in Series B funding. Leaps by Bayer led the round, joined by Matrix Partners China, Mirae Asset Capital, Ridgeback Capital and Intel Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Starburst Data, a 3.5-year-old, Boston-based analytics software maker, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with added participation from Salesforce Ventures, Coatue, and Index Ventures. ZDNet has more here.
Terns Pharmaceuticals, a 3.5-year-old, Bay Area and Shanghai, China-based developer of treatments for liver diseases, has raised $87 million in Series C funding. Deerfield Management led the round, joined by OrbiMed, Lilly Asia Ventures, and Samsara Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
New Wave Foods, a five-year-old, New York-based maker of a shrimp alternative, has raised $18 million in Series A funding led by NEA, with participation from Evolution VC Partners, among others. The Spoon has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Kanarys, a two-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based diversity analytics company that turns internal data and insights into actionable DEI plans for its customers, has raised $3 million in seed funding. Zeal Capital Partners led the round, joined by Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Morgan Stanley, 100 Black Angels Fund, Segal Ventures, and Jigsaw Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.
Teamflow, a 10-month-old, San Francisco-based startup that creates virtual headquarters to help distributed teams collaborate and communicate from a singular platform, has raised $3.9 million in seed funding led by Menlo Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Uprising, a two-year-old, Cincinnati, Oh.-based subscription bakery offering keto-friendly and fiber-rich foods, has raised $1.3 million led by Trousdale Ventures. More here.
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New Funds
Tranformational Capital, a two-year-old, Boston-based healthcare-focused ventures firm, is looking to raise up to $500 million for its second fund, shows a new SEC filing. Transformational was founded by Todd Cozzens, who previously co-led digital health investing at Sequoia Capital with Mike Dixon, who is also now a managing partner with the newer firm. A third managing director who cofounded the firm, Jared Kesselheim, was previously at Bain Capital Ventures, where he was a leader of its digital health practice. More here.
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IPOs
Poshmark, the nine-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based social platform to buy and sell fashion and accessories, is moving forward with its IPO, revealing plans to raise up to $257.4 million three weeks after first filing its S-1. Crunchbase News has more here.
Oatly, a Sweden-based company that was founded in the '90s and sells oat milk, could go public this year amid a red-hot IPO market, says CNBC. Oatly, which entered the U.S. market in 2017, recorded $200 million in sales in 2019 and expected to double that figure to $400 million in 2020 and be profitable by 2021, according to a report from Mergermarket. Business Insider has more here.
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Exits
Thomas Pink, the legendary London shirtmaker, has closed. The one-time status symbol is no more.
Canadian social media management platform Hootsuite said today it has acquired Sparkcentral, a nine-year-old, New York- and Belgium-based customer engagement tool that enables one-on-one messaging via social channels. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Crunchbase News has more here.
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People
Julie Kainz has joined Dawn Capital as a vice president, after spending more than two-and-a-haof years with Salesforce Ventures, where she was most recently a senior associate.
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Jobs
Next Frontier Capital, the early-stage venture firm that's primarily focused on backing founders in the Northern Rocky Mountains, is hiring a full-time venture associate. The job is in Boseman, Mt.
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Essential Reads
Facebook's planned smart glasses will arrive “sooner than later” in 2021, but won’t feature the kind of digital overlay technology that is associated with augmented reality, according to hardware chief Andrew Bosworth. The glasses, which are being built in partnership with Ray-Ban and parent Luxottica Group, will connect to a device, but users won’t be able to overlay digital objects onto their real-world view, says Bloomberg. More here.
Speaking of Facebook, WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messenger that claims to have privacy coded into its DNA, is giving its 2 billion plus users an ultimatum: agree to share their personal data with the social network or delete their accounts. Ars Technica has more here.
The NYSE reversed course again this afternoon, saying it will delist three Chinese telecom stocks that were targeted by an executive order by Donald Trump. The WSJ has more here.
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Detours
Is Pizza Hut trying to punish its customers?
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