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January 13, 2021
Wednesday!
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Top News
Airbnb has canceled all reservations in Washington, D.C. during the week of President-Elect Joe Biden's inauguration, it announced this morning. TechCrunch has more here.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey today explained the company's rationale behind banning @realDonaldTrump account last week, arguing that it's because such decisions are problematic that Twitter has since last year been funding an initiative around an open decentralized standard for social media called bluesky. More here.
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Poshmark is Pushing into the Public Market at a High-End Valuation as the Resale Market Sizzles
Poshmark, the nine-year-old, Redwood City Ca.-based online marketplace for second-hand clothing, beauty, and home decor products, is set to start trading as a public company on the Nasdaq tomorrow after tonight pricing 6.6 million shares higher than originally planned, according to Bloomberg.
Per its report, the company, which earlier expected to sell shares at between $35 and $39 million, saw enough demand to rationalize a $42-per-share price — one that values the company at $3.5 billion on a fully diluted basis.
Given investors’ feverish embrace of all kinds of newly public consumer brands, including Airbnb, DoorDash and, to a more moderate degree, Wish (trading currently where it opened when it hit the market in mid-December), most industry observers anticipate smooth sailing for the company as it makes the move from private to publicly traded company.
It has numerous things going for it.
More than 70 million Poshmark users having sold more than 130 million items through the platform since its inception, according to the company. And its revenue is moving in the right direction.
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Massive Fundings
Blend, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based digital lending platform, has raised $300 million in Series G funding, including from Tiger Global Management and Coatue, at a post-money valuation of $3.3 billion. The company had closed its previous financing -- a $75 million round -- just five months ago. FinLedger has more here.
Gett, the 10-year-old, London- and Israel-based ride-hailing company, has raised $115 million in funding led by Pelham Capital Investments, which was joined by earlier backers. The company has now raised $865 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Grab Financial Group, a year-old, Singapore-based subsidiary of ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab, says it has raised $300 million in Series A funding led by the South Korean firm Hanhwa Asset Management, with participation from K3 Ventures, GGV Capital, Arbor Ventures and Flourish Ventures. The Financial Times reports that the funding values the unit at $3 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
IO Biotech, a 5.5-year-old, Copenhagen, Denmark-based immuno-oncology company whose therapies center around the activation of T cells that are specific for immune inhibitory molecules, has raised €127 million in Series B funding. HBM Healthcare led the round, joined by Vivo Capital, Kurma Partners, Avoro Capital, RA Capital Management, Samsara Biocapital, Idinvest Partners, PFM Health Sciences, Soleus Capital, Eir Ventures, Serrado Capital and insiders Novo Seeds, Lundbeckfonden and Sunstone Life Science Ventures. More here.
Impulse Dynamics, a 7.5-year-old, Marlton, N.J.-based company that makes an FDA-approved implantable device for treating chronic heart failure, has raised $60 million in new Series D funding from CR-CCT Industry Pilot Fund, Redmile Group and Perceptive Advisors. More here.
iziwork, a 2.5-year-old, Paris, France-based temporary employment marketplace, has raised $43 million in new funding from Cathay Innovation and Bpifrance. The company has now raised $68 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
MX, a nearly 11-year-old, Lehi, Ut.-based company whose tech aims to make financial transactions clearer and payment processing easier, has raised $300 million in Series C funding. TPG Growth led the round, joined by CapitalG, Geodesic Capital, Greycroft, Canapi Ventures, Digital Garage, Point72 Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners and Regions Financial Corp. Reuters has more here.
Rapyd, a nearly five-year-old, London-based company that sells an API-based fintech-as-a-service platform covering payments, banking services, and fraud protection, has raised $300 million in new funding led by Coatue. Other participants include Spark Capital, Avid Ventures, FJ Labs and Latitude, along with earlier investors General Catalyst, Oak FT, Tiger Global, Target Global, Durable Capital, Tal Capital and Entrée Capital. The deal values Rapyd at $2.5 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
Webflow, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based no-code website development platform, has raised $140 million in Series B funding co-led by earlier backers Accel and Silversmith Capital Partners. The company is now valued at $2.1 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
WeRide, a four-year-old, Guangzhou, China-based startup that's developing autonomous vehicle systems and which launched a publicly accessible robo-taxi service in November 2019, has raised $110 million in extended Series B funding that brings the total round to $310 million. Chinese bus maker Yutong, an earlier investor, led the newest tranche, joined by CMC Capital Partners and CDB Equipment Manufacturing Fund, among numerous others. The Robot Report has more here.
You & Mr Jones, a nearly six-year-old, New York-based brand-tech group, has raised $60 million in new Series B funding from Merian Chrysalis at a $1.36 billion post-money valuation. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Air Protein, a nearly two-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based startup that develops protein-enriched food via microbes rather than plants or animals, has raised $32 million in Series A funding from ADM Ventures, GV, Barclays and Unreasonable Collective. Food Navigator has more here.
Brace, a 3.5-year-old, L.A.-based digital mortgage servicing platform founded by a former venture capitalist, Eric Rachmel, has raised $15.7 million in Series B funding. Canvas Ventures led the round, joined by earlier backers Point72 Ventures and Crosslink Capital. FinLedger has more here.
Everactive, a nine-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based maker of wireless industrial Internet of Things devices, has raised $35 million led by Fluke Corporation. More here.
Openbase, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps developers choose among millions of open-source packages, has raised $3.65 million in seed funding led by Zeev Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator and 20 individual tech industry investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Outer, a three-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.–based direct-to-consumer outdoor furniture brand, has raised $10.5 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital China. with participation from the founders of Harry’s, and the electronic DJ duo Alex Pall and Drew Taggart of The Chainsmokers, among others. Business of Home has more here.
SODA, a nearly three-year-old, Tokyo, Japan-based startup that runs Japan’s largest sneaker resell platform, has raised $22 million in funding led by SoftBank Ventures Asia. TechCrunch has more here.
Tradeswell, a 1.5-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based startup that aims to help e-commerce brands with their marketing, retail, inventory, logistics, forecasting, lifetime value and financials, has raised $15.5 million in Series A funding led by SignalFire, with participation from Construct Capital, Allen & Company and The Emerson Group. Co-founder and CEO Paul Palmieri previously led digital ad company Millennial Media, now owned by Verizon Media. TechCrunch has more here.
Weezy, a 1.5-year-old, London-based on-demand supermarket that promise fast groceries delivery, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding led by Left Lane Capital. Other participants in the round include DN Capital, earlier investor Heartcore Capital and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Arca, a 2.5-year-old, L.A.-based digital asset management startup, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by RRE Ventures. Coindesk has more here.
Blabla, a two-year-old, Shanghai, China-based startup that aims to teach English through short, snappy videos, has raised $1.54 million in a seed round led by Amino Capital, Starling Ventures, Y Combinator, and Wayra X, the innovation arm of the Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica. TechCrunch has more here.
Drata, a year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based startup that helps businesses get their SOC 2 compliance, has raised a $3.2 million in seed funding led by Cowboy Ventures, with participation from Leaders Fund, SV Angel and a group of angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Frankie Health, a year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based mental health platform for employers to offer a as a benefit (it connects them to therapists and offers them other digital activities), has raised $1.25 million in seed funding led by E15 VC. The startup has raised $1.5 million altogether so far. More here.
Slim.ai, a nine-month-old, Boxborough, Ma.-based container dev-ops platform, has raised $6.6 million in seed funding from Boldstart Ventures, Decibel Partners, FXP Ventures and TechAviv Founder Partners. Cofounder and CEO John Amaral was most recently the head of product for Cisco's cloud security business. More here.
VComply, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based governance and risk compliance startup, has raised $6 million in Series A funding from Accel and Counterpart Ventures. Mint has more here.
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New Funds
Gilot Capital Partners, a nine-year-old Israel-bsaed venture firm focused on cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise startups, has closed on $170 million in capital commitments for a growth fund. Crunchbase News has more here.
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Exits
Qualcomm has agreed to pay approximately $1.4 billion for two-year-old, Los Altos, Ca.-based Nuvia, a two-year-old, Los Altos, Ca.-based mobile chipset design startup that was founded by three of Apple and Google's star chip designers and that had raised just two rounds of funding, including a $53 million Series A in late 2019 and a $240 million Series B round back in September. Nuvia's investors, among others, include Capricorn Investment Group, Dell Technologies Capital, Mayfield and Mithril Capital (which put out a press release that notes it owned 12.5% of the company after leading its most recent round last fall). The WSJ has more here.
Pluralsight, the publicly-traded provider of online training courses on technology skills that last month agreed to be acquired by PE giant Vista Equity Partners in an all-cash deal worth approximately $3.5 billion, has acquired Next Tech, a San Diego-based company that sells instant access to cloud computing environments and to a library of interactive courses for learning tech skills. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. PCR has more here.
India’s biggest online-education startup, Byju’s, is acquiring brick-and-mortar test prep leader Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. The deal will be one of the largest edtech acquisitions in the world and is set to close in the next two or three months, says the outlet, Byju's, based in Bangalore, is valued by its investors -- including Tiger Global and Bond Capital -- at $12 billion. More here.
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Going Public
Affirm, the buy-now-pay-later fintech company founded by PayPal cofounder Max Levchin, soared on its Nasdaq debut today. It began trading at $90.90 per share, more than 80% higher than its earlier pricing of $49 a share; its shared ended the day at $98.45. Interest/notable: Peloton represents roughly one-third of Affirm's revenue. TechCrunch has more here.
Auto1, the eight-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based online car trading platform, says it's planning to list on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the first quarter of this year and to raise approximately 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in the IPO. SoftBank invested 460 million euros in the company in 2018 for a 20 percent stake in the company, valuing it at the time at 2.9 billion euros. CNBC has more here.
Compass Real Estate has filed for a confidential IPO. The SoftBank-funded, nearly nine-year-old New York company is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley as underwriters. Compass did not disclose the size of the offering. The firm’s last valuation was $6.4 billion in July 2019, when it raised a $370 million Series G. The Real Deal has more here.
Talkspace, a nearly nine-year-old, New York-based digital therapy app, has agreed to go public via a reverse merger with the blank check company Hudson Executive Investment Corp. in a deal that values Talkspace at $1.4 billion, including a $300 million PIPE. Talkspace had raised more than $100 million from investors. STAT has more here.
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People
Intel ousted CEO Bob Swan today in a "surprise move that pivots the semiconductor giant closer to its engineering roots after a period of technology missteps, market-share losses and pressure from a hedge fund," notes the WSJ. Pat Gelsinger, who has been CEO of VMware since 2012, is stepping into the role. More here.
Dropbox is cutting its global workforce by about 11%, or 315 people, the company said in an 8K filing released today. More here.
Steven Lee has joined the seed-stage venture firm SV Angel as a partner. Lee was previously a director at Bain Capital Ventures and before that, a senior associate with Correlation Ventures. He also spent four years at Twitter focused on monetization analytics. More here.
Madrone Venture Group announced two new partners today: Anu Sharma, who joined the firm five years ago and Daniel Li, who came aboard last year. Sharma previously led product management teams at Amazon Web Services, worked as a software developer at Oracle and worked as an associate at SoftBank China & India. Li previously worked at the Boston Consulting Group. TechCrunch has more here.
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Data
Startup investing in the U.S. reached a record high of $130 billion in 2020, according to a new Money Tree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers/CB Insights. That's up 14% from 2019, according to the report, though fewer companies raising much larger rounds drove the surge. Bloomberg has more here.
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Essential Reads
Shopify nabbed Affirm shares for a penny in July as part or their partnership. Its stake is now worth $2 billion. It's just the latest boon for Shopify, whose shares almost tripled last year as the pandemic forced more consumers to the web for purchases. CNBC has more here.
Snapchat will permanently ban Donald Trump's account on Jan. 20, says Axios, after locking it indefinitely last week following the Capitol siege. "In the interest of public safety, and based on his attempts to spread misinformation, hate speech, and incite violence, which are clear violations of our guidelines, we have made the decision to permanently terminate his account," says the company. More here.
U.S. safety regulators have asked Tesla to recall 158,000 vehicles over media control unit failures that cause the touchscreen displays to stop working, following a months-long investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. TechCrunch has more here.
Okta co-founder and CEO Todd McKinnon today defended the cybersecurity company’s decision to cut ties with social network Parler in the wake of the deadly pro-Trump riot last week at the U.S. Capitol. "We don’t believe in unlawful activity and platforms that support unlawful activity, and it was clear in this case that Parler was not even trying to suppress the threats of terrorism, the incitement of violence, the planning of terrorism," he told CNBC.
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Retail Therapy
The Dyson Corrale hair straightener. We tried one over the holidays, and an intern observed afterward that we looked "older," which we chose to interpret as "more sophisticated."
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