Bumble's IPO, Facebook's Washington block, and Marc Lore is outta there (Walmart, that is)

January 15, 2021

Friday (thank God).

We hope you have a wonderful weekend. We *will* be back on Monday with a condensed issue as we'll be partly offline, observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Per the usual, we part ways with the gift(?) of StrictlyVC Download, our weekly podcast, one whose guests this time around are Maryanna Saenko and Steve Jurvetson of Future Ventures. If you're trying to figure out what's around the corner, it's worth a listen. Note that we spend the first six or so minutes talking about their new fund and fund mechanics. If you want to get to the part where they discuss some of their bets, from artificial human lymph nodes to Elon Musk's Neuralink; why you won't see another space-related bet from them (aside from SpaceX, where Jurvetson has been a board member since 2009); and why they think SPACs are "a racket," just skip ahead a bit. We enjoyed it; we think you will, too.

Enormous thanks to FarmTogether for sponsoring this week's episode. If you (like Bill Gates!) are interested in earning passive income by building a "recession-resistant portfolio of institutional quality farmland," check it out.

Top News

As a precaution against coordinated violence in the U.S. next week around President-Elect Biden's inauguration, Facebook said today that it is blocking the creation of events happening in close proximity to the White House, the U.S. Capitol or any state capitol building through Inauguration Day. TechCrunch has more here.

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Coinbase Commits to a 'Better Customer Experience' Following Complaints

Coinbase has a problem. As interest in Bitcoin has soared along with its price, the popular cryptocurrency exchange has found itself the target of a growing spate of angry customers who haven’t been able to access customer service.

A quick look at Twitter tells the story. As one upset user of the service ranted earlier today: “Multiple issues over the last month which cost me $$$ several open cases and 0% response?? When are you going to help me or is it easier to just forget. This wont be so easy when your publicly traded. Will be following up with [SEC] soon.”

There are many (many) similar complaints to be found.

More here.

Massive Fundings

OneWeb, a six-year-old, U.K.-based maker of low-cost satellites that last year emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with $1 billion in funding from a consortium of the UK government and India's Bharti Enterprises, has raised another $350 million in funding from SoftBank Group and Hughes Network Systems. TechCrunch has more here.

Paytm, the nearly 11-year-old, Noida, India-based payments firm, is in talks to raise $400 million from a fund run by UBS’s asset management arm, says Bloomberg. It's apparently a secondary sale, with UBS negotiating the purchase of stock from the company's employees, so not going to the company itself. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Carbyne, a six-year-old, Israel-based developer of a cloud platform for emergency services communications, has raised $25 million in B1 funding co-led by Hanaco Ventures and Elsted Capital Partners, with participation from former general and CIA director David Petraeus, Founders Fund and FinTLV. TechCrunch has more here.

DecisionLink, a 26-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company that sells cost-benefit analysis software focused around customer value, has raised $18.5 million led by Accel. TechCrunch has more here.

Flockjay, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based tech sales training platform, has raised $11 million in Series A funding. E.ventures led the round, joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Impact America, Cleo Capital, Coatue, and numerous individual investors, including actors Gabrielle Union and Will Smith and tennis star Serena Williams. TechCrunch has more here.

Oqton, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup developing a factory operating system that integrates engineering software with manufacturing hardware, has raised more than $40 million in Series A funding from Fortino Capital, PMV and Sandvik. VentureBeat has more here.

Own Up, a nearly-year-old, Boston-based startup that functions as an adviser and marketplace for customers looking for mortgage financing, has raised $12 million led by Brand Foundry Ventures, with participation from Link Ventures, Listen Ventures and TechStars. HousingWire has more here.

Smaller Fundings

HerdDogg, a 5.5-year-old, Ashland, Ore.-based animal traceability platform, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by the Sheldon Group, with participation from Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund and earlier investors. More here.

Humanz, a nearly three-year-old, Israel-based that's developing an AI platform that evaluates social media influencers to gauge their impact on the brand they share with their followers, has raised $3 million in seed funding co-led NGN Partners and the Buffett Group. Tech.eu has more here.

Kambr, a two-year-old, Netherlands-based specialist in airline revenue management technology, has raised $3 million in seed funding from unnamed investors along with aviation industry veteran Michael Scheeringa. The company has now raised $7 million altogether. More here.

Swimm, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based coding software startup, has raised $5.7 million in seed funding. Pitango led the round, joined by TAU Ventures, Axon Ventures and FundFire. TechCrunch has more here.

Going Public

The dating and networking service Bumble has filed to go public. The company, launched by former Tinder cofounder Whitney Wolfe Herd, plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange, using the ticker symbol “BMBL.” Bumble’s planned IPO was first reported in December. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Tracy Chou, a former engineer for both Pinterest and Quora who has been publicly tackling gender inequality in Silicon Valley for years, just launched an anti-harassment startup that aims to help its users feel safer on social media.

Gary Gensler, a former financial regulator and Goldman Sachs banker, is expected to be the incoming administration's pick to take over the Securities and Exchange Commission. ‘He will do things that are controversial.’

Jeffrey Housenbold, a managing director at the SoftBank Vision Fund for the last four years, is set to leave the firm in July, Axios reported today. Housenbold currently represents SoftBank on the boards of DoorDash, Compass, Katerra, Rappi and Memphis Meats. He was also on the board of Opendoor until it became publicly traded last month. More here.

Marc Lore, the executive vice president, president and CEO of U.S. e-commerce for Walmart, is stepping down a little more than four years after selling it his e-commerce company Jet.com for $3 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

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Essential Reads

Apple has reportedly begun early work on an iPhone with a foldable screen.

It's also working on a Podcasts subscription service. More here and here.

Twitter's vision of a sweeping open standard could also prove a dream for right-wing extremists.

Signal, the messaging app that allows for secure and encrypted video, voice, and text communication (and that is growing like gangbusters right now), has been down all day today.

Detours

The 'internet of animals.'

How to wear pajamas everywhere.

Save the environment; stop videoconferencing.

From Oscars tickets to Harry Potter-themed videos, homebuyers spice up their offers.

Retail Therapy

Ice cream for dogs.

We need this train trip.

Bumble's IPO, Facebook's Washington block, and Marc Lore is outta there (Walmart, that is)

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Tech distances itself, Musk sells it all, and a four-second workout that works

Roku bargain shops, SoftBank secures its SPAC, and Twitter pulls the plug on Donald Trump

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