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January 19, 2021
Tuesday! A new chapter starts tomorrow, but first, a look back.
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Top News
Donald Trump's list of pardons and commutations has been made public, and it includes former advisor Stephen Bannon, who was indicted by the Justice Department for defrauding Trump supporters as part of a border-wall fundraising campaign (that we'd covered way back); Bob Zangrillo, a Miami-based real estate developer and venture capitalist who was charged as part of the Varsity Blues investigation; and Anthony Levandowski, the self-driving engineer sentenced last summer to 18 months in prison for the theft of autonomous tech trade secrets. Trump retains the power to issue further pardons until noon tomorrow.
Alibaba and Ant co-founder Jack Ma has resurfaced three months after his last public appearance, when he criticized the Chinese government. In an online video, the entrepreneur and former English teacher addressed 100 rural teachers as part of an annual event he hosts to recognize educators' achievements. Tianmu News, a news portal under Zhejiang Online, a government-backed news website, reported the meeting, says Reuters.
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Wattpad, the Storytelling Platform, is Selling to South Korea's Naver for $600 Million
Wattpad, the 14-year-old, Toronto-based, venture-backed storytelling platform with reach into a number of verticals, is being acquired by Naver, the South Korean conglomerate, in a $600 million cash-and-stock deal.
Naver plans to incorporate at least part of the business into another of its holdings, the publishing platform Webtoon, which Naver launched in 2004, brought to the U.S. in 2014, and that features thousands of comic strips created by its users. It also has a huge audience. According to Naver, Webtoon was averaging more than 67 million monthly users as of last August.
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Massive Fundings
Aledade, a seven-year-old, Bethesda, Md.-based network of accountable care organizations, has raised $100 million in Series D funding. Earlier backer Meritech Capital Partners led the round, joined by Tiger Global Management, IVP and another earlier investor, OMERS. The company had raised $64 million in Series C funding last spring. More here.
Cruise, the seven-year-old, San Francisco-based self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, has raised $2 billion in a new equity round that has pushed its valuation up to $30 billion and delivered Microsoft as an investor and partner. GM, Honda and other institutional investors have also put more capital into Cruise, as the autonomous vehicle company inches closer to commercializing its technology. TechCrunch has more here.
Glovo, a six-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based on-demand delivery company, raised €100 million from Swiss real estate firm Stoneweg as the delivery app works to build out its network of so-called ghost kitchens and sign up more retail partners for its urban delivery service. Last September the startup announced the sale of its Latin American operations to food-delivery focused rival Delivery Hero for $272 million, leaving it more fully focused on Southern and Eastern Europe. TechCrunch has more here.
K Health, a nearly five-year-old, New York-based startup that facilitates in-app visits from a roster of pediatricians that its users can consult for a fee, has raised $132 million in Series E funding led by GGV Capital and Valor Equity Partners. The company has now raised $271 million altogether. Cofounder Allon Bloch was previously CEO of Wix and Vroom. VentureBeat has more here.
PPRO, a nearly 15-year-old, London-based startup that has built a platform to make it easier for marketplaces, payment providers and other e-commerce players to enable localized payments, has raised $180 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of more than $1 billion. The investor syndicate includes Eurazeo Growth, Sprints Capital and Wellington Management and follows a $50 million round that the company raised in August led by Sprints. TechCrunch has more here.
Quali, a 16-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that gives developers, quality assurance testers, and IT teams self-service access to an app and infrastructure across private, public, and hybrid-cloud environments (essentially giving employees with different levels of expertise access to different building blocks), has raised $54 million in funding. Greenfield Partners and JVP co-led the round, which brings the company's total funding to nearly $100 million. VentureBeat has more here.
Volta, the nearly 11-year-old, San Francisco-based developer of a network of electric vehicle charging stations that monetize using advertising, has raised $125 million in new funding from a group of investors it's apparently choosing not to name this time around. The Series D round brings Volta’s total funding to more than $200 million, says the company, whose network of stations that are located in parking lots around grocery stores, pharmacy chains, banks and hospitals. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Bold Commerce, a nearly eight-year-old, Winnipeg, Canada- based company that builds tools and integrations for e-commerce stores, has raised $27 million in a series B round of funding led by Omers Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Dunzo, a six-year-old, Bangalore, India-based hyper-local delivery service, has raised $40 million in Series E funding from Google, Lightbox, Evolvence, Hana Financial, LGT Lightstone Aspada and Alteria. Reuters has more here.
LeoCare, a four-year-old, Paris, France-based "digital friendly" insurance startup, has raised €15 million from Felix Capital, Ventech and Daphni. The company currently caters to customers in France alone. TechCrunch has more here.
Multiverse, a nearly five-year-old, London-based startup that works with organizations to develop apprenticeships in tech and other knowledge work, then helps source candidates to fill their job openings, has raised $44 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst. Other investors in the round include GV, Audacious Ventures, Latitude, SemperVirens and earlier backers Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Rewind, a nearly six-year-old Ottawa, Canada-based startup that helps businesses back up and restore their software-as-a-service and cloud data, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Inovia Capital. Ridge Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated, along with earlier investors Mistral Venture Partners and FundFire. VentureBeat has more here.
StackPulse, a year-old, Portland, Ore.-based startup that wants to help developers manage crisis situations more efficiently, emerged from stealth today to reveal $28 million in funding to date between an $8 million seed investment and a new $20 million Series A. GGV led the A round, while Bessemer Venture Partners led the seed and also joined the new round. TechCrunch has more here.
Swimlane, a 6.5-year-old, Denver, Co.-based maker of security operations management software, has raised $40 million in new funding led by EIP. The company has now raised more than $80 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.
Trovata.io, a two-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based startup whose tech acts as a high-performance data lake to store and manage bank data in a scalable multi-bank environment, has raised $20 million in Series A funding by Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, with participation from Capital One Ventures and Pivot Investment Partners. The company has now raised more than $30 million altogether, says VentureBeat. More here.
Smaller Fundings
Cumulus Digital Systems, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company focused on data monitoring for industrial facilities, has raised $8 million in funding led by GEC, with participation from Brick & Mortar Ventures and Shell Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
OncoHost, a nearly four-year-old, Binyamina, Israel-based clinical-stage precision oncology startup that's developing AI technology to characterize, analyze, and predict patient responses to treatment, has raised $8 million in funding led by OurCrowd. VentureBeat has more here.
Perenna, a 2.5-year-old, U.K.-based mortgage fintech startup that says it plans to launch 30-year fixed-rate mortgages beginning this coming October, has raised $10 million in seed funding from numerous individual investors, including Kevin Flaherty, the former head of structured products at Deutsche Bank, and Tony Mallin, a managing partner of Star Capital. Crowdfund Insider has more here.
Podchaser, a 4.5-year-old, Louisville, Ky.-based startup building what it calls “IMDB for podcasts,” has raised $4 million in funding led by Greycroft. Advancit Capital, LightShed Ventures, Powerhouse Capital, High Alpha, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Poplar Ventures also joined the round, along with numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
XP Health, a 2.5-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based startup that offers vision benefits through employers, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Valor Capital Group. More here.
Secondary Sales
At-home health testing kit startup Everlywell has overseen a secondary sale of $75 million in shares from existing investors to HealthQuest Capital. The 5.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based startup had raised $175 million in Series D funding in December at a $1.3 billion valuation. As part of the secondary sale, HealthQuest's founder Garheng Kong is joining Everlywell's board of directors. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Crossbeam Venture Partners, a year-old, New York-based venture firm focused on startups that are built atop platforms like Amazon, has raised $25 million for its debut fund. TechCrunch has more here.
Valar Ventures, the nearly nine-year-old, New York-based, largely fintech-focused venture firm founded by Andrew McCormack, James Fitzgerald and Peter Thiel, is looking to raise $500 million for its seventh fund, shows a new SEC filing. The firm was in the market early last year around this same time, raising $400 million for a pair of funds, including $200 million for its sixth flagship fund and $200 million for a growth fund, its second. We aren't seeing a filing for a third growth fund this time around, though that could be coming. More here.
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(Other) Exits
Citrix, the publicly traded software company whose products include virtualization software that lets users run software remotely, said today that it plans to acquire Wrike, a SaaS project management platform, from Vista Equity Partners for $2.25 billion. Vista bought the company just two years ago for undisclosed terms. Wrike had previously raised just $26 million from investors, including Scale Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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Going Public
Immunocore, a 13-year-old, U.K-base developer of T-cell receptor therapies, has registered plans to go public, filed for a $100 million offering (likely a placeholder amount). It plans to list on the Nasdaq (IMCR) and reports a £55 million net loss on £23 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2020. The company's biggest outside shareholder is General Atlantic, which owns 12.2% of the company after leading its $130 million Series B round in March of last year. The company had separately raised a $320 million Series A round in 2017 and $75 million in Series C funding in December. The Irish Times has more here.
Lucira Health, a nearly eight-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based developer of infectious disease test kits (including for COVID-19), has registered plans to raise $115 million in a public offering on Nasdaq. The company's biggest outside backers include EPIQ Capital, which owns one-third of the company, along with Eclipse Ventures (21.5%) and Seraph Group (8.1%). Renaissance Capital has more here.
LumiraDx, a 6.5-year-old, U.K.-based point-of-care diagnostics maker, including a test for COVID-19, has filed to go public. The company's investors include Morningside Group, North Atlantic Capital and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation http://axios.link/9Fh8
Qualtrics, the 19-year-old management software company being spun out of SAP two years after it was acquired for $8 billion, announced terms for its IPO today. The Provo, UT-based company plans to raise $1.2 billion by offering 49.2 million shares at a price range of $22 to $26. The company plans to raise an additional $550 million in a concurrent private placement to Silver Lake. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Qualtrics would command a fully diluted market value of $12.6 billion. Renaissance Capital has more here.
Sensei Biotherapeutics, a 21-year-old, Gaithersburg, Md.-based developer of personalized cancer drugs, has filed for a $100 million IPO. The pre-revenue company plans to list on the Nasdaq and raised $93 million from firms like Cambrian Biopharma, H&S Ventures, Future Ventures, and Apeiron Investment Group (in descending order in terms of ownership). We talked with Future Ventures about the company in our most recent podcast.
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People
Intel Chairman Omar Ishrak is planning to raise funds for a blank-check firm targeting deals in the health technology sector, according to Bloomberg. Ishrak, who previously ran medical device giant Medtronic, is looking to raise about $750 million to $1 billion for the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. More here.
Wendy Xiao Schadeck has been promoted to partner at the London-based, early-stage venture firm Northzone. Schadeck, who joined the firm back in 2015 as a principal, previously cofounded the co-working and childcare startup CoHatchery. TechCrunch has more here.
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Essential Reads
Rivian, which has yet to sell a single electric vehicle (deliveries of its first pickup truck begin in July) is now valued at nearly $30 billion.
Elon Musk said it was "not a flamethrower." Police around the world disagree.
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Detours
"Please, please let us know if you rescued Ben Affleck’s Ana de Armas cutout from the trash."
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