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January 21, 2021
Thursday!
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Top News
Early data shows that the Covid-19 vaccines on the market may not be as effective in guarding against more contagious strains of the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci said this afternoon.
Instacart is cutting about 1,900 employees’ jobs, reports Bloomberg. As it notes, the grocery delivery company already classifies most of its now more than 500,000 workers as independent contractors. Starting in 2015, the company hired a small subset of workers as employees with attendant protections, but it's now moving in the other direction. More here.
Facebook today announced that it will refer its decision to indefinitely suspend the account of Donald Trump to its newly instituted Oversight Board. The independent body will review the decision to suspend Trump and make a binding decision on whether the account will be reinstated. The board will have up to 90 days to make its decision, but its members have committed to move as quickly as possible, a spokesman for the body tells CNBC.
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Hims, the Telehealth Startup, Saw Its Shares Slip Today on Their Public Debut -- and That's Fine with Its CEO
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Hims, a San Francisco-based telehealth startup that sells sexual wellness and other health products and services to millennials, began trading publicly today on the NYSE after completing a reverse merger with the blank-check company Oaktree Acquisition Corp.
Its shares slipped a bit, ending the day down 5% from where they started, but the company, which was founded in 2017 and now claims nearly 300,000 paying subscribers for its various offerings, has never been focused on a splashy headline about its first-day performance, co-founder and CEO Andrew Dudum told us earlier today.
On the contrary, Dudum says that while Hims might have once imagined a traditional IPO, it decided to go the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) route because of their pricing mechanisms and because it was approached by a SPAC led by renowned money manager Howard Marks, the founder of the global alternative investment firm Oaktree Capital Management. ("We fell in love with the Oaktree team and the capital market experience and deep resources they have.")
We talked with Dudum about that SPAC's structure; the lockups involved now that Hims' shares are trading; and how much of the business still centers around one of its first offerings, which was a generic version of erectile dysfunction pills.
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Massive Fundings
Soci, a nine-year-old, San Diego-based localized marketing startup, has raised $80 million in Series D funding led by JMI Equity, with participation from Ankona Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
TripActions, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of travel and business expense software, has raised $155 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $5 billion. Andreessen Horowitz, Lee Fixel’s Addition, and investor Elad Gil (all previous investors) led the round, joined by Zeev Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Greenoaks Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
ConsejoSano, an 11-year-old, L.A.-based patient engagement platform that works with several of the large insurers, has raised $17 million in Series B funding led by Magnetic Ventures. MedCity News has more here.
Omnipresent, a two-year-old, London-based startup that helps companies employ remote-working local teams worldwide, has raised $15.8 million in Series A funding, including from earlier backers Episode 1, Playfair Capital and Truesight Ventures. The company had raised $2 million in seed funding last summer. TechCrunch has more here.
Plexium, a 2.5-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based biotech focused on protein degradation, has raised $35 million in new funding co-led by Lux Capital and Pivotal BioVentures, with participation from earlier investors The Column Group and DCVC Bio. FierceBiotech has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Creative Fabrica, a five-year-old, Amsterdam-based social marketplace for crafters, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Felix Capital, with participation from FJ Labs and earlier backer Peak Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Softr, a two-year-old, no-code website and app development platform that works atop of Airtable, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by Atlantic Labs. TechCrunch has more here.
ULesson, a two-year-old, Nigeria-based edtech startup that sells digital curriculum to students through SD cards, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. Owl Ventures led the round, joined by LocalGlobe and earlier investors, including TLcom Capital and Founder Collective. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Astia, a 21-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage venture fund investing in companies with women leaders, is looking to raise up to $100 million for a new fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.
Icon Ventures, an 18-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-base venture firm focused on leading series B or C financings, is looking to raise up to $375 million for its seventh fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.
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Exits
Alphabet is shutting down Loon, its project to beam the internet to earth from balloons. “The road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped,” Astro Teller, who leads X, writes in a public letter. “In the coming months, we’ll begin winding down operations and it will no longer be an Other Bet within Alphabet."
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(Also) Going Public
Fifth Wall Acquisition I, a blank check company targeting a real estate technology business, filed on yesterday with the SEC to raise up to $250 million in an IPO. Brendan Wallace, the cofounder of L.A-based Fifth Wall Ventures, is leading the effort. Renaissance Capital has more here.
The German parent company of Mytheresa Group, a luxury online retailer specializing in women’s clothing, raised $407 million with an IPO that priced at the high end of its estimated range and gave the company a market value of roughly $2.2 billion. The company's 15.6 million American depositary shares, priced initially at $26, closed their first day of trading today up 19.2%, at $31 apiece. Investors Business Daily has more here.
Patreon, the seven-year-old online service that allows podcasters, musicians and other artists to receive direct financial support from fans, is considering a public listing as soon as this year, reports The Information. More here.
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People
Laura Chau and Rayfe Gaspar-Asaoka were promoted to partner at the early-stage firm Canaan. Chau first joined the firm in 2014, then headed to Stanford's Graduate School of Business, did some stints (including in business strategy with KonMari Media), and returned. She focuses on consumer tech. Gaspar-Asaoka, who came to Canaan in 2015 as an analyst, after working briefly as a management consultant and options trader, meanwhile focuses on deep tech investments for the firm. More here.
Lucile Cornet has been promoted to partner at Eight Roads Ventures Europe. Cornet, based in London, joined the firm in 2015 after spending several years as an associate with Summit Partners. She is the firm's first female partner. More here.
Pebble founder and Y Combinator partner Eric Migicovsky has launched Beeper, a universal chat app that works with iMessage and others.
President Biden has appointed Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to lead the Federal Communications Commission until an official chair is confirmed. Rosenworcel is the second woman to lead the agency as acting chair. She originally served on the FCC from the spring of 2012 until early 2017, and was confirmed by the Senate for an additional term in August 2017.
The Biden administration has tapped Rebecca Slaughter to be the acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Slaughter has served as a Democratic commissioner since 2018.The agency, which enforces antitrust law, laws against deceptive advertising, also wades into online privacy matters, filed a big antitrust lawsuit against Facebook last month.
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Jobs
Costanoa Ventures, the seed and Series A-stage venture firm, is now accepting applications for its annual Costanoa Access Fellowship. The program is targeted toward graduate students with a few years of business experience, as well as "candidates who have a demonstrated love of technology and entrepreneurship." It takes place between June and August, in Palo Alto and San Francisco (or virtually, depending on circumstances this summer). Learn more and apply here. The deadline is next month.
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Sponsored By . . .
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Essential Reads
Elon Musk, who recently surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person, tweeted today that he will donate $100 million toward a prize for the best carbon capture technology. A person familiar with the plan tells TechCrunch this will be connected to Xprize Foundation, the non-profit organization that host competitions aimed at encouraging technological development and innovation. More here.
Intel's incoming CEO, Pat Gelsinger, said today the semiconductor giant will outsource more chip production, even if the bulk of its new chips in the coming few years are made in-house. As the WSJ notes, the "shift marks a break from Intel’s traditional reliance on its own factories to make its most-advanced chips—effectively an acknowledgment that it has fallen behind chip-making rivals."
A federal judge has refused to restore the social media site Parler after Amazon kicked the company off of its Web-hosting services over content seen as inciting violence. The decision is a blow to Parler, an upstart that has won over Trump loyalists for its relatively hands-off approach to moderating content. The company sued Amazon over its ban, demanding reinstatement. NPR has more here.
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Detours
"No Time to Die" gets delayed again [throws martini glass to floor].
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