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February 1, 2021
Hi, welcome back, hope you had a great weekend.:)
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Top News
Robinhood has raised another $2.4 billion from shareholders, days after investors agreed to pump $1 billion into the online brokerage to help it ride out a trading frenzy in stocks like GameStop. The big infusion -- the $3.4 billion brought in since last Thursday -- is more than the company had previously raised in the eight years since its launch, notes the WSJ. The round was led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from earlier backers ICONIQ Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, and NEA. The company said in a post about the round that terms of the round are "being finalized."
The GameStop content race is on, even as the Reddit-fueled market rebellion continues to play out in real time -- with rival GameStop movies being rushed into production.
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Kindred Ventures Just Closed Its Second Fund with $100 Million
Two years after launching its $56 million debut fund, Kindred Ventures, a San Francisco-based pre-seed and seed-stage venture fund founded by Steve Jang and Kanyi Maqubela, has closed its second fund with $100 million in capital commitments.
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Massive Fundings
Databricks, a 7.5-year-old, San Francisco-based data analytics company, just raised $1 billion Series G at a whopping $28 billion post-money valuation. Franklin Templeton led the round, joined by Fidelity, Whale Rock, AWS, CapitalG, Salesforce Ventures and earlier backers, including Microsoft. TechCrunch has more here.
SparkPost, a nearly 13-year-old, Columbia, Md.-based email delivery, optimization, and analytics platform, has raised $180 million from LLR Partners, NewSpring Capital, and PNC Bank. VentureBeat has more here.
Rockley Photonics, a nearly eight-year-old, Oxford, U.K.-based maker of silicon photonics chipsets, has raised $65 million from backers like Morningside Ventures. The company has now raised $290 million altogether. EE Times has more here.
UiPath, the nearly 16-year-old, New York-based robotic process automation (RPA) company, has raised $750 million in Series F funding at a post-money valuation of $35 billion. Earlier backers Alkeon Capital and Coatue co-led the round, joined by earlier backer Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, IVP, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. The financing brings the company’s total raised to nearly $2 billion, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Cellino, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based personalized regenerative medicine company, has raised $16 million in seed funding co-led by The Engine and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Humboldt Fund and 8VC. The WSJ has more here.
Dominion Aesthetic Technologies, a five-year-old, Houston-based maker of devices for non-invasive abdominal lipolysis (laser energy that changes the body's shape), has raised $23.7 million in Series B funding. CEO Cooper Collins led the round, joined by MagnaSci Ventures, McNair Interests and Morton Cohn Investments. More here.
ELSA, a nearly six-year-old, Bay Area-based mobile app that helps non-native English speakers improve their pronunciation and speaking skills, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. Vietnam Investments Group and SIG co-led the round, joined by Gradient Ventures, SOSV and Monk’s Hill Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Foodics, a nearly seven-year-old, Riyadh, Saudia Arabia-based company that makes restaurant management software, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Sanabil Investments (a firm wholly owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investments Fund) and STV, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and Elm & Derayah. The company has now raised $28 million altogether. The Spoon has more here.
Phocas Software, a 22-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based company that says it solves the data problems of manufacturers, distributors and retailers (and was bootstrapped until now), has raised A$45 million ($34.3 million). Ellerston Capital led, and was joined by OneVentures. Smart Company has more here.
Physna, a six-year-old, Cincinnati, Oh.-based startup that's developing an AI-powered 3D modeling platform for industrial engineering, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by earlier backer Drive Capital among others. The company has now raised $29 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.
Vulog, a 14-year-old, Nice, France-based on-demand mobility platform (offering access to cars, bikes, scooters, mopeds and vans), has raised $31 million from the European Investment Bank and earlier investors Frog Capital, ETF Partners, Inven Capital and BpiFrance. More here.
Wallbox, a six-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based maker of smart charging systems for electric vehicles, raised €33 million. Cathay Innovation and Wind Ventures co-led the round, joined by Iberdrola and Seaya Ventures. More here.
Weights and Biases, a three-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based startup that's building tools for machine learning practitioners, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Coatue, Trinity Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Ben, a 15-month-old, London-based employee benefits and rewards platform, raised $2.5 million in seed funding co-led by Cherry Ventures and Seedcamp. TechCrunch has more here.
Certn, a nearly five-year-old, Victoria, British Columbia-based startup that helps businesses perform comprehensive background checks and ongoing risk monitoring on employees and contractors, has raised $7.4 million in extended Series A funding that brings its total funding to $33.8 million. The newest capital comes from Telstra Ventures and B Capital Group, along with Cyber Mentor Fund. Earlier backers in the company include Tribe Capital, Preface Ventures, Moxxie Ventures, Weekend Fund, and Scribble Ventures, among others. More here.
DesignCrowd, a 13.5-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based design crowdsourcing platform, has raised $10 million AUD (about $7.6 billion USD) in funding from Perennial Value Management, Alium Capital, Ellerston Capital, Regal Funds Management and CVC, along with earlier backers Starfish Ventures and AirTree Ventures. DesignCrowd has now raised more than $22 million AUD in total. TechCrunch has more here.
Learn To Win, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile-first learning platform focused around Interactive, engaging micro-learning lessons and quizzes that are delivered directly to phones, tablets, and computers, has raised $4 million in seed funding. Norwest Venture Partners led the round, joined by Pear VC and the 20|20 Fund. More here.
Mai , a nearly five-year-old, New York-based company whose recognition technology to identify fashion products in photos and videos, has raised $5 million in extended Series A funding led by Arbor Ventures, with participation from Partech Ventures, Tekton Ventures, Voyager Capital and Bascom Ventures. More here.
Pocket Worlds, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based social gaming company, has raised $7 million in Series A funding. Bitkraft Ventures led the round, joined by Everblue Management, GFR Fund, Sweet Capital, BoxGroup, and mobile games entrepreneur Oliver Miao. VentureBeat has more here.
Telemedico, a six-year-old, Poland-based digital health platform that aims to connect medical personnel with patients on any device, has raised €5.5 million ($6.6 million) in Series A funding led by Flashpoint Venture Capital, Uniqa Ventures, PKO VC, Adamed and earlier backer Black Pearls VC. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
FinTLV , a five-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based, growth-stage venture firm, says it has closed its second insuretech- and fintech-focused venture fund with $120 million in capital commitments. Crowdfund Insider has more here.
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Exits
Real-estate startup Knotel, a nearly six-year-old, New York-based coworking company, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, saying it wants to reorganize its real-estate footprint and enable a sale to real estate services firm (and earlier investor) Newmark Group. The company had raised $560 million altogether from investors, according to Crunchbase. The WSJ has the story here.
Rapid7, a publicly traded Boston-based security operations company, said today it has acquired Kubernetes security startup Alcide for $50 million. Alcide was founded in 2016 in Tel Aviv and had raised $12 million from investors, according to Crunchbase data. TechCrunch has more here.
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Going Public
CM Life Sciences II, the second blank check company formed by Casdin Capital and Corvex Management targeting a life science business, filed today with the SEC to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering. Renaissance Capital has more here.
Lucira Health, which is developing single-use test kits for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, announced terms for its IPO this morning. The Emeryville, CA-based company plans to raise $125 million by offering 7.8 million shares at a price range of $15 to $17. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Lucira Health would command a fully diluted market value of $644 million. More here.
New Vista Acquisition, a blank check company targeting emerging and transformational technologies, especially within the space, defense, and communications and advanced air mobility and logistics industries, has registered to plans to raise up to $200 million in an IPO. The SPAC is led by Dennis Muilenburg, the former CEO of Boeing, along with Travis Nelson, who currently serves as mnaging member of Eclipse Investors, and Kirsten Bartok Touw, the founder and Managing Partner of AirFinance. Renaissance Capital has more here.
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People
Steve Cohen, the billionaire founder of investment firm Point72 Asset Management and owner of the New York Mets, said he closed his Twitter account after his family received personal threats last week owing to his firm's connection to the trading in GameStop. “I’ve really enjoyed the back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter which was unfortunately overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that led to our family getting personal threats,” Cohen said in a statement Saturday. “So I’m going to take a break for now. We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and remain committed to doing that.”
Sriram Krishnan, a former product leader at Twitter, has joined the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner, according to The Information. In recent weeks, Krishnan and his wife have hosted a show called "Good Time" on the audio-based social network Clubhouse, which is backed by a16z. Last night, along with Marc Andreessen, they hosted a conversation with Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev. More here.
Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick says special purpose acquisition companies are filling a "gap" for investors between the IPO and private equity markets, telling Bloomberg that "SPACs are here to stay; they fill that void."
Last night on Clubhouse, Elon Musk (interviewed by Krishnan, above) told listeners that his 4.5-year-old company Neuralink, which aims to help humans with an array of ailments, already has a “monkey with a wireless implant in [its] skull with tiny wires who can play video games with his mind.”
Salesforce has promoted former Vlocity founder and CEO David Schmaier to president and chief product officer of the company. Schmaier joined Salesforce last year when it acquired his company for $1.33 billion, at which point he was named CEO of Salesforce Industries, its cloud business.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is expected to testify before a House committee on Feb. 18 as lawmakers dig into the firm's role in the tumultuous trading of GameStop stock and other companies, Politico reported today. Robinhood’s decision on Thursday to stop its customers from buying the stocks sent GameStop's shares plummeting and drew criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
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Reason for optimism: According to Bloomberg, more Americans had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine than have tested positive for the virus as of this afternoon. According to data compiled by the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, 26.5 million Americans have so far received one or both doses of the current vaccines, compared with the 26.3 million people in the country who have tested positive for the disease over the last year, and the 443,000 have died.
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Essential Reads
Online investors who spurred a trading frenzy in the shares of GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings have moved onto the global silver market, powering the precious metal to its biggest one-day advance in more than a decade. The WSJ has more here.
The Biden administration has made a $231.8 million deal with an Australian company to boost availability of the first at-home rapid test for the coronavirus which causes COVID-19 that is available without a prescription. The test, made by Ellume, can send results to a smartphone within 15 minutes of receiving a sample. NPR has more here.
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