Robinhood raises billions more amid mania

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The Daily Pitch: VC

February 2, 2021

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Today's Top Stories

Robinhood rakes in $2.4B more to weather trading chaos

More than 1 million users are said to have downloaded Robinhood's app on Friday. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Robinhood has added $2.4 billion to its war chest after raising $1 billion last week in a scramble to secure funds to withstand a trading craze in stocks like AMC Entertainment and GameStop. The online brokerage is also considering raising $1 billion in debt from banks to help with the trading volatility, Reuters reported.

The $3.4 billion amassed since last Thursday is more than the roughly $2.2 billion Robinhood had raised through last October, according to PitchBook data. Ribbit Capital led the new round, with participation from Iconiq Capital, Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures and NEA.

The stock trading company has been at the center of the ongoing Wall Street drama between retail investors and short-sellers, which has propelled the price of a number of stocks, and more recently, the price of silver.

The enormous capital infusion will likely help Robinhood deal with collateral requirements stemming from the recent trading surge, help support the influx of new accounts and remove trading restrictions that caused widespread outrage from users last week, The Wall Street Journal reported.

More than 1 million users downloaded the Robinhood app on Friday amid the trading frenzy, exceeding the number of downloads in all of December, Forbes reported. Robinhood's decision to restrict trading on certain hot stocks last week swiftly drew lawsuits that alleged market manipulation and breach of contract.

Related read: The seismic saga of GameStop and Robinhood

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Digital pharma upstarts face down threats, legacy rivals

(the_burtons/Getty Images)

A growing crop of venture-backed online-only pharmacy startups like NowRx, Ro and Medly are trying to crack the $300 billion-plus prescription drug industry. In a new research note, PitchBook analysts outline the risks and potential rewards awaiting these challengers, including:

Online fraud is a looming threat that digital companies must tackle

Central distribution hubs, walk-in patient services and aid for the uninsured are among the experiments in the fragmented e-pharmacy industry

Consolidation outlook: Pharmacy incumbents are likely to acquire startups in this market

Recommended Reads

A profile of Frank Slootman, the CEO-for-hire who helped guide Snowflake through a year for the ages in 2020. [Forbes]

There are a lot of different kinds of friendships. And they've all been affected by the widespread social isolation of the pandemic. [The Atlantic]

Philadelphia picked a 22-year-old graduate student with no background in healthcare to help lead its vaccination race. Three weeks later, hype had turned to scandal. [NPR]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

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Quick Takes


	The Daily Benchmark
	2016 Vintage Global Buyout Funds
	VC Deals
	Databricks hits $28B valuation with new round
	UiPath valued at $35B with new funding
	Weights and Biases banks $45M
	Spanish EV charging startup lands new funding
	Cellino collects $16M
	Exits & IPOs
	Wheels Up to merge with SPAC in $2.1B deal
	Otonomo to go public in $1.4B SPAC deal
	Fundraising
	Teamworthy Ventures eyes $125M for Fund III
	Investors
	Sequoia China, Illumina team on incubator
	W.K. Kellogg names Carlos Rangel new CIO

The Daily Benchmark

2016 Vintage Global Buyout Funds

Median IRR

12.39%

Top Quartile IRR Hurdle Rate

19.70%

1.20x

Median TVPI

Select top performers

Renovus Capital Partners II

Gemspring Capital Fund I

Francisco Agility Fund

*IRR: net of fees

105 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Databricks hits $28B valuation with new round

Databricks has raised $1 billion in new financing at a $28 billion valuation. Franklin Templeton led the round, which also attracted strategic funding from Amazon Web Services, Alphabet's CapitalG, Salesforce Ventures and Microsoft, among others. San Francisco-based Databricks, which provides a data analytics platform, was last valued at $6.2 billion in 2019, according to PitchBook data.

Select Additional Investors:

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Alkeon Capital

View details

View 57 competitors »

UiPath valued at $35B with new funding

UiPath has raised a $750 million Series F co-led by Alkeon Capital and Coatue. The funding values the New York-based company at $35 billion. UiPath, which creates robotic process automation software, was valued at $10.2 billion last July. Existing investors Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, IVP, Sequoia, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price also participated in the funding.

View round

View 88 competitors »

Weights and Biases banks $45M

Weights and Biases has raised a $45 million Series B led by Insight Partners. The San Francisco-based company is the provider of an experiment tracking platform for users of machine learning models and operations. The company has more than 70,000 users across over 200 enterprises and institutions, including Open AI and Toyota Research. George Mathew, managing director at Insight Partners, has joined the company's board.

Additional Investors:

Bloomberg Beta, Coatue, Trinity Ventures

View round

View 64 competitors »

Spanish EV charging startup lands new funding

Wallbox has raised €33 million (around $40 million) in a round co-led by Cathay Innovation and Wind Ventures. The Barcelona-based company, which develops chargers for electric and hybrid vehicles, recently launched a smart home EV charger in North America. Existing investors including Iberdrola and Seaya Ventures also participated in the funding.

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View 6 competitors »

Cellino collects $16M

Cellino has raised $16 million in a round co-led by The Engine and Khosla Ventures. Based in the Boston area, the company is developing cell-based regenerative therapies via automation of stem cell production. Humboldt Fund and 8VC also participated in the funding.

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View similar company »

Exits & IPOs

Wheels Up to merge with SPAC in $2.1B deal

Private jet startup Wheels Up has entered into a deal to go public via a merger with blank-check company Aspirational Consumer Lifestyle Corp. The reverse merger values Wheels Up at $2.1 billion; it has received prior investments from backers that include T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Management & Research and NEA. Aspirational is led by Ravi Thakran, a former LVMH executive and managing partner at L Catterton Asia.

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View 10 competitors »

Otonomo to go public in $1.4B SPAC deal

Otonomo, the provider of a car data platform, has agreed to go public via a merger with SPAC Software Acquisition Group Inc. II. The deal values the startup at $1.4 billion. Otonomo collects data from a network of over 40 million vehicles worldwide to aid emergency services, traffic management and more. It has raised capital from investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Dell and Hearst.

View details

View 11 competitors »

Fundraising

Teamworthy Ventures eyes $125M for Fund III

Teamworthy Ventures has set a target of $125 million for its third flagship fund, according to an SEC filing. The New York-based firm makes seed, early-stage and growth investments in sectors such as consumer and enterprise software, edtech and ecommerce, with a portfolio that includes Bark, ClassPass and Ibotta.

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Investors

Sequoia China, Illumina team on incubator

Sequoia China and Illumina have joined forces to launch an incubator for genomics startups. The companies chosen for the incubator's bi-annual cycles will receive investment and business guidance from Sequoia China and access to Illumina's sequencing systems, reagents and genomics knowledge.

View details

View 719 investments »

W.K. Kellogg names Carlos Rangel new CIO

W.K. Kellogg Foundation has selected Carlos Rangel as its chief investment officer. Rangel, who joined the Battle Creek, Mich.-based foundation as a portfolio manager, was most recently head of Kellogg's project that aims to expand racial equity in the business. Rangel succeeds Joel Wittenberg, who is retiring after 11 years in the role.

View details

View 24 investments »

Chart of the Day

"In terms of fundraising, direct lending was the hardest hit sub-strategy of private debt in 2020. These funds rely predominantly on private equity sponsors for their own deal flow, and institutional interest in new vehicles dwindled amid the slowdown in buyouts in Q2 and Q3. Potential investors also pivoted to other sub-strategies that tend to do well in bear markets, such as distressed debt and special situations funds."

Source: PitchBook's 2020 Annual Global Private Debt Report

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Robinhood raises billions more amid mania

Older messages

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The seismic saga of GameStop and Robinhood

Robinhood raises $1B after GameStop debacle

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From $550K in funding to a $3B valuation

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