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February 8, 2021
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Top News
Thousands of Chinese users suddenly found themselves unable to access Clubhouse today as the country prepared to start the week-long Lunar New Year holiday. Inside WeChat groups, Clubhouse users rushed to report the situation and help each other with ways to get back onto the red hot live audio app, but it's unlikely to return, given how much its model would have to change to comply with Chinese internet regulation, notes TechCrunch.
Last June, 20-year-old Alex Kearns died by suicide, blaming stock trading app Robinhood for his death. He mistakenly believed he’d lost $730,000, and that the company was coming for more than $170,000 of that money in a matter of days. His family now agrees that it was Robinhood’s fault; today, they sued the company for wrongful death. The Verge has more here.
Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg have pushed cryptocurrencies to record highs, with the value of all cryptocurrencies skyrocketing to more than $1 trillion over the last month. The New York Times has more here.
It's not just crypto that's soaring. Stocks rose to record levels today, as investors wager that a new round of stimulus spending will bolster the economy. More in the WSJ.
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A Former NEA Partner and a Former Uber Exec Just Closed a $140 Million Debut VC Fund
Dayna Grayson and Rachel Holt seemingly didn’t have the best timing. It was late in 2019 when the two, who met six years ago in Washington through a mutual acquaintance, decided to act on earlier conversations and start a fund together called Construct Capital.
At the time, Grayson spied an opportunity to create a new venture brand that focused largely on the types of manufacturing-related deals that she was funding inside of the investing giant, NEA, which she joined in 2012.
Holt, who’d joined Uber in 2011, rising from a city general manager in Washington to the eventual head of the company’s mobility unit in 2018, was also ready for a change and excited about the prospect of investing full time, having been brought into NEA by Grayson to scout out nascent deals on the side.
“Of course, we didn’t expect COVID,” Holt says now. Still, it didn’t stop them from moving forward with fundraising and, in the process, securing $140 million in capital commitments from what Holt describes as “the typical kind of institutional LP base, including endowments, foundations,” and also some peers, including Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures, Josh Kopelman of First Round, and Grayson’s former NEA colleague, Scott Sandell.
Construct, which is focused primarily on five themes — decentralized manufacturing, supply chain visibility, automation, transportation and mobility — is already actively writing checks, in fact. Among the companies it has backed are Chef Robotics, a startup focused on assembling food at high throughput; Copia, an outfit whose tools aim to empower engineers to streamline workflows, increase productivity, and decrease downtime; and ChargeLab, a maker of electric vehicle charging software that Holt likens to the “Android of the charging market.”
To get a better sense of the types of startups that might be ideal for the firm going forward, we talked earlier with the pair, who recently signed a lease in D.C. for their team (Construct also has two junior investors), and who were together today at Holt’s home.
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Massive Fundings
Chengxin Youxuan, a year-old, China-based group-buying delivery unit of Didi Chuxing that it began testing out last year, is reportedly considering raising $4 billion to fuel its growth, with up to $3 billion coming from Didi itself and another $1 billion from outside investors. Two of China's major short video and live-streaming platforms, ByteDance and Kuaishou, are also preparing an entry into the grocery group-buying sector, Chinese media outlets reported late late last year. Bloomberg has more here.
Evolve BioSystems, a 9.5-year-old, Davis, Ca-based probiotic tech startup aiming to improve ifant gut health, has raised funding from the food and agriculture giant Cargill and from the growth-equity investor Manna Tree Partners in a round that the company expects will close with $55 million altogether. More here.
Kong, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based app making platform, has raised $100 million in Series D funding. Tiger Global Management led the round, joined by earlier backers, including Index Ventures, CRV, GGV Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. The company raised its last round, a $43 million Series C, in March 2019. VentureBeat has more here.
Nexthink, a 16-year-old, Lausanne, Switzerland-based platform that businesses use to monitor software performance on their employees’ devices, has raised $180 million in Series D funding at a $1.1 billion post-money valuation led by Permira, with participation from Highland Europe and Index Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Reddit, the 16-year-old, San Francisco-based company that long ago dubbed itself the "front page of the internet," has raised $250 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $6 billion led by Vy Capital, following renewed public attention to the site. The company last raised $300 million in Series D funding in February 2019 led by Tencent. At the time, it was valued at $3 billion. The WSJ has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Getaway, a six-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based startup that builds collections of tiny cabins in rustic locations within a two-hour drive of several major American cities (including for corporate and socially distanced retreats), has raised $41.7 million in Series C funding led by the hospitality focused investment firm Certares. TechCrunch has more here.
Isotropic Systems, a 7.5-year-old, U.K.-based company whose business centers around a new type of broadband terminal that it says can communicate across multiple frequencies, making it possible for it to connect to more than one satellite network at the same time without any loss in signal quality or network speed, has raised a $40 million in Series B funding. SES led the round. Other participants in the round include Boeing HorizonX, Space Angels and Orbital Ventures. That total includes U.K. government grant support as well. The company has now raised $60 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Phable, a three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based full-stack health tech startup that is serving patients with chronic illnesses in India, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Manipal Hospitals, one of the largest healthcare providers in India, with participation from earlier backer SOSV. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
BeyondID, three-year-old, Bay Area-based company that offers consulting, implementation, and managed services for identity management, cybersecurity, and cloud platforms, has raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Tercera, a recently launched investment firm. TechCrunch has more here.
Goody, a year-old, Miami, Fla.-based mobile gifting app, has raised $4 million in early funding from Quiet Capital, Index Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Third Kind Venture Capital, Craft Ventures, Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam and Quora cofounder Charlie Cheever, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
InEvent, a two-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based startup powering virtual and hybrid events, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Storm Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Ledn, 3.5-year-old, Toronto, Ontario-based digital asset savings and credit platform, has raised $2.7 million in funding led by White Star Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Global Founders Capital, CMT Digital, Kingsway, and Darrow Holdings. Coindesk has more here.
Lyte, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of ticketing tech for live events, has raised $5 million in extended Series B funding that brings the round's total to $38 million. New investors include Uncorrelated, AllRise, Yext cofounder Brian Distelburger, and Ed Roman of the venture firm Hack VC. Digital Music News has more here.
Maya, a nine-year-old, Bangladesh-based company that's dedicated to making it easier for women to get healthcare, especially for sensitive issues like reproductive and mental health, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding co-led by the early-stage fund Anchorless Bangladesh and The Osiris Group, a private equity firm focused on impact investing in Asian markets. TechCrunch has more here.
Zeta, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based online tool allows couples and families to organize, track, share and manage their finances together, has raised a $1.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Deciens Capital and Precursor Ventures. More here.
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New Funds
The Atlanta-based venture firm BIP Capital has a new name for its venture capital operations, Panoramic Ventures, a new partner in serial founder and investor Paul Judge, and it's launching a $300 million new fund. TechCrunch has more here.
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Exits
WordPress's privately held parent company, Automattic, has acquired Parse.ly, an 11-year-old content analytics company that had raised $12.9 million in funding from investors including Grotech Ventures and Blumberg Capital, according to Crunchbase. Financial terms weren't disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.
The publicly traded delivery service DoorDash is expanding its robotic footprint as it looks to develop more ghost kitchens. How? By acquiring Chowbotics, a 6.5-year-old Bay Area-based robotics best known for its salad-making robot, Sally. The company had raised $21 million, including from Foundry Group and Techstars. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.
The publicly traded U.S. game developer Electronic Arts said today it would buy (fellow publicly traded) mobile game developer Glu Mobile for $2.4 billion, bolstering its mobile platform with the addition of games such as “Design Home” and “MLB Tap Sports Baseball." According to a Reuters source, San Francisco-based Glu received multiple takeover offers last year as its stock has underperformed those of its gaming peers. More here.
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Going Public
Oatly, a Swedish maker of vegan foods and drinks, that's reportedly working on an IPO in the U.S. that could value it around $10 billion, yesterday ran what was universally agreed upon (in our house) to be the worst Super Bowl ad.
Matterport, a 10-year-old maker of software for virtual walk-throughs of properties, has agreed to go public through a merger with the sixth blank-check company backed by billionaire Alec Gores, the companies announced today. The deal values the equity of Matterport and Gores Holdings VI at $2.9 billion and to support the transaction, the companies will raise about $295 million from investors including Tiger Global Management, Senator Investment Group, Dragoneer Investment Group and Fidelity Management & Research Co. Matterport had previously raised $114 million from investors, including Lux Capital, DCM, and Qualcomm Ventures, according to Crunchbase data. Bloomberg has more here.
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People
Mark Cuban is getting in on the audio and podcasting hype, says The Verge. It reports that alongside co-founder Falon Fatemi -- who recently sold her startup, Node -- he’s planning to launch Fireside, a “next-gen podcast platform” that facilitates live conversation, according to an email sent to possible creator partners seen by The Verge. The app idea is similar to the live audio startup Clubhouse, except with the ability to natively record conversations. More here.
BitMEX cofounder Arthur Hayes created a cryptocurrency exchange that has traded trillions. Now he’s wanted by U.S. authorities, and insiders wonder whether he and his partners are villains—or victims of a two-tiered justice system that favors big banks over brash outsiders. In Vanity Fair.
SoftBank Group's Vision Fund is hiring the head of Microsoft's venture capital business as managing partner, it said in a statement today. Nagraj Kashyap will join the Vision Fund in the U.S., in what Bloomberg notes is the "first major addition to the investment arm following a spate of departures." More here.
Former TPG Capital senior executive Bill McGlashan agreed on Friday to plead guilty in the U.S. college admissions scandal that had ensnared dozens of high-profile parents. McGlashan will plead guilty to wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston. Prosecutors claimed McGlashan, who previously led TPG’s business focused on social good and founded its growth investing platform, paid $50,000 to arrange for someone to secretly correct his son’s ACT exam answers and discussed paying $250,000 to get his son into the University of Southern California as a fake football recruit, though didn’t go through with that part of the plot, notes Bloomberg. Soon after McGlashan's involvement with the case was made public, TPG not only pushed him out of the firm but stripped him of his vested and unvested in funds that involved him, even though an investigation by the law firm Ropes & Gray found "no fraud or systemic misconduct associated with Mr. McGlashan's financial dealings" with TPG, the firm announced at the time.
Money comes and money goes, but for GameStop CEO George Sherman, the ups and downs have been extreme. On January 28, when the company's shares hit $483 apiece, his stake in the company was worth $1.14 billion. Now a billion dollars has gone poof, notes Fortune.
Harry Stebbings, the podcaster and investor, has left the firm he cofounded with veteran VC Fred Destin, who previously worked at Accel in London. Destin said on Twitter that Stebbings plans to "lean even harder" into his podcast platform, 20VC. The two closed a debut fund with £50 million in 2018. TechCrunch has more here.
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Jobs
Common Ocean Ventures, a New York-based early-stage venture firm whose core thesis is financial wellness for all, is looking to bring on a venture investor MBA summer associate for a paid internship from May through September. Applications are due February 26th.
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Essential Reads
Twitter is mulling a subscription product as a way to ease its dependence on advertising, a concept that has taken on heightened priority given the pandemic and pressure from activist investors to accelerate growth, reports Bloomberg. The outlet says the options being considered include tipping fellow users for exclusive content, charging for the use of services like Tweetdeck, or charging a fee for advanced user features like “undo send” or profile-customization options. More here.
TikTok is planning an aggressive expansion into e-commerce in the U.S., the Financial Times reported over the weekend. Among the products planned, says the FT, is a tool that allows TikTok’s most popular users to share links to products and automatically earn commissions on sales. TikTok is also rolling out “live-streamed” shopping reminiscent of the 35-year-old shopping show QVC. The FT further reported that, according to its sources, the platform also has plans this year to further develop its self-service ad platform, which allows brands to place their own ads easily online rather than manually with a sales representative. More here.
Tesla’s $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin is risky, according to investors, analysts and money managers at some of the country’s largest banks. "As a standard bearer for the consumer electric vehicle industry and the broader climate tech movement rallying around it, the company's bet on crypto could damage its climate bonafides and its reputation with customers even as other automakers pour in to the EV market," notes TechCrunch.
SoftBank had some positive data to report overnight with its third-quarter earnings, which covers the last quarter of 2020 through December 31. The company’s first Vision Fund reported large gains driven by DoorDash, where the company’s $680 million investment grew to be valued at $9 billion — a 13.2x return in SoftBank’s math. While not the first exit from the fund, nor the first high-returning exit SoftBank has had, it is the first exit that meaningfully shakes up the prognosis for the Vision Fund’s returns, observes TechCrunch. More here.
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Detours
The man keeping far-right websites alive.
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Retail Therapy
Portable outdoor bar. (Bartender not included.)
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