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February 11, 2021
Thursday!
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Top News
The Biden administration today asked a federal appeals court to place a hold on proceedings surrounding the Trump administration’s attempted ban of the Chinese social media app WeChat, a day after it asked a different court for a similar delay involving a TikTok case. In both cases, it said it needs time to review both bans. The Washington Post has more here.
European IPOs are off to the best start to the year since 2015, with €8 billion raised already in the first six weeks of 2021. The Financial Times has more here.
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Newly Funded Maisonette is Becoming a Go-To Brand for Fashion-Conscious Families; Here's How
Maisonette, a four-year-old, New York-based company has aimed from the outset to become a one-stop curated shop for everything a family might need for their young children.
That plan appears to be working. Today, the company — which launched with preppy young children’s apparel and has steadily built out categories that include home decor, home furniture, toys, gear, and accessories — says it doubled its number of customers last year and tripled its revenue. Indeed, even as COVID could have crimped its style — sales of children’s dress-up clothes slowed for a time — its DIY and STEM toy sales shot up 1,400%.
Though the company keeps its sales numbers private, its growth is interesting, particularly given the unabated growth of Amazon, which became the nation’s leading apparel retailer somewhere around the end of 2018.
Seemingly, much of Maisonette’s traction owes to the trust it has built with customers, who see its offerings as high-end yet accessible relative to the many high-end fashion brands that are also increasingly focused on the children’s market, like Gucci and Burberry.
Specifically, the 75-person company has a merchandising team that prides itself on working with independent brands and surfacing items that are hard to find elsewhere.
Maisonette also launched its own apparel line roughly 30 months ago called Maison Me. Focused around “elevated basics” at a more reasonable price point, the line, made in China, is seeing brisk sales to families who buy items time and again as their kids outgrow or wear holes in them, says the company.
It helps that Maisonette’s founders have an eye for what’s next. Cofounder Sylvana Ward Durrett and Luisana Mendoza Roccia met at Vogue magazine, where Durrett spent 15 years, joining the staff straight from Princeton and becoming its director of events (work that earned her a high profile in fashion circles). Roccia joined straight from Georgetown the same year, 2003, and left as the magazine’s accessories editor in 2008.
For those who might be curious, their former boss, Anna Wintour, is a champion of theirs.
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Massive Fundings
Armis, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based IoT startup focused on unmanaged device security, has raised $125 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $2 billion led by Brookfield Technology Partners, which was joined by Insight Partners, CapitalG, and Georgian. CRN has more here.
CYE, a nearly nine-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity startup, has raised $100 million in growth funding led by EQT, with added participation from 83North. TechCrunch has more here.
Cyteir Therapeutics, an eight-year-old, Lexington, Ma.-based developer of synthetic lethal therapies for cancer, raised $80 million in Series C funding. RA Capital Management led the round, joined by Acuta Capital Partners, Ally Bridge Group, Avidity Partners, Ample Plus Fund, CaaS Capital Management and earlier investors. EndPoints News has more here.
Ensoma, a newly launched, Boston-based genomics medicine company, has raised $70 million in Series A funding. 5AM Ventures led the round, joined by F-Prime Capital, Takeda Ventures, Viking Global Investors, Cormorant Asset Management, RIT Capital Partners, Symbiosis II, and Alexandria Venture Investments. GeekWire has more here.
Human Interest, a nearly six-year-old, San Francisco-based provider of 401(k) programs to small and midsize businesses, just raised $55 million in Series C funding led by Glynn Capital, with added participation from NewView Capital. The company has now raised $136.7 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Hyperfine, an 11-year-old, Guilford, Ct.-based software company that makes advanced analytics software for precision medicine, has raised $90 Million in Series D funding, including from GV, Nextrans, Axiom Associates, Huami, Colle Capital, LSS, and Altium Capital. More here.
Instabox, a six-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based last-mile delivery company for e-commerce brands, has raised $90 million in Series B funding led by EQT Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.
Modern Health, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based mental health benefits platform, has raised $74 million in Series D funding at a $1.17 billion post-money valuation. Founders Fund led the round, joined by investor Lachy Groom. Bloomberg has more here.
Personal Genome Diagnostics, an 11-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based cancer genomics company, has raised $103 million in Series C funding led by Cowen Healthcare Investments. Other investors in the round include Northpond Ventures, Vensana Capital, Rock Springs Capital, Kern Capital, Sands Capital, PFM Health Sciences, Windham Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Innovatus Capital Partners, and Catalio Capital Management. Medtech Insight has more here.
Pipeline Therapeutics, a 3.5-year-old, San Diego-based developer of small molecule therapies for neuroregeneration, has raised $80 million in Series C funding. Investors in the round include Perceptive Advisors, Franklin Templeton, Casdin Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Suvretta Capital, Red Tree VC, Versant Ventures (which incubated the company), Sectoral Asset Management and Cleva Pharma. EndPoints News has more here.
Pivotal Commware, a nearly five-year-old, Kirkland, Wa.-based maker of millimeter-wave 5G network infrastructure products, has raised $50 million in Series C funding. Tracker Capital Management led the round, joined by Devonshire Investors and Pivotal’s earlier backers, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who began investing in the company in 2017. GeekWire has more here.
Win Brands Group, a five-year-old, New York-based holding company that snaps up direct-to-consumer brands, has raised $50 million in funding from Assembled Brands and Oaktree Capital Management. It also acquired Gravity, a maker of gravity blankets. CityBizList has more here.
Public.com, a three-year-old, New York-based social-network-driven free stock trading service, is nearing the close of a Series D just two months after raising a $65 million Series C, sources familiar with the matter tell TechCrunch. Business Insider says the lead is Tiger Global Management, and that the deal is being done at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation -- or four times where the company was valued in December. The fintech aims to give people the ability to invest in companies using any amount of money, with a focus on community activity over active trading. It competes with Robinhood and other fintech companies that now consumers a way to invest in equities with low or zero fees. More here.
Wuhan Binhui Biotech, a nearly 11-year-old, Wuhan, China-based gene-focused biotech company at work on tumor immunotherapies, has raised $93 million in Series C funding led by Share Capital, Vertex Ventures China, Qianhai FOF, and CICC Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.
Zocdoc, the 14-year-old, New York-based digital healthcare scheduling platform, has raised $150 million in fresh funding led by Francisco Partners. The company's recent rapid growth follows a five-year financial turnaround, notes Fierce Healthcare. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Axiad, an 11-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based maker of trusted identity software, raised $20 million led by Invictus Growth Partners. SecurityWeek has more here.
Capitalize, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based retirement savings platform that helps its customers transfer their retirement assets, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Canapi Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Bling Capital, Greycroft, RRE Ventures and Walkabout Ventures. More here.
Equip, a year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based startup offering virtual therapy for eating disorders, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Optum Ventures, with participation from .406 Ventures and F-Prime Capital. STAT has more here.
Labelbox, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup developing a data annotation and labeling platform, has raised $40 million in Series C funding. B Capital Group led the round, joined by Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Gradient Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins. VentureBeat has more here.
Lengoo, a 6.5-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based language translation tech company, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. Inkef Capital led the round, joined by Redalpine, Creathor Ventures, and Techstars. Slator has more here.
Libeo, a two-year-old, Paris, France-based business-to business payments platform, raised €20 million from DST Global, Serena, LocalGlobe and Breega. More here.
Powder, a 2.5-year-old, Paris, France-based startup that invites users to share video clips of their favorite games, and to follow and interact with people with the same interests, just raised $14 million in Series A funding. Serena led the round, joined by General Catalyst, Slow Ventures, Alven Capital, Bpifrance’s Digital Venture fund, Secocha Ventures, Turner Novak, and Kevin Hartz. TechCrunch has more here.
SecuriThings, a nearly five-year-old, Ramat Gan, Israel-based startup that promises to manage and secure IoT operations at scale, raised $14 million in Series A funding. Aleph led the round, joined by Firstime VC. Calcalist has more here.
Solidatus, a 10-year-old, London-based data lineage and metadata management startup, has raised £14 million in Series A funding led by AlbionVC, with participation from HSBC Ventures and Citi. Tech.eu has more here.
SpyBiotech, a three-year-old, Oxford, England-based biotech with a vaccine platform that's targeting infectious diseases, cancer and chronic diseases, has raised $32.5 million in Series A funding. Braavos Investment Advisers led the round, joined by Oxford Investment Consultants, Oxford Sciences Innovation, GV, and the U.K. Government’s Future Fund. UKTN has more here.
WireWheel, a 4.5-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based data privacy management company, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. ForgePoint Capital led the round, joined by New Enterprise Associates, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Fund, PSP Growth, Grotech Ventures, and Sands Capital Ventures. SecurityWeek has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Anecdotes, a 16-month-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based data compliance startup, has raised $5 million in seed funding co-led by Aleph and Glilot Capital Partners. VentureBeat has more here.
Audience Town, a two-year-old, Newark, N.J.-based ad platform for the real estate industry, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding led by Wasatch Venture Partners. The company has now raised $3.1 million to date. More here.
Base Operations, a nearly four-year-old, Washington, D.C.based startup behind a street-level threat mapping platform for use in supporting enterprise security operations, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding. Good Growth Capital led the round, joined by Magma Partners, First In Capital, Gaingels and First Round Capital founder Howard Morgan. TechCrunch has more here.
Brightly, a three-year-old, Seattle-based discovery platform for eco-friendly products, has raised $1 million in funding led by The Female Founders Alliance, with participation from Tacoma Venture Fund and Keeler Investments. More here.
BusUp, a nearly five-year-old, San Francisco-based startup connecting employers with transportation providers and help all stakeholders optimize for the most efficient routes, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Proeza Ventures, with participation from Autotech Ventures and Finaves V. More here.
Kargo, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based smart loading dock platform startup, recently raised $6 million in seed money from Founders Fund, Accomplice, Sozo Ventures and other unnamed investors. TechCrunch has more here.
MutualMarkets, a year-old, New York-based-based marketing company, has raised $3 million in seed funding co-led by Greycroft and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Peak Opportunity Partners, and numerous individual investors. More here.
Reduct.Video, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that uses artificial intelligence, natural language processing and other technologies to simplify the process of creating video footage that's easy to edit, has raised $4 million in funding by Greylock and South Park Commons, with participation from individual investors, including Figma CEO Dylan Field and former Twitter exec Elad Gil. TechCrunch has more here.
Spacelift, a year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based startup that automates the management of cloud infrastructure, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by London’s Blossom Capital, with participation from the Polish fund Inovo Venture Partners and London-based Hoxton Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
U.S. Integrity, a three-year-old, Las Vegas and New York-based sports wagering monitoring company, has raised $1 million in seed funding. New York Angels led the round, joined by Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of New York and SeventySix Capital. More here.
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New Funds
DexCom, a publicly traded, San Diego-based continuous glucose monitoring company focused on people with diabetes, has launched a venture arm, Dexcom Ventures, that will look for opportunities in sensing technology, data analytics, remote patient monitoring and population health. The company isn't saying how much it is setting aside for the effort. More here.
Eurazeo, a 20-year-old, Paris, France-based investment firm, has announced the first close of its second smart city fund, devoting €80 million to invest in the most promising energy, mobility proptech and logistics startups worldwide. Tech.eu has more here.
Knife Capital, an 11-year-old, Cape Town, South Africa-based venture firm, is raising a $50 million fund for startups looking to raise Series B financing. Called the African Series B Expansion Fund, the firm seeks to directly invest in the aggressive expansion of South African breakout companies, as well as fund companies across the rest of Africa. TechCrunch has more here.
Kraken, the nine-year-old, San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, said today that it's launching a venture unit called Kraken Ventures to target early stage companies and protocols across the crypto and fintech ecosystem. Kraken Ventures will be led by Brandon Gath, who most recently served as the head of corporate development at Kraken and earlier was an investor with CME Ventures. More here.
Nationwide, the publicly traded insurance and financial services company, is upping its venture capital game, expanding a $100 million program it launched in 2017 to fund startups in insurance and finance, and telling the Columbus Dispatch that it now plans to invest up to $350 million. More here.
RPM Ventures, an 11-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based seed and early-stage venture firm with one managing director in Michigan and another in Seattle, has raised $88.4 million for its fourth fund, shows an SEC filing that lists a $135 million target. More here.
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Going Public
Investors love that Bumble. The company, which owns the eponymous online dating app, began trading today after pricing its shares at $43. They ended the day at $70, up more than 60%. Bumble's Whitney Wolfe Herd, 31, is one of the youngest female CEOs to take a company public. US News & World Report has more here.
Roblox, the kids’ gaming company that’s getting set to go public, released an updated prospectus on Thursday showing that its revenue for the first three quarters of 2020 was higher than previously reported, while its net loss was lower. Roblox also said that it now expects its direct listing to take place in March, rather than February as it indicated in a prior filing. CNBC has more here.
Rover, the 10-year-old, Seattle-based venture-backed pet care company, said today that it plans to go public by, yes, merging with a blank-check company. Geekwire has more here.
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People
Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann’s wealth topped $5 billion after the Financial Times reported that Microsoft had made inquiries about buying the company. Shares of the discovery platform jumped 7.3% on the news to close today at a record $87.03, adding about $325 million to Silbermann’s fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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Data
Bitcoin’s price soared past the $48,000 level for a second time this week, hitting a fresh all-time high as Bank of New York Mellon said it would provide custody services for digital assets. Bitcoin is now up 60% since the beginning of 2021. CNBC has more here.
The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, has published a new report suggesting that 40% of US COVID-19 deaths "could have been averted" in an analysis of the previous U.S. administration's public-health policies.
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Essential Reads
Mike Cagney's blockchain lending startup Figure Technologies plans to raise $250 million through a new blank-check company, according to an SEC filing. The special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, is called Figure Acquisition Corp. I and is sponsored by an affiliate of Figure's dubbed Fintech Acquisition. Cagney previously founded SoFi and left amid allegations of overseeing a toxic workplace. Figure applied for a national bank charter back in December. Bloomberg has more here.
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Detours
Brands pivot to more strategic uses of star power.
Desperate homeowners reflect on their COVID purchases: "You run into this lack of awareness and lack of time, which is not a good combination.”
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