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February 15, 2021
Hello! We hope you're staying warm wherever you are. ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
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Top News
State lawmakers around the country are exploring a range of new taxes targeting Amazon, Facebook, Google and other Internet giants, seeking to capture some of their eye-popping profits in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The Washington Post has more here.
Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, wants the companies it invests in globally to boost the number of women on their boards and to consider setting targets if fewer than 30% of their directors are female, top fund officials tell Reuters. More here.
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01 Advisors, the Venture Firm of Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, Wraps Up Fund Two with $325 Million
Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, renowned early Twitter execs who served as company’s CEO and its chief operating officer, respectively, have quietly closed a second venture fund just one-and-a-half years after disclosing they’d secured $135 million for a debut fund for their firm, 01 Advisors.
According to an SEC filing, they wrapped up their second fund late last week with $325 million in capital commitments from 81 investors.
We reached out to the firm earlier today and hope to share more soon. In the meantime, its strategy appears to center around more concentrated bets in both the consumer and enterprise spheres — with checks going out both early and sometimes later in a startup’s trajectory.
Among these recipients is Literati, a nearly five-year-old, Austin, Texas-based book club subscription service that raised $40 million in Series B funding in January led by Felicis Ventures; Tipalti, a 10-year-old, Israel-based company that develops automation software for global payments and raised $150 million in Series E funding at a $2 billion valuation back in October (01 Advisors joined as a follow-on investor); and SpotOn Transact, a payments software startup that raised $50 million in Series B funding last year led by 01 Advisors. (Worth noting: the company raised a $60 million Series C round just six months later. DST Global led that next round, with participation from 01 Advisors and others.)
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Massive Fundings
KreditBee, a three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based lending company, has overseen $75 million in new funding come in from Premji Invest, Mirae Asset Naver Asia Growth Fund, Alpine Capital and Arkam Ventures. The round includes both primary and secondary investment and the company didn't make public how much of that new funding it will receive versus earlier shareholders. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Synthetix, a four-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based decentralized trading platform has raised $12 million from venture capital firms Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm and IOSG. Coindesk characterizes the round as a "rare occurrence," as the investors didn't wire funds to the founding team but rather purchased the platform’s native token directly from its treasury. More here.
Smaller Fundings
Jigsaw, a nearly five-year-old, U.K.-based dating app that says it first on personality and character, has raised £2.7 million ($3.7 million) in seed funding led by a lead generation company for online dating companies, The Relationship Corp, with additional backing from angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
According to the WSJ, Insight Partners, the 26-year-old, New York-based globally focused venture and private equity firm, is planning to begin raising a new fund with a goal of up to $12 billion, just 10 months after closing its biggest fund to date - a $9.5 billion vehicle it closed in April of last year. Insight is also currently seeking $875 million for its first fund focused exclusively on preferred equity investments. More here.
Ironspring Ventures, a 1.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based venture firm focused on accelerating the "digital adoption across legacy heavy industries," has closed its debut vehicle with $61 million in capital commitments, says TechCrunch. Cofounders Adam Bridgman and Peter Holt previously co-founded an investment vehicle called Holt Ventures; a third cofounder is Ty Findley, a former investor at GE Ventures and the Pritzker Group. More here.
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Exits
India’s biggest e-learning startup, Byju’s, is close to signing a deal to acquire rival Toppr Technologies in a transaction valued at roughly $150 million, according to Bloomberg source. Toppr provides online learning materials to students in grades 5 through 12 and is the latest target for Byju’s, which has been expanding aggressively. Just last month, it agreed to a $1 billion deal to acquire brick-and-mortar test prep leader Aakash Educational Services. More here.
Lengow, an 11-year-old, Paris, France-based e-commerce automation platform that helps brands and distributors improve their performance, has sold a majority stake in its business to the private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners for undisclosed terms. According to Crunchbase, Lengow had raised at least $13.4 million over the years, including from Serena, Alven, Bpifrance, and Kima Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Learjet, the sleek private jet used by celebrities for decades, is ending production this year, following a slump in demand due to competition from newer and less-expensive rivals. Reuters has more here.
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Going Public
FixPrice, a 14-year-old, Russia-based discount retail chain that offers a smaller number of products than traditional retail outlets but at low fixed priced points, has announced plans for an IPO on the London Stock Exchange that could value the company at upwards of $6 billion. It's the latest in a flurry of Russian listings and could value the company at $6 billion, according to The Moscow Times. Reuters' Breakingviews section has more here.
The newest company of One Plus cofounder Carl Pei -- Nothing -- is now the owner of the one-time smartphone brand Essential, launched by Android cofounders Andy Rubin and Matt Hershenson. 9to5Google has the story here.
The world’s largest music company is finally going solo. On Saturday, Universal Music Group’s French owner Vivendi said that it will spin off its music business and list it in the Netherlands later this year. The WSJ reports that there still isn’t much information about Universal’s valuation other than it will be at least €30 billion but it speculates that should be strong, though: Since it listed last summer, smaller rival Warner Music Group’s market value has increased by 27% to $19 billion. More here.
Virgin Group Acquisition II, the second blank check company formed by the Virgin Group, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $330 million in an initial public offering. The SPAC was founded by Sir Richard Branson and is being led by CEO Josh Bayliss, the CEO of Virgin Group, and CFO Evan Lovell, Virgin Group's CIO. The team's previous SPAC recently announced plans to acquire D2C genetic testing service 23andMe. Renaissance Capital has more here.
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People
Billionaire Bernard Arnault is launching a SPAC, as the blank-check boom spreads to Europe. Business Insider has more here.
On Saturday, Elon Musk invited Russian President Vladimir Putin via Twitter to join him for a conversation on Clubhouse, the audio-only app. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO then said in Russian: “It would be a great honor to speak with you.” According to media reports, Putin deems the proposal interesting but needs more details.
Tech investor Balaji Srinivasan reportedly suggested doxxing a journalist who wanted to report on ties between Silicon Valley and the neoreactionary movement, a neo-fascist philosophy embraced by the alt-right and some tech elite. Srinivasan made the suggestion in 2013 in an email to blogger Curtis Yarvin, the New York Times reported Saturday. "If things get hot, it may be interesting to sic the Dark Enlightenment audience on a single vulnerable hostile reporter to dox them and turn them inside out with hostile reporting sent to *their* advertisers /friends/contacts," he reportedly wrote. Business Insider has more here.
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Jobs
AI Fund, a venture studio founded in 2017 by Andrew Ng, the former chief scientist for Baidu, is hiring a principal. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.
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Data
Early investors in the robotic process automation company UiPath are on track to make a stunning 220,000% return, Sifted reported over the weekend. UiPath, which closed on $750 million in Series F funding at a post-money valuation of $35 billion earlier this month, counts Earlybird, Seedcamp and Credo Ventures among its earlier backers and they reportedly managed to retain just over 10% of the company. More here.
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Essential Reads
Parler has reopened after a month offline. The social network announced in a press release that the site is now accessible for users with existing accounts and will accept new signups starting next week. It also announced a new interim CEO: Mark Meckler, who previously cofounded the right-wing group Tea Party Patriots. The Verge has more here.
GameStop investors who won big -- and lost big.
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Detours
LeBron James considered joining the NFL in 2011.
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