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February 17, 2021
Wednesday! (Hello.)
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Top News
People and publishers in Australia are newly navigating a Facebook without news. Facebook's decision to pull the plug ties to a proposed law in the country that requires tech companies to pay publishers for linking to articles across their platforms. As the New York Times notes, the decision came hours after Google announced it had reached an agreement to pay Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to publish its news content in a three-year global deal. The deal is part of a string of agreements Google has struck with media companies to ensure news will remain on its services. More here.
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New York's Boldstart Bulks Up
Boldstart Ventures, a New York-based firm that started with a $1 million proof-of-concept fund in 2010, has just closed on $155 million in capital commitments for its fifth flagship fund and $75 million for its second opportunity fund, a vehicle meant to support breakout startups in its portfolio.
Given Boldstart’s focus — and its track record to date — it’s only surprising that the young firm didn’t raise more in the current market. From the outset, Boldstart has focused on technical founders in the U.S., Canada and Europe who are already building, or are capable of building, “developer first” and SaaS products. Indeed, firm co-founder Ed Sim says the firm prides itself on “talking to founders before they even start their businesses.”
He points to some of the most valuable companies in the firm’s portfolio as outfits that Boldstart funded when they “just had slide decks and no product.” Among these is Snyk, a company that helps developers use open-source code and stay secure and was valued at $2.6 billion when it raised its last round of funding in September. Another is Kustomer, a startup that specializes in customer-service platforms and chatbots and that Facebook acquired in November for a reported $1 billion. Boldstart was also there at the start of the data intelligence platform BigID, which closed its newest round in December at a $1 billion valuation.
We talked with Sim about making those early bets — and whether capturing founders so early on in their trajectory has grown harder as more and more VCs have begun pushing into the same types of deals.
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Massive Fundings
Ally.io, a four-year-old, Seattle-based software startup with a focus on OKR goal-setting techniques, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Green Oaks Capital, Madrona Capital and its Series B lead, Tiger Global Management. TechCrunch has more here.
Blockchain.com, a nearly 10-year-old, London-based company behind a popular cryptocurrency wallet, among other products, has raised $120 million in funding from a long list of backers. Among them is Moore Strategic Ventures, Kyle Bass, Access Industries, Rovida Advisors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Lakestar, and Eldridge. The company has now raised more than $190 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Copado, an eight-year-old, Chicago-based DevOps platform built for Salesforce, has raised $96 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners and Salesforce Ventures co-led the round, joined by Lead Edge Capital, ISAI Capital Venture and Perpetual Investors. VentureBeat has more here.
Dispo, a two-year-old, L.A-based photo-sharing app and social network co-founded by YouTube star David Dobrik, has reportedly had calls with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark, among others, in recent days about leading a Series A round of funding. The Information, which reported the news earlier, said that it's "unclear who initiated the conversations" but that, according to a person close to Dispo, it has spoken with different investors who offered to value the young company at $100 million or more. Forbes also reported today on the recent buzz surrounding, Dispo, which raised $4 million in seed funding in October led by Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital fund, Seven Seven Six. More here.
Excision, a six-year-old, San Francisco- and Philadelphia, Pa.-based developer of CRISPR therapies for chronic HIV infection, has raised $60 million. GreatPoint Ventures led the round, joined by Artis Venture, Adjuvant Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Anzu Partners, Cota Capital, WRVI Capital, IndusAge Partners, Loreda Holdings and Olive Tree Capital. More here.
LeaseLock, a five-year-old, Marina Del Rey, Ca.-based real estate insure-tech platform, has raised $52 million in Series B funding. Westerly Winds and Wildcat Venture Partners co-led the round, joined by SoftBank Ventures Asia, Vertex Ventures US, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, American Family Ventures, Moderne Ventures, Strata Equity Group, Veteran Capital and Mucker Capital. More here.
Locus Robotics, a nearly-year-old, Wilmington, Ma.-based company that makes autonomous mobile robots for warehouses, has raised $150 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $1 billion co-led by Tiger Global Management and Bond. The firm has now raised $250 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Mainstay Medical, a 13-year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based developer of an implantable neurostimulation system for chronic lower back pain, has raised $108 million in funding co-led by Ally Bridge Group and Sofinnova Partners; they were joined by an unnamed large global medical device company, KCK Group and Fountain Healthcare Partners. Mass Device has more here.
OutSystems, a 20-year-old, Lisbon, Portugal-based low-code platform that makes tools for companies to develop, deploy and manage omni-channel enterprise applications, has raised $150 million in new capital at a $9.5 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by Abdiel Capital and Tiger Global Management. The company had last raised $360 million in funding in 2018. TechCrunch has more here.
Public.com, a two-year-old, New York-based self-described social investing app that aims to give people the ability to invest in companies using any amount of money, commission-free, has officially closed on $220 million in funding at a post-money valuation of $1.2 billion. Backers included Accel, Greycroft, Lakestar, Intuition Capital, Tiger Global Management, Mantis VC, Dreamers VC, Inspired Capital, Aglaé Ventures, and YouTube personality Phil DeFranco. Just two months ago, the company raised $65 million Series C funding. It has now raised $310 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Red Canary, an eight-year-old, Denver, Co.-based maker of cloud-based enterprise security software, has raised $81 million in Series C funding. Summit Partners led the round, joined by Noro-Moseley Partners and Access Venture Partners. The company has now raised $125 million altogether. CRN has more here.
Standard Cognition, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based autonomous checkout solution, has raised $150 million in Series C funding at a valuation north of $1 billion. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round, joined by SK Networks and earlier backers CRV, EQT Ventures and TI Platform Management. The Spoon has more here.
TigerGraph, a nearly nine-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based startup that's developing graph database tools, has raised $105 million in Series C led by Tiger Global Management. The company has now raised more than $170 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
vArmour, nine-year-old, Los Altos, Ca.-based security startup focused on multi-cloud deployments, has raised $58 million. Earlier backers AllegisCyber Capital and NightDragon co-led the round, joined by other earlier backers, including Standard Chartered Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Telstra, Redline Capital and EDBI. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
1Kosmos, a two-year-old, Somerset, N.J.-based maker of passwordless authentication software, has raised $15 million in Series A funding from ForgePoint Capital. AiThority has more here.
Fictiv, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based company that positions itself as the “AWS of hardware," has raised $35 million in Series D funding. 40 North Ventures led the round, joined by Honeywell, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Adit Ventures and M20, as well as past backers Accel, G2VP and Bill Gates. The company has now raised $92 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Peak AI, a six-year-old, Manchester, U.K.-based company that says its tech can help enterprises — specifically those that work with physical products — make better, AI-based evaluations and decisions, has raised $21 million in Series B funding. Oxx led the round, joined by Arete and earlier backers MMC Ventures and Praetura Ventures. TechCrunch explains the company here.
Realm, a two-year-old, New York-based data hub for homeowners (it says it analyzes “thousands of unique data points” to highlight opportunities to increase property value through square-foot add-ons, renovations, rental units, and more), just raised $3 million in seed funding from Primary Venture Partners, Lerer Hippeau, and Liberty Mutual Strategic Venture Partners. Coverager has more here.
Reprise, a year-old, Boston-based no-code platform for sales and marketing teams to create customized product demos, has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Glasswing Ventures and Accomplice VC. More here.
SeedFi, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup with two lending products aimed at Americans living paycheck to paycheck, has raised $15 million in an equity funding led by earlier backer Andreessen Horowitz, which had also led a $4 million seed round for the company. It also raised $35 million in debt financing. TechCrunch has more here.
Strata, an 18-month-old, Boulder, Co.-based startup setting out to unify identity and access management systems to enable consistent identity management across clouds and on-premises infrastructure, raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Menlo Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Unybrands, a year-old, Miami, Fl.-based acquirer of e-commerce businesses looking to scale on and off Amazon (yes, another of these), has raised $25 million. Investors included Nordstar, Dia Ventures, Airbnb cofounder Nathan Blecharczyk, 166 2nd Financial Services, Day One Ventures, and Benvolio Group. Crunchbase News has more here.
Artie, a two-year-old, L.A.-based platform for mobile games that can be shared and played instantly on popular social apps with no additional app download, API access, or integration needed, has raised $10 million in funding including from Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Thirty Five Ventures, Scooter Braun’s Raised In Space, Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Susquehanna International Group, and others. TechCrunch has more here.
Citadel ID, a year-old, San Francisco-based income and employment verification service, has raised $3.5 million from Abstract Ventures, Soma VC and ChapterOne. TechCrunch has more here.
Edgybees, a four-year-old, Gaithersburg, Md.-based company that helps businesses, first responders and military users geotag and augment their aerial video streams in real time, has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding. Seraphim Capital led this new round. New investors Refinery Ventures, LG Technology Ventures and Kodem Growth, as well as existing investors OurCrowd, 8VC, Verizon Ventures and Motorola Solutions Venture Capital also participated. TechCrunch has more here.
Gravy, a four-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based startup helping subscription-based businesses recover failed payments, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding led by Birmingham, Al.-based Arlington Family Partners, one of the few family offices in the southeast. TechCrunch has more here.
Nomad Labs, a year-old, Denver, Co.-based real estate platform that promises guaranteed rent, has raised a $2 million seed round from Range Ventures, Kickstart, Peterson Ventures, 8Z and Planomatic. More here.
Rheaply, a six-year-old, Chicago-based subscription-based startup focused on recycling unused items, raised $8 million in Series A funding led by High Alpha. 100 Black Angels & Allies Fund, Concrete Rose Capital, Hyde Park Angels, M25, MCJ Collective, Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab and Salesforce Ventures. Chicago Inno has more here.
Spectral, a year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that’s developing automated tools to help developer teams spot mistakes such as confidential data buried in code, has emerged from stealth today with $6.2 million in a seed round of funding co-led by Amiti and MizMaa. VentureBeat has more here.
Talkiatry, a 10-month-old, New York-based telehealth startup focused on psychiatric care, has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Sikwood Capital Partners led the round, joined by Relevance Ventures and Richard Park, the founder and former CEO of CityMD. Forbes has more here.
YBVR, a five-year-old, San Jose, Ca-based virtual reality video distribution company, has raised $1.5 million in pre-Series A funding, including from Verizon Ventures, Telefonica’s Wayra and Tech Coast Angels. AiThority has more here.
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(Other) New Funds
Reach Capital, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm focused on early-stage edtech companies, has reportedly closed its third fund with $165 million in capital commitments, including from the Ford and Kaiser foundations, Goldman Sachs’ AIMS Imprint, Sesame Workshop, National Geographic Society, Caprock Group and, Hall Capital. According to the outlet ImpactAlpha, the firm's portfolio includes Ellevation Education, which offers English-as-a-second-language software for immigrant students; Demos, an app offering math learning for vision-impaired students; and Springboard, which helps low-income students launch tech careers. More here.
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Exits
After raising $690 million from SoftBank in December to make acquisitions, the Sweden-based cloud communications company Sinch has followed through on its strategy in that department. Today the company announced that it is acquiring Inteliquent, an interconnection provider for voice communications in the U.S. currently owned by private equity firm GTCR, for $1.14 billion in cash. TechCrunch has more here.
Palo Alto Networks, the publicly traded cybersecurity company, is spending $156 million to acquire Bridgecrew, a two-year-old Israeli developer-first cloud security company. Bridgecrew had raised just $18 million from investors. TechCrunch has more here.
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Going Public
AEye, a lidar startup that developed its technology for use in autonomous vehicles and to support advanced driver assistance systems in passenger cars, is going public through a merger with CF Finance Acquisition Corp. III (led by Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick) that will value the company at $2 billion. As TechCrunch notes, the agreement "marks the latest lidar company to turn to so-called blank check companies or SPACs in lieu of a traditional IPO process. Velodyne Lidar kicked off the trend last summer when it announced that it planned to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company Graf Industrial Corp., with a market value of $1.8 billion. Others soon followed, including Luminar, Aeva, Ouster and Innoviz." More here.
New Vista Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company founded by former Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg to target a future high-tech acquisition, went on the market today with an initial public offering valued at $240 million -- above its original target of $200 million. As Geekwire notes, the IPO comes a little more than a year after Boeing fired Muilenburg amid controversy over his handling of the company’s 737 MAX crisis.
Lucid Motors, a luxury electric vehicle maker, is nearing a deal to go public with former Citigroup executive Michael Klein’s Churchill Capital IV at a roughly $12 billion valuation, says Reuters. Its sources say the SPAC has initiated talks with investors to raise up to $1.5 billion by selling shares in a private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction for the deal. More here.
Traveloka, Southeast Asia’s biggest online travel startup, is planning to list in the U.S. this year to raise funds using a special purpose acquistion company, its CEO, Ferry Unardi, told Bloomberg Television yesterday. “SPAC is very efficient . . . If we can do it faster we can then focus on execution and growing the company.” As Bloomberg notes, Traveloka is now one of a growing number of Indonesian startups looking to go public in the U.S. via a SPAC. Ride-hailing giant Gojek and the e-commerce platform PT Tokopedia, are also said to be finalizing merger terms. More here.
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People
Nate Faust, a former executive at Quidsi and a cofounder of Jet.com, has a new startup, Olive, that consolidates a shopper’s purchases into a single weekly delivery in a reusable package. TechCrunch has more here.
WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum doubles down: after shelling out $100 million in 2019 for a Malibu estate owned previously by entertainment exec Ron Meyer, he just paid $87 million for the house next door, says the WSJ. Koum also reportedly spent $125 million for the Beverly Hills estate of Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg last year. More here.
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Sponsored By . . .
Zoom’s Eric Yuan, Honeywell’s Darius Adamczyk, Inspired Capital’s Alexa von Tobel, and Deepak Chopra are among some of the featured speakers at this year’s Montgomery Summit. Join our community of innovative companies and executives on March 3-4 and learn how these industry experts navigated the challenges of 2020 and to hear their perspectives on what’s coming. Register today for a complimentary plenary pass!
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Essential Reads
The House Committee on Financial Services just released the prepared remarks from Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev ahead of his testimony at a hearing tomorrow (Thursday) regarding GameStop's recent stock rally. In it, Tenev denies reports that Robinhood blocked purchases at the request of hedge funds. He also speaks out against the rule that requires equities transactions to clear over two days and asks Congress to consider allowing trades to be settled in real-time to allow investors to make purchases faster and allow brokers to clear up proprietary cash. Business Insider has more here.
President Joe Biden’s press secretary delivered a striking message to Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, this week, reports CNBC. On the question of whether Biden would be speaking with the crown prince, Jen Psaki replied: “Part of that is going back to engagement counterpart-to-counterpart. The president’s counterpart is King Salman, and I expect that at an appropriate time, he would have a conversation with him. I don’t have a timeline on that.”
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Sponsored By . . .
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