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February 25, 2021
Thursday!
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Top News
Industry mainstay Bessemer Venture Partners just closed on a $3.3 billion in capital commitments across two new funds. It also snagged Jeff Blackburn, the longtime Amazon SVP who was among Jeff Bezos's top lieutenants for more than 20 years, and promoted three other investors to full partner, including investor Tess Hatch. TechCrunch has more here.
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Brookfield is a Real Estate Giant with $600 Billion in Assets; Here's How to Land a Check from the Outfit
There are big investment firms, and then there are big investment firms. Brookfield Asset Management, the Toronto-based, 122-year-old outfit whose current market cap is $63 billion and that oversees $600 billion in assets, clearly falls into the latter camp. Think real estate, infrastructure, renewable power, private equity, and credit. If it falls into a defined asset class, Brookfield probably has it in its portfolio.
That’s also true of venture capital, though venture is new enough to Brookfield that founders who might like its capital are still getting the memo. Indeed, it was a little less than four years ago that Brookfield Technology Partners began investing off the company’s balance sheet and soon after recruited Josh Raffaelli — a Stanford MBA who cut his teeth as a principal with Draper Fisher Jurvetson, then spent another five years with Silver Lake — to lead the practice.
Its existence came as a surprise to him, actually. “I’ve been a tech investor in Silicon Valley,” says Raffaelli. “My entire professional career has been in a 15-minute drive from the [Bay Area] house I grew up in. And I had never heard about Brookfield before they started this practice because it’s in businesses. It’s in real estate. It has done things that are not generally tech-enabled.”
Not until fairly recently, that is. Raffaelli and his 11-person team have not only made dozens of bets since then, but they’re currently investing out of a pool of capital that features third party capital in addition to that of Brookfield — which is a first. As for what they are looking for, the idea is help Brookfield reimagine how its many office towers, malls and other real estate might be used or developed or leased or insured. It’s to make Brookfield smarter, better prepared, and more profitable. In return, the startups get industry expertise -- and a major customer in Brookfield.
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Massive Fundings
Anchorage, a nearly four-year-old, San Francisco-based cryptocurrency custodian that promises investors the ability to safely hold and use digital assets, has raised an $80 million Series C funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, Lux and Indico. TechCrunch has more here.
Infra.Market, a four-year-old, Mumbai, India-based startup that helps construction and real estate companies in the country procure materials and handle logistics for their projects, has raised $100 million in Series C funding at a post-money valuation of $1 billion. Tiger Global Management led the round, joined by earlier backers Foundamental, Accel, Nexus Venture Partners, Evolvence India Fund and Sistema Asia Fund. The company has now raised $150 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Lob, a nearly eight-year-old, San Francisco-based company promising to help businesses deliver physical mail more quickly and affordably, and with more personalization, has just raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Y Combinator Continuity Fund. Lob participated in the YC accelerator; the Continuity Fund also led the startup’s previous funding. Altogether, it has now raised $80 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Newsela, an 8.5-year-old, New York-based company that takes real-world content from trusted original content providers and turns it into instructional K-12 content, has raised $100 million in Series D funding at a post-money valuation of $1 billion. New investor Franklin Templeton co-led the round with earlier investor TCV. Other participants in the round include Owl Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Waycross Ventures. More here.
Otter.ai, a five-year-old, Los Altos, Ca.-based startup that develops speech to text transcription and translation applications using artificial intelligence and machine learning, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Spectrum Equity led the round, joined by Horizons Ventures, Draper Associates, GGV Capital and Draper Dragon Fund. More here.
Sorare, a two-year-old, Paris-based blockchain-based global fantasy football game where soccer clubs collect digital cards and play games (more than 130 clubs have cards on the platform), just raised $50 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark. Other investors in the round include Accel, investors Alexis Ohanian and Gary Vaynerchuk and famed French footballer Antoine Griezmann. Bloomberg has more here.
Terminus, a six-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based account-based marketing company, has raised $90 million in Series C funding at a post-money valuation of around $400 million, says TechCrunch. Great Hill Partners led the round, joined by Hallet Capital and earlier investors Atlanta Ventures and Edison Partners. The company has now raised around $120 million altogether. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Armorblox, a four-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company that makes enterprise email security software, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Next47 led the round, joined by Polaris Partners, Unusual Ventures and General Catalyst. More here.
Borrowell, a six-year-old, Toronto-based startup that offers free credit scores, education and monitoring, as well as credit coaching and personalized financial product recommendations, has raised $25 million CAD (around $20 million) from Kensington Capital Partners, BDC Capital, iA Financial Group, Impact Engine and insiders Portag3 Ventures, White Star Capital, National Bank of Canada and Equitable Bank. It also acquired Refresh Financial, a credit provider. The company has now raised $55 million CAD altogether. More here.
Doubtnut, a five-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based math and science learning startup, raised $31 million in Series B funding. SIG and Lupa Systems co-led the round, joined by earlier investors Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network India and Waterbridge Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Fi, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based maker of connected dog collars that use WiFi and Bluetooth to send users a notification when their doc travels beyond a geofenced area, has raised $30 million Series B. Longview Asset Management led the round, which follows a $7 million Series A raised back in 2019. The company is now valued at "north of $200 million." says TechCrunch. More here.
Lexer, an 11-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based customer data platform, has raised $25.5 million in Series B funding co-led by Blackbird Ventures and King River Capital, with participation from earlier investor January Capital. The company has now raised $33 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Mantle, a five-year-old, Bay Area-based company whose 3D printing technology makes high-precision metal parts, says it recently raised $13 million in funding from Foundation Capital, Hypertherm Ventures, Future Shape, 11.2 capital, Plug and Play Ventures, and Corazon Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Maze, a three-year-old, Paris, France-based user testing platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Amplify Partners, Partech and Seedcamp. TechCrunch has more here.
Medisafe, an eight-year-old, Boston-based medical management company that is developing a personalized medication management platform to help patients stay on top of their prescriptions, has raised $30 million in Series C funding. Sanofi Ventures and Alive Israel HealthTech Fund co-led the round, joined by Leumi Partners, Menora Mivtachim, Consensus Business Group and earlier backers Pitango Ventures, 7Wire Ventures, Merck Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Lool HealthTech, Triventures and OurCrowd. VentureBeat has more here.
NIL Technology, a 14-year-old, Denmark-based specialist optical components including metalenses, has raised €26 million co-led by Jolt Capital, NGP Capital and Vækstfonden. Optics.org has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Nyobolt, a year-old, Cambridge, England-based auto battery startup, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by IQ Capital, with participation from Cambridge Enterprise. More here.
Raena, a two-year-old, Singapore-based social commerce platform, has raised $9 million in Series A funding co-led by Alpha Wave Incubation and Alpha JWC Ventures, with participation from AC Ventures and earlier investors Beenext, Beenos and Strive. TechCrunch has more here.
Stoke Space Technologies, a 1.5-year-old Seattle-based startup that says it is making a reusable second stage rocket, which will take a payload to orbit and beyond, has raised $9.1 million in seed funding co-led by NFX and MaC Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Seven Seven Six (Alexis Ohanian), Liquid2 (Joe Montana), and Cruise cofounder Kyle Vogt, among other individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Stitch, a 1.5-year-old, Cape Town, South Africa-based fintech startup that offers API access to bank accounts in Africa, has raised $4 million in funding co-led by the London-based venture firm firstminute Capital and U.S.-based firm, the Raba Partnership. TechCrunch has more here.
StorageOS, a six-year-old, London-based software-defined cloud native storage platform, has raised $10 million in Series B funding. Downing Ventures led the round, joined by Chestnut Street Ventures and earlier investors Bain Capital Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, and MMC Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
TreeCard, an eight-month-old, U.K. yet-to-launch fintech offering a spending card made out of wood and the promise to fund reforesting via the interchange fees generated, has raised $5.1 million in seed funding. The round is led by EQT Ventures, with participation from Seedcamp and Episode 1. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Sequoia Capital has raised a new, $195 million seed fund, its fourth. The idea, says Crunchbase News, is to invest the capital in both the U.S. and in Europe, through the firm's recently established European early-stage practice. The firm closed its third seed fund with $180 million in early 2018.
Lightbank, an 11-year-old, Chicago-based venture firm cofounded by serial entrepreneur Eric Lefkofsky (Tempus Labs, Groupon, Echo Global Logistics), raised $180 million for its second fund. New Enterprise Associates, which has made a lot of money with Lefkofsky, is an investor in the fund. Not involved is Lefkofsky's longtime business partner and frequent cofounder Brad Keywell, who is today running Uptake. Lefkofsky tells Crain's Chicago Business, “We remain close and connected and are common shareholders in a bunch of companies" but " we decided to do Lightbank II differently, so I’m going to devote more time to it and manage it and use it as my passive vehicle to make early-stage investments.” More here.
Motion Ventures, a new, Singapore-based venture firm that's focused on the maritime industry, is raising $30 million for its debut fund, reports TechCrunch. More here.
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Going Public
Lime, the now four-year-old, Uber-backed electric scooter startup, is working with investment bank Evercore as it explores an attempt to go public via a blank-check company, says Business Insider. The company would likely look to bring in two to three times the $170 million it raised in its much publicized tie-up with Uber in May 2020, says the outlet. More here.
WeDoctor, an 11-year-old, Hangzhou, China-based mobile medical scheduling and information company backed by Tencent, Millennium Management, and Sequoia Capital China and that raised $400 million at a $6.8 billion valuation late last year, is planning to file for an IPO in Hong Kong as soon as next month, says Bloomberg. More here.
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Exits
Publicly traded Autodesk says it has signed a deal to acquire Innovyze, a privately held provider of water infrastructure modeling, simulation, and predictive analyses technology, for $1 billion. The acquisition is the largest in Autodesk's history and is meant to position Autodesk as a provider of end-to-end software for the operations of water infrastructure. ZDNet has more here.
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People
Facebook’s head of hardware today confirmed the company is "considering" facial recognition technology for its upcoming smart glasses devices. “It’s really a debate we need to have with the public,” Andrew Bosworth told his Instagram followers.
In case you missed it (we did): Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy went after Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev earlier this week in a live-streamed chat in which Portnoy accused Robinhood of leaving amateur investors high and dry amid the GameStop saga. "I think he's a rat and a liar," said Portnoy of Tenev as the interview was getting underway.
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Essential Reads
Twitter announced a pair of big upcoming features today: the ability for users to charge their followers for access to additional content, and the ability to create and join groups based around specific interests. They’re two of the more substantial changes to Twitter in a while, notes The Verge.
Sergey Brin’s secretive Mountain View, Ca.-based airship company, LTA Research and Exploration, is is planning to power a huge disaster relief airship with a record-breaking 1.5-megawatt hydrogen propulsion system in order to deliver humanitarian aid to pretty much anywhere (and revolutionize transportation). TechCrunch has more here.
Coinbase says the entire crypto market could be destabilized if Bitcoin's anonymous creator is ever revealed or sells their $30 billion stake. Business Insider has more here.
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Retail Therapy
Johnny Depp’s French village is coming up for sale (again) for an expected listing price of $55 million.
Some of the original 'I Can Has Cheezburger?' Lolcat memes are now available through a digital art auction.
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