Goldman restarts its crypto trading desk, Grimes gets in on the NFT action, and what's old is new again in car-hailing

March 1, 2021
 
Hello! Welcome back.:) No column today (we were on the phone a lot).
Top News
 
The U.S. government is unprepared to defend the nation against new threats posed by the increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies, according to a report released today. Compiled by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, in order to keep up with countries such as China and Russia in the field of AI, the report stated that the "United States must act now to field AI systems and invest substantially more resources in AI innovation to protect its security, promote its prosperity, and safeguard the future of democracy.” The Hill has more here.
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Massive Fundings
 
Artiva, a two-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based developer of cancer-focused cell therapies based on allogeneic natural killer cells, has raised $120 million in Series B funding led by Venrock. Other participants in the round include Acuta Capital Partners, Cormorant, and roughly a dozen other new and earlier backers. The company closed on $78 million in Series A funding last year. FierceBiotech has more here.
 
Axonius, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based startup whose technology helps organizations manage and track computing-based assets that are connecting to their networks, then plug that data into some 300 different cybersecurity tools to analyze it, has raised $100 million in Series D funding at post-money valuation of $1.2 billion valuation. Stripes led the round, joined by earlier investors Bessemer Venture Partners, OpenView Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Vertex Ventures Israel. TechCrunch has more here.
 
Carisma Therapeutics, a five-year-old, Philadelphia-based biopharmaceutical company developing cell therapies, has an undisclosed amount of extended Series B funding that brings the round total to $59 million. Earlier investors IP Group and Penn Medicine participated in this latest tranche, along with new backer 4BIO Capital. The company has now raised $121 million altogether. More here.
 
Dream Games, a two-year-old, Istanbul, Turkey-based developer of puzzle games, has raised $50 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures led the round, joined by Balderton Capital and Makers Fund. It's the largest Series A round closed by a startup in the country to date, says TechCrunch. More here.
 
FogPharma, a nearly five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company at work on a new kind of therapeutic class that combines the cell-penetrating capacity of small molecules with the target-engaging tenacity of biologics (the company calls these cell-penetrating miniproteins), has raised $107 million in Series C funding. VenBio Partners led the round, joined by Cormorant, Farallon Capital Management, Invus, T. Rowe Price, HBM Healthcare Investments, Casdin Capital, PagsGroup and earlier investors GV, 6 Dimensions Capital, Deerfield Management and Blue Pool Capital. Endpoints News has more here.
 
Loggi, a nearly eight-year-old, Sao Paulo, Brazil-based shipping logistics platform, has raised $205 million at nearly a $2 billion post-money valuation led by CapSur Capital, with participation from Brazilian hedge fund manager Luis Stuhlberger’s Verde Asset Management. Bloomberg has more here.
 
Skydio, a 6.5-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based autonomous drone-maker, has raised $170 million in Series D funding at a post-money valuation of more than $1 billion led by earlier investor Andreessen Horowitz, along with participation from Lines Capital, Next47, IVP and UP Partners. It's the second massive round for the company in less than a year; last July, it announced $100 million in Series C funding. TechCrunch has more here.
 
Tenaya Therapeutics, a five-year-old, South San Francisco-based developer of therapies that target the underlying causes of heart disease, raised $106 million in Series C funding from RTW Investments, RA Capital Management, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and earlier investors Column Group, Casdin Capital and GV. More here.
 
Zeta Global, a 13-year-old, New York-based marketing technology company cofounded by former Apple CEO John Sculley, has sewn up $222.5 million in new debt financing, including from Barclays, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding. TechCrunch has more here.
 
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
 
Apna, a one-year-old, Bangalore, India-based jobs platform that aims to match low-skilled workers with jobs as well as to help them upskill themselves, has raised  $12.5 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital India and Greenoaks Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Capital India and Rocketship VC. The company has now raised $20.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
 
Deferit, a three-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based buy-now-pay-later platform that invites customers to split their utility, telco, car registration or childcare bills into four installment repayments, has raised $11.6 million (USD) in fresh funding led by Carthona Capital, with participation from Alceon. Financial Review has more here.
 
Deposco, a 16-year-old, Alpharetta, Ga.-based cloud-native supply chain software company, has raised $35 million in funding led by NewSpring, with participation from Aspen Capital Group and earlier investors. More here.
 
EG 427, a year-old, Paris-based gene therapy startup, has raised €12 million in Series A funding led by David Lamond of the investment firm En Pointe. More here.
 
Employment Hero, a 6.5-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based startup that has created a cloud-based HR platform for small and mid-size businesses, has raised $34.9 million (USD) in funding led by SEEK, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, OneVentures and AirTreeVentures. TechCrunch has more here.
 
Gitai, a five-year-old, Tokyo, Japan-based developer of robots for in-space satellite servicing work, has raised $17.1 million in Series B funding. SPARX Innovation led the round, joined by DcI Venture Growth Fund, Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. and Epson. TechCrunch has more here.
 
Oxular, a 6.5-year-old, Oxford, England-based company developing therapeutics for retinal disease and specifically (right now) for diabetic macular edema, has raised £27 million ($37 million) in funding. Forbion led the round, joined by investors including IP Group, NeoMed, and V-Bio Ventures. More here.
 
Smaller Fundings
 
BrioHR, a three-year-old, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based HR software platform, has raised $1.3 million in funding from Y Combinator, Global Founders CapitalEast Ventures and angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
 
Rollick, a four-year-old,  Austin, Tex.-based startup that operates an online marketplace for companies selling RVs, boats and powersports vehicles, has raised $8.5 million of fresh funding. The round was led by Sandbox Insurtech Ventures and TechNexus Venture Collaborative and brings the company’s total capital raised to $22 million. Built in Austin has more here.
New Funds
 
4DX Ventures, a four-year-old, Ghana-based pan-Africa-focused venture firm, is raising up to $50 million for a second fund, shows an an SEC filing. The firm, which closed its first fund with $17.6 million in 2019, has invested in mPharma, Swarm Technologies, and Andela, among other companies. More here.
 
Daniel Loeb, the hedge fund manager who has been running his New York-based investment firm Third Point for 26 years, is raising the firm's first dedicated venture fund, per an SEC filing that doesn't list a target but shows the firm estimates that it will pay at least $1 million in sales commission to Raymond James for its work as a placement agent. The Financial Times reported in late December that a venture fund was coming from Third Point, citing unnamed sources who said the fund could raise as much as $300 million by the end of February. More here.
 
Chicago Ventures, a nearly nine-year-old, Chicago-based venture firm that often leads seed-stage rounds in cities with growing tech hubs, has closed its third fund with $63 million in capital commitments, telling TechCrunch that it expects to invest the money in up to 25 companies to which it will write initial checks of $1.5 million to $2 million. The firm previously closed on a $60 million main fund and a $6 million sidecar fund in 2016. More here.
 
Firebolt Ventures, a 7.5-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based venture firm whose founder, Cherian Mathew, first worked briefly at August Capital and Draper Associates, is raising $50 million for its fourth fund, shows an SEC filing. Partner Vineet Buch, who joined in 2018, spent the previous eight years in product management with Google. More here.
 
Founder’s Co-op, a nearly 13-year-old Seattle-based seed-stage venture fund that focuses on Pacific Northwest startups and has backed Remitly, Outreach, and Auth0, among many other companies, has raised $50 million in capital commitments for its fifth fund. That's more than double the size of its fourth fund, raised in 2018. GeekWire has more here.
 
Hannah Grey, a nearly year-old, Denver-based venture firm, is looking to raise up to $25 million for its debut fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.
 
JMI Equity, a 29-year-old, Baltimore, Md.- and La Jolla, Ca.-based growth equity firm, says it has closed its tenth fund with $1.7 billion in capital commitments, including from state pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices. More here.
 
Regeneration.vc, a year-old, L.A.-based outfit that aims to lead and co-invest in seed and Series A rounds in startups rooted in the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems, is looking to raise up to $50 million for its debut fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.
 
Tribeca Venture Partners, a 10-year-old, New York-based venture firm that focuses primarily on regional startups, is raising up to $150 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing. The firm closed its second fund with $107 million in 2016. More here.
Exits
 
Cloud-communications company Twilio agreed to invest as much as $750 million in Syniverse Technologies, reportedly in a precursor to a public listing for the messaging company, which is owned by the private equity firm Carlyle Group. The investment could be followed in the coming months by a merger between Syniverse and a special-purpose acquisition company, says the WSJ. More here.
 
As first reported by Variety, Roku will add a "fat stack" of ad tech to its streaming platform under a deal to buy Nielsen’s Advanced Video Advertising business, putting Roku in position to offer a fully addressable advertising solution for TV programmers. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. More here.
 
Roivant Sciences has moved to take molecule designer Silicon Therapeutics underneath its corporate umbrella in a deal worth $450 million or more that will merge its computational physics work with the efforts of its VantAI drug discovery outfit. FierceBiotech has more here.
Going Public
 
ACV Auctions, a nearly seven-year-old, Buffalo, N.Y.-based wholesale auto auction site, registered to go public Friday afternoon. The company, which reported a $41 million net loss on $208 million in revenue for 2020, has raised $350 million in venture funding over the years; its biggest outside shareholders are Bessemer Venture Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners, SoftBank and Armory Square Ventures. The Buffalo News has more here.
 
Blank-check firm Big Sky Growth Partners on Friday filed for an IPO of up to $300 million on the Nasdaq, it said in a regulatory filing. The company is co-founded by Mark Vadon, former chairman of online pet products retailer Chewy. Reuters has a bit more here.
 
Compass, the nearly nine-year-old, New York-based real-estate brokerage startup backed by roughly $1.6 billion in venture funding, filed its S-1 today, roughly a year after laying off 15% of its staff as a result of the shifting economic fortunes created by the global response to COVID-19. SoftBank’s Vision Fund holds slightly more than a one-third stake in the company; other investors include the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, Fidelity, Wellington Management, and the Qatar Investment Authority, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.
 
Connect Biopharma Holdings, a nine-year-old China-based Phase 2 biotech that's based outside of Shanghai and is developing therapies for T cell-driven inflammatory diseases, registered plans with the SEC on Friday to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised roughly $200 million from investors over the years, including RA Capital Management, Advantech Capital Partners, Lilly Asia Ventures, and Boxer Capital. More here.
 
Coupang, the nearly 11-year-old, Seoul, South Korea-based e-commerce firm known as "Korea's Amazon," is looking to raise as much as $3.6 billion from an IPO in New York, with the company and some of its existing shareholders offering 120 million shares at $27 to $30 each, according to new filing. At the top end of the range, Coupang will be valued at as much as $51 billion, based on the number of shares outstanding. Bloomberg has more here.

Finch Therapeutics, a nearly seven-year-old, Somerville, Ma.-based Phase 3-ready biotech that's developing microbiome therapeutics, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. The company has raised at least $188 million over the years, per Crunchbase, including from Shumway Capital, Baupost Group, and Humboldt Fund. Renaissance Capital has more here.
 
Foresite Life Sciences, the third blank check company formed by Foresite Capital targeting biotech and life sciences, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $250 million in an IPO. The company is led by Jim Tananbaum, the founder and CEO of Foresite Capital. Foresite's previous SPACs include FS Development II, which raised $175 million earlier this month, and FS Development, which recently completed its combination with Gemini Therapeutics, a clinical stage precision medicine company developing innovative treatments for genetically defined age-related macular degeneration. Renaissance Capital has more here.
 
Kaltura, a 14-year-old, New York-based company that sells live and on-demand video software as a service products, has registered plans with the SEC to go go public. TechCrunch looks at the filing here.
 
Qomplx, a 6.5-year-old, Tysons, Va.-based risk-analytics provider that helps companies protect against cyber-security threats, has agreed to go public through a blank-check company started by mattress company Casper Sleep's CEO, Philip Krim (Tailwind Acquisition Corp.).The equity value of the deal is $1.4 billion; as part of the deal, Qomplx will buy two other private companies: risk analytics company Sentar and insurance modeling platform Tyche. Bloomberg has more here.
 
Robinhood, the nearly eight-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based trading platform, plans to file confidentially for an IPO as soon as this month, says Bloomberg, which reports the company has held talks in the past week with underwriters. Robinhood, which was valued at $11.7 billion in a funding round last year, raised financing this year that will convert to equity in an IPO. A first tranche will convert at a $30 billion valuation or a 30% discount to the IPO, whichever is lower, with the second at the lower of the 30% IPO discount or a $33 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported earlier. More here.
 
Rocket Lab, a 14-year-old, Huntington Beach, Ca.-based small satellite launch company, has agreed to go public at a $4.1 billion valuation through a reverse merger with the blank check company Vector Acquisition Corp., formed by Vector Capital. Rocket Lab has raised over $250 million over the years. TechCrunch has more here.

SentinelOne, an eight-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based autonomous cybersecurity platform, is preparing for an IPO that could value it at more than $10 billion, according to Bloomberg, which says the company is interviewing bankers about the listing. SentinelOne closed a Series F round with $267 million just five months ago at a valuation of $3 billion, which was itself triple the company's $1 billion valuation as of one year ago. 

Spire, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based venture-backed company that sells satellite-based data and analytics, has agreed to go public at a $1.6 billion valuation via reverse merger with NavSight Holdings,a national security-focused SPAC. CNBC notes that Spire Global and Rocket Lab (above) represent the fifth and sixth space ventures to announce SPAC deals in the past few months. More here.
 
Trustpilot, a 13-year-old, Denmark-based online platform for consumer reviews, plans an IPO in London, boosting the city’s image as a hotspot for listings in Europe, observes Bloomberg. Trustpilot, which is based in Copenhagen, would apparently rank as the first large company from the European Union to tap the London stock market this year. More here.
 
View, a 12-year-old, Milpitas, Ca.-based company that makes dynamic glass designed to reduce heat and glare as well as lessen eyestrain and that, like a lot of companies, conducted a layoff last year, will begin trading on the Nasdaq next week after merging with blank-check company. The company, which raised $1.1. billion from SoftBank Vision Fund in 2018, will debut trading with an initial market value of $1.6 billion.
People
 
Jackie DiMonte is the newest partner at Chicago Ventures. DiMonte was previously a principal with Hyde Park Venture Partners for nearly five years. According to TechCrunch, she is based in Austin, where Chicago Ventures has made 10 investments since 2015.
 
Jason Shuman has been promoted to partner at Primary Venture Partners. He joined the firm in 2018 as a principal after working as a principal first with U.S. Venture Partners.
 
Storm Ventures promoted Pascale Diaine and Frederik Groce to partner; Groce had joined the firm in 2016 and Diaine joined in 2017. TechCrunch has the story here.
Data
 
Grimes is the latest artist to get in on the NFT gold rush, selling around $6 million worth of digital artworks after putting them up for auction yesterday. A series of 10 pieces — some one of a kind, others with thousands of copies — went up for sale on Nifty Gateway. The Verge has the story here.
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Essential Reads
 
Goldman Sachs has restarted its cryptocurrency trading desk and will begin dealing bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards for clients from next week, Reuters reported today.
 
Gab, the social media site that has at times been  a haven for neo-Nazis and other extremists, has been hacked and 70GB of data leaked. The founder of platform said that the private account of former President Donald Trump was among the data stolen and publicly released by hackers who recently breached the site. Ars Technica has more here.
 
Instagram today announced it’s adding a much-requested feature to its app with the launch of “Live Rooms,” which allow up to four people to broadcast live together at the same time; more in TechCrunch.
 
Blacklane, an upscale ride-hailing company whose biggest investor is Daimler AG, launched a new service in New York today, seeking to challenge the black car services of rivals Uber and Lyft as the pandemic continues to reshape the industry. Blacklane, which is targeting business customers, uses chauffeur-driven premium or luxury vehicles and offers services such as handling luggage, opening doors for passengers and other amenities (which sounds a lot like Uber circa 2009).  The WSJ has more here.
Detours
 
Golden Globe winners; the complete list.
 
Another baby for the Baldwins has the Twittersphere asking questions.
 
A Luka Doncic rookie card just sold for (!) $4.6 million, in the biggest transaction for a basketball card sale ever.
Retail Therapy
 
The world's first foldable 165-inch MicroLED TV (according to the company that makes it).  
 
The "Schitt's Creek" mansion is up for sale, all 24,000 square feet of it.
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