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March 4, 2021
Hey there.:)
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Top News
According to the Financial Times, the EU is set to bring antitrust charges against Apple by acting on a complaint brought two years ago by streaming giant Spotify, which said Apple was taking a 30% cut of its subscription fees for featuring it in the App Store and denying it the right to tell its users about other available ways of upgrading. "Fortnite" maker Epic Games, which had its hugely popular game thrown off Apple's App Store after it started directing players to its own payment system, has also filed a competition complaint against Apple in the EU, notes the FT.
TikTok owner ByteDance is working on a Clubhouse-like app for China as the global success of the U.S.-based audio chat service inspires a rush of copycats in the country, says Reuters.
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A New Asynchronous Video Startup, Weet, is Helping Employees Communicate on Their Own Schedule
For founder Najette Fellache, coming to the Bay Area a few years ago from Nantes, France was a way to grow a company she’d founded and which was already beginning to count major U.S. corporations like GE, Tesla, Amazon, and Medtronics as customers.
What that six-year-old outfit, Speach, sells is essentially knowledge-sharing between colleagues via videos produced by the employees themselves, often to augment written instructions. The idea is to maximize learning, fast, and investors liked it enough to provide Speach with $14 million in funding.
But while the technology has only become more relevant in a world shut down by COVID-19, an internal project within the company began to interest Fellache even more after her children abruptly began attending school remotely from home. As she tells it, her aha moment came in the form of a drawing from her youngest son, who struggled to understand why his mother’s meetings kept taking precedent over him.
Like many parents trying to figure out how to balance work and family over the last year, Fellache wasn’t immediately sure of how to parent around the clock while also leading a company. Unlike a lot of parents, she had access to engineers.
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Massive Fundings
Caribou Biosciences, a 10-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based CRISPR genome editing biotech, has raised $115 million in Series C funding co-led by Farallon Capital, PFM Health Sciences and Ridgeback Capital Investments. FierceBiotech has more here.
Exscientia, a nearly nine-year-old, U.K.-based biotech using AI to design new drugs, has raised $100 million in Series C funding from BlackRock, Novo Holdings, Evotec, Bristol Myers Squibb, and GT Healthcare Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.
Hopin, a not-quite-two-year-old, London-based online events platform whose business has boomed throughout the pandemic, has raised $400 million in Series C funding at a post-money valuation of $5.65 billion, or more than twice what it was worth when it raised a round of funding four months ago. Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and IVP led the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Jungle Scout, a nearly six-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company whose tech helps founders and brands manage their Amazon businesses, has raised $110 million in funding. Summit Partners and Jungle Scout founder Greg Mercer led the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Papaya Global, a five-year-old, New York-based workforce management platform that helps companies hire, onboard, manage and pay people, has raised $100 million in Series C funding at a post-money valuation of more than $1 billion. GreenOaks Capital Partners led the round, joined by IVP Ventures and Alkeon Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Snapcommerce, a five-year-old, Toronto-based uses startup that natural language processing and AI to drive commerce over messaging platforms including text, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, has raised $85 million in new funding led by Inovia Capital and Lion Capital in a round that brings its total funding to $100 million. Other investors in the round include Acrew DCF, Thayer Ventures, Full In Partners, and earlier backers Telstra Ventures and Bee Partners. VentureBeat has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Aero, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based on-demand, shared charter service that launched its flight service using a 16-seat aircraft from L.A. to Aspen last month, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Keyframe Capital. The round -- which brings the company's total funding to $50 million -- also includes participation from Cyrus Capital Partners and Expa. TechCrunch has more here.
Bionaut Labs, a five-year-old, Los Angeles-based company that is developing remote-controlled micro-robots designed to navigate through tissues to treat central nervous system disorders, has raised $20 million in funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, joined by Upfront Ventures, Revolution, BOLD Capital, and Compound. FierceBiotech has more here.
Dija, a months-old, London-based grocery delivery startup, launched today and disclosed in the process that it raised £20 million in seed funding in December from Blossom Capital, Creandum and Index Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Halo Diagnostics, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based company using focal laser ablation for the treatment of prostate cancer, has raised $19 million in Series A funding. Zola Global Investors led the round, joined by a who’s-who in medical and tech, including Anne Wojcicki and Fred Moll. TechCrunch has more here.
Minu, a two-year-old, Mexico City, Mexico-based employee financial wellness company, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by FinTech Collective, with added participation from VEF, XYZ Ventures, and FJ Labs, among numerous other new and earlier backers. More here.
Seebo, a nine-year-old,Tel Aviv, Israel-based maker of quality prediction software for manufacturers, has raised $24 million in Series B financing. Vertex Ventures led the round, joined by 10D, The Phoenix, and Leumi Partners. Tech.eu has more here.
Stream, a nearly six-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based company that enables developers to build chat and activity streams into apps and other services by way of a few lines of code, has raised $38 million in Series B funding led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from 01 Advisors and earlier backer GGV Capital. The company had closed on $15 million in Series A funding just six months ago; it has now raised $53 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Whatnot, a two-year-old, L.A.-based live-streaming platform built for selling Pokémon cards and other collectibles, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other participants in the round include Y Combinator, Wonder Ventures, Operator Partners, Scribble Ventures, and DJ Steve Aoki among other individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
ClearGlass Analytics, a 2.5-year-old, London-based tech platform that enables institutional investors to better understand exactly how much their asset managers are charging them, has raised £2.6 million ($3.6 million) in seed funding, including from Lakestar; Outward VC, the venture arm of Investec; as well as several angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Companion, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company that says its hardware unit and accompanying app can help to train dogs, just raised an $8 million seed round. Investors include IA Ventures, Tuesday Capital, frog Design and others. Check it out here.
Elenas, a nearly three-year-old, Bogota, Colombia-based startup that says it’s helping tens of thousands of women make money by selling products online, has raised $6 million in Series A funding, including from Leo Capital, FJ Labs, Alpha4 Ventures and Meesho. TechCrunch has more here.
Flourish, a 2.5-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based personal finance tool with games and rewards for banks, fintechs and credit unions to offer to customers, with the goal of helping them engage and establish savings habits, has raised $1.5 million in funding led by Brazilian venture capital firm Canary. Other investors in the round include Xochi Ventures, First Check Ventures, Magma Capital and GV Angels, along with numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Hepster, a five-year-old, Rostock, Germany-based insurtech platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Element Ventures, with participation from Seventure Partners, MBMV, and GPS Ventures, along with previous investors. TechCrunch has more here.
InsurGrid, a months-old, San Francisco-based company that makes software for insurance agents, recently raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding, including from Engineering Capital, Hustle Fund, Vess Capital, Gumroad founde Sahil Lavingia and Trevor Kienzle of Correlation Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
OpenComp, a 15-month-old, San Francisco-based compensation tech company, has raised $4.6 million in seed funding, including from TIME Ventures and entrepreneur Ev Williams. Crunchbase News has more here.
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New Funds
Presight Capital, a two-year-old, West Hollywood, Ca.-based outfit, has raised $350 million in capital commitments for its second fund. Presight is the international venture arm of Apeiron Investment Group, which is itself the family office of the German entrepreneur of Christian Angermayer, who runs Presight with general partner Fabian Hansen. Among Angermayer's other bets, he invested in the mental health company Compass Pathways, where he held a 22% stake at the time of its IPO last September.
GSV Ventures, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage investment firm focused on education technology, has raised $180 million for its second fund. Axios has more here.
Quadrille Capital, a 20-year-old, Paris-based investor in technology and healthcare concerns looking for growth equity funding, has garnered €511 million in capital commitments for its fourth technology fund. EU Startups has more here.
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Exits
The San Francisco payments company Square is buying a majority stake in Tidal, a music and entertainment platform owned by rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and other artists, for $297 million in cash and stock, with Carter joining Square's board as part of the deal. Square has created a financial ecosystem for small-business owners and now wants to do the same for musicians on the Tidal platform by integrating merchandise sales and hosting collaboration tools, Square (and Twitter) CEO Jack Dorsey said in a tweet today. More here.
U.S. shopping mall owner Washington Prime Group is reportedly readying to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after missing a $23 million interest payment last month, reports Bloomberg. The company’s roughly 100 shopping malls have been shuttered or seen significantly reduced traffic during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Going Public
Coursera, the nearly nine-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based online education platform that has seen its business grow amid the coronavirus pandemic, is planning to file paperwork tomorrow for its IPO, says TechCrunch. More here.
Hippo, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based home insurance tech startup, is teaming with a blank-check company managed by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and Zynga found Mark Pincus in a deal that values the company at $5 billion. As the WSJ reports, Hippo expects to have up to $1.2 billion in cash as a result of the transaction, which includes approximately $550 million in fundraising from investors, including Dragoneer Investment Group, Lennar Corp., Ribbit Capital, and unnamed mutual funds.
Lilium, a nearly six-year-old, Munich, Germany-based, venture-backed startup that designs and makes electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, is reportedly in talks to go public via merger with blank-check company Qell Acquisition in a deal that could value the entity at $2 billion. Qell, led by former General Motors exec Barry Engle, raised $350 million in a September IPO. Bloomberg has the story here.
Lead Edge Growth Opportunities, a blank-check company formed by the venture firm Lead Edge Capital, has registered plans to raise $300 million. Lead Edge founder Mitchell Green -- who we talked with last fall -- is CEO. Renaissance Capital has more here.
TCG Growth Opportunities, a blank check company formed by The Chernin Group, filed to raise up to $250 million. Firm founder Peter Chernin is the SPAC's chairman. Renaissance Capital has more here.
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Data
A new survey from Telstra Ventures shows that the majority of startups stayed in San Francisco in 2020. Though some startups moved to Austin, Denver saw the highest percentage growth of startups. Business Insider has more here.
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Essential Reads
SPAC mania is showing signs of hitting a stock-market saturation point, with an index tracking blank-check flyers suddenly down about 20% from its peak. “When the price is moving up way faster than fundamentals can justify, that screams risk to us, and people who have those exposures are experiencing that risk today,” Matt Stucky, portfolio manager at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management, tells Bloomberg. “It’s an awfully risky proposition to have a lot of capital invested in an exposure that is pretty volatile.” In February alone, 90 SPACs raised $32 billion, notes the outlet, a monthly record. More here.
In another sign the market is tightening, four blank check companies have filed amendments with the SEC to remove warrants ahead of their prospective IPOs, reports Renaissance Capital. Lerer Hippeau Acquisition, Vector Acquisition II, SVF Investment 2, and SVF Investment 3 will now offer common shares only, rather than the units they originally filed to offer. More here.
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