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March 8, 2021
Hi! Welcome back.:) Lots o' news today . . .
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Top News
Technology stocks continued falling, pulling the Nasdaq Composite into correction territory, as a selloff in U.S. government bonds extended into a sixth week. More in the WSJ.
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Massive Fundings
Cedar Cares, a nearly five-year-old, New York-based patient payment and engagement platform for hospitals, health systems, and medical groups, has raised $200 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $3.2 billion, which is four times where it was valued during its last round last year, notes Bloomberg. Tiger Global Management led the new financing, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and Concord Health Partners. More here.
NYDIG, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based Bitcoin-focused financial services firm, raised $200 million from Stone Ridge Holdings, Morgan Stanley, New York Life, MassMutual, Soros Fund Management, FS Investments and earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners and FinTech Collective. Coindesk has more here.
Infarm, a nearly eight-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based vertical farming company that has built a network of urban farms to grow fresh food closer to consumers. just raised $100 million in debt and equity financing, including from Hanaco Ventures and Atomico, says Bloomberg. Hanaco also participated in a $170 million Series C round for the company last September. More here.
Paige.AI, a nearly four-year-old, New York-based developer of artificial intelligence-based medical diagnostic software founded by numerous colleagues from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, has raised more than $125 million in Series C financing led by KKR, in a round that brings the company's total funding to $220 million. More here.
Rimac Automobili, an 11-year-old, Sveta Nedelja, Croatia-based maker of electric hypercars, has raised €70 million from earlier investor Porsche, which now owns 24% of the company. TechCrunch has more here.
Starling Bank, the seven-year-old, U.K.-based challenger bank founded by banking veteran Anne Boden, raised £272 million ($376 million) in Series D funding at a $1.9 billion post-money valuation. Fidelity led the round, joined by Qatar Investment Authority, Railpen and Millennium Management. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised roughly $880 million altogether to date. TechCrunch has more here.
WeLab, an eight-year-old, Hong Kong-based mobile lender, has raised $75 million in Series C1 funding led by Allianz. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
AgentSync, a three-year-old, Denver, Co.-based startup that sells compliance software to insurers and raised $11.1 million across two seed rounds last year, has $25 million in Series A funding at a $220 million post-money valuation. Entrepreneur-investor Elad Gil and earlier backer Craft Ventures co-led the round, joined by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, Caffeinated Capital, Nine Four Ventures and another earlier backer, Operator Collective. Forbes has more here.
Cosi Group, a two-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based startup that partners with property owners to offer and manage their units as short-stay apartments, has raised €20 million in new investment led by Soravia, a leading real estate group in German-speaking countries. Earlier backers Cherry Ventures, e.ventures, Kreos Capital and Bremke also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Neeva, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based search engine founded by longtime Google exec Sridhar Ramaswamy, has raised $40 million in new funding to build out a product that will charge users between $5 and $10 a month to get the search results they want rather than what advertisers want them to see. Greylock and Sequoia Capital led the round at a post-money valuation of $300 million. The company has now raised $77.5 million altogether. Forbes has more here.
Planted, a two-year-old, Switzerland-based startup that has developed a vegetarian chicken alternative using pea protein and pea fiber extruded to recreate the fibrous structure of chicken, has raised $18 million in Series A funding co-led by Vorwerk Ventures and Blue Horizon Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
DocJuris, a 3.5-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based maker of contract negotiating software for in-house counsels and procurement teams, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding. RTP Seed led the round, joined by Watertower Ventures, Crossbeam, Seed Round Capital, and Remote First Capital. More here.
Full Speed Automation, a two-year-old, Los Gatos, Ca.-based maker of smart manufacturing software, has raised $3.2 million in funding. HCVC led the round, joining Catapult Venture Capital, Seedcamp, Serena Capital, Kima Ventures, and Diaspora Ventures. More here.
Influenxio, a three-year-old, Tapei, Taiwan-based "microinfluencer" marketing platform, has raised $2 million in pre-Series-a funding led by DCM Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Koinz, a 2.5-year-old, Cairo, Egypt-based customer engagement platform catering to the food and beverage industry, has raised $4.8 million in seed funding led by Tinder founder Justin Mateen, with participation from 4DX Ventures, among others. Wamda has more here.
Refraction AI, a 3.5-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based company that's developing semi-autonomous delivery robots for last-mile delivery, has raised $4.2 million in seed funding. Pillar VC led the round, joined by eLab Ventures, Osage Venture Partners, Trucks VC, Alumni Ventures and Invest Michigan. VentureBeat has more here.
TripleBlind, a two-year-old, Kansas City, Mo.-based startup developing a platform that enables companies to train models on encrypted data, has raised $8.2 million in seed funding. Dolby Family Ventures led the round, joined by Okta Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Operator Partners, Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, AVG Basecamp Fund, Anorak Ventures, and Quiet Capital. VentureBeat has more here.
Venus Aerospace, a year-old, Orange County, Ca.-based high-speed transportation startup, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Prime Movers Lab, with added participation from Draper Associates, Boost VC, Saturn Five, and X-Factor Ventures. More here.
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New Funds
B Capital, the mostly enterprise-focused venture firm that was cofounded by Eduardo Saverin and Raj Ganguly and which features close ties with Boston Consulting Group, has raised a new fund with $126.3 million in capital commitments, shows an SEC filing. DealStreetAsia speculates that the fund is an earlier-stage vehicle, unlike the firm's previous funds, which are designed for Series B stage companies (and beyond). More here.
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Exits
Cybersecurity company McAfee said today that it will sell its enterprise business to a consortium led by the private equity firm Symphony Technology Group for $4 billion in cash. It should "pair well with RSA, another enterprise-focused security company the private equity firm purchased last February for $2 billion," observes TechCrunch. More here.
Medallia, the 19-year-old, publicly traded maker of cloud-based customer and employee experience software, has agreed to acquire Decibel, a 6.5-year-old, London-based digital experience analytics company for about $160 million in cash. According to Crunchbase, Decibel had raised $66 million from investors, including Eight Roads Ventures and Draper Espirit. Silicon Canals has more here.
PayPal will acquire three-year-old cryptocurrency security firm Curv as part of its push into digital tokens, the company announced today. The deal is worth less than $200 million, says CNBC. Curv provides companies with digital asset security technology that’s delivered as a cloud service. PayPal said the deal will help “accelerate and expand” its support of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. CNBC has more here.
Zapier, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based no-code automation tool whose secondary shares sold at a $5 billion valuation in January (despite that the company raised just $1.3 million in venture capital years ago), has purchased Makerpad, a two-year-old, bootstrapped no-code education service and community. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.
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Going Public
Airspan Networks, a 23-year-old, Boca Raton, Fla.-based software and hardware for 5G network solutions, has agreed to go public via merger with New Beginnings Acquisition, a SPAC. The combined business is expected to be valued at nearly $822 million. RCR Wireless News has more here.
Cazoo founder Alex Chesterman is mulling a merger with a blank-check firm that could value his three-year-old, U.K. used-car platform at as much as 6 billion pounds ($8.3 billion), according to Sky News. The SPAC Ajax I is under consideration as one of the partners for Cazoo, and talks have been underway for several weeks, according to Sky. Bloomberg reported last month that the online car dealer, which is backed by investors including BlackRock, was weighing plans for an IPO in London. Chesterman previously founded Zoopla, which later sold to Silver Lake. More here.
Cipher Mining, a bitcoin mining firm and subsidiary of blockchain company Bitfury, says it has agreed to go public through a merger with blank-check firm Good Works Acquisition Corp in a deal valuing it at $2 billion, underscoring the rising interest in the bitcoin space. Reuters has more here.
Coursera, a nearly nine-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based online learning company, registered plans on Friday to raise $100 million (presumably a placeholder amount) in an IPO, in the process revealing a $67 million net loss on $294 million in revenue for 2020. Coursera has raised $463 million in venture funding and was valued at $2.5 billion during its last round of funding, which closed last summer, led by NEA, its biggest outside shareholder. CNBC has more here.
Design Therapeutics, a four-year-old, Carlsbad, Ca.-based preclinical biotech that's developing gene targeted chimeras for nucleotide expansion diseases, also filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. The company has raised $170.5 million; its biggest outside shareholder is SR One. Renaissance Capital has more here.
Edgewise Therapeutics, a four-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based Phase 1 biotech that's developing small molecule therapies for rare muscle disorders, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering after raising at least $160.5 million in venture funding, according to Crunchbase. The company's biggest outside shareholder is OrbiMed, which owns 36.4% of the company heading into the offering. More here.
Evolv Technology, a nearly eight-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based security company that makes body scanners that can detect bombs, firearms and other "anomalies," says it is going public via merger with NewHold Investment, a SPAC, in a deal valued at $1.7 billion. Evolv’s investors include Lux Capital, Bill Gates, and General Catalyst. It had raised roughly $98 million over the years. More here.
Eight-year-old Frontier Group has revived its plan to go public, as outlined in a regulatory filing today. The budget airline ithdrew its potential IPO last July as passengers all but vanished from airlines. As Bloomberg notes, the offering would be the second U.S. airline IPO of the year; Sun Country Airlines Holdings has also registered plans to go public and revealed more about its own plans today. More here.
IonQ, a six-year-old, College Park, Md.-based quantum computing startup, has agreed to go public via merger with dMY Technology Group III, a SPAC, in a deal valued at $2 billion. The blank-check company's shares fell 14% on the news today. The Motley Fool has more here.
Olo, a 21-year-old, New York-based mobile and online ordering platform for hundreds of restaurant chains, has revealed plans to sell 18 million shares at $16 to $18 apiece in its upcoming IPO, which would give the company a $3.1 billion value at the midway point. We talked with low-flying Olo, which reported $3 million of net income on $98 million in revenue for 2020, a couple of years ago, when Tiger Global had acquired some of its secondary shares. Others of its backers include Raine Group, RRE Ventures, Battery Ventures, Staley Capital and Wellington Management.
Shutterfly, the 21-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based photo company that was taken private by Apollo Global Management in a $2.7 billion buyout in 2019, is reportedly in talks to go public again via a merger with Altimar Acquisition II, a SPAC that went public in February last month, raising $345 million. The WSJ has the story here.
South Korean vaccine developer SK Bioscience is expected to raise 1.5 trillion won ($1.33 billion) in the country’s largest IPO since 2017, after pricing the listing at the top of an indicative range, it said today. Reuters has more here.
Vaccitech, the startup behind the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, is planning an initial public offering that backers hope will be the biggest market debut of an Oxford spinoff in years. One hurdle, says the WSJ: the university itself.
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People
Meera Clark, who joined Obvious Ventures from Morgan Stanley in 2019, has been promised to principal with the firm. More here.
Early-stage venture firm Defy Partners announced some announcements today, including hiring Kamil Saeid as a partner who will be focused on sourcing, diligence, and investments across sectors. Saeid was most recently a principal with Ridge Ventures and previously spent four years as an investor with Aspect Ventures. Defy has promoted Madison McIIwain to partner, a role that will have her focusing on seed-stage investments. McIIwain joined Defy a year ago after spending two years as product manager with Gap Inc. And Defy brought on as advisors Corel Corp. CEO Christa Quarles and Bustle founder and CEO Bryan Goldberg. More here.
Cisco has promoted Maria Martinez, a former Salesforce executive who joined the networking giant in 2018, to chief operating officer. She's one of a three senior female leaders promoted today. More here.
MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist formerly married to Jeff Bezos, has married again following their 2019 divorce, per various media reports. Scott, one of the world’s wealthiest women, has married Dan Jewett, a science teacher at prestigious Seattle private school attended by her children. She joined the Giving Pledge in May 2019, shortly after terms of her divorce with Bezos were finalized. The pledge was started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010. Bezos hasn’t joined the pledge.
In a new interview with The Information, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts that by 2030, people might use advanced smart glasses to “teleport” to locations like other people’s homes and speak to them as if they’re physically present. Here's what else he had to say about the company's AR/VR strategy.
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Essential Reads
Chat startup Discord has ridden a surge in popularity to soaring revenue and a lofty valuation -- all without any advertising. The WSJ takes a look here.
Ethereum blockchain developers approved one of the biggest changes to the network since its inception in 2015, a shift that could spur even bigger gains in the price of its native cryptocurrency Ether. Bloomberg explains the move.
SpaceX wants to connect more than just homes to its Starlink satellite internet: The company submitted an FCC request to begin installing and operating terminals on "moving vehicles" – from cars and trucks to ships and jets. CNBC has more here.
India's Paytm said today that it's turning NFC-enabled Android smartphones into point-of-sale machines as it looks to win more merchants in one of the world's largest mobile payments markets. A Paytm merchant partner will now be able to enable card acceptance feature from their Paytm Business app. TechCrunch has more here.
Elon Musk is getting into the Texas power market, says Bloomberg, with previously unrevealed construction of a gigantic battery connected to an ailing electric grid that nearly collapsed last month. According to the outlet, a Tesla subsidiary registered as Gambit Energy Storage is quietly building a more than 100-megawatt energy storage project in Angleton, Texas, a town roughly 40 miles south of Houston. A battery that size could power about 20,000 homes on a hot summer day, it says. More here.
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Detours
Drive-throughs that predict your order? Restaurants are working on it.
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Retail Therapy
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