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March 12, 2021
Friday! Hope you have a great weekend, everyone, though not so great that we have to go through this exercise again.
Do check out this week's StrictlyVC Download, featuring a handful of news stories and an interview with Scott Galloway, the famed NYU professor, best-selling author, and tech entrepreneur who sold his last company, L2, to Gartner in 2017. Galloway is outspoken about lots of things, which has attracted both devoted fans and critics, including in Silicon Valley circles. We talked with Galloway about his newest company, Section4, which just lassoed $30 million in Series A funding to create a new kind of education platform that could, potentially, blow up B schools as we know them. We also talked about the value proposition of VCs, who Galloway has tangled with in the distant past. It was fun; we hope you'll enjoy it, too. (By the way, if you're a fan, you can also catch him on the newest episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher," filmed earlier today.)
Much thanks to Ageras for partnering with us on this episode. Ageras is a matchmaking service for accounting, bookkeeping and tax preparation services. Get the personalized help you need, and fast, with Ageras.
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A long-simmering feud between tech giants reignited today, with Microsoft President Brad Smith lashing out at Google during a congressional hearing about the impact of online platforms on the news industry -- and Google's top lawyer accusing Microsoft in turn of "naked corporate opportunism" and trying to distract from the SolarWinds attack. The WSJ has more here.
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Crowdfunding Limits are Poised to Increase, But VCs Aren't Paying Attention -- Yet
Passion Capital, the early-stage venture firm in London, told TechCrunch earlier this week that — in an apparent first for a European fund — it plans to crowdfund the final stage of its third and latest vehicle. Specifically, it’s carving out around half a million dollars for anyone who wants to invest in the vehicle, as long as they are a high net worth individual.
Firm founder Eileen Burbidge says the outfit was inspired by developments it has seen here in the U.S., from AngelList’s rolling fund program, to an imminent change in a crowdfunding regulation, Reg CF, that on Monday is set to increase the maximum amount that can be raised through a crowdfunding campaign from $1.07 million in any twelve-month period to $5 million — a nearly five-fold increase.
The move is interesting, especially coming on the heels of some other recent initiatives to democratize venture capital. But if crowdfunding a piece of traditional venture funds does become a bigger trend, it’s not going to happen overnight. We talked with fund formation attorneys and administrators this week, and they’d barely registered that the crowdfunding limit is about to quintuple.
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Massive Fundings
Monte Rosa Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Boston-based developer of precision medicines that degrade disease-causing proteins, has raised $95 million in Series D funding. Avoro Capital Advisors led the round, joined by Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, BlackRock and earlier backers Versant Ventures, NEA, and eight others investment firms. Just six months ago, the company had raised a separate $96 million round. FierceBiotech has more here.
Skeleton Technologies, an 11-year-old, Tallinn, Estonia-based maker of ultracapacitor-based energy storage systems, has raised $61 million in fresh funding from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Free State of Saxony, where Skeleton operates a factory. Tech.eu has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Assembled, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that builds software tools for support teams, has raised $16.6 million in Series A funding led by Emergence Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Autobooks, a six-year-old, Detroit-based small business payment and accounting services platform, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by MissionOG. Renaissance Venture Capital, Detroit Venture Partners, Draper Triangle, and TD Bank Group also joined the round. More here.
Kutumb, a seven-month-old, India-based social network that says it connects communities based on “culture, creed, beliefs, interests, [and] professions," as is apparently growing fast, is in talks with Tiger Global Management to raise between $15 million and $20 million in funding at a post-money valuation of $170 million, says TechCrunch. More here.
JetClosing, a nearly five-year-old, Seattle-based digital home closing service that originally spun out of Pioneer Square Labs, has raised $11 million in Series B funding from and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Pioneer Square Labs, and Trilogy Equity. The company has now raised $44 million altogether. GeekWire has more here.
Smaller Fundings
ForSight Robotics, a year-old, Netanya, Israel-based optical surgery robotics startup, has raised $10 million in seed funding from Eclipse Ventures and Mithril Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.
TaxDown, a two-year-old, Madrid-based startup that automates income tax filing by calculating regional deductions so users don’t have to navigate complex tax rules themselves, has raised €2.4 million ($3 million) in seed funding. FJ Labs participated in the round, along with numerous notable individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Newpath Partners, a 2.5-year-old, Boston-based, stage-agnostic fund focused on life sciences companies, is looking to raise up to $250 million for its second fund, shows a new SEC filing. More here.
Openspace Ventures, a nearly seven-year-old, Singapore-based Southeast Asia-focused venture firm backed by Temasek, has secured $200 million in capital commitments for its third fund, bringing its assets under management across three funds to $425 million. Bloomberg has more here.
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Going Public
Grab is reportedly in talks to go public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company that could value the ride-hailing startup at as much as $40 billion. Such a deal would make it the biggest SPAC deal on record.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit has hired bankers to help it go public this year through a SPAC, reports the WSJ. Branson took his space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, public via a SPAC in 2019. The SPAC-loving Branson and his Virgin Group separately announced last month that they are taking genetics testing company 23andMe public through a blank-check company that raised capital back in October. More here.
Flutter, the U.K.-based mobile gaming company that owns 95% of FanDuel, is considering spinning out FanDuel as a separately traded company to trade on a U.S. exchange, according to CNBC. A separation of FanDuel isn’t assured or imminent, the outlet adds.
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People
Attorneys for Elizabeth Holmes have asked a California federal court to push back the Theranos founder's criminal fraud trial because Holmes is due to give birth in July -- the same amount the tech founder's criminal fraud trial was set to begin. The two sides have agreed to postpone the trial by six weeks to accommodate her pregnancy, reports The Recorder.
Ant Group CEO Simon Hu has resigned amid heightened scrutiny over the Chinese bememoth. The departure of Hu, one of Ant’s two top executives, comes at a time when the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group is revamping its entire business following the abrupt cancellation of its blockbuster IPO last fall. The WSJ has the story here.
A Tesla investor has sued CEO Elon Musk and its board in Delaware, claiming Musk has exposed the company to billions in potential liability and market losses by continuing to send “erratic” tweets, despite a settlement with regulators requiring pre-approval of his social media activity. Reuters has more here.
MetaKovan, the pseudonymous founder of a crypto-based investment fund called MetaPurse, is the buyer behind the $69 million winning bid for a Beeple NFT at Christie’s yesterday. Said this Singapore-based cipher in a statement published by Christie's: "Techniques are replicable and skill is surpassable, but the only thing you can’t hack digitally is time. This is the crown jewel, the most valuable piece of art for this generation. It is worth $1 billion." More in The Verge.
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Essential Reads
Hindenburg Research strikes again, this time taking aim at the newly public electric-truck startup Lordstown Motors, which misled investors about the strength of its truck preorders and the progress it is making toward putting its first model into production, according to a report by the short seller. Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns says the report contains half-truths and lies and that the short seller has a motivation to hurt the stock before the company reports its first quarterly update as a public company. The WSJ has more here.
Binance Holdings, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, is being investigated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over concerns that it allowed Americans to place wagers that violated U.S. rules, according to Bloomberg. The scrutiny, it notes, is the latest sign that market watchdogs may thwart the crypto industry’s ambitions of becoming more mainstream for U.S. investors.
According to the FT, British artist Damien Hirst is now jumping into NFT art sales, with plans to sell artworks later this year. Just two weeks ago, Hirst wrote on Instagram that he will now accept Bitcoin and Ether as payment.
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