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Top News
President Biden tonight directed states to make all adult Americans eligible to receive coronavirus shots by no later than May 1, and said in his first prime-time, nationwide television that life in the U.S. could return to a kind of normal by July 4th. 🇺🇸
Apple is suing its former materials lead, Simon Lancaster, over allegedly leaking trade secrets to the media. The lawsuit accuses Lancaster of abusing his “position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple’s sensitive trade secret information in an effort to obtain personal benefits.” Apple Insider has the story here.
A JPG file -- a collage of all the images that digital artist Mike Winkelmann ("Beeple") has been posting online each day since 2007 -- just sold for $69 million. It's the third-highest auction price achieved for a living artist, after Jeff Koons and David Hockney. (Now, how much for his reaction tweet?)
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Professor Scott Galloway Just Raised $30 Million for an Online School that Upskills Managers Fast
Scott Galloway, the New York University professor, author, and tech entrepreneur, is taking the wraps off a $30 million Series A round for his newest company, Section4, a platform for business “upskilling” that has now raised $37 million altogether.
The company is premised on the belief that millions of workers need help to stay competitive and employable, yet not all have access to, or interest in, costly graduate school programs. In fact, Section4 thinks more affordable “sprints” — or two- to three-long week courses taught by prominent professors from top schools that can also be mind expanding — is the way to go.
Whether that thesis proves out remains to be seen, but Section4 — whose new round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Learn Capital and GSV Ventures — says early indications are good and that it already has 10,000 alums from dozens of countries.
We talked with Galloway yesterday about who, specifically, Section4 aims to serve, what percentage of its students is outside the U.S., and how universities feel about their professors participating in a startup that could eat into their own revenue. You can find excerpts from that chat right here, edited lightly for length.
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Massive Fundings
Beam Dental, a nearly nine-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based dental benefits provider, today announced it has raised $80 million in an oversubscribed series E round led by Mercato Partners. VentureBeat has more here.
BlockFi, a nearly four-year-old, New York-based financial services company that lends money to cryptocurrency holders who don't want to cash out, has raised $350 million in Series D funding at a post-money valuation of $3 billion co-led by Bain Capital Ventures, DST Global, Pomp Investments and Tiger Global Management. TechCrunch has more here.
Circulo, a months-old, Columbus, Oh.-based startup that says it's building the "Medicaid insurance company of the future" and is very notably headed up by Sean Lane (he's also running the "unicorn" software company Olive), has raised $50 million in first-round funding from Olive investors Drive Capital, General Catalyst, Oak HC/FT, and SVB Capital. More here.
Epidemic Sound, a nearly 12-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based marketplace that licenses its library of rights-cleared production music to broadcasters, airlines and hotels and also generates royalties from that music on streaming services, has raised $450 million at a post-money valuation from Blackstone Group and EQT Growth. TechCrunch has more here.
FalconX, a three-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.based digital asset trading platform, has raised $50 million in fresh funding from Tiger Global Management and B Capital Group. Reuters has more here.
Forward Health, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based primary care startup, has raised $225 million in Series D funding, including from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Marc Benioff and The Weeknd. TechCrunch has more here.
Icertis, a nearly 12-year-old, Seattle-area startup that sells contract management software, has raised $80 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $2.8 billion. Earlier investor B Capital led the Series F round, joined by Greycroft, Meritech Capital Partners, Premji Invest, PSP Growth, and e.ventures. The company, which says its total revenue is "far north" of $100 million, has now raised $280 million altogether. GeekWire has more here.
Ixlayer, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based health diagnostics platform, has raised $75 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst led, and was joined by investor Bobby Yazdani, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and 23andMe founde Anne Wojcicki, among others. More here.
Oishii, a four-year-old, Jersey City, N.J.-based indoor vertical strawberry farming startup, has raised $50 million in Series A funding led by SPARX’s Mirai fund (which includes investments from Toyota, Sumitomo and the asset management firm SPARX). Sony Innovation Fund, PKSHA Technology, and Social Starts also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Optibus, a nearly seven-year-old, Israel-based company that has developed a cloud-native AI platform for planning and operating mass transportation, just raised $107 million in Series C funding co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Partners. Calcalist has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
AcreTrader, a three-year-old, Fayetteville, Ak.-based farmland investing platform, has raised $12 million in new funding led by Jump Capital, with participation from Narya Capital, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and earlier backers RZC Investments and Revel Partners. Crunchbase News has more here.
Alt, an 11-month-old, San Francisco-based startup that aims to make investing in sports cards as easy as investing in stocks, today took the wraps off $31 million in combined in seed and Series A funding. The latter round was led by Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six. Other backers of the company include First Round Capital, Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures, Addition, SV Angel, BoxGroup, Chapter One, and numerous notable individuals, including the Collison brothers. Crunchbase News has more here.
Apploi, a six-year-old, New York-based company that makes recruiting, onboarding and credentialing software designed for high-volume healthcare hires like nurses, has raised $8 million in funding. Underscore VC led the round, joined by earlier backers, including Defy.vc. The company has now raised $12.5 million altogether. Crunchbase News has more here.
Centrical, an eight-year-old, New York-based employee engagement and performance management platform, has raised $32 million. Intel Capital and earlier investor JVP co-led the round, joined by C4 Ventures, Citi Ventures, Aleph, CE Ventures and 2B Angels. More here.
Cowbell, a two-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based company that sells cyber insurance, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Brewer Lane Ventures. Other participants in the round include Pivot Investment Partners, Avanta Ventures, Markel Corp. and earlier backers ManchesterStory, Tri-Valley Ventures and Holmes Murphy. The company has now raised $23.5 million altogether. Crunchbase News has more here.
Flatfile, a nearly three-year-old, Denver, Co.-based startup that makes data onboarding software, just raised $35 million in Series A funding. Scale Venture Partners led the round, joined by Workday Ventures and previous investors Afore Capital, Gradient Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures. More here.
Gather, an 11-month-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based platform that hosts virtual spaces for gatherings of all types, has raised $26 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital. Other investors include Index Ventures, YC Continuity and individuals, including Figma founder Dylan Field, former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and serial entrepreneur and investor Kevin Hartz. TechCrunch has more here.
Hi Marley, a four-year-old, Boston-based communications platform built for the insurance industry, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Brewer Lane Ventures and earlier backers Underscore, True Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and Greenspring Associates. TechCrunch has more here.
Pico Interactive, a nearly six-year-old, San Francisco-based VR headset maker focused on enterprise customers, has raised $37.4 million in Series B funding from Co-Stone Asset Management, Shenzhen Yidun Media Investment Fund, Jianyin International Capital Management and CCBI Tech Venture. More here.
FlexClub, a two-year-old, Amsterdam-based car-subscription marketplace that has partnered with Uber in South Africa and Mexico, has raised $5 million in debt and equity from backers that include Kindred Ventures (its lead investor), CRE Venture Capital, Endeavor, and Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg, among other individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Legl, a year-old, U.K.-based startup whose platform invites law firms to streamline core business processes like customer onboarding, due diligence and payments, has raised $7 million in funding led by Octopus Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Woflow, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based merchant data platform that says it supports various online ordering and food delivery platforms, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Base10 Partners, Flex Capital and pre-seed investor Garuda Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
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New Funds
High Alpha Capital, a six-year-old, Indianapolis, In.-based venture firm that has become one of the largest software-focused investors in the Midwest, just closed its newest fund with $110 million in capital commitments to find and fund more pre-seed, seed, and Series A-stage enterprise cloud companies across all geographies. TechCrunch has more here.
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Going Public
Couchbase, a nine-year-old database software firm that competes with MongoDB has registered confidentially for a stock market debut that could come in the first half of this year and value it at as much as $3 billion, according to Reuters, which says the company has passed more than $100 million in annual revenue, per one of its sources. The company has raised $294 million over the years, including from Accel and North Bridge Venture Partners. More here.
Doximity, the nearly 10-year-old, San Francisco-based medical network for physicians, has reportedly filed confidentially to go public. The company has raised around $80 million from investors, according to Crunchbase. Seeking Alpha has more here.
Procore, a nearly 18-year-old, Carpinteria, Ca.-based maker of cloud-based construction management software that has raised roughly $650 million from investors over the years, had registered plans to go public early last year, then delayed those plans owing to the pandemic’s impact on the economy. Now, that IPO is back on. Construction Dive has more here.
Is Compass the new WeWork? Analysts reportedly worry that the SoftBank-backed company's financial performance invites comparisons. Both boasted of unique tech tools, best-in-class operations, and access to growth in lucrative ancillary businesses, but both remained stubbornly unprofitable despite scaling their revenue, notes Business Insider.
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Data
Salesforce, San Francisco's largest private employer, has canceled a 325,000-square-foot lease at an unbuilt tower in the city's Transbay neighborhood. It's just the latest blow to San Francisco's downtown office footprint, notes the San Francisco Chronicle
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Essential Reads
Why it might grow harder to "borrow" someone's Netflix password.
Travis Kalanick's newest company, CloudKitchens, is apparently seeing big business in Chicago, but residents and local businesses around a local facility say it's ruining the neighborhood and that Kalanick is once again asking for forgiveness, not permission.
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Detours
Exploring the Corinth Canal in Greece, the world’s deepest man-made waterway.
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Retail Therapy
The most expensive home for sale in every state. (You love it.)
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