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Top News
Google is reducing the commission it charges developers that sell digital goods and services through its Play store, a move that comes amid increased regulatory scrutiny of the power tech giants wield through their app marketplaces, notes the WSJ. To shield itself somewhat, Apple similarly reduced its own App Store rate last year from 30% to 15% for software makers who generate less than $1 million in sales; Google said it will instead halve its 30% service fee on the *first* $1 million that developers earn from its app store.
The 18-year-old hacker accused of being the mastermind behind a breach last year of high-profile Twitter accounts pleaded guilty today in a Florida court, agreeing to serve three years in juvenile prison. The New York Times has more here.
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Dutchie, a Software Player in the Cannabis Industry, Sees Its Valuation Soar 8x in Eight Months
Dutchie, a nearly four-year-old, Bend, Oregon company that charges cannabis dispensaries a monthly fee to create and run their websites, process their orders and track what needs to be prepped for pick up, has raised $200 million in Series C funding at a $1.7 billion valuation led by Tiger Global. That’s roughly eight times the valuation the company was assigned last August, when it closed on $35 million in Series B funding. In fact, $200 million is exactly how much backers thought it was worth last summer.
Why the massive jump in so short a period? Aside from general frothiness in startup investing, Dutchie just acquired two companies, Greenbits and Leaflogix, that will enable it to become even more of an all-in-one tech platform for its customers. Dutchie isn’t disclosing how, or how much, it paid for either outfit, but the two concerns — which make enterprise resource planning and point-of-sale software, respectively — are being folded into Dutchie along with their collective 150 employees, effectively doubling the size of Dutchie, which now employs 300 people altogether.
Dutchie is also benefiting from some fairly strong tailwinds. In addition to a lockdown that has driven many new users to cannabis, five more states voted to legalize recreational marijuana in the November elections, and the federal government, which still categorizes marijuana as an illegal Schedule I drug and has thus denied cannabis companies access to commercial banking and insurance, appears closer to decriminalizing marijuana than any administration previously.
Given the way the company is evolving, and regulations are evolving, we talked with Dutchie co-founder and CEO Ross Lipson yesterday about whether Dutchie eventually be.
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Massive Fundings
Appfire, a 15-year-old, Burlington, Ma.-based company that has developed domain expertise in creating, launching and distributing apps through the Atlassian Marketplace, has raised $100 million from TA Associates. As TechCrunch notes, Appfire was bootstrapped until it got $49 million from Silversmith Capital Partners last May, and it has made six acquisitions since. More here.
Clarify Health, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based company that sells analytics to healthcare organizations, has raised $115 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by Spark Capital, Concord Health Partners, HWVP, Rivas Capital, Sigmas Group and KKR. More here.
CRED, a three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based bill payment and rewards platform, is reportedly in talks to raise $200 million from earlier investors at a $2 billion valuation. Some of the company's previous backers include DST Global, Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital and General Catalyst. TechCrunch has more here.
Overwolf, an 11-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company whose platform enables gaming fans to build modifications (mods) and additional tools for all kinds of PC games, has raised $52.5 million in Series C funding co-led by Insight Partners and Griffin Gaming Partners, an investment firm that specializes in gaming content. TechCrunch has more here.
PatSnap, a 13-year-old, Singapore-based IP analytics platform that says its customers include Dyson, Dow Chemical and Spotify, has raised $300 million in Series E funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tencent, with participation from CPE Industrial Fund and earlier investors Sequoia China, Shun Wei Capital, and Vertex Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Socure, a nearly nine-year-old, New York-based company that uses AI and machine learning to verify identities, has raised $100 million in Series D funding at a $1.3 billion valuation. Accel led the round, joined by earlier backers Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Flint Capital, Citi Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Synchrony, Sorenson Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures and others. The round comes less than six months after the company raised $35 million in a round led by Sorenson and brings the company's total funding to date to $196 million. TechCrunch has more here.
SquareSpace, the 17-year-old, New York-based website building and hosting company, has raised $300 million in funding that values the company at $10 billion. New backers include Dragoneer, Tiger Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, and Spruce House. Earlier backers Accel and General Atlantic also participated. TechCrunch has more here.
Strive Health, a three-year-old, Denver, Co.-based kidney care startup, has raised $140 million in Series B funding. CapitalG led the round, joined by Redpoint Ventures and earlier backers NEA, Town Hall Ventures, Ascension Ventures and Echo Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.
SumUp, a 10-year-old, London-based startup that helps businesses power revenues through card payments by way of physical readers, online payments, invoices and other services, has secured $895 million in debt funding, including from Goldman Sachs, Temasek, Bain Capital Credit, Crestline and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management. TechCrunch has more here.
Unite Us, an eight-year-old, New York-based company that creates coordinated health care networks, has raised $150 million in funding led by Iconiq Growth. Other investors in the round include Emerson Collective, Optum Ventures, Transformation Capital Partners, Define Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Town Hall Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Cyware, a nearly five-year-old, New York-based company that helps its customers detect and stop advanced cyberattacks, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Advent International led the round, joined by Ten Eleven Ventures and earlier investors Prelude Fund, Emerald Development Managers, Great Road Holdings and Zscaler. TechCrunch has more here.
Docker, the eight-year-old, San Francisco-based inventor of modern software containers that is now exclusively focused on helping "dev teams get ship done," has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Tribe Capital, with added participation from earlier backers Benchmark and Insight Partners. Docker has now raised a total of $58 million. SiliconAngle has more here.
Flowspace, a five-year-old, L.A.-based on-demand warehouse fulfillment startup, has raised $31 million in Series B funding. BuildGroup led the round, while participation from earlier backs, says the company. (These include Canvas Ventures, Industrious Ventures, Moment Ventures, 1984 Ventures, eGateway Capital and Y Combinator.). Pymts.com has more here.
Fridge No More, a year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based "cloud grocery" startup, has raised $15.4 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by Altair Capital. The Spoon has more here.
Glooko, a 10-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based telehealth company that makes remote patient monitoring and chronic care management tools for diabetes, has raised $30 million in Series D funding. Health Catalyst Capital led the round, joined by earlier investors Canaan Partners, Georgian Partners, Novo Nordisk, Insulet and Mayo Clinic. FierceBiotech has more here.
Leap, a two-year-old startup, San Francisco- and Bangalore, India-based startup that grants loans to students at what it says are fair interest rates based on alternative data that the company generates, has raised $17 million in Series B funding. Jungle Ventures led the round, joined by Sequoia Capital India and Owl Ventures. The company has now raised $22.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Noogata, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that's developing products for designing, implementing, and deploying big data analytics models at scale, has raised $12 million in seed funding. Team8 led the round, joined by Skylake Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
SafeGraph, a five-year-old, Bay Area-based location data analytics company, has raised $45 million in Series B funding led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from previous investors Ridge Ventures, DNX Ventures and Peter Thiel. The company has now raised $61 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Jiffy, a five-month-old, London-based startup aiming to deliver fresh groceries and household essentials in around 15 minutes, has raised £2.6 million in seed funding, including from LVL1 Group, AddVenture, TA Ventures, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Rising Team, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based SaaS platform that aims to guide managers to master the soft skills of coaching and team-building, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Female Founders Fund, with participation from Peterson Ventures, Burst Capital, Xoogler Ventures, 500 Startups, Roble Ventures, Supernode Ventures and several individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Trullion, a two-year-old, New York-based financial workflow automation platform, has raised $3.5 million in funding co-led by Greycroft and Aleph. More here.
UpCodes, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose tools promise to manage building codes in order to avoid construction project delays and clarify requirements (before it's too late), has raised $3.4 million in seed funding led by Point Nine Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
1984 Ventures, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm founded by Ramy Adeeb, a former principal with Khosla Ventures who went on to sell a company called Snip.it to Yahoo in 2013, is looking to raise up to $60 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. More here.
Inovia Capital, the 20-year-old, Montreal, Canada-based venture firm, has closed a second growth equity fund with $450 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.
Insight Partners, the 26-year-old, New York-based investing giant, is reportedly raising $1.25 billion for a "follow-on" fund that will make new investments in portfolio companies from its tenth flagship fund, as well as to buy up the shares of the fund from other investors. (Interesting!) The WSJ has more here.
Alexander Scaramucci, son of Anthony ("The Mooch"), a former Google employee, and an entrepreneur in residence for a couple of years for Peter Diamandis in L.A., is looking to raise up to $25 million for a debut venture fund, shows a new SEC filing. It appears to be associated with SkyBridge, his father's firm, which invests billions of dollars in hedge funds for wealthy clients and that ran into some trouble last spring.
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Exits
Grand Rounds and Doctor On Demand, two venture-backed digital health companies, are merging in a deal that will form a multibillion-dollar entity. CNBC has more here.
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Going Public
A nearly seven-year-old, Beijing, China-based dating and social chat app called Soul is prepping for an IPO likely to value the company at $1 billion or more, reports The Information, noting that the company is riding a wave of interest after the recent success of U.S. dating app Bumble. More here.
Olo, the New York-based food-ordering software company, raised $450 million in an IPO that was priced above a marketed range. The company sold 18 million shares for $25 each today; Olo had marketed the shares for $20 to $22, a range it had earlier elevated from $16 to $18. The company now has a market value of $3.55 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings. Bloomberg has more here.
Duckhorn, a St. Helena, Ca. winery, is slated to go public on Thursday; it's "probably been more than 20 years since we’ve had a wine IPO,” Rob McMillan, EVP and founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s wine division, tells MarketWatch.
Russian companies, back on global investors' radar since late last year, are set for an IPO boom in 2021 with offerings expected to raise at least $10 billion, the highest in more than a decade, says UBS. Reuters has more here.
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People
Irad Dor has joins M12 as partner from Eight Roads Ventures. He’s based in Tel Aviv and will focus on Israeli and EMEA cloud, cybersecurity and enterprise investments for the firm. More here.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has decided he is *not* going to sell his tweet with a song about NFTs as an NFT. After someone bid $1 million for the tweet, he withdrew the offer, made yesterday, tweeting today: “Actually doesn’t feel quite right selling this. Will pass.” (Yes, we really are following this; we don't know why.)
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Lawsuit!
Khosla Ventures is suing Lime over earlier talks to acquire one of its portfolio companies, the electric skateboard maker Boosted. According to The Information, Khosla says Lime was in M&A discussions with the company in 2019 when instead, it recruited away key members Boosted's team -- not only torpedoing a possible deal but hampering Boosted's chances of being acquired by another party. In October, the judge overseeing the case said in a hearing that Khosla’s allegations “are pretty thin," reports the outlet. More here.
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Essential Reads
Uber has successfully fought off endless attempts to reclassify drivers as company workers entitled to higher wages and benefits. Now, it's retreating from that hard-line stance in Britain after a major legal defeat -- and other markets are expected to follow. The New York Times has more here.
Chinese companies targeted by a sweeping investment ban imposed by the Trump administration are considering suing the U.S. government after a federal judge on Friday suspended a similar blacklisting for Beijing-based smartphone maker Xiaomi. Reuters has more here.
More newsletters are coming, this time courtesy of Facebook, says Axios.
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Detours
Ivy League schools waived SAT and ACT requirements for the class of 2025. Will they ever do it again?
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