Hope you have a terrific weekend, all.:)
If you're looking for a peek into into one of the biggest investment firms in the world, check out this week's StrictlyVC Download podcast with Jon Korngold, the head of Blackstone Growth, the investing giant’s growth equity arm. Though the 30-person outfit just officially closed its first fund today with $4.5 billion, it already has a huge win on the books and Korngold makes a pretty strong pitch for why companies should take Blackstone's money over some of its many rivals, citing the "pollution of capital" in much of the later-stage world. Let us know if you buy it.
Giant thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, NordVPN, the virtual private network provider that protects all your important data, which is especially key when using public WiFi while you're out and about, which are you again, kind of, right? Go to https://nordvpn.com/strictlyvc, or use code strictlyvc to get a discounted two-year plan plus one additional month.
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Top News
How Covid-19 supercharged the advertising ‘triopoly’ of Google, Facebook and Amazon, which now collect more than half of *all* ad dollars in the U.S.
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Blackstone's Bet on Bumble is Up $7 Billion in 17 Months
The private equity giant Blackstone is today announcing the final close of its first growth equity fund — Blackstone Growth — with $4.5 billion in capital commitments from a wide range of family offices, entrepreneurs, endowments, strategic institutional investors, pension funds and other big wheels.
The outfit says it’s the “largest first-time growth equity private fund raised in history.”
We knew this was coming back in the fall of 2019, when we first talked with Jon Korngold, the head of the new fund. At the time, he was a recent hire, having joined that same year from General Atlantic, where he spent the previous 18 years of his career, including as a managing director and a member of its management committee.
Korngold was also in building mode, trying to assemble a team, and writing some early checks off of Blackstone’s sizable balance sheet. (The company had assets under management at the time of roughly $500 billion; it now manages just north of $600 billion.)
Because a lot has transpired since that conversation, including a $2 billion bet on the dating app Bumble that’s currently worth a stunning $7 billion — this atop $2 billion in proceeds from selling shares at Bumble’s IPO last month — we asked Korngold to catch us up on the team, what size investments they are making and whether Blackstone views blank-check companies as growing competition. Excerpts from that discussion follow. You can also listen to the longer conversation here.
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Massive Fundings
Momenta, a five-year-old, Shanghai, China-based autonomous driving startup, has raised roughly $500 million in Series C funding co-led by SAIC Motor, Toyota and Bosch. The company has now raised nearly $700 million altogether, including from Daimler, Sinovation Ventures and the government of Suzhou. TechCrunch has more here.
Weee, a nearly six-year-old, Fremont, Ca.-based online grocer focused on the Asian and Hispanic markets, has raised $315 million in Series D funding led by earlier investor DST Global, with participation from new backers The Blackstone Group, Arena Holdings and Tiger Global. The Spoon has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Charge Amps, a nine-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based EV charging company making sleek-looking hardware and software for homes, has raised $15 million from Swedbank Robur, Microcap and Ny Teknik. Reuters has more here.
Fort Robotics, a three-year-old, Philadelphia,Pa.-based developer of landmine and IED-clearing robots, raised $13 million. Prime Movers Lab led the round, joined by Prologis Ventures, Quiet Capital, Lemnos Labs, Creative Ventures, Ahoy Capital, Compound, FundersClub and Mark Cuban. The Robot Report has more here.
Fortify, a five-year-old, Boston-based outfit that makes composite manufacturing 3D printers, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Cota Capital, with participation from Accel Partners, Neotribe Ventures and Prelude Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Kuda Technologies, a three-year-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based startup that offers mobile-first banking services in its home country, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Valar Ventures, with participation from Target Global among others. TechCrunch has more here.
OpenReel, a four-year-old, New York-based startup focused on simplifying remote video production, has raised $19 million in Series A funding from Five Elms Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Opensea, a four-year-old, New York-based decentralized marketplace for blockchain-based digital assets like NFTs, has raised $23 million led by Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Digbi Health, a three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based developer of gut microbiome care programs, has raised $5.4 million in Series A funding led by Accel, with participation from Wisdom LLP, Ocean Azul Partners and Seraph Group. More here.
Fetcher, a five-year-old, New York-based startup that automates parts of recruiters jobs to make the process easier and to ensure a more diverse candidate pool, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by G20 Ventures, with participation from KFund, Slow Ventures and Accomplice. TechCrunch has more here.
Slapdash, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup trying to organize all those new workplace apps you're using, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding from S28 Capital, Quiet Capital, Quarry Ventures, UP2398 and Twenty Two Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Termii, a six-year-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based SaaS startup that helps businesses use messaging channels to verify and authenticate customer transactions, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding co-led by the African early-stage venture firm Future Africa and Japanese (but Africa-focused) venture firm Kepple Africa Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Vega Protocol, a three-year-old, Gibraltar-based decentralized protocol for derivatives market trading, has raised $5 million in it second round of funding. Arrington Capital and Cumberland DRW co-led the round, joined by Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Signum Capital, CMT Digital, CMS Holdings and Three Commas. Crunchbase News has more here.
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New Funds
Commonfund Capital, a 23-year-old, Wilton, Ct.-based investment firm focused on private equity, venture capital and natural resources investing, has closed its 13th venture fund of funds with $625 million in capital commitments. More here.
DBL Partners, a 13-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based venture firm that's focused on cleantech, sustainable products and services, and healthcare, has raised $600 million in capital for a fourth fund, shows a new SEC filing. The firm was founded by Nancy Pfund, a former managing director with J.P. Morgan; it's co-run by longtime investor (and Tesla board member) Ira Ehrenpreis, who joined Pfund in 2014. More here.
FTW Ventures, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based food-focused venture firm, is raising $50 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. More here.
Juxtapose, a six-year-old, New York-based consumer-tech-focused venture firm that says it's focused on less-risky investments, has raised $300 million for its second fund, the outfit tells Fortune. More here.
Lakehouse Ventures, a four-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based early-stage tech-focused venture firm, is raising $35 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.
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Exits
Pindrop, a nine-year-old, Atlanta-based phone fraud detection company, has acquired Next Caller, a nine-year-old, New York-based company that similarly makes call verification and fraud detection software for contact centers. Pindrop has raised over $220 million from venture firms; Next Caller had raised just over $10 million. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. Bloomberg has more here.
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Going Public
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is accelerating plans for an IPO to as early as next quarter to capitalize on a post-pandemic turnaround, according to Bloomberg.Didi, the largest investment in SoftBank Group Corp.’s portfolio, is targeting a valuation above the $62 billion it secured during its last funding round. More here.
India's Zomato is preparing to go public as early as next month, reports the Economic Times. The 13-year-old, 5,000-person food delivery company was most recently valued by its private investors at $5.4 billion. More here.
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People
Youtube star David Dobrik is losing advertisers, following an investigation in Business Insider detailing sexual assault allegations against one of his friends who appears with him online.
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Essential Reads
China’s government is restricting the use of Tesla's vehicles by military staff and employees of key state-owned companies, citing concerns that the data collected by the cars could be a source of national security leaks, according to the WSJ. In response, CEO Elon Musk told a prominent Chinese forum during a virtual discussion that there's a "very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information. If Tesla used cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will get shut down.” More in Reuters.
How anti-Asian activity online set the stage for real-world violence.
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Detours
Tesla's "full-driving beta" is "laughably bad," says Car & Driver.
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