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Top News
Pony Ma, the founder of Tencent, China’s biggest social media and video games company, met with antitrust watchdog officials this month to discuss compliance at his group, according to Reuters. The outlet says the meeting is the "most concrete indication yet that China’s unprecedented antitrust crackdown, which started late last year with billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba business empire, could soon target other internet behemoths." More here.
Opening statements from Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Jack Dorsey have been published ahead of tomorrow's congressional hearing, and the most detailed proposal came from Zuckerberg, who will talk at length about his preferred changes to Section 230. The Verge has more here.
The SEC just opened an inquiry into Wall Street’s blank check acquisition frenzy and is seeking information on how underwriters are managing the risks involved, says CNBC. More here.
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As More Artists and Musicians Turn Their Attention to NFTs, So Do Bad Actors
Outlets that follow the crypto industry have been observing a trend, which is that according to Google search data, the rise in interest in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, now almost matches the level of interest in 2017 in initial coin offerings, or ICOs.
Of course, ICOs largely disappeared from the scene after the SEC started poking around and determining, in some cases, that they were being used to launder money. Now experts in blockchain transactions see the potential for abuse again with NFTs, despite the traceable nature of the tokens — and perhaps even because of it.
As most readers may know at this point (because they’re increasingly hard to avoid), an NFT is a kind of digital collectible that can come in almost any form, a PDF, a tweet — even a digitized New York Times column.
Each of these items — and there can be many copies of the same item — is stamped with a long string of alphanumerics that makes it immutable. As early crypto investor David Pakman of Venrock explains it, that code is also recorded on the blockchain, so that there’s a permanent record of who own what. Someone else can screenshot that PDF or tweet or Times column, but they won’t be able to do anything with that screenshot, whereas the NFT owner can, theoretically at least, sell that collectible at some point to a higher bidder.
The biggest NFT sale to date, about 15 days ago, was the sale of digital artist Mike Winkelmann’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” which sold for a stunning $69 million — the third-highest auction price achieved for a living artist, after Jeff Koons and David Hockney. Winkelmann, who uses the name Beeple, broke his own record with the sale, having sold another crypto art piece for $6.6 million in February. (Earlier this week, he sold yet another for $6 million.) There is such a frenzy that Beeple has told numerous outlets that he believes there’s a crypto art “bubble” and that many NFTs will “absolutely go to zero.”
There is so much money involved that experts believe that NFTs have become a rife opportunity for bad actors, even if action hasn’t been brought against one yet.
One of the most practical dangers centers on trade-based money laundering.
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Massive Fundings
Asher Biotherapeutics, a two-year-old, South San Francisco-based developer of targeted immunotherapies for cancer, has raised $55 million in Series A funding. Third Rock Ventures led the round, joined by Boxer Capital, Invus, MBC Biolabs and Y Combinator. FierceBiotech has more here.
Blockchain.com, a 10-year-old, London-based firm that provides a variety of cryptocurrency services to retail and institutional clients, has raised $300 million at a post-money valuation of $5.2 billion valuation co-led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital. The WSJ has more here.
Dataminr, the 11-year-old, New York-based real-time information platform that ingests information from a wide variety of data sources to help enterprises and law enforcement agencies track safety threats, reputation risk, and cyber threats (among other things), just closed on $475 million in funding at a $4.1 billion valuation. Investors in the round include Eldridge, Valor Equity Partners, MSD Capital, Reinvent Capital, ArrowMark Partners, IVP, Eden Global and investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value. TechCrunch has more here.
Fanatics, a 19-year-old, Jacksonville, Fla.-based sports merchandise powerhouse, says it has raised $320 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $12.8 billion, up from $6.2 billion just last August(!). The round was backed by current investors, including Silver Lake, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton, Neuberger Berman, Thrive Capital and Major League Baseball. Though Fanatics initially said its Series E would be its last funding round, investors came to the company with the offer, it tells CNBC.
Feedzai, a 10-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based data science company that prevents, detects, and remediates fraud risk for financial institutions, has raised $200 million in Series D funding at a valuation north of $1 billion. KKR led the round, joined by earlier investors Sapphire Ventures and Citi Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Fourkites, a seven-year-old, Chicago-based supply chain visibility platform, has raised $100 million in Series D funding led by Thomas H. Lee Partners. Other backers in the round include Qualcomm Ventures, Volvo, Zebra Technologies and a long list of earlier backers. VentureBeat has more here.
Hopper, a nearly 14-year-old, Montreal-based travel booking app, raised $170 million (U.S.) in Series F funding led by Capital One, with participation from Goldman Sachs Growth, Inovia Capital, WestCap Group and Citi Ventures. The Boston Globe has more here.
Loft, a 23-year-old, Brazil-based digital real estate platform, has raised $425 million in Series D funding. D1 Capital Partners led the round,joined by Advent International, Altimeter, CPPIB, and a dozen other new and earlier backers. The round values Loft at $2.2 billion, a huge jump from its sub-$1 billion valuation in January 2020, when it raised a $175 million Series C round.
Neighbor, a four-year-old, Lehi, Utah-based peer-to-peer self-storage marketplace, has raised $53 million in Series B funding led by Fifth Wall Ventures. DoorDash founder Tony Xu, StockX CEO Scott Cutler and earlier investor Andreessen Horowitz also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Pacaso, a five-month-old, San Francisco-based second home ownership platform, has already raised $75 million in Series B funding at a $1 billion valuation. Greycroft and Global Founders Fund co-led the round, joined by Acrew Capital, First American Financial, Shea Ventures and Amazon’s Jeff Wilke. Pacaso was started by Zillow co-founder Spencer Rascoff and other former Zillow executives, including CEO Austin Allison, who joined Zillow in 2015 after it bought his company, DotLoop. The Real Deal has more here.
Rec Room, a five-year-old, Seattle-based gaming platform that was focused on virtual reality at its outset but (given slow sales of VR headsets) later embraced traditional game consoles, PC and mobile, has raised $100 million in fresh funding from Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures, along with added participation from Madrona Venture Group. The deal values the company, which has raised less than $150 million altogether, at $1.25 billion, says TechCrunch. More here.
Wiz, a year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cloud infrastructure security startup, has raised $130 million in Series B funding at a $1.7 billion post-money valuation. Advent Venture Partners led the round, joined by earlier investors Cyberstarts, Index Ventures, Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital. The young company's cofounders sold their previous company, Adallom, to Microsoft for a reported $320 million. CNBC has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Baraja, a five-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based startup that's developing LiDAR sensors that it says are higher performance and more reliable than legacy LiDAR systems, has raised $31 million (U.S.) in a new funding led by Blackbird Ventures, with participation from Hitachi Construction Machinery. TechCrunch has more here.
Chord, a two-year-old, New York-based company that began life as a beauty brand incubator but has now pivoted to focus on provided other brands with commerce as a service (including through content management, a customer data platform, and order management), has raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Eclipse Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Feedback Loop, a nearly seven-year-old, New York-based real-time user feedback platform for enterprises, has raised $14 million in extended Series A funding led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from Spider Capital. The round now stands at $24 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.
Ginger, an 11-year-old San Francisco-based provider of on-demand online mental health services, has raised $100 million in Series E funding led by Blackstone Growth, which was joined by a long line of earlier investors. FierceBiotech has more here.
Ketch, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup aiming to help businesses navigate the increasingly complex world of online privacy regulation and data compliance, has raised $23 million in Series A funding from CRV, super{set}, Ridge Ventures, Acrew Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. TechCrunch has more here.
Step Pharma, a 6.5-year-old, Paris, France-based biotech focused on oncology and autoimmune diseases, has raised €35 million in Series B funding co-led by Hadean Ventures and Sunstone Life Science Ventures. Other backers in the round include Kurma Partners, Pontifax and Bpifrance. Endpoints News has more here.
Smaller Fundings
AnyRoad, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based "experience relationship management startup" platform that helps brands create, manage, and measure customer experiences, has raised $10 million in Series A-1 funding co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Runa Capital, with participation from Rally Ventures, Precursor Ventures and Day One Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Arbolus, a three-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based professional networking platform, has raised a $6 million funding round led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Plug and Play Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Augmenta, a four-year-old, Paris-based company that retrofits tractors with ‘smart’ tech capabilities, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. CNH Industrial led the round, joined by Pymwymic, HCVC and Marathon VC. AgFunderNews has more here.
Bankly, a 3.5-year-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based fintech for the unbanked, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Vault and Flutterwave. TechCrunch has more here.
KitaBeli, a year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based social commerce app for group buying, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Go Ventures led the round, joined by earlier backers AC Ventures and East Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Kubecost, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-spend management company, has raised $5.5 million in funding led by First Round Capital, which participation from Afore Capital and numerous individual investors. VentureBeat has more here.
Lev, a two-year-old, New York-based commercial real estate financing transaction platform, raised $10 million in seed funding. NFX led the round, joined by Caanan Partners, JLL Spark, Animo Ventures and Ludlow Ventures. The Real Deal has more here.
Pison Technology, a 4.5-year-old, Boston-based applied nerve sensing and AI insights platform, has raised $7 million in Series A funding. Lavrock Ventures led the round, joined by Bose Ventures, In-Q-Tel and Decisive Point. More here.
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New Funds
BBG Ventures, a seven-year-old, New York-based venture that focused on consumer-facing startups and was cofounded by Susan Lyne and Nisha Dua, just closed its third fund with $50 million in capital commitments -- a major step up from their previous two $10 million funds. As Forbes notes, the new fund is currently the largest pre-seed- and seed-stage fund solely on funding startups led by women. More here.
Breega, an eight-year-old, Paris-based venture firm, has closed its third fund with $130 million (€110 million) in capital commitments. The firm closed its previous fund in 2015 with €45 million ($53 million at today’s exchange rate). TechCrunch has more here.
A new San Francisco-based venture is taking the wraps off a $100 million fund backed by the Laerdal family of Norway, whose global firm and operating companies develop products and programs for healthcare providers. Called the Million Lives Fund, the capital will be used to invest in companies using tech to expand healthcare access and education and improve healthcare quality and outcomes globally -- with the ambitious goal of helping to save roughly one million lives every year over the next decade or so. More here.
RiverVest Venture Partners, a 21-year-old, St. Louis, Mo.-based venture firm, says it has closed its fifth flagship fund with $275 million in capital commitments, bringing the firm’s total assets under management to more than $1.6 billion. RiverVest invests in early-stage biopharma and medical device companies. More here.
Sequoia Capital India just closed a second seed fund with $195 million to back promising entrepreneurs across India and Southeast Asia. “In many ways, 2021 is going to herald the beginning of a new era for the Indian start-up ecosystem, where we are going to begin to see sizeable, significant IPOs in our ecosystem,” Rajan Anandan, a managing director at the venture firm, tells CNBC.
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Going Public
TuSimple’s IPO filing reveals roadblocks for self-driving startups with Chinese ties. TechCrunch has more here.
Cloud computing company DigitalOcean fell 9.6% in its trading debut after raising more than $775 million in an IPO priced at the top of a marketed range. DigitalOcean’s shares, which sold for $47 each in the IPO, closed today (Wed.) at $42.50, giving the company a market value of $4.48 billion. The New York-based company yesterday sold 16.5 million shares, which it had marketed for $44 to $47. Bloomberg has more here.
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People
Tesla has begun accepting bitcoin as payment, Elon Musk announced today on Twitter.
GlaxoSmithKline has fired former U.S. vaccine czar Moncef Slaoui as chairman of a company it controls after an internal investigation found he sexually harassed an employee several years ago. The 61-year-old immunologist had joined the venture capital firm Medicxi as a partner after his retirement from the U.K. drug giant.
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Essential Reads
The threat of Chinese stocks being kicked off U.S. exchanges is gaining traction, with the SEC starting to implement a tough law passed at the end of the Trump administration.
Slack became a public messaging platform this morning with the wider rollout of a new cross-organizational direct messaging feature, but it quickly removed the ability to message strangers with DM invites over harassment concerns.
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