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March 26, 2021
Friday! We're wishing you a safe weekend and also a happy Passover. As for us, we're already sipping a Big Gulp-size glass of hooch to end another busy workweek, but before we go, we leave you with this week's StrictlyVC Download, with featured guest John Ruffolo.
Many of you know Ruffolo, who founded and ran OMERS Ventures for nearly a decade. Many of you will also have heard or read that he was in terrible accident last summer. But in conversation today with Ruffolo about his new investment firm -- a private equity vehicle with $500 million to invest -- he was funny and wide-ranging and is clearly moving forward in every way. We hope you enjoy it. (You can also read excerpts of the conversation below.)
Giant thanks to this episode's sponsor, NordVPN, which recently drilled down into the performance of 21 countries to determine who knows the most about online privacy and determined that the U.S. . . could do better. Do your part, people; visit https://nordvpn.com/strictlyvc to get a discounted two-year VPN plan plus one additional month.
More Monday.:)
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Top News
WeWork has agreed to go public by merging with the blank-check company BowX Acquisition Corp. in a deal that values the co-working company at $9 billion including debt. As part of the transaction, WeWork plans to raise $1.3 billion, including $800 million in a so-called private investment in public equity, from Insight Partners, funds managed by Starwood Capital Group, Fidelity Management and others. The WSJ had reported in January that this one was coming; likely both parties wanted to get this one over the finish line before a Hulu documentary chronicling the boom and bust of WeWork hits the streaming platform next week.
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Canadian Investor John Ruffolo is Back from the Brink with a $500 Million Fund
John Ruffolo isn’t as famous as some investors, but he’s very well-known in Canadian business circles. The longtime head of Arthur Andersen’s tech, media, and telecommunications practice, he joined OMERS roughly a decade ago when a former colleague became CEO and brought him aboard the pension giant to create a venture fund.
The idea was to back the most promising Canadian companies, and Ruffolo steered the unit into investments like the social media management Hootsuite, the recently acquired storytelling platform Wattpad, and the e-commerce platform Shopify, among other deals. The last was particularly meaningful, given that OMERS owned around 6% of the company sailing into a 2015 IPO that valued it at roughly $1.3 billion at the time. Alas, owing to the pension fund’s rules, it also began steadily selling that entire stake, even as the company’s valued ticked upward. (Shopify’s market cap is currently $130 billion.)
Indeed, after helping OMERS subsequently get a growth equity unit off the ground, an antsy Ruffolo left to launch his own fund. Then came COVID, and as if the pandemic weren’t bad enough, Ruffolo further underwent a harrowing ordeal last September. An avid cyclist, he set out to ride 60 miles one sunny morning on a country road, and was knocked far off his bike by a Mack truck in an accident that shattered most of his bones and left him paralyzed from the waist down.
That kind of one-two punch might drive someone to the brink. Instead, six months and multiple surgeries later, Ruffolo, is undergoing training and therapy and intends to bike someday again. He is also very much back to work.
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Massive Fundings
Benitago Group, a five-year-old, New York-based startup looking to build a big portfolio of Amazon brands, has raised $55 million in new funding, much of it in the form of credit line, along with an equity investment. CoVenture led the equity funding and provided one of the credit lines. TechCrunch has more here.
Byju’s, the 10-year-old, Bangalore, India-based education learning startup, is reportedly in talks to raise upwards of $700 million at a valuation of nearly $15 billion, a number that has been ticking up steadily. (It was valued at roughly $10 billion last fall when it closed on $500 million in funding led by Silver Lake; it was then valued at $12 billion when raised another $200 million from BlackRock and T Rowe Price in November. Altogether, the company raised more than $1.25 billion last year, partly to fuel a massive acquisition spree.) LiveMint has more here.
Chainalysis, a seven-year-old, New York-based blockchain analysis company, has raised $100 million in Series D funding at a valuation of more than $2 billion. Paradigm led the round, joined by TIME Ventures and earlier investors Addition and Ribbit Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Lukka, a six-year-old, New York-based maker of enterprise crypto portfolio management software, has raised $53 million in Series D funding at a $200 million post-money valuation from from Soros Fund Management, S&P Global and CPA.com. (We don't know how much the company has raised altogether.) The Block has more here.
Pilot, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based accounting startup, has raised $100 million in new funding that doubles its valuation to $1.2 billion. The round was led by Bezos Expeditions and hedge fund Whale Rock Capital, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. Stripe and its founders, Patrick and John Collison, as well as former VMware CEO Diane Greene, had previously invested in Pilot, which happens to be an advertiser this week. (Note to future advertisers: this may or may not be a coincidence.) (Kidding.) CNBC has more here.
ServiceTitan, a nine-year-old, L.A.-based maker of software for tradespeople, has raised $500 million at an $8.3 billion valuation. Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital Global co-led the round, joined by H.I.G. Growth and earlier investors Arena Holdings, Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Dragoneer, Durable Capital Partners, ICONIQ Growth, Index Ventures and T. Rowe Price. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
DotPe, a year-old Gurgaon, India-based startup that helps brick and mortar stores sell to customers online and collect payments digitally, has raised $27.5 million in Series A funding at a post-money valuation of $90 million. PayU led the round, joined by Google and earlier investor Info Edge Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Fishbrain, a nine-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based sports fishing app that offers community and data-driven recommendations, including regarding fishing locations worldwide, has raised $31 million from Consensus Småbolagsfond, Adrigo Asset Management, B Capital Group and SoftBank Ventures Asia. More here.
Foodsmart, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based tele-nutrition startup that tries to make healthy eating personalized, convenient, and affordable, has raised more than $25 million in Series C funding led by a unit of Advocate Aurora Health. More here.
Maxwell, a six-year-old, Denver-based fulfillment platform for small and midsized mortgage lenders, has raised $16.3 million in Series B funding co-led by Fin VC and TTV Capital, with participation from Rotor Capital, The Mortgage Collaborative, Anthemis Group, Route 66 Ventures, and Sovereign's Capital. Crowdfund Insider has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Avvir, a four-year-old, New York-based startup using laser scans and AI to catch construction mistakes, has raised $10 million in funding led by Trust Ventures at a post-money valuation of $40 million. VentureBeat has more here.
BlockSpaces, a four-year-old, Tampa, Fla.,-based company that says it connects blockchains to existing business applications, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding. Leadout Capital led the round, joined by Brighter Capital and BlockFund Ventures. Tampa Bay Inno has more here.
Creative Juice, a year-old, San Francisco-based financial network for creators (it will advance them funding when they need it), has raised $5 million in seed funding. Inspired Capital and Index Ventures co-led the round, joined by Slow Ventures and Box Group. Other participating investors included Night Media, MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), and Twitch cofounder Justin Kan. More here.
Swell, a 5.5-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of e-commerce software that stores, manages, and delivers content without a front-end delivery layer, has raised $3.4 million in funding from Bonfire Ventures, with participation from Willow Growth Partners, Remote First Capital, and numerous individual investors, including GitHub CTO Jason Warner. TechCrunch has more here.
Vue Storefront, a three-year-old, Warsaw, Poland-based company that (like Swell) is also making back-end e-commerce software for online stores and was also part of the latest class at accelerator Y Combinator, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by SMOK Ventures and Movens VC. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Health Velocity Capital, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based investment firm that focuses on growth-stage healthcare software and services companies, is looking to raise up to $250 million for its second fund, shows a new SEC filing. More here.
Industry Ventures, the 21-year-old, San Francisco-based investment firm with a wide range of products and fund types, has raised $850 million for its ninth venture-focused secondaries fund. More here.
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Deal's Off
British start-up crowdfunding platforms Crowdcube and Seedrs have terminated their merger after regulators raised competition concerns with the deal. The Competition and Markets Authority said the deal “could result in U.K. SMEs and investors losing out as a result of higher fees and less innovation.” Crowdcube said it had recently become profitable and could thrive as an independent firm, while Seedrs agreed to raise fresh cash from investors. CNBC has the story here.
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Going Public
Science, the Los Angeles-based venture studio, registered plans today two more blank-check companies, one for $200 million and another for $125 million. We talked with firm founders Mike Jones and Peter Pham for the podcast in late January, right after their first SPAC hit the market.
ThredUp, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based clothing resale marketplace, late yesterday announced the pricing of its IPO of its Class A common stock at $14 a share, on the high side of estimates, and sold 12 million shares to raise $168 million. Those shares rose 43% today, to $20 at the close of trading. CNBC has more here.
UiPath, a 16-year-old, New York-based robotic process automation software company recently valued by VCs at $35 billion, filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC today, and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PATH. The company brought in $607.6 million in revenue for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, an 81% jump from last year, according to the filing. The company also became cash-flow positive last year as net losses fell from $519.9 million in 2020 to $92.3 million in 2021. Accel is the big winner this time around; it owns 28% of the Class A common stock heading into the offering. (The partner who led the deal, Luciana Lixandru, was poached by Sequoia Capital last year.) TechCrunch takes a look here at the company's rise.
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Investors are flocking to European e-commerce start-ups, hoping to take on Amazon, which isn’t as well-established as some corners of Europe and large swathes of Asia.
Facebook has set a Bay Area office reopening date: May 10.
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