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March 29, 2021
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Top News
Visa said today that it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry. Reuters has more here.
Substack, the four-year-old, San Francisco-based platform that invites writers to author their own subscription-based newsletters, is raising $65 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $650 million led by earlier backer Andreessen Horowitz, says Axios. More here.
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YouTube Star Jake Paul Looks to Knock Out the Venture World with Anti Fund
During every economic boom, there are startup investors who appear on the scene from new corners. Some churn out; others earn the respect of the old guard over time.
Jake Paul would be happy to be in the latter camp. Then again, the 24-year-old didn’t become a YouTube star by being conventional. Little wonder that Paul is now jumping into venture capital with an outfit that’s branded the Anti Fund. Newly formed with serial entrepreneur Geoffrey Woo, the endeavor is traditional in some ways but has a decidedly different point of view, say the two.
Some of the basics: Anti Fund is not a discrete pool of capital but is instead using AngelList’s Rolling Funds platform, which enables investors to raise money through a quarterly subscription from interested backers. Among those who’ve already committed capital are Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz.
Why choose a rolling fund instead of a traditional fund? For one thing, Paul and Woo were drawn to its Rule 506(c) structure, which allows issuers to broadly solicit an offering. Because Anti Fund plans to focus largely on consumer-focused brands and next-generation creator platforms in particular, “we want to be able to promote and advertise our fund,” says Woo, who most recently founded a nutrition-based food and beverage company and earlier in his career sold a company to Groupon.
Paul relatedly wants to ensure his fans can get involved if they like. “I have followers are different reasons, and they want to be involved in what I’m doing. If they’re involved in our fund, then that’s more people rooting for us and our portfolio companies to win. We almost create this army that’s pushing all of these companies forward.”
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Massive Fundings
Ajaib, a two-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based investment app, raised $65 million in Series A funding led by Ribbit Capital, in what is reportedly the first investment for the firm in Southeast Asia.The company has now raised $90 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Cityblock Health, a four-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based startup that pairs community outreach, local clinics and virtual care with software that helps surface medical and social care issues before they spiral out of control, has raised $192 million in extended Series C funding led by Tiger Global Management. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Kinnevik AB, Maverick Ventures, General Catalyst, Wellington Management, Thrive Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, 8VC and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The company -- which was incubated by Google-backed Sidewalk Labs -- originally announced $160 million in Series C funding in December at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Forbes has more here.
Crossover Health, an 11-year-old, San Clemente, Ca.-based health-tech company integrating virtual and in-person care for employers and health plans, has raised $168 million in Series D funding. Deerfield Management Company led the round, joined by Perceptive Advisors, OrbiMed Advisors, Foresite Capital, Avidity Partners, SharesPost100 Fund, Irving Investors, and PFM Health Sciences. The WSJ has more here.
Everli, a six-year-old, Milan, Italy-based marketplace for online grocery shopping that operates in a handful of European countries, including Poland, the Czech Republic and France, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Verlinvest, with participation from new investors Luxor, DN Capital, C4 Ventures, and Convivialité Ventures, with participation from earlier backers FITEC (part of Fondo Italiano d’Investimento), 360 Capital, Innogest, and DIP. TechCrunch has more here.
Groq, a nearly five-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based AI chipmaker, is in talks to raise around $300 million at a $1 billion valuation led by Tiger Global Management, says the Financial Times. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $62.3 million previously, including from D1 Capital Partners and Social Capital. More here.
LiveKindly Collective, a two-year-old, New York-based family of plant-based food brands that was founded by some heavy hitters from the food industry, has garnered $103 million in equity funding from TPG to close its latest round with $335 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Qihan, a four-year-old, Hangzhou, China-based gene editing startup focused on cell therapies and organ transplants, has raised $67 million in new Series A funding from Lilly Asia Ventures, Matrix Partners China and earlier investors Sequoia Capital China and CMB International. More here.
Redesign Health, a three-year-old, New York-based company that builds healthcare startups, has raised $250 million in fresh funding from Declaration Partners, a firm backed by the family office of billionaire businessman David Rubenstein, as well as other unnamed family offices and individuals. The company, which says it has already launched 15 startups and that all have received outside funding, claims it's on its way to launching 50 more health and wellness startups over the next five years. Built In NYC has more here.
Staffbase, a seven-year-old, Chemnitz, Germany-based white-label platform for mobile-first employee communications, has raised €122 million. General Atlantic led the round, joined by earlier investors Insight Partners and e.ventures. More here.
Ramp, a two-year-old startup that offers corporate cards and software tools for managing employee expenses, is close to finalizing two rounds of funding that will value the company at $1.6 billion, according to The Information. D1 Capital Partners led the first, $65 million round at a $1.1 billion post-money valuation with participation from payments company Stripe and earlier investors Coatue Management and Goldman Sachs. Reportedly seeking a bigger stake in the company, Stripe is now leading another, $50 million investment. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Idelic, a five-year-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based startup that applies AI and machine learning to data from trucking fleets in order to ensure driver safety and streamline logistics, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Highland Capital Partners. Other participants in the round include AXA Venture Partners, Origin Ventures, Birchmere Ventures, and TDF Ventures. Forbes has more here.
Smaller Fundings
ChargerHelp, a year-old, L.A.-based on-demand repair app for electric vehicle charging stations, has raised $2.75 million from Trucks VC, Kapor Capital, JFF, Energy Impact Partners and The Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
Sardine, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that's selling "fraud prevention as a service," has raised $4.6 million in seed funding led by XYZ Ventures, with participation from 11.2 Capital, Village Global, and Coinbase Ventures. FinLedger has more here.
Vibrant, a 13-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based medtech company that has developed a disposable vibrating pill to treat chronic constipation, has raised $7.5 million in Series E funding led by Unorthodox Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Denali Growth Partners, a months-old, Boston-based growth equity firm focused on the healthcare technology market (its founder, Jesse Lane, previously spent more than eight years as a principal with Summit Partners), has raised $203 million in capital commitments for its inaugural fund. There doesn't appear to be a website; you can check out its original SEC filing here.
Singular, a new, Paris-based venture firm, says it has closed on $265 million in capital commitments for its debut fund. The outfit, founded by two former Alven partners — Raffi Kamber and Jérémy Uzan -- tell TechCrunch that their limited partners include the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Bpifrance, Vintage Investment Partners, Axa Venture Partners, Sofina, MACSF and Mubadala Capital, among others. More here.
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TripleLift, a nine-year-old, New York-based startup is the latest company in the ad-tech space to announce a liquidity moment with a “majority investment” from Vista Equity Partners understood to be $1.4 billion. AdWeek has more here.
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Going Public
AeroFarms, a 17-year-old, Newark, N.J.-based vertical farming company, has agreed to go public via a merger with the sustainability-focused blank-check company Spring Valley Acquisition in a deal that values the combined business at $1.2 billion. FoodNavigator has more here.
Cazoo, a three-year-old, London-based used car platform, has agreed to go public at a $7 billion pro forma equity valuation via acquisition by AJAX I, a blank-check company formed by hedge fund managers Dan Och and Glenn Fuhrman. Cazoo had raised around $570 million in venture funding; Sky News has reported this deal was in the works earlier this month. CNBC has more here.
Crucible Acquisition II and III, software-focused blank check companies formed by Foundry Group and a former Splunk executive, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $200 million and $350 million in their IPOs, respectively. Both are helmed by Foundry Group cofounder Brad Feld and former Splunk executive James Lejeal. The team confidentially filed plans to raise $200 million for its first blank-check company back in October. That company has yet to announced a target.
Knock, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based startup that helps people buy new homes before selling their old ones, has hired Goldman Sachs to help it go public. According to Bloomberg, Knock is considering both a traditional IPO or a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, and hopes to raise between $400 and $500 million with an IPO at a $2 billion valuation. Knock has raised $600 million to date in equity and debt, with investors including Foundry Group, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Redpoint and Greycroft, according to Crunchbase. The Real Deal has more here.
SomaLogic, a 21-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based protein biomarker discovery and clinical diagnostics company, has agreed to merge with CM Life Sciences II, a SPAC backed by Keith Meister’s Corvex Management and life-sciences investor Casdin Capital, in a deal that values the combined company at $1.23 billion. SomaLogic had raised more than $800 million over the years, including from Casdin. More here.
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People
Turns out those snarky tweets from Amazon owe to a broad mandate from the very top of the company -- in other words, from Jeff Bezos.
Felicis Ventures has promoted Jiani Chen and Tobi Coker to senior associates on the investment team. Chen previously was an investor at ICONIQ Capital and worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Coker was formerly an investor with The Production Board, a Bay Area-based, early-stage venture firm, and before that worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. More here.
Fin VC, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based venture capital firm, has named Ren Riley as an investment partner; Alka Gupta and Emy Donavan, as venture partners; and Luke Kornack as an associate. More here.
WeWork's majority shareholder SoftBank might look smart for that WeWork SPAC deal, but ousted WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann brought BowX Acquisition Corp co-chief executive Vivek Ranadivé to the table, reports Reuters. According to one of its sources, Neumann, who still owns 10% of WeWork, sold Ranadivé on the company's prospects over a Zoom call back in November that was set up by UBS Group banker. Reuters says that Ranadivé's blank-check company was the only SPAC that expressed serious interest in WeWork, per its sources.
Blind item: A thirtysomething who is among Silicon Valley's highest-profile operators, just picked up this Napa property after buying one of the most expensive homes in San Francisco in 2018. (In case you've been wondering what people are doing with their IPO spoils.)
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Essential Reads
The sectors that benefited most from the pandemic-inspired shift to working from home have fallen hard since late January . . .
. . .but the startup enemies of Wall Street are booming.
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Retail Therapy
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