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Top News
The killer use case for AR/VR might just be warfare, notes TechCrunch. Today, Microsoft announced that it has received a contract to outfit the United States Army with tens of thousands of augmented reality headsets based on the company’s HoloLens tech. The contract could be worth as much as $21.88 billion over 10 years. More here.
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For VC Hans Tung, the Personal Becomes Public in a Growing Campaign to 'Stop Asian Hate'
Longtime venture capitalist Hans Tung is a big guy. His size might just be lifesaving.
A first-generation Taiwanese-American who came to the U.S. and to L.A. specifically in 1984, it was a fraught time for the then 14-year-old. Two years earlier, a 27-year-old, Chinese-American draftsman named Vincent Chin was beaten to death in Detroit by a Chrysler plant supervisor and his stepson, a laid-off autoworker, who believed that Chin was of Japanese descent and were angry over the growing success of Japan's auto industry. He was killed the night of his own bachelor party.
Anti-Asian sentiment may have seemed to lessen over the following decades, but it has still remained constant, and Tung as been on the receiving end of it, he says. "Growing up, I faced my share of taunts, of racial epithets, whether it was in California or Boston or New York. I'm fortunate that I'm over 6'4" tall and weigh more than 200 pounds," or he might be physically harassed at some point, too.
Tung has never been more mindful of his dimensions than now, with anti-Asian sentiment abruptly worsening last year based on political rhetoric about the coronavirus. "As COVID broke out in China, we knew that Asian Americans would be blamed," says Tung, who flies back and forth to China routinely for work as a managing director with the cross-border investment firm GGV Capital. "We saw this with SARS, too, but it wasn't as big a pandemic, so people were being harassed and not killed."
Anecdotally, Tung believes life is more dangerous right now for Asians in the U.S. based on conversations with friends and family members and the worrisome headlines to emerge of elderly individuals in particular being beaten on the streets of San Francisco and Oakland and on New York subways and outside of Times Square, as happened on Monday when a 65-year-old woman was viciously attacked in a scene that was filmed by an onlooker and has provoked national outrage.
The numbers back him up.
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Massive Fundings
Entrada Therapeutics, a five-year-old, Boston-based biotech focused on neuromuscular diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, has raised $116 million in Series B funding. Wellington Management led the round, joined by more than a dozen new and earlier investors. More here.
Harry’s, the seven-year-old, New York-based grooming company that saw a tie-up it had negotiated with Edgewell (Schick's parent company) collapse owing to anti-trust concerns, has raised $155 million in Series E funding a $1.7 billion valuation. Bain Capital and Macquarie Capital led the deal. WWD has more here.
Hotmart Company, a 10-year-old, Brazil-based cloud-based platform that invites creators to build, run, manage, and grow their digital businesses using its technology, has raised $130 million in funding led by TCV, with participation from Alkeon Capital. The post-money valuation of the company, which has 1,300 employees in 12 offices around the world, isn't being disclosed. LABS has more here.
Manticore Games, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based platform that invites game makers to build, share, and play online games, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by XN, with participation from SoftBank and London-based LVP, as well as earlier backers Benchmark, Bitkraft, Correlation Ventures and Epic Games. The company has now raised $160 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Next Insurance, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that sells insurance to the self-employed, has raised $250 million in funding co-led by FinTLV Ventures and Battery Ventures. Other participants in the round include CapitalG, Group 11, Zeev Ventures, Founders Circle and G Squared. NoCamels has more here.
Otrium, a five-year-old, Amsterdam-based startup that helps clothing brands sell end-of-season items, has raised $120 million in Series C funding co-led by Bond and earlier investor Index Ventures, with added participation from Eight Roads Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Pipe, a 20-month-old, Miami, Fl.-based SaaS financing platform that pairs startups with investors who are willing to pay them upfront a discounted rate for the annual value of their contracts, just raised $150 million in funding led by Greenspring Associates, just weeks after closing $50 million in growth funding led by Siemens’ Next47 and Raptor Group. The young outfit is now valued by its investors at $2 billion, according to TechCrunch, which says its newest round may grow still. More here.
Plus, a five-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based autonomous truck startup, says it has collected a fresh $220 million from investors in an extension of a $200 million funding round that it closed in February. FountainVest Partners and ClearVue Partners led the newest tranche; other investors included Quanta Computer, Millennium Technology Value Partners, and earlier backers Sequoia Capital, SAIC Motor and Full Truck Alliance. Reuters has more here.
Tonal, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based strength-training startup that sells both hardware and subscriptions to pre-taped classes, has raised $250 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $1.6 billion. Dragoneer led the round, joined by Cobalt, all earlier investors, and new athlete investors, including Sue Bird, Drew Brees, Maria Sharapova, Mike Tyson, and Larry Fitzgerald. The company has now raised $450 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Tyra Biosciences, a three-year-old, Carlsbad, Ca.-based biotech company targeting acquired resistance in oncology with purpose-built drugs, has raised $106 million in Series B funding to accelerate and expand its in-house drug discovery platform. Nextech Invest led the round, joined by Cormorant Asset Management, BVF Partners, Janus Henderson Investors, and Logos, along with earlier backers Alta Partners, RA Capital, Boxer Capital of Tavistock Group, and Canaan. FierceBiotech has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
HealthPlix, a seven-year-old, Bangalore, India-based digital health platform that helps doctors keep tabs on symptoms patients have experienced previously, has raised $13.5 million in Series B funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Outpace Bio, a five-month-old, Seattle-based startup that aims to design custom cell and gene-based therapies, has raised $30 million in Series A funding co-led by Artis Ventures and Lyell Immunopharma, with participation from Abstract Ventures, Civilization Ventures, Mubadala, Playground Global, Sahsen Ventures and WRF Capital. GeekWire has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Datapeople, a five-year-old, New York-based startup that sells software designed to make recruiting more equitable, said today that it has raised $8 million across two funding events, including a $5 million round in mid-2020. Its backers include Uncork Capital, NextView Ventures, and First Round Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Hex, an 18-month-old, San Francisco-based startup behind a tool for sharing data with other parts of an organization that are less technical than the in-house data science team, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Amplify Partners led the round, joined by Box Group, XYZ, Data Community Fund, Operator Collective and a variety of individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Lowkey, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based gaming startup that builds software for game streamers, has closed a $7 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. A host of angel investors also participated in the round, including Figma’s Dylan Field, Loom’s Joe Thomas and Plaid’s Zach Perret and William Hockey. TechCrunch has more here.
Tugende, a nine-year-old, Kampala, Uganda-based asset finance startup, has raised $3.6 million in new Series A funding led by Partech, with participation from Enza Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
B Capital Group, the global multi-stage investment firm, with offices in L.A., San Francisco, New York, and Singapore, announced its expansion into China today with the hiring of general partner Daisy Cai, previously a partner at SoftBank Vision Fund. The firm has also raised $415 million for a fund called Elevate that will follow-on capital to its highest-performing, later-stage portfolio companies. More here.
Fund of funds manager Michael Kim of Cendana Capital is back with a new fund that sees him covering even more ground. Called Cendana's Nano fund, it has raised $30 million to invest in up to 12 investment managers who are piecing together funds of $15 million or less capital. There are too many smart people right now making smaller bets for Cendana not to make the move, Kim suggested in a talk with us about the new fund. We just posted the details here.
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Exits
Drug giant Amgen says it is buying Rodeo Therapeutics, a four-year-old, Seattle-based biotech that's focused on the regeneration and repair of multiple tissues, for a $55 million upfront payment and up to $666 million in cash earn-outs. Rodeo, developed by two researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine with a third partner, had raised around $15 million in funding, including from Accelerator, AbbVie, J&J, Eli Lilly, WRF Capital and Arch Venture Partners. The deal is Amgen's second acquisition this month. BioSpace has more here.
The website-hosting service Squarespace, a $10 billion company that has confidentially filed for an IPO, is buying restaurant-services provider Tock for more than $400 million in a mix of cash and stock, it said in a statement today. Bloomberg notes that the acquisition helps Squarespace, which is known for helping consumers build websites, move into the hospitality technology space. We sat down on stage to learn more about Tock from cofounder and CEO (and restaurateur) Nick Kokonas in February of last year, just before the world jumped the rails. More here.
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Deal's (Likely) Off
The Federal Trade Commission said yesterday that it will seek to block Illumina's $7.1 billion purchase of Silicon Valley cancer detection company Grail over concerns that the deal would slow innovation for tests that are designed to detect multiple kinds of cancer. It would potentially be a big blow to investors that had provided Grail with roughly $2 billion in funding, including Illumina itself, Arch Venture Partners, Johnson & Johnson, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital China, PSP Investments, CPP Investments, and Amazon. Reuters has the story here.
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Going Public
Real estate brokerage Compass downsized its U.S. IPO by half hours before today's planned share sale, signaling a potential decline in investor enthusiasm about techn transforming the business of buying and selling homes, reports Bloomberg. The New York-based company, which has raised $1.5 billion from SoftBank and other private investors and is led by former Goldman Sachs banker Robert Reffkin, said in a filing that it now plans to seek as much as $475 million by offering 25 million shares at $18 to $19 a share. It initially planned to raise $936 million by marketing 36 million shares at $23 to $26 each.
Shares in Deliveroo plunged by as much as 30% in their trading debut on Wednesday, slicing more than 2 billion pounds off the company’s valuation in a blow to Britain’s ambitions to attract fast-growing tech companies to the London market. Reuters has more here.
Endeavor, the entertainment conglomerate that owns the WME talent agency, filed to go public today, 18 months after abandoning an IPO plan owing to weak investor demand. As part of its effort to revive its floating, it has named Elon Musk to its board. Reuters has more here.
Vice Media is in advanced talks to merge with 7GC & Co Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company led by former Morgan Stanley banker Jack Leeney, according to The Information. It notes that Vice has previously talked with other SPACs, including one backed by Group Nine Media, a Discovery-backed media firm, and another one led by former Disney executives Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer. Neither set of talks advanced. More here.
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People
Aaron Hirschhorn, a longtime entrepreneur and investor who founded the pet sitting startup DogVacay with his wife Karine Nissim before selling it to Rover in 2017, died Sunday in a boating accident near Miami Beach, Fla., where his family moved three years ago. He was 42. Geekwire has more here.
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Data
Sign-ups at the audio social network Clubhouse are apparently way down between February and March (like, down 73%, notes reporter Casey Newton). The drop could owe to any number of reasons, including that vaccinations are way up, that Elon Musk was an especially big draw in February, and that rivals have been quick to replicate what it's working on.
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Essential Reads
The talking and texting app Discord, which is reportedly in talks to be acquired by Microsoft, says it's rolling out new audio channels that it says will be useful for voice-based interviews, book clubs and even karaoke.
Scientists have collected human DNA from the air for the first time.
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Detours
Your best chance of getting to the Mediterranean this summer is a trip to Greece or Turkey.
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