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Top News
The CEO of Volkswagen's U.S. subsidiary is taking personal responsibility for an early April Fools’ Day prank this week in which the company sent out a news release saying it was changing its U.S. name to Voltswagen. “Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine it taking hold,” Scott Keogh tells the WSJ, later adding: “It was a gag with humor, whether you like it or not."
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Tiger Global Just Closed One of the Biggest Venture Funds Ever, with $6.7 Billion
If you watch funding announcements as we do, you may have noticed something this year. There are a lot of mega-rounds coming together, and Tiger Global is involved in a notable number of them, often as the round’s co-lead.
Just this week alone, half a dozen companies have announced rounds that the New York-based investing giant has led, co-led, or written follow-on checks into, including HighRadius, a company whose $300 million Series C round it co-led with D1 Capital; Cityblock Health, whose $192 million in extended Series C funding Tiger Global led; and 6sense, which received a follow-on check from Tiger Global as part of a $125 million Series D round. (The firm is also reportedly reportedly in talks to co-lead a $300 million round in a five-year-old, AI chipmaker called Groq.)
If you’re wondering where all that money is coming from, wonder no longer. Though Tiger Global sent a letter to its investors back in January, saying was raising $3.75 billion for its thirteenth venture fund -- it's titled XIV, apparently for superstitious reasons -- a new SEC filing shows that the new fund just closed with almost twice that amount: $6.65 billion.
That’s a lot of billions, even in this market, and especially for Tiger Global, which closed its 12th fund with $3.75 billion in capital commitments only last year.
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Massive Fundings
Glovo, a six-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based on-demand delivery company, has raised €450 million ($528 million) in Series F funding. Lugard Road Capital and Luxor Capital Group co-led the round, joined by earlier backers Delivery Hero, Drake Enterprises and GP Bullhound. It's the largest-ever venture round for a Spanish startup. TechCrunch has more here.
J&T Express, a six-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based upstart logistics and courier service that has expanded aggressively in China, just raised more than $2 billion to fund its fight against rival parcel delivery companies backed by Alibaba, according to The Information. Hillhouse Capital, Boyu Capital, and Sequoia Capital China participated in the new round, which was reportedly assigned a pre-money valuation of $6 billion. More here.
Sightline Payments, an 11-year-old, Las Vegas, Nev.-based company that's trying to bring cashless payments to casinos, has raised $100 million in funding led by Cannae Holdings, with participation from Genting Group, Point Break Capital, Searchlight Capital Partners, Shift4 Ventures, and Vectr Ventures. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has more here.
Thrasio, the three-year-old, Walpole, Ma.-based acquirer of private label businesses on Amazon that raised $750 million in new funding last month, has tacked on $100 million more from Advent International, the private equity firm. The company says it has now raised a whopping $1.35 billion since just December and $1.85 billion in equity and debt altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Auditoria.ai, a two-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based startup looking to automate the work of traditional finance teams, has raised $15.5 million in Series A funding. Venrock led the round, joined by Workday Ventures and earlier investors B Capital Group, Engineering Capital, Firebolt Ventures and Neotribe Ventures. More here.
Holler, an eight-year-old, New York-based startup that injects content into messages like texts, posts, and DMs, including via animated stickers and GIFs, in anticipation of when they might be needed in a chat, has raised $36 million in Series B funding. CityRock Venture Partners and New General Market Partners co-led the round, joined by Gaingels, Interplay Ventures, Relevance Ventures, Towerview Ventures and WorldQuant Ventures. The company has now raised more than $51 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Pair Eyewear, a four-year-old, New York-based maker of customizable eyewear for kids and adults, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures and Gingerbread Capital. Crunchbase News has more here.
Zededa, a five-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based computer orchestration startup, has raised $12.5 million in new Series A funding from Rockwell Automation, Juniper Networks and EDF North America Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Smaller Fundings
BrightPlan, a five-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based employee benefits startup, has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding. Fremont Group and Cynosure Group co-led the round, joined by Still Capital Partners and Hawk Partners. Crunchbase News has more here.
CirrusMD, a nine-year-old, Denver, Co.-based company that sells on-demand virtual care services, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Blue Venture Fund, with participation from 7wireVentures, Drive Capital and the Colorado Impact Fund. The company has raised $46 million altogether. More here.
Craft Docs, a five-month-old, Budapest, Hungary-based app for collaborative documents, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Creandum. TechCrunch has more here.
Curri, a four-year-old, L.A.-based tech platform focused on last-mile construction material delivery, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Brick & Mortar Ventures. Earlier backer Initialized Capital also joined the round, along with new investor Rainfall Ventures. More here.
Mantra Health, a three-year-old, New York-based startup providing virtual mental healthcare services to higher education, has added $2 million more to a $3.2 million seed round it disclosed late last year. Its newest backers include Canaan Partners, City Light Capital and Baleon Capital, as well as Aligned Telehealth founder Nitin Nanda. MobiHealth News has more here.
Price.com, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based e-commerce price-savings platform that says it helps users discover better prices, has raised $10 million in seed funding. A Jacksonville, Fla.-based CEO named Ricky Caplin led the round, and was joined by backers like Founders Fund, Social Capital, and former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, among others. More here.
StarStock, a two-year-old, Mamaroneck, N.Y.-based sports cards marketplace (it keeps the cards for buyers and sellers in a centralized vault, it says), has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. More here,
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New Funds
Next Frontier Capital, a six-year-old, Bozeman, Mt.-based seed-stage venture firm focused primarily on startup in the Rocky Mountain region, has closed its third fund with $80 million in commitments. The firm says its limited partners in the new fund include educational endowments, financial firms, charitable foundations, and industry executives, including former NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke. More here.
Emergent Ventures, a five-year-old, Bay Area-based seed fund focused on what it calls intelligent software and smart mobility, has closed its second fund with $20 million, show a new SEC filing. More here.
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Going Public (or Not!)
The venture-backed Israeli video cloud management company Kaltura has postponed the IPO on Nasdaq that it had planned for today until an unspecified date. The IPO has not been canceled, says Globes, but instead delayed due to lower-than -expected demand at the valuation the company was seeking. More here.
While some companies are opting to delay their IPOs in the face of less-than-enthusiastic market demand for their shares, real estate tech company Compass forged ahead and went public today. After pricing its shares at $18 apiece last night, the low end of a lowered IPO price range, Compass shares closed the day up just under 12% at $20.15 apiece. TechCrunch has more here.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said today that it will begin trading April 14, after receiving approval from the SEC for its direct listing. CNBC has more here.
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Essential Reads
Amazon said it expects some employees to begin transitioning away from remote work this summer, with most of its staff back at the office by the fall. The plans, notes CNBC, signal that "Amazon is betting on a return to office-based work, unlike some of its tech peers which have told employees they can adopt a fully remote or hybrid work schedule."
In China, hackers are stealing videos from private security cameras and selling them as home video tapes, reports the South China Morning Post. The videos are priced based on what they show.
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Retail Therapy
New James Bond movie (that eventually will be released, right?); new James Bond sunglasses.
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