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April 5, 2021
Hello! Welcome back. Quick reminder that we're with the interns this week (spring break) so these missives will be on the shorter side through Friday...
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Photo of Baylor's Mark Vital by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images.
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Top News
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 surged to records today as a strong U.S. jobs report and data showing a rebound in the services sector cheered investors hoping for a robust economic recovery. Facebook, Alphabet, and Microsoft each hit all-time highs. The WSJ and CNBC have more here and here.
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Massive Fundings
Fetch Rewards, a nearly nine-year-old, Madison, Wi.-based consumer-loyalty app, has raised $210 million in Series D funding. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round, joined by ICONIQ, DST Global, Greycroft, and e.ventures. Business of Fashion has more here.
Meesho, a 5.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based company whose online marketplace connects sellers with customers on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, then handles their order management and takes care of logistics, online payments, and shop updates, has raised $300 million in Series E funding. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round at a post-money valuation of $2.1 billion. The company has raised roughly $490 million altogether to date. Read more.
Swiggy, the 6.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based food delivery company, has raised $800 million in new funding from investors that include Falcon Edge Capital, Goldman Sachs, Think Capital, Amansa Capital and Carmignac, along with earlier investors Prosus Ventures and Accel. According to TechCrunch, the new round values Swiggy at $4.9 billion. The startup has now raised about $2.2 billion to date. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Cora, a two-year-old, São Paulo-based tech-enabled lender to small and-medium-sized businesses, has raised $26.7 million in Series A funding led by Ribbit Capital. Kaszek Ventures, QED Investors and Greenoaks Capital also participated in the financing, which brings the startup’s total funding to $36.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Glints, an eight-year-old, Singapore-based career platform, has raised $22.5 million in Series C funding led by Japanese human resources management firm PERSOL Holdings. The company has now raised $33 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Kevala, a nine-year-old, Bay Area-based energy and environmental data aggregation and analytics firm that specializes in mapping the electricity sector, has raised $17.4 million in new equity funding, according to a new SEC filing.
Sweet Flower, a 3.5-year-old, L.A.-based cannabis retailer, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. AFI Capital Partners led the round. Dot.LA has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Anima, an 11-month-old, London-based healthcare triage startup, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Hummingbird Ventures led the round, joined by Amino Collective. Crunchbase News has more here.
ConductorOne, a seven-month-old, Portland, Ore.-based access request automation startup, raised $5 million in seed funding. Accel led the round, joined by Fuel Capital, Fathom Capital, and Active Capital. Cofounder and CEO Alex Bovee was most recently a senior director of product management at Okta and briefly an EIR at Accel afterward. TechCrunch has more here.
FinanZero, a five-year-old, São Paulo Brazil-based online credit marketplace, has raised $7 million from VEF, Dunross & Co. and Atlant Fonder. The company has now raised $22.85 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Medxoom, a six-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based health benefits integration platform for self-insured plans, has raised $8 million in funding led by Castellan Group, with participation from Las Olas VC and TTV Capital. More here.
NoiseAware, a six-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based company that makes noise monitoring products that property owners can plug in to measure the noise levels in their homes (Airbnb hosts are customers, for example), has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by S3 Ventures and Thayer Ventures. More here.
Olive Union, a five-year-old, Carson City, Nev.-based maker of a two-in-one smart hearing aid and wireless earbud, has raised $7 million in Series B funding from Beyond Next Ventures, Bonds Investment Groups and Japan Policy Finance. Crunchbase News has more here.
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New Funds
Harlem Capital, a three-year-old, New York-based venture firm, has closed its second fund with $134 million in capital commitments that it intends to invest in roughly 45 mostly seed-stage companies with founders who are women and people of color. The diversity-focused firm, which closed its debut fund with $40 million in 2019, has backed the e-commerce startup CashDrop, the media company Blavity and and the pet insurance company Wagmo, among others. Both vehicles allot 1% of the carry to be split among portfolio company founders, according to Pitchbook. The newest fund's limited partners include Apple and PayPal. Forbes has more here.
KKR has just closed on $15 billion for its fourth Asia-focused private equity fund. The firm closed its third such fund four years ago with $9.3 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
Long Hill Capital, a five-year-old, Shanghai- and Beijing, China-based venture capital firm, says it has closed its third fund with more than $300 million in capital commitments, bringing its total assets under management to $800 million. More here.
Valor Ventures, a nearly six-year-old, Atlanta, Ga. seed-stage investment firm, has closed its second fund focused on inclusive investing in the Southeast with $21 million in capital commitments. The outfit has already invested in seven companies from its newest pool of capital, whose backers include the Georgia Tech Foundation, MeHarry Medical College and the Kellogg Foundation. Atlanta Inno has more here.
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Exits
Byju's, the 10-year-old, Bangalore, India-based multinational edtech and online tutoring firm that raised more than $1 billion last year, just paid close to $1 billion in cash and stock to acquire Aakash Educational Services, a 33-year-old chain of brick-and-mortar coaching centers, as the learning giant looks to further consolidate its leadership position in India. Byju's, currently valued at $13 billion by its investors, paid $600 million in cash and the rest in stock for Aaakash, which is backed by Blackstone. TechCrunch has more here.
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Going Public
Argo AI, a five-year-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based self-driving startup, is weighing plans to go public this year as it comes closer to commercializing its technology, its cofounder reportedly told employees on Friday. Argo AI has raised $3.6 billion altogether to date from Ford, which plans to roll out robo-taxis and driverless delivery pods next year, and from Volkswagen, which plans to put self-driving cars on the road later this decade. Bloomberg has the story here.
Bright Health Group, a five-year-old, Minneapolis, M.-based digital health company, is planning for an IPO that could raise $1 billion later this year, says Bloomberg. Its sources say the company -- cofounded by Bob Sheehy, the former CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealth Group --
could be valued at more than $10 billion. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $1.6 billion to date from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners and NEA. More here.
Enjoy Technology, a 6.5-year-old deliver service startup founded by former Apple exec and Apple Store founder Ron Johnson, is the latest company planning to go public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in a $1.6 billion deal. The company is reportedly planning to merge with Marquee Raine Acquisition Corp. Terms of the deal aren't out there quite yet, but Enjoy, which has raised $230 million from investors, was valued at $900 million as of its last venture capital round in August 2019 according to Pitchbook. SiliconAngle has more here.
Esports Technologies, a five-year-old, Las Vegas, Nev.-based company that operates an online gambling platform focused on esports and competitive gaming, filed today with the SEC to raise up to $10 million in an IPO. More here.
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People
Tim Cook drops some hints on Apple’s car plans, shares what he thinks of Elon Musk and Tesla. CNBC has more here.
Hipmunk’s founders Adam Goldstein and Steve Huffman are building a successor to their now-defunct flight search service. TechCrunch has more here.
A grand jury has indicted California resident Tassilo Heinrich of stealing Shopify merchant and customer data from more than a hundred merchants to gain a competitive edge. TechCrunch has more here.
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Last year, venture funds closed $74.5 billion in funding, a 30% increase from 2019, the NVCA said today. But while the biggest firms ballooned even further in terms of their assets under management, the number of first-time VC funds dropped last year, and those funds also raised less money than before, likely owing to the pandemic. Business Insider has more here.
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Essential Reads
The Supreme Court today ruled for Google in a multibillion-dollar battle with Oracle over elements of Google’s Android smartphone-operating system, in a decision that could weaken software copyright protections but allow developers more room to build on each other’s products. The WSJ has more here.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug to treat ADHD in children for the first time in over a decade, reports the Associated Press.
Audio-chat app Clubhouse said today it will launch a monetization feature for its creators on the platform and that it will not receive any payment from it, though it's testing out the feature with a small group to start. TechCrunch has more here.
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