|
April 12, 2021
Hello! We are back online after all of this. Naturally, we now miss being offline.
|
|
Top News
Bitcoin neared an all-time high today as bullish sentiment gathered steam ahead of a listing by the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, which is due to go public on the Nasdaq on Wednesday. Bloomberg has more here.
|
|
Sponsored By ...
Announcing the launch of the GoingVC Research Library: a one-stop free resources for all GoingVC’s investment thesis, white papers, excel models, and how-to guides. To learn more about the Research Library, click here, or create your free account here.
|
|
Massive Fundings
Antios Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company focused on chronic hepatitis, has raised $96 million in Series B funding. Soleus Capital led the round, joined by RA Capital Management, Adage Capital Management, Pontifax, and Aisling Capital. More here.
DealShare, a three-year-old, Jaipur, India-based social commerce startup that sells grocery and household essentials through social media and messenger platforms like WhatsApp, has raised $100 million in Series D funding led by Tiger Global Management just three months after wrapping up $21 million in Series C funding. TechCrunch has more here.
SKIMS, a three-year-old, Culver City, Ca.-based underwear, loungewear and shapewear maker launched by Kim Kardashian, has raised $154 million in Series A funding at a post-money valuation of $1.6 billion. Thrive Capital led the round, joined by Imaginary Ventures and Alliance Consumer Growth. The New York Times has more here.
Tend, a three-year-old, New York-based chain of membership-only dental "studios," has raised $125 million in Series C funding led by Addition, with participation from earlier backers GV, Juxtapose, Redpoint Ventures and Zigg Capital. The company has now raised roughly $200 million altogether. Business Insider has more here.
Veriff, a six-year-old, Estonia-based identity verification startup that uses video and AI to evaluate ID photos, has raised $69 million in Series B funding co-led by Accel and IVP. The round brings the company's total funding to $92.8 million, says Forbes. More here.
The Zebra, a nine-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based insurance comparison site, has raised $150 million in Series D funding at a valuation north of $1 billion. The company isn't disclosing the name of the firm that led the round, but TechCrunch's sources point to London-based Hedosophia. Existing backers Weatherford Capital and Accel also participated. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Battery Resourcers, a six-year-old, Worcester, Ma.-based company that says it's recycling used electric vehicle batteries and turning them into nickel-manganese-cobalt cathodes to sell back to battery manufacturers, has raised $20 million Series B funding. Orbia Ventures led the round, joined by At One Ventures, TDK Ventures, TRUMPF Venture, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures and InMotion Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Higher Ground Education, a five-year-old, Lake Forest, Ca.-based network of Montessori-focused schools, has raised $30 million in Series D funding led by Learn Capital. The round comes just two months after the company had raised $40 million in Series C funding. More here.
SafeGuard Cyber, a seven-year-old, Charlottesville, Va.-based cloud platform designed to protect assets from cybersecurity threats and risk factors, has raised $45 million in equity and debt. NightDragon led the round, joined by Cisco Investments and earlier investor Allegis Cyber. VentureBeat has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Appzone, a 12-year-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based developer of banking and payments services software for financial institutions, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. CardinalStone Capital Advisers led the round, joined by V8 Capital, Constant Capital, Itanna Capital Ventures and Lateral Investment Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Cultured Decadence, a year-old, Madison, Wi.-based working to create cell-cultured lobster meat, has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding from a long list of investors. These include Bluestein Ventures, Joyance Partners, Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, gener8tor, GlassWall Syndicate, Bascom Ventures, and China-based Dao Foods. The company also received non-dilutive funding from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Bloomberg has more here.
Dat Bike, a three-year-old, Vietnamese startup with ambitions to become the top electric motorbike company in Southeast Asia, has raised $2.6 million in pre-Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
EcoCart, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose Honey-like browser extension promises to offset shoppers' carbon emissions, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Base10 Partners. The round includes participation from Sugar Capital and numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Klevu, an eight-year-old, Espoo, Finland-based company that's developing AI products that personalize e-commerce search and discovery experiences, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Alfvén & Didrikson. VentureBeat has more here.
Mound, an 11-month-old, South Korea-based decentralized finance startup that says it's working on cross-chain collateralization and smart vaults, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding led by Binance Labs. Other participants included IDEO CoLab, SparkLabs Korea and Handshake co-founder Andrew Lee. TechCrunch has more here.
Wonder Dynamics, a four-year-old, L.A.-based media-tech startup developing an AI production tool that it says can allow indie filmmakers to affordably deliver quality VFX, has raised $2.5 million from Founders Fund, Cyan Banister, Realize Tech Fund, Capital Factory, and MaC Venture Capital among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Not-Yet-Known-Exactly-How-Much Fundings
Anduril Industries, a four-year-old, Orange County, Ca.-based defense technology startup aiming to take on large U.S. contractors like Lockheed Martin Corp., is raising a new round of funding that will more than double the firm’s valuation to between $4 billion and $5 billion, according to The Information. The company, which has reportedly been winning contracts with U.S. agencies, was last valued at $1.9 billion in July, by which point the company had raised $385 million altogether, including from Andreessen Horowitz. More here.
|
|
New Funds
Per CNBC: "Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and asset manager BlackRock will team up to invest in private companies that use technology to reduce carbon emissions, the companies said Tuesday. The partnership, referred to as Decarbonization Partners, will launch a series of late-stage venture capital and early growth private equity investment funds, the two companies said in a statement. Temasek and BlackRock plan to commit a combined $600 million in initial capital to invest across the funds, which would also raise money from third-party investors. The first fund has a target of $1 billion, and will include capital from both companies."
TDK Ventures, the two-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based corporate venture arm for the Japanese multinational electronics company TDK Corp., has announced a second fund with $150 million. That's triple the size of the unit's inaugural $50 million fund; the capital will be invested in material sciences technologies. More here.
Vida Ventures, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based life sciences investment firm cofounded by longtime TPG Global partner Fred Cohen; Arjun Goyal, formerly of 5AM Ventures; and Stefan Vitorovic, formerly of Third Rock (and TPG) is looking to raise upwards of $750 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.
|
|
Exits
Microsoft said today that it will buy the publicly traded speech recognition company Nuance Communications for $56 per share, about 23% above its closing price Friday. The deal is worth about $16 billion and about $19 billion including debt. It’s the latest sign Microsoft is hunting for more growth through acquisitions. More here and here.
Vox Media looks to bolster its podcasting arm with the acquisition of Cafe Studios, a podcast company co-founded by Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed, says Deadline. More here.
|
|
Darktrace, the eight-year-old, Cambridge, England-based AI company that specializes in cyber defense, told Reuters today that it plans to go public in London. The company has raised $230 million from investors, according to Crunchbase News. More here.
Didi Chuxing, China’s top ride-hailing company, is preparing an initial public offering in the US, according to Nikkei Asia. The IPO is expected to value the company at between $70 billion and $100 billion and to fund a global expansion. Didi has even picked an exchange, apparently: the NYSE. More here.
The Honest Company, the 10-year-old, Playa Vista, Ca.-based company markets all-natural household products and has had its high-profile ups and downs because of its famous cofounder, Jessica Alba, has registered its plans with the SEC on Friday to go public. The company has raised nearly $500 million over the years; its biggest outside shareholders include the private equity firm L Catterton (37.5% pre-IPO stake), IVP (13.9%), and Lightspeed Venture Partners (12.3%). The company was said to have filed confidentially for an IPO back in January. CNBC has more here.
Impossible Foods, the 10-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based plant-based burger maker, is preparing for a public listing that could value the company at around $10 billion or more, according to Reuters, which notes that's substantially more than the $4 billion the company was worth in a private funding round in 2020. Then again, there is "growing demand for plant-based meat products, driven by environmental and ethical concerns among consumers," notes the outlet.
KnowBe4, a 10-year-old, Clearwater, Fla.-based cybersecurity awareness training company that allows clients to simulate phishing attacks on their employees and check how well they are safeguarded against such attacks, has revealed that it's aiming for a $3 billion valuation in its U.S. IPO. The company is backed by KKR and affiliated with Goldman Sachs. Reuters has more here.
Soho House is once again taking steps to go public. The exclusive members-only club last week submitted a confidential filing for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Sky News first reported. The IPO would value the company, headquartered in London and founded in 1995, at more than $3 billion. The Real Deal has more here.
UiPath, a 16-year-old, New York-based robotic process automation software company, has revealed plans to sell 21.3 million shares at between $43 and $50, which, if it were to price in the middle, would give the company a roughly $26 billion valuation. That's considerably less than the valuation its private investors last assigned the company when it raised $750 million in funding two months ago (at a post-money valuation of $35 billion). TechCrunch has more here.
Vaccitech, a five-year-old, Oxford, England-based vaccine and cancer biotech, "now famous (and perhaps in some quarters, infamous) for its tech that delivered the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine," is gunning for an IPO, reports FierceBiotech. More on the plans of the company -- which has raised $215 million from investors, per Crunchbase -- here.
Pictured above: Me (Connie) and Jessica Alba. We laughed about our similar clothing choices for an interview five years ago, where an hour later, in front of a crowd of thousands of her adoring fans, I had to ask about the lawsuits Honest Company faced at the time over both its sunscreen and infant formula. We're just thankful no one had tomatoes at the ready. This pre-interview photo pretty much marked the high point of our brief acquaintanceship.
|
|
People
The rally in tech shares has taken the number of people with fortunes of more than $100 billion to eight, including newest members Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Bloomberg has more here.
Baseball great Alex Rodriguez and Jet.com founder Marc Lore are reportedly finalizing a deal to purchase the NBA 's Minnesota Timberwolves, along with the WBNA's Minnesota Lynx from majority owner Glen Taylor. ESPN, which reported the news, says the purchase price is expected to be in the $1.5 billion range.
|
|
Data
Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala invested a record amount in 2020 as it doubled down on growth sectors, said its CEO earlier today. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak didn't disclose the figure, but as Reuters observes, the comments signal Mubadala’s investments will exceed the $18.5 billion it invested in 2019 and $19.1 billion in 2018. More here.
|
Finally, expert calls that work for you. Try Tegus, the network that promises experts who are as good or better as you’d find on other networks, available at cost. Save your research budget and start paying $300 per call. Request a trial today.
|
|
Essential Reads
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said today the company is in talks to start producing chips for carmakers to alleviate a shortage that has idled automotive factories. Reuters has more here.
Apple is reportedly working on a product that would combine an Apple TV set-top box with a HomePod speaker and include a camera for video conferencing through a connected TV and other smart-home functions. Bloomberg has the story here.
U.S. senator wants to ban Big Tech from buying anything ever again. Also in Reuters.
|
|
Detours
Did you see that game(!)?
|
|
Retail Therapy
From Friday through next Wednesday, Sotheby's is hosting a private sale of one of the most valuable pairs of sneakers ever offered on the market: Kanye West's Nike Air Yeezy 1 prototype from 2008. The shoes are expected to go for more than $1 million.
The yacht for "ecotourist billionaires."
The Somadome. (You're going to need a bigger house for this.)
|
Sponsored By ...
Hone reimagines manager training with a continuous, data-driven experience that spans the employee lifecycle. Backed by Cowboy Ventures, Harrison Metal, NextGen VP, and Slack Fund, we’re built from the ground up to be the most effective, convenient, and scalable live training solution for startups and scale-ups. Whether manager essentials or diversity and inclusion, companies love our world-class content, research-backed live learning experiences, and flexible deployment platform. StrictlyVC readers get 20% off their first year - schedule a demo today.
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences |
|
|
|
|
|
