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Friday! What a week!
Speaking of Coinbase, for this week's StrictlyVC Download episode, we had the good fortune of being able to talk with two people with strong ties to the cryptocurrency exchange's direct listing on Wednesday, and you're going to want to hear from both if you're trying to figure out what's next for company.
One of our guests was Garry Tan of Initialized Capital, a former founder and former partner at Y Combinator who wrote Coinbase its very first check at YC and subsequently invested (alongside Alexis Ohanian and Harj Taggar) in the company out of Initialized's debut fund. That stake is now worth around $800 million, yet as you'll hear Tan say, Initialized is holding on to much of it because of a very specific insight tied to another Initialized portfolio company that was acquired by Coinbase and may well prove a major revenue engine in the coming years.
We also spoke with Katie Haun, the dynamic former federal prosecutor who was invited to join the board of Coinbase back in 2017 as an independent board member, work that attracted the attention of Andreessen Horowitz, an early investor in Coinbase that asked Haun to become a general partner in 2018. Haun was involved in true crime cases at the Justice Department, where she took on murderers, organized crime and corrupt officials; we talked about that work, as well as where Andreessen Horowitz has pouring a lot of its crypto capital. Not last, she shared why she thinks big changes are ahead for Coinbase. (You can also read some excerpts from that conversation below.)
Major thanks to Kushim for sponsoring this week's episode. Kushim makes software to seamlessly manage your deal flow and track portfolio performance. Check it out.
More Monday.:)
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Top News
Dapper Labs, the three-year-old, Vancouver-based developer of digital collectibles like NBA Top Shot and which, just a few weeks ago, closed on $305 million in funding at a valuation of $2.6 billion, is being valued in a new round at a valuation above $7.5 billion, according to The Information. It says Coatue Management, which led the previous round, is leading the new round, too. More here.
Andreessen Horowitz is valuing the social media app Clubhouse at $4 billion in a round of financing with new investors DST Global and Tiger Global Management, according to The Information. The round triples Clubhouse’s valuation from January, which Andreessen Horowitz also led, and comes amid growing competition by social media rivals Twitter and Facebook. (Andreessen Horowitz is also an investor in Dapper Labs, above.) More here and here.
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Coinbase Director Katie Haun on the Company, Its Sky-High Market Cap, and Where Else Her Firm, a16z, is Investing Its Crypto Fund
Coinbase, the newly public cryptocurrency exchange, has had it share of ups and downs. Still, the nearly nine-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit got a lot right ahead of its highly successful direct listing this week, including, seemingly, inviting in former federal prosecutor Katie Haun to join its board in 2017.
At the time, Haun had just spent 11 years working for the Justice Department, handling cases relating to violent murders and organized crime and, later, the fast-growing world of cryptocurrencies. In fact, as part of her job, Haun had gotten to know Coinbase and other up-and-coming startups to better understand digital currencies and decentralized systems. Because Haun, who won every case she argued, was ready a change, when Armstrong reached out about a formal role, she said yes. (A year later, Andreessen Horowitz, which wrote its first check to Coinbase in 2013, separately brought her aboard as the venture firm’s first woman general partner.)
The combination has proved powerful, and lucrative. As an independent board member at the outset, Haun was given shares for her service that are reportedly now worth roughly $150 million. (a16z’s stake is valued at more than $11 billion.) Meanwhile, Haun — who recently renewed her board term — says the company’s most impactful days are still ahead.
We talked yesterday with Haun about Coinbase’s valuation, its evolution from here, and her work with a16z’s crypto fund, which she co-leads with longtime general partner and fellow Coinbase board member Chris Dixon and where the team has likely “seen and done more deals in the last couple months than in the last couple years,” she said. She also noted that a16z has been pouring the majority of its money into tokens. Our chat has been edited lightly for length and clarity. (You can also listen to our conversation.)
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Massive Fundings
Bukalapak, a nine-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based e-commerce marketplace that is reportedly planning to list in Indonesia, has raised $234 million in new funding round, says Reuters. Microsoft, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, and local media conglomerate Emtek co-led the round, joined by included SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered, and the South Korean web portal Naver Corp. More here.
C2i Genomics, a two-year-old, New York-based diagnostics startup that says its software is one hundred times more sensitive to detecting residual disease by identifying faint patterns that indicate the presence of cancer in liquid biopsies, has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by Casdin Capital. Other investors in the round include NFX, Duquesne Family Office, Section 32, iGlobe Partners and Driehaus Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
IRL, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based group messaging app, is reportedly in talks to raise more than $50 million at a $1 billion valuation, which is 10 times the valuation it was last assigned by investors. According to The Information, the company "hasn’t finalized the new funding round, but has recently been approached by investors that include Tiger Global and IVP, among others," according to its sources.To date, the company has raised $28 million from investors, including Goodwater Capital, Floodgate, The Raine Group and Founders Fund. More here.
Luckin Coffee, the four-year-old, Xiamen, China-based coffee shop chain that struck a $180 million settlement last year with the SEC after being accused of fabricating sales figures to make itself look larger, has raised $260 million in funding led by Centurium Capital, a Luckin shareholder, which has agreed to invest $240 million in senior convertible preferred shares, and fellow shareholder Joy Capital. The WSJ has more here.
Mielle Organics, a nearly seven-year-old, Merrillville, Indiana-based hair care and beauty brand, has raised $100 million in funding from the Boston-based firm Berkshire Partners. Black Enterprise has more here.
UserZoom, a 14-year-old, San Jose, Ca,-based user experience testing and monitoring company, has raised $100 million in funding led by Owl Rock. TechCrunch has more here.
Vyond, a 14-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based company that helps companies make their own animated video content and data visualizations for the enterprise, has raised $50 million led by PeakSpan Capital. They even made a video about it.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
BigEye, a 2.5-year-old, Bay Area-based data quality automation startup formerly known as Toro, has raised $17 million in Series A funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by Costanoa Ventures. The company has now raised $21 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Cart.com, a year-old, Houston, Tex.-based e-commerce-as-a-service startup that provides online store software and much more to smaller brands, has raised $25 million in Series A funding. Mercury Fund and Arsenal Growth co-led the round, joined by Moonshots Capital and Scarlet Venture Fund. More here.
Itential, a seven-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company that sells network automation software, has raised $20 million in Series B funding from Elsewhere Partners. More here.
Level, a three-year-old, New York-based startup that aims to give companies a more flexible way to offer benefits to employees, has raised $27 million in Series A funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Operator Collective and angel investors also participated in the financing, along with earlier backers First Round Capital and Homebrew. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Chain.io, a four-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based supply chain integration platform, has raised $5 million in funding co-led by Grand Ventures and Mercury Fund, with participation from Honeywell Ventures and Engage. More here.
Paxafe, a two-year-old, Milwaukee, Wi.-based company that supply chain risk mitigation software solutions, raised $2.25 million in seed funding led by Ubiquity Ventures. More here.
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New Funds
BrandProject, an eight-year-old, Toronto-based firm that has backed such direct-to-consumer commerce startups as Freshly (acquired by Nestlé), Persona (also acquired by Nestlé) and Chef’s Plate (acquired by Hello Fresh), says it has raised $43 million in capital commitments for what it says is its first traditional venture fund. The outfit was founded by Andrew Black, who previously co-founded Virgin Mobile Canada and served as president of LEGO Americas. TechCrunch has more here.
Tera Ventures, a five-year-old, Tallinn, Estonia-based seed-stage firm focused on Nordic region startups, has raised €43 million in capital commitments for a new fund. More here.
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Exits
The Block, a three-year-old, New York-based cryptocurrency-focused media startup, has bought out its non-employee shareholders, including venture firms like Greycroft and Pantera that had invested just over $4 million, per Axios. The as-yet-unprofitable company tells the outlet it wants flexibility to better compensate existing and future employees and to be independent from outside investors and interests. More here.
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Going Public
TikTok owner ByteDance is shunning U.S. financial markets amid ongoing political tensions with China, choosing instead to hold its IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and planning to file its prospectus in the second quarter, reports Caixin; it adds that the company has been trading privately at a $300 billion valuation. More here.
SimilarWeb,a 14-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company whose AI-based platform that helps sites and apps track and understand traffic on their own sites and also competitors and which raised $120 million in funding last fall, has filed for an IPO in New York. The company, which reports a $22 million net loss for 2020 on $93 million in revenue, has raised $250 million in private funding altogether, including from Saban Capital Group and Viola Growth. More here.
Vicarious Surgical, a Charlestown, Ma.-based developer of surgical robots that help surgeons perform minimally invasive surgery via micro incisions, has agreed to go public at an implied $1.1 billion valuation via the blank-check company D8 Holdings. Vicarious had previously raised $43 million from investors, including Gates Frontier, Khosla Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, AME Cloud Ventures and Marc Benioff. FierceBiotech has more here.
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People
In a quarterly letter to his investors, hedge fund manager David Einhorn has written that investor Chamath Palihapitiya and entrepreneur Elon Musk threw "jet fuel" on the GameStop Ctrading frenzy in January when the video retailer's shares rose by 2,000%, later prompting a hearing in U.S. Congress, and he speculated as to why. Reuters has more here.
Paul Kwan has joined General Catalyst as its newest managing director. Kwan was previously the head of West Coast tech banking at Morgan Stanley, where has spent the last 20 years. Bloomberg has more here.
Fyre Festival scammer Billy McFarland is out of solitary confinement after being locked up for six months(!) over a podcast interview.
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Data
The five largest regulated US digital asset managers hold over $46 billion of crypto, says Cointelegraph. Here's its breakdown.
Limited partners in private investment funds are sitting on extra cash, leaving room for "new ideas," according to a new survey conducted by placement agent Eaton Partners. Axios has more here.
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Essential Reads
NASA today selected SpaceX to build spacecraft that would land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission. In winning the $2.9 billion contract, SpaceX beat out Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. The Washington Post has more here.
A week after Uber said it doesn't have enough driver, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said today that Airbnb doesn't have enough hosts. The shortfall could cost both companies a lot of money.
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Detours
Tesla owners can now see how much solar or coal is powering their cars.
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