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June 11, 2021
Friday! Adieu until Monday, everyone.:) Before we flip the switch, you leave you with the newest StrictlyVC Download, where you can find talk about Big Tech getting defanged, FlyHome's ginormous round, a small growth fund among giants, and office . . .holograms? With sincere thanks to guests Mike Ghaffary of Canvas Ventures and Sean O'Sullivan of SOSV for chatting with us; thanks, too, to episode sponsor Founder Shield, which aims to take the stress out of buying insurance for rapidly evolving, venture-backed startups. Learn more about Founder Shield below (and have a great weekend!).
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Top News
Beijing is calling on its tech giants to share the huge amounts of personal information they collect— and asserting its authority over data held by U.S. companies operating in China, too. The efforts are part of Xi Jinping’s push to rein in the country’s increasingly powerful technology sector and use it to his party’s advantage, reports the WSJ.
Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google could be forced to overhaul their business practices under an expansive set of antitrust reforms introduced by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers today. The package of five bills would make it harder for dominant platforms to complete mergers and prohibit them from owning businesses that present clear conflicts of interest. CNBC has more here.
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Michael Brown, the Newly Elected Chair of the Powerful Lobby Group NVCA, Shares His Agenda
Michael Brown, a longtime general partner with Battery Ventures, was just elected to the role of chairman of the National Venture Capital Association three years after joining its board of directors. Earlier this week, we caught up with Brown to ask about his new, year-long role with the 48-year-old trade group -- and what issues he sees as top of mind right now for the many American VCs he is now representing.
VCs are always concerned about tax treatments, but these are obviously even more top of mind, given Joe Biden's proposal last month to raise the top rate on long-term capital gains to 39.6% from 20%. What do you think of that proposal?
So you're gonna hit me right in the face with a two-by-four on taxes in the first question, I love it.
This is the NVCA's position, this is my personal position and if you ask most venture capitalists, this position is pretty widely held: what Biden is trying to do with the Build Back Better Plan . . . we are fully supportive of that and we are actively working with both the administration and policymakers in Congress to get done a lot of what he wants to get done. A lot of what he's talking about -- whether it's the physical infrastructure, like bridges, roads, planes; or the digital infrastructure, meaning internet broadband access more broadly and cybersecurity; or climate infrastructure, [around] how we transition the economy and the country to a greener carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative world -- venture capital is required to fund the entrepreneurs to do all of those things . . . It's really almost hand in glove. He wants this to happen, we want it to happen, and we can help facilitate that [because] it's not going to come from corporate America, we know that.
To your point, the money does have to come from somewhere. Is there a number at which you would feel more comfortable?
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Massive Fundings
Cerebral, an 18-month-old, Walnut, Ca.-based online mental health services startup that features a mobile app and monthly subscriptions, has raised $127 million in funding led by Access Industries, with participation from Silver Lake Waterman, Artis Ventures, Bill Ackman, Chris Burch and earlier investors Oak HC/FT, WestCap, AirAngels and Liquid 2 Ventures. The round values the company at $1.2 billion. Bloomberg has more here.
Clip, a nine-year-old, Mexican City, Mexico-based payments and commerce company with a range of products, including a $7 credit-card reader that fits onto smartphones and enables tour guides, corner stores, and other small businesses in Mexico to accept credit cards, has raised $250 million led by SoftBank and Viking Global Investors at a valuation north of $2 billion. Bloomberg has more here.
Branch Insurance, a four-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based home and auto insurance bundling startup, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Anthemis Group led the round, joined by Acrew, Cherry Creek Holdings, Greycroft, HSCM Bermuda, American Family Ventures, SignalFire, SCOR P&C Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Tower IV. The company has now raised $82.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Buser, a five-year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based collaborative bus charter platform that aims to modernize ground transport in the country, has raised $138 million from LGT Lightrock, SoftBank and Monashees. Reuters has more here.
Faire, a nearly five-year-old, San Francisco-based online wholesale marketplace, raised $260 million in Series F funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by Baillie Gifford, Wellington Management, and all earlier investors, a deal that values the company at $7 billion. That's nearly triple its previous valuation of $2.5 billion, announced just over six months(!) ago. The company has raised just shy of $700 million altogether. More here.
Fresha, an eight-year-old London-based maker of of salon and spa management software, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by General Atlantic, with participation from past investors Partech, Target Global, and FJ Labs, among others. The company has raised $132 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.
Nesto, a three-year-old, Montreal-based home mortgage startup, has raised C$76 million in Series B funding led by Assurance IQ co-founders Michael Rowell and Michael Paulus, with participation from Portage Ventures, Diagram Ventures and Breyer Capital. BetaKit has more here.
Open, a four-year-old, Bangalore, India-based Indian neobank with nearly all the features of a traditional bank, is reportedly in talks to raise around $100 million in Series C funding at a $600 million pre-money valuation from Temasek, General Atlantic, Tiger Global and Paypal. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Circulor, a nearly four-year-old, London-based company that says it uses blockchain distributed ledger technology to deliver end-to-end traceability in supply chains in order to demystify otherwise opaque systems, has raised $14 million in Series A funding. The Westly Group led the round, joined by Salesforce Ventures, BHP Ventures, Future Positive Capital, 24Haymarket and Sky Ocean Ventures. SiliconAngle has more here.
Classplus, a six-year-old, Noida, India-based platform for educators that closed a $9 million Series A round in May of last year led by RTP Global and more recently raised a $30 million round led by GSV, is in talks to raise $30 million at a $250 million-plus valuation led by Tiger Global Management, says TechCrunch. More here.
Kurome Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Cincinnati, Oh.-based cancer biotech, has raised $15 million in Series A funding co-led by Medicxi and Affinity Asset Advisors, with participation from CincyTech. Precision Oncology News has more here.
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Already this year, SPACs are poised to outdo 2020, and the SEC has taken notice. Now under the SEC’s watchful eye, effective risk management has never been more important for SPACs and late-stage companies. How should SPACs approach risk management and insurance in 2021? And what do late-stage companies need to consider if going public via SPAC vs IPO? Find out in Founder Shield’s SPAC Risk Management Guide.
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New Funds
A-Street Ventures, a new venture capital fund based in Bentonville, Arkansas launched this week with a post on Medium that says its $200-plus million debut fund will focus on advancing public K-12 education across the U.S. Profits will be reinvested or donated to charity. The outfit was founded and is being led by Marc Sternberg, who is stepping down after eight years as the K-12 education program director for the Walton Family Foundation. Axios has more here.
The crypto venture-capital firm of Michael Arrington, who previously founded both TechCrunch and Crunchbase, is launching a $100 million fund for bets on projects building on the Algorand blockchain. Called the Arrington Algo Growth Fund, the vehicle will invest in tokens and equity. It is Arrington’s second crypto-focused fund after the flagship Arrington XRP Capital Fund, which in March reported $236.7 million in assets. Coindesk has more here.
HighScale Ventures, a months-old, New York-based venture firm led by Transamerica Capital alums Andrew Pitz and, his former boss there, Georg Schwegler, is raising $49 million for its debut fund, per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios. More here.
RET Ventures, a four-year-old, Park City, Ut.-based venture firm focused on real estate tech, has raised $165 million in capital commitments for its second fund. Real Estate Weekly has more here.
SOSV, the 26-year-old, Princeton, N.J.-based seed-stage fund and accelerator program with offices around the U.S., as well as in China and India, has raised $100 million for an opportunity-type fund that will be used to largely fund Series B-stage startups in which the firm wants to preserve its pro rata stake. TechCrunch has more here.
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Exits
Facebook has bought several virtual reality game studios over the past couple years, and it added one more to its portfolio today with the acquisition of five-year-old, Seattle-based BigBox VR. Terms weren’t disclosed but BigBox -- maker of the popular virtual reality game "Population: One," had raised $6.5 million according to Crunchbase, including from Shasta Ventures, Outpost Capital, Pioneer Square Labs and GSR Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Kitty Hawk, the air taxi company backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, is buying what’s left of one-time DJI competitor 3D Robotics. As part of the acquisition, 3D Robotics co-founder Chris Anderson will become Kitty Hawk’s chief operating officer. The acquisition was first reported by Forbes, which published a detailed look at the current state of Kitty Hawk and its new focus on developing a remote-piloted electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The Verge has more here.
Chipmaker Nvidia is buying buy DeepMap, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based high-definition mapping startup that had raised over $90 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, GSV Capital and Robert Bosch VC, among others. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Mark Zuckerberg and entrepreneur-investor Sam Lessin are boar hunting with other friends in Hawaii right now, and our guilty pleasure, the Daily Mail, is on it (to an alarming degree).
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon released a new single today under his musical alter ego, DJ D-Sol, and some are joking on Twitter that the title, "Learn to Love Me," is a call-out to Goldman employees who are returning to in-person work this Monday. Again, courtesy of Daily Mail.
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Data
Even in a gilded age for executive pay, 2020 was a blowout year.
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Detours
Dog ejected from car in crash found on sheep farm, herding sheep.
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Retail Therapy
Can Bee ready-to-drink canned cocktails. (We'll take two, please.)
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