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June 17, 2021
Happy Thursday.:)
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Oops! According to a new regulatory filing, Lordstown Motors does *not* have binding orders from customers for its electric Endurance pickup truck, despite claims earlier this week by company executives. (Seems to us like David Hamamoto, who heads up the blank-check company that took Lordstown public, also has some 'splainin to do.) TechCrunch has more here.
Chinese regulators have intensified scrutiny of dozens of domestic internet companies for possible antitrust violations, according to the WSJ. In recent weeks, it reports, agents from government agencies, including the antitrust watchdog, the cyber police, and tax authorities have paid surprise visits to some companies, including Didi Chuxing (which revealed such on-site inspections in its IPO prospectus and warned that authorities might not be satisfied with the results). More here.
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Massive Fundings
Anduril Industries, the four-year-old, San Diego, Ca., AI-powered defense company founded by Palmer Luckey, has closed on $450 million in new funding at a post-money valuation. The Series D round was led by angel investor and serial entrepreneur Elad Gil; earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 8VC, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Valor Equity Partners and D1 Capital Partners also joined the round. The company has now raised just less than $700 million, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.
Beamery, a nine-year-old, London-based maker of recruiting and retainment software, has raised $138 million in Series C funding led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, with participation from Accenture Ventures, EQT Ventures, Index Ventures, M12 and Workday Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Claroty, a seven-year-old, New York-based maker of software to defend factories and industrial plants from cybersecurity attack, has raised $140 million in a Series D funding co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and 40 North, which is the investment arm of the privately held global industrial company Standard Industries. Other participants included LG and I Squared Capital. The company has now raised $235 million altogether. Times of Israel has more here.
KeepTruckin, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of fleet management software, has raised $190 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $2.3 billion. G2 Venture Partners led the round, joined by BlackRock, Index Ventures, GV, Greenoaks Capital, IVP, and Scale Venture Partners. According to Crunchbase data, the company previously raised $277 million from investors. Bloomberg has more here.
Motif FoodWorks, a two-year-old, Boston-based food tech spinout of synthetic biology company Gingko Bioworks, has raised $226 million in Series B funding. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and BlackRock co-led the round. Other participants included AiiM Partners, Wittington Ventures, Rethink Food, Rage Capital, Rellevant Partners, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, CPT Capital, General Atlantic, Louis Dreyfus Company, and Viking Global Investors. The company has now raised $345 million to date. More here.
Neo4j, a 14-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based graph database platform, has raised $325 million at a more than $2 billion valuation in a Series F deal led by Eurazeo, with additional capital GV. According to Crunchbase, the company has now raised $515 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Nylas, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of APIs to integrate email and other productivity tools, has raised $120 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global Management. Other participants in the round Owl Rock Capital, Stripe co-founders Patrick Collison and John Collison, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, and Tony Fadell, along with earlier investors Citi Ventures, Slack Fund, 8VC and Round13 Capital. The company has now raised $175 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
OnlyFans, a five-year-old, London-based platform where influencers, celebrities, and adult-film stars sell content, is in talks to raise at a $1 billion valuation, says Bloomberg, which reports that the startup, which is profitable, is working with an adviser to solicit interest from investors. More here.
Unit, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup helps tech companies build financial features into their products, including accounts, cards, payments, and lending, has raised $51 million in Series B funding. Accel led the round, joined by Better Tomorrow Ventures, Aleph, Flourish Ventures and TLV Partners. The company has now raised $70 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Akur8, a two-year-old, Paris-based startup that says its tech allows insurance carriers to model risks 10 times faster, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by an undisclosed investor. This brings its total funding to $42 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Arrived Homes, a two-year-old, Seattle-based company that helps people invest in rental homes to earn passive income, has raised $37 million in equity and debt funding led by Core Innovation Capital. Other participants in the round include Bezos Expeditions, Good Friends, Time Ventures, PSL Ventures, and numerous notable individual investors, including former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. Bloomberg -- which says the outfit has already acquired 15 homes and is in contract for 18 more -- has more here.
Caban Systems, a three-year-old, Burlingame-based startup that designs and makes software-enabled energy storage and management systems for the telecommunications industry, has raised $35 million from Ember Infrastructure. More here.
Eltropy, an eight-year-old, Milpitas, Ca.-based secure messaging platform for financial institutions, has raised $21 million in funding led by K1 Investment Management. More here.
Fiddler AI, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup whose tools help engineers monitor machine-learning systems, has raised $32 million in a funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital, Haystack Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Lockheed Martin, and Amazon's Alexa Fund. Fortune has more here.
Habyt, a four-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based co-living company, has acquired Hopefully, a five-year-old, Frankfurt-based co-living company that matches international professionals. In related news, the company has raised €20 million in Series B funding from HV Capital, Vorwerk Ventures, P101 and Picus Capital. EU Startups has more here.
InnerPlant, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of plant sensors to aid with crop risk management, has raised $5.7 million in seed and pre-seed funding, including from MS&AD Ventures, Bee Partners, UpWest, and TAU Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.
Splash Financial, an eight-year-old, Cleveland, Oh.-based digital lending platform, has raised $44.3 million in Series B funding led by DST Global, Citi Ventures and Detroit Venture Partners, with participation from earlier investors CMFG Ventures and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures. Fintech Futures has more here.
Transform, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose software queries and build metrics out of data troves (it was founded by three former Airbnb employees), disclosed today it has raised $20 million in Series A funding and an earlier seed round of $4.5 million, both led by Index Ventures and Redpoint Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
UserLeap, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based platform for AI-powered, continuous research for product teams, has raised $38 million in a Series B round that includes First Round and Andreessen Horowitz. The company has now raised more than $60 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.
Volt, a two-year-old, London-based open payments gateway, has raised $23.5 million in Series A funding led by EQT Ventures. Earlier investors Augmentum Fintech and Fuel Ventures also participated in the round, alongside numerous notable angel investors, including Adyen cofounder Robert Kraal. Tech.eu has more here.
Zus Health, an eight-month-old, Watertown, Ma.-based maker of software for healthcare providers to build apps and share patient data (it was founded by the AthenaHealth cofounder and longtime CEO Jonathan Bush, who was ousted from the job in 2017 by activist shareholder Elliott Management), raised $34 million in Series A funding led the round by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors in the round included F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, Rock Health, Martin Ventures and Oxeon Investments. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Eqtble, a year-old, New York-based HR analytics platform, has raised $2.7 million in seed funding, led by Initialized Capital, with participation from SB Opportunity Fund, RS Ventures and other venture capital firms and angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
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Exits
Gopuff, the eight-year-old, Philadelphia-based delivery startup, is buying software firm RideOS, a four-year-old maker of software for logistics and deliveries that's backed by Sequoia Capital and Siemens AG. According to Bloomberg, Gopuff is paying $115 million in cash and stock for RideOS, which was valued at $180 million in its latest funding round. According to Crunchbase, RideOS has raised $34 million altogether from its half dozen venture backers; Gopuff, which last year bought retailer BevMo! for about $350 million, has meanwhile raised a whopping $2.4 billion altogether. More here.
Gusto, which started off with payroll for SMBs and has since expanded into employee on-boarding, insurance, benefits, and other HR offerings, today announced that it is acquiring Ardius, a three-year-old, L.A.-based startup designed to automate tax compliance particularly around R&D tax credits. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.
Streaming giant Spotify is acquiring Podz, an 18-month-old, New York-based startup that’s been trying to solve the problem of podcast discovery via bite-size highlights of podcasts. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. Podz had raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding from M13, Canaan Partners, Charge Ventures, Humbition and celebrities Katie Couric and Paris Hilton. TechCrunch has more here.
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Going Public
Wise, the 10-year-old, London-based fintech company formerly known as TransferWise, has announced that it wants to become a public company on the London Stock Exchange via a direct listing. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
A little birdie tells us that NFX General Partner Pete Flint (who previously cofounded Trulia) received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from the Queen last week for his services to entrepreneurship. More here.
Neural helmets that promise to read your mind are coming, courtesy of Braintree founder Byran Johnson, who has bet half his fortune on them working. Bloomberg has the story here.
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Data
TikTok owner ByteDance shared some stats with employees today that underscore why it's one of the world's hottest startups. According to a memo viewed by the WSJ, ByteDance said its revenue last year more than doubled to $34.3 billion, while gross profits rose 93% to $19 billion. More, the number of monthly active users across all its platforms (which also include the viral app Douyin and news aggregation app Jinri Toutiao), reached 1.9 billion. Bytedance is backed by KKR, SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, and Hillhouse Capital Group, among others. More here.
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Essential Reads
Snap is eliminating a feature known as the "speed filter" that lets users capture how fast they are moving and share it with friends, reports NPR. The media organization says it began inquiring about the feature over recent weeks given warnings from safety advocates who've argued that it encourages reckless driving.
Antitrust scrutiny has made it increasingly difficult for Facebook to acquire anything that resembles a social network, but it kind of looks like it's cornering the VR market, observes Casey Newton.
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