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Top News
The price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies slid today after China’s central bank ordered the country’s largest banks and payment processors to take a more active role in curbing cryptocurrency trading and related activities. The WSJ has more here.
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Via, a Mobile Commerce Startup, Rings Up $15 Million in Series A Funding Led by Footwork
Mobile commerce is where it's at, and rising investment in so-called conversational commerce startups underscores the opportunity.
Via, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based startup, is among those riding the wave, having identified some trends that are becoming clearer by the month. First, more e-commerce sales will be on mobile phones this year than desktops (as much as 70% by some estimates), people tend to read text messages almost immediately, and consumers spend upwards of 30 minutes a day engaging with mobile messaging apps.
Via also insists that unlike an expanding pool of startups that are focused on helping retailers and others broadcast their marketing messages in SMS, there's room for a player to better address the many other pieces that add up to a happy consumer experience, from delivering coupon codes to starting the returns process.
Indeed, according to co-founder and CEO Tejas Konduru -- a Brigham Young grad whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from India and who have themselves worked at tech startups -- one insight his now 50-person company had early on was that despite that so many of their customers now use the mobile browser to visit and shop from their stores, many retailers use website builders like Shopify or BigCommerce to "cram everything everything into mobile, leaving only enough space for, like, one picture and a Buy button." Konduru figured there must be a way to take the shopping experience that all these customers have with brands on their website and make them happen in a quick, mobile-native way.
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Massive Fundings
Amber Bank, a six-year-old, Hong Kong-based company offers investors a number of different cryptocurrency products for institutional investors and wealthy individual investors to invest in, has raised $100 million in Series B funding at a $1 billion pre-money valuation. (The company raised $28 million in Series A funding last year.) China Renaissance led the round, joined by Tiger Brokers, Tiger Global Management, Arena Holdings, Tru Arrow Partners, Sky9 Capital, DCM Ventures and Gobi Partners. CNBC has more here.
Songtradr, a seven-year-old, L.A.-based music licensing marketplace, has raised $50 million in Series D funding from Regal, Aware Super, Perennial, Argo and Greencape, following a $30 million raise last August. The company has now garnered north of $100 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Cleerly, a 20-month-old, New York-based startup that's developing AI-enhanced imaging to better understand heart disease and more accurately project patient outcomes, has raised $43 million in Series B funding led by Vensana Capital, with additional backing from LRVHealth, New Leaf Venture Partners, DigiTx Partners, the American College of Cardiology and Cigna Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.
DataRails, a six-year-old, New York- and Israel-based startup that's building out a platform that lets SMBs use Excel to run financial planning and analytics like their larger counterparts, has raised $25 million in extended Series A funding, including from new backer Vintage Investment Partners. The tranche brings the round, which originally closed in April, to $43.5 million and includes backing from Zeev Ventures, Vertex Ventures Israel and Innovation Endeavors. TechCrunch has more here.
Lexion, a 2.5-year-old, Seattle-based maker of contract management software, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Madrona Venture Group and Wilson Sonsini. More here.
Nuevocor, a year-old, Singapore-based developer of cardiac gene therapies, has raised $24 million in Series A funding co-led by EVX Ventures and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, with participation from EDBI, Xora Innovation and SEEDS Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.
Securitize, a nearly four-year-old, Miami, Fla.-based asset securities firm that helps issue and managing digital tokens, has raised $48 million in Series B funding co-led by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value and earlier backer Blockchain Capital, which led the company's $12.75 million Series A round in 2018. The Block has more here.
SoleSavy, a three-year-old, Vancouver-based sneaker community dedicated to giving fans a curated place to navigate the world of shoes, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Bedrock Capital, with participation from Dapper Labs’ CEO Roham Gharegozlou, Diplo, Bessemer Ventures and Banana Capital, among others. The company had raised a $2 million seed round earlier this year. TechCrunch has more here.
WaitWhat, a four-year-old, New York-based podcast production company co-founded by two of the people who helped conceive of and build the TED digital media empire, has raised $12 million in funding led by Raga Partners, with participation from Emerson Collective, Lupa Systems, Capital One Ventures, Maywic Select Investments, GingerBread Capital, Burda Principal Investments, Cue Ball Capital and Reid Hoffman (whose podcast "Masters of Scale," is produced by the startup). TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Clair Labs, a three-year-old, Israel-based remote patient-monitoring startup, has raised $9 million in seed funding led by 10D, with participation from SleepScore Ventures, Maniv Mobility and Vasuki. Crunchbase News has more here.
Mfast, a two-year-old, Vietnam-based financial services app for users in remote areas who want to access credit or insurance, raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Do Ventures led the round, joined by Jafco Asia. TechCrunch has more here.
Ubco, a six-year-old, New Zealand-based electric utility bike startup, has raised $10 million in funding led by Seven Peak Ventures, Nuance Capital and TPK Holdings. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Frumtak Ventures, a 13-year-old, Reykjavic, Iceland-based venture firm focused on post-seed and Series A stage startups in the Nordics, has closed its third fund with $57 million in capital commitments. More here.
MetaProp, a six-year-old, New York-based proptech-focused, seed-stage venture firm, has closed its third fund with $100 million in capital commitments -- more than two and a half times the size of MetaProp's second fund, which closed with $40 million in 2018. The outfit's limited partners include PGIM, Mitsui Fudosan, CBRE, Bridge Investment Group, Cushman & Wakefield, and JLL Spark. More here.
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Exits
Uber has reached a deal to become the sole owner of Latin American delivery startup Cornershop, just one year after acquiring a majority stake in the company. The ride-hailing giant said in a regulatory filing Monday that it will purchase the remaining 47% interest in Cornershop in exchange for 29 million shares. The transaction is expected to close in July. TechCrunch has more here.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise says it has acquired Determined AI, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup developing an open source platform for building machine learning models. The two companies say the deal will combine Determined AI’s software with HPE’s high-performance computing offerings. Terms of the deal weren’t publicly disclosed; according to Crunchbase, Determined AI had raised just shy of $14 million, including from CRV, Haystack, GV and the House Fund. VentureBeat has more here.
Amazon has placed an order for 1,000 autonomous driving systems from five-year-old, self-driving truck technology startup Plus and has acquired the option to buy a stake of as much as 20%, Plus said in a regulatory filing. Plus is backed by Sequoia Capital China, among others. Bloomberg has more here.
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Going Public
Blend Labs, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of mortgage and consumer-loan software, has filed for IPO, listing a placeholder amount of $100 million in shares that it plans to sell. The company has raised $665 million over the years, according to Crunchbase. Its backers include Coatue, Tiger Global, 8VC, and General Atlantic, among many others. MarketWatch has a bit more here.
LegalZoom, the 20-year-old, Glendale, Ca.-based online legal services company cofounded by famed attorney Robert Shapiro, is aiming for a valuation of more than $5 billion in its U.S. IPO, according to a new regulatory filing. The company had filed for an IPO in 2012, too, but later postponed the offering and withdrew it after two years. Reuters has more here.
Nubank, the Brazilian digital bank backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has invited investment banks to pitch for roles on its upcoming IPO in the U.S., Reuters reported today.
Soho House Group’s parent company, a chain of exclusive private clubs around the world backed by billionaire Rob Berkeley, is seeking an NYSE listing as demand for leisure activity rebounds with an increase in coronavirus vaccinations. Membership Collective Group announced today it has begun the process of filing with the SEC. Forbes has more here.
Sweetgreen, the 13-year-old, L.A.-based salad restaurant chain founded by Georgetown University graduates, has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO, it disclosed in a statement today, saying it has submitted a draft registration statement to the SEC. The company was valued at $1.78 billion in a January funding round led by Durable Capital Partners. Bloomberg has more here.
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People
More than 56,000 people have signed petitions to stop Jeff Bezos from returning to Earth after his trip to space next month.
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Data
Some 649,000 retail employees gave notice in April, the sector’s largest one-month exodus in over 20 years, a reflection of pandemic-era strains and a strengthening job market. “It was a really dismal time, and it made me realize this isn’t worth it,” 23-year-old Aislinn Potts of Murfreesboro, Tenn., tells the Washington Post of why she left her $11-an-hour job as an aquatic specialist at a national pet chain in April to focus on writing and art. “My life isn’t worth a dead-end job.”
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Essential Reads
Google executives see cracks in their company’s success, reports the New York Times. ""They say Google’s work force is increasingly outspoken. Personnel problems are spilling into the public. Decisive leadership and big ideas have given way to risk aversion and incrementalism. And some of those executives are leaving and letting everyone know exactly why."
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Detours
Banksy might have to reveal his identity to own his art.
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Retail Therapy
An evening sale at Sotheby's.
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