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June 30, 2021
Happy Wednesday! Also, thank you; you are *amazing*. We asked for your help yesterday, and we've now heard about so many great venue possibilities for our first back-to-the-real world event, that, dorky as it sounds, we're moved by the response.:) We're still sorting through some of these, but we'll hopefully have more for you on this front soon.
As we figure out the space and the program, we'd love to talk with those interested in partnering with us on the evening -- likely in late fall -- as a sponsor. If you'd like to learn more, including cost, reach, and associated benefits, please reach out to alex@strictlyvc.com for more information.
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Amazon has filed a request with the Federal Trade Commission seeking the recusal of new Chairwoman Lina Khan from antitrust investigations of the company, writing that: “Given her long track record of detailed pronouncements about Amazon, and her repeated proclamations that Amazon has violated the antitrust laws, a reasonable observer would conclude that she no longer can consider the company’s antitrust defenses with an open mind." More here.
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Sponsored By ...
Founded by serial tech entrepreneurs, this little-known startup has become the premiere platform for art investing. Demand is up and it’s no surprise why: contemporary art prices rose 14% per year from 1995 through 2020. Over 175,000 have signed up and when we see that much demand, our ears perk up. Discover more with this private StrictlyVC link.* See disclaimer.
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Uber's First Head of Data Science Just Raised a Debut Venture Fund to Back Nascent AI Startups
Kevin Novak joined Uber as its 21st employee its seventh engineer in 2011, and by 2014, he was the company’s head of data science. He talks proudly of that time, but like all good things, it ran its course and by the end of 2017, having accomplished what he wanted at the company, he left.
At first, he picked up the pace of his angel investing, work he’d already begun focusing on during weekends and evenings, ultimately building a portfolio of more than 50 startups, including the fintech Pipe and the autonomous checkout company Standard Cognition.
He also began advising both startups and venture firms -- including Playground Global, Costanoa Ventures, Renegade Partners and Data Collective -- and after falling in love with the work, Novak this year decided to launch his own venture outfit in Menlo Park, Ca., called Rackhouse Venture Capital. Indeed, Rackhouse just closed its debut fund with $15 million, anchored by Uber's first head of engineering, Curtis Chambers; Steve Gilula, a former chairman of Searchlight Pictures, and the fund of funds Cendana Capital. (A lot of the VCs Novak knows are also investors in the fund.)
We caught up with Novak late last week to chat out that new vehicle. We also talked about this tenure at Uber, where, be warned, he played a major role in creating surge pricing (though he prefers the term “dynamic pricing.”) You can hear that fuller discussion or check out excerpts from it, edited lightly for length and clarity, here.
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Massive Fundings
Antheia, a six-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based startup using synthetic biology to produce medicines currently sourced from plants, has raised $73 million in Series B funding led by Viking Global Investors, Sherpalo Ventures and Hillspire. More here.
Dream Games, a nearly two-year-old, Istanbul, Turkey-based mobile gaming company, has raised $155 million in Series B funding co-led by Index Ventures and Makers Fund, with participation from Balderton Capital, IVP and Kora. TechCrunch has more here.
FightCamp, a six-year-old, Costa Mesa, Ca.-based startup offering subscription-based virtual boxing and kickboxing classes (users get tracking gloves, workout mats and a free-standing bag), has raised $90 million in Series B funding led by NEA and Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between Creative Artists Agency and NEA. Other investors include mixed martial artists Georges St. Pierre and Francis Ngannou. The company has now raised $98 million altogether. Dot.LA has more here.
Sword Health, a six-year-old, New York-based virtual therapy platform that pairs expert physical therapists with FDA-listed wearable technology to treat patients needing musculoskeletal care, has raised $85 million in Series C funding. General Catalyst led the round; other participants included Bond, Highmark Ventures, BPEA, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Transformation Capital and Green Innovations. TechCrunch has more here.
Tomo, a year-old, Stamford, Ct.-based company that was founded by former Zillow execs to take on big banks when it comes to providing mortgages to consumers, has raised $70 million in seed funding led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from DST Global, NFX and Zigg Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Zipline, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based drone delivery startup that got its start delivering medical supplies across Africa and now sees opportunity in delivering healthcare items like prescriptions directly to people’s homes, has raised $250 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $2.75 billion. Baillie Gifford led the round, joined by Fidelity, Intercorp, Emerging Capital Partners, Reinvest Capital and returning investors Temasek and Katalyst Ventures. According to Crunchbase, the company has now raised $483 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Gilmour Space Technologies, a six-year-old, Queensland, Australia-based rocket company that is developing and launching low cost hybrid launch vehicles for small satellites, has raised $46 million in Series C funding led by Fine Structure Ventures, with participation from Australian pension funds HESTA, Hostplus and NGS Super and from earlier backers Blackbird and Main Sequence (both of them Australian venture firms). TechCrunch has more here.
Mandolin, a year-old, Indianapolis, In.-based concert live-streaming platform, has raised $12 million in Series A funding co-led by 645 Ventures and Foundry Group, with participation from earlier backers High Alpha and TIME Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Nodes & Links, a three-year-old, London-based scheduling platform for large-scale infrastructure projects like bridges, has raised $11 million in Series A funding round led by 2150, with participation from Zigg Capital, Westerly Winds, and earlier investors Entrepreneur First, ADV and Seedcamp. TechCrunch has more here.
Paper, a seven-year-old, Montreal, Canada-based Educational Support System (ESS) that's implemented by school districts to improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness, has raised $100 million Series C round led by IVP. Earlier investors Framework Venture Partners, Bullpen Capital, Reach Capital, Birchmere Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, BDC Capital and ETW also participated. More here.
Pietra, a two-year-old, New York-based building commerce infrastructure for creators who are looking to scale the sales of their physical goods, has $15 million in Series A led by Founders Fund, with participation from TQ Ventures, Abstract Ventures, and earlier backer Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.
VividQ, a four-year-old, Cambridge, England-based deeptech startup whose tech can render holograms on legacy screens, has raised $15 million led by UTokyo IPC, the venture investment arm for the University of Tokyo. Other investors in the round include Foresight Williams Technology, Japanese Miyako Capital, APEX Ventures, and R42 Group VC along with earlier backers. TechCrunch has more here.
Daylight, a 17-month-old, Brookly-based digital banking platform that says it's on a mission to “build a more equitable financial life for LGBTQ+ folks and their chosen families," $5 million in a seed funding round. Kapor Capital and Precursor Capital co-led the round, which included participation from Anthemis Group, Clocktower, Financial Venture Studio and Citi. TechCrunch -- which notes there is a banking platform in Brazil with a similar mission called Pride Bank -- has more here.
Hammoq, a year-old, Phoenix, Az.-based e-commerce operating system for resellers (it helps them list their wares quickly in multiple marketplaces), has raised $3 million in funding led by Origin Ventures, with participation from Sierra Ventures, SaaS Ventures, and Silicon Road Ventures. More here.
RealSleep, a two-year-old, L.A.-based company making what it says is a fully customizable, cannabinoid-based sleep aid, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding from unnamed investors. More here.
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Sponsored By . . .
Last call for salary transparency in VC! John Gannon's 4th annual VC and Scout Salary and Compensation survey closes today. Click here to submit your data today and you'll get the full analysis in Q3 once all the numbers are crunched!
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New Funds
BMW i Ventures, the venture capital arm of BMW Group, has announced a new $300 million fund to further its investment in technologies that make transportation, manufacturing and supply chains more sustainable. The unit insists it doesn't operate as a traditional corporate venture capital fund, even while it's fully backed by the German automaker. TechCrunch has more here.
NFX, the six-year-old, Bay Area- and Israel-based early-stage venture firm cofounded by former entrepreneurs James Currier, Pete Flint, and Gigi Levy-Weiss, is looking to raise up to $450 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing. The outfit had closed its second fund with $275 million in 2019. More here.
Willow Growth Partners, a year-old, L.A.-based women-led venture firm that will invest in early-stage consumer companies, has raised $28 million for its inaugural fund. Dot.LA has more here.
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Exits
JPMorgan Chase has agreed to purchase San Francisco-based OpenInvest, a six-year-old fintech that helps professionals customize and report on values-based investments. Financial terms of the deal aren't being disclosed; the company looks to have raised around $25 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator and QED. More here.
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Going Public
Today was Didi Global's first day of trading after its IPO and its shares closed up just 1% above their offering price at $14.14. The closing price signals that "investors are willing to overlook some risks for the promise of high growth, and that Didi and its underwriters were wise in conservatively pricing the deal," suggests the WSJ. More here.
TPG, one of the last of the original private-equity giants to remain a closely held partnership, is evaluating a public listing, according to the WSJ. The firm is reportedly considering a straightforward IPO, as well as a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in a deal that could value the California-and-Texas firm at about $10 billion. More here.
Allbirds, the wool trainers seen throughout Silicon Valley (and okay, fine, in our house, too), has tapped banks including Morgan Stanley for its IPO, says Bloomberg, which reports the shoe brand has confidentially submitted its listing documents to the SEC and is seeking to go public as soon as September at a valuation of $2 billion or more. More here.
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Data
SoftBank Group has been hailed as a big winner from Didi's IPO, but its returns are "piddly," suggests The Information. It says that SoftBank invested a total of around $12 billion in the company, per one of its sources. Based on Didi’s closing price, SoftBank’s stake is now worth $13.7 billion, up 14%. It could be worse, but investors would have done better by investing in an index fund like QQQ that tracks the Nasdaq composite index. It's up 150% since mid-2017, when SoftBank began acquiring the bulk of its Didi stake, notes the outlet.
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Essential Reads
Robinhood has agreed to pay nearly $70 million to resolve sweeping regulatory allegations that the brokerage misled customers, approved ineligible traders for risky strategies, and didn’t supervise technology that failed and locked millions out of trading.
Facebook’s head of Instagram said the service plans to start showing users full-screen, recommended videos in their feeds. “We’re no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app,” Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said in a video posted today.
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Sponsored By ...
Shareworks by Morgan Stanley. Curious about all the buzz around NFTs? Join us for our next Liquidity Virtual Event Series session on July 8 at 1pm EST to hear from industry thought leaders as they explore the digital tokenization of assets and equity including the potential benefits and challenges to the industry. Register now to join the conversation.
Shareworks by Morgan Stanley services are provided by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, member SIPC, and its affiliates, all wholly owned subsidiaries of Morgan Stanley. CRC 3614741-6/21
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