|
Top News
Three dozen states and the District of Columbia filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google today, alleging it operates an illegal monopoly with its Google Play app store. The bipartisan antitrust suit adds to parent company Alphabet's mounting legal challenges, notes the WSJ. More here.
China's central bank said today that measures against Alibaba's Ant Group will also be imposed on other payment service companies. "The monopolistic behavior does not only exist in the Ant Group, but also in other institutions," said Fan Yifei, vice governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), told reporters at a media briefing in Beijing. Reuters has more here.
|
|
Sponsored By ...
Dover is the first white-labeled recruiting platform designed for startups. Don't settle on your next hire -- Dover instantly scales up your recruiting through outbound sourcing, job marketplaces, and internal referrals. 100+ companies have used Dover to make hires across engineering, sales, product, and more. Get started at dover.com.
|
|
Massive Fundings
Aleph Farms, a four-year-old, Rehovot, Israel-based startup that's growing steaks directly from non-genetically modified animal cells, has raised $105 million in Series B funding led by L Catterton, with participation from DisruptAD, which is the venture capital arm of Abu Dhabi’s ADQ company. NoCamels has more here.
AnyVision, a six-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that develops facial recognition technology, raised $235 million in Series C funding co-led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Eldridge Industries. The WSJ has more here.
Bunq, a nine-year-old, Amsterdam-based fintech company that offers bank accounts and debit cards that users can control from a mobile app, has raised outside funding for the firm time -- $228 million -- in a round led by Pollen Street Capital. Bunq founder Ali Niknam is also participating in the round, investing $25 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Deep Instinct, a six-year-old, New York-based cybersecurity startup, has raised $68 million from Chrysalis Investments. More here.
Glossier, an 11-year-old, New York-based cosmetics brand, has raised $80 million Series E funding to open brick-and-mortar stores as the pandemic fades away. The deal, which was led by Lone Pine Capital and included earlier investors Forerunner Ventures and Sequoia Capital, assigns the company a $1.8 billion valuation. According to Crunchbase News, Glossier has now raised $266 million altogether. Business of Fashion has more here.
Linus Health, an eight-month-old, Boston-based cognitive screening platform that screens for the prevalence of dementia, has raised $55 million in Series B funding led by Morningside Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Mmhmm, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that adds its own flourishes to existing video communications services like that of Zoom and says it will soon function as a standalone product, has raised $100 million from investors led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, with participation from Sequoia Capital and others. Bloomberg has more here.
MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency business with close ties to Signal and its founder, Moxie Marlinspike, has raised more than $75 million in venture capital funding, including from earlier backers General Catalyst and Future Ventures, according to The Information. The deal reportedly values the company at $1 billion, or more than 10 times higher than at its last financing in March. We reported on that earlier round; more on the newest round here.
Outbrain, the 14-year-old, New York-based ad recommendation company, says it has raised $200 million in funding from the private equity firm The Baupost Group ahead of an IPO for which it filed just last week. TechCrunch has more here.
Skedulo, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based productivity software company that helps companies manage mobile workers, just raised $75 million in Series C funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. SiliconAngle has more here.
Teamwork, a 14-year-old, Cork, Ireland-based maker of project management software, has raised $70 million from Bregal Sagemount in its first round of outside funding. More here.
Verkor, a year-old, Lyon, France-based industrial company aiming to amplify battery cell production in Europe, has raised €100 million (nearly $118 million) in funding co-led by EQT Ventures and Renault Group. UKTN has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Juni, a year-old, Gothenburg, Sweden-based neobank for e-commerce companies, has raised $21.5 million in Series A funding. DST Global and Felix Capital co-led the round, joined by Cherry Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Lacuna Technologies, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that builds and manages open-sourced digital tools to help cities and municipal agencies to create, communicate, and enforce dynamic transportation policies, has raised $16 million in Series A funding. Xplorer Capital Management led the round, joined by PlayGround Global. More here.
Localyze, a three-year-old, Hamburg, Germany-based SaaS for cross-border hiring and relocation, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. Blossom Capital led the round, joined by Frontline Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Unibuddy, a six-year-old, London-based startup that says it digitally connects university student ambassadors and future students around the world to facilitate more informed decisions about higher education, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. Highland Europe led the round, joined by Stride.vc. More here.
Unit21, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps businesses monitor fraudulent activities with its no-code software, just raised $34 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global just nine months after the startup raised a $13 million Series A that included investments from the founders of Plaid, Chime, and Shape Security. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
10Web, a four-year-old, Newark, Del.-based automated WordPress platform, has raised $2 million in funding led by Sierra Ventures and AI Fund. More here.
Arcade, a six-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based software startup that uses gamified micro-incentives to motivate and engage salespeople, has raised $4.5 million. Stage 2 Capital led the round, joined by Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Our Innovation Fund, and ATX Venture Partners. More here.
Arena Innovation, a year-old, New York-based training startup that makes a portable robotic device for dynamic resistance training, has raised $5.2 million in seed funding, including from Courtside Ventures, Powerhouse Capital, and Wellness Holding. More here.
AREX Markets, a seven-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based automated receivables exchange platform where SME invoices are converted into a tradable asset class, has raised €8.8 million in Series A funding. Mosaic Ventures led the round, joined by LocalGlobe and Lifeline Ventures. More here.
Coast, a year-old, New York-based startup focused on making fleet and fuel payments easier to make, control, and track for transportation industry players, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Better Tomorrow Ventures. Avid Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Colle, Foundation Capital, Greycroft, Max Levchin’s SciFi VC and more than a dozen angels also joined the round. Coast was cofounded by Daniel Simon, who sold Bread, a consumer purchase finance and payments startup he’d co-founded, to Alliance Data Systems for over $500 million late last year. TechCrunch has more here.
LitLingo, a two-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based communication analytics startup that helps reduce a company's risk of being sued or damaging its own customer relations by flagging questionable digital content in real-time, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Breyer Capital, with participation from IBM CEO Sam Palmisano and previous backers, including LiveOak Venture Partners. Austin Inno has more here.
Loupedeck, a five-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based startup that makes customizable consoles for streamers and content creators, has raised €2 million led by zVentures. PC Gamer has more here.
Zerion, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based decentralized investing finance startup, has raised $8.2 million in Series A funding. Mosaic Ventures led the round, joined by Placeholder, DCG, Lightspeed, and Blockchain.com Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
New Funds
Amberstone Ventures, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based firm focused on early-stage food and consumer startups, says it has raised $45 million for its debut fund. More here.
ARTPARK, a year-old, Bangalore, India-based joint initiative by the Indian Institute of Science and AI Foundry to help translate cutting edge AI and robotics research into solutions with societal, economic, and technological impact, is reportedly launching a $100 million venture fund exclusively for startups in AI and robotics space. The Economic Times has more here.
|
|
Exits
Hello Sunshine, the media company founded by actress and entrepreneur Reese Witherspoon whose titles include the hit HBO drama “Big Little Lies,” is exploring a sale, according to the WSJ, which says the company began pursuing a sale in recent months after receiving interest from multiple suitors, including Apple. The WSJ says the company -- owned by Witherspoon, her husband, former CAA agent Jim Toth, and growth equity investor Seth Rodsky -- could be valued at as much $1 billion in a deal, though it adds there is "no guarantee the company will find a buyer."
|
|
Going Public
Heliogen, an eight-year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based company founded by veteran entrepreneur Bill Gross, is merging with Athena Technology Acquisition Corp, a women-led blank-check company, in a combination that values the concentrated solar power company at about $2 billion. As the WSJ explains it, Heliogen uses mirrors that are positioned to reflect sunlight at a small receiver, generating an intense heat, and that sunlight can be collected and processed to generate electricity even when the sun goes down, according to the company. The renewable energy can also be used to power industrial processes needed to make materials like steel and to produce hydrogen fuel.
Planet, an 11-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that operates a network of around 200 satellites that provides Earth imaging, as well as analytics of the data derived from that observation, is going public in a merger with special purpose acquisition company dMY Technology Group IV. The deal values Planet at $2.8 billion, and will provide the company with $545 million in cash at close, including $345 million from dMY IV’s contribution, and a $200 million PIPE provided by BlackRock-managed funds, Koch Strategic Platforms, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures and Google. After a bit of a lull, notes TechCrunch, Planet is now the second significant private space company this week to take the SPAC route to public markets. More here.
The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong is set to shorten the time for an initial public offering from pricing to listing to two days from the current five by the fourth quarter next year at the earliest, aligning its market more with other financial hubs. Bloomberg has more here.
|
|
People
Sudheendra Chilappagari has joined Battery Ventures as a vice president. Chilappagari joins the firm from Segment, a customer data platform.
Starboard Value, the second-biggest investor in software company Box, has spent the past seven months trying to get CEO Aaron Levie removed from his leadership role, according to a new proxy filing. Box disclosed the details of the ongoing riff with Starboard ahead of an upcoming shareholders meeting in which Starboard intends to nominate three directors for the Box board, while Box is urging investors to vote for the company’s nominees. CNBC has more here.
Justin Overdorff has joined Lightspeed Venture Partners as a partner focused on fintech investing. The firm says that Overdorff -- who joins from Stripe, where he was the payment company's corporate development deal lead -- is also "planting the Lightspeed flag" in New York, where he is currently based.
|
|
Sponsored By ...
VCs, corporates, investors, startups and portfolio companies all come together across the world later this month, at the fourth Global Corporate Venturing Digital Forum. With 500+ in attendance making connections and benefitting from the top-level expertise, make sure to visit the website and take a look at the full agenda. The speakers include Vito Giallorenzo, SVP Corporate Development and Chief Operating Officer IoT at BlackBerry. Take advantage of the Organization Ticket, which allows unlimited registrations from colleagues at your company – and there’s a 20% discount by using the code STRICTLY20 during registration. See you across the week of July 21-28!
|
|
Data
Fintech companies based in London raised more funding from venture capital investors in the first six months of 2021 than in any other year, demonstrating the British capital's resilience as a hub for digital financial services post-Brexit. Investors poured $5.3 billion into London fintech startups in the first half of the year, compared to $2.1 billion in the same period in 2020, new research from Dealroom and agency London & Partners found. Reuters has the story here.
Worldwide, global venture capital funding in the first half of this year shattered records as more than $288 billion was invested, per Crunchbase data. Crunchbase News has more here.
|
|
Essential Reads
Robinhood is on a collision course with regulators over a controversial practice called payment for order flow that generates most of its revenue, as the online brokerage gears up for a highly anticipated IPO. In its IPO filing, released today, Robinhood disclosed that 81% of its first-quarter revenue came from sending its customers’ stock, options and cryptocurrency orders to high-speed trading firms.
|
Sponsored By ...
Shareworks by Morgan Stanley. Curious about all the buzz around NFTs? Join us for our next Liquidity Virtual Event Series session tomorrow, 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. Don’t miss out – register here to save your seat.
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
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences |
|
|
|
|
|
