|
Hello! Welcome back.:) Also, a quick mention that we are pulling the plug for a couple of weeks beginning next week. (Longtime readers know we turn this thing off for a bit each summer so we can squeeze in more quality time with StrictlyVC's beloved interns.)
It's not for long; we'll be back online and fully recharged on August 2nd.
|
|
Top News
ByteDance, the Chinese owner of popular short-video app TikTok, put on hold indefinitely its intentions to list offshore earlier this year after government officials told the company to focus on addressing data-security risks, the WSJ reports. The Beijing-based social-media giant, last valued at $180 billion in a funding round in December, had been weighing an IPO of all or some of its businesses in the U.S. or Hong Kong, according to the Journal's new report.
|
|
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.
|
|
Nasir Qadree Just Raised One of the Largest Debut Funds for a Solo VC
Nasir Qadree entered the world of venture capital six years ago, beginning with a role at Village Capital in Washington, then as an associate director of social investments at AT&T.
Qadree encountered even more opportunities to join established venture firms recently. In fact, he says that after deciding early last year to embark on launching his own firm — and garnering capital commitments for it — he became quite interesting to investors who tried bringing him aboard their own organizations.
He gets it, he says. “I think it’s great that organizations want to find new lines of business through their connections with fund managers who have differentiated sourcing and who will yield, I’d imagine, a more diversified portfolio.”
Still, he wasn’t going to hitch his wagon to another firm once he got going. “Venture capital is a wealth-creating business,” says Qadree. “I’m a first-generation college student. I grew up in the projects [and became] president” of numerous student-led organizations at his alma mater, Hampton University.
“I think it’s up to someone like myself and people who are constantly being asked these questions to have strong conviction around how to think about building your franchise. I’ve been through so much to get to this point that to give up my equity, give up my branding and ideas” was not going to happen, he says.
Qadree’s bet on himself appears to be paying off.
|
|
Massive Fundings
Bolt Financial, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based startup specializing in online checkout tech for retail brands, is seeking to raise at least $300 million in new funding, according to Bloomberg. Its sources say the company is eyeing a significantly higher valuation than the roughly $850 million valuation it was assigned during a funding round last year -- up to $3 billion or more depending on investor demand. The company previously raised $215 million, including from General Atlantic, WestCap Group, Tribe Capital and Activant Capital Group.
dMed-Clinipace, a Shanghai, China- and N.C.-based clinical contract organization, has raised $50 million in extended Series C funding led by Springhill Fund, with participation from Rock Springs Capital and Superstring Capital. dMed Global, a full-service clinical contract research organization (CRO) based in China, and Clinipace, a full-service Clinical CRO in the U.S., had merged earlier this year to form the combined company.
Elevate Brands, a five-year-old, New York- and Austin, Tex.-based startup that acquires and runs third-party Amazon merchants, has picked up $250 million in equity and debt funding (and isn't breaking out how much of either). Backers in the round include FJ Labs, Novel TMT, and a long list of entrepreneurs. TechCrunch has more here.
Flipkart, the 14-year-old, Bangalore, India- e-commerce startup backed by Walmart, has raised $3.6 billion in new funds from a group of investors led by Singapore’s GIC, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, and Walmart. The deal assigns the company a post-money valuation of $37.6 billion, cementing its status as among the world's most valuable private tech companies. The WSJ has more here.
Mark43, an eight-year-old, New York-based company that sells subscription software to law enforcement agencies around the world, has raised $101 million in Series E funding from the Spruce House Partnership, Tiger Global, The Radcliff Companies, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and former Lord Mayor of Sydney Lucy Turnbull — Turnbull's wife. Government Technology has much more here.
Quantexa, a five-year-old, London-based intelligence platform that aims to give organizations the ability to connect internal and external data sets, primarily to assess risk and compliance and identify financial criminal activity, has raised $153 million in fresh funding. Warburg Pincus led the round, joined by earlier backers Dawn Capital, AlbionVC, Evolution Equity Partners, HSBC, ABN AMRO Ventures and British Patient Capital. The company has now raised $240 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Tide, a six-year-old, London-based business financial platform, raised $100 million in Series C funding, valuing it at about $650 million. Apax Digital led the round, joined by Anthemis, Augmentum, Jigsaw, Local Globe/Latitude, SBI, and SpeedInvest. The company has now raised $200 million altogether and is valued at $650 million. Times of India has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Blues Wireless, a three-year-old, Boston-based an IoT startup founded by former Microsoft exec Ray Ozzie, has raised $22 million in Series A funding. Sequoia Capital and Lachy Groom led the round, joined by XYZ Venture Capital and Bill Gates. The company makes a cellular IoT device that can be embedded into almost any hardware and connect to the internet without relying on WiFi. GeekWire has more here.
Jasper Card, a 19-month-old, Bay Area-based credit card fintech, has raised $34 million in Series A funding. Benslie International Fund led the round, joined by 500 Startups, Gauss Ventures, Off The Grid Ventures, OurCrowd, and SIBF. More here.
SuperAnnotate, a three-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based application development platform for computer vision products, has raised $14.5 million in its Series A round of funding. Base10 Partners led the round, joined by earlier backers Point Nine Capital, Runa Capital, Fathom Capital, Plug and Play Ventures, Berkeley SkyDeck Fund and Seaside Startup Holding. Forbes has more here.
Vu, a 14-year-old, Argentina-based fraud and identity protection company, has raised $12 million in Series B funding from investors, including software developer Globant, along with Agrega Partners, NXTP Ventures, Bridge One, the IDB Lab and Telefónica. The company has now raied roughly $20 million altogether. Vu has more here.
Smaller Fundings
Frontier, a 20-month-old. San Francisco-based jobs marketplace focused on connecting low-skilled workers with companies that need a high volume of help, has raised $2.8 million in seed funding. NFX led the round, joined by firstminute Capital, FJ Labs, Cyan Banister, Supercell cofounder Ilkka Pannanen, Deel cofounder Alex Bouaziz, and Liquid2 Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Vaayu, a months-old, Berlin-based carbon tracking platform aimed specifically at retailers, has raised $1.57 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by CapitalT. TechCrunch has more here.
Vara, an eight-month-old, Singapore-base startup that's looking to digitize Indonesian SMEs’ payrolls, has raised $4.8 million in seed funding from Go Ventures, RTP Global, AlphaJWC, Sequoia Capital India, FEBE Ventures and Taurus Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
UpsideHōM, a 15-month-old, Miami, Fl.-baed fully managed, tech-enabled living space for older adults in the U.S., has raised $2.25 million in seed funding co-led by Triple Impact Capital and Freestyle Capital, with participation from Techstars. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
New Funds
Eka Ventures, a nearly three-year-old, U.K.-based early stage venture firm that invests in consumer tech companies, has closed a new fund with £68 million ($95 million) in capital commitments, including from British Business Bank, BSC, Isomer, Guys and St Thomas Foundation, Planet First Partners, Draper Esprit, and Snowball, along with numerous founders, 12 of whom are individuals who Eka partners have previously backed. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
Exits
Semiconductor powerhouse Broadcom is in talks to buy SAS Institute in a deal that would value the company at $15 billion to $20 billion, reports the WSJ. Cary, N.C.-based SAS sells analytics-, business-intelligence and data-management software. It traces its roots back to the 1960s. More here.
Southeast Asia’s car marketplace wars are kicking into overdrive, observes TechCrunch. Today Carsome Group, one of the region’s largest online used car marketplaces, said it plans to acquire listings platform iCar Asia in a transaction worth more than $200 million. Specifically, Carsome has agreed to acquire 19.9% of iCar Asia from Malaysia internet conglomerate Catcha Group. In exchange, Catcha Group will become a shareholder in Carsome Group. Carsome and Catcha Group have also made a joint proposal to iCar Asia’s directors to buy the rest of the company from its shareholders. More here.
IFIT Health & Fitness, the company that owns NordicTrack and was recently valued at $7 billion in a round of funding, will spend $300 million to acquire Sweat, an online fitness training platform. Sweat, which was co-founded by trainer Kayla Itsines and CEO Tobi Pearce in 2015, is based in Australia and will reportedly be operated as a standalone brand. The WSJ has more here.
Microsoft said today it has agreed to acquire RiskIQ, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based cybersecurity start-up, for undisclosed terms. CNBC notes that the deal could help Microsoft expand its security business, which is growing faster than other segments. In January, Microsoft said it derived more than $10 billion in security revenue in the past 12 months, up more than 40% year over year. According to Crunchbase data, RiskIQ had raised around $83 million from investors, including Georgian, Battery Ventures, and Summit Partners.
Klarna, the highly valued buy-now-pay-later giant based in Stockholm, has acquired Hero Towers for around $160 million, says the WSJ. London-based Hero connects online shoppers with retail workers via text messages, videos and online chat rooms and it promises to help retailers who sell major brands such as Nike to compete with Amazon by offering better customer service.
|
|
Going Public
Couchbase, a 10-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based database software firm plans to raise up to $161 million in an IPO by selling 7 million shares priced between $20 and $23 per share. Accel and North Bridge Venture Partners are among the company's biggest outside investors. Demand for data storage and processing has soared from the remote working wave brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, notes Reuters.
Erasca, a three-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based, venture-backed clinical-stage precision oncology company, plans to raise up to $280 million in an offering of 17.5 million shares priced between $14 and $16 per share. The company's biggest outside investors include Arch Venture Partners, Colt Ventures, and Cormorant Asset Management. Renaissance Capital has a bit more here.
Imago BioSciences, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based bone marrow drug development company, plans to raise up to $112 million in an offering of 7 million shares priced between $14 and $16 per share. BlackRock, Frazier Healthcare Partners and T. Rowe Price are among its investors. FierceBiotech has more here.
|
|
People
The Senate today confirmed Jen Easterly, a former NSA official and President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, filling a critical vacancy as the country reels from a series of digital assaults and a cascading ransomware crisis. More here.
Ryan Isono has been promoted to vice president from senior associate at Felicis Ventures. Isono joined the firm as from Correlation Ventures last year. He began his investment career as a senior analyst at Revel Partners.
Blake Masters, a close ally to billionaire Peter Thiel and a current Thiel Capital executive, launched a bid for the Arizona Senate today. As a Republican, he’ll be seeking to take on Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). On his campaign website, Masters champions a total ban on illegal immigration. The Verge has more here.
Elon Musk was in court today to defend Tesla's purchase of SolarCity, telling a judge that he didn’t act improperly during the negotiating process and doesn’t even enjoy running the electric-vehicle maker. "I rather hate it," he reportedly said. The WSJ has more here.
|
|
Sponsored By ...
Anduin’s data rooms are forged from our market-leading fundraising and investor workflows. We’ve packaged all the best-in-class features fund managers expect from a VDR, like document analytics and audit trails — along with industry-grade security — into a modern and intuitive interface that’s reassuring to investors. Make an impression with custom branded landing pages; while benefiting from Anduin’s interoperable suite of products that gather your investor management needs under a single universal login. Arrange a demo today!
|
|
Data
How we'll know when the crisis is over.
According to CB Insights, the number of so-called “mega rounds” — massive, $100 million-plus venture deals — has climbed to 751 in 2021 year-to-date, already beating the 665 mega rounds that were raised last year. “This feels a lot like 1999 to me,” Hussein Kanji, a partner at venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures, tells CNBC.
|
|
Essential Reads
Warner Bros., in the biggest drop of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for a film to date, today released collection of 91,000 limited-edition NFTs featuring characters from “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” including Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Porky Pig — and the pic’s star, LeBron James. Variety has more here.
|
|
Detours
Hopefully, England fans can take some consolation in this.
|
|
Retail Therapy
Oh, Volleback. We derive so much pleasure from your immoderate marketing (truly).
|
Sponsored By . . .
SaaStr, the world's largest non-vendor B2B software community, is back - in person! Don't miss this year's Annual on Sept 27-29 at the San Mateo County Event Center. The three-day conference will bring together more than 10,000 global SaaS founders, executives, and venture capitalists for a series of high-quality content sessions and networking opportunities. Across five stages more than 300 SaaS leaders will share their hard-earned learnings and actionable insights to help you scale up and grow your company faster. Readers can grab 20% off tickets with code StrictlyVC.
|
StrictlyVC StrictlyVC, LLC, 1 Blackfield Drive, No. 239, Tiburon, CA 94920 Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences |
|
|
|
|
|
