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Twitter said today it has agreed to pay more than $800 million to settle a consolidated class-action securities lawsuit alleging the social-media company deliberately misled investors about its monthly active users and timeline views in 2015. Twitter added that the proposed settlement would resolve all claims against it and the other named defendants without any admission, concession or finding of any fault, liability or wrongdoing. The WSJ has more here.
Sorare, a nearly three-year-old, Paris-based
blockchain-based global fantasy football game where soccer clubs collect digital cards and play games (and that landed $50 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark back in February), just announced a whopping $680 million in Series B funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree. Benchmark, along with other earlier investors Accel and Headline, also joined the round. The company is now valued (already) at $4.3 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
COVID is now officially America's deadliest pandemic. 😬
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| Mark Suster: "The Bet We're Making Now is On Founder Skills" |
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We recently caught up with longtime VC Mark Suster of L.A.-based Upfront Ventures, which last raised both an early-stage fund and a growth stage fund several years ago and, according to regulatory filings, is in the market right now, though Suster couldn't discuss either owing to SEC regulations.
We did talk about a wide range of things, from his firm's big bet on the micro mobility business Bird (which could be publicly traded soon), to his views on decentralized finance, to his fitness regime (we had to ask, as Suster has shed 60 pounds since early last year).
If you're curious to hear that conversation, you can listen here. In the meantime, what follows are outtakes of his reflections on broader industry trends, including the feverish pace of deal-making.
On changing check seed-stage sizes, and how much time VCs have to write them right now:
It used to be 10 years ago that I could write a $3 million or $4 million or $5 million [check] and that was called an A round, and that company probably had raised a few hundred thousand dollars from angels and maybe some seed funds, and I could get a lot of data on how companies were doing. I could talk to customers. I could look at customer retention. I could look at a startup's marginal cost structure. I could talk to references of the founders. I could take my time and be thoughtful...
Fast forward a decade, and $5 million is a seed round, and
now there are pre seed rounds and "day zero" companies" and seed extensions and A rounds and "A prime," there's B . . . I'm not actually doing anything differently than I did 10 years ago, in terms of deploying capital, getting involved with founders very early, helping you build your executive team, set your strategy, work on pricing . . . But the pressure on me is, I now need to make faster decisions. I need to be involved with your company earlier. So I'm taking a little more risk in terms of not being able to look at customers. You may not even have customers.
On why his firm is averse to today's A and B rounds and leaning more heavily into growth rounds. (It just brought aboard a former Twitter exec to lead the charge here and has meanwhile plugged more than $50 million in to several of its portfolio companies, including Bird; Rally, an investing platform for buying shares in collectibles; and Apeel Sciences, which makes edible coatings for
fruit.)
I would never rule out any round. But what I will tell you is that the new a round that I maybe have an aversion to is, call it $20 million to $30 million. What does that imply? It implies that you're paying a $50 million, $60 million, $70 million valuation. It implies that to really drive fund-level returns, you have to have $5 billion, $10 billion, or $15 billion outcomes or greater.
More here.
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Airwallex, a six-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based company that provides business banking services directly to businesses, as well as via a set of APIs that power other companies’ fintech products, has raised $200 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $4 billion. Lone Pine Capital led the round, joined by G Squared, Vetamer Capital Management and earlier investors 1835i Ventures, DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital China. The company has now raised $700 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Blueground, an eight-year-old, New York-based startup that originally launched out of Athens and which focuses on short-term furnished apartment rentals, just raised $140 million in equity funding from investors led by Laurence Tosi’s WestCap Group, an existing backer. Geolo Capital, an investment arm of billionaire John Pritzker’s family office, also participated, as did VentureFriends and Prime Ventures. The company separately obtained a $40 million debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank. Bloomberg has more here.
Cars24 Services, a five-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based used car marketplace, has raised $340 million in Series F equity funding at a $1.84 billion post-money valuation. DST Global, Falcon Edge and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 co-led the round, joined by earlier investors Moore Strategic Ventures and Exor Seeds. The company also raised $110 million in debt. Bloomberg reported in mid-August that this deal was in the works; TechCrunch has more here.
ClickHouse, a New York-based database management software company founded by the creators of the widely-used open source data warehouse Clickhouse, has raised $50 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures and Benchmark co-led the round and were joined by investors including Yandex. Business Insider has more here.
Eat Just, the 10-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of plant-based egg products that was formerly known as Hampton Creek, has tacked on $97 million to a $170 million round that closed in May, bringing the round total to $267 million. New investor Resilience Reserve contributed some of the capital; previous investors in the company, including the hedge fund UBS O’Connor and Graphene Ventures, also participated. Bloomberg has more here.
Fivetran, a nine-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based data connectivity startup, has raised $565 million investment in Series D funding led by earlier investor Andreessen Horowitz. Other participants in the round include ICONIQ Capital, D1 Capital Partners and YC Continuity and other earlier backers General Catalyst, CEAS Investments, and Matrix Partners. The company has now raised $730 million altogether and is valued at $5.6 billion. It also just acquired a company (see below in "Exits"). TechCrunch has more here.
Lightricks, an 8.5-year-old, Jerusalem, Israel-based company that operates more than a dozen subscription-based photo- and video-editing apps across iOS and Android, has raised $100 million in new funding, as well as allowed $30 million in secondary shares to trade hands. To date, Lightricks has raised $335 million; it's valued at $1.8 billion. The new round was co-led by Insight Partners and Hanaco Venture Capital; it also includes new investors Migdal Insurance, Altshuler Shaham and Shavit Capital, along with earlier backers Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Claltech, Harel Insurance and Finance, and Greycroft. TechCrunch has more here.
Mobile Premier League, a three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based esports and gaming platform, raised $150 million in Series E funding at a pre-money valuation of $2.3 billion. Legatum Capital led the round, joined by a mix of new and earlier investors, including Sequoia Capital, SIG, RTP Global, Go-Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Play Ventures, Base Partners, Telstra Ventures, and Founders Circle Capital. The company had raised $95 million in February of this year, and a separate $90 million five months before that. VentureBeat has more here.
TrueLayer, a five-year-old, London-based company that provides technology for developers to enable a range of open-banking-based services, has raised $130 million in a funding round that values the London-based startup at over $1 billion. Tiger Global led the deal, joined by the payments juggernaut Stripe. TechCrunch has more here.
Ventyx Biosciences, an Encinitas, Ca.-based amalgamation of three biotechs, has raised $51 million in Series B funding led by Surveyor Capital, with participation from earlier investors venBio Partners, OrbiMed and nearly a dozen other investment groups. FierceBiotech has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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3G, an eight-year-old, Shelton, Ct.-based company that makes transportation management system and advanced multi-carrier shipping software, has raised $15 million in funding led by Sumeru Equity Partners, Hercules Capital, and existing investors. More here.
Altana AI, a three-year-old, New York-based startup that says its platform connects and learns from billions of data points to help governments and the private sector build better supply chains, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. GV led the round; other participants include Floating Point, Ridgeline Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners and Schematic Ventures. More here.
Boom Entertainment, a six-year-old, New York-based maker of sports gaming apps, including "NBC Sports Predictor," has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Sands Capital. More here.
Flippa, a 11-year-old, Melbourne, Australia- and Austin, Tex.-based online marketplace to buy and sell online businesses and digital assets (think blogs, apps, podcasts), has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by the Sydney-based venture capital firm OneVentures. More here.
FloBiz, a two-year-old, Bangalore, India-based startup that aims to simplify the accounting process for small businesses, has raised $31 million in Series B funding co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Think Investments, with participation from earlier investors Elevation Capital and Beenext. TechCrunch has more here.
Near Space Labs, a nearly five-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company that aims to gather geospatial intelligence from the stratosphere using small autonomous wind-powered robots attached to weather balloons, has raised $13 million Series A round. Crosslink Capital led the round, joined by Toyota Ventures and earlier investors Leadout Capital and Wireframe Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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9am.health, a newly launched, San Diego, Ca.-based virtual diabetes clinic, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding from Founders Fund, Define Ventures, Speedinvest and iSeed Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Bzaar, a 1.5-year-old, business-to-business cross-border marketplace that connects retailers with more than 50 manufacturers in India, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Canaan Partners. Numerous notable individual investors are joined the round, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, PhonePe founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, Addition founder Lee Fixel, and Helion Ventures co-founder Ashish Gupta. TechCrunch has more
here.
Saqara, a four-year-old, Paris-based based construction and infrastructure bid management platform, has raised €9 million in Series A funding led by A/O Proptech. UK Tech News has more here.
Veracity, a one year-old New-York based personal care and wellness platform using hormone testing, has raised $5 million seed funding led by Global Founders Capital, with participation from L Catterton, Meridian Street Capital, Great Oaks, FAB Ventures, and Silas Capital, as well as industry executives and founders, including Away cofounder Steph Korey. Beauty Independent has more here.
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Fifth Wall, the five-year-old, L.A.-based real estate tech-focused venture firm, has raised $140 million for a climate tech-focused vehicle, including from Equity Residential, Hudson Pacific Properties, Invitation Homes, Ivanhoe Cambridge and others. According to Axios, the fund is aiming to close with $500 million in capital commitments. More here.
Illumina Ventures, the five-year-old venture arm anchored by the life sciences giant Illumina, has raised $325 million for its second
fund. The outfit says the "majority of the total committed capital" came from other strategic and financial investors, including the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. The outfit now has $560 million in assets under management. More here.
Jeito Capital, a four-year-old, Paris-based biotech firm, has raised €534 million ($630 million), including from pharma giant Sanofi, for its debut fund. The capital will reportedly go toward financing between 12 and 15 European biopharmas and contributes to the mission of CEO and founder Rafaèle Tordjman, who was tasked by the French
government with boosting the biotech ecosystem in the country earlier this summer. Jeito will invest up to $100 million in a portfolio company, says FierceBiotech. More here.
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F5, a publicly traded, 25-year-old, Seattle-based applications networking company, says it is spending $68 million to acquire Threat Stack, a nine-year-old Boston-based cloud security and compliance startup that had raised $70 million over the years. The deal, which comes months after F5 bought multi-cloud management startup Volterra for $500 million, is part of an effort by F5 to bolster its cloud security portfolio as applications become a growing focus for cybercriminals. TechCrunch has more here.
HVR, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based data integration company that had raised $51 million in 2019 from the growth firm Level Equity Management, has sold itself to a rival, the nine-year-old data connectivity company FiveTran, for $700 million in cash and stock. More here.
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WeWork plans to begin trading its shares around Oct. 21 on the New York Stock Exchange, nearing the end of a years-long journey to the public markets. Shareholders in a blank-check companies set to acquire WeWork will meet virtually on Oct. 19 to vote on the plan, the companies said today. Bloomberg has more here.
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Jeff Bezos today promised to give away $1 billion in grants this year to support efforts around conservation. The pledge is part of the Bezos Earth Fund, the Amazon founder’s $10 billion commitment to support scientists, activists and organizations working to address climate change.
Peter Gajdoš has joined Fifth Wall as a partner, where he will will co-lead the firm's climate tech investment team. Gajdoš was previously the head of venture capital at IPM Group and a managing director and portfolio manager at Presidio Partners, where he focused on climate tech and biotech venture and growth investments.
Renowned VC Jeremy Liew is reportedly stepping back from making new investments at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Bloomberg has more here.
According to Reuters, Didi Global co-founder and President Jean Liu has told some close associates that she intends to step down as the Chinese ride-hailing giant faces intense regulatory scrutiny following its New York listing earlier this year. The company's shares sank more than 6% on the news.
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A new study from MIT lends credence to the idea that Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" system -- which is not actually an autonomous system but rather an advanced driver assist system (ADAS) -- may not actually be that safe. Researchers studying glance data from 290 human-initiated Autopilot disengagement epochs found drivers may become inattentive when using partially automated driving systems.
(In related news, this is bananas.)
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Coinbase quietly announced on Friday the decision to shelve Lend, a product that would pay users interest for lending out their cryptocurrency tokens. The SEC had threatened to sue the firm if it moved ahead; Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong initially lashed out at the agency, calling its behavior "kind of sketchy" in a tirade on Twitter. Bloomberg has more here.
Amazon installed AI cameras to "keep drivers safe," but some say the cameras are costing them income.
Aurora, the autonomous tech company that’s going pubic via a SPAC merger, has begun receiving modified Toyota Sienna minivans for a pilot program that will lay the groundwork for a commercial robotaxi service it wants to launch in the U.S. with Toyota and Uber by 2024. Forbes notes that Aurora is just the latest autonomous tech developer to look to the "unglamorous minivan as the potential workhorse of future on-demand ride fleets."
Robinhood is reportedly testing a new crypto wallet and cryptocurrency transfer features for its app. While it’s already possible for Robinhood customers to buy and sell popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, this would be the first time they can manage all of their crypto holdings through a wallet in the app, notes Bloomberg.
According to the WSJ, the SEC has launched a wide-ranging investigation into Activision Blizzard, including how the video game-publishing giant handled employees’ allegations of sexual misconduct and workplace discrimination. More here.
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Thirteen chances to own Mad Max's car are coming up.
This Samuel Adams beer is so strong, it's illegal in 15 states.
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Want to meet the next generation of VCs? Request an invite for the sixth annual RAISE Global Summit (formerly RAISE in the Presidio), happening October 19-20. The RAISE Global Summit helps LPs identify and invest in emerging venture funds. 30 funds will present, 200+ fund decks will be available in the RAISE Portal. Two half-day virtual sessions + in-person gatherings in SF, LA, NYC. Click here to request an invite.
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