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Facebook today published two internal research reports about Instagram and downplayed their conclusions, as the company prepared for two congressional hearings in the next week that are focused on its products’ effects on children’s mental health. The New York Times has more here.
YouTube is banning prominent anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content.
The Federal Trade Commission is considering strengthening online privacy protections, including for children, in an effort to bypass legislative logjams in Congress.
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Andela, a seven-year-old, fully remote company that helps tech companies build remote engineering teams, has raised $200 million in Series E funding led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Whale Rock and earlier backers Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Spark Capital. The company has now raised $381 million altogether, per Crunchbase data, and it is valued by its backers at $1.5 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
Buckle, a four-year-old, Jersey City, N.J.-based financial services startup that says it provides insurance and credit to ride-share and delivery drivers specifically, has raised $60 million in Series B funding. Volery Capital Partners led the round, joined by Eldridge, Assurant Ventures, and HSCM Bermuda. PYMNTS has more here.
EquityBee, a four-year-old, Israel- and Palo Alto, Ca.-based marketplace where startup employees who lack the funds to exercise their stock options can find investors in exchange for a part of stock's potential future gain, has raised $55 million in Series B funding. Group 11 led the round, joined by a mix of new and earlier backers, including Battery Ventures, Latitude, Local Globe, Greenfield Partners, and ICON. Calcalist has more here.
Kepler Interactive, a year-old, London-based interactive gaming company founded by seven studios, has raised $120 million from the Chinese gaming firm NetEase. Game Developer has more here.
Lifebit, a four-year-old, London-based biomedical data company, raised $60 million in funding led by Tiger Global Management. Other participants in the round included Eurazeo, Pentech Ventures, and Beacon Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Perfect Day, a seven-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based consumer biology company whose best-known product is animal-free milk protein, has raised $350 million in Series D round led by Temasek and CPP Investments. Bob Iger and Horizons Ventures also participated in the round, among others. More here.
Semios, an 11-year-old, Vancouver, British Columbia-based company whose wireless IoT network helps farmers assess the yield and grade of their tree fruit, nut, and other crops, raised $100 million in funding. Morningside Group led the round. GeekWire has more here.
Sisu, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of analytics and decision-making software, has raised $62 million in Series C funding. Green Bay Ventures led the round, joined by Geodesic Capital and earlier backers a16z and NEA. TechCrunch has more here.
Totango, an 11-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based customer management software company, has raised $100 million in Series D funding. Great Hill Partners led the round, joined by BGV, Pitango Ventures, and Canvas. TechCrunch has more here.
Wayspring, a nine-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based outfit focused on substance use disorder treatment, has raised $75 million in funding, including from major payers such as Centene Corporation, Highmark and the Blue Venture Fund. FierceBiotech has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Avo, a four-year-old, New York- and Israel-based same-day delivery company, raised $45 million Series B funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Kleiner Perkins and JLL Spark. Business Insider has more here.
Benepass, a 21-month-old, New York-based employee benefits management platform, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. Threshold Ventures led the round and was joined by Modern Venture Partners, Operator Partners, and Alumni Ventures Group. More here.
Cleancult, a four-year-old, New York-based cleaning brand focused on plant-based ingredients, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Reynolds Channel and Anchor Capital led the round. Forbes has more here.
Cocoon, a 16-month-old, San Francisco-based platform focused on making every type of employee leave easier, be it parental, medical, caregiver, or bereavement, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures led the round, joined by First Round Capital, SemperVirens, XYZ Venture Capital, Magnify Ventures, and Springbank Collective. TechCrunch has more here.
DroneSeed, a nearly six-year-old, Seattle-based company that offers full lifecycle services for forestry management, has raised $36 million in Series A funding. Social Capital and Seven Seven Six led the round. DroneSeed has also acquired Silvaseed, a 130-year-old forestry company. TechCrunch has more here.
Empathy, a 15-month-old, New York- and Israel-based startup whose app is designed to help families manage some of the financial, legal and logistical challenges after losing a loved one, has raised $30 million in Series A funding. Entrée Capital led the round, joined by General Catalys and Aleph. More here.
Height, a three-year-old, New York-based collaboration platform, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures. More here.
Meesho, a six-year-old, Bangalore, India-based commerce platform that connects manufacturers and distributors with resellers and customers on social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, has raised $570 million in Series F funding. Fidelity Management Group and B Capital Group co-led the round, joined by Prosus Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Facebook. The deal values the company at $4.9 billion, more than twice where it was valued five months ago. Meesho has now raised more than $1 billion from investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Parafin, a 14-month-old, San Francisco-based fintech that tries to line up "one-click" growth capital for small businesses and was founded by several former Robinhood employees (including its former head of machine learning), has raised $34 million in seed and Series A funding co-led by Ribbit Capital and Thrive Capital. The WSJ has more here.
QC Ware, a seven-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based quantum computer software startup with high-profile customers like Goldman Sachs, has raised $25 million. Koch Disruptive Technologies, an investment unit of Koch Industries, and Covestro, a large polymer company, co-led the round joined by Samsung Ventures and returning investors Citi, the D. E. Shaw group, and Pegasus Tech Ventures. Reuters has more here.
Sureify, a nine-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based SaaS platform for life and annuity companies, has raised $15 million in Series C funding led by Aspen Capital Group. More here.
Vital, a 2.5-year-old, Atlanta-based AI patient experience software maker that was cofounded by Mint.com founder Aaron Patzer, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Transformation Capital led the round, joined by First Round Capital and Threshold Ventures. More here.
Wayspring, a nine-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based outfit focused on substance use disorder treatment, has raised $75 million in funding, including from major payers such as Centene Corporation, Highmark and the Blue Venture Fund. FierceBiotech has more here.
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Angle, a young, Paris-based startup focused on offering stablecoins pegged to currencies like the euro as an alternative to dollar-centric tokens, has raised $5 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by Fabric VC, Wintermute, Divergence Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Alven, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Archera, a two-year-old, Seattle-based startup that helps companies using Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and other platforms automate the cloud resource management process, has raised $7 million in Series A funding co-led by Ridge Ventures and Amplify Partners. GeekWire has more here.
Bubblehouse, a two-year-old, New York-based NFT marketplace that says it's focused on creating a social, accessible platform for creators and collectors, has raised $4 million in pre-seed funding from investors led by Third Kind VC. Other participants in the round include SV Angel, Watertower Ventures, Soma Capital and angel investors. SiliconAngle has more here.
Fiveable, a 3.5-year-old, Milwaukee, Wi.-based social learning platform that helps students navigate high school, just raised $10 million in Series A funding. Union Square Ventures led the round, joined by Owl Ventures and Progression Fund. The company has now raised $14.2 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
ForMotiv, a four-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based behavioral data and predictive analytics company, has raised $6 million in additional seed funding. Vestigo Ventures led the round, joined by Plug & Play Ventures and Dreamit Ventures. SecurityWeek has more here.
Heydoc, a three-year-old, London-based health administration tech company, has raised $8.3 million of Series A funding. Smedvig Capital led the round, joined by Hambro Perks, Triple Point Ventures, and InHealth Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Heyflow, a 1.5-year-old, Hamburg, Germany-based startup touting ‘no code’ tools for easily building interactive “clickflows” to boost customer conversions, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Project A Ventures, with participation from Atlantic Labs and several unnamed angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Merkle Science, a nearly three-year-old, Singapore-based startup that helps crypto companies, financial institutions and government entities detect, investigate, and prevent illegal activities involving cryptocurrencies, has raised $5.8 million in Series A funding. Darrow Holdings led the round, joined by Kraken Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Token Bay Capital, Kenetic, and Lunex Ventures. Bloomberg has more here.
Read AI, a months-old, Seattle-based company whose real-time dashboard aims to alert virtual meeting participants when one of them is talking too much, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Madrona Venture Group led the round, joined by PSL Ventures and a group of angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
RunX, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that wants to make it easier for developers to deploy cloud infrastructure, has raised $4.1 million in seed funding led by Unusual Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Three Spirit, a 3.5-year-old, London-based brand that sells non-alcoholic elixers, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by CircleUp Growth Partners. More here.
Urbio, a 10-year-old, Valais, Switzerland-based clean energy software company, has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding co-led by Wingman Ventures and Contrarian Ventures. More here.
Vedantu, a 10-year-old, Bangalore, India-based online learning platform that offers live and interactive courses for students in grades 6 through 12, has raised $100 million in Series E funding led by the private equity firm ABC World Asia. Earlier investors Coatue, Tiger Global, GGV Capital and WestBridge also joined the round, which values the company at more than $1 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
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The Military Veteran Startup Conference hosted by Context Ventures on 2/4/22 in San Francisco is a must-attend-in-person event for military veteran entrepreneurs. The event is free for military veteran (spouses and) entrepreneurs. Practically every venture capital firm that is veteran-led or invests in veteran founders has confirmed its attendance. The event is about maximizing founder growth so will primarily consist of relevant 1:1 meetings with successful military veteran founders and VCs. Enlist here.
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Acrew Capital is getting into late-stage investing with a new $300 million diversity-focused investment fund whose limited partners are predominantly either women or minorities. The firm, whose team has invested in Coinbase and Discord, has also raised an additional $380 million early stage fund. With the new funds, Acrew now has close to $1 billion under management, it tells Bloomberg. More here.
Investible, a seven-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based early-stage venture firm known for investments in Canva and other top Australian startups, announced today it is raising a $100 million AUD (about $72.3 million USD) Climate Tech Fund. This is the first time Investible has launched a sector-focused fund. Its first two funds, including a $50 million AUD one closed earlier this year, were both sector-agnostic. TechCrunch has more here.
The cryptocurrency company Ripple says it has launched a $250 million "creator" fund to foster "innovation in tokenization, with a focus on non-fungible tokens (NFTs)." More here.
Vensana Capital, a three-year-old, Washington, D.C.- and Edina, Mn.-based venture fund focused on medical tech products and services, has garnered $325 million in capital commitments just two years after closing its debut fund with $225 million in capital commitments. One of its cofounders, Kirk Nielsen, had previously spent 15 years with Versant Ventures. Vensana Capital's other cofounder, Justin Klein, previously spent more than a dozen years with NEA. The Minnesota Star Tribune has more here.
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Publicly traded Akamai is purchasing Israeli startup Guardicore for $600 million in an all-cash deal, the companies announced today. Guardicore was founded in 2013 and has since raised $110 million. Calcalist has more here.
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The eyewear start-up Warby Parker made its public debut today via a direct listing, at $54.05 per share, soaring more than 30% above a $40 reference price. The stock closed at $54.49, giving the company a valuation of more than $6 billion, based on shares outstanding. CNBC has more here.
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University endowments are minting billions, thanks to portfolios boosted by huge venture-capital returns and soaring stock markets.
Cloudflare's newest offering -- R2 Storage -- will intensifiy its rivalry with AWS and people are apparently going nuts over the prospect. As one industry observer notes on Hacker News: "I can't remember the last time there was this much interest in a new product launch - which gives an indication to the market need for pricing changes on this front."
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A slice of California in the heart of New York. (Yes! Another property, we can't help ourselves.)
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More than 200 emerging fund managers applied to present at the RAISE Global Summit October 19-20, and we’ve selected 30 of the best to present their funds. If you’re an LP and want to be among the first to meet with tomorrow’s breakout VC stars, sign up today for the RAISE conference. The program won't be recorded. You just gotta be there! Click here to request an invite.
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