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Friday! We are getting excited about this. (Thanks again to Eclipse Ventures for its generous help with the evening.)
In the meantime, we have a new StrictlyVC Download for you, with special guest Kevin Ryan, the renowned New York investor and entrepreneur who has been growing his wealth by both incubating and investing in companies, aided by a small team he has assembled in recent years. Among other things, we talked with Ryan about healthcare, where he's primarily focused these days; robotics (psst, he's looking for investment help on this front); and who succeeds him when he eventually steps down from his company, a move he says is still maybe 10 years away.
The episode is being brought to courtesy of Tegus, which offers instant access to 20,000+ investor-led expert calls on public and private companies. Check out www.tegus.co/strictlyvc to quickly scale up your own research.
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About $90 million has mistakenly gone out to users of the staking protocol Compound, following an upgrade gone wrong. Founder Robert Leshner began making pleas and issuing threats immediately afterward in an effort to get back the platform's tokens. “Keep 10% as a white-hat. Otherwise, it’s being reported as income to the IRS, and most of you are doxxed,” he tweeted last night (later calling the tweet "boneheaded"). CNBC has the story here.
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| Chamath Palihapitiya Speaks to SPAC Concerns, from Fees to Disclosures to the Quality of the Deals Crossing the Threshold |
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It was almost exactly two years ago that a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) spearheaded by investor Chamath Palihapitiya took public the space tourism company Virgin Galactic. It was the first human spaceflight company to trade on the NYSE — or any exchange, for that matter — and it was so successful, with the company’s shares trading higher and higher for so many months afterwards, that it almost immediately kicked off the SPAC frenzy. Consider that in the first three months of this year alone, SPACs raised $87.9 billion, exceeding the total issuance in all of 2020, according to data from SPAC Research. So far, according to SPAC Insider, 450 blank-check companies have been successfully formed, compared with 15 ten years ago.
Palihapitiya has been among the biggest beneficiaries of the craze. Called the “Pied Piper of SPACs” by The New Yorker and the “King of SPACs” by Bloomberg, he has formed at least 10 blank check companies and publicly shared plans to raise many more. (On the “All-In Podcast” that he co-hosts, Palihapitiya last year revealed he had reserved the symbols from “IPOA” to “IPOZ” on the NYSE.)
Of course, whenever market activity grows too feverish, retail investors get bruised. Indeed, after a number of companies taken public via blank check companies were discovered to have fudged some of their numbers — in June, for example, Lordstown Motors admitted it did not have binding orders from customers for its electric Endurance pickup truck after all — fears have grown that SPACs don’t feature enough disclosures and that they mostly benefit the people organizing them, like Palihapitiya, who joined us last week to talk about that concern and others.
Excerpts from that beginning of that conversation, held during TechCrunch Disrupt, have been edited lightly for length. You can also catch the full video on TechCrunch+.
More here.
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All Day Kitchens, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit that operates satellite kitchens for emerging restaurant brands in San Francisco and Chicago (and plans to expand to Texas and Southern California), has raised $65 million in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other backers in the round include GIC, Tishman Speyer, and earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Base10, among others. The company has now raised $102.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Built Technologies, a seven-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based construction finance platform, has raised $125 million in Series D funding. TCV led the round, joined by Brookfield Technology Partners, 9Yards Capital, XYZ Venture Capital and HighSage Ventures. More here.
PSPDFkit, a 10-year-old, Vienna, Austria- based developer of APIs and an SDK for document processing features in apps, has raised €100 million from Insight Partners. The capital is the first outside funding the company has raised. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Activ Surgical, a seven-year-old, Boston-based digital surgery startup, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Cota Capital led the round, with participation from BAM Funds, Magnetar Capital, Mint Ventures, Castor Ventures, Dream One Vision and Nvidia. TechCrunch has more here.
Forta, a new, San Francisco-based security service aimed at smart contracts that spun out of a six-year-old, cybersecurity company focused on blockchain technology called OpenZeppelin, just raised $23 million in funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures and Blockchain Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Hemanext, an 11-year-old, Lexington, Ma.-based blood storage company that "processes and stores red blood cells at a low oxygen saturation level, inducing hypoxia to preserve the blood’s quality by reducing potential oxidation," says FierceBiotech, just raised $15 million in funding. Backers include Antaeus Enterprises, Stephen Eckert and Omega Advisors. More here.
Higo, a nearly two-year-old, Mexico City, Mexico-based B2B payments platform for small and midsize businesses, raised $23 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round, joined by Tiger Global, Haystack, Homebrew, Audacious, Susa Ventures and J Ventures, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
LeadIQ, a six-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based sales prospecting platform, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Cathay Innovation. Other participants in the deal include Fresco Capital, Strong Ventures and Eight Road Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
QisstPay, a year-old, Islamabad, Pakistan-based startup creating a buy-now-pay-later platform for regional merchants, has raised $15 million in seed funding. MSA Capital led the round, joined by Global Founders Fund, Fox Ventures and First Check Ventures. Bloomberg has more here.
Wider Circle, a six-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based hyper-local healthcare program and in-person social network for seniors, has raised $38 million in Series B funding. AmeriHealth Caritas led the round, joined by Blue Venture Fund and Chicago Ventures. More here.
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Supersocial, a Columbus, Oh.-based Roblox-focused metaverse game developer, says it has raised $5.2 million in seed funding led by Initial Capital, with participation from Warner Music Group and LightShed Ventures. Digital Music Group has more here.
ProductWind, a nearly two-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that's building a platform to enable brands to launch influencer marketing campaigns, has raised $1.67 million in seed funding led by Early Light Ventures. 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-ed 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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Private equity firm Symphony Technology Group plans to merge two businesses it has acquired --- FireEye Products and McAfee Enterprise -- to form a new company with revenue of $2 billion. The investment outfit claims the merger will create a "pure play, cybersecurity market leader" with more than 40,000 customers and 5,000 employees. CRN has more here.
A week after a New York Times report raised questions about its business practices, Ozy Media, a digital media company founded in 2013, is shutting down.
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Rivian's S-1 in now public, and it underscores just how costly it is to build a car company. The filing also revealed that Amazon, one of Rivian's backers, will have the exclusive rights to Rivian’s delivery vehicles for four years after receiving its first one.
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In the year 2000, 406 companies went public and raised $93 billion in the process, setting a record. Now, 21 years later, we're about to shatter it, with Renaissance Capital estimating there will be 875 IPOs this year, including 500 SPACs and 375 traditional IPOs. As stunning, Renaissance expects these companies will generate a whopping $250 billion in proceeds, nearly three times that of 2000. Investor's Business Daily has more here.
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Today in Orange County court, billionaire Bill Gross awaited possible punishment for allegedly harassing his Laguna Beach neighbor for a second time with loud music. As she took the bench, the judge admonished Gross for violating an existing restraining order, hen sentenced him to: no more outdoor music, a $1,000 fine, and five days in jail. Gross’ wife, Amy, reportedly received an identical sentence. According to The Daily Beast (which has apparently been tracking this story closely), the feud between Gross and his neighbor began last year, after Gross installed white netting above an outdoor sculpture in his backyard and the neighbor complained to local authorities, after which Gross allegedly retaliated by blaring music at all hours, including the Gilligan’s Island theme song -- on repeat. More here.
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Is Sheryl Sandberg’s power shrinking? Ten years of Facebook data offers clues.
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin is suffering from an elevated turnover rate, reports CNBC, with the space company losing talent primarily from CEO Bob Smith’s pressure to return to the office and also seemingly his management style.
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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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