Sequoia restructures, Robinhood disappoints, and a Clubhouse competitor from . . . Amazon?

Happy Tuesday, all.:)

The U.S. head of Sequoia Capital, Roelof Botha, today announced that the firm's U.S. and Europe business is restructuring around a single permanent structure called the Sequoia Fund. Moving forward, he wrote in a post, the firm's "LPs will invest into The Sequoia Fund, an open-ended liquid portfolio made up of public positions in a selection of our enduring companies. The Sequoia Fund will in turn allocate capital to a series of closed-end sub funds for venture investments at every stage from inception to IPO. Proceeds from these venture investments will flow back into The Sequoia Fund in a continuous feedback loop." 

Botha added further down in the announcement that as part of this restructuring, Sequoia is also becoming a registered investment adviser, but that seemed to us like burying the lead. This latter news is more interesting (to us) than the fact that Sequoia is streamlining its own management because unlike 99% of firms, it doesn't need to abide by traditional venture structures or timelines any longer.  (Its LPs definitely aren't going anywhere.) 

As Botha notes, becoming an RIA gives the firm far more flexibility to increase its investments in emerging asset classes like cryptocurrencies, and our bet is that like a16z -- which restructured as an RIA in 2019 -- this move is largely about turning up the dial on digital assets, including investing in tokens, which don't fit neatly into traditional venture models. Indeed, click on the "crypto" category featured on Sequoia's site today, and the only brand to pop up right now is BitClout, a kind of decentralized social media platform (whose founder is coming to our November 11 event, by the way). 

Sequoia hasn't exactly steered clear of digital assets. It's an investor in the exchange FTX, for example, and it has backed the investment firms Polychain Capital and Paradigm (whose cofounder is former Sequoia investor Matt Huang). Sequoia also reportedly came this close to acquiring an 11% stake in the cryptocurrency exchange Binance in the summer of 2017 (then talks broke down, and lawsuits followed). Still, you can imagine that it wants to put the pedal to the metal here. We should see soon enough if that's right.

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* Augury, a 10-year-old, Israel-based industrial AI company that connects vibration and ultrasonic sensors to smartphones and other mechanical systems to detect machine malfunctions before they happen, has raised $180 million in Series D led by Baker Hughes. Other investors in the round include Schneider Electric and earlier investors Insight Partners, Eclipse Ventures, Qumra Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Munich Re Ventures and Lerer Hippeau. Geektime has more here.

* CoinList, an four-year-old, San Francisco-based company that connects investors to crypto projects, just raised $100 million in Series A funding. Accomplice and Agman Partners co-led the round, joined by Alphemy Capital, Continue Capital, CMT Digital, and DFG Capital Management, among others. The deal assigns the company a valuation of $1.5 billion. It has raised $120 million in funding to date. The Block has more here.

* Devo, a 10-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based log management and cybersecurity company, has raised $250 million in Series E funding led by TCV, with participation from General Atlantic and Eurazeo. The company had closed its previous round, a $60 million Series D, a year ago. TechCrunch has more here.

* Fabric, a 6.5-year-old, New York- and Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that sells on-demand fulfillment through robotics-filled micro-fulfillment centers that retailers can either operate independently or by purchasing the service as a subscription, has raised $200 million in Series C funding led by earlier backer Temasek. Other participants in the round include Koch Disruptive Technologies, Union Tech Ventures, and Harel Insurance & Finance, among others. The company has now raised $336 million altogether and is valued at more than $1 billion, it tells TechCrunch. More here.

* Juventas, a 14-year-old, Cleveland, Oh.-based biotech that's developing non-viral gene therapies to treat advanced cardiovascular diseases, has raised $63 million in Series C funding led by CICC Capital. FierceBiotech has more here. 

*  Logicbroker, an 11-year-old, Shelton, Ct.-based maker of cloud-based drop-ship software used by brands, retailers, suppliers and third-party logistics providers, has raised $135 million in growth funding from K1 Investment Management. TechCrunch has more here.

* Medable, a nearly seven-year-old, Palo Alto. Ca.-based cloud platform with tools that allows sponsors, patients, providers and contract research organizations to work together on clinical trials, has raised $304 million in Series D funding led by Blackstone Growth, Tiger Global, and earlier backer GSR Ventures, with participation from other earlier backers, Sapphire Ventures and WTI. Medable has now raised four rounds of funding since the beginning of 2020. TechCrunch has more here.

* Pipefy, a six-year-old, Brazil- and San Francisco-based maker of low-code workflow management software, has raised $75 million in Series C funding led by SoftBank Latin America Fund, with participation from Steadfast Capital Management, Insight Partners and Redpoint eventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Autochek, a 15-month-old, Lago Nigeria-based auto marketplace that sells both to dealerships and directly to consumers (it also offers financing and after-sales services), has raised $13.1 million in seed funding. TLcom Capital and 4DX Ventures co-led the round Other participants in the round include Ask Capital, Mobility 54 Investment SAS, Golden Palm Investments, Enza Capital and Lateral Capital. TechCrunch has more here. 

* Bridgit, a nine-year-old, Toronto, Canada-based  workforce intelligence startup that's focused on the construction industry, has raised CAD$24 million ($19.4 million) in Series B funding. Camber Creek and Storm Ventures co-led the round, which brings the outfit's total funding to more than CAD$35 million. Nine Four Ventures also joined the financing, along with earlier backers BDC Capital, StandUp Ventures, Sands Capital and Vanedge Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

*  Hedron, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that's building a network of data relay satellites (the company was formerly called Analytical Space), has raised $17.8 million in Series A funding. Fine Structure Ventures led the round, joined by Lockheed Martin Ventures, Republic Labs, Lime Street, Explorer 1 and numerous earlier investors. A new venture-backed newsletter called Payload has more here. 

* HiveWatch, a 1.5-year-old, L.A.-based startup that uses multi-sensor fusion to help companies better respond to physical security threats, has secured $20 million in Series A funding led by 01 Advisors. The round, which follows less than a year after the startup announced $5 million in seed funding, also included investors Lachy Groom, Elad Gil, Penny Jar Capital, and earlier investors Crosscut Ventures, Freestyle Capital and SaaS Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Skydropx, a seven-year-old, Mexico City, Mexico-based logistics management platform for e-commerce retailers in the country, has raised $20 million in Series A funding co-led by 645 Ventures and Base10 Partners. Logistics companies Shippo and Flexport also joined the round, along with Tinder cofounder Justin Mateen, FJ Labs, and Cometa. TechCrunch has more here.

* UserGems, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based platform that aims to help B2B companies generate more revenue by identifying buyers who will most likely buy from them, just raised $20 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round, joined by Battery Ventures, Tiger Global, and earlier backers Uncork Capital and other angel investors. The company has now raised $22.4 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* Y24, a 1.5-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based low-code data platform, has raised $31 million in Series A funding from Atomico and Insight Partners. La Famiglia and Data Community Fund also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.

* Yokoy, a two-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based spend management platform, raised $26 million in Series A funding. Left Lane led the round, joined by Balderton Capital. VentureBeat has more here. 

* Zolve, a year-old, Bangalore, India-based banking startup that aims to help immigrants in the U.S. gain access to financial services (its founder sold his last company to Ola), has raised $40 million in Series A funding led by partners of DST Global. The round, which brings the company's total funding to $65 million, also included Tiger Global, Alkeon Capital, and earlier investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Accel. TechCrunch has more here.

* AtomChat, a 2.5-year-old, Panama City, Panama-based maker of conversational commerce software, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Mucker Capital, with participation from TechStars. TechCrunch has more here.

* Bild, a 1.5-year-old, Bay Area-based hardware design collaboration platform cofounded by a former hardware engineering program manager at Apple, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Tola Capital. Other investors in the round include Lux Capital, Shasta Ventures, Counterview Capital, Frontier Ventures and Techstars. TechCrunch has more here.

* Flowerbx, a six-year-old, London-based flower delivery startup, has raised £8 million in Series A funding. Capstar Ventures led the round, joined by Lumar Ventures and Shortlist Ventures. More here.

* Gencove, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based genome sequencing platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Lewis & Clark AgriFood led the round, joined by Spero Ventures, Techammer, Third Kind Venture Capital and Version One Ventures. More here. 

* Piiano, a 10-month-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that aims to help businesses keep their customers’ data private by ensuring their data sets are free of personally identifiable information, has raised $9 million in funding. YL Ventures led the round, joined by numerous notable individual investors, including Snyk founder Danny Grander, Armis co-founder Nadir Izrael, and Papaya Global co-founder and CEO Eynat Guez. TechCrunch has more here.

* Pop Market, a months-old, Athens, Greece-based dark store grocery delivery startup whose founder was previously a senior manager with Delivery Hero, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding co-led by Global Founders Capital and 468 Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

* Vopero, a year-old, Montevideo, Uruguay-based fashion resale marketplace, has raised $7.5 million from Grupo Axo and ThreadUp. More here.

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* Bread & Butter Ventures, a four-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based early-stage venture firm, has closed its third fund with $27 million in capital commitments. The outfit, which likes food-tech startups, health tech, and enterprise software, says it invests globally. Early investments from the fund include Milk Moovement, a cloud-based ERP system for the dairy industry, and Orbiit, an AI-powered
matchmaking engine for curating peer connections within a community. The Star Tribune has more here.

* Ecosia, an 11-year-old search engine that uses its ad revenue to plant trees, has launched a $405 million venture fund focused on the climate crisis. The so-called World Fund will invest in the founders looking to tackle the issue, Ecosia said, and will measure its success on “climate returns” as well as financial returns. CNBC has more here.

* Khosla Ventures has closed on two new funds that total $1.4 billion in capital commitments. It secured $1 billion for later-stage companies and $400 million for seed deals. A spokesperson for the firm tells us that over the last 12 months, seven companies have generated over $9 billion in returns for the firm's limited partners, including, most recently, GitLab which went public two weeks ago and "more than returned the fund," says this person. In addition to venture investing, the firm's managing directors have sponsored multiple SPACs, including Valo Health (KVSA) and Nextdoor (KVSB) , both of which are planning to de-spac in November. We interviewed firm founder Vinod Khosla last week for an event organized by the venture firm SOSV. You can catch that talk, which largely focused on how climate startups lock down later-stage funding, here.

Informatica, the Redwood City, Ca.-based data management software firm, said it expects to raise nearly $1 billion when it returns to the public market tomorrow, and that it  plans to use the amount to pay down some of its debt. According to the WSJ, Informatica priced its IPO at $29 per share—at the low end of its target range of $29 to $32 per share—giving the company a valuation of $10 billion. Permira and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board in 2015 took the company private in a transaction valued at $5.3 billion after roughly 15 years as a public company. The company has since moved its on-premises products to a cloud-based platform and built a subscription business. Permira and CPPIB will control about 85% of the company after its IPO, notes the Journal.

* President Joe Biden will designate FCC acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel as permanent chair and nominate her to another term on the commission, the White House said today. He also plans to name former FCC official Gigi Sohn to fill the agency’s fifth commissioner slot and Alan Davidson (a VP of global policy at Mozilla) as assistant secretary for communications and information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Rosenworcel, if confirmed, will be the first female permanent chair of the agency. Sohn would also become the first openly LGBTIQ+ commissioner. CNBC has more here.

* Elon Musk’s net worth grew by nearly $42 billion after Hertz ordered 100,000 Teslas. 

Climate tech start-ups have raised a record $32 billion globally so far in 2021.

* Five points for anger, one for a ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula systematically fostered rage and misinformation for three years.

* Major home builder Lennar Corp. is teaming with the Texas startup Icon to create a community of 100 3-D printed homes near Austin. It's poised to become the biggest development to date of this type of housing in the U.S., notes the WSJ.

* Robinhood today reported a major revenue miss for the third quarter, saying (in part) it saw $51 million in crypto transaction-based revenue, a 78% decline from the $233 million it made during the second quarter. “Q2 was kind of one of those idiosyncratic market events where there’s this massive interest specifically in [the meme-inspired cryptocurrency dogecoin],” Robinhood CFO Jason Warnick told CNBC afterward. “We love it when those moments happen. It’s a great way to bring a lot of new customers onto the platform. But we’re really thinking about investing in crypto over the long term. And so it’s you know, frankly, it’s gonna be impossible for us to accurately predict ... revenue on a quarter-to-quarter basis.”

* Amazon is building a Clubhouse competitor that turns hosts into DJs, says The Verge.

* Niantic, the force behind 2016's “Pokémon Go,” is trying to create another outdoor cultural phenomenon with “Pikmin Bloom.”

* The newest power player in luxury's first family.

* Crypto-averse man would prefer investing in traditional stock market he also doesn't understand.

An all-electric Range Rover is coming (while Rivian is busy stealing its customers in the interim).

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