|
Hackers have stolen an estimated $130 million worth of cryptocurrency assets from Cream Finance, a decentralized finance platform that allows users to loan and speculate on cryptocurrency price variations, and which has now been hacked three(!) times altogether. According to Recorded Future, the funds have "already been moved to new accounts, and there appears to be a small chance the stolen crypto can be tracked down and returned to the platform." More here.
|
|
|
|
| Fifty Years Just Raised a $90 Million Fund From Tens of 'Unicorn' Founders |
|
|
|
|
Fifty Years, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit with a portfolio that’s already rife with mostly deep tech companies — many with a good story to tell about how they can have an impact on the environment — just closed its third and newest fund with $90 million in capital commitments.
The money isn’t coming from just anywhere. Firm cofounder Seth Bannon tells us the firm aimed to recruit founders of 20 so-called unicorn companies so that they would have a vested interest in — and could occasionally advise — its portfolio
companies. He says that Fifty Years wound up instead with 44 “unicorn” founders, including from Spotify, Github, Skype, Supercell, Minecraft, Dropbox, Unity, Klarna, Zendesk, Kahoot, and Upstart.
Some of those founders were backed by Fifty Years, in fact, including the cofounders of the synthetic biology company Solugen, which is now valued by investors at $1.8 billion and which received its first check from Fifty Years; Astranis, a geostationary communications satellite operator that is currently valued at $1.4 billion and which also received its first check from Fifty Years; and Opentrons, a maker of affordable lab robots that is now valued at $1.8 billion (which Fifty Years backed as part of a broader seed round).
Indeed, Fifty Years — which is run by Bannon; firm cofounder Ela Madej; and six other full-time people, including a synthetic biologist — has a pretty good story to tell about itself for such a young firm.
First, it has an undeniably
interesting portfolio. In addition to space satellites and sustainable chemicals, the firm’s bets include Upside Foods, the food tech company that was formerly known as Memphis Meats (and whose valuation is also estimated to now be in the billion-dollar range). It’s also an investor in Varda, a space manufacturing company that has raised $51 million and plans to make things in space to deliver back to earth.
Explains Bannon: “There are things like protein therapeutics, telecommunications fibers, and semiconductors that, because gravity interferes [with their production], you’d rather make without gravity.”
More here.
|
|
|
|
|
* Abacus.ai, a 2.5-year-old, Bay Area-based real-time autonomous deep and machine learning platform, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global, with participation from Coatue, Index Ventures and Alkeon Capital. The company has now raised a little more than $90 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
* Acko, a five-year-old, Bangalore-based digital first insurance startup that sells coverage in bite-size offerings, has raised $255 million in new funding led by General Atlantic and Multiples Private Equity. The company has now raised $450 million and is valued at $1.1 billion, says TechCrunch. More here.
* Clickup, a five-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based workplace productivity platform, has raised $400 million in Series C funding co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Meritech Capital Partners. Forbes has more here.
* Cornami, a nine-year-old, Campbell, Ca.-based company whose says its tech extracts valuable data analytics without ever decrypting the data to expose the underlying plaintext data, has raised $50 million Series C funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Sacramento Inno has more here.
* DeHaat, a 10-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based online platform that offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers in India, has raised $115 million in Series D funding co-led by Sofina and Lightrock. Temasek and earlier investors Prosus Ventures, RTP Global, Sequoia Capital India and FMO also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $161 million ($157 million of which has arrived in the last 30 months). TechCrunch has more here.
* Immunai, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based company that's building a massive data set of clinical immunological information, has raised $215 million in Series B funding led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Talos VC, 8VC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Piedmont, ICON and others. The round brings the company's total funding to $295 million. TechCrunch has more here.
* Love, Bonito, an 11-year-old, Singapore-based womenswear brand, has raised $50 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Primavera Capital, a Chinese venture capital giant making its first foray into the Southeast Asian market with this investment, according to the Business of Fashion. More here.
* Skyryse, a five-year-old, El Segundo, Ca.-based startup whose flight automation system can be integrated into any aircraft to enable anyone to fly as safely as the best pilots on their best day (says the company), has raised $200 million in Series B funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Monashee Investment Management. The company (which is pretty fascinating) has raised $250 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.
* Truepill, a 5.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based digital health platform connecting telehealth, diagnostics, and pharmacy services, has raised $142 million in Series D funding, with participation from earlier backers Initialized Capital and TI Platform Management. Truepill has now raised $256 million in funding altogether and is now valued at $1.6 billion. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
|
|
| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
|
|
|
|
* Extend, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that provides digital payment infrastructure to incumbent financial institutions so they can offer virtual cards to their users, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by March Capital. Other investors include B Capital, Point72 Ventures, Fintech Collective, Reciprocal Ventures, Wells Fargo and Pacific Western Bank. The company has now raised $55 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
* Fellow, a 4.5-year-old, Ottawa, Ontario-based meeting productivity and team management platform, has raised $24 million in Series A funding, led by Craft Ventures, with participation from iNovia, Felicis Ventures, Garage Ventures, Formentera and SVB. The company has now raised $30.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
* Gluware, a four-year-old, Sacramento, Ca.-based company that aims to simplify how multi-domain, multi-cloud networks are discovered, analyzed, and maintained, has raised $43 million in growth funding led by Bain Capital, with participation from Acadia Woods Partners and earlier investors. VentureBeat has more here.
* Kebony, a 24-year-old, Oslo, Norway-based company that says it can make softwood behave like (much more rare) hardwood for the sake of more sustainable building construction, has raised $334 million from investors. Jolt Capital and Lightrock led the round, joined by Goran, MVP, FPIM, PMV and Investinor. TechCrunch has more here.
* Pragma, a two-year-old, L.A.-based backend game engine that helps studios create online, multiplayer games, has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Greylock, Upfront Ventures, and Advancit Capital, along with new investors Daher Capital, Overwolf, Kevin Lin (Twitch), and Ted Gill (Unknown Worlds). VentureBeat has more
here.
* QuintessenceLabs, a 13.5-year-old, Canberra, Australia-based cybersecurity company, has raised A$25 million in Series B funding. Main Sequence and Telus Ventures co-led the round, joined by InterValley Ventures and Capital Property Group. TechCrunch has more here.
* RealEats, a 4.5-year-old, Geneva, N.Y.-based meal delivery service, has raised $16.3 million in Series A funding led by Hamilton Lane on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund. More here.
* Shiru, a 2.5-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based biotech startup that identifies and creates novel plant-based ingredients for the global food industry, has closed a $17 million Series A round led by S2G Ventures. Other participants in the round include The W Fund, SALT, and Veronorte, as well as earlier investors Lux Capital, CPT Capital, Y Combinator, and Emles Venture Partners. Food Dive has more here.
* Tactile Mobility, a nine-year-old, Haifa, Israel-based company whose platform uses data from vehicle sensors for tasks like identifying road hazards, has raised $27 million in new funding led by Delek Motors. The round brings the company's total financing to date to $47 million. SiliconAngle has more here.
|
|
|
|
|
* Friends With Benefits, a decentralized autonomous organization that's represented by rules encoded as a computer program and describes itself as a kind of digital city, has raised $10 million through a token sale to Andreessen Horowitz, Pace Capital, Kindred Ventures, Spark Ventures, and investor Li Jin. Investor Chris Dixon of a16z explains the opportunity here.
* Gringo, a two-year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based startup that has built an app aimed at supporting drivers in a variety of ways, just raised $8 million in new funding. Earlier backer Kaszek led the round, joined by GFC and OneVC. The company has now raised $10 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
|
|
|
Media Mobilize can help your company reach and acquire customers via ads on StrictlyVC along with 325 other newsletters. For over five years Media Mobilize has helped hundreds of marketers succeed via native ads across
email newsletters, YouTube integrations, sponsored content, and direct mail. If your company is reliant on the Facebook and Google duopoly, then now is the time to leverage Media Mobilize. Email partnerships@mediamobilize.com or schedule a time to chat with the team.
|
|
|
|
|
Tiger Global Management has attracted $8.8 billion in the first close of its biggest venture fund on record, says Bloomberg. It reports that employees kicked in about $1.5 billion, roughly $500 million more than they initially intended to invest. The fundraising brings Tiger’s assets to about $95 billion -- up from $28 billion in 2018 [jaw drops].
|
|
|
|
|
* Vistaprint, known for its printing and marketing services for consumers, sole traders and small businesses, looks to be going after SMBs through a pair of acquisitions. The company is acquiring online graphic design editor Crello. an online graphic design editor that competes against Canva, and its parent company, the stock photo repository Despositphotos, for a collective $85 million. TechCrunch has more here.
* Gusto, the HR services company, is buying Remote Team, a San Francisco-based payroll software startup that focuses on supporting far-flung staff. As part of its news item, Gusto also announced that it now supports paying contractors in 80 countries and quick tax registration in all 50 American states. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
|
|
|
* This morning Brazilian neobank Nu, better known as Nubank, announced that it has filed to go public. Today its F-1 filing remains private, but the announcement suggests that Nu is on track to go public soon, perhaps this year. TechCrunch has more here.
* Rent the Runway hit the public market today, with a strong start out of the gate, but its gains vanished as its first trading day wore on and the stock closed down 8%. Shares started trading at $23 apiece, or 9% above Rent the Runway’s initial public offering price of $21. That initial surge gave the fashion rental platform a fully diluted valuation of over $1.7 billion. The stock ended the day at $19.29. CNBC has more here.
|
|
|
|
|
Cigarette sales went up last year for the first time in 20 years.
|
|
|
|
|
Founded by three Palantir alums, Mosaic is building the first Strategic Finance Platform for today’s fastest-growing companies. Mosaic centralizes financial data to empower teams with insights that help them make better decisions, faster. Mosaic is backed by world-class investors including General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures, XYZ, and Village Global and trusted by high-growth finance teams globally, including Fivetran, Gem, Canvas, and Sourcegraph. See it in action and learn more about specialized pricing for StrictlyVC
subscribers!
|
|
|
|
|
