Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of November 29, 2021. Niantic Raised $300M Series D

I am finally back to San Francisco and once again tested negative!

Thanksgiving week was a quiet in terms of funding activities, but it did not stop Metaverse company Niantic from raising $300M Series D.  The word "Metaverse" is the tech world’s latest obsession —  refers to the idea of a shared, persistent virtual space, akin to a digital mirror of the real world. FAANG is now really MAMAA, which stands for Meta (formerly Facebook), Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple. 

Mark Zuckerberg is committed transforming Facebook into a Metaverse company. Yet, I don't think Meta will be the winner in this space. All the media hype is over products that are not yet released.  Will Meta follow in the same footsteps as Libra (or Diem) by becoming a forgotten project?

Here is a latest Metaverse Market Map by CBInsights:

According to SPAC Analytics, out of 894 total number of US IPOs in 2021, 63% of them (559) are SPAC IPOs.  I am just shocked how many shell companies have been created this year.  I think 2022 will be a blood bath for SPAC acquisitions.

Race Capital portfolio companies are hiring!  Check out our job board. 

This week a total of 13 startups raised $874M in funding, 3 M&As:

• $225M goes to 3 Enterprise startups
• $8M goes to 1 FinTech startup
• $80M goes to 1 InsurTech startup
• $300M goes to 1 Metaverse startup
• $5.5M goes to 1 Real Estate startup
• $25M goes to 1 Food and Beverage startup
• $2.5M goes to 1 Environment startup
• $80M goes to 1 Travel startup
• $130M goes to 1 Healthcare startup
• $3M goes to 1 BioTech startup
• $15M goes to 1 Other startup