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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down as chief of the social media company, effective immediately. Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief technology officer, will take over the helm, the company said today. Shares of Twitter closed down 2.74% on the day. “I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders,” Dorsey wrote in a statement this morning, though he didn’t provide additional detail, leaving many to speculate on why he is resigning right now.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sold about half of his shares in the company last week, according to a federal securities filing flagged by by the WSJ. Analysts tell the outlet the move could be related to Washington state instituting a 7% tax for long-term capital gains beginning at the start of next year for anything exceeding $250,000 a year. (Though isn't he expecting the shares to rise 7% at least, given his track record? As the WSJ notes, MSFT is currently trading at a $2.53 trillion market capitalization, up a
stunning 780% since he was appointed CEO.)
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* Armis, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that says it provides a visibility and security platform for all assets within an enterprise, including IT and IoT, has raised $300 million in fresh funding from One Equity Partners and earlier backers. The company has now raised $600 million altogether and is valued by its investors at $3.4 billion. VentureBeat has more here.
* Astroscale, an 8.5-year-old, Tokyo, Japan-based company that specializes in on-orbit servicing technology -- designed to help reduce the amount of debris that exists in operating orbital altitudes, and also to extend the life of existing satellites as a means of making orbital businesses more sustainable -- has raised $109 million in Series F funding led by The Fund, with participation from Seraphim Space. TechCrunch has more here.
* FJDynamics, a two-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based robotics company focusing on AI, advanced manufacturing (and founded by DJI’s former chief scientist Wu Di), just closed a $70 million Series B round led by what the company describes as a major internet firm in China, though it isn't naming which one. TechCrunch has more here.
* Motorway, a four-year-old, London-based platform that invites car dealers to bid in an auction for privately owned cars for sale, has raised $190 million in Series C funding led by Index Ventures and ICONIQ Growth. Earlier backers Latitude, Unbound, and BMW i Ventures also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.
* Mr Yum, a 3.5-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based mobile ordering and payments platform that has more recently expanded into mobile QR ordering, has raised a $65 million Series A round (which, wow), led by Tiger Global. Other participants in the round included Commerce VC, VU Venture Partners, Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar and numerous others. The company has now raised $74 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
* Quell Therapeutics, a three-year-old, London-based outfit whose T cell therapy candidate aims to prevent organ rejection in liver transplant patients, has raised $156 million in Series B funding co-led by Jeito Capital, Ridgeback Capital Investments, SV Health Investors, Fidelity and founding backer Syncona. MedCity News has more here.
* Quince, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based online retailer that sells its own men's, women's and kids' clothing, along with home furnishings, has raised $50 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. Other investors in the round include Founders Fund, Basis Set Ventures, Lugard Road/Luxor Capital and 8VC. More here.
* Slice, a nearly six-year-old, Bangalore, India-based company that has become a market-leading credit card issuing firm in the country, raised $220 million in Series B funding at a valuation north of $1 billion. Insight Partners and Tiger Global co-led the round, joined by Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa and earlier investors Gunosy, Blume Ventures and 8i. TechCrunch has more here.
* Suzhou Abogen Biosciences, a two-year-old, Jiangsu, China-based mRNA vaccine developer, is reportedly raising around $300 million led by from backers like SoftBank and Mirae Asset Securities. Bloomberg has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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* Conduktor, a 1.5-year-old, Jackson, Wy.-based startup that says it's looking to simplify the process of working with real-time data on the Apache Kafka platform, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round, joined by Frontline Ventures and Aglaé Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
* Resilience, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that offers cyber insurance policies, has raised $80 million in Series C funding co-led by General Catalyst and Corey Thomas (CEO and chair of Rapid7). Other backers in the round included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund, CRV, Shield Capital, and Intact Ventures. More here.
* Upbound, the four-year-old, Seattle-based startup behind open source Crossplane, a cloud-native alternative to Infrastructure as Code (IaC), has raised $60 million in Series B funding. Altimeter Capital led the round, joined by GV, Intel Capital and Telstra Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
* Yassir, a four-year-old, Algeria-based startup that provides on-demand services like ride-hailing and last-mile delivery, just raised $30 million in Series A funding. Investors in the round included WndrCo, DN Capital, Kismet Capital, Spike Ventures, Quiet Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, FJ Labs, VentureSouq, Nellore Capital and Moving Capital, among others. The company had previously raised $13.25 million in seed funding. TechCrunch has more here.
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* Blockade Games, a 3.5-year-old, Indianapolis, In.-based startup that develops blockchain-based video games, says it just raised $5 million at a $23 million valuation from investors co-led by Animoca Brands and Digital. More here.
* Cerbos, a months-old, London-based open source software startup helping tech outfits and other companies manage user permissions, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Crane, with participation from Earlybird Digital East, Seedcamp, and 8-Bit Capital, among others. More here.
* Foundry Lab, three-year-old, Wellington, New-Zealand based startup that says it's using “literally a microwave, but on steroids” to cast metal parts much quicker than metal 3D printing, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Blackbird. TechCrunch has much more here.
* GajiGesa, a 1.5-year-old, Jakarta-based fintech company that offers so-called earned wage access to Indonesian workers, has raised $6.6 million in pre-Series A funding led by MassMutual Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
* Inspectify, a two-year-old, Seattle-based property inspection marketplace and software platform, just raised $8 million in Series A funding, led by Nine Four Ventures. The round also included participation from a consortium of VCs and strategic investors, including Foundation Capital, Munich Re Ventures, Redfin and Socially Financed. GeekWire has more here.
* Particular Audience, a 2.5-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based startup that provides product discovery tools powered by AI and machine learning to retailers, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. Equity Venture Partners led the fund, joined by earlier backer Carthona Capital and a group of angel investors. This latest investment gives the company $9.5 million in total funding. TechCrunch has more here.
* Perfeggt, a months-old, Berlin-based startup at work on a plant-based egg product made from fava beans, has raised $2.8 million from EVIG Group, Stray Dog Capital, E2JDJ, Tet Ventures, Good Seed Ventures, Sustainable Food Ventures and Shio Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
* Sabi, an eight-month-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based B2B e-commerce services startup, has raised $6 million led by the pan-African venture firm CRE VC. TechCrunch has more here.
* TabTrader, an 8.5-year-old, Amsterdam-based platform that aggregates prices and token availability across dozens of exchanges, has raised $5.8 million in Series A funding from 100X Ventures, Hashkey Capital, Spartan Capital, SGH Capital, SOSV and Artesian Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
* Vauban, a three-year-old, London-based AngelList-like venture fundraising platform, has raised £4.7 million. Pentech and Outward co-led the round, joined by 7percent Ventures and the asset management consultancy MJ Hudson. TechCrunch has more here.
* Weld, a months-old, Copenhagen-based business data modeling startup, has raised $4.6 million in seed funding co-led by Frontline Ventures and Cherry Ventures. More here.
* Zestworld, a six-month-old, New York-based startup that says it's creating a new platform to host the comic book artist and writer community, to allow them to directly interact with fans and become more involved in the distribution and monetization of their art. has raised $2.6 million in pre-seed funding round led by Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six. The New York Times has more here.
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* Bessemer Venture Partners today announced the launch of a new $220 million fund dedicated to backing founders in India. Bessemer has been investing in India since 2006. Mint has more here.
* Hivemind Capital Partners, an investment firm founded by Matt Zhang, has launched a $1.5 billion venture fund dedicated to crypto investing. Zhang was formerly the head of structured products trading at Citi, where he spent more than 14 years. As part of the launch, Hivemind has selected the blockchain Algorand as a "strategic partner" to provide tech capability and network ecosystem infrastructure. Coindesk has more here.
* Lightspeed China Partners (LCP), founded in 2011 and based in Shanghai, announced today the closing of Lightspeed China Partners V with $460 million, and Lightspeed China Partners Select II (an opportunity-type fund) with $460 million in capital commitments, marking the largest fundraising rounds in the outfit's history. The new funds will focus on sectors including green tech, deep tech, enterprise tech, health tech and consumer. Additionally, LCP just brought aboard two new investment partners: Wei Cai, who the firm credits with Alibaba Group’s investment in deep tech, and Daniel Sun who jointly led investments in the consumer and TMT sectors at China Renaissance New Economy Fund. Across its offices, including in Beijing and Hong Kong, LCP now manages $3 billion of committed capital across eight USD funds and one RMB
fund. More here.
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* Bolt, a San Francisco-based checkout technology company that's fresh off raising $393 million in Series D funding, just made its first acquisition, nabbing Tipser, a Swedish-based technology company enabling direct checkout on any digital surface. More specifically, says TechCrunch, Tipser’s technology enables consumers to purchase products natively from sites like online publications, mobile marketplaces, price comparison sites, social media platforms or search engines. The all-stock deal came in "just shy of $200 million," Bolt CEO, Ryan Breslow, tells TC. More here.
* Chegg, the Santa Clara, Ca.-based publicly traded edtech company, says it has acquired the language learning platform Busuu for approximately $436 million in an all-cash transaction. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year. Busuu, founded in 2008, with offices in London and Madrid, says it offers 12 different language courses to more than 500,000 paying subscribers. According to Crunchbase data, Busuu had raised at least $16 million in funding from investors. TechCrunch has more here.
* Clearlake Capital Group said it struck a deal to buy Quest Software from Francisco Partners in the latest sign of private-equity firms’ voracious appetite for software. The deal values Quest at $5.4 billion including debt, according to the WSJ. More here.
* Online marketplace eBay is further investing in its sneaker business by acquiring Sneaker Con Digital’s authentication business, which verifies the authenticity of high-value footwear. The business has operations in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and Germany, and has worked previously with eBay. As TechCrunch notes, sneakers have become a large category on eBay’s marketplace, where today there are over 1.9 million pairs available to buy every day. More here.
* The U.K.’s competition regulator is set to formally oppose Meta’s acquisition of the GIF-database website Giphy, says the Financial Times. Facebook announced in May of last year that it was acquiring Giphy for $400; antitrust regulators in the U.K. and Australia announced a month later that they were scrutinizing the deal. More here.
* Talent Garden, a co-working space operator in Europe, acquired a 54% stake in online course provider Hyper Island. Of the two, only Talent Garden looks to have received venture funding. TechCrunch has more here.
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* From the WSJ: The number of unincorporated self-employed workers has risen by 500,000 since the start of the pandemic, Labor Department data show, to 9.44 million. That is the highest total since the financial-crisis year 2008, except for this summer. The total amounts to an increase of 6% in the self-employed, while the overall U.S. employment total remains nearly 3% lower than before the pandemic.
* Amazon and Target play an ‘outsized’ role in port congestion and pollution along the U.S. West Coast, finds a new report by two nonprofit environmental groups. The Verge has more here.
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* Twitter's new CEO, Parag Agrawal, is now the youngest CEO in the S&P 500, but narrowly. Agrawal is 37, the same age as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
* Zoë Chambers has joined Frontline Ventures as partner. She previously spent 4.5 years with Octopus Ventures, leaving as a principal. Tech. eu has more here.
* Defense attorneys wrapped up their questioning of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes today, her fourth day on the stand. Holmes reportedly gave emotional testimony, accusing Theranos ex-president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of physical and psychological abuse. Prosecutors now get their opportunity to cross-examine Holmes, who is facing 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. CNBC has more here.
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* Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business, said today that the company is poised to become the largest U.S. package delivery service by early 2022, overtaking longstanding shipping rivals UPS and FedEx.
* According to Bloomberg, Apple is developing a multi-device charger, as well as short- and long-distance wireless charging tech for a future where all major devices “can charge each other.” More here.
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