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Friday! Hope you have a terrific weekend.:) If you're looking for a weekend listen, you might check out this week's podcast. Our guest: 22-year-old Ed Beccle of the Christian "daily devotional and well-being app" Glorify, which just raised $40 million in Series A funding and, if all goes well, could pose a threat to Facebook, which is also actively trying to shape the future of religious experience. Beccle was fun to interview.
Giant thanks to Tegus for sponsoring this episode. Tegus offers lots of venture firms (and others) 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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Twitter’s new CEO, Parag Agrawal, said today that he would reorganize top leadership at the company and that two key executives -- Twitter's head of engineering and its head of design and research -- would depart. The shake-up was the first sign of change under Agrawal, who joined Twitter 10 year ago, became its CTO in 2017, and took the reins of the company on Monday. The New York Times has more here.
The U.S. plans to work with other countries to limit exports of surveillance tools and other technologies that authoritarian governments can use to suppress human rights. The effort would also see participating nations share information on sensitive technologies used against political dissidents, journalists, foreign government officials and human rights activists, according to the Biden administration.
Bitcoin and Ethereum both posted heavy losses today in cryptocurrency trading, as U.S. stock prices also tumbled.
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Where do leading VCs go for in-depth research, models, investment theses, and comprehensive industry guides? The GoingVC Research Library. Join the more than 1,500 subscribers who get access to continually updated content as well as invitations to VC networking events and more. Click here to join and use the code STRICTLYVC for 20% off your first year!
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| At SoftBank, a Reported Battle Over Pay with COO Marcelo Claure Adds to Other Bad News |
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Not for the first time, SoftBank is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. Indeed, even while the Japanese conglomerate is known for its extremes — be it bold bets, internal squabbles, soured business relationships, or its ability to repeatedly bounce back from the brink — some newer developments could prove particularly hard, if not impossible, to overcome.
The worst of these, seemingly, is the lawsuit filed yesterday by the Federal Trade Commission to block chipmaker Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm, the British company that licenses chip technology, out of stated concern that the deal would give Nvidia too much control over computing technology.
“Tomorrow’s technologies depend on preserving today’s competitive, cutting-edge chip markets,” Holly Vedova, the director of the agency’s competition bureau, said in a related statement. “This proposed deal would distort Arm’s incentives in chip markets and allow the combined firm to unfairly undermine Nvidia’s rivals.”
The problem for SoftBank? A scuttled deal could means tens of billions of dollars to the outfit, which acquired the now 21-year-old Arm in July 2016 for $32 billion before selling it to Nvidia in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $40 billion. It’s even worse than it sounds. Nvidia’s share price has continued to rise so fast that, as Bloomberg noted earlier today, that $40 billion deal has since ballooned into a $74 billion deal.
It might not be a complete disaster for SoftBank. The deal has expected to receive regulatory scrutiny from the moment it was announced, so SoftBank might already have factored in this very likely possibility. Nvidia also says it will contest the FTC lawsuit (though it seems unlikely to win against the agency). Besides, all things chip-related are much in demand at the moment.
Still, it isn’t clear what Arm would be worth to another buyer.
More here.
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* Acepodia, a five-year-old, Alameda, Ca.-based developer of cell therapies for cancer, has raised $109 million in Series C funding led by Digital Mobile Venture. According to FierceBiotech, the proceeds will bankroll Acepodia's development of a cell therapy that combines a natural killer cell with a monoclonal antibody targeting HER2-positive tumors, which are found in breast, gastric, endometrial and ovarian cancers. More here.
* Airtable, nine-year-old, San Francisco-based developer of cloud-based collaboration software, is raising a round that's expected to be more than $700 million and would value the company at $11.7 billion, according to The Information. It adds that XN LP, a firm that backs both public and private companies, is set to lead the round. More here.
* Clarity AI, a 4.5-year-old, New York-based sustainability data platform that says it uses machine learning and big data to deliver environmental and social insights to investors and organizations, just raised $50 million in its latest funding round. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round, joined by Fifth Wall and earlier investors BlackRock, Deutsche Boerse, Kibo Ventures, Mundi Ventures, Seaya Ventures and Founders Fund. More here.
* Life House, a four-year-old, New York-based boutique hotel operator that has built software aimed at helping independent hotel owners and operators, just raised $60 million in Series C funding co-led by Kayak and Inovia Capital. Earlier backers backers Tiger Global, Derive Ventures, Thayer Ventures, JLL, Trinity Ventures, Sound Ventures and Cooley LLP, also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to a little more than 100 million. TechCrunch has more here.
* SOTIO Biotech, an 11-year-old, Prague-based clinical stage immuno-oncology company, has raised €280 million ($316 million) from its owner, PPF Group (though the outfit has to meet certain milestones to receive all the capital). FierceBiotech has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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* Droplette, a 4.5-year-old, Boston-based consumer skincare tech startup that sells a $300 "misting" tool and addition capsules for the device, has raised $15.4 million in Series B funding. Victress Capital and Spark Capital co-led the round, joined by Bolt and Amplifyher Ventures. More here.
* CODA Biotherapeutics, a 7.5-year-old, South San Francisco-based gene therapy startup focused on neurological disorders, has raised $28 million in funding led by Pacira BioSciences (a non-opioid pain management company), with participation from MPM Capital and Versant Ventures. It also secured new venture debt from SVB. More here.
* Convious, a five-year-old, Amsterdam-based startup that has developed an e-commerce platform for theme parks and zoos akin to the in-house system used by Disney (it helps them price tickets based on the time of year, weather forecast, and the average time it takes a person to buy tickets), has raised $12 million in Series A funding. Begin Capital led the round, joined by Market One Capital, MillionMonkeys, FJ Labs and earlier investor Capital Mills. Business Insider has more here.
* Goalsetter, a six-year-old, New York-based fintech platform and family financial education tool company, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Seae Ventures. Other investors in the round included Fiserv, Mass Mutual, Sterling National Bank, Citizens Financial Group, Cuna Mutual Financial Group, and Astia Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
* Mendel, a year-old, Mexico City, Mexico-based maker of corporate spend management software, has raised $15 million in Series A funding co-led by ALLVP and Infinity Ventures. The company also secured $20 million in debt. TechCrunch has more here.
* Spare, a six-year-old, Vancouver, British Columbia-based startup that says it enables automakers, cities, and transit agencies to manage automated, on-demand transportation networks, has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Inovia Capital led the round, joined by Ridge Ventures, Kensington Capital, Link VC, Ramen VC, TransLink Capital and Japan Airlines, among others. More here.
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* Vinehealth, a 3.5-year-old, London-based digital health startup that’s built an app that offers personalized support for cancer patients while also making it easier to gather patient-reported outcome data, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Talis Capital led the financing, joined by previous investors Playfair Capital and Ascension. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings |
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* Covisus, a 7.5-year-old, Monrovia, Ca.-based developer of supply chain track and trace "tags," has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Hale Capital Partners. More here.
* 1Komma5, a months-old, Hamburg, Germany-based provider of products for carbon neutral homes, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Porsche Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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Join hundreds of military veteran entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who are building the future at the Military Veteran Startup Conference hosted by Context Ventures on Friday, Feb 4, in San Francisco. Conference panels will cover the following topics: 1) Women Veteran Entrepreneurs; 2) Veteran Entrepreneurs who survived Shark Tank; 3) Veterans in Venture Capital; 4) Veteran Entrepreneurs building consumer brands; 5) Dual use startups. The event is free for military veteran (spouses &) entrepreneurs. Enlist here.
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* Billionaire investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is now the owner of a 77-acre Texas town.
* Shawn Hoyer has been promoted to manager director at BofA, where he's leading venture capital coverage globally. Hoyer joined the bank 15 years ago as an SVP.
* Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of Warren Buffett-owned conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, believes China made the correct decision in banning bitcoin, he said today at a Sohn conference today. The Sydney Morning Herald has more here.
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Apple has alerted 11 U.S. Embassy employees that their iPhones have been hacked in recent months with Pegasus spyware from NSO Group, an Israel-based company that licenses software to government clients in dozens of countries that allows them to secretly steal files, eavesdrop on conversations and track the movements of its targets. The Washington Post has more here.
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Interested in meeting the brightest entrepreneurs and investors in tech? Interested in investing in pre-IPO unicorns? Want to learn more about NFTs, the metaverse, crypto, DeFi, Ethereum, Gaming and more? Join the likes of Tim Draper and Greg Kidd at the Global Investor Conference on December 7th for a virtual, free day of bumper panels. Sign up HERE to enter a raffle for a week-long learning experience in Lisbon in Spring, 2022.
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