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Hello! Katie Haun, the influential investor who co-leads the crypto practice of Andreessen Horowitz, is leaving to form her own firm, aided by a small number of a16z staffers, Axios reported earlier today. We interviewed Haun just three weeks ago and sadly, this did not come up(!), though we did ask her back in April, in the aftermath of Coinbase's direct listing, if she planned to stay long at a16z. (She made an enormous personal fortune as a director on the board of Coinbase -- a role she accepted before becoming a VC.)
At the time, Haun noted she had just "re-upped" her term as a director with the cryptocurrency exchange and remained "super excited to be at Andreessen Horowitz," but much can change in six months, of course.
Haun's new fund will reportedly be backed in part by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and Chris Dixon. One especially remarkable detail to emerge from the development (per Axios): a16z has already deployed the $2.2 billion crypto fund it announced in June.
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| Phylagen, Which Tracks Indoor Microbiomes, Is "Racing to Meet Demand" as Omicron Approaches |
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Two years into a worldwide pandemic, outfits around the globe are wrestling with how to resume their in-person operations safely. Consider that Apple just scrapped its office-return deadline, while Google, which plans to require its workforce to return to its offices three times a week at some point next year, made it clear to employees yesterday that if they don’t get vaccinated, they will eventually lose their jobs. “Our vaccination requirements are one of the most important ways we can keep our workforce safe and keep our services running,” said Google in a statement to CNBC.
Still, even vaccinated individuals can become infected with variants of the highly contagious coronavirus. Enter Phylagen, a low-flying, seven-year-old, San Francisco-based company that says it’s able to combine microbial genomics and data analytics to answer the question of whether a physical space has played host to someone with Covid-19.
How does it do it? In broad strokes, Phylagen employs a network of sensors, swabs, and sample collectors who put the materials into packages twice a week, then ship them to a centralized lab. Phylagen then promises data within 72 hours about whether sick people have carried germs inside a building — which it divides into floors and zones for tracking purposes — or whether the building’s air is safe to breathe.
The company calls it “enterprise pathogen monitoring as a service,” and its feasibility has long fascinated founder and CEO Jessica Green, a former biology
professor who is formally trained as both a civil engineer and a microbiome scientist.
It was a lonely obsession until recently, however. As Green explains it: “We spend 90% of our time indoors and know nothing about what we’re breathing in, even while during this very conversation, we’ll both emit millions of micro organisms and inhale hundreds and thousands of viruses, bacteria, and molds that [can have] really severe consequences for our health and well-being.” While she “knew this decades ago,” she adds, the public’s understanding has “come to fruition with this pandemic.”
More here.
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* ezCater, a 10-year-old, Boston-based online corporate catering services company, raised $100 million in new funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Paris-based investor Quadrille Capital also joined the round, along with GIC, Iconiq Growth and Insight Partners. Bloomberg has more here.
* Forethought, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup looking to improve customer service with AI, just raised $65 million in Series C funding led by Steadfast Capital Ventures. Others in the round included NEA, Sound Ventures, K9 Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and Frontline Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
* Mythic Therapeutics, a five-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based antibody-drug conjugates development platform, just raised $103 million in Series B funding. Viking Global Investors led the round, joined by Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Foresite Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Highside Capital, First Round Capital, OMX Ventures, Lifeforce Capital, and Refactor Capital. Biospace has more here.
* NYDIG, a 4.5-year-old, New York-based firm that runs a bitcoin trading, brokerage, custody and asset-management business that caters to institutional investors, raised $1 billion in funding led by WestCap. Other backers in the round include Bessemer Venture Partners, FinTech Collective, Affirm, FIS, Fiserv, MassMutual, Morgan Stanley, and New York Life. NYDIG was known earlier as New York Digital Investment Group. The WSJ has more here.
* Olist, a six-year-old, Brazil-based e-commerce marketplace integrator, has raised $186 million in Series E funding led by Wellington Management. TechCrunch has more here.
* Ramp, a 4.5-year-old, Warsaw- and London-based startup that offers a non-custodial payment infrastructure to help exchanges, marketplaces and wallets provide smoother paths to buying crypto and other digital assets like NFTs, has raised $52.7 million in Series A funding. Balderton Capital led the round, joined by earlier backers NFX, Galaxy Digital, Seedcamp, and Firstminute Capital, among others. The Block has more here.
* Signal AI, an eight-year-old business intelligence and media monitoring company, has raised $50 million in Series D funding led by Highland Europe. Earlier backers Redline, MMC, Hearst and Guardian Media Group Ventures also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.
* STOKE Space, a two-year-old, Seattle-based space vehicle components manufacturer at work on a fully reusable rocket (it was founded by two former Blue Origin employees), has raised $65 million in Series A funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Other participants in the round include Spark Capital, Point72 Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Alameda Research, and Global Founders Capital, along with earlier backers. Payload has more here.
* Sysdig, an 8.5-year-old, San Francisco-based container and cloud security company, has raised $350 million in Series G funding led by Permira. Other backers in the round include Guggenheim Investments, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, DFJ Growth, Glynn Capital, Goldman Sachs, Insight Partners, Next47, Premji Invest & Associates, and Third Point Ventures. Reuters has more here.
* TealBook, a 6.5-year-old, Toronto-based supply chain data platform, raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Ten Coves Capital. Other backers in the round include BDC Capital, Grand Ventures, RBC, and many others. VentureBeat has more here.
* UBQ Materials, a nine-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that say it has developed a plastic-like material made from 100% unsorted household waste, just raised $170 million in funding led by TPG Rise, TPG’s global impact investing platform. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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* Arquivei, a 7.5-year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based software platform for managing electronic tax documents, has raised $48 million in Series B funding led by Riverwood Capital. Other backers in the round include International Finance Corporation, a World Bank Group member, Constellation, NXTP, and Endeavor Catalyst. More here.
* AvantStay, a 4.5-year-old, West Hollywood, Ca.-based property manager that engages in real estate investor-buyer matchmaking, has raised $160 million in Series B funding. Tarsadia Investments and earlier backer 3L Capital co-led the round, joined by previous backers. Skift has more here.
* Carbon America, a 2.5-year-old, Arvada, Co.-based carbon capture and sequestration developer, has raised $30 million in Series A funding from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, ArcTern Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, the Neglected Climate Opportunities Fund, and Golden Properties. Axios has more here.
* Cylus, a four-year-old, Israel-based cybersecurity technology that now continuously monitors global mainline and urban railway companies for an array of threats and risks, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Ibex Investors. Other backers in the round include Vertex Growth Fund, Strides International Business, Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures Israel, and Glenrock Israel. TechCrunch has more here.
* Powermat Technologies, a 15-year-old, Petah Tikva, Israel-based company focused on advanced wireless power technology, just raised $25 million in Series B funding from Foxconn Interconnect Technology and Hudson Sustainable Group. The Robot Report has more here.
* Prellis Biologics, a five-year-old, Hayward, Ca.-based company developing the tools to create 3D-printed organs, has raised $14.5 million in Series B funding led by Celesta Capital, with participation from earlier investor Khosla Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
* Rebag, a 7-year-old, New York-based online resale marketplace for luxury handbags, has raised $33 million in Series E funding led by earlier backer Novator and was joined by another previous investor, General Catalyst, among others. Forbes has more here.
* Staircase, a two-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based startup whose API platform aims to bring together the various parties involved in the mortgage origination process, has raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Other investors in the round include RRE Ventures, Avid Ventures, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Metaprop Ventures, and Zigg Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
* Swimply, a two-year-old, L.A.-based online marketplace for pool sharing, has raised $40 million in funding led by Mayfield, with participation from GGV Capital and a long list of individual investors, including Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. TechCrunch has more here.
* Voly, a five-month-old Sydney, Australia-based instant grocery startup that's promising deliveries in 15 minutes, has raised $13 million (in U.S. dollars) in seed funding. Backers in the deal include Sequoia Capital India and earlier backers Global Founders Capital and Artesian Capital, which had earlier provided the company with $1 million in pre-seed funding. TechCrunch has more here.
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* Edge Gaming, a months-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based personalized gaming and esports platform, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Playtika, which was joined by Stardom Ventures and AnD Ventures. More here.
* Jadu, a 2.5-year-old, L.A.-based 3D NFT company built on the Ethereum network, has raised $7 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst. Other backers in the round include Metapurse, LionTree, Coinbase Ventures, The VR Fund, and PKO Investments & Progression Fund. VentureBeat has more here.
* MFB Fertility, a nearly six-year-old, Denver, Co.-based creator of a suite of at-home pregnancy-related hormone tests that is better known as Proof, just raised $9.7 million in Series A funding. Hambrecht Ducera Growth Ventures led the round, joined by SteelSky Ventures, WCC Partners, Lightship Capital, GingerBread Capital and Portfolia FemTech II Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
* Nucleus Genomics, a 10-month-old, New York-based direct-to-consumer genetic testing startup, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Founders Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
* Orgspace, a months-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based management platform for software teams, raised $2.5 million, in pre-seed funding co-led by Fika Ventures and Bloomberg Beta. They were joined by Darling Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Essence VC, The New Normal Fund, and The Jarosz Family Fund. More here.
* Qonsent, a months-old, Westport, Ct.-based data privacy enablement and consent value exchange platform for consumers and brands, has raised $5 million in seed funding. Other investors in the round include Zekavat Investment Group, Crosscut Ventures, Brand New Matter, and numerous individual investors, such as entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. VentureBeat has more here.
* Sound.xyz, a six-month-old, New York-based startup looking to help recording artists monetize their community through NFTs, has raised $5 million in a seed raise led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors in the round include Variant Fund, Weekend Fund, Scalar Capital, Flamingo, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
* Teren, a five-year-old, Lakewood Co.-based startup that specializes in remote sensing, photogrammetry, data management, and data visualization and sells its software to the construction and environmental industries (it was formerly known as SolSpec), has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Allos Ventures. More here.
* Wonder Dynamics, a 4.5-year-old, L.A.-based AI-driven visual effects venture that's developing production tools for filmmakers to produce VFX and CG elements faster and more affordably, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Horizon Ventures. Other participants in the deal include Samsung Next, Epic Games, and earlier backers Founders Fund and MaC Venture Capital. 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 Feb 4th, 2022 (Friday) 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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Bessemer Venture Partners is launching a growth buyouts practice that will be led by Rob Arditi, who previously was a general partner with Norwest Venture Partners. Axios has the story here.
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* Reddit announced today that it has confidentially filed paperwork in its first big step toward an IPO, making it the latest tech firm to consider a Wall Street debut. CNN has more here.
* Sotheby's, currently owned by a French telecom billionaire, is reportedly weighing an IPO. It's a good time, as a new report in Bloomberg suggests. It says Sotheby’s enjoyed a record year in 2021, helped by its foray into nonfungible tokens. The almost 300-year-old auction house reported $100 million in sales off its new NFT category. More here.
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* The former CEO of a San Francisco-based digital advertising company was sentenced to three years today for scamming banks and investors out of $8 million. Andrew Chapin, who is 33, was also ordered to pay more than $8 million in restitution to his victims. More here.
* Shareholders of QuantumScape, a solid-state battery startup that went public through a blank-check deal last year, approved a multibillion-dollar pay package for its top executive that one proxy adviser called “staggering” in size. Under the agreement, CEO Jagdeep Singh could receive stock options potentially valued at as much as $2.3 billion if the company meets various milestones, according to estimates by proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis. Bloomberg has the story here.
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* The Federal Reserve today set the stage for a series of interest rate increases beginning next spring, completing a major policy pivot that could have far-reaching implications for investors.
* Apple has temporarily closed three retail stores in the U.S. and Canada after a rise in employee Covid-19 cases and exposures, the latest sign that a virus resurgence is threatening retail operations just before Christmas. Bloomberg has the story here.
* The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced a new program n which the agency will pay outside hackers (who it has "vetted") to find vulnerabilities in its computer systems. More here.
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The venture investing landscape has changed. New investors are forgoing long due diligence and deploying capital faster than anyone has before. With the pandemic still hanging over us, preventing the normal face-to-face engagement of founder relationship building, how do we break through to win more investment deals? Relationship intelligence. See our all-star panel, as Harry Stebbings, The Twenty Minute VC, and Drew Oetting, 8VC, discuss how they're closing VC deals and staying ahead of the competition. Watch now.
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