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Rooted in anxiety over how quickly the Federal Reserve will move to combat inflation, major U.S. stocks indexes steeply declined again today -- falling more than 1,100 points at midday -- before [boing] beginning to bounce back. At their lows today, as notes the WSJ, shares of vaccine developer Moderna were down more than 40% for the year, while bitcoin had lost more than half its value at its November high.
Peloton also took it on the chin again today. Activist investor Blackwells Capital made public a letter in which it states it wants Peloton CEO John Foley fired and for the company to explore a sale given that Peloton's shares are now down more than 80% from their peak. As if that wasn't enough, another TV character -- this time it was Wags from the show "Billions" -- has experienced a heart attack while riding his Peloton bike. (Wags, it should be noted, is also very fond of cocaine.)
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Addverb, a nearly six-year-old, Noida, India-based company that uses robots to make e-commerce warehouses and energy production more efficient, has sold a majority stake in its business to Reliance Industries for $132 million. The National has more here.
A Place for Mom, a 22-year-old, Seattle-based marketplace for senior care services, has raised $175 million in funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from General Atlantic and Silver Lake. Bloomberg has more here.
Darwinbox, a nearly seven-year-old, Hyderabad, India-based company whose HR software aims to help enterprises automate the employee lifecycle, has raised $72 million in Series D funding led by Technology Crossover Ventures at at post-money valuation of more than $1 billion, says the company. Earlier backers Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, 3One4Capital, JGDev and SCB10X also joined the round, which brings the company’s total capital raised to a little more than $112 million. VentureBeat has more here.
Deliverect, a four-year-old, Ghent, Belgium-based SaaS business that integrates third-party food ordering platforms into restaurants' point-of-sale systems, has raised $150 million in Series D funding co-led by Coatue Management and Alkeon Capital Management. Other backers in the round -- which follows a $65 million Series C round last April -- includes OMERS Ventures, DST Global, Redpoint Ventures, Newion and Smartfin. TechCrunch has more here.
The Graph, a Web3 protocol that aims to index data across dozens of blockchain protocols in a searchable way, has raised $50 million in funding led by Tiger Global. Other backers in the financing include FinTech Collective, Fenbushi Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, and Blockwall Digital Assets Fund. Blockworks has more here.
Swiggy, a nearly eight-year-old, Bangalore-based food delivery company that has become India's largest, just raised $700 million in new funding led by Invest at a whopping $10.7 billion valuation, up from the $5.5 billion where it was valued in July of last year. According to Crunchbase data, the outfit has raised at least $3.6 billion so far. TechCrunch has more here.
Wisk, a nearly three-year-old, joint venture between Boeing Co. and the electric aircraft maker, Kitty Hawk (founded by Google co-founder Larry Page), has raised $450 million more from Boeing to further its development of small, pilotless aircraft for short passenger hops in and around cities. The WSJ has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Codenotary, a three-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based service that makes it easier for development teams to build transparent software supply chains, has raised $12.5 million in Series B funding from earlier backers Bluwat, Elaia and others. The round brings the company’s total funding to $18 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Culdesac, a nearly four-year-old, Tempe, Az.-based "post-car" real estate developer that's aiming to build America’s first car-free city, has raised $30 million in Series A funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, joined by Founders Fund, Byers Capital, Zigg Capital, Initialized Capital and homebuilder Lennar’s venture arm, LENx. The Real Deal has more here.
Exergyn, a 10-year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based company with what it says is a solid-state shape memory alloy that can lower carbon emissions in industries like heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning by replacing refrigerants with solid materials, has raised $35 million (€30 million) in Series A funding. The deal was co-led by Mercuria, an energy and commodities company, and Lacerta Partners, a family office-backed fund, with participation from a Prague-based private equity and venture capital firm, McWin. TechCrunch has more here.
Inventa, a year-old, Brazil-based company offering a digital marketplace for small and medium-sized companies to discover and purchase new inventory, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz and Monashees co-led the round, joined by by Founders Fund, Greenoaks, Greylock, Tiger Global, angel investors Hans Tung and Carlos Gracia, and a string of earlier backers, including Pear VC. TechCrunch has more here.
Sayata, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based cyber-risk assessment startup, has raised $35 million in extended Series A funding, adding on to $17 million the company raised last summer. Pitango Growth and Hanaco Ventures co-led the newest tranche, joined by earlier investors Team8 Capital, Vertex Ventures, Elron Ventures and OurCrowd. TechCrunch has more here.
Soona, a four-year-old, Denver, Co.-based virtual content studio platform that helps brands to make professional-level photos and videos for e-commerce and marketing, has raised $35 million in extended Series B funding led by Bain Capital Ventures. Earlier backers Union Square Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Starting Line Ventures, 2048 Ventures and Range Ventures also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $51 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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dNovo, a nearly four-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup that's trying to develop a cure for hair loss through personalized hair stem cells, has raised $2.7 millionin seed funding from Y Combinator, Felicis Ventures, Soma Capital, Yintai Investment Company, and others. More here.
Intellect, a two-year-old, Singapore-based mental health startup focused primarily on Asia-Pacific markets (it says it features self-directed wellness programs in 15 languages)sessions), has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by HOF Capital. Other investors in the round included Headline, East Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, Pioneer Fund and earlier backer Insignia Ventures Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Lit Protocol, a year-old, remote-first startup that's trying to develop a decentralized, blockchain-based network that helps manage access to websites, data and virtual worlds, has raised $2.2 million in funding from investors. Those in the syndicate include Collab+Currency and Sfermion (they led the round), CMT Digital, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Tribe Capital. VentureBeat has more here.
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| Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings |
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Globalization Partners, a 10-year-old, Boston-based software provider that helps businesses streamline the process of hiring employees internationally (it helps them outsource tasks like tax, legal, and accounting), has landed an undisclosed amount of funding from Vista Equity Partners in a deal that values the company at $4.2 billion. The WSJ has more here.
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Singapore-based Blockchain Founders Fund says it has raised $75 million in capital commitments for a sophomore venture fund designed to support emerging projects in the cryptocurrency, metaverse and Web3 sectors. Backers in the vehicle include investors from NEO Global Capital, Appworks, Baksh Capital, and Octava, along with Sandbox COO Sebastien Borget. Cointelegraph has more here.
First Spark Ventures, a new, early-stage venture firm headed by Manish Kothari, the longtime president of SRI International, is looking to raise $200 million for its first flagship fund and $600 million for an opportunities fund, per SEC filings first flagged by Axios. More here.
Orange DAO, a crypto collective backing web3 startups whose applicants, notably, must be alumni of the Y Combinator accelerator, has grown from several dozen founders last fall to more than 1,000 currently. TechCrunch has more here.
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John Arrillaga, Silicon Valley real estate billionaire and father-in-law to Marc Andreessen, passed away this morning at age 84. Arrillaga converted the area's farms and orchards into more than 20 million square feet of commercial space, according to his family. Palo Alto Weekly has more here.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban says he has launched an online pharmacy for generic drugs that promises steep discounts over traditional distributors. The outfit says it will bypass health care industry "middlemen" and help consumers avoid high drug prices by charging manufacturers' prices plus a flat 15% markup and pharmacist fee.
Jack Dorsey and Marc Andreessen are still sparring over Twitter.
On October 5, 2003, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's office received a call at 10 pm. Someone named Elizabeth Holmes was reporting a sexual assault on the Stanford University campus. NPR has more here.
Tamara Steffens, a former general manager and managing director at Microsoft’s venture fund, M12, is joining Thomson Reuters next week to help launch its new venture fund, reports The Information.
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Facebook parent Meta says a new AI supercomputer that it has built will soon be the fastest in the world.
Coinbase is making it easier to report cryptocurrency taxes.
Ethereum 2.0 is coming never.
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