|
Peter Thiel has stepped off the board of Facebook's parent company, Meta, at long last. This is a Big Deal and, we think, a win for CEO Mark Zuckerberg, As readers may know, Thiel joined the board of Facebook in 2005, a year after it was founded, and he made a fortune off Facebook's rise, both as a board member and also early investor, including through his venture firm, Founders Fund. Facebook's relationship with Thiel has grown tense in recent years, however, as Thiel has grown more overtly political, including advising the Trump administration and, over the last year or so, donating $10 million to the campaigns of both Blake Masters, who is running for a Senate seat in Arizona, and J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio. Indeed, while Thiel's departure from the board "means Meta loses its board’s most prominent conservative voice," notes the New York Times, it appears(?) to be on Thiel's terms. That matters. When we talked late last year with Thiel biographer Max Chafkin, he noted that if Facebook were to actively push Thiel out -- including for supporting political candidates who've been bashing Facebook -- it could find itself engulfed in a war with Thiel's many conservative supporters. Said Chafkin: "When somebody like Josh Hawley, who has taken money from Peter Thiel, or Ted Cruz, another person who has taken money from Peter Thiel, comes along and attacks Facebook . . . I think if [Thiel] left [the board], especially if he was fired — if that was a story that came out — it would be open season."
The Internal Revenue Service has abandoned its plan to require Americans submit to a facial recognition check(!) through a private company to access their online tax accounts following a firestorm of criticism from privacy advocates and members of Congress. (Our parents, who despite the last two years, have a very tenuous grasp on how to use a web cam, are also breathing a sigh of relief today.) The Washington Post has more here.
|
|
|
|
|
Get smarter in 5 minutes by reading Morning Brew - the free daily email covering the latest business, finance, and tech news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Unlike traditional news, Morning Brew knows how to keep you informed and entertained for free. Check it out.
|
|
|
|
|
Aleo, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based platform for building private blockchain-based applications, has raised $200 million in Series B funding. Kora Management and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round, joined by Tiger Global, Sea Capital, Slow Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. Cointelegraph has more here.
ElasticRun, a nearly five-year-old, Pune, India-based company that helps secure inventory for mom-and-pop stores, as well as invites them to hold and deliver inventory for e-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon, has raised $300 million in Series E funding. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round, joined by Goldman Sachs and earlier investor Prosus Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Flexport, a nearly nine-year-old, San Francisco-based inventory tracking and global logistics platform, has raised $935 million in Series E funding at an $8 billion post-money valuation. Andreessen Horowitz and Michael Dell's MSD Partners led the round, joined by Shopify, DST Global, Founders Fund, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, among others. Flexport has now raised $2.2 billion altogether, per Crunchbase data. The WSJ has more here.
Livspace, a seven-year-old, Singapore-based online home interiors marketplace, has raised $180 million in Series F funding led by KKR & Co. at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Earlier backers, including Ikea-parent Ingka Group Investments, Jungle Ventures, Venturi Partners and Peugeot Investments also joined the round. Bloomberg has more here.
Vivid Money, a nearly two-year-old, Berlin-based challenger bank whose “super app” offer basic checking and money management services, along with stock and cryptocurrency investing, has raised €100 million ($114 million) in new funding led by Greenoaks Capital, with Ribbit Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 also participating. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
|
|
| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
|
|
|
|
Koneska, a nine-year-old, New York-based digital biomarker company for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, has raised $45 million in Series C funding. AyurMaya, a fund managed by Matrix Capital Management, led the round, joined by Takeda Ventures, Velocity Capital and earlier backers McKesson Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Novartis (dRx Capital), Spring Mountain Capital and Waterline Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Midas, a two-year-old, Istanbul, Turkey-based retail investing startup, has raised $11 million in funding co-led by Spark Capital and Earlybird Digital East Fund. Tech.eu has more here.
Morai, a four-year-old, South Korea-based startup that provides autonomous vehicle developers with simulation tools to verify the safety and reliability of self-driving systems, just raised $20.8 million in Series B funding. Korea Investment Partners led the round, joined by KB Investment, Korea Development Bank, and numerous earlier backers. The company has now raised $24.9 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Numa, a 2.5-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based outfit that leases rooms and apartments in top Europe cities and infuses then with tech to make the experience smoother, has raised $45 million in growth funding led by DN Capital Group and Headline. Other participants in the round include Cherry Ventures, Soravia, Kreos Capital, TruVenturo, and Scope Hanson. TechCrunch has more here.
Selina, a three-year-old, London-based "flexible capital" fintech startup inviting homeowners to borrow against the equity in their homes, has raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Lightrock. Previous backers Picus Capital and Global Founders Capital also joined the round, as did Goldman Sachs and GGC, which have separately agreed to provide the company with $115 million in debt funding. TechCrunch has more here.
Swing, a three-year-old, Seoul, South Korean e-scooter startup, has raised $24 million in Series B funding led by White Star Capital, with participation from Hashed. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
|
|
|
Dawn Health, a 20-month-old, San Francisco-based insomnia treatment startup that charges a monthly fee for access to a sleep coach and an integrated sleep tracker, just raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from OnDeck’s Runway Fund and individual investors, including Twitch cofounder Kevin Lin. TechCrunch has more here.
Goodbill, a months-old, Seattle-based health bill payment platform that aims to spot possible hospital billing errors and inflated charges, as well as automate the payment process, has raised $3.4 million in seed funding. Founders’ Co-op led the round, joined by Maveron and Liquid 2 Ventures. GeekWire has more here.
Infina, a year-old, Vietnam-focused retail investment app, has raised $4 million in fresh seed funding that brings its total funding to $6 million. Investors in the round include Sequoia Capital India, Y Combinator, Saison Capital, Starling Ventures, Alpha JWC and AppWorks. TechCrunch has more here.
Navier, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that aims to develop hydrofoil boats with beefy battery backs and electric motors at an affordable price compared with other leisure boats, has raised $7.2 million in seed funding. Co-leading the round were Global Founders Capital and Treble, a new fund run by Daniel Gulati, the former MD of Comcast Ventures. Other participants included Next View Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Soma Capital, and Precursor Ventures, along with individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Wyvern, a four-year-old, Edmonton, Alberta-based startup that aims to capture and sell high-resolution hyperspectral images from unfolding space telescopes, has raised $4 million in fresh funding via Canada’s Sustainable Development Technology program. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
|
|
|
Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, launched a report analyzing investment trends that point toward future unicorn status. Affinity used their proprietary data to analyze over 925 unicorns from the last five years. Learn how top venture capital firms use relationship intelligence to spot more unicorns. Read the report.
|
|
|
|
|
Afield from a new venture fund, but: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sent out a company memo yesterday addressing Joe Rogan’s use of harmful racial slurs in past episodes of his podcast, more than 70 of which have now been removed from Spotify. In the memo, which was published by The Hollywood Reporter, Ek declared that Spotify will invest $100 million in the licensing, development and marketing of music and audio content from historically marginalized groups. It's the same amount of money that Spotify paid to Joe Rogan for his exclusive content deal. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
|
|
|
SoftBank’s $66 billion sale of the U.K.-based chip business Arm to Nvidia officially collapsed today after regulators in the U.S., U.K. and EU raised serious concerns about its effects on competition in the global semiconductor industry, reports the Financial Times. A handful of tech giants that rely on Arm’s chip designs, including Qualcomm and Microsoft, had objected to the deal, which would have been the largest ever in the chip sector. SoftBank will now receive a break-up fee of up to $1.25 billion and is seeking to unload Arm through an IPO before the end of the year, a source tells the FT. More here.
Dating app company Bumble is making its first acquisition, adding the fast-growing French dating app Fruitz to its family of applications. Though Bumble already has an international footprint as the parent company to Badoo, which is particularly popular in Europe, it sees the addition of Fruitz as a way to gain more traction with a younger, Gen Z audience, says TechCrunch. Deal terms aren't being disclosed. More here.
According to Bloomberg, Apple has acquired a nearly six-year-old, startup called AI Music that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music to potentially use across its slate of audio offerings. The deal was reportedly completed in recent weeks. More here.
Last October, Uber completed its $1.1 billion purchase of alcohol-delivery startup Drizly and began integrating the business into its Uber Eats food-delivery operation. But the Federal Trade Commission isn’t done reviewing the acquisition, reports The Information. It says a team of FTC lawyers is scrutinizing the deal as part of a broader probe of whether Uber Eats has tried to monopolize the delivery of alcohol and other convenience store items by acquiring or striking partnerships with rivals rather than competing against them. More here.
There's now one fewer cheap airline, which could lessen competition for more affordable flights.
|
|
|
|
|
Cack Wilhelm has been promoted to general partner at IVP. Wilhelm joined the firm three years ago from Accomplice, where she spent two years. (Wilhelm also spent more than three years with Scale Venture Partners.) She becomes the first woman to benamed a general partner at the firm since [does double-take] 1983. More here.
CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund, has announced three investment-team promotions: Jesse Wedler to general partner, James Luo to investment partner, and Jackson Georges Jr. to growth partner. Business Insider has more here.
Spark Capital has brought aboard two new venture partners: Sarah Meyohas and Ben Simon. Meyohas is a conceptual artist and pioneer in crypto art and spent several years as a special partner to Pascal Capital. Simon joins the firm from Mechanism Capital, a crypto-focused outfit where he was partner and head of research. More here.
|
|
|
|
|
Amazon is more than doubling the maximum base salary it pays employees to $350,000 from $160,000.
|
|
|
|
|
Under pressure to hit fourth-quarter sales goals while coping with widespread semiconductor shortages, Tesla decided to remove an electronic control unit that is normally included in the steering racks of some made-in-China Model 3 and Model Y cars. CNBC has more here.
Buzzfeed was attacked this past weekend for revealing the identity of Bored Ape NFT creators; Fortune takes a look at what happened.
Why China's Communist leaders are becoming venture capitalists.
You can now change your number on Signal.
|
|
|
|
|
Want to know about using DAOs to develop therapeutic drugs? Drug discovery and development is a very slow and unpredictable process. Sign up to Linqto Learn on Feb 15th to hear from Founder and CEO Dr. Gennaro D'Urso and Co-founder and Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Leland Hartwell of Genetic Networks about how blockchain can reduce time to market in the pharmaceutical industry. Register now. Learn more about Linqto here.
|
|
|
|
|
