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Russian bombardments having caused an estimated $100 billion in damage so far in Ukraine, reports the New York Times.
The British government ratcheted up pressure on Kremlin-linked businesspeople, sanctioning a handful of Russian oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich. As the WSJ notes, Abramovich's trophy assets, including the Chelsea Football Club, high-end property in London, and mega yachts, have helped make him among the high-profile of his ilk; now his U.K. assets will be frozen, and he will be barred from traveling to Britain.
Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters today.
Travelers take note: The TSA is extending the current mandate for mask use on public transportation and in transportation hubs through April 18. The mandate had been set to expire on March 18.
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A24, a 10-year-old, New York-based entertainment studio whose titles include "Moonlight" and "Euphoria," just raised $225 million in funding led by Stripes, with participation from Neuberger Berman. The Hollywood Reporter has more here.
Adiso Therapeutics, a newly launched, Concord, Ma.-based biotech focused on inflammatory diseases that is the product of two biotechs -- an Irish microbiome business and a U.S. neutrophil biology specialist -- that investor Morningside Ventures rolled up, has raised more than $60 million from the Hong Kong-based Morningside. FierceBiotech has more here.
Colossal, an eight-month-old, Dallas, Tex.-based biotech that's trying to use ancient genetic material to create modern-day versions of woolly mammoths — to fight climate change and advance health care, it says -- has raised $75 million in funding across a $60 million Series A and $15 million seed round. The company is headed by famed Harvard University geneticist George Church and tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm. Thomas Tull and At One Ventures co-led the round, joined by Untamed Planet, Animoca Brands, Breyer Capital, Animal Capital, Bold Capital, and Paris Hilton, among others. Bloomberg has more here.
DataRails, a nearly seven-year-old, New York-based financial planning and analysis platform for Excel users, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Qumra Capital, with participation from La Maison Partners, ClalTech, and earlier backers. TechCrunch has more here.
Lendable, an eight-year-old, London-based peer-to-peer lending platform, has raised £210 million in funding led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Tech.eu has more here.
Lunar, a seven-year-old, Aarhus, Denmark-based "challenger bank," has raised €70 million in new funding led by Heartland, with participation from Tencent, Kinnevik, IDC Ventures and actor-producer Will Ferrell (who stars in a marketing campaign for the company and was cut in on the deal). The latest investment is an extension to the company’s original Series D, which closed with €210 million in July of last year. TechCrunch has more here.
Nothing, the 18-month-old, London-based consumer hardware startup founded by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, has raised $70 million in Series B funding. EQT Ventures and C Ventures co-led the round, joined by GV, Future Shape, Gaorong Capital and Animoca Brands. Pei hasn't said what he is developing but a new smartphone is widely anticipated. Business Insider has more here.
Roofstock, a nearly seven-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based online platform for single-family rental investing, has raised $240 million in Series E funding led by SoftBank. Axios has more here.
Society Brands, a two-year-old, Canton, Oh.-based company that, like so many others, is aggregating e-commerce native brands that primarily sell on Amazon, just raised $204 million in funding led by i80 Group. Cleveland Inno has more here.
Tibber, a seven-year-old, Norway-based residential smart energy startup, has raised $100 million in Series C funding. Summa Equity led the round, joined by earlier investors Balderton, Eight Roads and Schibsted Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.
Typeform, a 10-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based startup whose customers use its forms, surveys, and quizzes to grow their audiences, has raised $135 million in Series C funding. Sofina led the round, joined by Top Tier Capital Partners, GP Bullhound, Teamworthy Ventures, Trium Venture Partners and earlier backers. TechCrunch has more here.
YABA, a two-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based Amazon brand aggregator focused on Southern Europe, has raised $85 million in equity and debt. Crossbeam Venture Partners and Tikehau Capital co-led the round, joined by 10x Founders, Bonsai Partners, Aldea Ventures, JME Ventures and Inveready. Tech.eu has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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100ms, a two-year-old, India-based live video conferencing infrastructure startup, has raised $20 million in Series A funding barely five months after closing its seed round. Alpha Wave Global led the newest funding, with participation from Matrix Partners India, LocalGlobe, and earlier investors Accel and Strive.vc. The outfit has now raised $24.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Autobrains, a nearly three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based autonomous driving tech startup, has raised $19 million in Series C funding from Temasek, Continental, BMW i Ventures, Knorr-Bremse and VinFast. TechCrunch has more here.
Creyon Bio, a 2.5-year-old, San Diego-based developer of RNA-based medicines and their components, has raised $40 million in combined seed and Series A funding. DCVC Bio and Lux Capital are the outfit's biggest investors; others of its backers include Casdin Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments and BioBrit. More here.
EthSign, a two-year-old, Singapore-based decentralized, versioned, and consensus-based electronic agreements signing application built on Web3 (it's like decentralized version of DocuSIgn, it says), has raised $12 million in a seed funding round, and all three units of the Sequoia VC — Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Sequoia Capital China — participated. That's a first, Sequoia tells The Block.
Findem, a nearly three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based talent acquisition startup, just raised $30 million in Series B funding co-led by Four Rivers and Quarry Capital Management, with participation from Wing VC. VentureBeat has more here.
Instant Teams, a six-year-old, Rehoboth, De.-based maker of remote team assembly and management software (to ease the management of remote teams), just raised $13 million led by Tiger Global. Other backers in the round include Plug & Play Tech Center, The Veteran's Fund, Squadra Ventures, Brick Capital Ventures, Blue Tree Fund and Frontier Capital. CityBiz has more here.
Jio Health, an eight-year-old, Vietnam-based omni-channel health care startup whose online and offline care services are integrated with its lab information systems, e-pharmacy, and clinical operating systems, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. Heritas Capital led the round, joined by Fuchsia VC, Kasikorn Bank Group and Monk’s Hill Ventures. Tech in Asia has more here.
Slingshot Aerospace, a five-year-old, El Segundo, Ca.-based developer of space simulation and analytics products, has raised $25 million in Series A-1 funding. Draper Associates and ATX Venture Partners co-led the round, joined by Edison Partners, Embedded Ventures, Valor Equity Partners and Lockheed Martin. TechCrunch has more here.
Stilt, a nearly seven-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that got its start lending money to immigrants and which lends to immigrants and other underserved populations, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Link Ventures, with participation from Petrushka Investments, Hillsven Capital and some notable individual investors, including operator Gokul Rajaram, former Stripe COO Claire Hughes Johnson and Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra. The company says it has also secured a $100 million debt facility for lending to its loan customers. (Doesn't look like it has said from whom.) TechCrunch has more here.
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Delfina, a year-old, Bay Area-based pregnancy care platform featuring real-time monitoring, has raised $5.3 million in funding led by Story Ventures. Other backers in the round include SemperVirens VC, Bread & Butter Ventures, Goodwater Capital, MIT E14 Fund, Metrodora VC and SpringTime Ventures. Femtech Insider has more here.
Flowingly, a nearly six-year-old, Auckland, New Zealand-based process mapping and workflow automation startup, has raised $4.5 million in funding led by GD1, with participation from Icehouse Ventures. More here.
Metasky, a six-month-old, Bangalore, India-based crypto wallet startup focused on the creator economy, has raised $1.8 million in a token sale led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from Woodstock Fund. Inc42 has more here.
Noula Health, an eight-month-old, New York-based, subscription-based reproductive support startup that aims to offer at-home testing, precision nutrition, and digital care plans, just raised $1.4 million in seed funding from Muse Capital and Precursor Ventures. Axios has more here.
Swobbee, a three-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based micromobility battery swapping startup, has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding led by EIT InnoEnergy. TechCrunch has more here.
Tactic, a three-year-old, London-based AI startup that automates customer and market research, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Visionaries Club. TechCrunch has more here.
Topsort, a year-old, San Francisco-based auction-based infrastructure for multi-brand online retailers and marketplaces, has raised $8 million in seed funding from Pear Ventures, Quiet Capital and FJLabs. TechCrunch has more here.
Yuno, a two-month-old, Colombian payments startup, raised $10 million in seed funding co-led by Monashees and Kaszek. The company’s founders include Juan Pablo Ortega, the co-founder of on-demand delivery unicorn Rappi (which as of last July was valued at $5.25 billion) and Julián Núñez, an early Rappi employee. TechCrunch has more here.
Zeta Surgical, a 3.5-year-old, Boston-based startup aiming to deliver precise surgical imaging guidance for non-invasive surgeries performed outside the operating room, has raised $5.2 million in seed funding led by Innospark Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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Biggest U.S. Bank Invests In Web 3.0 and This Trophy Asset… It’s no surprise that JP Morgan invested in the exploding metaverse and increased its presence in the $1.9 trillion crypto space. However, the biggest U.S. bank has also quietly invested billions in a $1.7 trillion dollar asset: blue-chip art. And some of the smartest investors in the world have invested over $400 million into Masterworks, the premier art investing app. Want in? StrictlyVC subscribers can skip the waitlist. * See important Reg A disclosures.
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Bessemer Venture Partners tells The Information it has earmarked $250 million of its new $2.5 billion fund for crypto deals. Partner Ethan Kurzweil, who joined the firm in 2008, is leading the charge.
A number of prominent Silicon Valley crypto VCs have backed a new upstart NFT fund called Curated that's devoted to buying and holding NFT artwork and now has $30 million in capital commitments to invest toward that end. Among its many limited partners is Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Andrew Chen, Arianna Simpson and Jon Lai -- all from a16z -- along with Alexis Ohanian, Justin Kan, Electric Capital’s Avichal Garg and Curtis Spencer and a host of other investors and founders. TechCrunch has more here.
Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six (776) says it has launched a new fund called 776 Titans Fund to focused on emerging managers, each with their own "influential distribution channels and unique operational experience" in backing start-up ventures. Each fund will operate independently and will receive an initial $500,000 investment from 776 and access to Cerebro, which is the proprietary operating system of the firm. We don't know if this is an entirely new fund of funds or a carveout of 776's most recently closed fund; we asked the firm this morning and are awaiting a few answers. In the meantime, it has backed YouTube star and web video producer Marques Brownlee; five-time Olympian Allyson Felix, who with her brother Wes invests in web3 and fintech companies; and Cleo Abram, an Emmy-nominated video producer and journalis investment firm
Crenshaw Ventures.
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Niantic, the augmented reality platform behind Pokémon GO, is acquiring a six-year-old, web-based augmented reality development platform called 8th Wall, the company announced today. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but Niantic says the deal marks its largest acquisition to date and that it should enhance its developer platform while also helping developers create their visions for AR. TechCrunch has more here.
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Didi is getting dinged yet again. According to Bloomberg, the ride-share giant has suspended preparations for its planned Hong Kong listing after failing to appease Chinese regulators’ demands that it overhaul its systems for handling sensitive user data. The Cyberspace Administration of China reportedly informed Didi executives their proposals to prevent security and data leaks had fallen short; as a result, Didi's main apps, removed from local app stores last year, will remain suspended for the time being. More here.
Singer-turned-fashion-entrepreneur Rihanna is working with banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, on an IPO that could value her Savage X Fenty lingerie company at $3 billion or more, say Bloomberg sources. More here.
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Pavni Diwanji, Meta Platforms's vice president of youth, who joined the company in December 2020 to oversee Instagram’s development of a controversial product for children, is leaving the company as part of a restructuring, according to Meta. “We’re grateful to Pavni for all she’s done for Instagram,” a Meta spokeswoman tells the WSJ.
Tyler Haney, the founder of the athleisure brand Outdoor Voices who abruptly left the outfit two years ago, has a new venture. Called Try Your Best, she says it aims to help brands collect input from customers in exchange for rewards like NFTs that can be used for bragging rights or toward purchases.
Elon Musk and Grimes quietly welcomed a baby girl in December via a surrogate, Grimes has revealed in a Vanity Fair interview. Their daughter's name is, of course, completely inscrutable.
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The campaign to starve Russia of technology — stripping the nation of everything from iPhones to defense electronics — is an unprecedented experiment, and it's hard to know how Vladimir Putin, or Russia's 145 million people, will ultimately respond. “It’s hard to think of a historic parallel,” said Peter Singer, a U.S. military strategist, tells Bloomberg.
Inside one tech company's attempt to evacuate employees from Ukraine.
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