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Wednesday! Ours somehow zipped past, but one highlight was talking with serial entrepreneur Garrett Camp, who's best known for co-founding Uber but has been involved with many successful enterprises. We talked shop. We also asked, of course, what he thinks of "Super Pumped." More from that conversation Friday.
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The SEC is doing something about SPACs at long last. Maybe. After a 60-day public comment period. (We've been wondering about this for a while.)
As reported in the WSJ, under a proposal that the SEC advanced today, blank-check companies would: 1.) have to disclose information about their sponsors’ compensation and the dilution that shareholders might suffer if an acquisition is completed. 2.) Companies acquired by SPACs, as well as their officers and directors, would become liable for misrepresentations or omissions in the merger documents that SPACs file. 3.) SPACs and their buyout targets would be required to disseminate the required information disclosures to investors at least 20 days before any vote by shareholders on whether to approve an acquisition. 4.) Most meaningfully, perhaps, the proposal would tighten rules around the forward-looking projections and the often unrealistic growth forecasts that SPACs are currently allowed to tout without running afoul of the SEC.
The WSJ also notes that, if completed in their current form, the proposed disclosure requirements would extend to existing SPACs that have yet to complete a merger, according to SEC officials. (This is going to get interesting.)
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Noom uses psychology to help you lose weight. They have a support system with people trained in psychology, fitness, and nutrition available whenever you need them. You’ll also be partnered with a personal goal specialist to help keep you on track. With Noom, you’ll see lasting results in no time.
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Abzena, a 21-year-old, Cambridge, England-based global contract development and manufacturing organization focused around biologics and antibody drug conjugates, has raised $65 million in new funding, including from its majority owner, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, along with Biospring Partners and other investors.
Beewise, a 3.5-year-old, Israel-based developer of robotic beehives, has raised $80 million in Series C funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from Fortissimo Capital, Corner Ventures, and lool ventures, among others. The company tells Reuters that pollination is crucial to life on the planet, since 30% of the global food supply and more than 70% of vegetables, fruit, seeds and nuts are pollinated by bees. More here.
Blockchain.com, a 12-year-old, London-based outfit that allows users to buy and store digital tokens such as Bitcoin, says it has raised new funding at at $14 billion valuation led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with major participation from Baillie Gifford & Co. It isn't saying how much capital it collected exactly, but Bloomberg notes it raised $300 million at a $5.2 billion valuation from Lightspeed and other investors a year ago.
Builder.ai, a 10-year-old, London-based low-code/no-code app development platform, has raised $100 million in funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from WndrCo and renowned operator Nikesh Arora. More here.
Games24x7, a 16-year-old, Mumbai, India-based mobile games company, has raised $75 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Malabar Investment led the round, joined by earlier backers Tiger Global and Raine Group. TechCrunch has more here.
Neuron23, a four-year-old, South San Francisco-based biotech focused on neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, raised $100 million in Series C funding. SoftBank led the round, joined by earlier backers Westlake Village BioPartners and Kleiner Perkins. FierceBiotech has more here.
Nreal, a five-year-old, Beijing, China-based maker of AR glasses for consumers (it's testing their appetite right now in Japan and the U.S., among several other countries), has raised $60 million in Series C funding led by Alibaba. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Airhouse, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based logistics startup that says it automates dozens of workflows and integrations to help e-commerce companies get their products from factory to front door, just raised $11 million in Series A funding led by DNX Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Arena, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based customer engagement communications startup, raised $13.6 million in Series A funding. CRV led the round, joined by Craft Ventures, Artisanal Ventures and Vela Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Blur, an NFT marketplace for professional traders, says it has raised $11 million in seed funding. Paradigm led the round, joined by eGirl Capital, 0xMaki and LedgerStatus, among others. More here.
Electric, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based startup that gives companies remote IT support and infrastructure visibility, has raised $20 million in Series D-1 funding from Harmonic Growth Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Greenspring and Slack Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
FinPay, a seven-year-old, King of Prussia, Pa.-based patient financial management startup, has raised $15 million in funding led by PeakSpan Capital, with participation from Montreux Growth Partners. More here.
Garden.io, a four-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based cloud development and testing platform for Kubernetes and container environments, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by 468 Capital and Sorenson Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Home365, a seven-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based real estate investing and property management platform, has raised $26 million in Series B funding led by Viola Growth. Calcalist has more here.
Minut, a nine-year-old, London-based company that says its home sensors combine rivacy-safe insights and communication to make sharing happier for Airbnb hosts and their guests (but mostly the hosts), has raised $14 million in Series B funding. Almaz Capital led the round, joined by Zenith, Kompas, Verve Ventures and Swiss Immo Lab. TechCrunch has more here.
Mosaic, a three-year-old, San Diego-based startup that says its platform ingests data from numerous systems in order to help CFOs and their teams to better predict and forecast revenue and spending, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Founders Fund. Earlier backer General Catalyst also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Skan.ai, a four-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based startup that says it uses computer vision and data science to observe the onscreen interactions of employees and provide their employers with more transparency into how work gets done, just raised $40 million in Series B funding. Dell Technologies Capital led the round, joined by earlier backer Citi Ventures. More here.
VivoSense, a 12-year-old, Newport Coast, Ca.-based developer of wearable sensors that are worn to collect data during clinical trials, just raised $25 million in Series A funding from Debiopharm and Perceptive Advisors. Dot.LA has more here.
Wing Security, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that says it provides SaaS security for organizations, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by GGV Capital. Other investors in the round included Harmony Partners, Silicon Valley CISO Investments Group. and earlier investor S-Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Zephyr AI, a year-old, Tysons, Va.-based data-driven drug discovery startup, has raised $18.5 million in seed funding co-led by Lerner Group Investments and M-Cor Holdings. Other backers in the round included AME Cloud Ventures, BoxGroup, and Verily, among others. FierceHealthcare has more here.
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Baboon to the Moon, a six-year-old, New York-based backpack and bag "adventure brand," raised $3.5 million in Series A funding led by Woodland Management. More here.
Effectiv, a year-old, San Francisco-based fraud and risk management platform for financial firms, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Accel, with participation from REV. CrowdFund Insider has more here.
Fisher Wallace Labs, a 15-year-old, New York-based maker of cranial electrotherapy stimulation devices cleared by the FDA to treat depression, anxiety and insomnia, has raised $2.5 million in funding led by SHUFL Capital. More here.
Glimpse, a nearly two-year-old, New York-based experiential marketing startup that places consumer products in short-term rentals like Airbnbs (so people can discover items they want for themselves), has raised $6.2 million from GSR Ventures, Origin Ventures and Y Combinator. Forbes has more here.
OmniML, a year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup that says it enables users to design, optimize and deploy advanced machine learning models to hardware devices at the network edge, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by GGV Capital, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Foothill Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Reema Health, a two-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based digital platform that helps community health care workers connect more effectively with their members, has raised $8 million in funding led by MaC Venture Capital and DNA Capital. The company has now raised $10 million to date. More here.
RenewaFi, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based renewable energy marketplace, has raised $3 million in seed funding from First Round Capital, Floating Point, BoxGroup and Powerhouse Ventures. More here.
Revvable, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that sells software-as-a-service to power sports and vehicle dealerships (it says it automates the last steps of closing a sale), raised $5 million in seed funding led by Tiger Global, with participation from Bienville Capital. More here.
ShearShare, a seven-year-old, Buffalo, N.Y.-based startup that connects hair-care professionals with flexible spaces to work, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding led by Fearless Fund. More on ShearShare, which has now raised $4.6 million altogether, here.
Teal, a four-year-old, Seattle-based startup that sells a networking service used by Internet of Things device operators and others, has raised $10.8 million in Series A-1 funding from StageDotO Ventures, Stormbreaker Ventures and Capital Eleven. GeekWire has more here.
Valar Labs, a 10-month-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company whose founders met at Stanford’s AI lab, and who say they are teaming up with oncologists to build AI that helps them decide which treatments a patient should receive, has raised $4 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. More here.
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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.
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The London-based, largely European-focused, 16-year-old venture firm Atomico is raising $1.35 billion in new funds: $750 million for a growth fund and $600 million for a venture fund, according to filings with the SEC The funds have already held a first close, a source tells Bloomberg. More here.
Takwin VC, an eight-year-old, Haifa, Israel-based venture firm that says it funds Arab entrepreneurs in Israel, says it is raising $80 million for its second fund. Calcalist has more here.
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SoftBank partner Saurabh Jalan will join the board of WeWork, while WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani replaces Marcelo Claure as chairman. Claure left SoftBank late last year because of his compensation package. The Real Deal has more here.
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Transactions known as block trades are supposed to be a secret between the selling shareholders and the investment banks they hire to execute the trades. But a WSJ analysis of nearly 400 such trades over three years indicates that information about the sales routinely leaks out ahead of time—a potentially illegal practice that costs those sellers millions of dollars and benefits banks and their hedge-fund clients, notes the outlet.
Time has published a list of what its editors, correspondents, and network of industry experts deem the 100 most influential companies right now.
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Wow, what? Apple and Meta were tricked into providing basic subscriber details to hackers last year who masqueraded as law enforcement officers. Bloomberg has the story here.
Meta has been paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok, the Washington Post reported today. The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, and promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, says the outlet.
Fast, a three-year-old, one-click checkout company that has raised a total of $124 million in funding from payments giant Stripe among other backers, is telling potential new investors that the company plans to cut hundreds of jobs, says The Information. The company is reportedly trying to raise another $100 million at a pre-investment valuation of $450 million, which would be a drop from its last valuation of $500 million. More here.
Waymo, Google’s sister company, is sending fully autonomous vehicles onto the streets of San Francisco, marking its first attempt to send cars without any human control into a major metropolitan area. For now, the rides are only available to Waymo employees.
China is planning new curbs on the country’s $30 billion live-streaming industry, reports the WSJ, renewing a regulatory campaign aimed at reining in technology companies and exerting greater influence over the content consumed by its young people. Chinese authorities are reportedly drafting new regulations to cap internet users’ daily monetary spending on digital tipping, and are considering imposing tighter censorship over content, according to the outlet's sources.
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The latest from David Sedaris.
"How was your weekend?" Chris Rock asked an adoring audience tonight in his first performance since Sunday.
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