Deals of the day
Sources: TS, Pro Rata, FinSMEs
Catalant Technologies, a Boston-based provider of technology platform and programs for skills matching and resource allocation, raised $35 million in Series E funding. Goldfinch Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Anheuser-Busch InBev's ZX Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, SJF Ventures, General Catalyst, Highland Capital, GE Ventures, Bob Doris of Accanto Partners, former Bain Capital Managing Director Mark Nunnelly, and Mark Cuban.
MURAL, a San Francisco-based digital workspace for visual collaboration in the enterprise, raised $23 million in Series A funding. Radian Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused venture group, and Endeavor Catalyst.
Yogi, a New York-based customer feedback analytics platform, raised $2.3 million in seed funding. RTP Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Felton Group and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator.
IPOs:
Casper Sleep, a New York-based mattress maker, says it plans to raise $150 million in an IPO of 8.35 million shares priced between $17 to $19 apiece. The firm posted net revenue of $357.9 million and loss of $93.2 million in 2018. NEA (15.9% pre-offering), Red CartVentures (9%), Timothy Sherwin (6.4%), Norwest Ventures (6.2%), and IVP (6.2%) back the firm. It plans to list on the NYSE as “CSPR.” “Read more .”
Five companies and one SPAC plan to price IPOs on U.S. exchanges this week. Issuers include Reynolds Consumer Products, which would be the year’s first $1 billion+ listing, plus One Medical, Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Avadim Health, Black Diamond Therapeutics and InterPrivate Acquisition. http://axios.link/DYZw
Exits:
K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN) agreed to acquire Galvanize Inc, a Denver-based provider of technology workforce education, workspace, and networking services, for $165 million in an all-cash transaction. Galvanize had raised approximately $167 million in venture funding from investors including Catalyst Investors, Aspen Grove Capital, The Colorado Impact Fund, ABS Capital Partners, University Ventures, and University Venture Fund.
. . .
Sources: MorningBrew, Axios
U.S. markets: This week, investors will be tracking the spreading coronavirus in China, the Fed meeting, and a wave of corporate earnings. More than 135 S&P companies, including the likes of Apple, Amazon, and Tesla, will report quarterly earnings in the coming days.
The economics, politics and science of climate change are converging and catapulting this problem from a joke among critics to a prominent concern, Axios' Amy Harder writes in her "Harder Line" column.
Why it matters: If the world’s political and business leaders are going to seriously move to cut heat-trapping emissions, they first need to pay attention to it.
They're starting to, fueled by unrest from the world’s youth, cheaper renewable energy, more bouts of extreme weather and other evidence of global warming itself.
In Washington, congressional Republicans and even President Trump are scrambling to acknowledge the problem after years of denying it — and, in some cases, mocking it outright.
In Davos last week, Trump announced the U.S. would support an initiative to plant trees — natural ways to capture carbon dioxide emissions — even as he slammed climate activists as "prophets of doom."
For the first time ever, the House GOP leadership is pushing policies to address the problem.
Flat-out denialism of humans' role in warming the planet has all but disappeared.
Among corporate executives and financial leaders, climate change is quickly becoming a concrete worry.
In addition to climate being the sole official topic in Davos for the first time, pronouncements on the matter have come in the last several weeks from the IMF and most of the world’s central banks, including the Fed.
And new goal and commitments keep rolling in from corporate America.
"Nearly one in four Americans (23%) report eating less meat in the past year than they have previously, with the highest rates of reported meat consumption reduction among women, nonwhites and Democrats." (Gallup)
Mattress maker Casper plans to price shares at between $17 and $19 for a midpoint valuation of $705 million, well below the $1.1 billion valuation where it last raised money. (Axios). . .
More headlines…
Sources: MorningBrew
India passed the U.S. to become the world’s second largest smartphone market, according to Counterpoint research.
Byte, a six-second video successor to Vine, launched over the weekend. You can follow me @duff and the Brew @brew.
Taco Bell put machine learning in its mobile app to personalize the ordering process.
23andMe is laying off 14% of its employees, citing reduced demand for its DNA kits.
GPS interference is disrupting logistics in the Mediterranean, Fortune reports.
3.1 million people were active users of blockchain-based distributed apps last year