Sourcery (11/21-11/25)
World Cup/Art Basel ~ Prosper, Novo, Care.ai, PayZen, Nymbl Science, SocialClimb, Wesper, WorkJam, Cobee, Pearpop, Terzo, Fizz, Namecoach, Diffblue, Beam, Clerk, Surfboard, Popup, Saile, Swell
World Cup
Pop Quiz: Where was the first World Cup held?
If you guessed England, Brazil or Spain, you’re wrong. It was a country further below the equator and a great fact to know for trivia.
Today there are two highly anticipated games that will consume most of what’s left of Twitter… Wales vs England and Iran vs USA they both take to the pitch at 2:00pm ET/11:00am PT.
Art Basel
Tomorrow we’re headed down to Miami for the annual celebration of Art Basel Miami. Now for some context, I studied art/design since I was a child through college so I do go and enjoy art, but for others it is solely a party around palm trees, jet skis and yachts (secondary benefit?). Last year, the international art fair was inundated with crypto enthusiasts as a new form of art that made its creators super rich and its buyers look super rich took the world by storm, those were NFTs (I did buy some 🥴). Alongside that it was the first official Basel since Keith Rabois declared Miami tech’s new tax-havened “Silicon Valley”, so it was actually a VC conference (I also took adv of this). This year will be TBD as those two passionate groups might not be as strongly converging but the celebration around art, fashion, music, design and Miami culture continues.
Readings
Venture Capital Red Flag Checklist, Bill Gurley
Crypto Lender BlockFi Files for Bankruptcy as FTX Fallout Spreads, NYT
As Pipe's founding team departs, tensions rise over allegations, Yahoo!
This is a mess of a story.
Amazon shutting down wholesale distribution in third business exit in India TechCrunch
Cyber Monday set to eclipse Black Friday again as inflation-pinched shoppers hunt for holiday deals, NBC
World Cup 2022 briefing: Iran and USA head into the fire, Guardian
A win for either team guarantees qualification but Iran, who rank second and a point above the US, can still go through with a draw if Wales fails to beat England in Group B's other game.
. . .
Last Week (11/21-11/25):
Relevant deals include the 60+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into four categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise & Consumer, and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds. Highlighted deals include Prosper, Novo, Efficient Capital Labs, Care.ai, PayZen, Nymbl Science, SocialClimb, Wesper, WorkJam, Cobee, Pearpop, Terzo, Fizz, Namecoach, Diffblue, Beam, Clerk, Surfboard, Popup, Saile, Swell, Freight Farms; ServiceMax, Streamwise, Zendesk, Chipper Cash
Final numbers on Black Friday Sales at the bottom.
Deals
Fintech:
- Prosper, an SF-based lending platform, raised $75m led by Neuberger Berman. https://axios.link/3gsIXrD
- Novo, a Miami-based fintech platform for small businesses, raised $35 million in Series B extension funding from GGV Capital.
- Efficient Capital Labs, a New York-based capital provider to B2B SaaS companies, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. 645 Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Singh Cap, The Fund, Operator Partners, and others.
- Surround Insurance, a Cambridge, Mass.-based insurance provider, raised $2.5 million in seed funding. MassMutual’s MM Catalyst Fund led the round and was joined by investors including Aperture VC, Newark Venture Partners, and Cameron Ventures.
. . .
Care:
- Care.ai, an Orlando, Fla.-based developer of ambient clinical sensing tech, raised $27m led by Crescent Cove Advisors. https://axios.link/3ABLA1k
- PayZen, an SF-based provider of health care financing tools, raised $20m in equity funding led by 7wire Ventures (plus another $200m in debt from Viola Credit). www.payzen.com
- Nymbl Science, a Denver, Colo.-based older adult digital health company, raised $12 million in Series B funding. Cobalt Ventures and Outcomes Collective Growth Capital co-led the round and were joined by 450 Ventures.
- Validic, a Durham, S.C.-based remote care startup, raised $12m. Kaiser Permanente Ventures led, and was joined by Arkin Digital Health, Green Park and Golf Ventures, Ziegler, Gore Range Capital, Greycroft Partners and SJF Ventures. www.validic.com
- SocialClimb, a Lehi, Utah-based patient acquisition and health care marketing startup, raised $8.5m co-led by Spring Capital Partners and Resolve Growth. https://axios.link/3VgxU3G
- Wesper, a New York-based developer of home sleep lab and virtual sleep disorder treatments, raised $7.5m in Series A funding led by Ceros Capital Markets. www.wesper.co
- Segmed, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based medical imaging startup, raised $5.2m in seed funding. Nina Capital led, and was joined by iGan Partners, M3 Inc, Mighty Capital, Expeditions Fund and Alchemist Accelerator. https://axios.link/3GxNlAn
. . .
Enterprise & Consumer:
- WorkJam, a Montreal, Canada-based digital frontline workplace, raised $50 million in Series D funding. The Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Inovia Capital co-led the round and were joined by investors including Blumberg Capital and Demopolis Equity Partners.
- Cobee, a Spanish employee benefits app, raised €40m in Series B funding. Octopus Ventures and Notion Capital co-led, and were joined by insiders Balderton Capital, Speedinvest and Dila Capital. https://axios.link/3TRZxyZ
- Laundrygo, a South Korean on-demand laundry service, raised $37m in Series C funding. H&Q Korea led, and was joined by SoftBank Ventures, Altos Ventures, Aju IB, KB Securities, Hanwha Securities, Badgers Investment, Pebbles Investment and Musinsa, https://axios.link/3TPN8LX
- SponsorUnited, a Stamford, Conn.-based sports and entertainment intelligence platform, raised $35 million in funding led by Spectrum Equity.
- Pearpop, an LA-based creator marketing and collaboration platform, has added $18M to its Series A from Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Blockchange Ventures, Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund, and C2 Ventures.
- Terzo, an LA-based AI-powered contract intelligence platform, has raised $16M in Series A funding led by Align Ventures with participation from TYH Ventures, Engage Ventures, Human Capital as well as angel investors that include Ryan Breslow and Daniel Saks.
- Fizz, a San Francisco-based social media platform for college students, raised $12 million in Series A funding. NEA led the round and was joined by investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Rocketship VC, Owl Ventures, Smash Ventures, and New Horizon.
- AMFG Corp., an Austin-based manufacturing execution system and workflow automation software company for 3D printing, raised $8.5 million in funding led by Intel Capital.
- Namecoach, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based name mispronunciation and gender communication solution provider, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Impact America Fund led the round and was joined by investors including Authentic Ventures, Metaplanet, Founders Fund, Engage VC, Ai Sprouts Fund I, GTM Fund, 640 Oxford, Transcend Network, Asymmetry Ventures, Forefront Venture Partners, Network.VC, Harbor Street Ventures, and Seabed VC.
- Diffblue, an Oxford, U.K.-based A.I.-for-code software company, raised $8 million in funding. Albion VC led the round and was joined by investors including IP Group, Parkwalk, Hostplus, Oxford Technology, and Innovations EIS Fund.
- Beam (fka Edquity), a Brooklyn-based public benefit administration platform, raised $6.4m in Series A funding. Potencia Ventures led, and was joined by Spring Point Partners, American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, Imaginable Futures, Lumina Impact Ventures, Michelson Runway and Schmidt Futures. www.bybeam.co
- Clerk, an SF-based authentication and user management solution for React, raised $6.2m in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led, and was joined by S28 Capital, Fathom Capital, and South Park Commons. www.clerk.dev
- Surfboard, a London-based collaborative planning tool for support teams, raised $5m from Speedinvest, Fly Ventures and Seedcamp. www.teamsurfboard.com
- Metaspectral, a Vancouver, Canada-based computer vision software company, raised $4.7 million in seed funding. SOMA Capital, Acequia Capital, the Government of Canada, and others invested in the round.
- Carv, an LA-based decentralized identity startup, raised $4m led by Temasek-backed Vertex. https://axios.link/3EurfvT
- Popup, a remote-based e-commerce platform, raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding. Accel led the round and was joined by investors including Seedcamp, 20VC, ex-Shopify CMO Jeff Weiser, and Hopin CEO Johnny Boufarhat.
- Saile, a Kansas City-based developer of sales bots, raised $1.35m in seed funding. Valor Ventures led, and was joined by KCRise Fund. https://axios.link/3EvPMAI
. . .
Sustainability:
- Swell, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based virtual power plant startup, raised $120m in Series B funding co-led by SoftBank and Greenbacker Development Opportunities, as first reported by Axios Pro. https://axios.link/3VmzZey
- Freight Farms, a Boston-based vertical farming company, raised $17.5m in Series B3 funding. Aliaxis SA and Ospraie Ag Science co-led, and were joined by Spark Capital, Stage 1 Ventures and Alkaline Partners. https://axios.link/3UQ8Mkf
Acquisitions & PE:
- PTC agreed to acquire ServiceMax, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based field service management software company, from Silver Lake, for approximately $1.46 billion
- Amagi, a New York-based developer of SaaS for broadcast and connected TV, acquired Streamwise, a Rye, N.Y.-based data aggregation and reporting platform for content distributors. Amagi is valued at over $1.4b by VCs, while Streamwise backers include JDS Sports. https://axios.link/3UXb3ds
- AppHub, a Boston-based e-commerce software provider backed by Silversmith Capital Partners, acquired Reviews.io, a British customer reviews platform, for $72m, as first reported by Axios Pro. https://axios.link/3GzVRi
- Hellman & Friedman and Permira completed their $10.2b take-private acquisition of Zendesk, an SF-based customer engagement software provider. www.zendesk.com
- Chipper Cash, an SF-based cross-border payments company focused on Africa, agreed to buy Zoona, a Zambian online payment and agent services business. Chipper Cash has raised $300m, most recently at a $2.2b valuation, while Zoona raised $25m from firms like AHL Venture Partners, Quona Capital and the IFC. https://axios.link/3tN0oWP
. . .
IPOs:
Nothing to see here..
. . .
SPACs:
- Digital World Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: DWAC) shareholders approved an extension to the SPAC's merger closing with Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, until next September.
Funds:
- HarbourVest raised $4.2b for its sixth co-investment fund. www.harbourvest.com
- HC9 Ventures, a New York-based firm focused on health care software and services startup, raised $83m for its debut fund. www.hc9.vc
- H.I.G. Capital is raising $5b for its fourth U.S. midmarket fund, per public pension docs. https://axios.link/3i9JwHz
Final Numbers
American online shoppers scrolled, tapped and clicked their way to a record $9.12bn of spending this Black Friday, a strong showing despite rising inflation continuing to pinch the pockets of the American consumer.
As we get to say almost annually, this year's online shopping season is expected to be the biggest ever. Indeed, analysts at Adobe Analytics are expecting total online sales for November and December to be up 2.5% on last year.
Whilst many retailers kicked off deals season early in October, online shoppers were clearly keen to hold out for Black Friday itself. Sales rose slightly on last year, but it's worth noting that those figures aren’t adjusted to reflect inflation — suggesting that the amount of actual stuff bought online might have fallen.
Nevertheless, shoppers have clearly clung to their online habits, with internet spending up 23% on the last pre-pandemic year — and Adobe’s analysts are forecasting that Cyber Monday will be even bigger than Black Friday.
Interestingly, 48% of customers on Friday were using smartphones to buy their goodies, up from 44% last year. Online shoppers have also been using buy-now-pay-later schemes more than ever before — a trend that obviously doesn't show up in the credit card data we discussed 2 weeks ago.
The material presented on Molly O’Shea’s website are my opinions only and are provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. It is not a recommendation of, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Any analysis or discussion of investments, sectors or the market generally are based on current information, including from public sources, that I consider reliable, but I do not represent that any research or the information provided is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. My views and opinions expressed in any website content are current at the time of publication and are subject to change. Past performance is not indicative of future results.