Sourcery (11/8-11/12)
Jackpot, Alt, Matter Labs, Neon Labs, Atomic, Founders First, Payitoff, Saddle, Meow, Fullscript, Color, Flywheel, Faire, Socure, Workato, Density, H20.ai, Moov, Daily, Sandbox VR, Novata, Evergrow..
Last Week (11/8-11/12):
Relevant deals include the 60+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into four categories, Fintech, Care, Future of Work, and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds. Highlighted deals include Isaac, Jackpot, Alt, Matter Labs, Neon Labs, Atomic, Traive, Lucidum, Founders First, Payitoff, Saddle, CacheFlow, Meow, Fullscript, Color, Sirona Medical, AppliedVR, Flywheel, Faire, Socure, Workato, ZenBusiness, OpenWeb, Density, Drata, Wrapbook, Curated, Reprise, Moov, Daily, Sandbox VR, Swimm, The Naked Market, Darrow, Datafold, You.com, Point One Navigation, Supergrain, Cascade.io, Uiflow, Cloudquery, Constructor, Novata, Evergrow, Abatable; LetsGetChecked, Dadi, Mavely, Wolt, OpenSlate, Weta Digital, Wirewax & Wibbitz; Rivian; FiscalNote, Springbig, GETT
Final numbers on Children’s Content Streaming Demand and CPG M&A YTD at the bottom.
Deals
Sources: TS, Pro Rata, FinSMEs, Pitchbook, StrictlyVC
Fintech:
- Zenwork, a Fayetteville, Ar.-based digital tax compliance and regulatory reporting software company, raised $162.5 million. Spectrum Equity led the round.
- isaac, a Brazil-based payments, communication, and software company for schools, raised $125 million in Series B funding. General Atlantic led the round and was joined by investors including SoftBank and Kaszek.
- Jackpot, a state lottery app, raised $120 million in Series D funding. Left Lane Capital led, and was joined by Santa Barbara Venture Partners, Kevin Hart, Whitney Cummings, Mark Cuban, Manny Machado and insiders Greenspring Associates, The Raine Group, Anchor Capital, Gaingels, Conductive Ventures and Blue Run Ventures. http://axios.link/IOFj
- Alt, a remote-first alternative asset investing platform, raised a $75 million in Series B funding valuing it over $325 million. AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and Accomplice founder Jeff Fagnan's Spearhead led the round and were joined by investors including 776.
- Matter Labs, a developer of Ethereum rollup scaling solutions, raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. http://axios.link/B9aJ
- Neon Labs, a Cayman Islands-based crypto scaling company, raised $40 million. Jump Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Three Arrows Capital, Solana Capital, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Ethereal Ventures, and IDEO CoLab Ventures.
- Atomic, a San Francisco-based fintech API company, raised $25 million in funding. QED Investors and Anthemis led the round and were joined by investors including Softbank and Y Combinator.
- Bitmart, a Cayman Islands-based crypto exchange, is in talks to raise $20 million at a pre-money valuation of $300 million, per TechCrunch. Alexander Capital Ventures is said to be in talks.
- Lendtable, a San Francisco-based fintech focused on 401(k) and employee stock purchase plan benefits, raised $18 million in Series A funding. O1 Advisors led the round and was joined by investors including SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund and Valor Equity Partners.
- Traive, an agricultural credit startup, raised $17 million in Series A funding. SP Ventures and Astella led the round and were joined by investors including Tiger Global Management, Bread and Butter Ventures, Minerva VC, Syngenta Group Ventures, Serasa Experian VC, and CSN Inova Ventures.
- Lucidum, a San Jose, Calif.-based asset discovery company, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Point72 Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including GGV Capital and Silicon Valley CISO Investments.
- Founders First, a San Diego-based, revenue-based investment firm, raised $11 million in Series A funding. Investors include Rockefeller, Kellogg, Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates company, and the MacArthur Foundation.
- Notabene, a New York-based crypto compliance SaaS, raised $10.2 million in Series A funding. F-Prime Capital and Jump Capital co-led, and were joined by Blockfi, Gemini Frontier Fund, Illuminate Financial, CMT Digital, Fenbushi Capital and insiders Castle Island Ventures and Green Visor Capital. http://axios.link/sRaL
- Payitoff, a New York City-based student loan management startup, raised $8.5 million in seed funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Sound Ventures, Struck Capital, and Social Leverage.
- Telos, a London-based blockchain platform, raised $8 million in funding from investors including John Lilic, ConsenSys and Polygon investor.
- Saddle, a San Francisco-based market maker focused on trading between pegged value crypto assets, raised $7.5 million in funding. Polychain and Electric Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Nascent and Project Galaxy.
- GetCovered.io, a New York City-based insurance software company, raised $7 million in Series A funding. RET Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Updater, Pelican Ventures, and Crocker Mountain.
- Zebec Protocol, a San Francisco-based cash flow protocol on Solana, raised $6 million. Republic Capital, Shima Capital, and Breyer Capital led the round and were joined by investors including Resolute Ventures, Launchpad Capital, Backend Capital, Meltem Demirors, Gemini Frontier Fund, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Wave 7, Cadenza Ventures, Hack VC, and Joe McCann.
- CacheFlow, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of embedded financing solutions for enterprise SaaS, raised $6 million in seed funding. GGV Capital led, and was joined by Pelion Ventures. www.getcacheflow.com
- Meow, a New York City-based crypto corporate treasuries company, raised $5 million in seed funding. Investors included Coinbase Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, Lux Capital, Jump Capital, Slow Ventures, Shine Capital, Castle Island Ventures, and Acrylic.
- Doji, a London-based stock exchange marketplace company, raised $3 million in seed funding. Canary led the round.
. . .
Care:
- Fullscript, a Canadian supplements business, raised $240 million. HGGC and Snapdragon Capital Partners invested.
- Color, a San Francisco-based health tech company, raised $100 million in Series E funding valuing it at $4.6 billion. Kindred Ventures and T. Rowe Price Associates led the round.
- Sirona Medical, a San Francisco-based software company focused on radiology, raised $40 million in Series B funding. GreatPoint Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Rose Park Advisors, Avidity Partners, 8VC, and Global Founders Capital.
- AppliedVR, a Los Angeles-based AR therapeutics company, raised $36 million in Series B funding. Investors include F-Prime Capital, JAZZ Venture Partners, Sway Ventures, and SVB Ventures.
- Infinitus Systems, a San Francisco-based phone call automation company focused on healthcare, raised $30 million in Series B funding. GV led the round and was joined by investors including Kleiner Perkins and Coatue Management.
- Signos, a Burlingame, Calif.-based weight care startup, raised $13 million in Series A funding. GV led the round and was joined by investors including Courtside Ventures, 1984 Ventures, and Tau Ventures.
- Flywheel, a Minneapolis-based data management platform for biomedical research and collaboration, raised $5.5 million in additional Series C funding. Intuitive Ventures invested.
. . .
Future of Work:
- Faire Wholesale , a San Francisco-based wholesaler, is in talks to raise at a $12 billion valuation, per Bloomberg.
- Socure, an identity verification company, raised $450 million in Series E funding. Accel and T. Rowe Price valuing it at $4.5 billion. Accel and T. Rowe Price led the round.
- Workato, a Mountain View, Calif.-based enterprise automation company, raised $200 million in Series E funding. Battery Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Insight Partners, Altimeter Capital, and Tiger Global. The deal values Workato at $5.7 billion.
- ZenBusiness, an Austin-based software maker for businesses, raised $200 million in Series C funding valuing it at $1.7 billion. Oak HC/FT led the round and was joined by investors including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Cathay Innovation, and Greycroft.
- OpenWeb, a New York City-based audience relationship company, raised $150 million in Series E funding. Insight Partners and Georgian Partners led the round and were joined by investors including Omer Cygler, Harel, and Entrée Capital.
- Contrast Security, a Los Altos, Calif.-based code security company, raised $150 million in Series E funding valuing it over $1 billion. Liberty Strategic Capital, founded by former Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, led the round.
- HawkEye 360, a radio frequency-focused earth observation company, raised $145 million. Insight Partners and Seraphim Space Investment Trust led the round.
- Density, a San Francisco-based analytics company focused on physical workspaces, raised $125 million in Series D funding. Kleiner Perkins led the round and was joined by investors including Altimeter Capital, Lachy Groom, 01 Advisors, Upfront Ventures, and Founders Fund.
- Drata, a San Diego-based security and compliance automation company, raised $100 million in Series B funding. ICONIQ Growth led the round and was joined by investors including Alkeon Capital and Salesforce Ventures, valuing it at $1 billion.
- Wrapbook, a New York City-based provider of tech to the entertainment industry, raised $100 million in Series B funding. Tiger Global Management led the round and was joined by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, A*, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, Uncork Capital, and Equal Ventures.
- H2O.ai, a Mountain View, Calif.-based A.I. cloud company, raised $100 million in Series E funding valuing it at $1.7 billion. Commonwealth Bank of Australia led the round and was joined by investors including Pivot Investment Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Crane Venture Partners.
- Level Home, a smart lock maker, raised over $100 million in Series C funding. Cox Communications led the round and was joined by investors including Walmart. It also acquired Dwelo.
- ARRIS, a Berkeley, Calif.-based manufacturing tech company, raised $88.5 million in Series C funding. XN led the round and was joined by investors including Modern Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Taiwania Capital, Bosch, Valo Ventures, and Alumni Ventures Group.
- Curated, a San Francisco-based e-commerce company using personalized shopping, raised $75 million in Series C funding. CapitalG led the round and was joined by investors including Forerunner Ventures and Greylock.
- Reprise, a Boston-based enterprise company, raised $62 million in Series B funding. ICONIQ Growth led the round and was joined by investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Accomplice VC, and Glasswing Ventures.
- VergeSense, a San Francisco-based A.I. workplace analytics company, raised $60 million in Series C funding. Scale Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including DivcoWest, Tola Capital, JLL Spark, MetaProp, Allegion Ventures, and Bolt.
- Landing AI, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based maker of tools for deploying A.I. systems in manufacturing, raised $57 million in Series A funding. McRock Capital led the round.
- Block Renovation, a New York City-based renovation startup, raised $50 million in Series C funding. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round.
- Moov, a Tempe, Ariz.-based marketplace for used manufacturing equipment, raised $41 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round and was joined by investors including Gavin Baker of Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners and Avenir Growth Fund.
- Fyllo, a Chicago-based maker of software for highly regulated industries, raised $40 million in Series C funding. Eminence Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Longview Capital Advisors and ArrowMark Partners.
- Daily, a San Francisco-based developer platform, raised $40 million in Series B funding. Renegade Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Heritage Group, Cendana Capital, Sean Rose, Lachy Groom, Tiger Global, Freestyle Ventures, Root VC, Slack Fund, Moxxie, Haystack Ventures, and Todd & Rahul’s Angel Fund.
- Sandbox VR, a San Francisco-based virtual reality company, raised $37 million in Series B funding. A16z led the round and was joined by investors including Alibaba and Craft.
- Threekit, a Chicago-based augmented reality company focused on e-commerce, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Leaders Fund led the round and was joined by investors including Salesforce and Shasta Ventures.
- Swimm, an Israel-based documentation collaboration company, raised $27.6 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Dawn Capital, Pitango First, and TAU Ventures.
- The Naked Market, a San Francisco-based food and beverage business, raised $27.5 million in Series A funding. Integrated Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Great Oaks Venture Capital, Pacific Tiger Group, Sope Creek Capital, and Clearco.
- TRED, a Seattle-based peer-to-peer car marketplace, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Investors include Vivek Raj at Geneses Investments, Nowlake Technologies, as well as Paul Kerwin and Mike Kraus at CUNA MG.
- Knak, a Canadian company focused on marketing tech, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round.
- Darrow, an Israel-based legaltech company, raised $24 million. F2 Venture Capital, Entrée Capital, NFX, and Y-Combinator led the round.
- Datafold, a San Francisco-based data reliability platform that automates the most tedious parts of data engineering workflows, today announced its successful $20 million Series A funding round. Backed by NEA and Amplify Partners, Datafold seeks to expand its proactive approach to data reliability to help companies unlock more growth using high-quality data.
- You.com, a search engine startup led by ex-Salesforce chief scientist Richard Socher, raised $20 million in seed funding. Time Ventures led, and was joined by Breyer Capital, Sound Ventures and Day One Ventures. http://axios.link/9Kq8
- Symbl.ai, a Seattle-based developer of conversational intelligence APIs, raised $17 million in Series A funding. Great Point Ventures led, and was joined by Gutbrain Ventures, PBJ Capital, Crosscut Ventures and Flying Fish Ventures. http://axios.link/nLEo
- Talent Hack, a New York City-based company focused on fitness and wellness creators, raised $17 million in Series A funding. Emergence Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Global Founders Capital.
- Assignar, a Denver-based construction operations company, raised $16.5 million via secondaries. Tiger Global led the round and was joined by investors including SecondQuarter Ventures.
- Mantium, a Columbus, Oh.-based language modeling startup, raised $12.8 million in seed funding. Drive Capital and Top Harvest led the round.
- Point One Navigation, a San Francisco-based precision location tech company, raised $10 million in Series A funding. UP.Partners led the round and were joined by investors including BOLT, IA Ventures, and Ludlow Ventures.
- Cradlewise, a Silicon Valley-based maker of smart cribs for babies, raised $7 million in seed funding. Footwork led the round and was joined by investors including CRV, SOSV, and Better Capital.
- Supergrain, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based data intelligence company, raised $6.8 million in seed funding led by Benchmark and was joined by investors including Base Case Capital and Operator Collective.
- Cascade.io, a San Francisco transformation and automation tool, today announced the launch of its product along with a $5.3m Seed round led by First Round Capital. Redpoint Ventures, Susa Ventures.
- Uiflow, a San Francisco-based platform for development teams, raised $5.2 million in seed funding. Addition led the round and was joined by investors including YC Continuity.
- Momentum, a Slack-based sales task automation startup, raised $5 million in seed funding. Basis Set Ventures led, and was joined by Inovia Capital, Leadout Capital and South Park Commons. http://axios.link/knyW
- CloudQuery, a Beaverton, Ore.-based cloud infrastructure visibility tool, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Boldstart Ventures led, and was joined by Work-Bench, Mango Capital and Haystack. http://axios.link/K4WX
- Wingback, a San Francisco-based software infrastructure company, raised $1.9 million. 42cap led the round and was joined by investors including Y Combinator.
- Constructor, a New York City-based maker of workflow management software, raised $1 million in pre-seed funding. Investors include Flybridge, Nextview, and Soma Capital.
. . .
Sustainability:
- Novata, a New York City-based Environmental, social, and corporate governance solution, raised $21 million in Series A funding. Investors included Ford Foundation, S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), Hamilton Lane, and Omidyar Network.
- Evergrow, a San Francisco-based company focused on carbon offsetting projects, raised $7 million in seed funding. XYZ Venture Capital and Congruent Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including First Round Capital, Garuda Ventures, MCJ Collective, and Skyview Ventures.
- Abatable, a London-based carbon offsetting start-up, raised $3 million. Investors included Y-Combinator, Blue Bear Capital, Global Founders Capital, Keiki Capital, and Alumni Ventures.
Acquisitions & PE:
- LetsGetChecked, a New York-based at-home medical testing startup, agreed to buy Veritas Genetics, a whole-genome sequencing company founded by George Church. LetsGetChecked has raised around $265 million, while Veritas raised $48 million (plus got a PPP loan) from backers like Lilly Asia Ventures, PJC and Trustbridge Partners. http://axios.link/UnUJ
- Ro, a DTC men's health company valued by VCs at $5 billion, is in talks to buy Dadi, an at-home sperm storage startup, per TechCrunch. Dadi could fetch around $100 million, and raised $10 million from firstminute Capital, Third Kind VC and The Chernin Group. http://axios.link/2mwh
- Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE: NUS) agreed to buy Mavely, a Chicago-based social commerce startup seeded by PivotNorth, Trail Mix Ventures and Starting Line. www.joinmavely.com
- Doordash (NYSE: DASH) acquired Wolt, a Finnish delivery startup, from investors including EQT for €7 billion in stock.
- DoubleVerify (NYSE: DV) agreed to acquire OpenSlate, a New York City-based brand targeting company, in a deal valuing it at $150 million.
- Unity (NYSE: U) agreed to buy Weta Digital, the New Zealand-based visual effects company co-founded by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson, for over $1.6 billion. Weta, whose work was most recently seen in "Shang-Chi," was seeded by Sean Parker. http://axios.link/twIv
- Flutterwave, a VC-backed digital payments platform for African businesses, acquired Disha, a Nigerian monetization platform for digital creators. http://axios.link/U8P9
- The Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) agreed to buy Dot's Preztels, a Velva, N.D.-based pretzel maker, from Peak Rock. www.dotspretzels.com
- Vimeo agreed to acquire Wirewax, a leader in interactive and shoppable video, and Wibbitz, a leading enterprise video creation suite.
. . .
IPOs:
- Rivian, an Irvine, Calif.-based electric truck-maker, raised $11.9 billion in the largest IPO since Alibaba in 2014 (topping Uber). It priced at $78 per share, well above both its original and upwardly-revised ranges, for a fully diluted valuation north of $77 billion. Rivian will list on the Nasdaq (RIVN) and had raised around $11 billion from firms like Amazon, T. Rowe Price, Oryx Global, Ford Motor Co. and Manheim Investments. The 12-year-old company last month began delivering its first vehicles, with plans to have 1,000 on the road by year-end, and reports tens of thousands of pre-orders that it hopes to fill by the end of 2023. For context, Tesla went public seven years after being founded, raising $276 million at a $1.6 billion valuation. At the time, it had raised less than $1 billion in private funding and had already begun delivering its first Roadsters.
. . .
SPACs:
- FiscalNote, a Washington, D.C.-based legal data and analytics company, agreed to go public at an implied $1.3 billion valuation via Duddell Street Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: DSAC), a SPAC formed by Maso Capital. FiscalNote raised over $400 million (most recently this past April at a $1.4 Billion valuation), from backers like Runway Growth Capital, Visionnaire Ventures, Arrowroot Capital, Mark Cuban, NEA, Green Visor Capital, Jerry Yang and Maso Capital. http://axios.link/9jtZ
- Springbig, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based cannabis loyalty and marketing automation platform, agreed to go public at an implied $500 million valuation via Tuatara Capital Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: TCAC). Backers include TVC Capital and Altitude Investment Management. http://axios.link/1iwH
- GETT, a London-based B2B on-demand ride company, agreed to go public at an implied $1 billion enterprise value via Rosecliff Acquisition Corp I (Nasdaq: RCLF). It has raised over $700 million from firms like Pelham Capital Management, VW, Access Technology Ventures, Kreos Capital, MCI Capital, Falcon Capital and Day One Ventures. http://axios.link/c1og
Funds:
- Solana Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and FTX launched a $100 million fund initially focused on blockchain and gaming.
- StepStone Group raised more than $690 million for its third growth equity vehicle that will focus on funds, secondaries and co-investments. www.stepstonegroup.com
Final Numbers
Data: Parrot Analytics; Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios
Pocketwatch, a popular kid's entertainment company whose VC backers include Viacom, recently hired Lazard to explore a possible sale.
This comes shortly after "CoComelon" creator Moonbug agreed to be bought for around $3 billion by a Blackstone-backed platform led by ex-Disney execs Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer. Plus Netflix buying Roald Dahl Story Co. and reports that the "Alvin & the Chipmunks" franchise is for sale.
Axios' Sara Fischer writes: "The streaming arms-race has put a premium on digital content studios, particularly those that cater to kids programming." Go deeper.
Source: Refinitiv Deals Intelligence. Data through Nov. 11, 2021.
The next big consumer products deal may involve Progresso soup and Hamburger Helper, as Bloomberg reports that General Mills has hired Goldman Sachs to help divest a brand portfolio that could fetch around $3 billion.