Sourcery (6/1-6/5)
Benchling, Ezra, Bright.md, Hyperscience, loom, Inky, Beacon, Lili, Ethena, Blackcart
Last Week (6/1-6/5):
Relevant deals include the 50+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into three categories, Care, Future of Work and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds. Highlighted deals include: Benchling, Ezra, Bright.md, Hyperscience, loom, Inky, Beacon, Lili, Ethena, Blackcart.
Final numbers on Horizon IRRs and Seasonally Adjusted U.S. NonFarm Payrolls at the bottom.
Deals
Sources: TS, Pro Rata, FinSMEs, Pitchbook, StrictlyVC
Care:
- Benchling, a life sciences R&D cloud platform, raised $50 million in Series D funding. Alkeon led, and was joined by Spark Capital, Lux Capital, Iconiq Capital, and return backers Thrive Capital and Benchmark. http://axios.link/K3aS
- PlushCare, a San Francisco-based virtual primary care platform, raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Transformation Capital. GGV Capital, WTI, and others participated.
- Ezra, a New York-based provider of early cancer screenings using full-body MRI and AI, raised $18 million in Series A funding. FirstMark led the round and was joined by investors including Jeff Raider and Dave Gilboa of Harry’s and Warby Parker, Vlad Tenev of Robinhood, Fred Destin of Stride VC, and Andrei Dunca of LiveRail.
- Meditrina, Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based women’s healthcare company, raised $10 million in funding. Deerfield Management Company led the round.
- Orbita, a five-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based provider of conversational AI-powered voice and chatbots for healthcare, has raised $9 million in Series A funding. Philips Health Technology Ventures and HealthX Ventures co-led the round, joined by Cultivation Capital and Newark Venture Partners. MobilHealth News has more here.
- Bright.md, a Portland, Ore.-based provider of telehealth automation solutions, raised $8.8 million in new Series B funding from Philips Health Technology Ventures, UnityPoint Health Ventures, and Concord Health Partners. http://axios.link/3vtZ
- Overjet, an Allston, Mass.-based startup using AI to help dentists and insurance companies understand dental scans, raised $7.9 million in seed funding from investors including the Harvard Innovation Lab. Read more.
- NEOU, a New York-based live streaming and on-demand platform for workouts, raised $5 million in capital from investors including Ares Management CEO Mike Arougheti.Read more.
- Routinify, a Denver-based remote healthcare company, raised $1.5 million in funding. Resolute Capital Partners led the round.
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Future of Work:
- Varo Money, the San Francisco-based digital bank, raised $241 million in Series D funding. Gallatin Point Capital and The Rise Fund led the round and were joined by investors including U2 lead singer Bono, and Jeff Skoll, HarbourVest Partners and Progressive Insurance.
- Hyperscience, a New York-based data automation company, raised $60 million in Series C funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Tiger Global Management, Stripes, FirstMark Capital, Battery Ventures, Felicis Ventures, 3KVC, Gaingels, and Penna & Company. Read more.
- Vention, a Montreal-based manufacturing automation technology company, raised C$38 million ($28 million) in Series B funding. Georgian Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Bain Capital Ventures and White Star Capital.
- Loom, a video-based enterprise collaboration platform, raised over $23 million in third-round funding, per an SEC filing. Existing backers include Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. www.loom.com
- Inky, a College Park, Maryland-based anti-phising startup, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners led the round. Read more.
- Tovala, a Chicago-based meal service and countertop smart oven that scans, steams, broils and bakes chef-crafted meals, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Finistere Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Comcast Ventures, OurCrowd and Rich Products Ventures
- Deel, a San Francisco-based payroll platform for remote workers, raised $18.6 million from backers like Andreessen Horowitz, per an SEC filing. www.letsdeel.com
- Cloud9 Technologies, a New York-based cloud-based communications company, raised $17.5 million in Series B funding. UBS led the round and was joined by investors including J.P. Morgan and Barclays.
- Cutover, a London-based cloud-enabled work orchestration platform, raised $17 million in Series A funding from Barclays and Index Ventures.
- Bryter, a Berlin-based no-code development platform, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Accel and Dawn Capital co-led, and were joined by Notion Capital and Chalfen Ventures. http://axios.link/RgDV
- RiskIQ, a San Francisco, Calif.-based application security company, raised $15 million in Series D funding. National Grid Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Summit Partners, Battery Ventures, Georgian Partners, and MassMutual Ventures. Read more.
- Beacon, a two-year-old, London-based freight forwarding and supply chain finance company, has raised $15 million in Series A funding from investors including Amazon's Jeff Bezos and 8VC. Freight forwarding is a trillion dollar industry, and the e-commerce giant has been aggressively expanding its logistics operations as it tries to curb shipping costs. CNBC has more on the deal here.
- 1touch.io, a Stamford, Conn.-based provider of data discovery, privacy, and security solutions, raised $14 million in Series A funding. Investors National Grid Partners, Jerusalem Venture Partners,Connecticut Innovations, Mindset Ventures, and Ocean Azul Partners.
- Lili, a two-year-old, New York-based startup that says it's building banking products to meet the needs of freelance workers, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Group 11 led the round, joined by Foundation Capital, AltaIR Capital, Primary Venture Partners and Torch Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
- Belvo, a 12-month-old, Barcelona, Spain-based API fintech startup, has raised $10 million in funding co-led by Founders Fund and Kaszek of Argentina. TechCrunch has more here.
- Bonusly, a Boulder, Colo.-based employee recognition and rewards platform, raised $9 million in Series A funding from Access Venture Partners. Next Frontier Capital, Operator Partners, and seed backer FirstMark Capital. http://axios.link/e4zd
- Betterview, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a software platform for P&C insurance carriers, raised $7.5m in funding (read here)
- React Mobile, a Seattle-based employee safety platform, raised $6 million in funding from Brady Corp. (NYSE:BRC).
- Anvil, a two-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based business process automation platform, has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Gradient Ventures led the round, with participation from Citi Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Financial Venture Studio and 122 West. Crunchbase has more here.
- Oloid, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company building contactless biometrics platform for “deskless workers,” raised $5 million in seed funding. Emergent Ventures led and was joined by investors including Unusual Ventures.
- TruthSet, a San Francisco-based provider of consumer data quality analytics, raised $4.75 million in seed funding from SuperSet, WTI, and Ulu Ventures. www.truthset.io
- Fortmatic has rebranded to Magic and is coming out of stealth with $4M in Seed funding secured last year to end the era of passwords and take down the identity silos owned and exploited by tech oligarchs. Seed round was led by Placeholder. Joining them are Lightspeed Ventures, SV Angel, Social Capital, Cherubic Ventures, Volt Capital, Refactor Capital, Unusual Ventures, Naval Ravikant, Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), and Roham Gharegozlou (Dapper Labs).
- Searchable.ai, a San Francisco-based conversational search engine, raised $4 million in seed funding. Susquehanna International Group and Omicron Media led the round and was joined by investors including Defy Partners and NextView Ventures.
- Toro, a San Francisco, CA-based data quality monitoring solution provider, raised $4m in seed funding (read here)
- Vetty, a New York-based provider of employee verification software, raised $4 million in seed funding led by 3Lines VC. http://axios.link/NUAW
- Ahana, a San Mateo-based analytics company, raised $2.25 million in funding led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) along with participation from Leslie Ventures and other angel investors.
- Ethena, an Albany, N.Y.-based developer of anti-harassment software, raised $2 million in seed funding. GSV led, and was joined by Homebrew and Village Global. http://axios.link/3BDb
- BlackCart, a three-year-old, Toronto-based fashion and e-commerce startup, is coming out of beta with $2 million in seed funding led by Struck Capital, with participation from 500 Startups, Revel Partners, and Dean Bakes, a principal at M3 Ventures. BetaKit has more here.
- TaxProper, a year-old, Chicago-based company, has raised $2 million from investors to monitor customers' property tax assessments and automatically appeal when they are overvalued. Khosla Ventures led the round, joined by Global Founders Capital, Clocktower Ventures, and a handful of angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
- Coastal Cloud, a Palm Coast, Fla.-based Salesforce consulting partner, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Sverica Capital Management and Salesforce Ventures.
- Caspian, a U.K.-based financial crime investigation startup, raised an undisclosed amount from Nasdaq Ventures.
. . .
Sustainability:
- Climeworks, which captures CO2 from the air and stores it underground or sells it to corporations like Coca-Cola, raised $76M from undisclosed investors. Read more on Bloomberg.
- LanzaTech, a Chicago-based biotech company and carbon recycler, raised $50 million in funding from Suncor Energy, All Nippon Airways, Mitsui & Co., and the US Department of Energy (grant).- Tembici, a Latin American e-bikes rental service, raised $47M Series B funding co-led by . Valor Capital Group and Redpoint eventures with International Finance Corporation and Joá Investimentos participating. Read more on TechCrunch.
- Superpedestrian, makers of durable and smart electric scooters, raised $15M from Edison Partners with existing investors Spark Capital and General Catalyst participating. Read more on Verge.
- Propagate Ventures, which helps farmers diversify crops through agroforestry (using trees in farming), raised $1.5M Seed led by Neglected Climate Opportunities, an arm of Grantham Environmental Trust. Read more on AgFunder.
Exits:
- Avista Capital Partners is sponsoring a €305 million buyout of Swiss direct-to-consumer health products company Vision Healthcare, alongside Vision founder and CEO Yvan Vindevogel. http://axios.link/vbow
- 24 Hour Fitness, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based gym chain backed by AEA Investors, is preparing for a bankruptcy filing, per Bloomberg. http://axios.link/nYW8
IPOS:
- Vroom, a New York-based online used car marketplace, plans to raise up to $318.8 million in an IPO of 18.8 million shares priced between $15 to $17 apiece. It posted revenue of $1.2 billion and losses of $275.7 million in 2019. L Catterton, General Catalyst, and T. Rowe Price back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “VRM.” Read more.
- Unity, a San Francisco-based maker of graphics software for games, is preparing for an IPO that could come later this year. Read more.
- ZoomInfo Technologies, a Vancouver, Wash.-based platform for sales and marketing, raised $923 million in an IPO of 44.5 million shares priced at $21 apiece. It posted revenue of $293 million in 2019 and loss of $78 million. TA Associates and Carlyle back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “ZI.” Read more.
Acquisitions:
- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is to acquire ThousandEyes, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an Internet and Cloud intelligence platform that delivers visibility and insights into the digital delivery of applications and services over the Internet (read here)
- Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) acquired QuadPay, a New York-based payment installment platform. Height Capital Management invested $130 million in convertible notes and warrants.
- VMWare (NYSE: VMW) agreed to buy Lastline, a Redwood City, Calif.-based cybersecurity and malware protection platform, per TechCrunch. Lastline had raised over $50 million from firms like Thomvest Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, e.ventures, Barracuda Networks, NTT Finance, and Dell Technologies Capital. http://axios.link/KLlZ
- Chegg, a publicly traded direct-to-student learning platform, has acquired Mathway, an 18-year-old math problem-solving application with subscribers in roughly 100 countries. Chegg paid $100 million for the app, with additional payments of up to $15 million over the next three years contingent on performance and other factors. ZDNet has more here.
- Maven acquired Bright Parenting, a New York-based parenting app. Maven is backed by Icon Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Oak HC/FT.
- Hippo, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based home insurance company, is to acquire Spinnaker Insurance Company, a national property and casualty insurer licensed in 50 states (read here)
- Bynder acquiredWe Adapt, which helps brands with video content creation. CNBB Venture Partners and Tablomonto backed We Adapt.
Funds
- Silicon Valley based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) launched The Talent x Opportunity Fund (TxO) and program (read here)
- Atlas Venture, a life sciences-focused VC firm, raised $400 million for its twelfth fund. It also promoted Michael Gladstone to partner. www.atlasventure.com- LachyGroom, former head of Stripe's issuing business, is raising upwards of $100 million for his second VC fund, per an SEC filing.
- Ofek Ventures raised $110.4 million for its first fund. Read more.
- InvestEco Capitalclosed InvestEco Sustainable Food Fund III with $100 million in capital commitments.
- MassMutual Ventures raised $100 million for its third fund.
- Mercato Partners raised $90 million for its inaugural food and beverage fund, Savory
Final Numbers
Source: PitchBook. Data as of September 30, 2019
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Final Numbers
Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Axios Visuals
Go deeper: Unemployment rate falls in May