Sourcery (9/14-9/18)
Affirm, Chime, Olive, Ready, Alloy, Bunch, Roam Research, IRL, Toucan, Courier, Hylosate, Air. Snowflake, Unity, SumoLogic, AmWell, Oscar. Mantis, Goat Capital.
Last Week (9/14-9/18):
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 Affirm, Chime, Olive, Ready, Alloy, Bunch, Roam Research, IRL, Toucan, Courier, Hylosate, Air. Highlighted IPOs include Snowflake, Unity, SumoLogic, AmWell, Oscar. Fun new funds include Mantis (Chainsmokers) and Goat Capital (founder of Twitch).
Final numbers on Corporate Investment $ and US IPO Performace at the bottom.
Deals
Sources: TS, Pro Rata, FinSMEs, Pitchbook, StrictlyVC
Fintech:
- Affirm, a San Francisco-based credit card alternative founded by Max Levchin, raised $500 million in Series G funding. GIC and Durable Capital Partners co-led, and were joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Wellington Management, Baillie Gifford, Spark Capital, Founders Fund, and Fidelity. http://axios.link/SGMU
- Chime, a San Francisco-based U.S. challenger bank, raised an undisclosed amount of new funding at a $14.5 billion valuation, per CNBC. It previously was valued at $6 billion in a round from just six months ago, led by DST Global. Other backers include Aspect Ventures and Menlo Ventures. http://axios.link/X4hc
- Alloy, a New York-based identity operating system for the financial services industry, raised $40 million in Series B funding. Canapi Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Avid Ventures and Felicis Ventures, as well as existing investors Bessemer Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, and Eniac Ventures.
- Veem, a San Francisco-based payments network, raised $31 million. Truist Ventures led the round.
- First AML, a New Zealand-based anti-money laundering startup, raised $5.4 million in Series A funding. Bedrock Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Pushpay founder Chris Heaslip and Icehouse Ventures.
- Incentify, a Los Angeles-based provider of enterprise tax credits and incentives software, raised $4.25 million led by Ryan LLC. www.getincentify.com
- Finch, a New York-based fintech service for millennials, raised $1.8 million in seed funding. Mendoza Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Barclays, Techstars Investors, and Draper Frontier.
. . .
Care:
- Zwift, a Long Beach, Calif.-based global online fitness platform for cyclists and runners, raised $450 million. KKR led the round and was joined by investors including Permira, Specialized Bicycle Components’ venture capital fund, Zone 5 Ventures and the Amazon Alexa Fund.
- Tonal, a San Francisco-based connected at-home strength and personal training platform, raised $110 million. Sapphire Sport, Shasta Ventures, Mayfield, Evolution Media, and THVC were joined by L Catterton, Delta-v Capital, Amazon Alexa Fund, and Mousse Partners. Plus Steph Curry, Paul George, and Michelle Wie. http://axios.link/2b9A
- Olive, a Columbus, Oh.-based automation platform for hospitals, raised $106 million in financing. General Catalyst and Drive Capital led the round and were joined by Ascension Ventures, Oak HC/FT and SVB Capital.
- MDLIVE Inc., a Miramar, Florida-based telehealth company offering virtual healthcare services in all 50 states, closed a $75m financing (read here)
- Ready, a New Orleans-based on-demand healthcare service, raised $54 million in funding. The company’s investors include GV, Deerfield Management Company, City Light Capital, Town Hall Ventures, and Frist Cressey Ventures.
- Outschool, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace of live online classes for kids, raised $45 million in Series B funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other investors in the round included Reach Capital, Union Square Ventures, SV Angel, FundersClub, Y Combinator and others. The company has now raised $55 million altogether. More here.
- Aidoc, a New York-based AI solution for radiologists, raised $20 million in extended Series B funding. Investors include Square Peg Capital.
- Sun Genomics, a San Diego-based DTC provider of custom probiotics, raised $9.25 million in Series A funding. Pangaea Ventures led, and was joined by K3 Ventures, Emerging Technologies Partners, Danone Manifesto Ventures, SOSV, Human Longevity, and Nascita Ventures. http://axios.link/Mmvc
- OnCall Health, a Toronto-based provider of virtual care software to healthcare providers, raised $6 million in Series A funding. Base10 Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Ripple Ventures, Panache Ventures, and Stout Street Capital.
- TCare, a St. Louis-based support platform for family caregivers, raised $3 million. SixThirty Ventures led, and was joined by Aflac Ventures, BlueCross BlueShield MN, Blu Ventures, Village Capital, Connetic Ventures, and Gener8tor fund. http://axios.link/Lbeq
- Yapi, a Los Angeles-based provider of patient communications software for dental practices, raised an undisclosed amount of growth equity funding from M33 Growth. www.yapiapp.com
- Base, a New York-based at-home lab testing and digital tracking app, raised $1 million in pre-seed funding. Investors included Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Lakehouse, AmplifyHer Ventures, and K50.
. . .
Future of Work:
- Grab, a Southeast Asian ride-hailing company, is in talks to sell $3 billion in stock to the Alibaba Group. Alibaba may also spend a portion of that to acquire Grab shares owned by Uber Technologies. Read more.
- Airtable, a San Francisco-based coding platform for non-techies, raised $185 million in Series D funding at a $2.5 billion valuation. Thrive Capital led, and was joined by D1 Capital and return backers Benchmark, Coatue Management, Caffeinated Capital, and CRV. www.airtable.com
- Boosted Commerce, a Los Angeles-based company acquiring businesses that list goods on Amazon, raised $87 million and acquired six Amazon fulfillment centers. Investors include Torch Capital and CrossCut Ventures.
- Devo Technology, a Cambridge, Mass.-based security analytics company, raised $60 million in Series D funding. Georgian led the round and was joined by investors including Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Partners.
- Observe.AI, a San Francisco-based company focused on contact center A.I., raised $54 million in Series B funding. Menlo Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Next47 Ventures, and NGP Capital.
- Replicant, a San Francisco-based autonomous customer contact center founded out of Atomic, raised $37 million in Series A funding. Norwest led the round and was joined by investors including State Farm Ventures, Bloomberg Bets, and Costanoa.
- Humatics, a Waltham, Mass.-based maker of micro-location technology, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Blackhorn Ventures led the funding round and was joined by investors including Tenfore Holdings, Fontinalis Partners, Airbus Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, and Presidio Ventures.
- Data.World, an Austin-based cloud catalog startup, raised $26 million in funding. Tech Pioneers Fund led the round and was joined by investors including Breyer Capital, Prologis Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, Accel cofounder Arthur Patterson, Shasta Ventures, OurCrowd, and Workday Ventures. Read more.
- GoExpedi, a Houston-based supply chain and analytics company for industrials and energy companies, raised $25 million in Series C funding. Top Tier Capital Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Crosslink Capital, San Jose Pension Fund, CSL Ventures, Bowery Capital, and Hack VC.
- Bunch, a New York-based party app for multiplayer games, raised $20 million in Series A funding. General Catalyst led the round.
- JupiterOne, a Morrisville, N.C.-based cybersecurity company, raised $19 million in Series A funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Rain Capital and LifeOmic.
- IRL, a San Francisco-based maker of a social calendar, raised $16 million in Series B funding. Investors included Goodwater Capital, Founders Fund, Floodgate, and Raine.
- Monte Carlo, a San Francisco-based company focused on reducing downtime in data, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round and was joined by investors including GGV Capital.
- Courier, a San Francisco-based API platform for adding multichannel user notifications to applications, raised $10.1 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Matrix Partners, Twilio, and Slack Fund. Read more.
- BrandTotal, a New York-based brand marketing analytics company, raised $12 million in Series B funding. INcapital Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Maor Investments, Glilot Capital Partners, Flint Capital, KDC Media Fund, and FJ Labs.
- Air, a Brooklyn, New York-based cloud collaboration tool for visual work, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round and was joined by investors including Lerer Hippeau, WndrCo, Slack Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, and Advancit Capital.
- eFileCabinet, a Lehi, Ut.-based document management company, raised $11.5 million in Series C funding. Allegis Capital and Signal Peak Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including Camden Partners, Allegis Nippon Life and Oquirrh Ventures.
- Hysolate, a Tel Aviv and New York-based cybersecurity startup, raised $10 million in funding. Planven led the round and was joined by investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Innovation Endeavor and Team8.
- Forage, a San Francisco-based startup with open-access virtual internships, raised $9.3 million in funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round.
- GoTab, an Arlington, Va.-based contactless ordering and payment platform for hospitality companies, raised $6 million. Investors included Anthony Bruce (former CEO at APT) and Greg Cohen (former president of iPayment and Paya).
- Roam Research, an Oakland, Calif.-based maker of a note-taking tool, raised $9 million in funding valuing it at over $200 million, per The Information. Investors Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, True Ventures, and Lux Capital. Read more.
- Narrator, three-year-old, New York-based customer data analytics platform, has raised $6.2 million in funding led by Initialized Capital, which was joined by Flybridge Capital Partners, Y Combinator, and individual investors, including Gmail creator Paul Buchheit. TechCrunch has more here.
- Toucan, a Santa Monica-based maker of a Chrome browser extension for learning new languages, raised $3 million in seed funding. GSV Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Amplifyher Ventures, Wonder Ventures, Golden Ventures, Halogen Ventures, and Vitalize Ventures. Read more.
- BrightHire, a New York-based platform for hiring, raised $3 million in funding. Flybridge Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Ground Up Ventures, RTP Ventures, J Ventures, Silas Capital, and Haystack.
- Demand Sage, a Boston-based sales and marketing data accessibility startup, raised $3 million in seed funding co-led by Eniac Ventures and Underscore VC. http://axios.link/cgIP
- AaDya Security, a Detroit-based cybersecurity startup, raised $2.7 million in seed funding. Investors include Firebrand Ventures, 645 Ventures, and Next Coast Ventures.
- Chartable, a New York-based analytics startup for podcast publishers, raised $2.3 million in seed funding. Initialized Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Naval Ravikant, Greycroft Partners, The Fund, and Weekend Fund. Read more.
- Carketa, a Pleasant Grove, Utah-based developer of the Carketa "Recon" SaaS app and Carketa "Condition Report," closed a $1.375 M seed financing round (read here)
- Zuper, a Seattle-based provider of a workforce and customer management platform, raised $1.1 million in seed funding. Prime Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Gunderson Dettemer and Gemba Capital.
. . .
Sustainability:
- GHGSat , a Montreal, Canada-based maker of greenhouse gas monitoring technology, raised $30 million in its first tranche of Series B funding. Government of Québec’s Investissement Québec led the round and was joined by investors including OGCI Climate Investments, Business Development Bank of Canada, Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs du Québec, Space Angels, and Schlumberger.
- Hungry Harvest, a Baltimore, Md.-based rescued produce delivery service, raised $13.7 million in Series A funding. Creadev led the round and was joined by investors including Danone Manifesto Ventures, Quadia and Maywic Select Investments.
- The Pro’s Closet, a Louisville, Colo.-based online used bike retailer, raised $12 million. Foundry Group and Edison Partners co-led, and were joined by Ridgeline Ventures. http://axios.link/2pKB
- Dendra Systems, a New York-based ecosystem restoration company, raised $10 million in funding. Investors include At One Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Future Positive Capital, and Lowercarbon Capital.
- Pachama, a forest carbon sequestration monitoring startup, raised $5 million. Breakthrough Energy Ventures led, and was joined by Amazon Climate Pledge Fund. http://axios.link/eQqa
- ShoppingGives, a Chicago-based platform that offers social impact and donation processing for retailers, raised $5.5 million in Seed funding. Caffeinated Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Tuesday Capital, SciFi VC, Background Capital, Red Dog Capital, 20VC, Global Founders Capital, Big Future Fund, Rogue Capital, Night Capital, Manresa Ventures, and Sugar Capital.
Acquisitions:
- Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen agreed to acquire the New York Mets baseball team from Sterling Equities. Reports say the deal values the club at about $2.5 billion. Read more.
- CB Insights acquired Blockdata, a Netherlands-based company that tracks the global blockchain economy. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Illumina (Nasdaq:ILMN) is in talks to acquire Grail, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based cancer detection startup, in a deal that could value the latter at $6 billion. Its investors include Hillhouse Capital, Bill Gates, and Bezos Expeditions.
- MacAndrews & Forbes is weighing a sale of RetailMeNot, an Austin-based coupons website, that could value the unit at $500 million to $600 million, per Bloomberg. Read more.
- Kahoot! acquired Actimo, a Copenhagen-based maker of an employee engagement platform, for $33 million. Actimo investors included Lehrmann Ventures.
- MetLife (NYSE: MET) agreed to buy Versant Health, an eyecare services company whose brands include Davis Vision and Superior Vision, from Centerbridge Partners and FFL Partners for $1.675 billion in cash. www.versanthealth.com
-Uber (NYSE: UBER) is in talks to sell part of its $6.3 billion stake in Chinese ride-hail company Didi Chuxing, per Bloomberg. http://axios.link/5Br8
. . .
IPOs:
- Snowflake, the data storage and analytics provider, kicked off a spate of tech IPOs today in grand fashion today. Its stock opened at more than double its listing price -- $245 up from $120 -- and it shot as high as $319 before closing the day $254 per share. It was the largest IPO ever for a software company. The New York Times has more here.
- Oscar, the health insurance company co-founded in 2012 by Joshua Kushner and Mario Schlosser, has hired banks for a 2021 IPO, Axios has learned from multiple sources. The New York-based company has raised around $1.5 billion in venture capital, including from Kushner's Thrive Capital, Alphabet and Founders Fund. http://axios.link/2WTb
- Amwell, a Boston-based telehealth company, raised $742 million in its IPO. The company priced 41.2 million shares at $18, versus plans to offer 35m at $14-$16, for a fully diluted market value of $4.5 billion. It will list on the NYSE (AMWL) with Morgan Stanley as lead underwriter, and reports a $113 million net loss on $122 million in revenue for the first half of 2020. Shareholders include Allianz and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. http://axios.link/1PbY
- SumoLogic, a Redwood City, Calif.-based machine data analytics platform, raised $326 million in its IPO. The company priced 14.8 million shares at $22 (above range), for an initial market cap of over $2 billion, and will trade on the Nasdaq (SUMO) with Morgan Stanley as lead underwriter. It reports a $92 million net loss on $155 million in revenue for 2019, and raised around $345 million in VC funding from firms like Greylock (22.6% pre-IPO stake), Sapphire Ventures (7.1%), Accel (6.8%), IVP (5.6%), DFJ Growth (5.1%), Battery Ventures, Tiger Global, Sutter Hill Ventures, Workday Ventures, and Franklin Templeton. http://axios.link/W3SO
- GoodRx Holdings, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based app for discounting medicines, plans to raise $900 million in an offering of 34.6 million shares priced between $24 to $28. It posted revenue of $388.2 million and income of $42.7 million in 2019. Silver Lake, Francisco Partners, and Spectrum back the firm. Read more.
- UnitySoftware, a San Francisco-based 3D game development platform, raised $1.3 billion in its IPO. The company priced 25 million shares at $52 (above upwardly revised range), using a new online bidding system developed by Goldman Sachs. It had raised $700 million in VC funding from firms like Sequoia Capital (24.1% pre-IPO stake), Silver Lake (18.2%), and D1 Capital (5.3%).
- Oatly AB, the Swedish vegan food and drink maker, is considering an IPO that could value it at as much as $5 billion, per Bloomberg. Read more.
- Flipkart , the Indian e-commerce company, is preparing for an IPO abroad in 2021, per Reuters. The IPO could value it at over $50 billion. Read more.
Funds:
- Conductive Ventures, a California-based venture firm focused on enterprise software and hardware, closed its second fund with $150 million.
- Greenfield Partners, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based investment firm, raised $150 million for its fund.
- Greylock raised $1 billion for its 16th fund.
- Hetz Ventures raised $77 million for its second flagship fund.
- Mantis, an early stage VC firm founded by music group The Chainsmokers, raised $35 million for its debut fund. http://axios.link/y3Xc
- Atlassian (Nasdaq: TEAM) launched a $50 million VC fund to back companies building products in the Atlassian ecosystem. http://axios.link/yI5c
-Lightspeed Venture Partners is launching a Singapore-based South Asia unit, co-led by existing partners Akshay Bhushan and Bejul Somaia. www.lsvp.com
- Goat Capital launched as a seed-stage investor and incubator, co-led by Justin Kan (co-founder of Twitch) and Robin Chan (founder of XPD Media, sold to Zynga). http://axios.link/bFWx
- Wix.com (Nasdaq: WIX), an Israeli website creation company, launched a corporate VC arm called Wix Capital. http://axios.link/6OQh
Final Numbers
Adapted from Pwc; Chart: Naema Ahmed/Axios
Final Numbers
Source: Renaissance Capital. Data through Sept. 18, 2020.