Sourcery (9/6-9/10)
Special Announcement! + Varo Bank, Wave, Scalapay, Orchard, Wisetack, Jetty, Kalepa, Rocket Dollar, HoneyBee, Mammoth Biosciences, Elvie, Snyk, Aviatrix, Whatnot, Affinity, SingleStore, Portcast...
Special Announcement!
I’m delighted to share that I’ve just joined the team at Upfront Ventures in Los Angeles to work alongside Partner Greg Bettinelli on all things early stage.
If you’d like to keep in touch, or be in touch, feel free to reply directly - would love to hear from you!
#LongLA
. . .
Last Week (9/6-9/10):
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 Varo Bank, Wave, Scalapay, Orchard, Vouch, Wisetack, Jetty, Kalepa, Rocket Dollar, HoneyBee, Mammoth Biosciences, InBrace, Beauty Pie, Flo, Elvie, Snyk, Aviatrix, Whatnot, Affinity, SingleStore, CookUnity, Cohere, UnitQ, Tiled, Novi, Orbit Fab, Mayk.it, Portcast; PicMonkey, Paidy, PrettyLitter, CipherTrace, Roadie, The Infatuation; Warby Parker, ForgeRock, Automation Anywhere, Babbel
Final numbers on U.S. IPO Performance at the bottom.
Deals
Sources: TS, Pro Rata, FinSMEs, Pitchbook, StrictlyVC
Fintech:
- Varo Bank, Varo Bank, an SF-based digital lender, raised $510 million in Series E funding at a valuation of $2.5 billion. Lone Pine Capital led, and was joined by Declaration Partners, Eldridge, Marshall Wace, Berkshire Partners, BlackRock and insiders Warburg Pincus, The Rise Fund, Gallatin Point Capital and HarbourVest Partners.http://axios.link/npzm
- Wave, a mobile money provider in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, raised $200 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Heritage, Founders Fund, Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Sam Altman and insider Partech Africa. www.wave.com
- Scalapay, an Italian buy now, pay later company, raised $155 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round and was joined by investors including Baleen Capital and Woodson Capital.
- Orchard, a New York City-based home buying and selling company, raised $100 million in Series D funding, valuing it over $1 billion. Accomplice led the round and was joined by investors including FirstMark, Revolution, First American, and Juxtapose.
- Vouch, a San Francisco-based business insurance provider, raised $90 million valuing it at $550 million. Investors include Redpoint Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank Capital, Ribbit Capital, Allegis Group, Sound Ventures, and SiriusPoint.
- Marshmallow, a London-based insurance company, raised $85 million in additional funding valuing it at $1.25 billion. Investors include Passion Capital, Investec, and Scor.
- Wisetack, a San Francisco-based buy now, pay later company, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures.
- Jetty, a New York City-based rent flexibility-focused fintech, raised $23 million. Citi Ventures and Flourish Ventures led.
- Eden Network, a New York City-based maker of a network focused on protecting Ethereum traders, raised $17.4 million in seed funding. Multicoin Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Jump Capital, Alameda Research, Wintermute, GSR, and Defiance Capital.
- Kalepa, a New York City-based commercial insurance startup, raised $14 million in Series A funding. Inspired Capital led the round and was joined by investors including IA Ventures.
- ZEBEDEE, a New York City-based virtual payments company, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding. Lakestar led the round and was joined by investors including Initial Capital, New Form Capital, and TVP.
- Rocket Dollar, an Austin-based retirement platform, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Park West Asset Management led the round and was joined by investors including Hyphen Capital, Moneta Venture Capital, Kraken Ventures, and Primetime Partners.
- HoneyBee, a financial wellness as-a-benefit startup, raised $5.7 million. FFVC led, and was joined by Resolute Ventures, Afore Capital, Rebalance Capital, K50, Financial Venture Studio and Baron Davis.http://axios.link/OTwr
- Biller Genie, a Miami-based accounts receivables automation platform, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Henry Helgeson led the round.
. . .
Care:
- Mammoth Biosciences, a CRISPR biotech company, raised $150 million in Series D funding. Redmile Group led the round.
- InBrace, an Irvine, Calif.-based teeth straightening startup, raised $102 million in Series D funding. Farallon Capital Management and Marshall Wace co-led, and were joined by BlackRock, Endeavour Vision, Vivo Capital, Novo Ventures and venBio. http://axios.link/jfaS
- Beauty Pie, a high-end beauty and wellness products company, raised $100 million in Series B funding. Index Ventures and Insight Partners led the round.
- Flo, a London-based period-tracking app focused on fertility, raised $50 million in Series B funding at an $800 million valuation co-led by Target Global and VNV Global. http://axios.link/n1GV
- Elvie, the maker of a breast pump and smart pelvic floor exerciser, raised an additional £12.7 million ($17.5 million) in Series C funding. Investors include Blume Equity, IPGL, Hiro Capital, and Westerly Winds.
- Centaur Labs, a Boston-based medical data labeling company, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Matrix Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Accel, Global Founders Capital, Susa Ventures, and Y Combinator.
- DotCom Therapy, a Madison, Wis.-based pediatric teletherapy startup, raised $13 million in Series A funding. New Capital Partners led the round.
. . .
Future of Work:
- Snyk, a Boston-based developer security company, raised $530 million in Series F funding valuing it at $8.5 billion. Sands Capital and Tiger Global led the round and were joined by investors including Baillie Gifford, Koch Strategic Platforms, Lone Pine Capital, T. Rowe Price,Whale Rock Capital Management, Accel, Addition, Alkeon, Atlassian Ventures, BlackRock, Boldstart Ventures, Canaan Partners, Coatue, Franklin Templeton, Geodesic Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and Temasek.
- Agile Robots, a Beijing-based robotics company, raised $220 million in Series C funding. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round and was joined by investors including Chimera Investments, GL Ventures, Sequoia China, Linear Capital, Xiaomi, Foxconn, and Midas.
- Aviatrix, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based cloud networking and network security company, raised $200 million in growth funding led by TCV. Others included Insight Partners and Tiger Global, CRV, Formation 8, General Catalyst, Greenspring Associates, Ignition, Liberty Global Ventures, Meritech Capital, and TrueBridge Capital Partners. The deal values the company at about $2 billion.
- Whatnot, a Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based live-shopping startup, is raising at a $1.5 billion valuation, per the Information.
- Affinity, a San Francisco-based relationship management software maker focused on dealmaking, raised $80 million in Series C funding. Menlo Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Advance Venture Partners, Sprints Capital, Pear Ventures, Sway Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Teamworthy, and ECT Capital Partners’ Brian N. Sheth.
- SingleStore, a San Francisco-based database for data-intensive applications, raised $80 million in Series F funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Khosla Ventures, Dell Capital, Rev IV, Glynn Capital, and Google Ventures.
- Leap, a San Francisco and Bangalore-based study abroad startup, raised $55 million. Owl Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Harvard Management Company.
- CookUnity, a Brooklyn-based chef-to-consumer meal subscription platform, raised $47 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Endeavor Capital, IDCV, Fuel Ventures, and Gaingels.
- Cohere, a Toronto-based API company, raised $40 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Section 32 and Radical Ventures.
- UnitQ, a Burlingame, Calif.-based product quality monitoring platform, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Accel led, and was joined by Creandum and Gradient Ventures. www.unitq.com
- Aviva Technology, a San Jose, Calif.-based maker of tech for automobiles, raised $26.5 million in Series A funding. Sehat Sutardja and Weili Dai (Founders of Marvell Technology Group) led the round.
- Borneo, a Singapore-based data security and privacy observability platform, raised $15.5 million in Series A funding. Vulcan Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Prosus Ventures, Lytical Ventures, and Wavemakers Partners.
- Wildfire Systems, a Solana Beach, Calif.-based rewards and loyalty program tech company, raised $15 million in Series A funding. TTV Capital and QED Investors led the round.
- Tiled, a San Diego-based content creation platform, raised $13.7 million in Series A funding. Signal Peak Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Seismic, Adobe, and University Growth Fund.
- Vowel, a New York City-based virtual meeting company, raised $13.5 million. David Hornik of Lobby Capital led the round.
- Novi, a San Francisco-based B2B marketplace, raised $10.3 million in Series A funding. Mike Duboe at Greylock led the round.
- Orbit Fab, a San Francisco-based orbital refueling startup, raised $10 million. Asymmetry Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including SpaceFund, Marubeni Ventures, and Audacious Venture Partners.
- EveryDay Labs, a Redwood City Calif.-based startup looking to reduce student absentee rates, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Rethink Impact led the round and was joined by investors including Reach Capital, Gary Community Ventures, City Light Capital, RedHouse Education, Edovate Capital, Bonsal Capital, and Copper Wire Ventures.
- Roar Studios, a San Francisco-based music recording and practice social platform founded by Eric Reid, raised $7 million. Investors include Galaxy Interactive, Todd Wagner, and Scott Barger.
- Mayk.it, a San Francisco-based platform for making music, raised $4 million in funding. Investors include Greycroft, Chicago Ventures, Slow Ventures, firstminute, Steven Galanis, Randi Zuckerberg, Mr. Beasts' Night media, Sophia Bendz (former Spotify CMO), Cyan Banister, T-Pain, and Zach Katz.
- Portcast, a Singapore-based logistics data analytics startup, raised $3.2 million in seed funding. Newtown Partners led, and was joined by Imperial Venture Fund, Wavemaker Partners, TMV, Innoport and SGInnovate.http://axios.link/osql
- Satisfi Labs, a A.I. conversation startup raised $3 million in Series A funding from Florida Funders’ Fund 2.
. . .
Sustainability:
- Spiber, a Japanese developer of plant-based protein polymers, raised $91 million at a $1.2 billion valuation from The Carlyle Group, Fidelity and Baillie Gifford. http://axios.link/shl8
Acquisitions & PE:
- Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK) acquired PicMonkey, a SaaS-based photo editing and graphic design platform, for $110 million from Spectrum Equity.
- PayPal Holdings agreed to acquire Paidy, a Japanese buy now, pay later solution, for about $2.7 billion.
- Mars agreed to buy Los Angeles-based cat litter maker PrettyLitter for $500 million to $1 billion, per Bloomberg. Sellers include BAM Ventures and Draper Associates. http://axios.link/PtqH
- Insight Partners acquired a 40% stake in NMI, a commerce tech company, valuing it at $1.6 billion. Francisco Partners and Great Hill maintain stakes.
- Blackstone invested in Dynamo Software, a Watertown, Mass.-based cloud software maker for the alternative investment management industry, valuing the company at about $900 million, per the WSJ. Francisco Partners remains an investor.
- Aquiline Capital Partners will acquire a majority stake in Quicken, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based personal finance software maker, from H.I.G. Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- MasterCard agreed to acquire CipherTrace, a Los Gatos, Calif.-based cryptocurrency intelligence company. CipherTrace was backed by Third Point Ventures, Neotribe Ventures, and Aspect Ventures. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- ZoomInfo acquired RingLead, a Melville, N.Y.-based data management platform backed by Jericho Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- UPS (NYSE:UPS) agreed to acquire Roadie, an Atlanta-based same-day delivery company.
- Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) agreed to acquire Clipchamp, an Australian video editing software maker.
- JPMorgan Chase agreed to buy The Infatuation, a restaurant discovery and information group that bought Zagat from Google in 2018. The Infatuation had raised $30 million had raised $30 million from WndrCo.
. . .
IPOs:
- Warby Parker, a New York City-based affordable glasses company, plans to offer 77.7 million shares in a direct listing. The average price of its shares has been $22.28. Warby Parker posted $393.7 million in net revenue in 2020, and reported a net loss of $55.9 million. Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, and D1 Capital Partners back the firm.
- ForgeRock, a San Francisco-based digital identity verification company, plans to raise up to $264 million in an offering of 11 million shares priced between $21 and $24 per share. The company posted $127.6 million in revenue in 2020 and a net loss of $41.8 million. Accel, Riverwood Capital, and Meritech Capital back the firm.
- Automation Anywhere, a San Jose, Calif.-based A.I. automation company, plans to go public as early as this year, according to Bloomberg. SoftBank, General Atlantic, New Enterprise Associates, Salesforce Ventures, and Goldman Sachs back the firm.
- Babbel, a German online language learning company, said it plans to raise more than €180 million in a Frankfurt IPO. It's raised over $35 million from firms like Scottish Equity Partners, Kizoo Tech Capital, REV Venture Partners and NGP Capital. http://axios.link/E1tK
- Sportradar, a Swiss data sports group, set IPO terms to 19 million shares at $25-$28. It would have a $29.4 billion market cap, were it to price in the middle, and reports $26 million of net income on $480 million in revenue for 2020. The company raised around $100 million in VC funding, most recently at a $2.4 billion valuation. Shareholders include CPPIB, TCV, Revolution, Mark Cuban and Michael Jordan. http://axios.link/H3S1
- Thoughtworks, a Chicago-based software development and digital transformation consultancy, set IPO terms to 36.8 million shares at $18-$20. It would have a $6.4 billion fully diluted value, were it to price in the middle, plans to list on the Nasdaq (TWKS) and reports $37 million of net income on $498 million in revenue for the first half of 2021. Backers include Apax Partners and Siemens. http://axios.link/Rfw4
Funds:
- Volkswagen is forming a €300 million VC fund focused on decarbonization. http://axios.link/iOrx
- Scout Ventures, a New York City-based frontier tech company, raised $55 million for Fund III.
- Harvard Management Co., which oversees the country's largest university endowment, said it will divest from fossil fuels. HMC has legacy LP investments in several private equity funds with fossil fuel holdings, representing between 1-2% of the endowment. It will continue to honor capital calls for these funds. A Harvard spokesman declined to comment on if HMC would require future GP relationships to abstain from fossil fuel investments, or if it would insist on carve-out clauses.
Final Numbers
Source: Renaissance Capital