Sourcery (3/9-3/13)
VC’s COVID-19 Response; Confluent, Heartbeat health, Lyra Health, Assembled, Overhaul, Rivet, Arfa, BackboneAI, Superpeer, Vault Health
VC’s COVID-19 Response
Sequoia - Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020
Redpoint’s Tomasz Tunguz - What Could the Venture Market Look Like in the Coronavirus Era
“The earlier the stage the company, the less it was impacted. That’s clearest in the seed chart. Seed investments suffered a 50% fall in Q3 2008, but the market came right back in Q4 and continued to increase in volume. This might be for a few reasons: valuations fell, no need to reprice/recap companies, and typically recessions are great markets to start startups.”
USV’s Fred Wilson - Open For Business
GC’s Niko Bonatsos - “True entrepreneurs can seize the day now. All the startup tourists have started going home... And it’s only been a few weeks of turbulence. We are as eager as ever to be investing in true entrepreneurs!”
Andreessen Horowitz - Coronavirus Resources & Readings
GGV - COVID-19: OPERATIONAL TACTICS FOR STARTUPS
Highlighted deals include: Confluent, Heartbeat health, Lyra Health, Assembled, Overhaul, Rivet, Arfa, BackboneAI, Superpeer, Vault Health
Deals of the week
Sources: TS, Pro Rata, FinSMEs, Fitt Insider
Confluent, a Mountain View, Calif.-based real-time event streaming platform, will raise between $200 million and $300 million in funding at a roughly $5 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg. Read more.
Influence.co, a San Diego, Calif.-based developer of online platform for influencers, brands, marketers, talent managers, raised $3 million in seed funding. Bonfire Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including ACT Capital Partners, Alumni Ventures Group, Next 10 Ventures, and Singapore Press Holdings Ventures.
NinjaRMM, a San Francisco-based provider of remote monitoring and endpoint management software, raised $30 million in equity funding led by Summit Partners. http://axios.link/Vp4q
Ride Report, a Portland, Ore.-based provider of scooter and bike-share management programs for cities, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Unusual Ventures. http://axios.link/O2vu
Heartbeat Health, a digital cardiac care startup, raised $8.2 million in Series A funding. 406 Ventures and Optum Ventures co-led, and were joined by Kindred Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Designer Fund and Max Ventures. http://axios.link/z0rs
Planet FWD, a San Francisco-based regenerative food platform, raised $2.7 million in seed funding led by BBG Ventures. http://axios.link/Jhjc
Lyra Health, a Burlingame, Calif.-based provider of innovative mental health benefits for employers, raised $75 million in Series C funding. IVP led the round, and was joined by investors including Meritech Capital Partners, Casdin Capital, Crown Venture Fund, Glynn Capital, Greylock Partners, Providence Ventures, Tenaya Capital, and Venrock.
Cloudbeds, a San Diego-based provider of hospitality management solutions, raised $82 million in Series C funding. Viking Global Investors led, and was joined by PeakSpan Capital, Recruit Co., Ltd., Counterpart Ventures, and Cultivation Capital. http://axios.link/vbDs
Human Interest, a San Francisco-based provider of 401(k)s for small and mid-sized businesses, raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Oberndorf Enterprises. http://axios.link/Kn8o
Transparent Health Marketplace, Inc., a Philadelphia, PA-based healthcare technology platform, raised 11m in Series B funding (read here)
B.well Connected Health, a Baltimore-based digital health engagement platform, raised $16 million in Series A funding. UnityPoint Health Ventures led, and was joined by Well Ventures. http://axios.link/kyLg
Assembled, developer of an “operating system for support teams,” raised $3.1 million in seed funding. Stripe led, and was joined by Basis Set Ventures and Signalfire. http://axios.link/cPYA
Superpeer, a San Francisco-based monetization platform for experts and YouTube creators, raised $2 million led by Eniac Ventures. http://axios.link/Qy05
Unitary, a U.K.-based developer of automated content moderation, raised £1.35 million led by Global Founders Capital. http://axios.link/49Dc
Overhaul, an Austin, Texas-based real-time supply chain integrity technology solution, raised $17.5 million in funding. Edison Partners led the round.
RubiconMD, a New York-based e-consultant for specialist health care, raised $18 million in Series C funding. Deerfield Management led, and was joined by return backers Optum Ventures, HLM Venture Partners, Waterline Ventures, and Heritage Provider Network. http://axios.link/q4kF
Zumper, a San Francisco-based rental marketplace, raised $60 million in Series D funding. E.ventures led the round.
Recount Media, a New York-based short-form video platform dedicated to political news, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Investors include Union Square Ventures, True Ventures, ViacomCBS and Burda Principal Investments.
Rivet, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based healthcare revenue cycle management software, raised $8.25 million in Series A funding. Menlo Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Lux Capital and Pelion Venture Partners.
Wanted, a New York-based startup that enables talent to anonymously receive job opportunities, raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding. Investors include Partech, Hoxton Ventures and Kima Ventures.
Remesh, a Brooklyn-based software company utilizing artificial intelligence to reinvent the way organizations conduct research, raised $25 million in Series A2 funding. General Catalyst led the round, and was joined by investors including LionBird and North Coast Ventures.
Validere, a Canada-based informatics platform that helps energy companies realize efficiencies through product quality insights, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Wing VC led the round, and was joined by investors including Greylock Partners and Sallyport Investments.
Akur8, a Paris-based AI insurance pricing solution, raised €8 million ($9 million) in Series A funding. Investors include BlackFinCapitalPartners and MTech Capital.
Cleanshelf, a San Mateo, Calif.-based SaaS spend optimization solution, raised $8 million in Series A funding round. Dawn Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including LAUNCHub.
Inbox Health, a New Haven, Conn.-based patient engagement and payment platform, raised $3.5 million. Healthy Ventures led, and was joined by Collaborative Fund, Commerce Ventures, and return backers Connecticut Innovations, I2BF Global Ventures, and Startup Health. http://axios.link/hAwq
TFLiving, a Pawleys Island, S.C.-based tech-enabled platform providing fitness and amenities services to residential and commercial communities, raised $4.8 million in seed funding. Camber Creek led the round, and was joined by investors including Courtside Ventures.
Rest Less, a U.K.-based social enterprise start-up offering jobs, volunteering and guidance for the over 50s, raised £3 million ($4 million) in seed funding. QED Investors led the round, and was joined by investors including 1818 Venture Capital and Octopus Ventures.
Arfa, a New York-based platform for creating personal care brands, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Investors include Index Ventures, White Star Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Thrive Capital, Norwest, Foundation Capital, AlleyCorp (Kevin Ryan), and Box Group.
Pager, a NYC-based virtual care companion that provides a personalized, connected care experience throughout the healthcare journey, raised $33m in Series B equity and debt financing (read here)
Funds managed by Blackstone (NYSE:BX) will acquire a majority stake in HealthEdge, a Burlington, MA-based technology business that delivers next generation Core Administrative Processing Systems (CAPS) solutions to healthcare businesses (read here)
BackboneAI, a New York-based intercompany data automation platform, raised $4.7 million in seed funding. Fika Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Boldstart Ventures, Cendana Capital, Dynamo Ventures, GGV Capital, MetaProp, and Spider VC.
Monograph, a San Francisco-based technology company, raised $1.9 million in funding. Homebrew Ventures and Parade Ventures co-led the round, and were joined by investors including Designer Fund, Hustle VC.
ZBiotics, a San Francisco-based maker of genetically engineered probiotics, raised $2.3 million in seed funding. Oyster Ventures led the round.
Mind Medicine, a psychedelics-based medicine startup, closed a $24.2M funding round, planning to go public next week.
Sparta Science, a data and machine learning company using software to optimize health and performance, closed a $16M Series B round.
Prospect Hill Growth Partnersinvested in Fitness Ventures, one of the fastest-growing franchisees in the Crunch Fitness system.
Vault Health, a New York-based men's healthcare practice, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global Investment led the round, and was joined by investors including Redesign Health, Declaration Capital and the Carlyle Group.
Hungry, an Arlington, Va-based catering marketplace that connects businesses with independent chefs, raised $20 million in Series B funding at a valuation of more than $100 million (pre-money). Evolution VC Partners led the round.
Touchland, a personal use hand sanitizer brand, raised $1.75 million in funding. Ben Bryce of Align Ventures and Spring St. Group led the round.
Corevist, a Raleigh-based provider of B2B commerce software for manufacturers, raised $2.8 million in Series A funding led by Jurassic Capital. http://axios.link/V1Dt
M&A:
In a bombshell deal, Rockstar Energy Drink’s billionaire founder Russ Weiner is selling his energy drink empire to PepsiCo for $3.85 billion. Weiner owns a hefty 85% of the company, which puts his worth at still approximately $3.9 billion, according to Forbes. Read more.
Mindbody, Inc., a San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based technology platform for the wellness industry, acquired ZeeZor, a Atlanta, GA-based real-time analytics and staff engagement platform for salon and spa businesses (read here)
Epic Games agreed to buy Cubic Motion, a U.K.-based computer vision platform for facial animations that had raised £20 million from NorthEdge Capital. http://axios.link/X50r
Exits:
Magic Leap, the Florida-based augmented reality company that raised more than $2 billion, hired an advisor to explore a possible sale, per Bloomberg. The company was most recently valued north of $6.5 billion by VCs, but sales of its initial headset product disappointed. Founder and CEO Rony Abovitz dodged when I asked via Twitter.
Funds:
Felicis Ventures, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture capital firm, raised $510 million for its seventh fund.
Greycroft, a VC firm whose portfolio companies include Axios, is raising up to $400 million for its third growth fund, per an SEC filing.
Point72, the investment firm led by Steve Cohen, is raising upwards of $900 million for a new VC/PE fund focused on artificial intelligence, per Bloomberg. http://axios.link/QIVg
Congruent Ventures, a San Francisco-based sustainable tech VC firm, is raising up to $125 million for its second fund, per an SEC filing. http://axios.link/MBSf
NEA closes $3.6B fund, promotes Liza Landsman to GP
NEA has closed its 17th flagship fund on $3.6 billion, meeting a target first disclosed in an SEC filing about a year ago. The vehicle is one of the largest VC funds ever raised, according to PitchBook data; it will focus on making early- and growth-stage investments in the technology and healthcare sectors, congruent with the firm's typical strategy. With the closing of the new fund, NEA has now reached about $24 billion in total committed capital since its creation in 1977.
Along with the funding announcement, the firm has also promoted Liza Landsman to general partner. She joined NEA as a venture partner in 2018; before that she served as president of Jet.com, a former NEA portfolio company that was acquired by Walmart in 2016. Landsman focuses on software and services investments across the consumer sector.Looking at Raised in Space, a year-old investment fund that was cofounded by a former U.S. president of BMG, Zach Katz; music manager Scooter Braun; and entrepreneur Shara Senderoff, and that's somehow backed by Ripple’s developer platform, Xpring. More here.
Sources: MorningBrew, Axios, Atom Finance
Venture capitalists are almost all working from home, but they have not stopped investing in startups.
Axios yesterday spoke or emailed with 40 different U.S. firms, and every single one of them reports that they are still actively doing deals — several signing term sheets within the past week.
Why it matters: Startups and their employees are particularly vulnerable to economic shocks, given that they often are unprofitable or even pre-revenue. Venture capitalists are sitting on enormous amounts of dry powder, and so far haven't been scared off from using it.
Yes, some pricing is beginning to soften, while at least a few deals have collapsed or been delayed.
There also are questions on whether some in-process sales to public companies will be retraded (particularly now that WHO has declared a pandemic). And for still-active negotiations throughout M&A, we're hearing that "material adverse effect" definitions and closing conditions are being revised.
What they're saying:
"What else are we going to do all day stuck at home except look at deals?"
"We're investing, but a bit more slowly because we're no longer learning about new opportunities at community events."
"Some of the best VC investments are made in a downturn."
"At first Zoom was a huge win for its investors. Now it's a huge win for all of us."
Look ahead: U.S.-based venture capitalists are sitting on record amounts of dry powder, having raised over $100 billion in fund capital over the past two years. That could become the industry's saving grace due to the denominator effect and the fact that recent fund returns could plummet (particularly for firms that held onto public securities from recent IPOs).
The bottom line: For venture capital, it's business as unusual.
Women's woeful C-suite representation
Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios
Less than 3% of CEOs of the world's largest companies are women. That's according to Fortune, whose annual Fortune Global 500 list featured just 14 female CEOs last year, Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon writes.
By the numbers: The average tenure of a global CEO is now five years. So in a typical year, about 100 of the CEO slots at Fortune Global 500 companies will be filled with someone new.
If 50 of those 100 slots went to women, you would expect the number of female CEOs to more than quadruple to 61 in 2020, then continue to rise to 201 in 2026 and 230 in 2030.
Public Market Moves:
Amazon (AMZN) tells all of its employees around the globe to stay home through March amid COVID-19 outbreak, according to CNBC
Amazon (AMZN): Pentagon asks judge for 120 days to revisit decision to award cloud computing contract to Microsoft (MSFT) instead of Amazon, according to Bloomberg
Apple Music (AAPL) agrees to deal with large record labels for new songs, according to Financial Times
Applied Materials (AMAT) increases quarterly dividend to $0.22/share from $0.21/share
Churchill Downs (CHDN) to hold Jeffy Ruby Steaks race and remaining Turfway Park races through March 28 spectator-free; Kentucky Derby preparations are "still moving forward"
Cognex (CGNX) authorizes $200 mln stock buyback program
Disney (DIS): All Disney parks and cruise lines worldwide will close due to coronavirus, according to the New York Times
Eli Lilly (LLY) and AbCellera to co-develop antibody therapies for the treatment of COVID-19
Enanta Pharmaceuticals (ENTA) has initiated a program to discover direct-acting antiviral drug candidates for the treatment of patients infected with the novel coronavirus COVID-19
Fluor's (FLR) Fluor Marine Propulsion awarded $1.78 bln Navy contract
JBG SMITH Properties (JBGS) announces authorization of $500 mln in share repurchases
Luminex (LMNX) announced four independent clinical laboratories have validated laboratory developed tests for automated, rapid detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus using the sample-to-answer ARIES System
Opko Health (OPK) company BioReference Laboratories, Inc offers testing for COVID-19
Roche (RHHBY) secured emergency approval for faster coronavirus test, according to Bloomberg
Softbank (SFTBY) announces 145 mln share repurchase program valued at JPY 500 bln
United Airlines (UAL) to scale back Europe flight routes after March 19, according to Reuters
Vale S.A. (VALE) comments on developments related to the outbreak of the coronavirus; not suffered any material impact to operations, logistics, sales or financial position
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) waives delivery fees for eligible prescriptions during COVID-19 pandemic
Walt Disney (DIS) to close Disneyland park in California on Friday, according to CNBC
More headlines…
Sources: MorningBrew, Bloomberg, Forbes
The rapid spread of the coronavirus is presenting a new kind of challenge for gig economy workers. It's also showing why their classification as contractors is so critical. [Wired]
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