Venture capitalists love rocket ships. Not just the Elon Musk type, but any business that can return their investment a hundred times over. Facebook’s market cap at IPO was roughly 200x its Series B valuation. Such growth is an exception, but those are the dimensions VCs think in. Hopin’s Series B investors have a track record of spotting potential. Accel was part of Facebook’s Series B. The lead investors, IVP and Tiger, were early investors in Snap and Square respectively. Northzone backed Spotify and Salesforce Ventures invested in Snowflake. When asked whether Hopin was one of those 100x opportunities, Alex Kayyal from Salesforce Ventures replies (as one might imagine) with an emphatic
“Absolutely!”. [ sifted ]
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2.
Bristol entrepreneur who exited for $800M doubles-down on the city with deep-tech incubator and VC fund
Harry Destecroix co-founded Ziylo while studying for his PhD at the University of Bristol. Ziylo, a university spin-out company, developed a synthetic molecule allowing glucose to bind with the bloodstream more effectively. Four years later, and by then a Phd, Destecroix sold the company to Danish firm Novo Nordisk, one of the biggest manufacturers of diabetes medicines, which had realized it could use Ziylo’s molecule to develop a new type of insulin to help diabetics. He walked away with an estimated $800m. Destecroix is now embarking on a project, “Science Creates”, to repeat the exercise of creating deep-tech, science-based startups, and it will once more be based out of Bristol. To foster this deep tech ecosystem it will offer a specialized incubator space able to house Wet Labs, a £15 million investment fund and a network of strategic partners to nurture science and engineering start-ups and spin-outs. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
Special:
Peter Thiel’s VC firm has become a strategic partner to a European tech fund
Founders Fund, the venture capital firm set up by U.S. tech billionaire Peter Thiel, has quietly entered into a partnership with a European tech investment firm called Elevat3. Located in Germany, Elevat3 is a growth venture fund that was set up by the Apeiron Investment Group to invest in tech start-ups across German-speaking countries that are focusing on life sciences, deep tech, fintech (financial technology), property and insurance. Apeiron is the family office and merchant banking business of serial entrepreneur and tech investor Christian Angermayer. [ CNBC ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on
our platform.
3.
The biggest IPO in Israeli history? IronSource sets sights on $8 billion offering
One of Israeli tech's giants, IronSource, is gearing up for an IPO in the first half of 2021. According to a source who spoke to Calcalist under the condition of anonymity, the formal decision to embark on the IPO is set to be approved by the board of directors in the very near future. Goldman Sachs is expected to be the underwriter of the IPO, which is likely to become the largest ever by an Israeli company on Nasdaq. IronSource is targeting a valuation of between $7 billion and $8 billion. Viola Ventures, which owns 10% of the company, is leading the push to go public and is expected to sell a large stake of its holdings in the offering. Another option that is being considered by IronSource is entering the market via a SPAC, which stands for Special
Purpose Acquisition Companies. However, the chances of that happening are very low. In such a scenario, the company that is acquired is merged into the SPAC and essentially receives the funds raised by the SPAC and a backdoor entry into the stock market without having to go through a public due diligence. [ calcalistech ]
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4.
Uber sells self-driving unit Uber ATG in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
Aurora Innovation, the autonomous vehicle startup backed by Sequoia Capital and Amazon, has reached an agreement with Uber to buy the ride-hailing firm’s self-driving unit in a complex deal that will value the combined company at $10 billion. Aurora is not paying cash for Uber ATG, a company that was valued at $7.25 billion following a $1 billion investment last year from Toyota, DENSO and SoftBank’s Vision Fund. Instead, Uber is handing over its equity in ATG and investing $400 million into Aurora, which will give it a 26% stake in the combined company, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (As a refresher, Uber held an 86.2% stake (on a fully diluted basis) in Uber ATG, according to filings with the SEC. Uber ATG’s investors held a combined stake of 13.8% in the company.) Shareholders in Uber ATG will now become minority shareholders of Aurora. Notably, once the deal closes, Uber together with existing ATG investors and the ATG employees who continue their employment with Aurora are expected to collectively hold about 40% interest in Aurora on a fully diluted basis. [ Tech Crunch ]
Uber sells ATG self-driving business to Aurora at $4 billion
Uber, After Years of Trying, Is Handing Off Its Self-Driving Car Project
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5.
Venture Capital For B2B Sales Technology Doesn’t Stop For A Pandemic
Many have learned to pitch their services in new ways of late. For tech entrepreneurs, particularly those in the business of helping others sell, the pitch for venture capital isn't the same uphill battle that others may be facing. GetAccept, a B2B sales-enablement platform, founded in 2015 by Swedish entrepreneurs Samir Smajic, Mathias Thulin, Jonas Blanck, and Carl Carell, announced today $20M in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. [ Forbes ]
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6.
Amsterdam-based Catawiki raises €150 million in Permira-led round for its ‘curated online marketplace’
The Netherlands-based online auction platform Catawiki has scored €150 million in growth funding in a round led by private equity firm Permira through its ‘Growth Opportunities Fund’. Prior backer Accel also participated in the round – its partner Martin Gibson serves as chairman of Catawiki’s board – and it is said the financing comes with liquidity for a number of the Dutch scale-up’s early investors and employees. Catawiki, which calls its platform a
‘curated online marketplace for special objects’ these days, was founded back in 2008 and now boasts over 10 million users. The company says it now employs more than 240 in-house experts who are specialised in collectables, art, design, jewellery, watches, classic cars and more, and that 65,000 special objects are put up for auction on its platform on a weekly basis. [ tech.eu ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
7.
SpaceX snags $885M from FCC to serve rural areas with Starlink
The FCC has just published the results of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction, which sounds rather stiff but involves distributing billions to broadband providers that bring solid internet connections to under-served
rural areas “on the wrong side of the digital divide.” Included is $885 million earmarked for SpaceX, whose Starlink satellite service could be a game-changer for places where laying fiber isn’t an option. Only three other companies garnered more funds: Charter with $1.22 billion; Minnesota and Iowa provider LTD Broadband with $1.32 billion; and utility collective Rural Electric Cooperate Consortium, with $1.1 billion. Those are all traditional wireline-based broadband, and a quick perusal of the list of grantees suggests no other satellite broadband provider made the cut (180 bidders were awarded support in
total). [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
8.
‘This Is Insanity’: Start-Ups End Year in a Deal Frenzy
Hopin, a virtual events start-up in London, had seven employees and was valued at $38 million at the beginning of the year. Johnny Boufarhat, the company’s chief executive, wasn’t planning on raising more money. But as the pandemic spread and more people held virtual events, Hopin’s business took off. Unsolicited offers from investors started pouring in. “It’s like a drumbeat,” Mr. Boufarhat said. “That’s become the new way for investors to tempt founders.” In June, Hopin raised a fresh $40 million from venture capital firms such as Accel and IVP. Last month, without even building a formal presentation, the company garnered a further $125 million, valuing it at $2.1 billion — a 77-fold increase from
a year ago. And still, Mr. Boufarhat said, “investors are reaching out almost daily.” [ NY Times ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
9.
Juniper Networks acquires datacenter network automation startup Apstra
Juniper Networks today announced it has agreed to acquire Menlo Park-based Apstra, an intent-based networking and automated closed-loop assistance startup, for an undisclosed sum. Juniper says the purchase will add to its portfolio of solutions, which include switching platforms with a cloud-native routing stack. The datacenter automation segment is expected to rise from $3.16 billion in 2014 to $7.53 billion in 2019, according to a Markets and Markets report. Gartner predicts that by 2023, 60% of datacenter networking configuration activities will be automated, up from 30% in early 2020. [ Venture Beat ]
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During a series of record-breaking heat waves in California in August—when Death Valley reached nearly 130 degrees Fahrenheit, believed to be the hottest temperature ever recorded on the planet, and hundreds of wildfires spread throughout the state—the electric grid strained under the pressure of running millions of air conditioners. In some areas, the state’s electric utility instituted rolling blackouts. But as demand was peaking, one startup tested a potential solution: a “virtual power plant” that could help keep the lights on. [ FastCompany ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
11.
Tecton Releases Cloud-Native Enterprise Feature Store for Machine Learning, Raises $35 Million Series B Co-Led by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia
Tecton, the enterprise feature store company, today announced the general availability of its production-ready enterprise feature store that is delivered as a fully-managed cloud service. Tecton, which emerged from stealth in April this year, already has paying customers from some of the fastest growing startups to the Fortune 50. “We use ML applications to support a variety of use cases in Credit Decisioning, Cash Flow Insights, Fraud Detection and Business Admin. Tecton helps us create more accurate features that combine batch data from Snowflake and streaming data from Apache Kafka. With Tecton, we can reuse features across all of these domains and thus reduce by weeks the time it takes to build and deploy streaming features to production,”
said Hendrik Brakmann, Director of Data Science and Analytics at Tide, a startup that provides a smart business current account to more than 270,000 business owners. [ globe news wire ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
12.
Munich-based car subscription service finn.auto closes €20 million Series A
German car subscription company finn.auto has landed a €20 million Series A round. The new funding came from White Star Capital, an early investor in TIER Mobility, and the Zalando co-CEOs Rubin Ritter, David Schneider and Robert Gentz. All existing investors joined in again, too. In addition to offering the typical car subscription service, in which cars are plentiful and renting is flexible, the Munich-based startup has put sustainability at the forefront. For each car subscription, the
company offsets the CO₂ emissions through planting trees via ClimatePartner. [ tech.eu ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
13.
Why Blackstone and other private equity giants are gobbling up warehouses
Private equity gets lots of attention for gobbling up assets of all types, from fast-food chains to red-hot tech companies. Less fanfare perhaps has followed the industry's growing hunger for, of all things, warehouses and other industrial real estate. With ecommerce sales booming, private equity firms have been on something of a buying binge, snatching up tens of millions of square feet of warehouse space, in part as an additional way to capitalize on an ongoing revolution in digital commerce and logistics. At the center of the push is Blackstone, a private equity titan that has broadened its investment strategies well beyond the leveraged buyouts that have been the firm's calling card. [ Pitchbook ]
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14.
Silicon Valley Boot Camp: Fusion LA accelerator marched out 49 startups in 3 years
With 13 seed-stage investments since March of this year, Fusion LA - a venture-backed accelerator for Israeli startups in the U.S. - is certainly not allowing the Covid-19 pandemic to slow it down. "Despite Covid-19 there is still a lot of competition for deals and a large appetite to find new investments," Guy Katsovich, co-founder and partner at Fusion LA told CTech. "Everyone remembers from the 2008 crisis that many big companies were founded at that time and there is an understanding that after the dust settles the companies in which you invest in will be the ones left standing." After six years in the IDF's Unit 8200, often referred to as Israel's version of the NSA, Katsovich began working in journalism of all professions, as an
editor and writer at an Israeli business outlet. After a couple of years, he realized his aspirations lay elsewhere and in 2014 he joined 8200 EISP, an accelerator managed by veterans of Unit 8200, as a managing director. [ calcalistech ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
15.
This 26 year old investor funded Nadeshot and 100 Thieves: A conversation with Blake Robbins
Blake Robbins is a venture capitalist is a case study in being helpful up front. He's a great example of what great things can happen when you combine what you are genuinely interested in with an ability to show value even through a cold email. It was a pleasure to sit down with him to talk about his path into venture, his experience with helping build top e-sports startup 100 Thieves, and how YouTube creators and startups can work together to build the next generation of consumer startup. Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
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