Happy Wednesday. Staying private longer was supposed to help late-stage technology companies, give them more time to build businesses and eliminate risks outside the purview of Wall Street’s focus. But, what if staying private longer ends up being a bad thing for the company?

That may be the potential scenario facing Airbnb. The company’s losses grew sharply in the first nine months of last year, The Wall Street Journal reports. Those numbers could affect the home-rental startup’s IPO or direct-listing price tag. It also raises the question of whether companies should go public as soon as they can rather than staying private as long as possible.

Bill Gurley, the outspoken partner at Benchmark, wrote a tweet criticizing the conventional wisdom of staying private longer: “Bad advice of ‘stay private longer’ and excess late stage capital resulted in companies not respecting the fragility of an ‘open window,’” he wrote. An open window is a strong stock market, good macro environment and strong company growth rate and numbers, he noted.

More companies watching Airbnb’s attempt to go public this year may start to reconsider the mantra of staying private longer.

And now on to the news...

Ever larger. Investment firm Battery Ventures, which focuses on enterprise software startups, is set to close on two new funds with a combined value of $2 billion, Marc Vartabedian reports for WSJ Pro.

• This will allow the firm to write larger checks. The fundraising comes as many North American venture-capital firms are raising record amounts of capital.
   
• The Boston-based firm raised a $1.2 billion multistage investment fund and a $800 million late-stage fund, Battery General Partner Neeraj Agrawal said. Growth-stage deals will draw from both funds. 
   
• Battery will boost the size of checks it writes to startups by 10% to 15% and increase its deal count by 25% to 30%, Mr. Agrawal said. 

Losses rise. Home-rental startup Airbnb racked up a $322 million net loss for the nine months through September, down from a $200 million profit a year earlier.

• Airbnb’s profitability was expected to give it an edge as it wooed public investors ahead of a potential IPO or direct listing.
   
• The slide into red could affect Airbnb’s price tag in an IPO, according to investors. After the troubled debuts of Uber and Lyft, investors have grown suspicious of companies with losses and no clear path to profitability.
   
• The San Francisco company is one of the nation’s largest private companies. It was valued at $31 billion in its last round in 2017. Its most recent internal valuation was sharply lower, however.

Payments coming due. Vice Media Group saw problems ahead for its business in 2017 when the new-media company set out to raise more money, the Journal reports. Co-founder and then-chief executive Shane Smith set out to secure an eye-popping valuation, some people close to the company say. He got his wish when private-equity firm TPG invested $450 million, valuing Vice at $5.7 billion, far higher than its rivals. But the cash infusion came at a cost: Vice agreed to guarantee TPG substantial payouts down the road. Read More.

Satellite cash. SoundCloud will get a $75 million boost from satellite-radio giant Sirius XM in exchange for a minority stake and two board seats at the audio-sharing platform, the Journal reports. The money amounts to a vote of confidence in SoundCloud, which was on shaky ground less than three years ago. 

Attacking cancer. Venture capitalists are investing $12 million to launch biotechnology company Volastra Therapeutics. The startup's founders include Lewis Cantley. New York-based Volastra plans to attack cancer by taking aim at genetic alterations in a patient’s original or primary tumor. Volastra, also co-founded by Olivier Elemento from Weill Cornell Medicine and Samuel Bakhoum of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said it is moving its first drug programs toward clinical trials. Polaris Partners led this seed financing, which also included ARCH, Droia Oncology Ventures and Global Health Sciences Fund.

Brexit fallout. Fintech startup N26 is leaving the U.K. following Brexit, saying it will no longer have a banking license to operate in the country following the EU withdrawal agreement. N26, which  launched in the U.K. in November 2018, said all British operations—and therefore accounts—will close on April 15, while its U.K.-based staff will move into new roles within the business. With a valuation of $3.5 billion reached in July 2019, N26 is one of Germany's most valued startups. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Funds

RPM Ventures is raising a $135 million fourth fund, according to a regulatory filing. Last year, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based firm invested in lending startup Figure Technologies Inc. and auto insurance provider Avinew.

London- and Stockholm-based Oxx raised a $133 million fund to make early-stage investments in European software-as-a-service companies. Limited partners in the fund include British Patient Capital, institutions, family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

Freestyle Capital hopes to raise $100 million for its fifth fund, according to a filing. The firm recently participated in funding rounds for real estate technology startup Snapdocs Inc. and artist crowdfunding platform Patreon Inc.

Equal Ventures secured $56 million for their debut fund. The New York-based firm counts senior-care marketplace Gerry, digital brands holding company Pattern and employee benefits marketplace Watchtower in its portfolio.

People

Initialized Capital hired Katelin Holloway as partner. She was previously vice president of people and culture at Reddit.

Sapphire Ventures promoted Abigail Johnson to managing director, general counsel and chief operating officer. Prior to joining the Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm in 2015, Ms. Johnson was at Jones Day.

Osage University Partners promoted Kirsten Leute to partner, university relations. Before joining the Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based firm in 2015, Ms. Leute was associate director of the office of technology licensing at Stanford University.

Carbon Relay, a Boston- and Arlington, Va.-based startup whose technology automates and manages Kubernetes app deployment, secured a $63 million investment from Insight Partners.

Vezeeta, a Cairo- and Dubai-based digital health care platform serving the Middle East and Africa, raised $40 million in Series D funding. Gulf Capital led the round, with participation from Saudi Technology Ventures. Alvaro Abella, director at Gulf, will join the company’s board.

Alpha Foods, a Glendale, Calif. plant-based food maker, picked up a $28 million investment. AccelFoods led the Series A round, which included participation from New Crop Capital, Green Monday Ventures and Blue Horizon.

Cysiv, an Irving, Texas-based security operations center technology platform, closed a $26 million Series A round. ForgePoint Capital led the funding, with co-founder and Managing Director Alberto Yépez joining Cysiv’s board. Trend Forward Capital also participated in the round.

MoEngage, a San Francisco- and India-based customer analytics and cross-channel engagement platform, landed $25 million in Series C financing. Eight Roads Ventures led the investment, with participation from F-Prime Capital, Matrix Partners India and Ventureast.

PredictHQ Ltd., a San Francisco-based provider of demand intelligence to businesses, snagged $22 million in Series B funding. Sutter Hill Ventures led the round, which included participation from Aspect Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Rampersand VC and AddVenture Fund.

Stilla Technologies, a French genetic analysis startup, raised a €20 million ($21.8 million) Series B round. New investor TUS-Holdings was joined by existing backers Illumina Ventures, Kurma Partners, LBO France, Paris Saclay Seed Funds, BNP Paribas Développement and Idinvest Partners in the round. Daniel Wang, head of TUS' European subsidiary, will join the board.

Country Archer Jerky Co., a San Bernandino, Calif.-based producer of jerky and meat sticks, completed a $12 million Series C round from Monogram Capital Partners.

SteelEye Ltd., a London- and Paris-based compliance technology and data analytics provider, nabbed $10 million in Series A funding. Eight Roads led the investment, with participation from existing backer Illuminate Financial.

Negotiatus Corp., a New York-based startup that automates purchasing for businesses, snagged a $10 million Series A round. Rally Ventures led the investment, with Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, 645 Ventures, Green Visor Capital and Stage 2 Capital also participating.

Unmind Ltd., a London-based workplace mental health platform, also raised a $10 million Series A round. Project A led the investment, with participation from Felix Capital.

Docugami, a Kirkland, Wash.-based business document management provider, was seeded with a $10 million investment. SignalFire led the round, and was joined by  NextWorld Capital and others. Bob Muglia, former chief executive of Snowflake, will join the board.

iDonate, a Plano, Texas-based digital giving software startup, collected an $8.7 million investment led by PerformanceEdge Partners.

• FTC expands antitrust investigation into big tech. 
   

• T-Mobile, Sprint deal wins approval, reshaping industry.

• U.S. officials say Huawei can covertly access telecom networks.

• Samsung Galaxy S20 first look: Crazy cameras and 5G in every phone.

• How the CIA used Crypto AG encryption devices to spy on countries for decades (Washington Post)
   

• Airbus unveils 'blended wing body' plane design designed to slash carbon emissions by some 20%. (Reuters)

• Spotify pays $250 million for Ringer in podcasting drive. (Bloomberg)

• Netflix dominates viewing on TVs over all other streaming services. (CNET)

• Dead Sea grows dates from 2000-year-old seeds. (Science)

We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Tomio Geron, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Heather Mack, Katie Roof and Marc Vartabedian.

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