Asana Crosses $100M ARR After Eight Quarters Of Accelerating GrowthLet’s explore some new numbers (and a product announce) from one of the quieter unicorns. This morning Asana, which has developed a work management and productivity suite, announced that it crossed the $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) threshold last year. The milestone occurred during a period of eight consecutive quarters of revenue growth acceleration, measured on a percentage basis, according to the company. [ Crunchbase ] YieldStreet raises $62M to democratise alternative investments in shipping, real estate and moreThere has been a wave of fintech startups emerging that make different kinds of investing more accessible to a wider pool of people, and today one of them has raised a substantial round of money to help fill out its mission. YieldStreet — which provides a platform for making alternative investments in areas like real estate, marine/shipping, legal finance, commercial loans, and other opportunities that in the past were only open to institutional investors — is today announcing that it has raised $62 million in a Series B round of funding. [ Tech Crunch ] Bridging the gap: How EQT Ventures aims to help startups cross the AtlanticAlastair Mitchell has been at the front line of all the ups and downs in the VC and startup ecosystem, from the dot-com bubble through the financial crisis and now, another impending downturn. In that time, he has founded, grown, exited and invested in a number of startups. [ Pitchbook ] Motif Ingredients Launches With $90M To Make Meatless ProteinBiotech unicorn Ginkgo Bioworks said today it’s launching a new spinoff called Motif Ingredients which will work on developing proteins that can serve as meat and dairy replacements. Boston-based Motif is starting out the gate with $90 million in Series A funding. In its statement about the new company, Ginkgo said Motif Ingredients will “leverage biotechnology to create novel solutions for foods.” Specifically, Motif will use biotechnology and fermentation – rather than animal agriculture – to “engineer dozens of proteins derived from dairy, egg and meat.” [ Crunchbase ] Bishop Fox Raises $25 Million from ForgePoint Capital to Accelerate Growth of Security Testing Services and Expansion of Research InitiativesBishop Fox, the largest private professional services firm focused on offensive security testing, announced today that it closed $25 million in Series A funding from ForgePoint Capital. The funding will allow Bishop Fox to grow its research capabilities and develop next generation offensive security technologies. In addition, Bishop Fox plans on hiring leading security researchers and testers and expanding the technical abilities of its team of elite security experts. [ PR news wire ] E906 Yes VC & Flickr's Caterina Fake explores tech's unintended consequences in "Should This Exist?"Caterina Fake, co-founder of Yes VC & Flickr, explores tech's unintended consequences in new podcast "Should This Exist?"; shares insights on community building, founder skills, the zebra movement, the future of capitalism & funding startups that embody creativity & expression Search marketing company Botify raises $20MBotify, a search engine optimization company that works with customers like Expedia and Nike, announced today that it has raised $20 million in Series B funding. Co-founder and CEO Adrien Menard said that the opportunity in SEO is “even bigger now than in the past,” and that the problem is a much broader problem than many realize. “Most people think about SEO in terms of keyword optimization, but more than 50 percent of the pages in large websites are not being indexed,” he said. So Botify can identify which pages aren’t being crawled by Google and make recommendations on how to better organize content. [ Tech Crunch ] ThirdLove, A Bra Company Taking On Victoria's Secret, Raises $55 MillionThirdLove, a San Francisco-based upstart that sells bras and underwear over the internet, has raised $55 million to build out its sizes and product offerings. The funding round was led by L. Catterton and Allen & Company, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Other investors include prominent women like 23andMe cofounder Anne Wojcicki, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and journalist Katie Couric. Former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong also participated in the round. This brings the company's total funding to $68 million. [ Forbes ] Insight Venture Buys Portfolio From Israel-Based Venture Firm Genesis PartnersIt takes a lot more than a good idea and the right timing to build a billion-dollar company. Talent, focus, operational effectiveness and a healthy dose of luck are all components of a successful tech startup. Many of the most successful (or, at least, highest-valued) tech unicorns today didn’t get there alone. [ Calcalis tech ] Warren Buffett on what he plans to do with his Kraft Heinz shares and 3G CapitalIn an interview with CNBC's Becky Quick, Berkshire Hathaway's Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett says he would like to still be invested in Kraft Heinz five to ten years from now, though he thinks that 3G Captial misjudged how competition would evolve in the sector. Dipsea raises $5.5M for short-form, sexy audio storiesA new wave of female-led businesses wants to help women get off. Dipsea, an app-based platform for short-form erotic audio stories, is the latest to grab funding from venture capital investors. The female-founded, San Francisco-headquartered startup, which officially launched in December, has raised $5.5 million in a round led by Bedrock Capital and Thrive Capital. The funding comes amid a notable explosion in interest and investment in audio content consumption and creation, as well as an uptick in AirPod sales, easily removable wireless earbuds that encourage listeners to enjoy snackable audiolike Dipsea’s erotica. [ Tech Crunch ] SafeSize scores €10 million for its ‘personalised shoe fitting solution’Amsterdam-based ‘footwear recommendation technology’ (I too had to do a double take) startup SafeSize has raised €10 million in a Series B round of funding. The fresh cash comes from prior backers 3TS Capital Partners and Convent Capital, as well as additional but unnamed ‘strategic investors’. [ Tech.eu ] Blossom Capital raises $85M fund to do ‘high conviction’ Series A investing in EuropeBlossom Capital, the venture capital firm co-founded by ex-Index Ventures and LocalGlobe VC Ophelia Brown, is announcing that it has raised an $85 million fund to invest in European tech startups at the Series A stage. LPs in the new fund, which TechCrunch reported early details of 12 months ago, are said to span leading institutional investors, as well as high-profile tech entrepreneurs. The latter includes Robinhood co-founder Vladimir Tenev and Zendesk founder Mikkel Svane. [ Tech Crunch ] German speech analysis startup i2x raises €10 millionBerlin-based real-time communications analysis and training startup i2x has landed a €10 million funding round led by UVC Partners and btov Partners, with participation from MS&AD Ventures, Asgard, and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. [ Mar tech series] Helping children overcome their mobility challenges, Trexo Robotics gets a Y Combinator boostManmeet Maggu and Rahul Udasi didn’t know it when they met at the University of Waterloo eleven years ago, but the bond that the two forged in late night study sessions as roommates in the UW Place dorm has helped power their work building an exoskeleton that allows children with disabilities to walk. The fruit of that labor is Trexo Robotics, which will graduate as part of the latest batch of Y Combinator’s winter 2019 cohort. [ Tech Crunch ] Business Intelligence Company Oribi Raises $7 MillionTel Aviv-based business intelligence startup Oribi Ltd. has announced Monday the closing of a $7 million round led by Israel-based S Capital LP, with the participation of existing investors Sequoia Capital and TLV Partners. The company previously raised $5.4 million according to Crunchbase. [ Calcalis tech] Venture Capital tour makes stop in MichianaOn the fourth floor of the Citizens Bank building on Jefferson Boulevard in downtown, Max Brickman and the Heartland Ventures team are working to flip the script on venture capital. The venture capital firm, which is partnered with Great Lakes Capital, Notre Dame and Bradley Company, works to fund startup companies in Silicon Valley that are planning to do business or relocate to the Midwest. So far, Heartland Ventures has a stake in five technology businesses. [ South bend tribune ] Inc. Uncensored: Why Being Busy Shouldn't Be a Marker of SuccessWelcome to the 209th episode of the Inc. Uncensored podcast, hosted by Inc.'s editor in chief, James Ledbetter. First, Inc. editor-at-large Kimberly Weisul breaks down a new study from the nonpartisan Center for American Entrepreneurship, which found that gender-diverse founding teams received 21 percent of first financings from venture firms in 2017, up from 7 percent in 2005. In other words: The VC playing field is finally getting more level for female founders. [ INC ] The Free Trial Survey on the Saastr Podcast and Hitting a Blogging MilestoneLast week, the dynamic Harry Stebbings and I recorded episode 213 of the Saastr podcast, where we discussed the learnings from the free trial survey in a bit more detail. Harry’s a wonderful interviewer, and moves effortlessly from topic to topic. I made him laugh once later in the show when I told him about the last book I read. Normally, he’s the one making me laugh. [ Tomasz Tunguz ] Main preferential policies for venture capital fundIn recent years, venture capital funds have witnessed rapid growth in China and become one of the key financing channels for numerous innovative micro and small enterprises. Compared with other private investment funds, venture capital funds enjoy more benefits in terms of tax policies, divestment, shareholding reduction and lockup policies. [ Vantage Asia ] Honest Company Alum Raises $8 Million for ‘Natural’ Perfume StartupMost venture capitalists probably aren’t looking at perfume deals. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for fresh thinking in the fragrance industry—especially for startups tapping into the growing appetite for all things “natural.” [ Fortune ] Vast Data raises $40 million for ‘exabyte-scale’ enterprise storageSmartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, and internet of things devices generate more data today than at any time in history — close to 2.5 quintillion bytes, some say. But we’re woefully unequipped to process and analyze that data, according to Jeff Denworth, Renen Hallak, and Shachar Fienblit. They’re the cofounders of Vast Data, a company founded on the premise that enterprise storage platforms — platforms that by and large tap segregated, independent clusters that don’t explicitly share bits among themselves —
are fundamentally broken. Vast is instead developing a disaggregated, shared-everything (DASE) architecture that promises not only improved robustness compared with conventional alternatives, but greater scalability at a lower operating cost. [ Venture Beat ] |