Good day. Shield AI, a startup developing software that’s designed to replace human military drone operators with autonomous systems, raised $90 million in a funding round. The Series C financing was led by Point72 Ventures.

San Diego-based Shield is also developing drones designed for military purposes. Shield’s drones and software have been used by the U.S. military for intelligence-gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance in conflict zones for the last several years, Shield spokesman Adi Raval said. Shield’s software systems can be applied to unmanned vehicles and systems operating on land, sea and air, another spokesman, Weston Floyd, said.

The deal raises Shield’s total capital raised to $140 million since it was founded in 2015 by former Navy Seal Brandon Tseng and two others.

Drone startups with military applications have been gaining traction. Anduril Industries Inc. raised a $200 million Series C round last year in a deal led by Andreessen Horowitz. Anduril has had contracts with the U.S. Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

And now on to the news...

Fresh Capital. Codecademy, a platform that teaches coding online, is looking to capitalize on increased reliance on remote learning over the past year with $40 million in new funding, WSJ Pro’s Isaac Taylor reports.

• The Series D round for the education-technology startup was led by Owl Ventures with investments from Prosus and Union Square Ventures. It was the company’s first fundraise since 2016, when it collected $30 million in a Series C round.
   
• The pandemic has driven a surge in ed-tech. Venture-capital and private-equity firms targeting the sector helped raise roughly $2.2 billion for U.S. ed-tech startups across 130 deals last year, according to research firm EdSurge Inc., up from $1.7 billion in 2019.

Morgan Stanley is betting a partnership in Silicon Valley will lead to new long-term clients for its wealth-management business, The Wall Street Journal’s Justin Baer reports. The bank said on Tuesday that it struck a deal with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to take over the stock plans the law firm manages for thousands of clients. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Startups often offer stock as part of an employee’s pay. Wilson Sonsini created its own stock-plan software decades ago to help clients track the value of their employees’ holdings as companies matured from early-stage startups and raised outside money to finance their growth.

Financial services firm Cowen Inc. has amassed more than $1.1 billion to make sustainable investments, including $919 million raised for its first sponsored fund to pursue the strategy, WSJ Pro's Ted Bunker reports. The New York investment manager has closed its Cowen Sustainable Investments I LP fund, which it plans to invest in such sectors as clean transportation, renewable energy and sustainable food production. The strategy is designed to leverage co-investments to provide hundreds of millions of dollars per deal, according to a news release.

Funds

Lightbank closed its second fund with $180 million in commitments. With the new fund, the Chicago-based firm will continue to make pre-seed to Series A investments in sectors including internet, software, climate tech and consumer brands, with a focus on startups located between the East and West coasts of the U.S. In conjunction with the Lightbank II LP fund close, Matt Sacks will join the firm as a venture partner. He previously founded Luminary Media and was a principal at New Enterprise Associates.

People

NewView Capital appointed James Beck as chief operating officer. He was previously managing director and chief operating officer at Mayfield. Burlingame, Calif.-based NewView recently participated in funding rounds for 401(k) provider Human Interest Inc., genetic testing provider 23andMe Inc. and fraud detection-software startup Forter Ltd.

Cloud security startup Lacework Inc. named David “Hat” Hatfield to the post of chairman and chief executive. Additionally, former CEO Dan Hubbard is now chief product officer and Ulfar Erlingsson joins the company as chief architect. Mr. Hatfield was previously president, and more recently vice chairman, of Pure Storage Inc. Mr. Erlingsson joins Lacework from Apple. Last month, Lacework raised a $525 million growth round at a valuation of over $1 billion from investors including Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Coatue Management and Dragoneer Investment Group.

Payments startup Finix named Fiona Taylor as chief operating officer, Ramana Satyavarapu as chief technology officer and Adam Boushie as senior vice president of revenue. Ms. Taylor was most recently senior vice president of operations at Marqeta. Mr. Satyavarapu was previously head of data platforms and products at Two Sigma. Mr. Boushie was chief revenue officer at Gloo. San Francisco-based Finix has raised over $100 million in funding from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, American Express Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Homebrew and Inspired Capital.

Exits

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based LogicMonitor, an infrastructure monitoring and observability platform backed by private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners, acquired Airbrake, an application performance and code-level error monitoring software provider. Terms weren’t disclosed. San Francisco-based Airbrake was backed by investors including Elsewhere Partners.

Renaissance Learning Inc., a provider of pre-K–12 personalized practice and assessment tools, agreed to acquire lesson planning startup Nearpod for an undisclosed amount. Renaissance is backed by private-equity firms Francisco Partners and Private Equity Holding. Nearpod counts Insight Venture Partners, Reach Capital, Storm Ventures, GSV Ventures, Krillion Ventures and StartX as backers.

Plume, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based smart home technology provider, closed a $270 million Series E investment from Insight Partners, giving the company a $1.35 billion valuation. The company is also backed by investors including Jackson Square Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Presidio Ventures, Shaw Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank and UpBeat Venture Partners. Ryan Hinkle, managing director at Insight Partners, will join Plume’s board.

ScienceLogic, a Reston, Va.-based IT operations management provider, raised $105 million in Series E funding. Silver Lake Waterman led the round, which included participation from Goldman Sachs, Intel Capital and NewView Capital.

Aviatrix, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of networking and security services to multicloud enterprises, picked up a $75 million Series D investment led by General Catalyst. New investors Greenspring Associates, Meritech Capital and TrueBridge Capital Partners also participated in the round, along with existing backers CRV, Formation 8, Ignition and Liberty Global Ventures. Quentin Clark from General Catalyst will join the board.

PerimeterX Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based startup that protects against bot attacks, secured $57 million in growth capital funding led by AllianceBernstein. New investors Stereo Capital, JS Capital and Golden Arc Capital also joined in the round, alongside previous backers Adams Street Partners, Canaan Partners, DTCP, Scale Venture Partners and Vertex Ventures US.

VidMob Inc., a New York-based provider of tools and services for marketers to create and improve their digital advertising, completed a $50 million Series C round from Adobe Inc., Shutterstock Inc., Drive by DraftKings, Spruce House Partnership, Prefix Capital, BuildGroup, Interlock Partners, Macanta Investments and others. The new investment values the company at $290 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Shippo, a San Francisco-based shipping platform designed for ecommerce businesses, added $45 million in new funding, valuing the company at $500 million. Lead investor D1 Capital was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, Uncork Capital, Version One and others in the round.

Electric, a New York-based provider of IT technology and real-time support for small and medium-sized businesses, landed $40 million in Series C funding led by Greenspring Associates. Existing backers Bessemer Venture Partners, GGV Capital, 01 Advisors and Primary Venture Partners also participated in the round, in addition to new investors Atreides Management and Vintage Investment Partners.

Evisort Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based contract automation provider, snagged $35 million in Series B financing. General Atlantic led the round, with Operating Partner Gary Reiner joining the board. Amity Ventures, M12 and Vertex Ventures also participated in the investment.

Burrow, a New York-based direct-to-consumer furniture startup, completed a $25 million Series C round. Parkway Venture Capital led the funding, which included contributions from New Enterprise Associates, Red & Blue Ventures and Winklevoss Capital.

Wisetack, a San Francisco-based provider of consumer financing services, fetched $19 million in funding from Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures and others.

WiTricity, a Watertown, Mass.-based electric vehicle charging startup, added $18 million in funding to close its latest round at $52 million. Investors including Future Shape provided the new funding, with Stage 1 Ventures leading the October tranche.

Rows, a Berlin- and Portugal-based spreadsheet startup formerly known as dashdash, raised a $16 million Series B round. Lakestar led the investment, which included participation from Accel and Cherry Ventures. Stephen Nundy, partner at Lakestar, will join the board.

• Twitter’s high hopes for India waver under government’s heavy hand
   
• Tech stocks bounce back as rate fears ease
   
• More SolarWinds hack victims yet to be publicly identified, tech executives say
   
• Facebook reaches deal with Australia to restore news
   
• Google’s redesigned digital wallet tries to make payments feel more personal

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

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

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc, @ychernova, @BrianPGormley, @marcvarta.