1.
SoftBank pours $100M into Mexico’s Konfio
Three months after Goldman Sachs lent $100 million to Mexican fintech Konfio, SoftBank has invested another $100 million into the financial services company. The investment confirms Reuters’ August report that SoftBank was in advanced talks with the startup — now one of the most heavily funded fintechs in Mexico. SoftBank is continuing to expand its Mexican portfolio, which now includes used car buying platform Kavak and payments startup
Clip. Aside from Mexico, SoftBank has primarily focused its $5 billion Latin America fund on Brazil — and recently marked its entry into Argentina with an injection into financial services company Uala in a $150 million investment co-led by Tencent. [ Tech Crunch ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
2.
2020 Democrats on who controls your data — and who’s at fault when it’s mishandled
3.
Alfred Lin, the Sequoia VC and former Zappos COO, thinks this retail startup could be a generation-defining brand
When the storied venture firm Sequoia likes a deal, it will sometimes not only lead one of its financing rounds but fund it exclusively — no matter how that impacts earlier investors. Given the firm’s powerful brand, it’s hard to complain (too much), even if it means that earlier backers see their stakes diluted. Such looks to be the case with Dolls Kill, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based online boutique for “misfits” and “miss
legits,” that began selling platform shoes and other club-type clothing and has apparently grown like a weed, alongside the festivals that its customers attend, from Burning Man to Coachella. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
4.
Bill.com is a refreshingly boring tech IPO
Bill.com is a unicorn among unicorns. The company’s IPO filing shows no scandals, no excesses, no exaggerated market sizes, no made-up metrics and no founder control. In comparison to recent unicorn IPO filings such as Uber and WeWork, Bill.com seems pretty unexciting—except that it appears to be a well-run, growing business. In this age when even companies with “Boring” in their name are outlandish, a good, solid, boring business makes Bill.com stand out. [ QZ ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
5.
AI-based CRM co Gong raises $65m at $750m valuation
The round was led by Sequoia Capital. Sequoia partner Carl Eschenbach has joined Gong’s board of directors. Herzliya-based revenue intelligence company Gong, has announced that it has raised $65 million in a Series C round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from existing investors Battery Ventures, which led the company's previous two rounds, Norwest Venture Partners, Shlomo Kramer, Wing Venture Capital, NextWorld Capital, and Cisco Investments. This brings the total amount raised by the company to $134 million. Industry sources told "Globes" that the round was at a company valuation of $750 million. [
globes ]Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
6.
Immune-Drug Developer IFM Therapeutics Adds $55.5 Million
Venture capitalists invested $55.5 million in entities launched by biotechnology startup IFM Therapeutics LLC, betting on a business strategy that has led to two deals with Novartis AG this year. Boston-based IFM develops drugs that modulate the innate arm of the immune system to treat diseases. It houses each drug program in its own subsidiary. This way, a corporate partner can strike a deal to acquire access to a specific drug program without taking on nonstrategic
assets. [ WSJ ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
7.
Accel Closes $550 Million Venture Fund for Indian Startups
Accel has closed its sixth India fund with $550 million to invest in early stage startups, taking advantage of a booming market for technology.The capital will be invested across “one of the most vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems in the world,” Accel said in a statement on Monday. The firm will focus on startups in social commerce, curated marketplaces and artificial intelligence for health care. The Silicon Valley venture capital firm raised its first
Indian fund in 2005. At the time, just 1 in 50 Indians had access to the internet and a small fraction had mobile phones, the firm said. Now nearly half the country is online and 150 million people make payments online. [ Blommberg ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
8.
How to Fix the Co-Founder Fights You’re Sick of Having — Lessons from Couples Therapist Esther Perel
This article is by psychotherapist, bestselling author, TED Speaker and podcast host Esther Perel. This fall, she launched a new Spotify podcast, "How’s Work?" which allows listeners to eavesdrop on one-time therapy sessions with colleagues, co-workers and co-founders. Here, she draws on decades of experience working as a couples therapist and organizational consultant for Fortune 500 companies to shine a
spotlight on co-founder relationships, conflicts and critical tools for repair. [ Firstround ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
9.
Eclectic Convergence 2019: A Fireside Chat with Rebecca Kaden
Katerra Inc., a modular construction startup, got an $865 million cash infusion from investors led by SoftBank Group Corp. last year. Now, the company is shutting down a factory in Phoenix and cutting 200 jobs. The move will shift Katerra’s
manufacturing away from Phoenix and into its highly automated and lower-cost factory in Tracy, California. The transition will help the company grow more quickly in the U.S. and overseas, said Katerra Chief Executive Officer Michael Marks. It will also put the startup on track to turn an operating profit by the end of next year, and to double revenue to about $4 billion, he added. [ Bloomberg ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
10.
Rapyd, which offers fintech-as-a-service via a single API, adds $20M more to its coffers at a $1.2B valuation
One of the biggest trends in the world of financial technology has been an ongoing push towards consolidation, where larger fish are snapping up smaller fish (including a proliferation of interesting startups) to get improved economies of scale in a business model where every transaction brings incremental returns. But today, a startup that has built the concept of consolidation into its basic DNA has raised another round of funding to continue doubling down on its business. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
11.
Consumer credit scoring is the latest African fintech sector to get funding with $20 million for Migo
The latest Africa-focused fintech player to receive investor backing is one that largely focuses on enabling establishment corporations rather than disrupting them. Migo, a fintech startup offering credit-as-a service to large companies, has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Brazil-focused venture firm, Valor Capital Group. The round also saw participation from existing investors including The Rise Fund and Velocity Capital. It follows a $13 million Series A round in
August last year. [ QZ ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
12.
Reflections from Four Decades in Venture and What’s Next: How Will the 2020s Impact the Venture Capital Industry?
Over the last 23 years, I have seen venture capital evolve from a small apprenticeship business to a global economic engine. I’ve witnessed the irrational exuberance of the 1990s bubble, the crash of 2000 and slower than expected recovery, the brief but powerful “RIP” financial crisis of 2009, and the unprecedented 10-year bull market of the 2010s — fueled by a significant expansion in the venture capital TAM (i.e. companies staying private longer) and a corresponding increase in LP funds flowing into the industry. [ Medium ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
13.
The Shift Technology story: Fixing insurers' issues ⚔️with Jeremy Jawish, CEO
Fraud is certainly one of the biggest challenges insurance companies face today. Being able to detect if a claim is legit or not is hard & costly. Shift takes this pain away, giving insurers a tool to detect fraud with 75% accuracy and the keys to make the best possible claim decisions.
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
14.
Why We Need Bitcoin | Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Bitcoin is multifaceted. Some treat Bitcoin as a speculative tool for growing wealth, others as a way of avoiding financial censorship from traditional payment channels, and some use it as a way of claiming their monetary sovereignty and removing power from the banks and state. Checkout 15K+ Venture
Capital Data on our platform.
15.
Commentary: Venture capital-funded disruptors continue to change the logistics landscape
FreightWaves has reported that investors are still bullish on the digital freight business and the newly released numbers seem to validate their sentiment. Research firm Armstrong & Associates estimated the domestic transportation management market generated $86.5 billion in revenue this past year. And a growing percentage of that yearly revenue number comes from newly created digital platforms. [ freight waves ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
16.
How This Founder Raised Venture Capital -- Before She Built Her Debut Product
As an interior designer, Nicole Gibbons was used to friends asking for decorating advice. And in 2016, one needed help selecting paint, so Gibbons consulted a well-regarded brand’s website -- and found it impossible to navigate. The lightbulb went off: She could create a direct-to-consumer paint brand that offered a curated range of colors, an algorithm to point shoppers toward their ideal shade, and a simplified way to sample hues. But her interior design business was already a full-time job, so Gibbons didn’t move forward until, she says, “I woke up on New Year’s Day 2017 and was like, It’s now or never.” Here’s how she
went on to build Clare, raising money before she ever had a product to sell. [ Entrepreneur ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
17.
30 Under 30 Venture Capital 2020: Meet The Young Investors Backing Tech’s Next Big Thing
For the next game-changing companies from blockchain to cannabis and space travel comes a new generation of talented young venture capitalists ready to help them defy the expected. The investors of the 30 Under 30 List for Venture Capital in 2020 hail from big firms and small, worked their way up the ranks of some of the industry’s toughest shops and set out on their own to launch new funds. But whether they’ve backed dozens of companies already or just several strategic bets, the Under 30 List members for Venture Capital share a common bond: their own entrepreneurial spirit to continue to challenge the status quo. [ Forbes ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
18.
Non-obvious fundraising tips from a Silicon Valley outsider
When it comes to workplace productivity and communication apps, it can often feel like Slack, Trello and Asana have the market cornered. But Aydin Mirzaee saw past the crowded space. In his previous work, Aydin often found himself wishing for a better feedback and productivity tool — and one that catered specifically to people managing a team. In 2017, he and his co-founders began working on Fellow, based in Ottawa. [ Tech Crunch ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
19.
Cuvva raises £15M Series A to launch flexible monthly car insurance
Cuvva, the app-based insurance provider that began life offering pay-as-you-go driving cover but has since expanded to also sell travel insurance, has raised £15 million in Series A funding. Backing comes from RTP Global, Breega and Digital Horizon, joining existing investors LocalGlobe, Techstars Ventures, Tekton and Seedcamp. A number of angels also joined the round, including Dominic Burke, the CEO of Jardine Lloyd Thompson, and Faisal Galaria, the former chief strategy and investments officer of GoCompare. Launched in 2016 when founder Freddy Macnamara (pictured) become frustrated he couldn’t let others drive his car intermittently because of lack of insurance cover, Cuvva was an early pioneer of pay-as-you-go car insurance. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
20.
China Digest: Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund backs Lynk; Hui-Gene nabs $14m
MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and Wavemaker Partners have invested in knowledge-as-a-service (KaaS) company Lynk while gene therapy biopharmaceutical firm Hui-Gene has gathered over 100 million yuan ($14 million) in its Series A funding round. [ Deal Street Asia ]
|