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Pandemic to Propel Hospital-at-Home Services, Boosting Telehealth
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By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Hospitals next year will aim to deliver more care outside their walls as they seek to stem losses triggered by the pandemic, a trend that will bolster startups that can help them make this shift, according to Forrester Research Inc.
Hospitals’ financial pressures have mounted this year as the pandemic has made many patients chary about visiting medical centers. That will accelerate hospitals’ effort to introduce hospital-at-home services enabled by tools such as remote-monitoring devices and telehealth, Forrester predicts.
In line to benefit will be startups providing technology and services to help hospitals move patients with certain conditions, such as heart failure, to their home, said senior analyst Arielle Trzcinski. They include Boston-based Medically Home Group Inc., which creates a temporary hospital unit in the patient’s home.
Hospitals recognize medical as well as financial benefits to letting patients recover where they live, such reduced exposure to infections, Ms. Trzcinski said.
One hurdle is that insurers must decide to cover these services and ensure their members are aware of this option, she said. But she added that the cost savings this option can offer will appeal as much to insurers as they do to hospitals and patients.
And now on to the news...
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Scopely’s Scrabble GO game. PHOTO: SCOPELY INC.
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New money. Scopely Inc., a mobile gaming company, has joined a parade of game developers taking advantage of a boom in both videogame playing and cash-raising as the pandemic keeps people on their phones and gaming consoles, WSJ Pro's Isaac Taylor reports.
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Earlier this month, Scopely raised $340 million in a later-stage Series E fundraising, giving it a post-money valuation of $3.3 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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The value of private-equity deals in the videogame sector, including from venture capital, reached a lofty $2.63 billion as of mid-September this year, according to PitchBook Data Inc.; the total for all of last year was $688 million.
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77%
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Share of local digital ad revenue controlled by Facebook and Google, cited in a congressional report published before tech chief executives are scheduled for a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday.
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Cyber-fraud-prevention Startup NS8 Files for Bankruptcy Protection
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Cyber-fraud-prevention startup NS8 Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday after its former chief executive was arrested on fraud charges last month and an investor put up $10 million to finance a litigation campaign over the company’s sudden collapse, WSJ Pro reports.
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Las Vegas-based NS8 said it would use the chapter 11 process to stave off a cash crunch while launching lawsuits against founder and former Chief Executive Adam Rogas and others who collected money from the company before it went under.
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A onetime darling of venture capitalists, NS8 let go most of its employees, numbering more than 200, when prosecutors accused Mr. Rogas of creating tens of millions of dollars in fictitious revenue and assets on financial statements. Lawyers for Mr. Rogas, who has pleaded not guilty, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday’s bankruptcy filing.
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Inside Ant, the Company Behind the World’s Biggest IPO
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Ant Group Co.’s initial public offering is poised to break global records for total funds raised. The company became the world’s most valuable startup after a fundraising round in mid-2018 that valued it at $150 billion, and could raise more than $34 billion with its coming listings and earn a valuation well in excess of $300 billion, WSJ reports. Ant grew out of an online escrow service called Alipay that was created in 2004 within online retailer Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s co-founder and then-chief executive later carved out the business. That led to an outcry from Alibaba’s foreign investors, before Mr. Ma created a way Alibaba would continue to profit.
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Secondary Market Trading Services Gain Steam
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Trading shares in private companies remains far from efficient and cheap today. New services looking to improve the process are lining up.
ClearList Holdings, majority-owned by electronic trading firm GTS, is one of the contenders. It has recently launched a cap-table management service. It’s also in the process of obtaining licenses with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to set up a secondary market for private shares, said Chief Executive Bill White.
ClearList’s goal is to bring the cost of selling shares of private companies “almost down to zero,” Mr. White said.
ClearList’s efforts are concurrent with those by venture-backed Carta, which has talked up its forthcoming secondary-market platform CartaX for a while.
Carta is making progress with regulators. It is now registered to operate as a broker-dealer in four states, most recently in Pennsylvania as of Monday, according to its regulator, Finra. Carta also has an alternative trading system license from the SEC, as of the end of September, according to that regulator.
Even as these companies are setting up to launch, their market is quickly changing. Going public fell out of favor for a while among tech entrepreneurs, making liquidity provided through secondary sales more needed. But that’s changing now with the IPO window wide open, and dozens of blank-check companies looking for acquisition targets.
There’s “great activity in capital markets,” Mr. White said. At the same time, demand for secondary trading continues, he said. Secondary trades conducted close to public listings could help companies get a better understanding of their current valuations, he said. That could help them better negotiate with special-purpose acquisition companies or establish a reference price in direct listings. —Yuliya Chernova
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Funds
IDEO CoLab Ventures raised a $21 million crypto fund backed by IDEO, CSAA Insurance Group, GS Group, Fineqia, and other institutional investors, as well as executives from IDEO, Coinbase, Twitter, Fortress, and other tech companies and financial institutions.
People
Portfolio Advisors is laying the groundwork for its next generation of leaders with three additions to its senior management team, WSJ Pro reports. Scott Higbee, Stephen Sloan and Brooks Lindberg have joined the Darien, Conn.-based firm as managing directors to help drive its future growth. All three have become part of the firm’s management committee alongside Brian Murphy, Adam Clemens and William Indelicato, who are also managing directors.
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Tel Aviv-based TechSee, which provides technology for remote customer service and technical assistance, has raised a $30 million Series C co-led by OurCrowd, Salesforce Ventures, and TELUS Ventures. Also participating was Scale Venture Partners and Planven Entrepreneur Ventures.
Strider Technologies, whose technology enables security teams to take a proactive approach to combating security threats across their personnel and supply chains, completed a $10 million Series A round. Koch Disruptive Technologies led the funding, which included contributions from One9 Ventures and DataTribe. Michael Palmer, president of Koch Industries subsidiary i360, will join Strider’s board. Strider has offices in Washington D.C. and Salt Lake City.
Pulley, a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of cap table management tools, snagged a $10 million Series A round. Stripe led the funding, which included support from Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, 8VC and others.
Mine, a Tel Aviv-based data privacy startup, landed $9.5 million in Series A funding. Gradient Ventures led the round, with participation from e.ventures, MassMutual Ventures, and existing investors Battery Ventures and Saban Ventures.
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Lisa Su, chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices, presenting at a company event in Las Vegas, in January. PHOTO: BRIDGET BENNETT/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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AMD agrees to buy rival chip maker Xilinx for $35 billion
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Twitter’s Jack Dorsey in times of turmoil
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Google case is déjà vu for Justice Department’s no. 2 official
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Facebook’s top public policy executive in India steps down
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Inside Apple’s eroding partnership with Foxconn (The Information)
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Tech chief executives to defend key law in front of U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday (Reuters)
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Apple buys self-learning AI video company to improve apps (Bloomberg)
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