Lyft unveils its S-1 and nearly $1B in 2018 lossesThe day has finally come. U.S. ride-hailing giant Lyft has unveiled its S-1, the official document required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. The San Francisco-headquartered business will debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol “LYFT.” JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will lead the initial public offering expected to value Lyft at upwards of $20 billion, a significant leap from its most recent private valuation of $15.1 billion. [ Tech Crunch ] This $550M fund is bringing green tech from the West to China, despite trade tensionsEscalating trade frictions between the U.S. and China have a range of businesses and investors in both countries sweating, but some believe there remains a bright spot where the antagonists can find common ground — fighting environmental issues. One of them is the U.S.-China Green Fund, which does exactly as the name suggests — financing projects in the U.S. (and the west in general) and China that yield both financial and environmental returns. The fund recently closed its maiden fund of 3.7 billion yuan ($550 million) and has already started to raise a second and larger yuan fund, it told TechCrunch. [ Tech Crunch ] Lyft’s IPO Filing Finally Drops: Here’s What You Need To KnowRidehailing company Lyft has finally formally filed to go public, according to a Friday morning S-1 filing. The document listed a placeholder $100 million figure for the offering. While the media and the ride-hailing industry has long expected both Uber and Lyft to go public, Lyft beating its larger, more globally-minded rival to the punch is notable. Lyft’s announcement is historic in that it is the first US ridehailing company to go public. [ Crunchbase ] Tarana Burke, 'Me Too' Founder: ' This is a movement led by and for survivors of sexual violence'Andy Serwer of Yahoo Finance sits down with 'Me Too' Founder Tarana Burke to discuss what inspired her to start the movement to help survivors of sexual violence. Lyft’s IPO filing shows how founders create their own supremacy in Silicon ValleyYou wouldn’t know that there is a growing public backlash to the power of Silicon Valley founders at companies like Facebook if you looked at the newest to-be-public company: Lyft. Lyft’s 250-page IPO filing with the SEC on Friday, March 1, revealed a company going to extreme lengths to empower its founders and insulate them from any outside investor control, setting up a stock structure that will ensure they — like Mark Zuckerberg — will have near-total control of the company’s future. [ Re/Code ] India’s Ola raises $56 million in funding for dedicated EV unitOla, Uber’s chief rival in India, has raised $56 million in funding for its dedicated EV unit. The unit is called Ola Electric Mobility and it will operate as an independent business. Tiger Global and Matrix India and other backers invested Rs. 400 crore ($56 million) into the unit, according to Ola. In 2018, Ola announced plans to put 1 million electric vehicles on Indian roads by 2022. [ Electrek ] As The Delivery Wars Heat Up, Grofers Snags $60M More For Groceries In IndiaThird Rock Ventures launched Maze Therapeutics with $191 million in committed capital and a mission to “translate genetic insights into new medicines.” The biotech aims to make sense of the proliferation of human genetic data that has emerged in recent years and understand how some genes provide protection against disease so that they can be targeted with drugs. [ Crunchbase ] Zum zips off with $40M for kid-friendly ridehailingOne of the worst nightmares for a parent is having to rush out of an important work meeting to pick up your children after school. In a world dominated by Uber, Lyft and a myriad of other transportation startups geared toward adults, kids needed a ridehailing app of their own. [ Pitchbook ] Exclusive: Human Ventures elevates its woman-led startup studio with a $50 million debut fundAt Human Ventures, the white, male founders of the PayPal Mafia–the nickname for a group of all-male PayPal alumni that includes Peter Thiel and Elon Musk–don’t serve as the sole prototype for a successful entrepreneur. But the New York-based startup studio does believe in the collective power of finding–or creating–your own “mafia.” [ Fast Company ] 500 Startups announces its Miami Unity and Inclusion Summit500 Startups announces its upcoming Unity and Inclusion Summit in Miami, designed to gather entrepreneurs, investors, and the tech community. [ sociable ] Two Chairs nabs $7M for its client-therapist matching app and brick-and-mortar clinicsThe future of healthcare isn’t entirely digital. For encounters as intimate as the client-therapist dynamic, a face-to-face relationship is still key. For those able to afford tech-enabled therapy services, Two Chairs, a San Francisco-headquartered mental healthcare business, may be of interest. The startup believes in the power of in-person therapy, as opposed to the new variety of affordable digital tools meant to replace or coexist with therapy services. Today, the
company is announcing a $7 million Maveron-led Series A financing to open additional brick-and-mortar clinics and build out its client-therapist matching app, which leverages technology to pair its customers with a therapist best-tailored to their needs. [ Tech Crunch ] Why is the wedding industry so hard to disrupt?Zola, the e-commerce platform reinventing wedding registries by allowing couples to register for products from hundreds of brands — as well as for “experiences” or cash — is the first successful wedding industry startup since the founding of the wedding-planning website the Knot in 1996. It’s currently worth $650 million, following a new $100 million funding round led by Comcast Ventures, NBCUniversal, and Goldman Sachs. It’s the first successful tech startup in the wedding space ever. [ VOX ] Cloud Elements raises $25 million to expand its API integration platformIf you’re building an app that integrates with a number of popular services, wouldn’t you rather write one API than a few dozen? Cloud Elements, a Denver-based startup that is solving this problem, today announced it has raised $25 million in series C funding to expand its API integration platform. [ Venture Beat ] Infibeam to Invest $35 Mn to Build A Blockchain enabled Fintech PlatformAhmedabad-based internet and e-commerce conglomerate Infibeam Avenues is investing Rs 250 crore (~ US$35.25 million) to build a back-end blockchain enabled fintech platform catering to BFSIs, SMBs, and corporates, reported Economic Times. [ indianweb2 ] Contrast Security raises $65 million for agent-based cybersecurityHackers attack personal computers every 39 seconds. That’s according to a Clark School study at the University of Maryland, which found that malicious campaigns against networks and accounts affect one in three Americans annually. Corporations have it nearly as bad: 64 percent faced web-based breaches recently. And the damage adds up. Juniper Research reports that cybercrime will cost businesses a total of over $2 trillion in 2019. [ Venture Beat ] It’s a new era for fertility techOver the past year, we’ve written a lot about the rise of supergiant venture capital funds. Ever since the rollout of the $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, established VCs have been outdoing each other to raise ever-bigger funds. [ Tech Crunch ] E907 Syndicate Showcase: Jason shares portfolio co's; 15Five, Growth Boulevard, STEEZY, WhereBy.UsThe Syndicate Showcase: Jason shares 4 portfolio startups & why he invested; founders present product, achievements & updates since syndication, w/ 15Five (employee performance management) , Growth Boulevard (growth & content marketing tools), Steezy (online dance with top instructors), and WhereBy.Us (local newsletter & media network) Should Your Startup Employ Both Assisted and Unassisted Trials to Acquire Customers?A founder posed me a question earlier this week: Do you have any data/perspective on whether it’s worth keeping the unassisted free trial flow vs. providing only one path which leads to a demo and an assisted free trial? This is a complex question. Let’s break it down. [ Tomasz Tunguz ] Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: What to Expect NextIt has been a wild ride for a cryptocurrency market that may not yet have hit bottom, scalding countless individuals and some big name investors. Yet blockchain—the technology upon which most cryptocurrencies are built—gained a strategic foothold in 2018 as an investment of the future for many blue-chip companies. How will crypto markets and their related technologies fare in the year ahead? Can blockchain companies with differentiated business models separate themselves from the pack? Is Bitcoin too slow to compete with the next wave of crypto competitors (such as stablecoins), or will it, as predicted by some name-brand investors, soar to new heights in the years
ahead? Security Markets: The Lay of the LandAs everything that used to be just a "dumb object" now increasingly has coding in it -- from phones to fridges to door knobs -- what are the security challenges that are coming to the industry as a whole? This overview of the current security landscape by a16z operating partner (and former Box CSO) Joel de la Garza maps out the macro trends impacting the industry and where they are going; how the adversaries are changing and what that means for biggest threats and how we will manage them; what the main causes of breaches are, and the biggest security spends; and finally, what will shape the security trends of the future. [ a16z ] |