|
|
|
|
|
Boundless Life Raises Capital to Encourage Remote Living
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good day. As many companies push employees to return to the office, Boundless Life has raised a seed round to allow families to live and work remotely in scenic spots around the globe.
The Montreal-based company recently secured $2 million from backers including IDEA Fund Partners and CUBD Ventures. The company also received funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital.
Founded in 2021, Boundless Life plans to use the new capital to open its first four communities in destinations that include Greece and Italy. The first location—in Sintra, Portugal—opened in January with 30 turn-key homes.
The communities come with housing, office space, education, childcare and activities for remote-working families, said Marcos Carvalho, one of the company’s founders. “All they have to do is go from one destination to another and experience that new destination while staying connected,” he added.
Boundless Life offers one-, three- and 12-month packages with prices starting at roughly $2,500 a month. The company leases homes from owners, on average for about five years. It offers co-working space to parents and education to their children, ages one to 12, based on the Finnish school system.
“As remote work has exploded, several companies have looked at creating experiences for singles but no one was addressing the complexities of being a digitally nomadic family,” said Christopher Langford, a partner at IDEA Fund Partners. “Boundless is the first company to empower families to live a more culturally rich and community-centric lifestyle throughout the world.”
Boundless Life has about 30 employees and expects to increase that number to 80 by the end of the year.
And now on to the news...
|
|
|
|
|
|
An array of cryptocurrency representations against U.S. dollar banknotes.
PHOTO: DADO RUVIC/REUTERS
|
|
|
|
New crypto fund. Volt Capital has raised a $50 million fund for early-stage crypto investments, joining a heap of funds raised in the beleaguered sector in recent weeks, WSJ Pro's Vipal Monga reports.
-
The firm’s second fund is five times as large as its first, and includes as investors Andreessen Horowitz general partners Chris Dixon and Marc Andreessen, tech entrepreneur Elad Gil, Union Square Ventures managing partner Albert Wenger and the firms Tiger Global Management and Brevan Howard, among others.
-
Based in San Francisco, Volt is part of a rush of new crypto funds raising money during a meltdown that has sent currencies like bitcoin skidding.
-
Today’s rocky environment is fertile soil for early-stage investors in crypto, says Volt’s co-founder, Soona Amhaz. “We strongly believe now’s the time to be doubling down, amidst the market carnage,” she said.
|
|
|
SpaceX Shoots to $125 Billion Valuation
|
|
SpaceX raised a fresh round of funding as the company led by Elon Musk pushes forward with multibillion-dollar projects and faces rising costs, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company has raised at least $1.5 billion in its latest funding round, according to an investor. The financing values SpaceX at around $125 billion, the investor said. Last year, the company was valued at $100 billion, according to researcher PitchBook. In addition, SpaceX is offering to buy shares from existing stockholders, giving current and former staff a chance to cash out.
|
|
TA Associates Plots Quick Return to Fundraising Circuit
|
|
Veteran growth-investing firm TA Associates is plotting a return to the fundraising circuit with a new fund offering a little more than a year after raising $12.5 billion for a predecessor fund, according to people familiar with the matter, WSJ Pro reports. The firm informed its investors about the new fund at its annual investor meeting this week, the people said. The firm plans to begin the fundraising process in the fall of this year, they said. TA Associates, with U.S. offices in Boston and Menlo Park, Calif., did not disclose a target for the new fund to investors but it will likely be at least the $12.5 billion it collected for its predecessor fund, TA XIV, the people said.
|
|
|
|
|
Funds
Updata Partners, a growth equity firm focused on business-to-business software companies, closed on more than $608 million for its seventh fund. The Washington, D.C.-based firm’s largest-ever fund raises its committed capital to more than $1.5 billion.
Consumer-focused Maveron raised $225 million for its eighth fund. The firm also promoted Natalie Dillion to partner, Jerry Lu to principal, and named Grace Chou as partner.
Minneapolis-based Great North Ventures closed its second fund with $40 million in commitments. The new vehicle will make seed and Series A investments focusing on digital transformation through artificial intelligence, community-driven applications and solving labor problems. The firm, which was originally known as Great North Labs when it was founded in 2017, raised about $24 million for its debut fund.
People
Flying Fish Partners, which invests in the artificial intelligence and machine learning sectors primarily across the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, appointed Tiffany Linke-Boyko as principal in charge of Flying Fish's Canadian operations. She was previously chief executive of Startup Edmonton.
Menlo Ventures said Aunkur Arya joined the firm as a venture partner, where he will focus on fintech investments. Mr. Arya previously held leadership roles at Braintree, Paypal and Google.
San Francisco-based Ridge Ventures added Akriti Dokania as a partner. She spent the last four years at Octopus Ventures.
Fintech-focused Arbor Ventures appointed Peter Sanborn as the firm’s first general partner. He joins Arbor from PayPal.
Exits
Publicly-traded data-centric software company NetApp completed its acquisition of Instaclustr, a provider of open-source database, pipeline and workflow applications. Terms weren’t disclosed. Instaclustr is listed in the portfolios of Level Equity, OIF Ventures and Artesian Capital Management.
Climate-data startup Arcadia purchased utility data provider Urjanet for an undisclosed amount. Earlier this month, Arcadia said it landed a $200 million investment from backers including J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Triangle Peak Partners, Tiger Global Management, Salesforce Ventures, Camber Creek and others. Urjanet had raised funding from investors including Oak HC/FT, Grotech Ventures and Correlation Ventures.
|
|
|
|
Semperis, a Hoboken, N.J.-based provider of cybersecurity services for cross-cloud and hybrid environments, scored over $200 million in Series C funding. KKR & Co. led the round, which included participation from Ten Eleven Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, Tech Pioneers Fund and Insight Partners. Ben Pederson, director on KKR’s Tech Growth team, joined the company’s board.
Cribl Inc., a San Francisco-based observability data startup, landed $150 million in Series D financing. Tiger Global Management led the round, which included contributions from IVP, CRV, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners.
Mainspring Energy Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif.-based onsite zero-carbon power generation provider, raised more than $150 million in the first close of its Series E round. Lead investor Lightrock was joined by Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Fine Structure Ventures, Princeville Capital and Lineage Ventures in the new funding.
Monte Carlo Inc., a San Francisco-based data observability platform, secured $135 million in Series D funding from investors including IVP, Accel, GGV Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Iconiq Growth.
Flowcarbon, a climate technology company bringing carbon credits onto the blockchain, picked up a total of $70 million through a venture capital round and token sale. Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund led the round, which included support from General Catalyst, Samsung Next, Invesco Private Capital, RSE Ventures and Allegory Labs. Additional participants in the token sale included Fifth Wall and Box Group. Flowcarbon, which has offices in New York, Montana and Berlin, counts Adam Neumann as a co-founder.
BuildOps, a Los Angeles-based developer of management software for commercial contractors, snagged a $43 million Series A round. Led by Next47, the investment included participation from Founders Fund, StepStone Group, Fika Ventures, Global Founders Capital, MetaProp, 1984 Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures and others.
Rivery, a data management startup with offices in New York and Israel, secured $30 million in Series B financing. Tiger Global Management led the round, which saw additional support from State Of Mind Ventures and Entrée Capital.
Tidelift Inc., a Boston-based startup that manages open-source software supply chain health and security, nabbed $27 million in Series C funding. Dorilton Ventures led the round, with Daniel Freeman joining the company’s board. Additional investors in the funding included Kaiser Permanente, Atlassian Ventures, General Catalyst and Foundry Group.
SparkCharge, a Somerville, Mass.-based mobile electric vehicle charging network, grabbed $23 million in Series A funding led by Tale Venture Partners and Pendulum Holdings.
Nomagic, a Poland-based warehouse robotics startup, fetched a $22 million Series A round. Khosla Ventures, Almaz Capital and European Investment Bank led the investment, which included additional contributions from DN Capital, Manta Ray Ventures and Capnamic Ventures.
Zowie, a chatbot built to help e-commerce brands drive sales through customer support, collected $14 million in Series A financing. Lead investor Tiger Global Management was joined by Gradient Ventures, 10x Founders, Inovo and Jack Altman in the round. The company has offices in Poland and New York.
Lunar Outpost, a Golden, Colo.-based startup, was seeded with a $12 million investment to scale its mobility technology enabling commercial lunar advancement. Explorer 1 Fund led the funding, which included contributions from Promus Ventures, Space Capital, Type One Ventures and Cathexis Ventures. Explorer 1 Fund’s Daniel Kleinman and Promus Ventures’ Gareth Keane joined the board.
|
|
|
|
|
Emily Weiss founded Glossier in 2014 and popularized minimal makeup looks with millennial and Gen Z women. PHOTO: MARTINA ALBERTAZZI/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|