Good day. How will the rush of liquidity from public listings affect the venture fundraising market going forward? 

On the one hand, venture firms that distribute capital back to limited partners with positive returns will be able to raise funds more easily, said Mike Larsen, managing director at Cambridge Associates, which provides portfolio management and advisory services to institutional investors.

But limited partners on the whole are unlikely to boost their overall allocation to venture capital just because of a spike in returns in a single year.

“Waves of liquidity don’t in fact have too much of an immediate impact on how venture capital is pursued by institutions,” Mr. Larsen said. That’s because maintaining a steady pace of commitments, whether in good or bad years for liquidity, is generally viewed as prudent by limited partners.

Investing a similar amount in venture capital year in and year out can help produce better returns for limited partners, so that they are not overexposed to what may turn out to be a poor vintage year for performance. It also helps avoid a situation where a limited partner ramps up investments into VC funds one year, only to have to reduce investments later, Mr. Larsen said. That can hurt the sometimes multi-decade relationship between VC firms and their limited partners.

And now on to the news...

Memorabilia trading. A New York-based app on which users can trade against vintage cars, fancy wine and baseball cards just received a cash injection from a handful of investors, including Reddit’s co-founder Alexis Ohanion, Logan Moore reports for the WSJ. Launched in 2017, the Rally Rd. platform gives almost 200,000 users access to alternative asset investments in collectibles.

In Tuesday’s disclosure, the firm said it secured nearly $17 million in new funding. Other investors in this round include Upfront Ventures, billionaire Jim Pallotta’s Raptor Group, Porsche Ventures and Global Brain.

• Users of Rally are able to trade vintage items for as little as $1 a share. After an “initial public offering” is set for an item, users wait 90 days and then have one day to trade their shares or buy more before the next 90-day waiting period. Users can also buy items off the platform outright, which would then distribute money to the investors.

While the coronavirus pandemic has been a boon for e-commerce, it has at the same time disrupted supply chains and upended global trade. Even so, venture-capital investors, seeing an opportunity, doubled down on bets on startups working to automate and digitize logistics efforts, WSJ Pro's Marc Vartabedian reports.  

Now, with supply chains having smoothed out and global trade rebounding, venture investors continue to target startups that aim to revamp logistics, signaling growth for the sector beyond the pandemic.

BioShin has Asia-Pacific rights, except for Japan, to Biohaven’s neurological drugs. Biohaven formed BioShin in 2018 after deciding it could capture more value from its portfolio with a subsidiary than by licensing Asian rights to its drugs out to other companies. OrbiMed Advisors is leading this initial round of funding, which could help BioShin introduce treatments for migraine and other disorders into the region.

People

Mobile banking startup N26 GmbH appointed Diana Styles as chief people officer and Adrienne Gormley as chief operating officer. Ms. Styles was formerly with Adidas. Ms. Gormley will join N26 from Dropbox, where she is a vice president. N26, which added $100 million to a Series D round in May, is backed by investors including Insight Venture Partners, GIC, Tencent, Allianz X, Valar Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital, Greyhound Capital and Battery Ventures

Exits

Cloud networking company Arista Networks agreed to acquire network detection and response platform Awake Security for an undisclosed amount. In April, Awake raised a $36 million Series C round from Evolution Equity Partners, Energize Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and Greylock Partners. Both companies are based in Santa Clara, Calif.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper Networks agreed to purchase Netrounds, a test and service assurance platform for fixed and mobile networks, for an undisclosed sum. Based in Sweden, Netrounds is listed in the portfolios of Inlandsinnovation, Almi Invest, Swisscom Ventures and Fairpoint Capital.

London-based renewable energy supplier Octopus Energy is entering the U.S. market with the acquisition of Evolve Energy for $5 million. Houston- and San Francisco-backed Evolve Energy was backed by investors including Capital Factory, Urban-X and Incite.

XtalPi Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.- and China-based artificial intelligence drug discovery and development startup, picked up a $318.8 million Series C investment. SoftBank Vision Fund 2, PICC Capital and Morningside co-led the round, which included participation from Tencent, Sequoia China, China Life and SIG.

Mosa Meat, a Netherlands-based startup producing beef from cattle cells, secured $55 million in Series B funding. Blue Horizon Ventures led the round, with participation from Bell Food Group, M Ventures and others. Regina Hecker, partner at Blue Horizon Ventures, will join the company’s board.

Liquid Death, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup that sells water in aluminum cans, raised $23 million Series B from investors including Convivialité Ventures, Velvet Sea Ventures and others.

UPshow, a Chicago-based interactive digital signage startup, collected $14 million in Series A funding. 4490 Ventures led the round, with participation from Jump Capital, TDF Ventures, Signature Venture Banking Group and others.

Acin, a London-based provider of non-financial risk management services to financial institutions, snagged $12 million in Series A financing. Notion Capital led the round, with support from investors including Fitch Ventures.

PayMongo, a Manila-based online payment platform, secured $12 million in Series A financing. Stripe led the round, with participation from Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital and Bedrock Capital.

Yummy Corp., an Indonesian cloud kitchen management startup, landed $12 million in Series B financing. SoftBank Ventures Asia led the round, which included contributions from Vectr Ventures, Appworks, Quest Ventures, Coca Cola Amatil X, Palm Drive Capital, Intudo Ventures and Sovereign’s Capital.

Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Spirit Co., a Sydney-based startup that offers a line of non-alcoholic spirits, was seeded with an $11.5 million investment from VRD Investment, Doehler Ventures, DLF Venture, Maropost Ventures and others.

Collective, a San Francisco-based back office platform, launched with nearly $8.7 million in funding. General Catalyst and QED Investors led the investment, with additional support from Gradient Ventures, Expa and others.

Fluree, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-based secure data management startup, closed a $6.5 million seed round. 4490 Ventures led the investment, which included participation from Rise of the Rest, Good Growth Capital, Engage Ventures and Ray Rothrock.

BookClub​ Inc., a Salt Lake City-based startup connecting readers directly with authors, raised a $6 million seed round. Maveron​ led the round, with ​GSV Ventures​, ​Signal Peak Ventures​ and ​Pelion Venture Partners​ also joining. 

Retirable Inc., a New York-based personalized retirement plan provider, launched with $4.7 million in seed funding. Vestigo Ventures led the investment, with additional contributions from Diagram Ventures, Primetime Partners and others.

• Hacker releases information on Las Vegas-area students after officials don’t pay ransom
   
• U.S. likely exceeded authority in TikTok ban, judge says
   
• Amazon’s late Prime Day, now in October, set to fuel record end to year
   
• Uber wins back license to operate in London after yearslong battle
   
• You can go back to the office—you just need a virtual-reality headset

• GV bets on young team behind high school social app HAGS (TechCrunch)
   
• Six startups filling the growing need for online education (The Information)

Softbank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund 2 led a $68 million investment in e-commerce provider ShipBob Inc. A Top News item in Monday’s VC Daily newsletter incorrectly said Softbank’s Vision Fund led the round.

This newsletter was compiled by Zachary Cole and Matthew Strozier.

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, Tomio Geron, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

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