Jessica Alba's Honest Company Is No Longer a UnicornJessica Alba's Honest Company is no longer a unicorn. The consumer goods company is raising $75 million in new venture capital funding at a valuation that is 57 percent lower than its last round, according to a document filed by Delaware regulators. The Honest Company's new round would be a Series E stock priced around $19.60 per share, which is more than half of the value of its Series D shares sold in 2015. That means the startup's valuation will drop from $1.7 billion to below $1 billion. [ Inc. ] Should VCs be investing in beauty brands?In the last two years, Unilever acquired Carver Korea for $2.7 billion. Estee Lauder purchased Too Faced Cosmetics for $1.45 billion. CVC Capital Brands bought PDC Brands for $1.43 billion. L’Oreal purchased a trio of skincare brands for $1.3 billion, and also IT Cosmetics for $1.2 billion. E.l.f. Beauty did an IPO. Venture capitalists didn’t invest in any of these beauty businesses. They also skipped Urban Decay, Tarte, Bluemercury, Hourglass, Becca Cosmetics, DevaCurl, Paula’s Choice, ESPA — all beauty brands that have recently sold for hundreds of millions. [ Tech Crunch ] Kyle Bass Says ICO Investors Will Get Wiped Out in Crypto ‘Mania’ Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass just took sides in the raging battle over the viability of the cryptocurrency market. Calling many of the dozens of initial coin offerings that have taken place this year “frauds,” the Hayman Capital Management founder warned in a Bloomberg Television interview that investors will face steep losses. “A whole bunch of people are going to lose a lot of money," Bass said in an interview with Erik Schatzker. “These ICOs --
you’re going to see a bunch of them go completely broke. A bunch of them are frauds, and that is going to be problematic for all the people that just rushed in.” Ex-Zenefits CEO David Sacks raising VC fundFormer Yammer and Zenefits CEO David Sacks appears to be raising a venture capital fund, according to an SEC filing. Why it matters: Sacks created one tech unicorn in Yammer, which was sold to Microsoft for $1.2 billion. He then took over another, Zenefits, amid scandal, and appears to have helped right the ship a bit before stepping down at the end of 2016. He also is part of the fabled PayPal Mafia and co-authored Peter Thiel's controversial book The Diversity Myth. Light on details: No target amount or strategy is listed for the effort, which is called Sacks Ventures. He declined comment via email. [ Axios ] On-Demand Childcare Service UrbanSitter Raises $17M Series C, With Investors Including Women CustomersWomen-led childcare booking service UrbanSitter has raised a $17 million Series C as it expands to new cities, including Atlanta, Austin and Portland. Rather unusually for a Silicon Valley funding round, just over $1 million of this investment comes from 'power users' of UrbanSitter, which links families to on-demand babysitters and nannies: a dozen influential women. [ Forbes ] Startup nation: The most valuable VC-backed company in each US state [interactive graphic]Nine of the 10 most valuable VC-backed companies in the US are in California—and the other is in New York. This lack of geographic diversity isn't surprising, but it does mean the other 40-plus states and regions don't get a lot of attention from the tech community. |