1.
Mobile banking app Current raises $131M Series C, tops 2 million members
U.S. challenger bank Current, which has doubled its member base in less than six months, announced this morning it raised $131 million in Series C funding, led by Tiger Global Management. The additional financing brings Current to over
$180 million in total funding to date, and gives the company a valuation of $750 million. The round also brought in new investors Sapphire Ventures and Avenir. Existing investors returned for the Series C, as well, including Foundation Capital, Wellington Management Company and QED. Current began as a teen debit card controlled by parents, but expanded to offer personal checking accounts last year, using the same underlying banking technology. The service today competes with a range of mobile banking apps, offering features like free overdrafts, no minimum balance requirements, faster direct deposits, instant spending
notifications, banking insights, check deposits using your phone’s camera and other now-standard baseline features for challenger banks. [ Tech Crunch ]
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2.
A SPAC called FLAC? Seattle venture capital firm to launch $100 million ‘blank check’ company
One of Seattle’s biggest and longest active venture capital firms is looking to jump into the SPAC arena. Frazier Healthcare Partners — which has invested in biotechnology companies since 1991 — filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $100 million for a special purpose acquisition corporation, also known as a SPAC. Frazier’s SPAC is dubbed Frazier Lifescience Acquisition Corporation, or FLAC for short. Frazier describes the new entity as a “blank check company” with the goal of achieving “a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities.” [ geekwire ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
Special:
TELUS creates new $100 million venture capital fund for startups
TELUS is aiming to make some big inroads into the venture capital footprint in Canada, as it is launching a $100 million social impact investment fund for startups. The telecommunications giant announced today the new TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good targets support for new responsible and sustainable startup businesses that focus on creating solutions for improving healthcare, furthering social and economic inclusion, improving sustainable food production, and reducing the environmental footprint. [ daily hive ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
3.
SoftBank-Led Round Values Uber-Like Truck Startup at $12 Billion
Full Truck Alliance has raised $1.7 billion from investors including SoftBank Group Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., a major cash infusion for the Uber-like trucking startup ahead of a potential initial public offering. SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Sequoia, Fidelity International and Permira led the round of funding, the startup said in a statement. It valued the Chinese company at about $12 billion after investment, a person familiar with the deal said, asking not to
identified disclosing private information. Other investors included Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital, Hillhouse, GGV, Lightspeed, All-Stars Investment and Baillie Gifford. The startup aims to use the cash to expand into same-city deliveries, deepening a network now focused on ferrying goods between urban centers. Formed by a merger between China’s two largest truck-sharing platforms -- Huochebang and Yunmanman-- Full Truck Alliance has attracted a big roster of
backers including Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG. The latest financing, which was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal, almost matched the $1.9 billion raised in 2018 at a valuation of about $6 billion. The startup didn’t disclose its valuation Tuesday. [ Bloomberg ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital
Data on our platform
4.
Freight Tech Firm Loadsmart Raises $90 Million in New Funding Round
Digital freight-booking service Loadsmart Inc. closed a $90 million funding round, as technology-focused efforts to boost efficiency in logistics operations draw increased attention during the coronavirus pandemic. The Series C funding round was led by BlackRock Inc.’s Innovation Capital arm, and includes investments from Chromo Invest and the venture arms of transportation company TFI International Inc. and container shipping giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, Loadsmart said Friday. Maersk, which participated in previous Loadsmart funding rounds, is expanding its inland transport and
logistics presence as it seeks to reach deeper into customer supply chains. [ WSJ ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
5.
Irish start-up which developed facial recognition for cows raising over $50m
Cainthus, an Irish agtech start-up that has developed facial recognition for cows, is seeking to raise more than $50 million (€42m) from investors. The Dublin-based company, whose backers include Cargill, one of the largest privately-held corporations in the US, was founded by brothers David and Ross Hunt in 2016. It is currently led by Aidan Connolly, who served for many years as chief innovation officer at Alltech, an animal nutrition company founded by the late Pearse Lyons. Mr Connolly said Cainthus was seeking to raise $51 million from backers, but did not say how far the fundraising had proceeded. [ Irish Times ]
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6.
YC-backed Cashfree raises $35.3 million for its payments platform
Cashfree, an Indian startup that offers a wide-range of payments services to businesses, has raised $35.3 million in a new financing round as the profitable firm looks to broaden its offering. The Bangalore-based startup’s Series B was led by London-headquartered private equity firm Apis
Partners (which invested through its Growth Fund II), with participation from existing investors Y Combinator and Smilegate Investments. The new round brings the startup’s to-date raise to $42 million. Cashfree kickstarted its journey in 2015 as a solution for restaurants in Bangalore that needed an efficient way for their delivery personnel to collect cash from customers. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
7.
Credit Key Closes Series A Financing Of $33M, Expands Footprint In B2B Payments
Credit Key, the B2B e-commerce payments solution, announced that it has recently closed $33.85M in total series A financing to support growth with participation from Greycroft, Bonfire Ventures, Loeb.nyc and other investors. The funding comes at a time when Credit Key is experiencing great traction with online merchants that are drawn to the power of its buy now pay later point-of-sale lending tool. “B2B e-commerce continues to expand at an incredible pace, but a great majority of merchants still lack the payment tools that their customers are asking for,” said John Tomich, co-founder and CEO of Credit Key. “As we equip more and more merchants with our point-of-sale financing option, we continue to see data that points to larger orders, fewer abandoned carts and improved customer acquisition.” [ ai thority ]
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8.
Restaurant tech start-up Toast soars to $8 billion valuation seven months after cutting half its staff
Toast, a start-up that sells software to help restaurants with online ordering, has had a rollercoaster of a year managing through the pandemic. Of late, business has been booming, The company responded to the recent upswing by giving stakeholders a chance to cash out some of their shares. Last week, Toast closed a secondary sale that allowed current and former employees to sell up to 25% of their vested shares for $75 a piece, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named
due to confidentiality agreements. The deal values Toast at about $8 billion. The company last raised a primary round in February, just before the coronavirus hit the U.S., reeling in $400 million at a $4.9 billion valuation. The share price at that time was $45.45, according to SharesPost. [ CNBC ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
9.
NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL IS MAKING A $20 MILLION VENTURE CAPITAL COMMITMENT TO BLACK ENTREPRENEURS
Black business owners will get a hefty $20 million venture capital funding commitment courtesy of Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures. The venture capital arm of Milwaukee-based life insurance and financial services giant Northwestern Mutual will invest the money in startup companies founded by Black entrepreneurs. Plans also call for the launch of the Northwestern Mutual Black Founder Accelerator, a new startup accelerator powered by nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor. The company reports the new initiatives are part of its ongoing commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion and driving equity through innovation. On the venture capital front, the funding is needed. Northwestern Mutual reports Black founders receive less than one percent of venture capital funding annually. It added Northwestern Mutual and gener8tor are committed
to investing in and supporting Black entrepreneurs to help close this funding gap and advance their companies. [ Black Enterprise ]
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10.
There Wasn’t a Community for Black Women in Venture Capital. So Black Women in Venture Capital Made Their Own.
It happened over dinner. Or, maybe, it was many dinners. Sydney Thomas, Sydney Sykes, Sarah Kunst, and Mercedes Bent definitely met for the first time at a dinner party. The question is, which dinner party was it? It could have been two—or even three. In pre-pandemic times, there were many, many dinners: Bent, now a partner at Lightspeed, a venture capital (VC) firm that has backed the likes of Snapchat, Daily Harvest, and Stitch Fix, remembers hosting one, near certain that’s where she first met Sykes and Thomas. Thomas, a Principle as Precursor Ventures, a seed and early-stage fund, recalls the dinner—but she says the two had actually been in contact before, a lunch that fell-through last minute. Kunst, founder of Cleo Capital, backer of
female-founded brands like Love Wellness and Glow Bar, describes at least two different dinners, both with a guest list of Black women in VC. She reminisces on an intimate evening organized by Sykes, an angel investor and the co-founder of BLCK VC, a non-profit focused on doubling the representation of Black investors by 2024. [ marieclaire ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
11.
Calling nerds with no business experience: venture capital wants you
Craig Blair leans back and summarises much of what’s involved in running a red-hot venture capital fund into one pithy line: “We’re a hits-based business.” The Australian Financial Review Magazine is with Blair at the resort-like cafe next to his AirTree Ventures office, hidden behind a row of terraces in Sydney’s Paddington. We’ve discussed how he decides which bright young things to invest in and how he can be almost as choosy in who he takes money
from. [ afr ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
12.
7 things we just learned about Sequoia’s European expansion plans
Sequoia Capital, the renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has backed companies like Apple, Google, Dropbox, Airbnb and Stripe, recently disclosed that it had opened its first office in Europe. To staff up, it hired partner Luciana Lixandru away from rival Accel Partners. Even without an official European presence, Sequoia has quietly operated in the region for more than a decade, first investing in Klarna in 2010. Other Europe-founded companies in its portfolio include Baaima, CEGX, Charlotte Tilbury, Dashlane, Evervault, FON Wireless, Front, Graphcore, Mapillary, Metaswitch Networks, n8n, Remote, Skyscanner, Songkick, Tessian, Tourlane, UiPath, Unity and 6Winderkinder (Wunderlist). Yet, it is only now that the VC firm is putting people on
the ground here in Europe, starting with an office in London that has a remit to invest across the continent. Working alongside Lixandru is a more junior investor, George Robson, who joined from Revolut. Most recently, Sequoia recruited Zoe Jervier Hewitt from EQT as head of talent in Europe. And finally, Matt Miller, a Sequoia U.S. veteran, is also part of the European efforts and plans to relocate next year, while I also understand that Sequoia’s Doug Leone will be spending a lot of his time in Europe. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
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