Munich-based spatial intelligence startup NavVis raises $35.5 millionGerman indoor spatial intelligence startup NavVis has raised $35.5 million in a Series C funding round led by Digital+ Partners, with additional participation from new investor Kozo Keikaku Engineering and existing investors MIG, Target Partners, and BayBG. This Andreessen Horowitz General Partner talks about the tech companies disrupting the centuries-old insurance industry
Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. Anarghya Vardhana, 30-year-old partner at Howard Schultz's VC firm, shares her top 3 tips for launching a career in techAnarghya Vardhana is used to being one of the youngest people in the room. At age 17, she published a math theorem. At age 28, she made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, in the Venture Capital category. And today, at 30 years old, Vardhana is the youngest partner at Maveron, the consumer-focused venture capital firm founded in 1998 by Dan Levitan and Howard Schultz. [ CNBC ] Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. Digital Wallet Launched by Dentist Is Valued at $1.2 BillionViva Republica, operator of the South Korean digital wallet Toss, has raised $80 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins to propel its expansion into new areas such as online stock trading. Launched as a peer-to-peer payment app in 2015 by former Samsung Group dentist Lee Seung-gun, Toss expanded into a plethora of financial services from credit scoring to insurance and now wants to become a securities broker. Its latest round of funding also involved Ribbit Capital and valued the company at $1.2 billion, the Seoul-based start-up said in a statement. [ Bloomberg ] SoftBank’s Vision Fund inches closer to $100BMuch has been said about the SoftBank Vision Fund (SBVF), mostly in awe of the size of the investment vehicle. It’s important to remember that the $100 billion number most often associated with the gargantuan fund is only a target. Today, however, the Vision Fund inched yet closer to that 12-figure goal as it continues to pour billions of dollars into technology companies around the world. [ Tech Crunch ] Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. Slack Hires Goldman Sachs to Lead Its IPO Planned for 2019, Report SaysSlack hired investment bank Goldman Sachs as the lead underwriter for its highly anticipated initial public offering, Reuters reported Friday. Slack is talking with investment banks to help underwrite an IPO, which could end up valuing the chat and workplace-collaboration software maker as high as $10 billion, Reuters said, citing unnamed sources. [ Fortune ] Dallas-based TXV Partners targets $50M for its debut fundMarcus Stroud and Brandon Allen met six years ago as roommates at Princeton University. The pair bonded over a common interest and a shared dream: to be venture capitalists. “We were at a lecture and there were a couple VCs on campus speaking,” 25-year-old Stroud told TechCrunch. “Being a kid from a small town in Texas, Princeton was already a huge culture shock, but hearing about a world of VC, investment banking and private equity just really intrigued me.” [ Tech Crunch ] Payment service Toss becomes Korea’s newest unicorn after raising $80MSouth Korea has got its third unicorn startup after Viva Republica, the company beyond popular payment app Toss, announced it has raised an $80 million round at a valuation of $1.2 billion. This new round is led by U.S. firms Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital, both of which cut their first checks for Korea with this deal. Others participating include existing investors Altos Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, KTB Network, Novel, PayPal and Qualcomm Ventures. The deal comes just six months after Viva Republica raised $40 million to accelerate growth, and it takes the company to nearly $200 million raised from
investors to date. [ Tech Crunch ] Q&A: EQT's Alex Darden on the state of PE, the future of infrastructure and moreThis story is featured in the 4Q issue of the PitchBook Private Market PlayBook. EQT is a Stockholm-based investment firm that was established in 1994 by now-chairman Conni Jonsson together with Investor AB, Swedish corporate bank SEB and US-based PE firm AEA Investors. The firm launched its debut fund, focused on buyout investments in the Nordics, the next year. Since then, EQT has opened 14 additional offices around the world, launched 27 funds and raised €50 billion across three overall investment strategies that include private capital, real assets and credit. [ PitchBook ] Moderna hits $7.6B in upsized debut [datagraphic]The graphic has been corrected to reflect that Moderna is traded on the NASDAQ, not the NYSE. A previous edition of the post also erroneously included a photo illustration of the Moderna flag on the NYSE building. LP’s View on the Venture Capital LandscapeAlex Bangash has been an active LP ahead of many trends in the venture capital scene. What are his views as an LP on the broadening VC landscape? Are venture studios superior or proof of a bubble? What does increasing ticket size of giant funds mean for seed investing and what will be the longer term effects for the startup ecosystem? All of this will be covered in an intense fireside chat with Founding Partner of YES VC, Jyri Engerström. E882: TWiST Live! OpenAI Greg Brockman on rapid acceleration toward artificial general intelligenceE882: TWiST Live! OpenAI Co-founder & CTO Greg Brockman on our rapid acceleration toward artificial general intelligence: shares achievements in deep learning, the death of Moore's Law (300,000x compute increase), & the risks of malice, competition & unintended consequences as OpenAI races to build AGI that benefits humanity. Is VC the Right Path for Your Company: Bootstrap or VC?In the current landscape of megafunds and celebrating funding rounds of hundreds of millions, it is good to take a fundamental look into options for company financing – this time bootstrapping versus raising venture capital. Ben Narasin, a bootstrapped entrepreneur turned Venture Partner at NEA, and Mikael Thuneberg, who waited 7 years to raise venture for his adtech company Supermetrics, will join the stage to discuss when it is the right decision to raise outside funding and when you should seriously look into other options. The Shifting Funding LandscapeShould VCs fight against the incentive of growing? How do ICOs and other instruments affect traditional equity investing? To what scale does the role of a VC expand to nowadays? A group of prominent investors will be sharing their knowledge on current innovations in funding affecting the traditional equity investing. Speakers include Rebecca Kaden, Partner at Union Square Ventures, Rebecca Lynn, Founder & Partner of Canvas Ventures, Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures and Alice Bentick, Co-founder & General Partner of EntrepreneurFirst. Supercharging Growth Capital in EuropeUS and Chinese tech scale-ups tend to raise larger rounds compared to their European counterparts. What do European founders need to do to get better at attracting the best investors at growth stage? How do founders know that their company is ready for the next investment? These questions and many more will be answered by growth stage investors Hiro Tamura from Atomico, Teddie Wardi from Insight Venture Partners and Sakshi Chhabra from SoftBank. The discussion will be led by Reshma Sohoni from Seedcamp. More of Slush 2018 |