1.
Brex, the start-up that lends to other start-ups, taps $200 million line from Credit Suisse
The San Francisco-based company, last valued at $2.6 billion, secured $200 million in debt from Credit Suisse to grow its business of issuing corporate cards to fellow start-ups, according to chief financial officer Michael Tannenbaum. Having a bigger line of credit could be key for two-year old Brex as it seeks to compete with the likes of American Express. “We’ve probably raised more equity than we needed because we compete with financial institutions,”
Tannenbaum said in a phone interview. “You’re trusting Brex to offer financial services — the stronger the balance sheet is, the better Brex is as a partner and as a service provider.” [ CNBC ]
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2.
SOSV Raises $277 Million In Oversubscribed Fourth Fund To Invest In Early-Stage Deep Tech Startups
SOSV has raised $277 million for its new SOSV IV fund, nearly doubling its previous $150 million SOSV III fund. SOSV, known for investing in deep-tech, is often ranked as the most active investor in startups in hardware and life sciences. With SOSV IV, the firm will continue investing in approximately 150 new startups per year across its industry-leading accelerator programs HAX, IndieBio, RebelBio, Chinaccelerator, MOX, Food-X, and dlab. The majority of the fund will be deployed in the later rounds of its best performers. “This year nearly $1 billion went into SOSV-backed companies from VCs and corporate investors,” said Sean O’Sullivan, SOSV Managing Partner. “On top of the $65 million SOSV invests directly into our startups every year, SOSV’s deep-tech startups are getting huge funding leverage from our syndicate of VCs, angels and corporates.” [ Medium ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
3.
Life lessons from the couples who run start-ups
Lesley Eccles, chief executive of start-up Relish, a couples’ counselling app, is no stranger to the challenges of setting up a company. “I think any start-up experience is going to be pretty intense,” she says, speaking on the phone from a Wall Street coffee shop. “You’re regularly a few months away from running out of money.” The 46-year-old Scot launched Relish in New York this year using an engineering team based in Edinburgh. However, this time she’s doing it without her husband, Nigel Eccles, with whom she founded the fantasy sports betting site, FanDuel, in 2009. [ FT ]
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4.
Los Angeles' VC stars are on the rise amid mega-exits
The city of stars is stepping out of Silicon Valley's shadow. PayPal's recent $4 billion acquisition of shopping-discount platform Honey was the latest indication that Los Angeles can pull off billion-dollar exits. The deal represented the city's largest sale of a tech startup and was the second-biggest exit after Snap's $19.7 billion IPO in 2017. In another high-profile episode, Dollar Shave Club sold to Unilever for $1 billion in 2016.
Until recently, the city's venture capitalists have been best known for seed rounds in a region that is home to only a few large firms. However, the local startup ecosystem has been maturing with the arrival of bigger VC funds and a growing presence of big tech companies seeking to capitalize on the world's entertainment capital. [ Pitchbook ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
5.
Imply Raises $30mm at a $350mm Valuation in Growth Round to Fuel Development of Its Cloud-native, Real-time Analytics Solution
Imply, the real-time analytics company, announced today that it has raised $30 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Late Stage Venture Fund with participation from Geodesic Capital and Khosla Ventures. The primary equity financing brings the company’s total funding to $45.3 million. The round was opportunistic as the company had spent less than 10% of its Series A round while growing ARR 8-fold over the 24 months preceding the funding. The financing will be used to accelerate product development and the company’s go-to-market expansion. [ Business Wire ]
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6.
How CEO compensation and equity breaks down by gender, total VC raised
When evaluating compensation, the manner in which you filter the data can change the story significantly. To spotlight how that applies to CEOs at venture-backed companies, we partnered with compensation data firm J.Thelander Consulting to break down the data by gender, the amount of capital the company has raised, and whether or not the CEO founded the company. [ Pitchbook ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
7.
Why You Should Be Optimistic About the Future
Many skeptics thought the internet would never reach mass adoption, but today it’s shaping global culture, is integral to our lives--and this is just the beginning. In this conversation, Kevin Kelly (Founding Executive Editor, WIRED magazine) and Marc Andreessen (Cofounder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz) sit down to discuss the evolution of technology, the new “Space Race,” and how measuring prosperity on a global scale is the key to our collective success. Learn why they share an
optimistic view on the possibilities of the future.
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8.
$250 million venture capital firm Piva targets the energy industry
A recently formed venture capital firm backed by Malaysian oil-and-gas giant Petronas is going into launch mode. Driving the news: The San Francisco-based Piva today announced a $250 million fund to invest in "breakthrough technologies needed to usher in a new era of energy and industry." Why it matters: It's the latest sign of how some of the world's largest oil companies are putting more
resources into startups. [ Axios ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
9.
The rise of platform: Europe’s venture capitalists are stepping up support for their portfolio companies
The number of tech startups and venture capital funds is growing fast. It’s diversifying too, expanding in both established tech capitals and emerging regions. It’s exciting but competition has become fierce. [ sifted ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data
on our platform.
10.
Everyone Wants To Be in VC, But No One Wants To Lose Money with Beth Ferreira
Beth Ferreira has been involved in venture investment in some of the most exciting startups in recent history, both as a venture capitalist and an early employee. Ferreira joins host Patrick McGinnis to share her experience managing the risks and rewards of investment from both sides of the investment table. Her experience in both boom and bust markets has taught her that navigating the VC world requires a mix of instinct, research, faith, and a carefully tuned tolerance for risk. [ Harvard Business Review ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
11.
Robinhood lets you invest as little as 1 cent in any stock
One share of Amazon stock costs more than $1,700, locking out less-wealthy investors. So to continue its quest to democratize stock trading, Robinhood is launching fractional share trading this week. This lets you buy 0.000001 shares, rounded to the nearest penny, or just $1 of any stock, with zero fee. The ability to buy by millionth of a share lets Robinhood undercut Square Cash’s recently announced fractional share trading, which sets a $1 minimum for
investment. Robinhood users can sign up here for early access to fractional share trading. “One of our core values is participation is power,” says Robinhood co-CEO Vlad Tenev. “Everything we do is rooted in this. We believe that fractional shares have the potential to open up investing for even more people.” [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
12.
Who To Work For: The Wealthfront List Of 178 Private Companies To Join
Wealthfront Founder and CEO, Andy Rachleff has had a career in venture capital for 25 years, including 10 years as Co-founder and Partner at Benchmark. Rachleff also lectures at the Stanford Business School where students planning their careers ask for his help. With his career in venture, building courses in technology entrepreneurship, and running a company that helps manage short and long term finances, Rachleff maintains that “nothing has as big an impact on
their finances as their career choice. And that’s why we provide this list is to help them make better career choices, and the intent is to create goodwill.” [ Crunchbase ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
13.
How a $450 Million Loss Was Made to Disappear
11 years after one of Europe’s biggest banking scandals, 13 executives have been sentenced and financial penalties of $175 million have been dealt. Bloomberg investigates how Deutsche Bank and Monte Dei Paschi cooked their books to make a half billion dollar loss disappear.
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14.
Zetwerk, an 18-month-old Indian B2B marketplace for manufacturing items, raises $32M
Zetwerk, an Indian business-to-business marketplace for manufacturing items, has closed a significantly large financing round as it scales its operations in the nation and also helps local businesses find customers overseas. The 18-month-old startup said on Wednesday it has raised $32 million in a Series B financing round led by Lightspeed and Greenoaks Capital. Zetwerk co-founder and chief executive Amrit Acharya told TechCrunch in an interview that the
startup has also raised about $14.2 million in debt from a consortium of banks, and others. [ Tech Crunch ]
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15.
[Funding alert] Invoice discounting platform KredX raises $26M in Series B round led by Tiger Global
In the 90s the power was with capital. Then with Steve Jobs & Bill Gates, companies started prioritizing these charismatic star-CEOs. With Adam Neumann and the CEO exodus of late, the pendulum is swinging from CEOs back to capital and the need for sound financials. [ Your Story ]
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16.
Temasek Leads Growth Round for Animal-Free Dairy Startup Perfect Day
17.
U.S. PRIVATE CAPITAL OUTLOOK 2020
Ten years into a bull market, economists and analysts have been biting their nails in anticipation of the economic indicator that will flash with finality “Recession.” Between slowing global GDP, decreasing global corporate capex, deflating U.S. manufacturing reports, Fed rate cuts and inverted yield curves, there has been no shortage of developments to mine for economic forecasts. Predictions about when a bear market might begin have been replaced by mobilizing for the eventuality of one. What goes up, must come down. [ BDO ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
18.
Nearmap’s Xmas present: buys US mapping startup Pushpin
Sydney-based Nearmap has bought US technology startup Pushpin, a deep learning and analytics technology venture, to expand the services it offers with its aerial imagery. The cost of the deal was not disclosed by the ASX-listed geospatial mapping tech company, which operates in Australia, US and Canada. Pushpin extracts data from 3D models to provide roof geometry insights for users such as roofing and solar companies and government. The acquisition gives Nearmap the ability rapidly extract and disseminate roof geometry from its wide-scale 3D models, delivering new location content. [ Startup Daily ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
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