Good day. Even as Roman Pedan was trying to get the pronunciation of “Omicron” down on Monday, he was thinking through how his hospitality startup would be affected by the emergence of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

“For better or worse, our team feels battle tested,” said Mr. Pedan, founder and chief executive of Kasa Living Inc. The venture-backed startup offers rental apartments and hotel rooms in about 45 cities in the U.S.

So far, the emergence of the variant hasn’t had an impact on the business, in terms of cancelations or customer-service interactions calls, Mr. Pedan said.

Since the pandemic started, Kasa has established resiliency measures that should help it respond if demand from tourists and business visitors drops, Mr. Pedan said.

It has a bigger team focused on monitoring regulatory changes, such as mask and vaccine requirements. The company has ways to adjust its marketing strategy to target a different type of traveler, such as traveling nurses. And Kasa has already adjusted most of its contracts with building owners to be based on revenue-share, so that if it can’t fill its rooms it isn’t bound to pay a high fixed cost, according to the CEO.

That being said, “we’d prefer a world where the world is traveling,” Mr. Pedan said.

Even before word of Omicron spread, business travel and international travel were still way down from pre-pandemic levels in the U.S. But Kasa’s revenue per room in October, the last full month of data, was 9% higher than it was two years ago, Mr. Pedan said. Near-term and medium-term demand for the typically slow winter travel season was also exceeding expectations, he said.

“Folks are pretty tired of battening down the hatches and are seeking reasons to say yes rather than to say no [to travel], even in the context of the new variant,” Mr. Pedan said.

And now on to the news...

Discovering their inner entrepreneur. The pandemic has unleashed a historic burst in entrepreneurship and self-employment. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are striking out on their own as consultants, retailers and small-business owners, Josh Mitchell and Kathryn Dill report for The Wall Street Journal.

• The move helps explain the ongoing shake-up in the world of work, with more people looking for flexibility, anxious about Covid exposure, upset about vaccine mandates or simply disenchanted with pre-pandemic office life. It is also aggravating labor shortages in some industries and adding pressure on companies to revamp their employment policies.
   
• The number of unincorporated self-employed workers has risen by 500,000 since the start of the pandemic, Labor Department data show, to 9.44 million. That is the highest total since the financial-crisis year 2008, except for this summer. The total amounts to an increase of 6% in the self-employed, while the overall U.S. employment total remains nearly 3% lower than before the pandemic.

Growth investor Sapphire Ventures has rounded up $2 billion to back promising technology companies, as money continues to flow into the sector. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm, which backs digital businesses such as recruiting systems and services provider Gem Software Inc., has closed its latest pair of funds less than a year after raising $1.7 billion for vehicles primarily focused on enterprise software businesses, WSJ Pro’s Laura Kreutzer reports. “We’re in Florence during the Renaissance,” said Partner and Chief Executive Nino Marakovic. “That’s where we are in terms of the software industry. Every company is becoming a software company, and we’re in the middle of a humongous digital transformation wave for most large enterprises.”

Satellite-imaging company Planet Labs Inc. plans to win more customers, increase its data offerings and strike more acquisitions after it goes public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company early next month, WSJ's Mark Maurer reports. The San Francisco-based company, which sells geospatial data and analytics software to businesses and government agencies, will use the roughly $600 million it expects to raise from its public offering for that, Chief Financial Officer Ashley Johnson said. Planet Labs plans to close on the merger with Las Vegas-based SPAC dMY Technology Group Inc. IV and then debut on the New York Stock Exchange under a new name, Planet Labs Public Benefit Corp., shortly after a Dec. 3 shareholder vote on the deal. SPACs are shell companies that issue shares to raise capital to buy a business and bring it public.

Funds

Paris- and San Francisco-based Partech closed its second growth fund above its target with €650 million in commitments, which is €250 million more than the firm raised for its initial growth fund back in 2015. So far the new fund has invested in online grocer Rohlik, online scheduling and personnel-management SaaS tool Skello and direct-to-consumer fashion brand Rouje.

Bessemer Venture Partners closed a $220 million early-stage fund dedicated to India, with a focus on marketplaces, digital health, social commerce and software-as-a-service. The firm also appointed Nithin Kaimal as chief operating officer of Bessemer’s Bangalore office. He previously founded and led investment-management firm VixCap. 

New York-based Differential Ventures launched its second fund with a target of $60 million to invest in seed-stage business-to-business SaaS companies across North America and Israel.

TAU Ventures, the investment fund of Tel Aviv University, raised $50 million for its second fund, which has the potential to secure another $20 million. The new fund will invest in 15 to 25 Israeli companies across a range of sectors. The firm closed its inaugural fund at $20 million.

People

Frontline Ventures named Zoë Chambers as partner, where she will continue to focus on seed investing across Europe from the firm’s London office. Prior to Frontline, Ms. Chambers led the deeptech investment team at Octopus Ventures.

Neomorph Inc., which is focused on the discovery and development of new medicines against undruggable targets, appointed Philip Chamberlain to the post of chief executive. He was most recently executive director at Celgene. San Diego-based Neomorph was established by Deerfield Management last year.

Exits

Edgewell Personal Care Co. acquired Billie Inc., a provider of personal-care products for women, in a cash transaction valued at $310 million. Billie had raised funding from investors including Silverton Partners, Female Founders Fund and Lakehouse Ventures.

E-commerce checkout startup Bolt Financial Inc. will enhance its remote checkout capabilities with the purchase of Sweden-based Tipser. Terms weren't disclosed. Based in San Francisco, Bolt recently raised $393 million in funding from Untitled Investments, Willoughby Capital, Soma Capital, General Atlantic, Tribe Capital and Activant Capital.

Publicly traded Sensata Technologies completed its acquisition of video telematics provider SmartWitness Holdings Inc. for an undisclosed amount. First Analysis lists SmartWitness in its portfolio.

Armis, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based asset visibility and security platform, picked up a $300 million investment led by One Equity Partners, increasing the company’s valuation to $3.4 billion. Previous investors in Armis include Insight Partners, Georgian and CapitalG.

Thought Machine, a London-based cloud-native core banking platform provider, closed a $200 million Series C round led by Nyca Partners, bringing the company up to unicorn status. New investors including ING Ventures and JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments also participated in the funding, along with existing backers Lloyds Banking Group, British Patient Capital, Eurazeo, Molten Ventures, Backed and IQ Capital.

Motorway, a London-based used-car marketplace, secured $190 million in Series C funding at a valuation of over $1 billion. Index Ventures and Iconiq Growth led the round, which included contributions from Latitude Ventures, Unbound and BMW i Ventures. In addition to the funding, Motorway appointed James Wilson as chief operating officer. He was previously director of marketplace fulfillment at Amazon UK.

Lessen, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based platform that connects property owners to a nationwide network of vetted service professionals, completed a $170 million Series B round, giving the company a valuation of over $1 billion. Fifth Wall led the investment, which included participation from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst and Navitas Capital.

HotSpot Therapeutics Inc., a Boston-based allosteric drug discovery platform, fetched a $100 million Series C round. Pivotal bioVenture Partners led the investment, which saw participation from LSP, B Capital Group, Revelation Partners, Pavilion Capital, Atlas Venture, Sofinnova Partners and others. Ash Khanna of Pivotal bioVenture Partners and Fouad Azzam of LSP will join the company’s board.

Ablaze Pharmaceuticals, a Shanghai- and San Diego-based startup developing targeted radiopharmaceutical therapies for cancer treatment, raised $75 million in Series A funding. Co-lead investors Vivo Capital and AdvanTech Capital were joined in the round by RAYZ Investments, Nan Fung Life Sciences, Pivotal bioVenture Partners China, venBio Partners, Samsara BioCapital and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners.

Upbound, a Seattle-based enterprise cloud-management platform, landed $60 million in Series B funding. Altimeter Capital led the round, which included additional support from GV, Intel Capital and Telstra Ventures.

Quince, a San Francisco-based manufacturer-to-consumer e-commerce startup, raised $50 million in Series A funding. Lead investor Insight Partners was joined in the round by Founders Fund, Basis Set Ventures and 8VC.

Quinyx, a workforce-management software provider, nabbed a $50 million investment led by Battery Ventures. The company’s North American headquarters is in Boston.

Q-CTRL, a Sydney-based developer of quantum sensing and quantum error control technology, snagged a $25 million Series B round. Airbus Ventures led the funding, which included participation from Ridgeline Partners.

Groundswell, a Los Angeles-based startup seeking to decentralize corporate philanthropy, was seeded with a $15 million investment. GV led the round, which included support from Human Ventures, Moonshots Capital, Felicis Ventures and Core Innovation Capital.

• Ghost kitchens are proving to be a messy business, as Reef Global shows
   
• Twitter’s Jack Dorsey steps down as CEO
   
• Clearlake Capital to buy Quest Software from Francisco Partners
   
• Brands no longer see metaverse-like worlds as abstract gimmicks

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

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, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

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