Good day. Cloud-storage startup Wasabi Technologies Inc. has raised $250 million in new funding, including $125 million in a Series D equity round lifting its private-market valuation above $1.1 billion.

The round announced Tuesday was led by L2 Point Management, with participation from Cedar Pine, Fidelity Management & Research Co., Forestay Capital and an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management. The funding includes a $125 million extension to an existing debt facility with MGG Investment Group, Boston-based Wasabi said.

Wasabi’s outsize fundraising comes amid a general pullback by venture investors. It’s also bucking another trend: Among public cloud companies, sales of cloud products and services are slipping to a pre-pandemic pace, following a sharp spike as companies raced to shift more systems into the cloud to accommodate remote work.

Wasabi’s sole focus on cloud storage is its advantage, co-founder and Chief Executive David Friend said. That focus enables the company to undercut prices charged by much larger cloud-market competitors, such as Microsoft Corp. and Google, that offer storage services alongside a range of other cloud systems and apps—often bundled together—that can quickly eat up computer power and keep prices high.

“Investors believe in the way we’ve handled our global expansion, and in our strategy of focusing on just one thing,” Mr. Friend said. “Cloud storage is all we do.”

Founded in 2015, Wasabi operates roughly a dozen data centers across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, renting cloud-storage services through a pay-as-you-go subscription model. It currently has more than 40,000 customers, including companies in the professional sports, energy and natural resources, and manufacturing sectors, the company says.

Other VC-backed cloud storage and data management startups are faring well in an uncertain market. For instance, data lakehouse creator Databricks Inc., which has a private-market value of $38 billion, recently topped $1 billion in annualized revenue. Anyscale Inc., a cloud-based AI startup, recently added $99 million to a previous $100 million Series C venture investment round, at a more than $1 billion valuation.

“Everyone has data, they have more of it every year and it needs to be stored somewhere,” Mr. Friend said.

And now on to the news...

ARK launches venture fund. Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management LLC on Tuesday debuted the ARK Venture Fund, the firm’s first foray into private investments, The Wall Street Journal reports. The venture fund intends to invest in early- to late-stage private companies and publicly traded businesses similar to those held by ARK’s high-growth, technology-focused exchange-traded funds. The ARK Venture Fund is available to U.S. investors, including individuals, for a minimum initial investment of $500 on the online investment platform of financial-technology startup Titan. Venture-capital funds traditionally limit access to accredited investors such as wealthy individuals or institutions.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX won an auction for the assets of Voyager Digital Ltd. with a purchase price of around $50 million, according to people familiar with the matter, WSJ reports. The deal follows a competitive process that lasted two weeks, Voyager said in a statement Monday. FTX and competing crypto exchange Binance had both made bids near $50 million, the Journal reported earlier this month. FTX, which was founded and is controlled by Mr. Bankman-Fried, has been aggressively acquiring distressed assets during the crypto downturn.

More Crypto News:

• Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky Steps Down
• Crypto Startup Saves Frankfurt’s Iconic Euro Sculpture

Would you check a travel app almost every day, even if you only traveled a few times a year? What if the app paid you to do so? Some travel providers are looking to answer those questions as they try to build customer loyalty and stand out from the dizzying number of options for booking trips online, WSJ reports. App-based online travel agency Hopper and the Oyo hotel chain are adding games and other features. Some companies are even compensating users for opening their apps when they’re not in trip-planning mode.

Funds

Amsterdam-based fund manager Theta Capital Management raised a total of $500 million last year to invest in crypto-native venture capital funds through its Theta Blockchain Ventures fund-of-funds program. The firm will close its third fund dedicated to the space at the end of October.

Estonian firm Trind Ventures raised €55 million for its second fund. Limited partners include European Investment Fund, Tesi, LHV Pension Funds and Swedbank Investment Funds.

Exits

Sendinblue, a digital marketing platform for small to medium-sized businesses, acquired Yodel.io, a smart customer service phone system provider, for an undisclosed amount. Paris-based Sendinblue is backed by venture-capital investors including Partech and Adelie. Yodel.io had previously raised funding from European Super Angels Club, Companisto and Seedcamp.

Scheduling platform Calendly purchased recruiting company Prelude for an undisclosed sum. Early last year, Calendly said it raised a $350 million funding round led by OpenView Venture Partners. Prelude was backed by investors including Fuel Capital.

Moxion Power Co., a Richmond, Calif.-based manufacturer of clean mobile energy storage technology, secured $100 million in Series B funding. Tamarack Global led the investment, and was joined by Energy Impact Partners, Sunbelt Rentals, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Enterprise Holdings Ventures, Marubeni Ventures, Suffolk Technologies and Rocketship.vc.

Not So Dark, a Paris-based food tech startup, snagged an $80 million Series B round. Co-led by Kharis Capital and Verlinvest, the funding included contributions from Conviviality Ventures.

Strike, a Chicago-based bitcoin payments startup, scored an $80 million investment led by Ten31. 

Avidbots Corp., a Canada-based maker of an autonomous floor-scrubbing robot, raised $70 million in Series C funding led by Jeneration Capital. New investors BMO Capital Partners, Golden Vision Capital and Nicola Wealth also participated in the round, along with previous backers True Ventures, Next 47, SOSV, GGV Capital, BDC Capital, Golden Ventures and Kensington Capital Partners.

Flatfile, a Denver startup whose technology enables seamless data exchange between companies, secured $50 million in Series B financing. Led by Tiger Global Management, the round included contributions from Gradient Ventures, Scale Ventures, Workday Ventures, Afore Capital, Two Sigma Ventures and others.

Unravel Data, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based DataOps observability platform, closed a $50 million Series D round. Third Point Ventures led the investment, with Partner Curtis McKee joining the company’s board. Bridge Bank, Menlo Ventures, Point72 Ventures, GGV Capital and Harmony Capital also invested in the round.

Arthur, a platform that monitors, measures and improves machine learning models, raised $42 million in Series B financing. Acrew Capital and Greycroft Ventures co-led the round, which included support from Index Ventures, BAM Elevate, Work-Bench and Plexo Capital.

MPCH Labs Inc., a New York-based company whose first product is an operating system allowing users to self-manage assets, wallets and workflow policies, completed a $40 million Series A round. Liberty City Ventures led the round, which included participation from QCP Capital, Mantis VC, Human Capital, Global Coin Research, LedgerPrime, Finality Capital, Oak HC/FT, Polygon Studios, Quantstamp and Animoca Brands.

Tray.io, a San Francisco-based low-code automation and integration provider, nabbed a $40 million investment. New investor CPP Investments joined existing backers True Ventures, GGV Capital, Spark Capital, Meritech Capital Partners and Stepstone Group in the funding.

Caraway, a New York-based kitchenware and home goods brand, grabbed a $35 million investment led by McCarthy Capital. The company is also included in the portfolios of Consumer Ventures, Five Four Ventures and G9 Ventures.

GlossGenius, a New York-based operating system provider to the beauty and wellness industry, collected $25 million in Series B funding. Co-lead investors Imaginary Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners were joined by Left Lane Capital in the round.

Sinai Technologies, a San Francisco-based decarbonization intelligence platform, fetched $22 million in Series A funding. Led by Energize Ventures, the round included contributions from Stardust Equity, HighSage Ventures, Obvious Ventures, Valo Ventures, Afore Capital, High Alpha, Presidio Ventures and Singtel Innov8. Energize Ventures’ Eileen Waris joined the board.

• EV tax credits to spur more vehicle sales are entering a critical phase
   
• Qualcomm CFO focuses on investing in budding automotive business
   
• Meta shuts down influence operations started in China, Russia
   
• Intel introduces videogame graphics chips to challenge Nvidia
   
• What would you give for fewer customer feedback surveys?

• The unlikely cure for burnout? A second job (Wired)
   
• Dating apps thrive in China, but not just for romance (New York Times)

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, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

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