1.
Indian logistics startup Xpressbees raises $110 million
Xpressbees, an Indian logistics firm that works with several e-commerce firms in the country, said on Monday it has raised $110 million in a new financing round as online shopping booms in the world’s second largest internet market. The Pune-headquartered startup’s Series E financing round was led by private equity firms Investcorp, Norwest Venture Partners and Gaja Capital, the five-year-old startup said. Xpressbees, which concluded its Series D round three years ago, has raised $175.8 million to date, according to research firm Tracxn. The new round valued the startup at more than $350 million. Xpressbees helps more
than 1,000 customers — including financial and e-commerce services giant Paytm, social commerce startup Meesho, eyewear seller Lenskart, phone maker Xiaomi, online pharmacy NetMeds and online marketplace Snapdeal — deliver their products across the country. It has presence in over 2,000 cities and towns, and it processes more than 2.5 million orders a day — up from
about 600,000 daily orders last year. [ Tech Crunch ]
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2.
Farfetch gets £1B backing from Alibaba and Richemont
Farfetch is an online luxury fashion retail platform based out of London that unites various independent fashion boutiques. Recently, the online fashion retailer announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba Group and Richemont to expand its footprint across China as well as
accelerate the digitisation of the global luxury industry. As a part of the collaboration, Farfetch will launch it’s luxury shopping channels on Alibaba’s platforms, Tmall Luxury Pavilion and Luxury Soho, China’s premier luxury and luxury outlet destination within the Tmall marketplace, as well as Alibaba’s cross-border marketplace Tmall Global. [ uktech ] Checkout 15K+
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Special:
Challenger bank Starling is out raising a new £200M funding round
Starling founder Anne Boden recently told TechCrunch that the U.K. challenger bank is on track to be profitable by Christmas, but this doesn’t mean it isn’t out raising additional capital already. According to well-placed sources, Starling has hired Rothschild with the aim of raising a new £200 million round. The draw is its expected profitability, which one source says is already creating private equity investor interest. Starling declined to comment. Having raised £363
million to date, including a £100 million state-aid grant, Starling now boasts 1.9 million customers. Since launching business banking in March 2018 and subsequently taking part in the U.K. government’s bounce-back scheme for struggling businesses hit by the pandemic, this also now includes more than 280,000 business accounts for sole traders and small to medium-sized businesses. [ Tech Crunch ]
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3.
Griffin Gaming Partners raises $235 million to invest in games
Venture capital fund Griffin Gaming Partners has raised $235 million to invest in game companies and related technologies around the world. The video game industry is now expected to grow to $174.9 billion this year, according to market researcher Newzoo, which previously forecast 2020 would hit $160 billion. Due to the pandemic, the number of gamers has increased significantly, led by the U.S. with a 46% increase. Newzoo estimates that gaming will grow 248% in the next 10 years. The Santa Monica, California-based Griffin Gaming Partners was started in 2019 by general partner Peter Levin, cofounder of Nerdist Industries and former president of interactive ventures, games, and digital strategy at Lionsgate; Phil Sanderson, a venture capitalist with two decades of experience in game investing; and Nick Tuosto, managing director of investment banking firm LionTree. (Levin will be a speaker at our upcoming GamesBeat: Into the Metaverse on January 27.) [ Venture Beat ]
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4.
The climate technologies venture capitalists are backing
5.
The biggest IPO in Israeli history? IronSource sets sights on $8 billion offering
One of Israeli tech's giants, IronSource, is gearing up for an IPO in the first half of 2021. According to a source who spoke to Calcalist under the condition of anonymity, the formal decision to embark on the IPO is set to be approved by the board of directors in the very near future. Goldman Sachs is expected to be the underwriter of the IPO, which is likely to become the largest ever by an Israeli company on Nasdaq. IronSource is targeting a valuation of between $7 billion and $8 billion. Viola Ventures, which owns 10% of the company, is leading the push to go public and is expected to sell a large stake of its holdings in the offering. [ Calcalistech ]
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6.
RemeGen grabs one of the world's largest ever biotech IPOs
RemeGen has raised $515 million on the Hong Kong exchange in one of the largest biotech IPOs ever produced. The largest to date in 2020, and one of the biggest after Moderna’s $600 million-plus IPO a few years back, the Yantai-based biotech in China will use its major cash haul toward its healthy pipeline of mid- to late-stage efforts. This includes telitacicept and disitamab vedotin, both slated for approval within the next three to eight months. [ fierce biotech ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
7.
MSCHF’s Push Party raises an unconventional seed round at a $200 million valuation
As part of its latest stunt, MSCHF, a venture-backed creative studio that’s smarter and more audacious than most, is poking a little fun at the venture industry itself and perhaps publications like TechCrunch too. The startup has spun out a rather simplistic app into a separate company and raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a very real venture capital firm at an eye-popping $200 million valuation. For the time being, the actual completion of the legal paperwork to cement this valuation seems like a more complex hurdle than the technical challenges of building the app itself. Push Party is by all means a Gen-Z Yo, it does one thing and one thing only, allows people to push a button which sends a push notification to every user of the app. There are no friends, no groups, no influencers. It’s a big button that fires off an awful lot of notifications. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
8.
Adobe to Buy Workfront for $1.5 Billion to Aid Collaboration
Adobe Inc. said it will acquire Workfront Inc. for $1.5 billion to add a collaboration tool to its marketing software, providing expanded offerings during a pandemic that has forced companies to maintain productivity while employees work from home. The deal is expected to close
sometime from December to February 2021, San Jose, California-based Adobe said Monday in a statement. Workfront, based in Lehi, Utah, will take its 3,000 corporate customers and 1 million users to the software maker best known for Photoshop. Bloomberg earlier reported that the acquisition could come as soon as Monday. Adobe has been a leader in the graphics and visual software industry for decades, but hasn’t offered collaboration tools. The company’s shares, which have climbed 43% this year, declined 4.8% to $471.14 at the close in New York. [ Bloomberg ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
9.
Grayshift, The Startup That Breaks Into iPhones For The Feds, Raises $47 Million
Grayshift, the startup behind one of the U.S. government’s favorite iPhone hacking technologies, has raised $47 million in funding. It’s a huge round for a phone forensics company, especially one that’s focused almost exclusively on breaking through the security of Apple’s famous device. Grayshift’s Graykey, the existence of which was first revealed by Forbes in 2018, is used by a wide range of federal agencies, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and
Customs and Border Protection to the FBI and the Oval Office. As revealed in recent research from nonprofit Upturn, it’s also used by a massive number of local police agencies across America. [ Forbes ]
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10.
Cellwize raises $32 million to expand 5G market
Cellwize has announced the completion of a $32 million series B financing round led by Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and with the participation of Samsung Next and Verizon Ventures, and current investors including: DTCP, Viola Ventures, Vintage, GreenApple and Sonae IM. Cellwize, which developed a smart RAN automation and orchestration platform that can help accelerate deployment of 5G networks, had previously raised $24 million, with a large portion of its 2015 round being debt. Cellwize was founded in 2012 by Daniel Dribinski and Sasi Geva, who are no longer part of the company. The company employs 80 people in Israel and 160 across the world. [ Calcalistech ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
11.
Edgard & Cooper Bags $26M To Expand Fresh Pet Food Business
Consumers are becoming more aware of their pets’ dietary requirements and overall health as they spend more time with furry (or nonfurry) companions during the pandemic. Edgard & Cooper, based in Belgium, is one of Europe’s pioneers in offering fresh pet food options and has raised 22 million euros (approx. $26 million) in Series B funding to support its expansion across the continent and to build brand awareness, Koen Bostoen, Edgard & Cooper co-founder, told Crunchbase News. London-based investment fund The Craftory led Edgard & Cooper’s round, and existing investor DLF Ventures also
participated. Including the new funding, the company has raised a total of 27 million euros, Bostoen said. Elio Leoni Sceti, co-founder and chief crafter at The Craftory, said in an interview that the fresh pet food space of branded goods “is a category we love.” Edgard & Cooper’s storytelling stood out as did the company’s co-founders, who complement each other’s strengths, he said. [ Crunchbase ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
12.
Hong Kong insurtech startup Coherent gets $14 million Series A led by Cathay Innovation
Based in Hong Kong, Coherent helps insurance providers go digital. With their services more relevant than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, the startup announced it has raised $14 million in new funding. The Series A round, led by Cathay Innovation with participation from Franklin Templeton, will be used to grow Coherent’s client base in Asia, including insurers who want to add more digital services to their usual sales processes because of the pandemic. Founded in 2018, Coherent’s platform, called Product Factory, allows insurance providers to digitize their backend operations by uploading Excel pricing models, which means their IT departments don’t need to write new code or re-haul their IT infrastructure. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
13.
The former CEO of Google has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus
The former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, is finalizing a plan to become a citizen of the island of Cyprus, Recode has learned, becoming one of the highest-profile Americans to take advantage of one of the world’s most controversial “passport-for-sale” programs. Schmidt, one of America’s wealthiest people, and his family have won approval to become citizens of the Mediterranean nation, according to a previously unreported notice in a Cypriot publication in October. While it is not clear why exactly Schmidt has pursued this foreign citizenship, the new passport gives him the ability to travel to the European Union, along with a potentially favorable personal tax regime. [ Vox ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
14.
2020's unicorns highlight shift in venture capital funding trends
Healthcare, business productivity and fintech startups have dominated the unicorn class of 2020 as an exponential rise in demand for services in these sectors during the coronavirus pandemic has changed VC investing trends. Since January, 71 companies in the US have reached a valuation of $1 billion or more, while 79 companies were minted unicorns in all of 2019, according to PitchBook data. Fintech and business productivity software startups account for more than a third of this year's unicorn total. And 11 companies in the healthcare industry have made their way onto the list.
One such startup is MDLive, the Miramar, Fla.-based provider of a telehealth platform that raised $75 million at a $1 billion valuation in September, according to PitchBook data. And Whoop, the wearable device maker that has drawn support from pro athletes like Kevin Durant, Eli Manning and Patrick Mahomes, recently picked up $100 million in new capital, valuing it at $1.2 billion. [ Pitchbook ]
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15.
Moon exploration startup ispace opens new US office and hires SpaceX alum to lead development of next lander
Japanese startup ispace, which is developing lander technology to support exploration of the moon, is opening an office in Denver, the company announced today. The Colorado location was chosen because of its access to local aerospace engineering talent, and the plan is for the company to quickly staff up a full local engineering team. Ispace also announced that it has hired Kursten O’Neill, a seven-year SpaceX vet, who will oversee development of ispace’s next-generation lunar
lander craft. [ Tech Crunch ]
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