Happy Monday. Base10 Partners Capital Management is doubling down on automation startups with a new $250 million fund that was announced Friday along with an accompanying diversity pledge.

Base10 will continue to back startups automating large labor-intensive sectors like construction. The firm will also focus on sectors that the pandemic has shown are ripe for automation, managing partner Adeyemi Ajao said. For example, as food-delivery demand soars, there’s an opportunity to streamline elements of the food-supply chain before the final delivery step, Mr. Ajao said.

Base10 is also pledging to give 1% of its operating profit and 1% of carried interest in its funds to organizations fostering diversity, including in the venture-capital sector. The pledge references organizations such as Black Founders, which aims to provide black entrepreneurs access to advice, mentorship and funding.

Mr. Ajao, who is from Spain and is half Nigerian, said his firm is also planning to consult with, and potentially partner on, deals out of the new fund with other early-stage minority-focused venture firms such as Equal Venture and Precursor Ventures.

And now on to the news...

Better days. Lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic led online real-estate marketplace startup Opendoor Labs Inc. to lay off 35% of its workforce in April and suspend its home purchasing in the 21 markets it served across the U.S. in March. Now Opendoor, which has raised roughly $3.8 billion, says business has picked up, part of what Chief Product Officer Tom Willerer says is long-term growth driven by the popularity of digital real-estate tools, WSJ Pro’s Marc Vartabedian reports.

• Opendoor has resumed buying in seven U.S. markets after the pause in March, according to Mr. Willerer. Opendoor had a 153% increase in resale offers per home in June compared with June 2019, as historically low mortgage rates lure buyers.
   
• Other real-estate tech startups have also seen more traffic. SoftBank Group-backed Compass, for instance, so far for the year has logged revenue that is 47% higher than it was at this point last year. In March the company laid off 15% of its staff, or 375 employees, but is planning to make 168 hires, spokesman Chris O’Brien said.

Catalio sets up as biomedical investor. A majority of investors in the Nexus funds of Camden Partners supported the spinout this month of its Nexus Management group into a new firm, Catalio Capital, according to people familiar with the situation, WSJ Pro’s Preeti Singh reports. Baltimore-based Catalio invests in biomedical startups and growth-stage companies.

Camden, also based in Baltimore, established its Nexus group in 2016 to invest in biomedical technology companies started by scientist-entrepreneurs.

Catalio has 25 scientists that it calls venture partners. In exchange for a portion of investment profits, venture partners provide the firm with access to participation rights in deals that they are involved with or are invited to join, giving Catalio early access to emerging opportunities in the life-sciences sector, the people said.

Funds

Growth equity investor 3L Capital is raising $400 million for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing. The Los Angeles- and New York-based firm collected $217 million for its inaugural fund in July 2019.

Automation-technology investor Base10 Partners raised $250 million for its second fund. The firm closed its first fund in 2018 with $137 million. Earlier this year, Base10 participated in funding rounds for customer engagement platform Acquire, banking and payments platform Wise and logistics payment software developer RoadSync Inc.

East Ventures has held a first close on its latest fund, which has a target of $88 million. The Indonesian firm is raising capital from institutional investors, global funds and family offices for the new fund, its eighth investment vehicle, which will provide seed funding for Southeast Asian startups.

Exits

Beyond Pricing, a vacation-rental revenue-management software provider, acquired the website design, hosting, and booking engine of Blizzard Internet Marketing from Red Awning. Bessemer Venture Partners, Resolute Ventures, Social Leverage, Structure Capital and QueensBridge Venture Partners are among Beyond’s investors.

Oscar, a New York-based health-insurance startup, raised $225 million in new funding. New investors Baillie Gifford and Coatue participated in the round, along with existing backers including Alphabet, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Lakestar and Thrive Capital.

Artiva Biotherapeutics Inc., a San Diego-based oncology startup, closed a $78 million Series A round. 5AM Ventures, venBio Partners and RA Capital Management co-led the investment, which included participation from Medivate Partners and others.

Enko Chem Inc., a Woburn, Mass.-based developer of products that protect crops from pests and disease, landed $45 million in Series B funding led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Previous backers Anterra Capital and Rabo Food & Agri Innovation Fund joined in the round, along with new investors Finistere Ventures, Novalis LifeSciences, Germin8 Ventures and TO Ventures Food. Novalis’s Marijn Dekkers and Finistere’s Spencer Maughan will join Enko's board.

Aye Finance, an Indian business loan provider, secured $27.5 million in Series E funding. CapitalG led the round and was joined by LGT Lightstone, Falcon Edge Capital, A91 Partners and MAJ Invest.

Codefresh Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based continuous delivery platform built for Kubernetes, secured $27 million in new funding. Red Dot Capital Partners led the round, which included participation from Shasta Ventures, Vertex Ventures, M12, Viola Ventures, Hillsven and CreditEase Israel Innovation Fund. Yaniv Stern, managing partner at Red Dot, will join the board.

​Area 1 Security, a Redwood City, Calif.-based pre-emptive email-security startup, grabbed $25 million in growth funding. ForgePoint Capital led the round, with Kleiner Perkins, Icon Ventures and Top Tier Capital also participating. In addition to the investment, Area 1 named Patrick Sweeney as chief executive. He was most recently CEO of Talari Networks.

Capital Markets Gateway LLC, which offers a digital workflow and analytics platform for capital markets professionals, snagged a $25 million investment from Barclays, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Canaccord Genuity, Franklin Templeton, StageDotO and Shea Ventures. The company has offices in New York, Chicago and Seattle.

Cynet, a New York-based autonomous breach protection startup, nabbed an $18 million Series B investment from Deutsche Telekom’s Telekom Innovation Pool, BlueRed Partners, Merlin International, Norwest Venture Partners and Ibex Investors.

Element Analytics Inc., a San Francisco-based industrial data software startup, completed an $18 million Series B round. Activate Capital and Forte Ventures co-led the funding, with support from Evonik Venture Capital, Kleiner Perkins Green Growth Fund, Ajax Strategies, Blue Bear Capital, Schneider Electric Ventures, Honeywell Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures and High Tide Foundation. David Lincoln of Activate and Louis Rajczi of Forte were added to the board.

Aclaimant, a Chicago-based workflow platform for safety and risk management, picked up $10 million in Series A funding. Mercury Fund led the round, which included contributions from Royal Street Ventures, Ebsco Capital, KEC Ventures, RRE Ventures and Aspen Capital Group.

Spiff, a Mountain View, Calif.- and Sandy, Utah-based sales commission software provider, fetched a $10 million Series A round. Norwest Venture Partners led the investment, and was joined by NextWorld Capital, Epic Ventures, Kickstart, Album Ventures, Pipeline Capital and Peterson Ventures. Sean Jacobsohn, partner at Norwest, will join the board.

ThinkData Works, a Toronto-based data management startup, raised $8 million in Series A financing from investors including Yaletown Partners.

• Amazon to acquire self-driving startup Zoox
   
• Google’s Marian Croak aimed for the top. She couldn’t escape racism.
   
• Facebook tightens controls on speech as ad boycott grows
   
• Microsoft to close its retail stores

• Tim O’Reilly makes a persuasive case for why venture capital is starting to do more harm than good (TechCrunch)
   
• How an app for discovering black-owned restaurants is dealing with skyrocketing demand (Protocol)
   
• Alexis Ohanian leaves VC firm Initialized (Axios)
   
• Working for Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy isn’t always easy (Recode)

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, Tomio Geron, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

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