Happy Monday. Direct-to-consumer companies Peloton, SmileDirectClub and Blue Apron all stumbled following their recent IPOs. Capital-intensive consumer startups more generally have been beleaguered in recent months, particularly with the rough receptions for Uber and Lyft IPOs.

But mattress startup Casper is looking to buck that trend, as one of the first venture-backed IPOs of the year. The New York-based business released its S-1 filing on Friday, showing that IVP, New Enterprise Associates and Norwest Venture Partners each hold at least 5% stakes. The company had previously raised more than $300 million in venture funding and was valued at about $1 billion last year, according to PitchBook.

Casper has fast-growing revenue but is unprofitable. The company had $358 million in sales last year, with $92 million in losses.

Venture investors will be watching Casper's performance closely, hoping to glean insight on what this means for the plethora of other direct-to-consumer investments, from eyeglasses to shoes. 

And now on to the news...

Corporate moves. Large technology companies have long maintained startup-investment programs, but now corporations across many non-tech industries are plowing more money into startups, WSJ Pro's Marc Vartabedian and team report. 

• The increased activity allows companies to keep tabs on nascent technology, have early looks at potential acquisitions and hopefully stave off technological disruption.
   
• The number of non-tech corporate venture deals last year reached 256 through Dec. 6, up from 152 in 2009, according to PitchBook. The total value of those deals rose to $8.8 billion from $2.7 billion over the same period, the data show.
   
• Insurer Aflac Inc.'s corporate venture-capital arm, for instance, is expected to invest $250 million in startups in fields such as artificial intelligence by 2022, the company said. The insurance industry has begun using AI to automate certain tasks.

IPO alarm. Mattress company Casper Sleep Inc. hopes it can wake the IPO market from its slumber, WSJ's Eliot Brown reports. On Friday, Casper became the first banner-name startup to file for an IPO in 2020, setting itself up as a potential bellwether for companies aiming to begin trading this year. But the company’s filing also revealed heavy losses to go along with sharp revenue growth, a mix that has drawn ire from public investors recently. 

Digital health fund. As a health-care investor with Kleiner Perkins, Lynne Chou O’Keefe funded companies such as Livongo Health, which went public in July and now has a market capitalization of $2.6 billion, WSJ Pro's Brian Gormley reports. Now she is backing digital-health startups through her latest firm, San Francisco-based Define Ventures, which has just wrapped up its debut fund at $87 million after setting out to raise $65 million for the vehicle, Define Ventures Fund I LP, in late 2018.

EQRx, a startup pharmaceuticals company, wants to capitalize on the backlash against high drug prices by developing slightly different versions of expensive brand-name drugs and selling them at a significantly lower price than competitors, WSJ's Joseph Walker reports. The new company aims to bring 10 drugs to market over the next decade and sell them for perhaps as little as one-third to one-fifth of rivals’ prices, the company’s co-founder and Chief Executive Alexis Borisy said.

Funds

Bonfire Ventures seeks to raise $100 million for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing. The firm invests in enterprise-software startups and has offices in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, Calif. Bonfire’s inaugural fund closed with $60 million in January 2018.

Fathom Capital hopes to secure $30 million for its second fund, a filing stated. The San Francisco- and Austin, Texas-based firm’s recent investments include customer communication platform Acquire and website development platform Gatsby.

Exits

Prosus unit PayU is acquiring a controlling stake in Indian digital credit platform PaySense and will combine it with the company’s consumer lending business in a deal valued at $185 million. Additionally, PayU will invest up to $200 million in the new enterprise in the form of equity capital over the next two years. PaySense previously raised funding from investors including Nexus Venture Partners, Jungle Ventures, Rocketship and PayU.

Genetic-testing services provider NeoGenomics Inc. acquired the Oncology Division assets of Human Longevity Inc. for $37 million. In November, the San Diego-based company raised $30 million in funding from Emerging Technology Partners and others. Human Longevity’s earlier investors include GE Ventures and Amino Capital.

Two patient-engagement technology providers have combined with SCI Solutions Inc.’s acquisition of Tonic Health Inc. SCI is backed by investors including New Enterprise Associates, while Tonic counts Hearst Health and Royal Street Ventures as backers. The combined company is headquartered in Seattle.

HCA Healthcare acquired Valify, whose web-based platform provides analysis to healthcare systems, for an undisclosed sum. The Frisco, Texas-based company’s backers included Frist Cressey Ventures, Step 5 Capital, Heritage Group and Martin Ventures.

Virta Health Corp., a San Francisco-based type 2 diabetes treatment provider, raised $93 million in Series C funding. Caffeinated Capital led the round, with participation from Venrock, Obvious Ventures, Creandum, Playground Global and SciFi VC.

Element Biosciences Inc., a San Diego-based genomic sequencing startup, completed an $80.3 million Series B round of financing. New investors Fidelity Management & Research Co. and JS Capital were joined by existing backers Foresite Capital and Venrock in the round.

PACT Pharma Inc., a South San Francisco, Calif.-based cancer therapy developer, closed a $75 million Series C round. Vida Ventures led the funding, with Managing Director Helen S. Kim joining the company’s board.

Tyra Biosciences Inc., a Carlsbad, Calif.-based startup developing new small molecule therapies targeting acquired resistance in oncology, picked up $50 million in Series A funding co-led by Alta Partners, RA Capital Management, Boxer Capital of Tavistock Group and Canaan.

Corvus Insurance Holdings Inc., a Boston-based developer of commercial insurance technology, secured $32 million in Series B funding. Telstra Ventures led the investment, which included participation from Obvious Ventures, .406 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and Hudson Structured Capital Management. Marcus Bartram, partner at Telstra, will join the board.

Arcadia, a Burlington, Mass.-based performance management provider for health plans and provider groups, snagged a $29.5 million investment led by Cigna Ventures.

ReadCoor Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of spatial gene-sequencing technology for diagnostics and drug discovery, landed $27 million in Series B financing from investors including Pavilion Capital and Decheng Capital.

NBE-Therapeutics AG, a Swiss startup whose lead drug candidate is about to undergo human trials for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer and lung cancer, closed a $22 million Series C funding round led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and PPF Group.

Practifi, a Sydney- and Chicago-based business management platform for financial advisors, nabbed $16.3 million in Series B funding. Updata Partners led the round, with participation from Equity Venture Partners.

Cardiologs Technologies Inc., a Boston- and Paris-based cardiology diagnostics startup, raised $15 million in Series A financing. Alven led the investment, which included contributions from Bpifrance, ISAI, Kurma Diagnostics, Idinvest Partners and Paris Saclay Seed Fund.

Jolt, a Tel Aviv- and London-based business school offering alternatives to traditional MBA courses, grabbed $14.1 million in new funding. Balderton Capital led the investment, and was joined by Hillsven Capital and Octopus Ventures.

BioSkryb, a Durham, N.C.-based genome sequencing startup, was seeded with an $11.5 million investment. Anzu Partners led the round, with participation from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. William E. Evans and Siddhartha C. Kadia joined the board.

DTx Pharma Inc., a San Diego-based precision medicine startup, secured $10.6 million in Series A funding. FBV Fund 1 led the round, which included participation from Eli Lilly and Co., Viva Biotech, Tech Coast Angels, ExSight Ventures and others.

• Airbnb said it will hire union construction labor for new real-estate developments, the latest sign that the home-sharing company is trying to strengthen its support from organized labor.
   
• Almost six months after Facebook agreed to a $5 billion settlement of privacy violations, the issue is anything but settled.
   
• The chief legal officer of Google is leaving the company amid an investigation into his relationships with employees of the search-engine giant.
   

• Amazon has been building a business selling ads on its Fire streaming platform. Now, it wants to sell ads for the first time on other streaming systems such as Apple TV and Xbox.

• Apple and Microsoft are dazzling investors. That won’t last.      

• The virus implicated in a mysterious outbreak of pneumonia in central China is in a class of pathogens that are a growing player in global infectious disease epidemics.

• India’s Supreme Court ruled that the indefinite suspension of internet services in Kashmir was unconstitutional, scolding the government for blocking important avenues for communication.

• U.S. music streams on services like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube rose 30% last year to top one trillion for the first time, according to Nielsen Music, fueled by big releases from artists like Taylor Swift.

• SoftBank-backed companies laid off 2,600 people last week. (Business Insider)
   
• SoftBank-backed Oyo fired thousands across China and India. (Bloomberg)
   

• San Diego’s massive, seven-year experiment with facial recognition technology appears to be a flop. (Fast Company)

• About one-in-five Americans use a smart watch or fitness tracker. (Pew Research)

• Last year enterprise-tech startups raised more cash than consumer-tech companies for the first time in at least five years. (Bloomberg)

• Sex-tech companies are having more fun than the rest of us at CES. (Wired)

• Skype audio graded by workers in China with 'no security measures'. (Guardian)

We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Tomio Geron, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Heather Mack, Katie Roof and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc, @tomiogeron, @ychernova, @BrianPGormley, @1heathermack, @katie_roof, @marcvarta.