1.
Quibi Leaders’ $1.7 Billion Failure Is a Story of Self-Sabotage
The view from Meg Whitman’s wraparound private terrace was dazzling. In 2018, three months after she stepped down as chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Whitman moved to Los Angeles, into a sprawling, $6.5 million condo on the 24th floor of West Hollywood’s Sierra Towers. The apartment had only two bedrooms but offered lots of other indulgences—floor-to-ceiling skyline views, a home theater, a quarry’s worth of kitchen marble—as well as a patina of
Hollywood glamor. Whitman could say she lived in a building whose residents have included Sandra Bullock, Elton John, David Geffen, Evander Holyfield, and Cher. And there was still a chance of running into Adam Sandler in the lobby. Whitman, one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful women, had moved to L.A. to work with people like that. She’d been recruited a year earlier by Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood megaproducer who co-founded DreamWorks Animation, who was betting that the future of entertainment was short-form videos with old-school studio production values. Whitman was to be the CEO of a streaming service with episodic programming that aimed to wow a generation raised on YouTube. [ Bloomberg ]
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2.
UK battery startup Zenobe Energy secures £150M to trigger electric vehicle and battery revolution
As the UK government looks to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2035, the demand for battery operated vehicles is rising. And so is the investment in battery storage and providers startups and companies. The latest one in news
is London-based Zenobe Energy ( formerly known as Battery Energy Storage Solutions Limited), which is one of the largest independent owners and operators of battery storage in the UK. Recently, the company has secured a £150 million investment from Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc to support the company’s growth. The company intends to use the funding to accelerate the UK’s transition to a green energy system. [ uktech ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
Special:
DoorDash releases filing to go public, reports $149 million in losses on revenue of $1.9 billion through September
DoorDash, the leading food delivery app in the U.S., filed its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The company will list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DASH. DoorDash reported $1.9 billion in revenue for the nine months ended Sept. 30. That’s up from $587 million during the same period last year. As its revenue grew, DoorDash also narrowed its net loss to $149 million over the same period in 2020. In 2019, DoorDash had a net loss
of $533 million over the nine-month period. The company said it has 1 million Dashers (delivery workers) and more than 18 million customers. It also had over 5 million customers on its $9.99 per month DashPass service as of Sept. 30. The offering gives customers free delivery from restaurants part of the program. [ CNBC ]
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3.
Estonian-born Pipedrive achieves unicorn status with $1.5 billion valuation
Pipedrive, a CRM platform for sales and marketing teams, has signed an agreement to receive a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners, an Austin, Texas-based VC firm – which puts the company’s valuation at about $1.5 billion. With this, the Estonian-born startup reaches unicorn status. Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Atomico, DTCP, and Rembrandt Venture Partners will continue as minority investors in the company. The Pipedrive CRM uses artificial intelligence and automation to help sales teams manage
leads and deals efficiently, driving more revenue for the business. According to a press release, over 95,000 sales teams have used the platform. For the third year running, it was included in the Forbes Cloud 100 list. [ Tech.eu ]
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4.
Enterprise AI software maker C3.ai files for a $100 million IPO
C3.ai, which provides SaaS applications for the deployment of enterprise AI applications, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. The company provides SaaS applications that enable the rapid deployment of enterprise-scale AI applications on Azure, AWS, the IBM Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, or on-premise. Its two primary families of software solutions include the C3 AI Suite, which is a comprehensive application development and runtime environment that is designed to allow its customers to design, develop, and deploy Enterprise AI applications of any type; and C3 AI Applications, which is built using the C3 AI Suite and includes a family of industry-specific and application-specific turnkey AI solutions. [
renaissance capital ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
5.
Zilliz raises $43 million as investors rush to China’s open source software
For years, founders and investors in China had little interest in open source software because it did not seem like the most viable business model. Zilliz‘s latest financing round shows that attitude is changing. The three-year-old Chinese startup, which builds open source software for processing unstructured data, recently closed a Series B round of $43 million. The investment, which catapults Zilliz’s to-date raise to over $53 million, is a sizable amount for any open source business around the world. Storied private equity firm Hillhouse Capital led the round joined by Trustbridge Partners, Pavilion Capital, and existing investors 5Y Capital (formerly Morningside) and Yunqi Partners. [ Tech Crunch ]
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6.
Valued at more than $3 billion, SentinelOne completes $267 million financing round
Cybersecurity company SentinelOne, which was founded by Israeli entrepreneurs, has raised $267 million at a valuation of more than $3 billion. Calcalist first reported on this financing round in October. The round, the company’s sixth, was led by American venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global. Other participants in the round include Third Point Ventures and Insight Partners who had previously invested in the company. In an interview with Reuters, SentinelOne CEO Tomer
Weingarten said the Covid-19 pandemic sent everyone to go work from home creating great demand for the company’s technology. The company plans to use the new capital for acquisitions and expansion in new markets including Asia. About 80% of its revenue currently comes from the U.S. [ calcalistech ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
7.
From talk to action: Investors weigh in on ways to increase diversity in VC
For years, venture capitalists have faced mounting pressure to diversify their portfolio companies and investment teams with people of color and women. Over the summer, diversity, inclusion and equality regained attention as protests erupted across the US in response to the police killings of several Black Americans. As venture capitalists continue to grapple with these issues across the ecosystem, PitchBook News hosted a panel discussion on Thursday with professionals from various parts of the private markets on the evolving role that investors play in addressing these issues. [ Pitchbook ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
8.
How Hint Water's Kara Goldin Went From Zero Industry Experience to a $150 Million Business Empire
Kara Goldin, the founder and CEO of flavored-water company Hint Water, says her goal isn't to launch a slew of new products--it's to tackle existing product categories and "just do them better." So far, it's working: Hint is valued at $150 million and has a presence in Whole
Foods, Target, and other national chains. A former vice president of e-commerce and shopping at AOL, Goldin has also grown Hint's e-commerce business and added sunscreen, deodorant, and other product lines. Speaking with Inc. assistant editor Brit Morse in Inc.'s latest Real Talk streaming event, Goldin shared advice for entrepreneurs and stories from her new memoir, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters (HarperCollins Leadership, 2020). Here are three of her tips. [ INC ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
9.
Peregrine Ventures launches $300 million life science fund
Israeli venture capital fund Peregrine Ventures announced its new growth fund, Peregrine Growth, which will invest in late stage life science companies. It completed its first closure of $101 million from local Institutional investors. The rest of the $300 million fund will be raised with backing from institutional investors and local and international family offices. Peregrine executives are currently involved in advanced discussions with additional Israeli institutional bodies for direct investments in the fund, as well as parallel investments in compliance with the Israeli Innovation Authority, which encourages investments by institutions who possess knowledge in the industry. The fund has estimated that it will finish raising the target capital within
a year. [ calcalistech ]
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10.
Illinois Municipal commits $85 million to venture capital
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Oak Brook, made new commitments totaling up to $85 million, spokesman John Krupa said in an email. The $45.2 billion pension fund's board on Friday approved commitments of up to $60 million total to Versant Ventures Fund VIII, Versant Voyageurs II and Versant Vantage II, all venture capital funds managed by Versant Ventures. IMRF previously committed up to $40 million to Versant Ventures Fund VII and up to $20 million to Versant Medical Technology Fund I in August 2018. [
Pionline ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
11.
As the BaaS market heats up, London-based Railsbank secures £28M to fund US expansion plans
In the future, the digital platforms will likely become the ideal business model for banks and other financial institutions. Right now, Banking as a Service platform (BaaS) is becoming a widely accepted revenue model for many forward-thinking institutions. London-based Railsbank is one of them. Recently, Railsbank raised $37 million (approx £28 million) as part of continued equity funding to support its global growth and product expansion. Nigel Verdon, co-founder, and CEO of Railsbank said: “We are thrilled to have the support of world-class investors who bring a highly strategic network to help us continue with the vision, with zero pivots, that Clive, my co-founder, and I started within 2016. The round was co-led by existing investors – MiddleGame Ventures and Ventura Capital. Other investors including Anthos Capital, Global Brain, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Moneta VC, Mitsui Fudosan, and Firestartr also participated.[ uktech. ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
12.
German IoT startup KINEXON secures €15 million loan to fuel global expansion
KINEXON, a Munich-based IoT company that develops hardware and software, has signed a €15 million venture debt loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The loan, which is supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments, will be meted out in three chunks upon completion of some pre-defined milestones. The financing will help the German startup expand in Europe, the US and Asia and also fuel product development, namely data analytics and artificial intelligence. KINEXON’s technology — a mix of sensor networks,
edge computing, real-time process automation and ultra-wide band technology — has a range of applications. Obvious ones include production and logistics, where the German startup can help with automation and robotics, but cases go beyond the usual industrial IoT examples. [ Tech.eu ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
13.
Eecommerce software startup Marketplacer just raised $20 million is it gets ready to list
Software venture Marketplacer, which provides ecommerce solutions for leading Australian retailers such as Myer, Metcash and Bob Jane T-Marts, has raised $20 million as it plans to head to an IPO in early 2021. Founded in Melbourne in 2012, the company creates backend online marketplace software and raised $20 million 12 months ago in what was touted back then as a pre-IPO raise. Those investors, including Bombara Group, Acorn Capital, SG Hiscock, Morgans Financial and Mirrabooka Investments, returned for this latest round, with Endeavor Asset Management, Ellerston Capital and OC Fundsk also signing up for the fresh raise. [ Startup Daily ]
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14.
With $20 million to invest, venture capital firm sets sights on Cheyenne
In the U.S., coastal cities like New York and San Francisco are saturated with startups and venture capital firms hoping to invest in the next big idea. Wyoming has long been considered a flyover state in the tech world, but a new venture capital firm set its sights on Cheyenne with the goal of tapping into a largely untapped market. [ wyomingn ews ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
15.
Computer vision startup Chooch.ai scores $20M Series A
Chooch.ai, a startup that hopes to bring computer vision more broadly to companies to help them identify and tag elements at high speed, announced a $20 million Series A today. Vickers Venture Partners led the round with participation from 212, Streamlined Ventures, Alumni
Ventures Group, Waterman Ventures and several other unnamed investors. Today’s investment brings the total raised to $25.8 million, according to the company. “Basically we set out to copy human visual intelligence in machines. That’s really what this whole journey is about,” CEO and co-founder Emrah Gultekin explained. As the company describes it, “Chooch Al can rapidly ingest and process visual data from any spectrum, generating AI models in hours that can detect objects, actions, processes, coordinates, states, and more.” [ Tech Crucnh ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
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