1.
Scale Venture Partners Raising Larger, $500 Million Fund
Scale Venture Partners, a venture firm investing in software startups, is aiming to raise a larger fund than its last one, according to people familiar with the situation. The Foster City, Calif.-based firm is targeting $500 million for its seventh fund, the people said. Its hard cap, or the maximum it would raise, is $600 million, according to one of the people. That would make the new fund bigger than its most recent $400 million Scale Venture Partners VI, which the firm raised in 2018. [ WSJ ]
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2.
Ant Group could raise as much as $34.5B in IPO in what would be world’s largest IPO
The long-anticipated IPO of Alibaba-affiliated Chinese fintech giant Ant Group could raise tens of billions of dollars in a dual-listing on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges. Shares for the company formerly known as Ant Financial are expected to price at around HK$80, or roughly 68 to 69 Chinese Yuan. The company is selling around 134 million shares in the Hong Kong portion of its debut, worth around $17.25 billion American dollars at HK$80 apiece. Given that the share sale is expected to raise a similar amount of money from its Shanghai listing, the company’s IPO could raise as much as $34.5 billion. That tally would make the debut the largest in history, besting the recent Aramco IPO that raised around $29.4 billion. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
Special:
NTTVC Publicly Announces $500 Million Fund Created in Partnership with NTT
NTTVC today publicly announced its $500 million fund to help startups reach rapid global scale by harnessing the power of partnership. The independent venture capital firm was founded by entrepreneur and investor Vab Goel in collaboration with global technology service provider NTT. The
firm is also announcing investments in five startups delivering impactful innovations for businesses and consumers: Celona, Eko, nference, Shoreline and UDP Labs. NTTVC invests broadly across all stages and sectors, with an emphasis on the future of enterprise, digital health and innovations powered by AI, machine learning and data. By combining
the deep relationships of its investment team with the reach of NTT, the firm offers access to a robust network of industry experts, customers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, system integrators and service providers who can help startups make better decisions, more quickly. [ oaoa ]
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3.
RA Capital Management, LP Closes its Second Venture Capital Fund, Raising $461 Million
RA Capital Management, LP (“RA Capital”) has held a first and final closing of its second venture fund, RA Capital Nexus Fund II, L.P. (“Nexus II”), raising $461 million. “We deeply appreciate the continued support of our existing limited partners and new institutions in this endeavor. Together, we share in the optimism that there is so much more good that biotechnology can do for humanity,” said RA Capital co-founder and Portfolio Manager Rajeev Shah. The additional capital increases RA Capital’s private deal capacity to over $1.3 billion and total assets under management to approximately $6.8 billion. RA Capital’s inaugural venture fund, RA Capital Nexus Fund, L.P. (“Nexus I”) closed in
July 2019 with approximately $300 million of capital. In its first 15 months, Nexus I has called 80% of its capital, invested across 18 distinct therapeutic areas, and funded 59 companies, 15 of which have IPO’d or have been acquired. [ globe news wire ]
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4.
Tencent part of VSPN’s US$100m funding round
Asia-based esports organiser Versus Programming Network (VSPN) has raised almost US$100 million in a Series B funding round, led by Chinese technology and gaming company Tencent Holdings. Joining Tencent as investors include Tiantu Capital, trading firm Susquehanna International Group (SIG), and video-sharing mobile app Kuaishou. The latest capital injection, which VSPN describes as ‘close to US$100 million’ will go towards improving the company’s esports products as well as its ecosystem in China and the wider Asia region. Having been founded in 2016, Shanghai-based VSPN has become one of the continent’s largest esports experience providers which sees it involved with a number of high-profile tournaments, including the
Peacekeeper Elite League. The company has also branched out into other businesses such as offline venue operation. [ sportspro media ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
5.
Why Peter Thiel says that his portfolio startup Expanse — which exposes the 'guts of the internet' — is an 'indispensable technology' for enterprises
Eight-year-old startup Expanse shows its large enterprise customers every route connecting their companies to the internet, which influential investor Peter Thiel describes as an "indispensable technology" for security teams. Thiel, an early investor and current board member for Facebook, chairman of Palantir, and cofounder of PayPal, angel invested in Expanse early on and has continued pouring in funding as the San Francisco cybersecurity startup has swelled to $100 million in contract value in 2020. Can Expanse's ambitious mission – to reveal everywhere its clients' systems access the internet – vault the startup to multi-billion-dollar heights like some of the other companies that
Thiel and his firm Founders Fund have invested in, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Airbnb, and Spotify? Thiel is optimistic, telling Business Insider that "as work becomes ever more distributed, Expanse has the indispensable technology to help security teams stay in control of vast and amorphous organizations." [ Business Insider ]
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6.
Genesia Ventures Final Close of Second Fund at US$75M
We, at Genesia Ventures, are happy to announce the final closing of our second fund at $75M, as we continue to work as a team with our portfolio companies, Limited Partners, and all other stakeholders involved in the creation of new industries in the digital age to build a platform for digital transformation (DX). [ Genesia Ventures ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
7.
Bob Iger invests in vegan dairy start-up Perfect Day
Bob Iger, Walt Disney’s executive chairman, has invested in alternative protein company Perfect Day, lending his name to a small start-up looking to replace an array of dairy products even before it has launched a mass-market product. In his first such move since stepping down as Disney’s chief executive in February, Mr Iger will also join the board of Perfect Day, which has raised $360m from investors including Temasek of Singapore and Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures. He declined to say how much he had invested but told the Financial Times he saw “enormous potential” in the 150-person group. Its patented technology uses fungi, fermentation tanks and digital copies of cow DNA to create animal-free proteins that, it
says, better replicate the texture and taste of dairy products than current alternatives. [ Financial Times ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
8.
UK’s PrimaryBid raises $50M as its retail investing platform sees a Covid-19 surge of activity
One of the biggest trends in the world of fintech in the last several years has been the emergence (and surging popularity) of startups building platforms that help more people take a more proactive role in the world of financial services. Today, one of the more promising hopefuls building an investing service in the UK is announcing a significant growth round after seeing a surge of attention this year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. PrimaryBid, which allows retail investors (that
is, ordinary and not professional investors) the ability to invest in new shares issued by public companies, has raised $50 million in new funding of its own. The funding comes on the heels of the startup working alongside larger investment banks to get retail investors in on 41 capital raising efforts for UK publicly-listed companies and trusts since April 2020. [ tech.eu ]
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9.
Aussie social media start-up taps global investors for $15m
Linktree, an Aussie start-up that lets the famous, the worthy and the influencers link all their internet accounts in one convenient stack, has banked a big first funding round after clocking up more than 3 million new users in the past year. The company, co-founded by brothers Alex and Anthony Zaccaria alongside their friend Nick Humphreys in 2016, has raised $US10.7 million ($15 million) in a Series A funding round, led by New York-based Insight Partners, an investor in Shopify, and leading Australian VC firm AirTree
Ventures. [ AFR ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
10.
Data privacy startup Mine raises $9.5 million and expands to the U.S.
Mine, which is developing a platform that helps discover and manage personal data on the web, today closed a $9.5 million funding round led by Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused venture firm. The cash infusion comes as Mine prepares to launch in the U.S. following debuts in
Israel and Europe earlier in the year. According to a spokesperson, 100,000 people have used Mine’s app to send over 1.3 million data-reclaim requests to more than 150,000 companies to date. [ Venture Beat ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
11.
Solar cell start-up scores $8m from Blackbird and Cannon-Brookes' Grok
Leading venture capital funds Blackbird Ventures and Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok Ventures have led an $8 million funding round in a Sydney-based solar energy technology start-up that is using a new and cheaper way to make solar cells. SunDrive was founded in a garage in Wollongong in 2015 by university friends Vince Allen and David Hu, and is developing a more efficient solar cell using copper, rather than silver. Today, 20 per cent of the world's annual industrial consumption of silver is used in the construction of solar
cells. With solar continuing to boom as a renewable energy source, Mr Allen said it would be challenging for the precious metal to support the world's expanding solar industry. [ AFR ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
12.
Inside A16z’s Media Operations
Andreessen Horowitz’s podcasts carry the DNA of Wired. There is a reason for that: six years ago, the founders of the iconic venture firm and then-communications partner Kim Milosevich hired Sonal Chokshi, then a senior editor at Wired in charge of the magazine’s op-ed section, to become the editor-in-chief of the company. This position was most likely a first for a Silicon Valley venture firm. 500+ podcasts episodes later, Sonal retains one of the most enviable jobs in the Valley. The firm’s editorial team has six people, including four editors in charge of the verticals A16z wants to focus on: software, crypto, consumer, enterprise, and biology. [ monday note ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
13.
Nava Raises $20M in Funding
Nava, a NYC-based employee benefits brokerage, raised $20m in financing. Thrive Capital made the investment. Co-founded by Brandon Weber, Chief Executive Officer, Donald DeSantis, Chief Product Officer, and Kareem Zaki of Thrive Capital, a lead investor in the company, Nava offers unified benefits combining modern healthcare tools, year-round employee advocacy, and ongoing measurement to improve employee engagement and drive down costs for small-to-midsized companies. For brokers, Nava enables them to focus on producing
meaningful outcomes for their clients – by supporting them with lead generation, account management, and employee advocacy platform. [ Finsmes ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
14.
Report: Databricks is plotting the next big software IPO
Big data analytics and machine learning company Databricks Inc. is planning to make its stock market debut in the first half of next year, according to a report late Friday in Bloomberg. Unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg that Databricks has already held talks with banks over an initial public offering, though it has not yet hired any underwriters. The report adds that Databricks’ plans could still change. Led by co-founder and Chief Executive Ali Ghodsi (pictured),
Databricks is best known for its Unified Data Analytics Platform that’s based on the open-source Apache Spark big-data framework. Companies use Databricks’ software to build information pipelines across siloed storage systems, analyze that data and then prepare labeled data sets that can be used to train artificial intelligence and machine learning models. [ silicon angle ]
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15.
Reliance, Future Group ignore Amazon protest on $3.4B deal
Reliance Retail, India’s largest retail chain, said on Sunday evening that its proposed deal to acquire Future Group’s assets for a whopping $3.4 billion — against which Amazon has filed a legal proceeding — is fully enforceable under the Indian law
and it intends to complete the deal “without any delay.” Mukesh Ambani’s firm issued the statement after Amazon won an emergency order from a Singapore arbitration court earlier on Sunday to temporarily halt the proposed sale between the two Indian retail giants. According to a person familiar with the matter, the injunction will prevent Future Group from selling its assets to Reliance Retail by about 90 days. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
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