Good day. A new financing round for cybersecurity startup Snyk Ltd. reflects how valuations have been increasing for late-stage companies, especially for enterprise software companies.

Lee Fixel’s Addition this month led a $200 million Series D round for Snyk at a valuation of more than $2.6 billion, after the startup raised its prior round in January at a more than $1 billion valuation. The increased valuation was commensurate with Boston-based Snyk's rising revenue, according to Chief Executive Peter McKay.

The average late-stage premoney valuation for business-to-business technology companies in the U.S. has rocketed to more than $1 billion this year, more than doubling from 2019 levels, according to PitchBook Data Inc. 

“It’s a reaction to the public market, where tech is soaring,” said Matt Harris, a partner at Bain Capital Ventures, noting some of the run-up in tech stocks has been driven by the accelerating adoption of various technologies by customers during the coronavirus pandemic. “No one wants to miss out on this, and it raises the ceiling for how valuable tech companies can be,” Mr. Harris said, adding that this means “you can pay more to invest when they are still private.”

Demand for tech company shares pushed the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index—launched by Bessemer Venture Partners—up 80.3% this year through the end of August, compared with an 8.3% rise for the S&P 500 over the same period. The BVP index tracks a portfolio of cloud-software companies—many of which were venture-backed before going public.

The BVP index closed down about 15% as of Friday from its Sept. 1 peak. Whether late-stage valuations for private companies will also be hurt remains to be seen.

And now on to the news...

Oracle Corp. won the bidding for the U.S. operations of the video-sharing app TikTok, people familiar with the matter said, beating out Microsoft Corp. in a high-profile deal to salvage a social-media sensation that has been caught in the middle of a geopolitical standoff, The Wall Street Journal reports. Oracle is set to be announced as TikTok’s “trusted tech partner” in the U.S., and the deal is likely not to be structured as an outright sale, the people said. The next step is for the White House and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to approve the deal, said one of the people, adding that the participants believe it satisfies the concerns around data security that have been previously raised by the U.S. government.

Deal drops. Corporate deal makers are reviewing previously agreed-upon merger-and-acquisition agreements, as the coronavirus pandemic roils businesses and complicates the due-diligence process, WSJ reports.

• U.S. companies canceled 82 deals totaling $111.2 billion this year through Wednesday, up from 58 transactions totaling $50.4 billion that were withdrawn during the same period last year, according to Dealogic, a data provider.
   
• M&A activity in the U.S. and elsewhere has slowed markedly this year. U.S. companies struck 5,501 deals through Wednesday, down from 7,035 in the prior-year period, Dealogic said. Transaction volume, at $639 billion, nearly fell by half from $1.24 trillion.
   
• More companies are questioning the viability of certain transactions that have been agreed to, said Duncan Smithson, a senior director for mergers and acquisitions at Willis Towers Watson PLC, an advisory and brokerage firm. “There is a chance for unpleasant surprises,” Mr. Smithson said, pointing to industries that have suffered as consumer habits shifted during extended stay-at-home orders, including travel, leisure and services and luxury goods companies.

ViacomCBS Inc. is close to selling CNET Media Group to Red Ventures LLC, according to people familiar with the matter, as the entertainment giant sheds parts of its business to focus on video streaming, WSJ reports.

Red Ventures, a media and technology company, is expected to pay about $500 million to acquire the network of websites, which includes CNET, GameSpot and ZDNet, the people said. The deal could be announced as soon as Monday, assuming the talks don’t fall apart, the people said. Red Ventures’ initial interest in CNET was first reported by The Wall Street Journal last month.

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Exits

Canopy Biosciences LLC, a company involved in biomarker imaging for immunology, immuno-oncology and cell therapy, has been acquired by Bruker Corp. for an undisclosed amount. St. Louis-based Canopy formed in 2016 and built a portfolio of products and services for gene editing, gene-expression analysis and regulation, and bioprocessing. Its customers include researchers at universities, research institutions, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Canopy’s investors included Ampersand Capital Partners.

Formagrid, Inc., doing business as Airtable, a San Francisco-based work collaboration software startup, raised $185 million in a Series D funding round at a valuation of $2.5 billion. Thrive Capital led the round and investors including Benchmark and Coatue participated in the deal. 

NotCo, a Chile-based alternative meat food-tech startup, closed an $85 million Series C investment round co-led by venture firm Future Positive and private-equity firm L Catterton.

MiNA Therapeutics Ltd., a U.K. startup involved in RNA-activation therapeutics, completed a £23 million ($30 million) Series A financing led by aMoon, with participation from existing investors. The financing will be used to advance MiNA's pipeline of small-activating RNA therapeutics and to support clinical development of MiNA’s lead candidate as a combination treatment in cancer. Dr. Gur Roshwalb, managing director at aMoon, has joined the board. 

Descartes Underwriting, a Paris-based insurance tech startup specializing in climate risk modeling and data-driven risk transfer, raised $18.5 million in Series A funding. Cathay Innovation and Serena Capital co-lead the round and BlackFin Capital Partners participated in the deal.

XanPool, a Hong Kong-based fintech startup that offers cryptocurrency payments services, raised $4.3 million in a pre-Series A financing round led by blockchain technology and service provider OK Group. Investors including Hashkey and Gumi Cryptos participated in the deal.

• SoftBank nears $40 billion deal to sell Arm Holdings to Nvidia
   
• China’s new financial rules to cover Jack Ma’s Ant Group
   
• Facebook appeals move to curb EU-U.S. data transfer
   
• Google’s Sundar Pichai Is a Really Nice Guy. Is That Enough?
   
• Peloton’s winning cycle could end with Covid-19

• Nikola founder Trevor Milton insists vehicle startup is roadworthy (Financial Times)
   
• Co-living startup HubHaus plans to shut down (The Information)
   
• VMware cuts pay for remote workers fleeing Silicon Valley (Bloomberg)

This newsletter was compiled by Marc Vartabedian and Matthew Strozier.

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.

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