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Europe Venture Funding Comes Back—in Some Cities
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Happy Wednesday. Venture investing in Europe ticked back up in the third quarter, after dropping in the first and second quarters of this year due to the pandemic. But some parts of Europe did better than others.
First-quarter funding was down 18% compared with the same period last year, and the second quarter was down 26% compared to last year. But investors came back in the third quarter, with funding up 13% from last year, according to an analysis by Nokia-backed venture firm NPG Capital.
Still, for the first three quarters of this year, Europe funding is down 11% from last year. Some deals were likely pushed back from the first half of the year to the third quarter, the firm believes.
The number of funding deals has dropped further, 19%, than the funding value, meaning that average deal size has increased and investors are likely gravitating toward more established startups.
Some large cities in Europe saw funding increases, such as London, up 6%, and Paris, up 11%, while some other major cities saw funding drop, with Madrid down 64%, Berlin down 51% and Milan down 39%. Meanwhile, Vienna, Zurich, Helsinki and Amsterdam saw increases.
And now on to the news...
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Patner Brian Neider, seated, founding partner Mitchell Green, rear left, and partner Nimay Mehta of Lead Edge Capital. Photo: Lead Edge Capital
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New fund alert. Lead Edge Capital raised a $950 million fund for growth-stage technology investing, adding to the already soaring fundraising total for the sector, WSJ Pro's Marc Vartabedian reports.
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Lead Edge Capital V LP, which closed at its hard cap, is more than 80% larger than its predecessor fund, which closed in 2018 at $520 million.
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The fund will write checks of up to $150 million to fuel mature startups capitalizing on society’s embrace of digital technologies, a trend that has been pushed forward by the coronavirus pandemic, said Mitchell Green, Lead Edge founder and managing partner.
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Lead Edge exits include Asana, which launched a direct listing in September, and cybersecurity company Signal Sciences, which entered into a $775 million acquisition agreement with Fastly this summer.
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Vineti Gets Funding Boost With Help From Marc Benioff
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Startup Vineti Inc., whose software is designed to help drugmakers, hospitals and other clients deliver cell and gene therapies to patients effectively, has raised $33 million in fresh capital and added Marc Benioff, chief executive of business-software company Salesforce.com Inc., as an investor.
Vineti, whose software-as-a-service technology is designed to be the “smart plumbing” that helps make cell and gene therapies more accessible to patients, can benefit from the expertise of Mr. Benioff, a SaaS pioneer, according to co-founder and CEO Amy DuRoss.
Cell therapies for cancer, for example, often require that immune cells be harvested from patients, genetically engineered, and then returned to that patient. San Francisco-based Vineti seeks to help clients manage this process so that the right cells are given to the right patient. As more cell- and gene-therapy treatments are developed there will be growing need for careful coordination and the technology enabling it, according to Ms. DuRoss.
Vineti’s latest funding extends the $35 million Series C round the company disclosed in February. Vineti has raised just more than $115 million in venture capital. Cardinal Health is leading this extension to the Series C round, which also includes Canaan, Threshold Ventures, Section 32, Casdin Capital, Novartis Pharma, McKesson Ventures and Lifeforce Capital.
---Brian Gormley
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Funds
Canaan Partners raised $800 million for its 12th fund, the same amount the firm closed for its preceding fund in 2017. Last month, Canaan participated in funding rounds for private application access startup Axis Security, seniors assistance provider Papa and cytokine therapeutics developer Synthekine Inc.
First Round Capital seeks to raise over $209 million for its First Round Capital VIII LP, according to a regulatory filing. The firm sought the same amount for its previous fund two years ago. Recent investments First Round has participated in include video workspace for remote teams provider Remotion, workforce management startup Legion Technologies Inc. and court reporting services provider Steno.
People
European life sciences investor Sofinnova Partners named Joe Anderson as partner in the Sofinnova Crossover Fund. He was most recently co-founder and chief executive at Arix Bioscience.
CircleUp, a provider of capital and resources to emerging consumer brands, appointed Nick Talwar as chief executive. Before joining the company, he was a partner at Apis Partners. San Francisco-based CircleUp is backed by Union Square Ventures, GV, Canaan Partners and QED Advisors.
Data-warehousing company Yellowbrick Data hired Mark Cusack as chief technology officer. He was previously vice president for data and analytics at Teradata. In June 2019, Yellowbrick raised an $81 million Series C round from DFJ Growth, IVP, BMW i Ventures, Next47, Third Point Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Threshold Ventures and GV.
Exits
Real estate software company MRI Software acquired CheckpointID, a provider of ID verification services to the multifamily industry, for an undisclosed amount. Solon, Ohio-based MRI is backed by private-equity firms Harvest Partners, TA Associates and GI Partners. CheckpointID, of Carrollton, Texas, is backed by RET Ventures.
Cybersecurity services company BlueVoyant will add to its Microsoft security duties with the purchase of Managed Sentinel. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. New York-based BlueVoyant in July secured a $68 million investment led by Temasek. The company is also backed by investors including 8VC.
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Alkira Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based on-demand multicloud network, raised $54 million in Series B funding. Koch Disruptive Technologies led the round, with Managing Director Jason Illian joining the company’s board. Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, GV and others also participated in the investment.
Astroscale Holdings Inc., a Tokyo-based space debris removal service, closed a $51 million Series E round led by aSTART.
Casai, a Mexico City-based provider of luxury apartments for travelers, grabbed a $48 million Series A round of equity and debt. The $23 million equity portion was led by Andreessen Horowitz, and included participation from a16z Cultural Leadership Fund, Kaszek Ventures, Monashees Capital, Global Founders Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures and others. Debt was provided by TriplePoint Capital.
Menlo Microsystems Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based developer of a new type of electronic switch, completed a $44 million Series B round. 40 North Ventures led the investment, and was joined by Piva, Paladin Capital Group, Vertical Venture Partners and Future Shape.
Kasa Living Inc., a San Francisco-based startup that transforms vacant and underutilized apartments and hotel rooms into accommodations for travelers, secured $30 million in Series B financing. Ribbit Capital led the round, which included support from existing investors FirstMark Capital, RET Ventures, Zigg Capital, Allegion Ventures and BoxGroup.
Armory, a San Mateo, Calif.-based software delivery automation startup, collected $40 million in Series C funding. B Capital led the round, which included participation from Marc Benioff, Lead Edge Capital, Insight Partners, Crosslink Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Mango Capital, Y Combinator and Javelin Venture Partners. In addition to the investment, Margaret Francis was named chief operating officer of Armory. She was most recently senior vice president of product management and general manager of Heroku. Rashmi Gopinath, general partner at B Capital, joined the company’s board.
BlackSwan Technologies, a Tel Aviv-based enterprise artificial intelligence operating system, launched with a $28 million Series A investment led by Prytek, FinTLV and MS&AD Ventures.
Matroid Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based machine learning startup, landed $20 million in Series B funding. Energize Ventures led the round, which included contributions from New Enterprise Associates, Intel Capital and others.
Spendesk, a Paris-based spend management software developer, added $18 million in Series B financing, bringing the round total to $68.5 million. Eight Roads Ventures provided the new tranche, with Index Ventures leading the earlier close last year. Spendesk also appointed Joseph Smith as the company’s chief revenue officer. He previously held similar positions at Dixa, Qubit and Hootsuite.
Jaxjox, a Redmond, Wash.-based home gym startup, snagged $10 million in Series A funding from investors including Dowgate Capital.
Linear Labs Inc., a Fort Worth, Texas-based smart electric motor maker, raised $6 million in new funding from investors including Champion Hill, Lowercarbon Capital, Kindred Ventures, Duke Angel Network, Spike Ventures and Moving Capital. Chris MacFarland, chairman and chief executive of Masergy, joined the company’s board.
MOV.AI, a Portugal-based provider of an operating system for collaborative industrial robots, nabbed a $4 million investment. SOMV led the round, which included support from existing investors NFX and Viola Ventures. Pinchas Buharis, managing partner at SOMV, will join the board.
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Solar- and wind-energy projects are benefiting from falling costs—and widespread government support, a report finds. Photo: Rolf Schulten/Bloomberg News
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