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Is Venture Capital Abroad Changing Amid Pullback?
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By Marc Vartabedian, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Last week we asked what practical use cases of crypto will win over investors.
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Sam Harrison, managing partner at venture firm Faction, said: “The number of backable teams and projects in crypto has never been higher, especially at the infrastructure layer. Investors that understand the blockchain paradigm shift have continued to deploy and need no further signals or persuasion.”
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Jeffrey Neuburger, a partner at law firm Proskauer Rose LLP and co-head of its technology, media and telecommunications group, said crypto will create opportunities in sectors including the metaverse, customer-relationship management, payments, supply chain, financial services and insurance.
This week’s question: Amid the venture-capital market pullback, what, if any, differences are emerging in the fundraising environment abroad versus the U.S.?
Please email responses to marc.vartabedian@wsj.com.
And now on to the news...
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Airlines including United have been striking deals to advance alternatives to highway travel to busy airports. PHOTO: BING GUAN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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New bet on flying taxis. United Airlines Holdings Inc. is making another bet on flying taxis with a $15 million investment in Eve Air Mobility, a company backed by the aircraft manufacturer Embraer SA, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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The airline said it has struck a conditional agreement to buy 200 of the four-passenger electric aircraft Eve is developing, with options to buy another 200. United said it expects the first deliveries of Eve’s aircraft as soon as 2026.
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United, which last month put down a $10 million deposit for 100 electric flying taxis being developed by Archer Aviation Inc., said it would need hundreds of the aircraft to serve what it expects to be a booming market in the coming years.
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$30,000
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General Motors said it plans to release an electric Chevrolet SUV priced around $30,000, targeting cost-conscious buyers as prices soar on other plug-in models.
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U.S. Recovers Over $30 Million in Cryptocurrency Stolen by Hackers
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U.S. authorities have seized more than $30 million in cryptocurrency plundered from an online game this year by hackers linked to North Korea, one of the largest successes clawing back digital revenue from Pyongyang, investigators said, WSJ reports. While only a fraction of the hundreds of millions in cryptocurrency purloined, the sum recovered is far higher than previously known. Sky Mavis Ltd., publisher of the game “Axie Infinity,” said in March that hackers had infiltrated part of its Ronin Network, the blockchain, or digital ledger, on which the game runs.
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White House Weighs Screening Tech Investments in China, Elsewhere
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The Biden administration is weighing an executive order to screen and possibly restrict U.S. overseas investment in cutting-edge technology development in China and other potentially hostile countries, WSJ reports. The White House is aiming to issue such an order within the next couple of months to monitor and potentially block outbound investment by American companies and investors, according to people familiar with the matter. The initiative follows a failed attempt to pass legislation that would have imposed similar restrictions but was dropped from a package aimed at boosting U.S. competitiveness this summer.
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Funds
Bessemer Venture Partners closed $3.85 billion for its twelfth flagship fund to continue making seed and early-stage investments across sectors including enterprise, deep tech, fintech, consumer and healthcare. The firm also raised $780 million for its inaugural BVP Forge fund, which will focus on growth buyout and significant minority transactions in software and tech-enabled services businesses. Bessemer is currently investing out of its $2.475 billion eleventh flagship fund, $825 million Century II growth fund, and $220 million early-stage focused India fund, which were raised last year.
PowerPlant Partners, which invests in plant-based consumer food and beverage brands, held the final close of its third fund at $330 million. The firm also said it is expanding its investment scope into consumer technology, service and enablement companies that put human and planetary life at the center of business. So far, PowerPlant Partners has backed Miyoko’s Creamery, Liquid Death, Partake Brewing and Systm Foods through the new fund. The firm raised $165 million for its second fund in 2019.
Glasswing Ventures raised an oversubscribed $158 million second fund to make seed-stage investments focusing on enterprise and security startups. The Boston-based firm closed its debut fund at $112 million in 2018.
People
Lightspeed Venture Partners appointed Michael Mignano as a partner on the consumer team, where he will be based in the firm’s newly-opened New York office. Mr. Mignano co-founded Anchor, which was acquired by Spotify in 2019.
Healthcare-focused Third Rock Ventures promoted Andrea van Elsas to partner. Mr. van Elsas currently serves as Abata Therapeutics’ interim chief scientific officer, and was previously CSO at Aduro Biotech following the acquisition of BioNovion, a company he co-founded in 2011.
Precision medicine developer XinThera Inc. appointed Christopher LeMasters as the company’s first chief executive. Mr. LeMasters has served as the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer since October 2021, and was previously COO of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals. San Diego-based XinThera is backed by investors including Orbimed Advisors, Foresite Capital and TTM Capital.
Exits
Little Otter, a provider of digital mental health tools and treatment for children and their families, acquired emotional wellness products brand Little Renegades. Terms weren’t disclosed. In January, San Francisco-based Little Otter said it closed a $22 million Series A round from CRV, Torch Capital, Vast Ventures, Boxgroup and others.
Talent engagement platform Sense purchased Skillate, an artificial intelligence recruitment company, for an undisclosed amount. San Francisco-based Sense is backed by investors including Accel, GV, Softbank and Signia Venture Partners.
Hybrid workplace platform Robin acquired Croatian proptech company Flow and Form for an undisclosed sum. In July, Boston-based Robin said it secured $30 million in Series C funding from Tola Capital, FirstMark, Accomplice, Boldstart Ventures and Allegion Ventures.
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Muck Rack, a Miami-based public relations management platform, landed a $180 million Series A minority investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity.
Morse Micro, a semiconductor startup with offices in Australia and Irvine, Calif., scored $140 million in Series B funding. MegaChips Corp. led the round, which included participation from Blackbird Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Clean Energy Finance Corp., Skip Capital, Uniseed, SpringCapital and others.
TruKKer, a Saudi Arabia-based digital freight network, secured $100 million in Series C financing led by lnvestcorp.
Tesseract, an renewable energy startup, snagged a $78 million investment. Led by Balderton Capital and Lakestar, the round included contributions from Accel, Creandum, Lowercarbon Capital, Ribbit Capital, BoxGroup and others.
Photys Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup that is developing a new class of medicines for precise control of protein function, grabbed $75 million in Series A financing. MPM Capital led the investment, which included support from Omega Funds, Longwood Fund, 8VC, Mass General Brigham Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund, Eli Lilly & Co. and Heritage Medical Systems.
Mesh Payments, a New York-based corporate payments automation platform, collected a $60 million investment. Alpha Wave Global led the round, which included participation from Tiger Global Management, TLV Partners, Entreé Capital and Meron Capital.
Albedo, a startup developing low-flying satellites that will deliver ultra high-resolution images, nabbed $48 million in Series A funding. Co-lead investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Shield Capital were joined by Republic Capital, C16 Ventures, Initialized Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures and others in the round. Albedo has offices in Austin, Texas and Denver.
Dealpath Inc., a deal management platform for the real estate industry, completed a $43 million Series C round. Led by investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, the new funding included support from Blackstone, 8VC, Nasdaq Ventures and GreenSoil PropTech Ventures. The company has offices in San Francisco, New York and Toronto.
Isovalent, which builds open source software and enterprise technology for cloud-native service connectivity, security and observability, closed a $40 million Series B round led by Thomvest Ventures. The company is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif. and Zurich.
PolyAI Ltd., a New York- and London-based provider of enterprise voice assistants, obtained $40 million in Series B funding. Georgian led the round, which included contributions from Twilio Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Point72 Ventures and Amadeus Capital Partners.
Taranis, a crop intelligence provider with offices in Westfield, Ind., Tel Aviv and Brazil, secured $40 million in Series D financing. Lead investor Inven Capital was joined by Vertex Growth, Viola Ventures, Vertex Ventures Israel, La Maison Partners, Hitachi Ventures, K3 Ventures, UMC Capital, Micron Ventures, Presidio Ventures and others in the round.
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Meta’s Responsible Innovation team had roughly two dozen engineers, ethicists and others employees. PHOTO: MICHAEL HO WAI LEE/ZUMA PRESS
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