Venture Capital Firm Navigates Uncharted Course to SuccessBetting on an automated driving start-up in 2015 may not have been the most intuitive gamble at a time when Google and Uber had already declared that self-driving vehicles were among their top research priorities. But in the fall of 2015, Spark Capital was one of a few established venture capital firms to wade into the industry, helping lead a $12.5 million investment in Cruise Automation, a start-up based in San Francisco whose software helps cars pilot themselves. One of Spark’s partners became the only outside board member of the firm. It was a bet that paid off quickly: Within six months, Cruise sold itself to General Motors for about $1 billion. [ NY Times ] At a $68B valuation, Uber is worth more than GM, Ford, Honda, and most other auto makers (save for Toyota, Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW). In fact, Uber is also worth more than most large cap internet companies including titans such as Netflix ($50B), PayPal ($50B), Baidu ($58B), and eBay ($32B). To put things into perspective, the only US public internet companies worth MORE than Uber right now are Apple ($578B), Google ($525B), Microsoft ($462B), Amazon ($350B), Facebook ($350B), and Priceline (just barely at $71B). Uber is growing incredibly quickly, but losses are also growing. Using public information only, I've cobbled together Uber's revenue and net loss metrics that I found from various press leaks. Naturally, there are some inconsistencies and gaps in the data, and so I made my own estimates where necessary in order to get a sense for Uber's income statement. By understanding their P&L and growth trajectory, we can make some rough estimates for what a 2017 IPO could look like. Let's first look at Uber's quarterly net revenue. With A New $50 Million Fund, Beth Ferreira And WME Ventures Seek To Match Startups With Top TalentIf ‘Entourage’ were to air again today, Vincent Chase would probably be trying to buy into startups, maybe even asking his super-agent Ari Gold to score him an early endorsement deal with Snapchat owner Snap’s new Spectacles product. The talent conglomerate co-led by the real life Ari (Emanuel) is a step ahead. And at the new venture arm of WME | IMG, Beth Ferreira hopes to build WME Ventures into a new model for venture capital. “We’re taking a different approach than other corporate venture funds,” Ferreira says. “An agency is a service business, and venture capital is, too.” [ Forbes ] Meet Impact VC, a new firm from Accel and DCM founder Dixon DollOne of the cofounders of Accel Partners and DCM, Dixon Doll, recently formed a new venture firm called Impact Venture Capital, along with Jack Crawford and Eric Ball. Ball previously served as Oracle’s Treasurer, where he helped manage $50 billion in assets. And Crawford was previously an investor and founded Velocity Venture Capital. Both are also former Kauffman fellows. The firm is hosting their first annual Impact Global Venture Summit in Sacramento tonight to connect fundraising companies to angel investors, venture capital firms, and corporate venture groups. [ Tech Crunch ] LATEST FUNDING App-testing startup Sauce Labs raises $70 millionSoftware testing startup Sauce Labs has raised $70 million in a round of funding from Centerview Capital Technology, IVP, and Adams Street Partners. Founded out of San Francisco, Sauce Labs has been making software for testing websites since it began in 2008, and it expanded to Android, iOS, and MacOS apps four years later. [ Venture Beat ] Real Estate Marketplace Roofstock Raises $20m Series B Roofstock the leading online marketplace and transaction platform in the $2 trillion single-family rental (SFR) sector, today announced $20 million in Series B financing led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with substantial participation from existing investors including Khosla Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Nyca Partners, QED Investors and SV Angel. Roofstock has raised a total of $33.25 million in equity since the company’s formation in May of 2015. [ Business Wire ] Breaking: Techstars alumnus gets $5m seed money to prevent hospital negligenceIn the last couple of years, I had the misfortune of spending more than a month at a stretch twice in hospitals. The recent one was a freak bike accident that left a lung punctured, knee ligaments torn, and ribs bruised. But the earlier one was much scarier: a nasty strain of dengue that had me partially blind all of a sudden. [ Tech in Asia ] CareCloud raises $31.5 million in Series C for its cloud health care management platformCareCloud, the revenue management and health IT platform, announced it has raised $31.5 million in strategic Series C financing from The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., First Data Corporation and Blue Cloud Ventures. [ Tech Crunch ] Perq attracts $1.7 mln seedIndianapolis-based Perq, a marketing company providing solutions that connect consumers to businesses, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding. The investor was 4G Ventures. [ PE Hub ] Zugata raises $7 million to make annual performance reviews obsoleteEven before they began to graduate from college, millennials drove changes at work, from management and recruiting practices to the design of office interiors. But companies are still adapting and figuring out what matters most to this large demographic and employee base. [ Tech Crunch ] U.K. Digital Wealth Manager Nutmeg Raises 30 Million PoundsBritish digital wealth management startup Nutmeg has raised 30 million pounds ($37 million) to fund growth in the U.K. and a possible expansion in Asia.The funding round is the largest in the U.K. financial technology sector since the country voted to leave the European Union in June, and brings Nutmeg’s investment to 59.4 million pounds over the last five years, the company said in a statement Monday. [ Bloomberg ] Coworking network Talent Garden lands €12M funding round for European expansion There are plenty of coworking spaces out there, but while the like of WeWork and TechHubfocus on major capital cities, others have seen a fertile space emerge in developing economies. Thus coworking network Talent Garden has landed a €12M funding round from investors including Endeavor Catalyst (supported by LinkedIn), 500Startups and Italy’s largest investment bank, Tamburi Investment Partners. [ Tech Crunch ] UROMEMS closes €14M financing to develop its smart artificial urinary sphincter to market The amount includes €2m support from the Worldwide Innovation Challenge (CMI) within the framework of the French Program of investments for the future led by the General Investment Commission and operated by Bpifrance. [ Medi calps ] LATEST EXITS Blackstreet Capital Holdings sells stake in Premier Care to Management Facebook today announced that it has purchased CrowdTangle, a 4-year-old tool that publishers use to track how content spreads around the web, for an undisclosed sum. By showing its subscribers a kind of real-time pulse of the web, CrowdTangle has developed an outsized but mostly hidden influence on the stories you see popping up in your news feeds throughout the day. [ The Verge ] FUND RAISED Spark Capital suddenly has $1 billion to investSpark Capital, whose investments have included Twitter and Cruise Automation, has closed on $1 billion in commitments, it revealed earlier today. The 11-year-old firm, which has offices in Boston, San Francisco, and New York, closed its fifth early-stage fund with $400 million, down slightly from the $450 million it had raised for its fourth-early stage fund, which closed in 2013. [ Tech Crunch ] Agriculture Investor Homestead Wraps Up Second Fund at $400 Million Homestead Capital, which invests in U.S. farmland, said it closed fundraising for its second vehicle, gathering $400 million. Homestead Capital USA Farmland Fund II LP hit its hard cap and surpassed an original target of $350 million, according to a news release. The new fund is more than double the size of the firm’s debut vehicle, Homestead Capital USA Farmland Fund I LP, which closed in July 2015 with $173 million. [ WSJ ] |