Good day. Corporate venture-capital firms might see more hiring opportunities ahead. Global Corporate Venturing, a trade publication focused on corporate venture, wrote in a post last month that traditional firms may soon begin laying off staff amid the sector-wide slowdown.

Corporate venture firms could be presented with opportunities to scoop them up, GCV wrote.

“A slackening of competition will be welcome relief for CVCs, which have faced stiff competition for talent in the past couple of years as the venture-capital sector has grown,” GCV wrote. “Traditionally, VC firms have been able to pay much higher salaries than corporate venturing units.”

The post noted that, so far, there haven’t been widespread fund closures in the industry.

Nicolas Sauvage, president of TDK Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Japan-based electronics maker TDK Corp., said in the post that he is expecting traditional venture firms to let staff go. “We see it as an opportunity to recruit top talent,” he said in the post.

And now on to the news ...

Top Ant executives step down from Alibaba partnership. Seven Ant Group Co. executives stepped down as partners of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., as the two companies continue to distance themselves following China’s regulatory crackdown that scuttled Ant’s multi-billion dollar IPO two years ago, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

• Eric Jing, Ant’s chairman and chief executive; Chief Technology Officer Xingjun Ni; Chief People Officer Songbai Zeng; and four others were no longer Alibaba partners as of May 31, according to Alibaba’s annual report released Tuesday.
   
• Alibaba owns a 33% stake in Ant, whose popular Alipay payment service traces its roots to Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplace and has been ordered by Beijing to revamp its business in line with tougher financial regulations.

Paris-based Eutelsat Communications SA has agreed to acquire the U.K.’s OneWeb Global Ltd. in an all-share merger that values OneWeb at $3.4 billion, the two companies said, WSJ reports. The deal would combine the two companies’ separate fleets of internet-delivering satellites, creating a bigger competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink service. After the deal is completed, the U.K. government will retain an 11% stake in the combined company, with special provisions for national-security assurances.

Fantasy-sports app Underdog said it has completed a second fundraising round that values the company at $485 million with plans on expanding into the growing sports-betting market in the U.S., WSJ reports. Underdog said it raised $35 million in a B round including BlackRock and Acies Investment, the latter a venture-capital firm focused on sports betting and online gambling. Underdog says it intends on expanding from fantasy-sports contests into sports wagering, which has rapidly grown into a more than $4 billion industry in the U.S. 

Shopify Inc. is cutting roughly 1,000 workers, or 10% of its global workforce, rolling back a bet on e-commerce growth the technology company made during the pandemic, according to an internal memo, WSJ reports. Tobi Lütke, the company’s founder and chief executive, told staff in a memo sent Tuesday that the layoffs are necessary as consumers resume old shopping habits and pull back on the online orders that fueled the company’s recent growth. Shopify, which helps businesses set up e-commerce websites, has warned that it expects revenue growth to slow this year.

Deals

New York-based data platform developer Knoema announced that it has acquired Seek Data, a cloud-data and analytics consultancy, in a move aimed at meeting growing demand for data services tailored to specific industries, starting with retail and consumer packaged goods, the company said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2011, Knoema was itself acquired by Eldridge Industries LLC in December 2020, and has funding from Snowflake Ventures. 

Flash, an Austin, Tex.-based startup that develops hardware and software tools for parking garages, has struck a deal to provide its products and service for properties owned by global real estate giant Brookfield Properties, which will also invest $40 million into the company. The tools will include machine vision software, electric vehicles charging infrastructure, mobile payment apps and digital management and intelligence systems. In March, Flash closed a $250 million funding round, led by Vista Equity Partners, that pushed its valuation above $1 billion.

Berkeley, Calif.-based clinical-stage biotech startup Carmot Therapeutics Inc. raised $160 million in a Series D round led by The Column Group, with participation from RA Capital Management, Deep Track Capital, Willett Advisors, Horizons Ventures and other institutional investors, the company said.

Cloud-based travel tech startup Spotnana raised $75 million in a Series B round led by Durable Capital Partners, with participation from existing investors including Mubadala Capital and Blank Ventures, the New York-based company said. Founded in 2019, Spotnana, which also has offices in Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai, offers a software-as-a-service platform for corporate travel managers.

San Diego, Calif.-based Cordial, a cross-channel marketing and data management startup launched in 2014, has secured $50 million in Series C funding, led by NewSpring, bringing its total funding to date to $85 million, the company said.

San Francisco-based Neon Inc., a cloud-database startup, raised $30 million in a Series A-1 funding round led by GGV Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst and Founders Fund, among other investors. The company, which has raised $54.3 million in total funding, said it will use the new money to expand its engineering team and accelerate product development.

BrainBox AI, a Montreal, Canada-based autonomous-building tech startups, raised $30 million in Series A funding led by ABB and Export Development Canada. The company said it intends to use the funds to increase its footprint in global markets.

Topl, an Austin, Tex.-based blockchain startup, announced it has raised $15 million in Series A funding co-led by Mercury, Republic Asia and Cryptology Asset Group. Topl’s purpose-built blockchain technology is designed to enable companies to track and monetize sustainability efforts. Its latest funding follows an initial seed round in 2020.

Datch, a New York-based software startup that develops voice-first artificial intelligence apps for industrial operations, closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by Blackhorn Ventures. Datch said the new capital will go towards further developing digital tools, which are designed to let deskless workers interact with IT software systems through natural language-processing.

Bento, a Boston, Mass.-based dental insurance startup, raised $8.1 million in Series A funding, led by Schooner Capital, bringing its total capital raised to date to $19 million, the company said. Other investors in the round included York IE Capital and Companyon Ventures. The company said it will use the funding to boost a nationwide sales effort.

New York-based PixieBrix, a low-code web interface startup launched last year, closed $5.4 million in Series A funding led by existing investor New Enterprise Associates, bringing its total funding since July 2021 to $9 million, the company said. PixieBrix this week also named New Enterprise Associates Parter Hilarie Koplow-McAdams to its board of directors.

Kona, a San Francisco-based human resources work-management software startup, raised a $4 million seed funding round led by Unusual Ventures with participation from Evolutionary Ventures, the venture arm of executive coaching company Evolution.

• Google parent Alphabet reports slowest quarterly sales growth in two years
   
• Microsoft earnings dented by cloud slowdown, videogame sales drop
   
• Faraday Future delays first EV model, says it needs more cash
   
• Instagram responds after users, including Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, urge platform to ‘stop trying to be TikTok’
   

This newsletter was compiled by Marc Vartabedian, Angus Loten and Brian Gormely.

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, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

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