Good day. New York City’s private sector job growth weakened during the quarter ended in September, its slowest since the fourth quarter of 2009 during the peak of the credit crisis. The city is trending well below national figures, according to a report by the City’s Comptroller’s office. 

This was driven in part by a drop in employment in the financial sector, precipitated by lower earnings by six of the nation’s largest banks, the report said.

A September index of New York business sentiment from the Institute for Supply Management, meanwhile, showed businesses expressing pessimism about the six-month outlook, with the index dropping to its lowest level in almost 11 years.

The city's technology sector is holding up, despite Amazon’s decision to locate its second headquarters elsewhere  and New York-based WeWork’s fall from grace. Local startups raised more than $4 billion in venture capital in each quarter of the year; a solid performance. Jobs in the information sector rose by 2,200 in the third quarter, the largest gain since the second quarter of 2018, the report said.

Technology may be the city’s saving grace, yet.

And now on to the news...

Several small Los Angeles area investors are set to make a bounty if payment company PayPal Holdings Inc. ’s $4 billion purchase of local startup Honey Science Corp. goes through, WSJ Pro's Katie Roof and Yuliya Chernova report.

• Before its most recent round last year, the startup that finds discount coupons for online shoppers collected capital mostly from smaller local investors to raise a total of $49 million in venture capital.
   
• Citi Ventures led the most recent investment in Honey last year, valuing the company at around $700 million, according to a person familiar with the deal. 
   
• The size of PayPal’s acquisition is unusually large for a company emerging from the growing but still nascent Los Angeles startup ecosystem. 
   
• Santa Monica-based seed-stage firm Mucker Capital, for example, is expected to receive proceeds of $280 million from the $3 million it invested in Honey, according to the person familiar with the investment. 

Tech support. BigPanda Inc., an information technology management startup, has raised $50 million to expand its software, which can automatically diagnose and fix IT problems for companies, WSJ Pro’s Marc Vartabedian reports. BigPanda’s customers include Intel, Tivo Corp. and Workday Inc. The Series C round was led by Insight Partners and is part of the firm’s expanding interest in the sector. 

Werewolf hunting. Biotechnology startup Werewolf Therapeutics Inc. gathered $56 million in venture financing to improve cytokine cancer treatments, which have been limited because they also harm normal tissue, WSJ Pro’s Brian Gormley reports. MPM Capital and Longwood Fund led the company’s Series A round. 

The Amazon mold. In the Big Tech era, Amazon has become the incubator for CEOs and entrepreneurs, who are spreading the business gospel of Jeff Bezos across the corporate world, WSJ’s Dana Mattioli reports. Alums of the Seattle-based giant, which employs over 750,000 people, head companies including Tableau Software Inc., Zulily Inc., Groupon Inc., and Simple, an online banking unit of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA. 

Final ride. New York ride-hailing business Juno USA LP filed for bankruptcy protection, blaming its demise on minimum wage regulations and mounting lawsuits from drivers, riders and competitors, WSJ Pro’s Alexander Gladstone reports. Juno, which was bought by Israeli-based Gett for $200 million, generated $269 million of revenue last year, a 23% annual increase, according to court papers.

Commercial foodservice equipment maker Middleby acquired residential cooking technology provider Brava Home Inc. for an undisclosed amount. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company is backed by investors including True Ventures, TPG Growth, Lightspeed Venture Partners, The Rise Fund, Cowboy Ventures and CAA Ventures.

MetLife Inc. agreed to acquire Bequest Inc., an online service that assists with estate planning, trusts and other legal actions, for an undisclosed sum. Bequest, which does business as Willing, is backed by investors including Switch Ventures, Vayner/RSE and Ironfire Ventures.

Consumer-focused investor CAVU Venture Partners completed raising its oversubscribed third flagship fund with $250 million. With offices in New York, Santa Monica, Calif. and Austin, Texas, CAVU closed its inaugural fund in 2016 with $156 million, and its second fund of $209 million in 2017. Notable exits include Bai antioxidant drink, sold to Dr. Pepper Snapple for $1.7 billion; ONE Brands, sold to Hershey for $397 million; and Beyond Meat, which held an initial public offering in May.

Apple Music is getting into the business of music for business. The No. 2 music-streaming service by subscriptions has been quietly piloting a version of Apple Music for use in businesses including Levi Strauss & Co. and Harrods stores. 

China’s new $21 billion high-tech manufacturing fund likely to rankle U.S. China's fund is intended to further develop its advanced manufacturing sector. Experts said the new fund is likely to draw objections from the U.S.

Generic-drug approvals soar, but patients still go without. Record numbers of generic drugs for cancer, heart ailments and other conditions have received U.S. approval but haven’t hit the market yet because of brand-name makers’ patent action. 

President Trump is scheduled to meet with vaping-industry and medical officials on Friday, as he considers a ban on flavored e-cigarettes.

Grubhub Inc. Chief Executive Matt Maloney says his food-delivery rivals, such as  Uber Eats division, Postmates Inc., DoorDash Inc., need to charge more sales taxes on their delivery fees. They disagree. 

A decision in Ireland’s privacy investigation into WhatsApp has been delayed. The company’s lawyers raised concerns about how the regulator will share potentially sensitive commercial data with authorities in other European countries.

Elon Musk ordered to stand trial in cave explorer’s defamation case. (NYTimes)

Marissa Mayer is back with a new startup focusing on artificial intelligence. (MarketWatch)

Electric-bus company Proterra urged its LA factory workers to unionize. (LA Times) 

VC arm of Mexico's Cemex strikes deal to enter Chinese market. (Reuters)

AI poised to impact high-skill U.S. jobs including finance and tech. (BNN Bloomberg)

Feds blame distracted test driver in Uber self-driving car death. (CNN)

Facebook quietly releases meme-making app. (The Information)
 

Celonis, which automates and speeds up data-process mining and business processes for companies, secured roughly $290 million in Series C funding, valuing the company at $2.5 billion. Arena Holdings led the round, which included participation from Accel and 83North. The company has offices in Munich and New York.

Vayyar Imaging Ltd., an Israeli developer of 4D imaging sensor technology, closed a $109 million Series D round of funding. Koch Disruptive Technologies led the round, which included participation from Regal Four, Battery Ventures, Bessemer Ventures, ICV, ITI, WRVI Capital and Claltech.

GenapSys Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based electronic gene sequencer technology developer, raised $90 million in Series C funding led by Foresite Capital. Frank Witney, former chief executive of Affymetrix and Dionex; Rakesh Sachdev, former chief executive of Sigma Aldrich and Platform Specialty Products Corp.; and Hamid Moghadam, chief executive and chairman of Prologis, have joined the company’s board.

Sendo, a Vietnamese ecommerce marketplace, picked up $61 million in Series C financing. Existing backers SBI Group, Beenos, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Daiwa PI Partners and Digital Garage participated in the round, along with new investors EV Growth and Kasikornbank.

Vouch Insurance, a San Francisco-based insurance company serving early-stage startups, scored a $45 million Series B round led by Y Combinator Continuity, with participation from Ribbit Capital, SVB Financial Group and Index Ventures.

Tissium, a Paris-based developer of synthetic polymers for tissue reconstruction, secured €38.8 million ($42.8 million) in Series B funding. New investors BNP Paribas Développement, European Investment Fund, M&L Investments and ValQuest Partners participated in the round, along with returning backers Bpifrance, CM-CIC Innovation, Cap Décisif Management, Omnes Capital and Sofinnova Partners. Jay Watkins joins the board as independent chairman.

N3twork Inc., a San Francisco-based interactive entertainment company, completed a $40 million Series C round from investors including Griffin Gaming Partners, Galaxy Digital Capital, KPCB Holdings and Korea Investment Partners. Griffin’s Peter Levin joined the board.

Gravitational Inc., an Oakland, Calif.-based startup whose technology helps businesses deliver cloud applications into any environment, closed a $25 million Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins. The company is also backed by YCombinator, S28 Capital and SV Angel.

GoExpedi, a Houston-based provider of ecommerce, supply chain and analytics technology to the drilling industry, landed $25 million in Series B financing. Top Tier Capital Partners led the round, and was joined by CSL Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Bowery Capital, Blue Bear Capital and others.

Lucence, a Singapore-based provider of blood-based tests for cancer screening and treatment selection, snagged $20 million in Series A funding. IHH Healthcare led the investment, which included participation from SGInnovate, Heliconia Capital and others.

Mythical Games Inc., a Seattle- and Los Angeles-based game technology studio, added $19 million in new funding. Javelin Venture Partners led the investment, with contributions from Avon Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Hashed, Galaxy EOS VC Fund and Struck Capital. Alex Gurevich of Javelin and Rehito Hatoyama joined the board.

Banyan Security, a San Francisco-based remote access platform, procured a $17 million investment. Shasta Ventures led the round with participation from Unusual Ventures.

CHEQ,  a New York-, Tokyo- and Tel Aviv-based startup that prevents ad fraud and digital ad placement in brand-unsafe environments, completed a $16 million Series B round from Battery Ventures and MizMaa Ventures.

Samasource, a San Francisco-based provider of training data for artificial intelligence technologies, raised $14.8 million in Series A funding. Ridge Ventures led the round, with participation from Social Impact Ventures, Bestseller Foundation and Bluecrest Limited Capital.

We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Tomio Geron, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Heather Mack, Katie Roof and Marc Vartabedian.

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