2017 has seen a spate of venture-backed tech companies including California-based Okta, Snap, and MuleSoft go public. New York had so far been left out of the IPO party. Now, the IPO of Yext puts it among the top five largest venture-backed M&A or IPO exits in New York state since 2012, according to CB Insights data. Yext, which provides software to help businesses ensure the accuracy of their digital presence, is backed by investors including Sutter Hill Ventures, IVP, Marker LLC, and Insight Venture Partners. [ CB insights ] A well spent time at The SheWorx100 Summit at NYC Wednesday, April 12th, 2017. If you are looking to build your investor network or actively fundraising, The SheWorx100 Summit Series is transforming the trajectory of women in entrepreneurship by facilitating strategic, meaningful relationships with influential advisors and investors. Lisa Wang and Yin Lin, are recognized entrepreneurs and the Co-founder of SheWorx; the global collective of ambitious female entrepreneurs redefining leadership. [ Venture Pulse ] Founders are increasingly pointing to Asia when asked for an example of a product they aspire to create, and WeChat is very often that aspirational product. My friend and former colleague Connie Chan described WeChat as “the one app to rule them all”. It dominates the Chinese mobile market with 889 million monthly active users1. The WeChat platform has completely evolved the way Chinese people communicate and socialize online, and it has also changed the way they pay each other and pay for their groceries. WeChat is no longer just an app. And while WeChat’s blazing success has been concentrated in China, everyone in the Western world has experienced WeChat’s work, as the service has inspired a new category of “messaging as a platform.” [ YC Blog ] An ever-growing middle class, strong economies, and increasing education levels make Asians hungrier than ever for better financial solutions -- something the rising stars of Asia’s finance sector recognize better than anyone else. On one hand, they lead the charge when it comes to leveraging disruptive technologies to build better products across the spectrum, from lending to insurance. On the other hand they're in positions of responsibility in venture capital funds overseeing portfolios of several millions of dollars. [ Forbes ] LATEST FUNDING Lyndra, Inc. announced today the closing of a $23 Million Series A financing, led by Polaris Partners, with participation from Quark Venture and GF Securities, Yonghua Capital, Healthlink Capital, Partners Healthcare, Suffolk Equity and others. The company’s novel therapeutic oral delivery platform has the potential to transform patient care by improving therapeutic efficacy, reducing side effects, and generating cost-savings to patients and healthcare systems. TheWaveVR has released the beta version of its social VR music platform on the Steam Early Access on the PC. The company has also raised $4 million in a new round of funding led by Upfront Ventures. The Austin, Texas-based startup has created a social VR music platform where performers can create music while wearing a HTC Vive or Oculus Rift headset and spectators can watch the whole experience. The whole point is to help the music industry — usually a laggard in exploiting digital technology — to create new revenue streams. [ Venture Beat ] PagerDuty, a company that provides software to manage digital operations and resolve incidents faster, today announced funding of $43.8 million in a round led by Accel. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Baseline Ventures, and Harrison Metal also joined. The startup alerts engineers of incidents that range from daily disruptions to major outages. “It’s crucial to resolve incidents like these quickly, as any unexpected service downtime can mean thousands, or even millions of dollars in lost revenue, not to mention damaged brand equity,” wrote PagerDuty chief executive Jennifer Tejada in an email to VentureBeat. [ Venture Beat ] Freight Farms, the Spark Capital-backed Boston startup that builds automated farm systems in shipping containers, has raised $5.3 million for a new round of financing. The company is looking to raise up to $8 million for the round — presumably its Series B — according to a Form D filed on Wednesday. Its last round was a $3.7 million Series A led by Spark Capital in December 2014. Other investors from previous rounds include LaunchCapital, Morningside Group and Right Side Capital Management. The company declined to comment. [ Bostinno ] Mumbai-based third-party logistics startup Emiza on Thursday announced that it has raised $4.5 million, in a funding round led by Mayfield. The round also saw participation from existing investors Nishant Rao, COO, Freshdesk, and Dileep Nath. The funds will be primarily used to expand the business to other geographies, in hiring a robust leadership team, and to focus on technology. [ Your Story ] Brooklyn-based goTenna, a maker of a device that enables smartphone users to communicate without cell towers, WiFi routers or satellites, raised $7.5 million in Series B funding. Union Square Ventures led the round with participation from other backers that included Walden Venture Capital, MentorTech Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, BBG Ventures and Collaborative Fund. EXITS Cloud analytics startup Wavefront has agreed to be acquired by VMware less than six months after its Series B funding triggered debate over its valuation. Financial details of the acquisition by publicly traded Dell subsidiary VMware (NYSE:VMW) weren't disclosed. So we'll probably have to wait for a future regulatory filing to settle the debate about how much Palo Alto-based Wavefront is worth. [ Biz Journal ] FUND RAISED Eniac Ventures is announcing the close of a $100 million venture fund, the fourth since the group formed in 2009. The seed-stage firm plans to use the money to invest in augmented reality, virtual reality, bots, robotics and other software-enabled technologies. “VR is really a pathway to mixed reality,” said Vic Singh, founding general partner at Eniac. It’s “very early days and we’ll see how it shakes out, but investing in the tools layer is where we’re focused on.” Curated by Venture Pulse Team. Find us on : [ Venturepulse.org, CrunchBase, AngelList ] |