Good day. Despite the venture-capital sector having its best quarter on record, the cybersecurity sector looked to be a laggard, at least on paper. In a new report, cybersecurity-focused venture firm DataTribe noted a drop in both deal count and size, while valuations rose.

Median deal size of Series A funding rounds into cybersecurity startups fell roughly 17% to $10 million in the first quarter of this year compared with last year, according to U.S. data from provider PitchBook Data Inc. prepared for DataTribe. The number of cyber deals fell roughly 21% to 33 in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020.

However, DataTribe said the number of startups approaching it for investment was up 80% compared with the same period a year earlier. “We believe it’s a sign that deal volumes in the coming quarter will increase since the number of companies seeking investment is a forward-looking indicator of early stage cyber investments,” DataTribe wrote in the report.

The firm offered reasons for its outlook in the cyber sector going forward: High-profile cyberattacks have ramped up cybersecurity urgency; the Biden administration has made several recent appointments of cybersecurity experts to key posts. In addition, China’s rise as a potential cybersecurity threat is only ratcheting up the need for digital security.

And now on to the news...

Fertility technology. Lux Capital has led a $9.5 million seed financing for Alife Health Inc., a startup planning to use artificial intelligence to give patients their best shot at success when undergoing in vitro fertilization, WSJ Pro’s Brian Gormley reports.

• In vitro fertilization is the most common type of assisted reproductive technology, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It involves fertilizing an egg with sperm in the lab and later transferring an embryo or embryos to the woman.
   
• Alife has established a consortium of in vitro fertilization clinics and physicians that gives it access to de-identified patient data. It uses artificial intelligence to identify patterns in the data that could help clinicians make personalized recommendations for people going through the IVF process, according to founder and Chief Executive Paxton Maeder-York.
   
• Alife expects AI to help improve decisions around the transfer of embryos and other steps in the in vitro fertilization process. It plans to demonstrate the value of its approach through clinical research, Mr. Maeder-York said.

Digital-health startups have boomed during the pandemic, raising record amounts of capital for a range of services. The message from some of their customers: Enough, already.

Corporate-benefits executives, the main customers for these startups, say they are excited about technology that can lower costs and improve employees’ health, WSJ reports. But the explosion of activity has spawned a glut of startups pitching redundant or overpriced services, they say.

Vaccitech PLC, a British company that co-invented the AstraZeneca PLC Covid-19 vaccine, closed its first day of trading with shares down 17%, The Wall Street Journal reports. American depositary shares of the company, an offshoot of University of Oxford research efforts, closed Friday at $14.10, compared with their initial public offering price of $17 a share.

• Vaccitech came to prominence over the past year because of its Covid-19 vaccine work. Its vaccine, marketed by AstraZeneca, has been one of a handful of shots invented at blistering speed to combat the pandemic, relative to the typically plodding pace of pharmaceutical development. More recently, however, the vaccine has experienced a rocky world-wide rollout amid safety concerns and production challenges.

People

Enterprise technology-focused investor Work-Bench promoted Kelley Mak to partner and Priyanka Somrah to senior analyst. Mr. Mak joined Work-Bench in 2016 from Forrester Research. Ms. Somrah was previously an analyst, and before that an intern at the New York-based firm.

Online education marketplace Udemy Inc. named Sarah Blanchard as chief financial officer. She was most recently chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Omada Health. San Francisco-based Udemy is backed by investors including Learn Capital, Insight Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Stripes.

On-demand healthcare analytics provider Clarify Health appointed Adrienne Cooper as chief people officer and Nadeem Ahmed as chief revenue officer. Ms. Cooper previously built the people operations team for Fit Small Business. Mr. Ahmed led the founding of the healthcare and life sciences sales organization at Salesforce. In March, San Francisco-based Clarify Health raised a $115 million Series C round from investors including Insight Partners, Spark Capital, Concord Health Partners and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

Observe.AI, a provider of artificial intelligence to contact centers, hired Sendhil Jayachandran as chief marketing officer. He was previously CMO at xMatters. San Francisco-based Observe.AI is backed by Menlo Ventures, Next47, NGP Capital, Emergent Ventures, Scale Ventures, Nexus Ventures and Y Combinator.

Exits

Coinbase is acquiring Skew, a data visualization and analytics platform for crypto markets, for an undisclosed amount. Based in London, Skew was founded in 2018 and is backed by Kleiner Perkins, Digital Currency Group, Kima Ventures, Seedcamp, Octopus Ventures and Firstminute Capital.

Mux Inc., a San Francisco-based video platform for developers, raised $105 million in Series D funding, bringing the company’s valuation to over $1 billion. Coatue Management led the round, which included additional support from Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Cobalt Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group.

Adcendo, a Copenhagen-based startup developing antibody-drug conjugates for the treatment of cancers, secured €51 million ($62 million) in Series A financing. Novo Holdings’ Novo Seeds and Ysios Capital led the round, which saw participation from RA Capital Management, HealthCap and Gilde Healthcare Partners. Jeroen Bakker, principal at Novo Seeds, will join the company’s board.

OpenSpace, a San Francisco-based provider of construction photo documentation and analysis, landed $55 million in Series C funding led by Alkeon Capital Management. New investors PSP Partners, GreenPoint Partners and New World Development also participated in the round, along with existing backers Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, JLL Spark, Navitas Capital and Zigg Capital.

Ceribell Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of a rapid EEG system for the diagnosis and treatment of patients at risk for seizures, completed a $53 million Series C round. Longitude Capital and The Rise Fund co-led the investment, with participation from RA Capital Management, Redmile Group, Red Tree Venture Capital and others.

Catch Co., a Chicago-based fishing brand, content and commerce platform, closed a $38 million Series B round. True Ventures led the funding, which included contributions from TechNexus Venture Collaborative.

Connecteam, a New York-based deskless workforce management app, snagged a $37 million funding round from investors including Insight Partners and O.G. Tech.

Umbra, Santa Barbara, Calif.-based startup delivering high-resolution radar imagery to commercial and government customers, nabbed a $32 million investment. Nimble Ventures led the round, which included participation from CrossCut Ventures, Starbridge Venture Capital, Hemisphere Ventures and others.

RapidDeploy Inc., an Austin, Texas-based dispatch and analytics platform for 911 call centers, fetched $29 million in Series B financing. Lead investor Morpheus Ventures was joined by GreatPoint Ventures, Ericsson Ventures, Samsung Next Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Tau Ventures and others in the round. Mark Dyne, founding partner at Morpheus Ventures, recently joined the board.

Yousician, an interactive music platform with offices in Helsinki and New York, secured a $28 million Series B round. True Ventures led the investment, which included support from Amazon's Alexa Fund, MPL Ventures and others.

Sorbet, a New York- and Tel Aviv-based startup that helps employees cash out their paid time-off, was seeded with a $6 million investment from Viola Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Meron Capital.

Rapchat Inc., a music-making app, picked up a $2.3 million investment led by Adjacent.

• From tablets to sex toys, the chip shortage is far-reaching
   
• TikTok names ByteDance finance chief as new CEO
   
• EU charges Apple with App Store antitrust violations in Spotify case
   
• China orders tech giants to unbundle financial services
   
• Internet privacy legislation dies in Florida

This newsletter was compiled by Marc Vartabedian and Zachary Cole.

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 and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc, @ychernova, @BrianPGormley, @marcvarta.