Venture Capital
It’s been 50 years since Venrock established itself to expose investors to venture capital opportunities. Today, the global venture capital industry tracks just south of $200 billion and continues to grow as new entrepreneurs, engineers, financiers, and thought leaders create the economy of tomorrow. The DailyAlts VC channel tracks the trends, opportunities, key thought leaders, and next-generation industries that will generate billions in returns.
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Revaia, Europe’s largest female-founded venture capital firm, has successfully raised €150 million ($160 million) for its second fund, Revaia Growth II. The funding was secured from sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and institutional investors across Europe, with support from existing partners like Bpifrance and new backers such as mutual insurer Carac and the European Investment Fund.
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More Stories on Venture Capital
Venture Capital: Anthropic Raises $580M Series B For Safer AI Systems
Anthropic, a public benefit corporation and AI startup launched in 2020, raised a $124 million Series A in 2021, and has just announced a massive $580 million Series B round led by Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX. The round also included participation from Caroline Ellison, Jim McClave, Nishad Singh, Jaan Tallinn, and the Center for Emerging Risk Research (CERR).
Venture Capital: Defense Startup Anduril Industries Eyeing $500M Raise
Costa Mesa-based defense technology startup and U.S. military contractor Anduril Industries is looking to raise as much as $500 million in a Series E round at a valuation of $7 billion, pre-money, according to an exclusive report by The Information.
Venture Capital: Aerones Lands $9M Seed Round For Wind Turbine Inspector Robots
Aerones, the Latvian startup that makes wind turbine inspection a snap with its proprietary robots, has raised $9 million in seed funding to further accelerate the global scaling of its robotic wind turbine maintenance and inspection services.
Venture Capital: Solar Energy Provider Sun King Raises $260M
Sun King, the world’s largest off-grid solar energy company that has powered the homes of over 82 million people across Africa and Asia, announced its $260 million Series D raise led by BeyondNetZero, the climate investing venture of General Atlantic, along with M&G Investments’ Catalyst team and Arch Emerging Markets Partners.
Venture Capital/ESG: Upside Foods Scores $400M For Producing Cultivated Meat At Scale
Upside Foods, the first cultivated meat company in the world founded in 2015 and now approaching commercialization, has raised $400 million in a Series C round co-led by Temasek and the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG) and joined by major food and ingredient companies Cargill, Givaudan, and Tyson Foods, individual investors Bill Gates, John Doerr, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, and a range of other reputable financial and institutional investors.
Venture Capital/ESG: XPRIZE And Musk Foundation Hand Out $15M To Carbon Removal Teams
In celebration of Earth Day, XPRIZE and Musk Foundation awarded $1 million each as a milestone prize to 15 teams in the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition in recognition of their efforts to date and support their continued work to scale solutions.
Venture Capital: The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s Tunnelling Startup, Raises $675M
The Boring Company (TBC), founded by Elon Musk to revolutionize traffic by taking it underground through a network of tunnels, has raised a $675 million Series C round at a valuation of $5.675 billion. The massive round was led by Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, 8VC, Craft Ventures, and DFJ Growth. Also chipping in were real estate stalwarts including Brookfield, Lennar, Tishman Speyer, and Dacra.
Venture Capital: AWS Launches $30M Accelerator Fund For Underrepresented Entrepreneurs
Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), has earmarked a spend of $30 million over three years to support early-stage startups led by Black, Latino, LGBTQIA+, and women founders. The AWS Impact Accelerator will invest up to $225,000 in the form of combined cash and credits, and provide training, mentoring, and technical guidance, as well as introductions to Amazon leaders and teams, networking opportunities with investors, and advisory support.
FinTech: Brex Acquires Pry Financials For $90M
Brex, a startup focusing on startups, has acquired Pry Financials, a financial planning platform that replaces Excel for founders, helping them plan and manage budgets, create hiring plans, build financial models, predict cash runway, and more, for $90 million.
Venture Capital: Air Company, Which Makes Carbon-Negative Vodka From Air, Scores $30M Raise
In 2019, carbon technology startup Air Company launched Air Vodka, the world’s first alcoholic beverage made directly from carbon dioxide. The company announced Tuesday its Series A funding of $30 million led by Carbon Direct Capital Management with participation from Toyota Ventures, JetBlue Technology Ventures, and Parley for the Oceans.
Venture Capital: Andreessen Horowitz Launches ‘a16z START,’ A Startup Accelerator
a16z START is looking for founders in the categories of American dynamism, consumer, enterprise, fintech, games and “other.” Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the storied Silicon Valley venture firm, has announced its own startup accelerator dubbed ‘a16z START,’ backed by a16z’s $400 million seed fund. Originally launched in fall 2021, the VC firm’s accelerator has already received…
Venture Capital: Sequoia India On “Breaches Of Integrity Or Ethics”
Sequoia India, writing in a blog on Sunday, addressed recent media reports surrounding fraud and unethical practices at some of the startups in its Indian portfolio. In the context of its highly successful track record nurturing Indian startups that went on to become publicly listed companies, Sequoia stressed these organizations had embraced “the discipline and predictability expected by the public markets.” But Sequoia rued those days when it heard about breaches of integrity or ethics in its portfolio.
Venture Capital: E-Commerce Software Provider Salsify Scores $200M Raise
Salsify, which provides software to participants in the e-commerce sector, closed a $200 million Series F round led by TPG, with participation from Permira‘s Growth Opportunities Fund, Neuberger Berman and Cap Table Coalition. As of date, Salsify has therefore raised a total of $450 million and its latest valuation is $2 billion.
Venture Capital/ESG: Stripe And Big Techs Launch $925M Worth Of ‘Advance Market Commitment’ For Carbon Capture Startups
Fintech giant Stripe is joining hands with several tech companies, including Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Meta (NASDAQ: FB) to form Frontier, which will spend nearly $1 billion to assure product offtake from carbon capture startups. Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) and McKinsey are also chipping in. Frontier will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Stripe.
FinTech: Philippine Fintech Holding Company Voyager Raises $210M
Philippine fintech leader Voyager Innovations turned unicorn at a valuation of nearly $1.4 billion after it raised $210 million. The round was led by new investor SIG Venture Capital, the Asian venture capital arm of SIG. Other new investors included Singapore-based global investor EDBI and investment holding company First Pacific Company Ltd.
Venture Capital: MyForest Foods Raises $15M Venture Loan To Scale Plant-Based Bacon
MyForestFoods, previously known as Atlast, has secured venture loan financing from Connecticut’s Horizon Technology Finance Corporation and a private investment vehicle connected to Horizon, to scale up its production of mycelium-based bacon. The investors funded $7.5 million each.
Venture Capital: Better Origin, Maker Of Modular, AI-Powered Insect Farms, Raises $16M
Better Origin works on the premise that insects serve as carbon-negative animal feed because they need far less water and land compared to traditional feeds like soy. By cultivating them onsite, a farm can save as much as 574 tonnes of CO₂e a year. What’s more, the insects are packed with protein and other nutrients that are good for the animals and also boost farm productivity. Better Origin announced a Series A raise of $16 million.
Venture Capital: Consumer Tech Subscription Platform Grover Raises $330M In Series C Funding
Berlin-based Grover, an online platform that offers tech products for monthly rental subscriptions, has nabbed a massive $330 million Series C round. Of this $110 million came in the form of equity with Energy Impact Partners as lead investor. Fasanara Capital put in $220 million in the form of debt financing.
Venture Capital: Global Digital Sports Platform Fanatics Raises $1.5B Led By NFL, Others
Fanatics, the giant sports platform that has merchandise deals with NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB and colleges and universities, has raised $1.5 billion in a funding round led by the NFL, other major sports leagues, players unions and team owners. With a reported valuation of $27 billion, Fanatics now ranks 12th in the list of the world’s most valuable private companies as compiled by CB Insights.
Venture Capital: Carbon Removal Pioneer Climeworks Raises $650M
It’s the largest financing ever in a carbon capture startup. Climeworks, the leading startup developing technology to remove carbon dioxide from the air, announced today its 600 million francs ($650 million) funding round led by co-led by Partners Group (acting on behalf of its clients) and GIC, with further participation from Baillie Gifford, Carbon Removal Partners, Global Founders Capital, John Doerr, M&G, Swiss Re, as well as other new and existing shareholders including long-term investor and anchor shareholder BigPoint Holding AG.
Venture Capital: Deepki, Which Provides ESG Intelligence For Real Estate, Raises $166M
Deepki, a French startup, offers a SaaS platform that helps real estate investors, owners and managers improve the ESG performance of their real estate assets and in the process, enhance their value. Claimed to be the only such ESG intelligence company in the world with a focus on real estate, Deepki collected €150 million in a Series C round of funding that was co-led by One Peak and Highland Europe, two London-based VC firms specializing in European investments. Bpifrance, Revaia, Hi Inov and Statkraft Ventures also participated in the funding.
Venture Capital: Blockchain.com Raises Unspecified Amount, Clocks Massive $14B Valuation
A Bloomberg report Thursday said Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency exchange and financial services firm, had raised new finance at a valuation north of $14 billion, more than double its previous worth, in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with major participation from Baillie Gifford & Co.
Artificial Intelligence: Venture Funding News In AI
Three different funding rounds that made recent AI news. Venture capitalists continue to pour money into AI startups, from enterprise-grade machine learning from Black Crow to dental diagnostics at VideaHealth.
Venture Capital: Chief, A Private Network For Women Executives, Raises $100M
Chief, a membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders, has raised a $100 million Series B round led by CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL). Previous investors General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Inspired Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, and BoxGroup also participated.