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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United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) announced its new corporate venture fund, United Airlines Ventures, on Thursday. The fund’s brief is to invest in emerging companies that could reinvent travel and aviation while engaging with startups that advance sustainability. These innovative companies and their technologies would help UAL meet its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 – without relying on traditional carbon offsets.
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More Stories on Venture Capital
Venture Capital: Vinted, The Marketplace For Previously Owned Clothing, Raises $303M
Vinted, a European startup that runs a marketplace for used clothing and home goods, announced its raise of $303 million at a valuation of $4.5 billion, post-money. That valuation is substantially up from $1 billion when Vinted raised money end-2019.
FinTech: Brazilian Payments Network CloudWalk Reels In $190M Series B Funding
CloudWalk, the Brazilian payments processor, announced Tuesday its Series B funding of $190 million. The round brought up the firm’s aggregate capital raised to $206 million. Coatue led the round, with participation from DST Global and existing investors such as FIS, The Hive Brazil, and Valor Capital.
Venture Capital: Mubadala Invested $29B In 2020
Pandemic or not, famed sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company kept a stream of investments flowing into technology, life sciences, consumer goods, and other growth sectors during 2020. In fact, as a strategy, the fund stepped up its investment to $29 billion from $18.5 billion in 2019.
Venture Capital: Indonesian Super App Nabs $300M From Telkomsel
Telkomsel, Indonesia’s largest telecom operator, has written yet another check, this time for $300 million, in favor of ride-hailing firm and super app Gojek. Gojek is one app for ordering food, commuting, digital payments, shopping, hyper-local delivery, getting a massage, and two dozen services. It is Indonesia’s first and fastest-growing unicorn building an on-demand business across Southeast Asia.
Venture Capital: Swedish Self-Driving And Electric Truck Maker Einride Scores $110M Funding
Einride, the Swedish developer and provider of electric and autonomous freight mobility technology, announced Thursday it had raised $110 million Series B funding from existing investors EQT Ventures, Plum Alley Investments, Norrsken VC, Ericsson, and NordicNinja VC; new investors Temasek, Soros Fund Management LLC, Northzone, Maersk Growth and Build Capital also participated in the round.
Venture Capital: Subscription Platform ReCharge Scores $277M Round
ReCharge, a provider of subscription management software for e-commerce applications, announced today that it received $277 million in growth capital from Summit Partners, ICONIQ Growth, and Bain Capital Ventures. The company achieved a valuation of $2.1 billion in the first funding since its launch seven years ago.
Venture Capital: Emergence Capital, Which Backed Zoom, Raises $950M For Two New Funds
Venture capital firm Emergence Capital announced it has raised two new funds: Emergence Capital Partners (ECP) VI and Emergence Capital Opportunity I. While ECP VI will invest its haul of $575 million in early-stage B2B tech companies, the Opportunity Fund, which raised $375 million, will primarily make follow-on investments in later-stage startups already backed by Emergence.
Venture Capital: Autonomous Welder Path Robotics Nabs $56M
Path Robotics announced its raise of $56 million in a Series B round led by Addition and with participation by returning investors Drive Capital, Basis Set, and Lemnos Lab. The company creates manufacturing robots that autonomously scan, position, and weld the customer’s parts without the need for skilled welders or robot programmers.
Venture Capital: Paxos Receives $2.4B Valuation With $300M Series D Funding
Paxos, which operates a regulated blockchain infrastructure platform, announced Thursday its close of a $300 million Series D round of funding led by Oak HC/FT. Returning investors Declaration Partners, PayPal Ventures, Mithril Capital, Senator Investment Group, Liberty City Ventures, WestCap, and others also participated.
Artificial Intelligence: OpenSpace, Which Monitors Job Sites, Raises $55M
OpenSpace builds virtual time machines for construction sites that monitor and record job progress. The startup which uses AI, computer vision, video, and photographs to drive its software, has raised $55 million in a Series C round led by Alkeon. New investors included PSP Partners, Asia-focused real-estate tech investors GreenPoint Partners, and Hong Kong-based New World Development.
Venture Capital: Pactum, A Provider Of Negotiation-As-A-Service (NaaS), Raises $11M
Pactum, a startup with Estonian origins that is now headquartered in California, operates an AI platform designed to automate contract negotiations for big companies such as Walmart (NYSE: WMT). It announced Tuesday its raise of $11 million (approx €9.1 million) in its Series A round of funding.
FinTech: Greenlight Financial Raises $260M At $2.3B Valuation
Greenlight announced today its close of $260 million in Series D funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Existing investors TTV Capital, Canapi Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, BOND, Fin VC, Goodwater Capital, as well as new investors Wellington Management, Owl Ventures, and LionTree Partners also participated.
Venture Capital: Canadian Legaltech Startup Clio Raises $110M Series E Round
The round valued Clio at $ 1.6 billion. Clio, a startup based in Vancouver, Canada, builds cloud-based and client-centered legal technology aiming to transform the legal experience for everybody. In a Series E round, Clio raised $ 110 million at a valuation of $ 1.6 billion, duly earning the coveted status of a unicorn. T….
Venture Capital: Indian Edtech Startup Upgrad Raises $120M At $575-$675M Valuation
Indian edtech startup Upgrad has raised $120 million from Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign fund reports the Economic Times. According to people knowledgeable of the matter, the startup could be valued as much as $575-675 million, post-money.
Venture Capital: Misfits Market Scores $200M Series C, Turns Unicorn
Online and D2C grocery platform Misfits Market announced its Series C round of $200 million co-led by Accel and D1 Capital. Other participants in the round included existing investors Valor Equity Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Sound Ventures, and Third Kind Ventures. The startup confirmed it had achieved unicorn status with this oversubscribed funding round.
Venture Capital: Payroll Company Deel Raises $156M In Series C Funding, Turns Unicorn
Deel, the payroll company, announced Wednesday its Series C raise of $156 million at a valuation of $1.25 billion. The round earned the company its horn and was co-led by YC Continuity, Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital. Deel has now raised $206 million in total, and most of it in the space of just a year.
Venture Capital: Electric Flying Ferry Startup Regent Raises $9M
“Regent” stands for Regional Electric Ground Effect Naval Transport. Boston-based startup Regent focuses on coastal, maritime transportation using electric sea gliders as ferries that are zero-emission and fly at ultra-low-altitudes at cruise speeds of 180 mph. The service would need no airport security and is highly cost-effective because it saves on fuel costs, maintenance and…
Venture Capital: Zoom Announces $100M Zoom Apps Venture Fund
Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) said Monday it was launching the Zoom Apps Fund, a new $100 million venture fund created to stimulate growth of Zoom’s ecosystem of Zoom Apps, integrations, developer platform, and hardware.
FinTech: U.K. Challenger Bank Starling Gets £50M From Goldman Sachs
Starling, the U.K.-based digital bank, announced today its raise of £50 million ($69 million) from Goldman Sachs’ growth equity investment arm. The funding came as an extension of the £272 million Series D round announced in March 2021, taking its total fundraising to £322 million. The round had valued the bank at £1.1 billion.
Venture Capital: Audio-based Social App Clubhouse Raises Undisclosed Amount Via Series C
With three months of its Series B fundraise, audio-based social app Clubhouse announced Sunday its Series C raise (amount not disclosed) from investors including DST Global, Tiger Global, and Elad Gil. Andrew Chen at a16z led the round at a valuation of $4 billion, according to Reuters.
Venture Capital: Amazon Launches $250M SMB And Tech-Focused Venture Fund In India
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) India has launched the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund, a $250 million fund that will drive technology innovation by small and medium businesses (SMB) in digitization, agriculture, and healthcare.
Venture Capital: Clearcover, The Digital Car Insurer, Scores $200M Funding
Clearcover, a startup selling car insurance digitally, has raised $ 200 million in a Series D funding round led by Eldridge, with participation from existing investors American Family Ventures, Cox Enterprises, OMERS Ventures, as well as other new investors.
Venture Capital: Scale AI Scores $325M Series E Round At A $7.3B Valuation
Scale AI announced Tuesday its raise of $325 million in a Series E funding co-led by Dragoneer, Greenoaks Capital, and Tiger Global. New investors in the round included Wellington Management and Durable Capital as well as existing investors Coatue, Index, Founders Fund, and YC.
Venture Capital: SoftBank Vision 2 Leads $676M Round In SambaNova Systems
SambaNova Systems, a startup that builds AI hardware and chips and offers a systems platform to run AI applications, announced today its Series D raise of $676 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The round valued SambaNova at more than $5 billion and the company’s aggregate funding to more than $1 billion.