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: Arc, Which Makes $300K Electric Boats, Snags $30M
Arc, a startup led by former SpaceX engineers and developing electric boats, announced its $30 million Series A raise led by Greg Reichow, a former Tesla VP of Production, now at Eclipse Ventures. Existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital and Ramtin Naimi’s Abstract Ventures also participated in the funding. Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Combs Enterprises, all previous investors, also chipped in.
FinTech: Take Heart From Tesla – PayTM CEO After Damp Squib IPO
So said PayTM founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma at a company town hall after the Indian fintech’s $2.5 billion IPO made a disastrous debut on Thursday. That’s some erosion of wealth. Shares issued at Rs 2,150 in Indian fintech PayTM’s (NSE: PAYTM) record-breaking $2.5 billion IPO, listed at Rs 1,955 on November 18, and…
Venture Capital: MoonPay’s $555M Series ‘A’ Is The Largest For A Bootstrapped Crypto Company Globally
MoonPay, which refers to itself as the PayPal for crypto, announced its massive Series A of $555 million led by Tiger Global Management and Coatue with participation from Blossom Capital, Thrive Capital, Paradigm, and NEA. The hitherto bootstrapped startup, which is already profitable, secured a valuation of $3.4 billion in the round. The company sets up the interfaces between fiat channels of finance and crypto entities – a so-called “fiat to crypto on-ramp.”
Venture Capital: Sierra Space Raises $1.4B For Spaceplane And Habitat Station
Sierra Space, the startup with visions for humanity’s new civilizations beyond Earth, announced Friday its $1.4 billion Series A round led by General Atlantic, Coatue and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners and AE Industrial Partners. The round valued the startup, which is a subsidiary of private aerospace contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation, at $4.5 billion.
Venture Capital: No-Code Productivity Platform Formstack Raises $425M
Formstack, a platform that allows customers to digitize their workflows including forms, documents, and e-signatures without having to code, announced its raise of a $425 million growth investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners and returning investor PSG.
Venture Capital: Generate Biomedicines, Which Uses Machine Learning To Invent New Drugs, Raises $370M
Generate Biomedicines, which uses its machine learning powered Generative Biology platform to make novel proteins with specific therapeutic functions, and thereby invent new drugs at never-before speeds, has raised a $370 million Series B. Investors in the round, which marked Generate’s first outside financing, included founder, Flagship Pioneering, along with several institutional co-investors.
Venture Capital: Lacework Raises $1.3B To Expand Its Cloud Security Offerings
Lacework, the cloud security platform, announced today the largest funding round in the history of the security industry. The six-year-old startup’s $1.3 billion Series D round was led by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, and Tiger Global Management with participation from new investors including Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Durable Capital, Franklin Templeton, General Catalyst, and XN. Coatue, Dragoneer, Liberty Global Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures, all existing investors, also participated.
Artificial Intelligence: Global Pharma Company Sanofi Invests $180M In French American AI Startup Owkin
Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) announced today an investment of $180 million in Owkin, a Paris-based startup that utilizes AI and federated learning for medical research. Owkin’s platform connects life science companies with academic researchers and hospitals to share deep medical insights for drug discovery and development. Additionally, as a part of its AI-empowered precision medicine activities, Owkin builds predictive biomedical AI models and robust data sets.
Venture Capital: Monarch Raises $61M For Its Electric, ‘Driver-Optional’ Tractors
Monarch Tractor, which made the first fully electric tractor announced today the close of its $61 million Series B round that will help accelerate production and deployment of the smart, driver-optional, electric tractor known as the MK-V.
FinTech: Upgrade Valued At $6.28B In $280M Series F Round
Fintech Upgrade announced its $280 million Series F round led by Coatue Management and DST Global. Dragoneer Investment Group and existing investors including Gopher Asset Management, G-Squared, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Old Well Partners, Ribbit Capital, Sands Capital, Ventura Capital and Vy Capital also participated in the round.
Venture Capital: Online Wholesale Marketplace Faire Nabs $400M At $12.4B Valuation
Faire, a wholesale ecommerce platform that serves as a bridge between independent brands and small business owners looking for affordable merchandise, announced its $400 million Series G raise co-led by investors Durable Capital Partners LP, D1 Capital Partners, and Dragoneer Investment Group.
Digital Assets: Crypto-Native VC Firm Paradigm Launches $2.5B Fund
Investment firm Paradigm believes that while the internet set the stage for innovation in the previous decades, crypto will define the next few ones. Accordingly, it invests in promising crypto companies, protocols and currencies of tomorrow. Its humongous new $2.5 billion venture fund, announced Monday, will invest in next-gen crypto companies and protocols, alongside the existing flagship fund.
Venture Capital: Bioenergy Devco Raises $100M For Sustainable Organic Waste Recycling
Bioenergy Devco last week raised $100 million from funds managed by alternative investment manager Irradiant Partners, a firm which specializes in climate infrastructure, private equity and credit. Bioenergy Devco creates renewable, carbon-negative energy by recycling organic waste using its proven anaerobic digestion technology.
Venture Capital: Swedish Battery Startup Northvolt Produces Lithium-Ion Battery Using Recycled Materials
What will happen to the approximately 250,000 tons of batteries that will reach their end-of-life in Europe alone by 2030? Swedish battery startup Northvolt has the answer: recycle them. Northvolt announced today the successful production of its first battery cell made of 100% recycled nickel, manganese and cobalt.
Venture Capital: Indonesian Tech Super App GoTo Lands $1.3B In Pre-IPO Funding
Indonesian tech giant GoTo, the product of a merger between ride-hailing-to-payments firm Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia, now has a range of businesses across e-commerce, ride-hailing and financial services in the world’s fourth most populous country. It announced Thursday its raise of more than US$1.3 billion in a pre-IPO round led by the ABU Dhabi Investment Authority.
Venture Capital: Crowdfunded Ecologi Plants Trees In Return For Your Subscription
Ecologi, which exhorts you to become climate-friendly for less than $2.75 a week, is a platform for climate action, helping individuals, families and businesses become carbon-positive for a subscription. Subscribers can fund carbon reduction projects to offset their footprint and also grow their own virtual forests.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Chipmaker Cerebras Scores $250M Series F Round
Cerebras Systems, which is building a new class of computers to accelerate artificial intelligence work by orders of magnitude beyond what is currently possible, announced Wednesday its close of a $250 million Series F round led by Alpha Wave Ventures along with Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG). Other bulge bracket investors included Altimeter Capital, Benchmark Capital, Coatue Management, Eclipse Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, and VY Capital.
FinTech: MFS Africa Raises $100M To Make Payments As Easy As Calls
MFS Africa announced today its $ 100 million Series C fundraising for a massive expansion across Africa. The funding, a mix of $70 million in equity and $30 million in debt, was co-led by private equity fund and new investor AfricInvest along with existing investors Goodwell Investments and LUN Partners Group.
Venture Capital: Population-Scale Healthcare Platform Color Raises $100M
Public health technology platform Color announced Tuesday its Series E funding round of $100 million led by Kindred Ventures and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Existing investors General Catalyst, Viking Global Investors, and Emerson Collective also participated.
Venture Capital: Identity Verifying Platform Socure Reels In $450M Series E
Just months after raising a $100 million Series D, Socure, a provider of digital identity verification and fraud solutions announced today its close of a $450 million Series E round led by Accel alongside funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. The latest funding also includes two new investors, Bain Capital Ventures and Tiger Global, as well as participation from existing investors Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Sorenson Ventures.
Artificial Intelligence: Philips Snaps Up Cardiologs For Its AI-Empowered Cardiac Diagnostics
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG) is making another advance into high technology cardiac diagnostics with its acquisition of Cardiologs, A France-based medical technology company that uses AI and cloud technology for cardiac diagnostics. Philips said the acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, was an excellent fit with its existing cardiac care portfolio.
Venture Capital: H2O.ai Raises $100M; Commonwealth Bank Of Australia Buys Stake
H2O, which enables businesses to build AI systems using its cloud-based platform, has raised $100 million in a series E round led by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) with participation from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Pivot Investment Partners, Crane Venture Partners, Celesta Capital, and others. CBA acquires an undisclosed stake in H2O and is also its customer.
Venture Capital: [COP26] Scottish Vertical Farms Startup IGS Nabs $57M
Intelligent Growth Solutions, a Scottish agritech startup focused on indoor vertical farming announced its closure of a £42.2 million (US$57 million) Series B round that was supported by new investors including COFRA, Cleveland Avenue and DC Thomson. Existing institutional investors Ospraie Ag Science, S2G Ventures, AgFunder and Scottish Enterprise, with private shareholders and IGS staff also participated in the round, which was hugely oversubscribed.
Venture Capital: Fusion Energy Startup Helion Raises $500M Including $375M From Sam Altman
Helion Energy, which is building the world’s first fusion power plant that would enable a future with unlimited clean electricity, announced a $500 million Series E round led by Sam Altman. Existing investors, including Dustin Moskovitz, Mithril Capital and Capricorn Investment Group, also participated in the round. Altman, who has been an early supporter of Helion and chairman since 2015, invested $375 million in the latest round and will now play an expanded role as executive chairman.