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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Tata Motors (NSE: TATAMOTORS), the automobile company of the Tatas, the Indian salt-to-airlines business conglomerate, will receive an investment of approximately $1 billion from TPG’s Rise Climate Fund and Abu Dhabi state holding company ADQ in a new EV entity. Tata Motors will invest over $2 billion in the unit.
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More Stories on Venture Capital
FinTech: Plaid Extends Its April $425M Funding To Include JPM And Amex
Plaid has announced today an extension of its April $425 million Series D round that was led by Altimeter Capital with participation from new investors, Silver Lake and Ribbit Capital. The expanded round now includes funding from J.P. Morgan Private Capital Growth Equity Partners and existing investor Amex Ventures.
Venture Capital: Brazil’s Nuvemshop Has The Pick Of VCs For Its $500M Funding Round
Ecommerce platform Nuvemshop, which is said to be the Latin American version of Shopify (NYSE: SHOP), announced today its $500 million Series E funding co-led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global Management, with significant participation from Alkeon and Owl Rock. Other investors that joined the round included Sunley House Capital and VMG Partners, as well as existing investors Accel, Kaszek, Kevin Efrusy, Qualcomm Ventures LLC, and ThornTree Capital.
Digital Assets: Crypto Broker Bitpanda Triples Valuation To $4.1B In Five Months
Austrian cryptocurrency broker Bitpanda announced today (August 17, 2021) its raise of $263 million in a Series C round led by Valar Ventures, with the participation of Alan Howard and REDO Ventures, as well as existing investors LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital. Valar Ventures is the venture capital firm co-founded by U.S. tech billionaire Peter Thiel. The round valued Bitpanda at $4.1 billion, up from $1.2 billion in March, when the startup raised $170 million.
Venture Capital: Craft Ventures Raises $1.12 Billion Across Two Funds
Craft Ventures, an early-stage VC firm of “founders backing founders,” closed earlier this month two funds for a combined $1.12 billion fundraising – Craft Ventures III ($612 million) and Craft Ventures Growth I ($510 million). The new growth fund will round off the firm’s investment strategies, covering startups in both early and growth stages.
Venture Capital: Venture Capitalist Chris Sacca Raises $800M For Climate Funds
Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital announced Thursday (August 12, 2021) that it raised $800 million “in fiat, to keep unf**king the planet.” “There has never been a better time to start a company focused on emissions reduction or actively removing carbon already in the atmosphere,” Sacca wrote in Cash Cools Everything Around Me, a blog announcing the raise. “The total addressable markets are literally the biggest in history and we have no doubt that multitrillion-dollar market caps are just up ahead.”
Venture Capital: Aussie Alternative Meat Startup Fable Food Scores $6.5M Funding
Fable Food Co offers meat substitute foods made from Shiitake mushrooms having dense, fleshy fibers and umami flavors that are naturally meat-like. The Sydney, Australia-based startup has raised $6.5 million in a round led by Blackbird Ventures with participation from AgFunder, Aera VC and Better Bite Ventures, Ban Choon Marketing Pte Ltd, and Warren Hogarth.
Venture Capital: 80 Acres Farms Lands $160M Series B
80 Acres Farms, which grows its products of just-picked salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and microgreens in eight indoor and vertical farms, has raised $160 million in additional funding in a round led by General Atlantic and joined by Siemens Financial Services, Inc. (the U.S. financing arm of global technology company Siemens (ETR: SIE)). Blue Earth (formerly PG Impact Investments) and General Atlantic’s Beyond Net Zero team also participated alongside existing investors Barclays and Taurus.
Venture Capital: Turkish Ecommerce Firm Trendyol Lands $1.5B, Turns Decacorn
Trendyol is Turkey’s largest e-commerce company, serving more than 30 million shoppers and delivering more than 1 million packages per day. Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) backed Trendyol announced Monday it had received commitments worth $1.5 billion in a funding round co-led by General Atlantic, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, as well as Princeville Capital and sovereign wealth…
Venture Capital: Boeing Hives Off Venture Arm Into JV With Private Equity Firm
Boeing (NYSE: BA) will spin off its HorizonX venture capital arm into a strategic partnership with private equity firm AE Industrial Partners, the aerospace major announced last week. Founded in 2017, HorizonX has invested in 40 tech companies and startups, and will function as AE’s ventures platform titled AEI HorizonX. AE will manage the fund, which will receive capital from Boeing, AE and others.
Venture Capital: Refurbed, A Platform For Refurbished Electronics, Nabs $54M
Refurbed, a Vienna-based startup that sells refurbished electronics on its platform, has raised $54 million a Series B round led by Evli Growth Partners and Almaz Capital. Existing investors including Speedinvest, Bonsai Partners, and All Iron Ventures, all participated. New investors Hermes GPE, C4 Ventures, SevenVentures, Alpha Associates, Monkfish Equity, Kreos, Isomer Capital, and Creas Impact Fund also came on board.
Venture Capital: Virtual Events Startup Hopin Nabs $7.75B Valuation In A Mere Two Years
Two-year old virtual events startup Hopin has raised $450M in Series D funding co-led by new investors Arena Holdings and Altimeter Capital with participation from new investors Adams Street Partners, Untitled Investments and XN in addition to existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth, General Catalyst, GIC, IVP, Northzone, Salesforce Ventures, Slack Fund, Temasek and Tiger Global.
Venture Capital: Human Interest, Which Facilitates 401 (k) Plans For Small Businesses, Turns Unicorn
Human Interest, which offers affordable, full-service 401 (k) retirement plans to small and medium businesses, announced today its raise of $200 million in a round led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and joined by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Existing investors including NewView Capital and Glynn Capital also participated in the round, alongside new investor Crosslink Capital. Human Interest vaulted to unicorn status after the financing valued it at $1 billion.
FinTech: Rapyd, A Fintech-As-A-Service Startup, Lands $300M Series E
Fintech-as-a-Service provider Rapyd, which enables ecommerce companies, technology firms, marketplaces, and financial institutions to quickly integrate fintech and payment capabilities into their applications, has raised $300 million.
Venture Capital: Tiger Global To Invest $125M In Indian Tech Startup Infra.Market (Bloomberg)
Tiger Global Management has reportedly agreed to invest an additional $125 million in Infra.Market, an Indian startup and B2B online procurement platform that helps construction companies save 5%-7% of their input costs. The transaction values the startup at $2.5 billion.
Venture Capital: Elon Musk’s Neuralink Raises $205M For Its Brain-Machine Interface
Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which is building brain interfaces that can help people with paralysis to connect with computers and phones, announced the completion of its Series C fundraise. The round, which raised $205 million, was led by Vy Capital, with participation from Google Ventures, DFJ Growth, Valor Equity Partners, Craft Ventures, Founders Fund, and Gigafund.
Venture Capital: Exo Raises $220M For Handheld Ultrasound Device
Exo, a company developing a handheld ultrasound imaging device, announced today its $220 million Series C round led by RA Capital Management and joined by BlackRock, Sands Capital, Avidity Partners and Pura Vida Investments. Existing investors also participated in the round.
Digital Assets: Mike Cagney’s Figure Tech Closes Oversubscribed Series D At $200M
New investors joined Figure Technologies’ Series D, taking the round to $200 million. The Series D, originally announced in May, saw new investors joining up, including entities and funds managed and/or advised by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc., Blockchain.com, Rockaway Blockchain, HOF Capital, Endeavour Capital, National Bank Holdings, Goldentree Asset Management and L1 Digital.
Venture Capital: Landis, Which Facilitates Equality In Homeownership, Scores $165M Raise
Landis, which helps more American renters acquire homes and democratizes homeownership, announced Tuesday its $165 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital. Also participating were Signia Venture Partners, Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. Other investors included founders of fintechs Plaid, Cash App, and Ethos. The founders of Instacart, Front, Flatiron Health, and Tango also participated in the funding round.
Venture Capital: DataRobot Banks $300M Series G; Acquires Algorithmia
DataRobot announced today its raise of $300 million in a Series G round led by existing investors Altimeter Capital and Tiger Global and joined by new investors Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Franklin Templeton, ServiceNow Ventures, and Sutter Hill Ventures. The financing came simultaneously with news of DataRobot’s acquisition of the machine learning operations (MLOps) platform, Algorithmia.
Venture Capital: Rivian Lands $2.5B; Plans Second EV Plant Including For Batteries
Electric vehicle maker Rivian announced Friday (July 23, 2021) its close of a $2.5 billion funding round led by Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Climate Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Partners, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Also investing were Third Point, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Coatue.
Venture Capital: Index Ventures Hauls In $3.1B; Eyes Global Flood Of Startups
Index Ventures, the transatlantic venture firm that backed startups such as Confluent (NASDAQ: CFLT) and Roblox (NYSE: RBLX), has raised a massive $3.1 billion across three funds. The new funds are early-stage fund Index Ventures XI ($900 million ), growth fund Index Ventures Growth VI ($2 billion), and the previously announced seed fund Index Origin ($200 million). The funds would together help entrepreneurs to build and scale startups from seed-stage to IPO.
Venture Capital: Black Founders Raised Four Times More Capital In The First Half This Year
According to a Crunchbase report, Black startup founders raised a record $1.8 billion of capital in the first six months of this year. That’s more than 4X the amount of $400 million of funding they landed in the same period in 2020. Again, compare that to the full-year tally of $1 billion and $1.4 billion for 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Digital Assets: Digital Exchange FTX Lands $900M In Biggest Crypto Deal Ever
FTX, the crypto exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried in May 2019, has written up the history books with its Series B raise of $900 million at a valuation of $18 billion. A clutch of top-notch investors participated in the funding, reflecting the demand for promising opportunities in the crypto space, despite recent volatility in the price of bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency.
Alternative Investments: ‘Nasdaq Private Market’ To Be Spun Out As New Venue For Private Company Stocks
Issuers, brokers, shareholders and prospective investors of private company stock will soon be able to deal on a new platform to be set up as a partnership between Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ), SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB), Citi (NYSE: C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). Nasdaq’s existing “Nasdaq Private Market,” which was launched in 2014, will be spun off and contributed to this new JV between Nasdaq and the Wall Street financial giants.