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
Digital Assets: Crypto Security And Infra Provider Fireblocks Raises $133M From BNY Mellon, Others
Fireblocks, which provides a specialized and secure platform for custody, settlement, and new crypto offerings, announced last its raise of $133 million via Series C funding. Coatue, Ribbit, and Stripes led the round, while The Bank of New York Mellon made a strategic investment. Previous investors, including Paradigm, Galaxy Digital, Swisscom Ventures, Tenaya Capital, and Cyberstarts Ventures, also participated in the round.
Venture Capital: Momenta Raises $500M From Automotive Majors Including Toyota
SAIC Motor (SHA: 600104), Toyota Motor (TYO: 7203) and auto parts supplier Bosch are among the investors to fund a $500 million Series C round by Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta. The startup, which counts Daimler and Tencent Holdings amongst its backers, also received investments in the current round from Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek, Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital, Cathay Capital, and some unnamed institutions.
Venture Capital: TPG’s Impact Investing Arm Pays $200M For Stake In Airtel Africa’s Mobile Money Biz
Airtel Africa plc (LON: AAF) announced Thursday that The Rise Fund would invest $200 million for a minority stake in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary that was the holding company for several of Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations. It also announced that other Airtel Africa mobile money businesses would soon be merged into this company. Ultimately, Airtel Mobile Commerce BV would be the umbrella owner of the mobile money units in all 14 African countries where they operate.
Venture Capital: Cyber-Risk Insurer Coalition Scores $175M Round
A rash of high-profile, sophisticated, and allegedly state-sponsored cyberattacks on American companies and government agencies has brought businesses face-to-face with the risks they face from hackings and ransomware attacks. Within commercial insurance, coverage against cyber risks is a relatively new phenomenon. Coalition, a cybersecurity platform that also provides insurance, announced Wednesday its raise of $175 million.
Venture Capital: AI-Powered Innovation Platform PatSnap Secures $300M Including From SoftBank
Patsnap announced Tuesday its Series E funding of $300 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tencent Investment with participation from CPE Industrial Fund and existing investors Sequoia China, Shun Wei Capital, and Vertex Ventures. The company, which operates out of multiple headquarters in Toronto (North America), London (Europe), and Singapore (Asia), is a leader in the so-called “connected innovation intelligence category.”
FinTech: Point-of-Sale Device Company SumUp Raises $892M Debt Facility
SumUp is a London-based global fintech company that has developed point-of-sale hardware and mobile and web apps that simplify the acceptance of payments by small merchants. It has also developed a suite of APIs and SDKs for integrating SumUp payment into other apps and services. The startup announced Tuesday its raise of a debt funding of €750 million (US$892 million at today’s rates).
Venture Capital: Star Professor And Scientist Daphne Koller’s insitro Raises $400M
insitro, the startup founded by Stanford University professor and Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller, is again in the news for a big fundraiser. The data-driven drug discovery and development company announced a $400 million Series C round led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments).
Venture Capital: Cowbell Cyber Nails $20M Funding Round To Insure Businesses Against Online Attacks
Cowbell Cyber, an insurtech, focuses on providing small and medium enterprises with AI-powered insurance against cyberattacks. The company announced Thursday its close of a Series A funding of $20 million led by Brewer Lane Ventures. Pivot Investment Partners, Avanta Ventures, Markel Corporation, and existing investors ManchesterStory, Tri-Valley Ventures, and Holmes Murphy also participated.
FinTech: Stripe Raises $600M; Triples Valuation To $95B In Less Than A Year
Stripe, the global payments major founded by the Collison brothers, said on Sunday that it closed on a $600 million funding round at a valuation of $95 billion. Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sequoia Capital, and Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) invested in the round.
Venture Capital: Forward Health Lands $225M In Series D Funding
Forward Health is an entirely new ‘concierge’ healthcare system empowering doctors with technology and data to monitor and guide health outcomes. It raised $225 million in Series D funding with participation from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Marc Benioff, and The Weeknd, among others. The funding will help the tech-centric primary healthcare startup expand its services across the U.S.
Digital Assets: Crypto Lender BlockFi Snags $350M In A Series D Funding Round
BlockFi, which functions as a one-stop crypto bank, allowing you to earn interest on your crypto holdings, announced today the close of its Series D fundraising of $350 million that valued the startup at $3 billion.
FinTech: Grab Could List In The U.S. Through A Merger With A Blank Check Company
Grab Holdings Inc, which is backed by SoftBank (TYO: 9984), is considering the SPAC route to a U.S. listing, according to a Bloomberg report. Previously we reported that the startup, whose businesses span everything from food delivery to ride-sharing, insurance, financial services, and investing, was considering a traditional IPO in the U.S. worth more than $2 billion.
Artificial Intelligence: Venture Capitalists Will Use More AI By 2025 (Gartner)
Those Midas-touched VCs who pick investing winners using a combination of their experience, “gut feel,” and quantitative data will soon play second fiddle to AI and data analytics says a report by Gartner.
Venture Capital: Israeli Cloud Security Startup Snyk Scores $300M Funding; Quadruples Valuation
Israeli startup Snyk, which specializes in cloud-native application security, said today it had closed a Series E financing round for $300 million of which $175 million flowed into the company’s coffers. The rest constituted a secondary offering. Of note is the fact that Snyk has quadrupled its valuation in a year, such was the impact of the pandemic and the resulting demand for security from digital transformation.
Venture Capital: SunFunder Raises $70M For Its Solar Energy Transformation (SET) Fund
An investment from OesterreichischeEntwicklungsbank AG (OeEB), the Austrian government’s development bank, has helped SunFunder close its oversubscribed $70 million Solar Energy Transformation Fund. Other participants in the fund included Swedfund, the IKEA Foundation, Bank of America, Mercy Investment Services, the Schmidt Family Foundation, and members from the Toniic impact investor network.
Venture Capital: AM Ventures Floats First-Ever Fund Focused On 3D Printing
Here’s a specialist, industry-specific venture fund dedicated to the industrial 3D printing industry. AM Ventures closed last week on a €100 million fund that will back founders looking to transform the world with 3D printing.
Venture Capital: Aero, Which Promises “Premium Semi-Private Jets All First Class,” Nabs $20M
Luxury air travel provider Aero launched its inaugural flight between Los Angeles’s Van Nuys Airport and Aspen’s Pitkin County Airport on Thursday. Tickets are $ 990 each way through February. Aero is backed by Uber’s co-founder Garret Camp. Aerospace engineer veteran Uma Subramanian is CEO. The service offers flights without queues, private lounges for boarding, and in-flight social distancing with just 16 seats per aircraft. The start-up raised $ 20 million in Series A funding.
Artificial Intelligence: TytoCare Uses AI For Remote Medical Checks
TytoCare, has developed a platform and devices that use AI to perform remote medical examinations for doctors and clinicians. Healthcare organizations, hospitals, and insurers around the world recommend TytoCare’s telehealth kits (pictured below) for monitoring the health of patients remotely and virtual caregiving. The Israeli telehealth startup just raised $50 million in a Series D round, doubling its valuation.
Digital Assets: A $200M Fund From Crypto.com To Support Crypto Startups
Crypto.com launched today a $200 million fund for investing in crypto startups at seed and series A stages. The venture arm, Crypto.com Capital, will lead seed rounds with cheque sizes between $100k and $3m and Series A rounds from $3m to $10m.
Venture Capital: Virtual Events Provider Hopin Collects $400M In A Series C Round
Online events, once necessitated from the pandemic’s demand for social distancing, are here to stay it seems. Companies can scale up virtual events, earn a broader and global reach without boundaries, and do so at much lower costs. What’s more, there are so many more digital data payoffs from the interactions during virtual conferences. These can prove invaluable for marketing teams. Virtual events provider Hopin, which promises to help you set up a virtual event in just minutes, is clearly in a clover patch, judging from its latest raise.
Artificial Intelligence: Beam Provides AI-Powered Dental Insurance Cover
Beam Dental, a dental insurer, uses AI in its operations (and toothbrushes) to assess people’s dental health and issue quotes in just 30 seconds. Beam’s app-connected brushes incentivize users to brush regularly and improve dental hygiene. In turn, they qualify for rebates on their dental insurance.
Venture Capital: Instacart Raises $265M; “Incredible Opportunity Ahead”
Online grocery delivery platform Instacart announced on Tuesday its raise of $265 million as part of a new funding round. The company confirmed the round boosted its valuation to $39 billion. Existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. participated in the funding.
Venture Capital: Drone Maker Skydio Raises $170M; Earns Its Horn
Drone maker Skydio announced Monday its raise of $170 million in Series D funding led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund, valuing the company at over $1 billion. Existing investors Linse Capital, Next47, and IVP, along with new investor UP. Partners also participated.
Venture Capital: Crypto Exchange Kraken Could Value Over $10B In Potential Funding
Crypto exchange Kraken, which Chief Executive Officer Jesse Powell founded in 2011, is in discussions to raise new funding that could value it at over $10 billion. That’s more than double its valuation of approximately $4 billion when it last raised $13 million in 2019.