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: Bessemer Venture Raises $3.3B For Two New Funds, Welcomes New Partners
Global early-stage venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners announced Thursday its raise of $3.3 billion across two new funds. BVP XI, which collected $2.475 billion, will focus on early-stage companies spanning enterprise, consumer, healthcare, and frontier technologies. The Century II fund ($825 million) is specifically designed for growth-stage companies that will define the next century.
Digital Assets: Anchorage, The First Federally Chartered Digital Bank, Raises $80M
Federally chartered digital bank Anchorage announced Thursday its Series C raise of $80 million led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, with participation from a16z, Blockchain Capital, Lux, and Indico.
Venture Capital: Blockchain-Based Fantasy Soccer Startup Sorare Scores $50M
Sorare is a fantasy game of soccer, where players buy, sell, trade, and manage a virtual team with digital player cards. The game is based on the Ethereum blockchain technology. Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort started Sorare in 2018 and today announced their $50 million Series A raise in a Medium post.
Venture Capital: Zomato’s Pre-IPO Raise Nabs $250M At $5.4B Valuation
Indian foodtech unicorn Zomato reeled in $250 million in a pre-IPO fundraise from new and existing investors. The startup’s IPO is slated for June this year. The round was led by Kora Management, which invested $115 million. Other existing investors were Fidelity Management and Research ($55 million) and Tiger Global Management ($50 million). New investors, Bow Wave Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group invested about $20 million and $10 million, respectively.
Venture Capital: Renowned VC 500 Startups Makes Saudi Foray
500 Startups, which has backed more than 2,500 companies in 78 countries, spanning almost every continent, is making landfall in Saudi Arabia. The renowned VC firm has partnered with Saudi financial services firm Sanabil Investments for the launch of a seed accelerator program in Riyadh. 500 Startups recently set up its new MENA regional headquarters in Riyadh.
Venture Capital: Locus Robotics Turns Unicorn With $150M Series E Round
Locus Robotics, which provides robotic solutions for automating warehouses, raised $150 million in a Series E round led by Tiger Global Management and BOND. Scale Venture Partners and Prologis Ventures, the venture capital arm of Prologis, the global logistics real estate company, also participated. The round valued Locus at $1 billion, granting the startup the coveted unicorn status.
FinTech: Stripe’s $115B Valuation Is “Nuts” But “Not Utterly Insane”
Stripe, the payments processing company that Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison founded in 2010, has tripled its valuation in the space of the last 10 months. A Forbes report said transactions in the secondary market of the private fintech giant’s shares now value it at $115 billion, more than 3X the $36 billion valuation it garnered in an April 2020 funding raise.
Venture Capital: Marquee Investors Put $300M Into Adjuvant Capital For Overlooked Diseases
Adjuvant Capital, which finances cures for “high-burden and neglected diseases,” announced today its raise of an oversubscribed $300 million fund from big names in pharma and philanthropy. Diseases such as malaria, shigella, hookworm, tuberculosis, and Lassa fever affect millions of people in the poorer countries.
Venture Capital: SpaceX Rakes In $850M New Capital At $74B Valuation
According to a CNBC exclusive, Elon Musk’s SpaceX raised $850 million last week, selling shares at $419.99 a share, and garnering a valuation of $74 billion. So eager were investors for a piece of the funding pie that offers worth $6 billion poured in over just three days. Company insiders and existing investors, therefore, sold another $750 million of shares into the demand.
Venture Capital: Investors, Including Big Oil, Back Eavor Technologies With $40M
Eavor Technologies leverages deep drilling expertise from the oil industry to construct a looped well that harvests geothermal energy from deep below the earth. The technology has drawn a $40 million investment, including from Big Oil companies such as the venture arms of BP (LON: BP) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX).
Digital Assets: Mike Cagney’s Figure Technologies Files For $250M SPAC
Executives of Figures Technologies, the mortgage blockchain startup launched by ex-SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, have filed for a SPAC that will raise $250 million. Figure Acquisition Corp I, as it is called, is an affiliate of Figure Technologies and has real estate specialist Elliot Management on board as an investor.
Venture Capital: Joby Aviation May List Via Merger With Blank Check Company Reinvent
Reinvent Technology Partners (NYSE: RTP), the blank check company (or, SPAC) helmed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and tech entrepreneur Mark Pincus may acquire Joby Aviation, a company developing the next-generation, electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) flying air taxis.
FinTech: Indian B2B Lender BharatPe Raises $108M At A Valuation Of $900M
Indian B2B lender and financial services company BharatPe announced today its raise of $108 million in a Series D equity round at a valuation of $900 million. The amount comprised a primary raising of $90 million and a secondary exit for certain angel investors and employees of $18 million. Existing investor Coatue Management led the round. Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo, and Sequoia Capital, other existing investors, also chipped in.
Venture Capital: Thrasio Nabs Another $750M To Acquire Amazon Merchants
Thrasio, which claims to be “the fastest profitable U.S. company to ever reach a $1 billion valuation,” announced Tuesday its equity fundraise of another $750 million received almost entirely from existing investors including Oaktree and Advent. The company said the money will further boost its acquisitions of FBA (“Fulfilled By Amazon”) sellers on the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) marketplace.
Venture Capital: Brand New VC Firm Panoramic Ventures To Focus On Diversity And Under-Funded Regions
Panoramic Ventures is a new Atlanta-based VC firm. It is a partnership between Paul Judge, a black serial entrepreneur and investor, and BIP Capital. The latter has more than $550 million in assets under management. While announcing its formation, Panoramic also flagged off a new $300 million fund targeted at founders from under-capitalized communities and startups located in the south-west and mid-west regions of America.
Venture Capital: Reddit Cashes In On GameStop Publicity; Raises $250M
Reddit announced in a blog on Monday that it nabbed $250 million in Series E funding from existing and new investors. The Wall Street Journal said the round, led by Vy Capital, valued Reddit at $6 billion. That’s twice the valuation of $3 billion after its previous funding round in February 2019. Andreesen Horowitz and Tencent Holdings are also investors in the platform.
Venture Capital: Chinese Driverless Company Pony.ai Raises $100M In Extended Round
Pony.AI, a Chinese head-quartered autonomous driving startup, announced on February 8 its additional raise of $100 million in Series C. In November, the company had picked up $267 million in that Series, and in the process, earned itself a valuation tag of $5.3 billion.
Venture Capital: VC Firms Top Tier And Sapphire Close On Nearly $3B Of New Funds
Palo Alto, CA-based venture firm Sapphire Ventures announced Thursday that it recently closed $1.7 billion across multiple funds, bringing its total assets under management to $5.7 billion. On the other hand, San Francisco-based VC, Top Tier Capital Partners, hauled in $1.2 billion from investors, with its total assets going up to $7.5 billion.
Digital Assets: Star-Studded Lineup Supports New $72M VC Fund Eyeing Crypto
A star-studded lineup supports a new $72M VC Fund eyeing crypto. Private equity stalwart Glenn Hutchins along with son James Hutchins and partner Travis Scher launched the new fund and attracted hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, Raj and Indra Nooyi (the latter being the former CEO of PepsiCo), and James Todd Smith, a.k.a LL Cool J as investors.
Venture Capital: Online Wine Marketplace Vivino Closes $155M Series D Round
Vivino’s community of 50 million wine enthusiasts have pushed annual growth at the online wine marketplace to 100% for the last seven years. With e-commerce sales of alcohol predicted to grow to over $40 billion by 2024, the future is rosy for Vivino. Investors have therefore readily plunked $155 million into the firm’s Series D funding round.
Venture Capital: B2B Parts Maker Zetwerk Reels In $120M
Zetwerk, an Indian startup, aggregates manufacturing services such as fabrication, machining, casting, and forging of machine parts and offers them to enterprises across the world. Its providers are drawn from the SME sector, while buyers are typically EPCs and OEMs. The firm raised $120 million in a Series D round led by existing investors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Greenoaks Capital. Continuing investors Sequoia Capital and Kae Capital also invested.
Venture Capital: Robotic Process Automotion Software Maker UiPath Raises $750M
UiPath, which makes software to automate business processes, announced Monday its raise of $750 million in a Series F round co-led by Alkeon Capital and Coatue. Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, IVP, Sequoia, Tiger Global, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., all existing investors, also participated.
Venture Capital: Robert Downey Jr. Launches FootPrint Coalition Ventures At WEF Digital Davos Agenda
Robert Downey Jr., producer, investor, and Iron Man star, launched FootPrint Coalition Ventures (FCV) at the World Economic Forum’s Digital Agenda on Wednesday. FCV comprises two ESG sector funds that will accelerate groundbreaking technologies to tackle the world’s largest environmental challenges.
FinTech: Brazilian Fintech Nubank Pulls In $400M At Massive $25B Valuation
Nubank, the Brazilian fintech bank that promised to serve the country’s vastly underbanked population has delivered. The bank now has 34 million customers today, and that number is more than three times its 2019 base of 12 million. After the latest G Round funding of $400 million, Nubank is valued at a solid $25 billion.