Informatica would like you to know that it is not for sale and rumors of a possible Salesforce acquisition are unfounded. TechCrunch has more here.
TikTok is gearing up for a long legal fight if Congress bans its app, according to an internal memo obtained by The Information.
|
|
|
|
The Ultimate Hub for Portfolio Intelligence- unveiled! PortfolioIQ from Synaptic automates the collection & structuring of your portfolio company updates. We conduct meticulous standardization to deliver highly granular data and comparable metrics, helping you run targeted searches and get rich insights into portfolio performance!Using our platform, teams can also update metrics and push them to multiple investors at once- all in a matter of minutes!Ready to experience the change? Get your early access here>
|
|
|
|
Rippling’s Parker Conrad on the Company’s New Round, New SF Lease and, Also, Its Newest Critic |
|
|
|
Last week, TechCrunch broke the news that the workforce management software outfit Rippling was on the cusp of closing a new, $200 million round of funding at a hefty $13.4 billion valuation led by Coatue. We also reported that the round featured a separate, $670 million secondary component meant to give some of the company’s investors a bigger bite of the company, while letting Rippling’s employees — some of whom joined at the outset in 2016 — cash out some of their shares.
Rippling declined to comment at the time, but in an interview Friday afternoon, founder Parker Conrad confirmed our information, adding that the secondary component is actually a $590 million tender, with $200 million available for employees and $390 million available for seed and other investors.
The round, Rippling’s Series F, is also almost entirely an inside round. Coatue is an earlier investor in Rippling, along with other backers in this round that have been investing all along, including Founders Fund and Greenoaks. The only new member on the cap table is Dragoneer, a growth-stage investment firm in San Francisco.
Of course, we were interested in much more than Rippling’s new fundraise, so while we had Conrad on the phone, we talked turnover. We discussed the company’s new office lease in San Francisco (right now, it’s the second-biggest lease to be signed this year in the city). Conrad also shared why Rippling is relatively “free” of AI. Later this week, you can hear that full conversation in podcast form; for now, excerpts of that conversation follow, edited for length.
More here.
|
|
|
|
Wiz, a four-year-old New York startup that helps businesses identify security risks in their cloud environments, is apparently selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of secondary shares in transactions that value the company at significantly more than the $10 billion valuation it received in its $300 million Series D last year. The company has raised a total of $900+ million from investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital Partners, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Blackstone, and G Squared. CTech has more here.
|
|
|
|
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
|
|
|
Nominal, a two-year-old stealth startup whose platform is designed to streamline data monitoring, analysis, and visualization for startups that are developing hardware like drones, satellites, and nuclear reactors, has raised $27 million from Lux Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund. Bloomberg has more here.
Payflows, a two-year-old Paris startup that provides a financial management platform designed to simplify and automate finance and procurement operations for companies, raised a $26.6 million Series A round led by Balderton Capital, with previous investors Headline, Ribbit Capital, and 20VC also participating. Silicon Canals has more here.
Pomelo, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that allows immigrants in the U.S. to send money abroad with the option of extending credit, which can then be repaid later, raised a $35 million Series A round. Vy Capital led the financing, with Founders Fund, A* Capital, and previous investor Afore Capital also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $55 million in equity. TechCrunch has more here.
Rubedo Life Sciences, a six-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, CA, that develops therapies targeting senescent cells, which are linked to age-related diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative conditions, raised a $40 million Series A round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Ahern Innovation Capital. Other participants in the round: Hevolution, R42, Modi Ventures, Cerigo Investments, Shanda Group, Refactor Capital, LongeVC, and Italian Angels for Growth. More here.
Smart Reporting, a ten-year-old Munich company whose software helps healthcare professionals quickly create detailed medical reports using structured data and voice recognition, raised a $24.5 million Series C round led by TVM Capital Life Science, with Bayern Kapital and previous investors Yabeo Capital also taking part. EU-Startups has more here.
Zefir, a four-year-old Paris startup whose mission is to facilitate quicker property sales by creating a network of real estate agents who share their buyer contacts, raised an $11.7 million round from Zigg Capital as well as previous investors Sequoia Capital, Heartcore, Stride, and Third Kind Venture. Tech.eu has more here.
|
|
|
|
Accacia, a two-year-old startup that provides a platform that helps real estate and infrastructure sectors measure and manage their carbon emissions, raised a $6.5 million pre-Series A round led by Illuminate Financial, with AC Ventures as well as previous investors Accel, and B Capital also contributing. More here.
Auxa Health, a two-year-old New York startup that uses AI to help healthcare organizations connect individuals to various health and social care benefits, raised a $5.2 million seed round led by Zeal Capital Partners, with K50 Ventures, Laconia Capital Group, and Chaac Ventures as well as previous investor AlleyCorp also pitching in. More here.
BettrData, a five-year-old startup based in Golden, CO, that has built a platform to manage data workflows, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Range Ventures and including SaaS Ventures and Greater Colorado Venture Fund. More here.
Clarity Pediatrics, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that provides pediatric chronic care for patients with ADHD, raised a $10 million seed round led by Rethink Impact, with additional funds provided by Homebrew and Maverick Ventures as well as January Ventures, Vamos Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Citylight VC. TechCrunch has more here.
General Galactic, a one-year-old startup based in El Segundo, CA, that aims to capture carbon dioxide from the air, produce hydrogen from water and combine the two to form methane, all using renewable power, says it raised a $1.9 million pre-seed round in July 2023 from a syndicate that included Box Group and Refactor. TechCrunch has more here.
Pascal, a three-year-old startup based in Broomfield, CO, that produces lab-grown diamonds, raised nearly $10 million last year, $2.5 million of which came from Andreessen Horowitz, says TechCrunch, which has more here.
VulnCheck, a three-year-old Boston startup that provides intelligence on potential cyber threats and vulnerabilities to help companies prevent attacks, raised a $4.75 million seed extension from Sorenson Capital. More here.
|
|
|
|
Are you an angel investor looking to level up your process? Pipeline.io is built for you. Keep your deal info and investment tools in one place, with templates, workflows and automations to empower data-driven investing. Manage intros to portfolio companies, build watch lists, and conduct retrospectives. Book a demo to learn more.
|
|
|
|
TLcom Capital, a VC firm with offices in Lagos and Nairobi, closed a second fund of $154 million to invest in seed and Series A deals in areas such as fintech, mobility, agriculture, healthcare, education, and commerce. TechCrunch has more here.
|
|
|
|
This past December, Apple purchased an eight-year-old French AI startup called Datakalab that focuses on data compression and image analysis. Datakalab's technology has been used by the French government to monitor social distancing and by entertainment companies to measure how audiences react to films. Fast Company has more here.
TabaPay, a seven-year-old Mountain View, CA, startup backed by SoftBank that enables businesses to make instant payments, is buying the bankruptcy assets of Synapse, a ten-year-old startup funded by Andreessen Horowitz and based in Sunnyvale, CA, that provides embedded finance tools for banks and fintechs. TechCrunch has more here.
Goldman Sachs is closing down its automated-investing business for the masses after clinching a deal with Betterment.The bank has struck an agreement to transfer clients and their assets from the unit known as Marcus Invest to Betterment, a $45 billion digital investment-advisory firm. The transfer is expected to be completed by the end of this quarter. Bloomberg has the story here.
|
|
|
|
In exchange for a waiver of civil liability, FTX cofounder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to cooperate with investors who are suing defendants associated with FTX's demise, including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, and Larry David, who promoted the company in ads and in interviews.
Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, the $30 billion social media company, was on the verge of relocating his company to downtown San Francisco a decade ago when an attempted mugging changed his mind, he said last week.
|
|
|
|
How investors are using special purpose vehicles to buy stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic. ("Demand for AI stock has risen so much that some fund managers have launched SPVs to invest in other SPVs that bought stakes in leading startups," asserts The Information.)
Russia has sentenced a Meta spokesperson to six years in prison for justifying terrorism.
Has the world already moved on from the Apple Vision Pro?
A new paper details how generative AI can create blueprints for microscopic biological mechanisms that can edit your DNA and help your body fight illness and disease.
A message from the director of My Octopus Teacher on the occasion of Earth Day.
|
|
|
|
Doing Disney in a day.
A school music class reimagines Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" on the xylophone.
The host of Chef Reactions reviews chicken breasts prepared with Coca-Cola, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce and likens it to a capsized oil tanker.
|
|
|
|
A mansion complete with a 110-acre vineyard in one of Sonoma's top wine regions can be yours for $11.9 million.
|
|
|
|
|