Hi, happy Monday, all! |
Top News |
Facebook is teaming up with Qualcomm to work on high-speed wireless internet. Adobe just agreed to acquire Magento Commerce from the private equity firms Permira and Hillhouse Capital for $1.68 billion. Magento, founded in 2008, powers hundreds of thousands of online stores. It was acquired by eBay in 2011 but in 2015, eBay sold off many assets, handing off Magento to Permira, which later brought in Hillhouse. (The latter invested $250 million in Magento early last year.) We’re not crystal clear yet on how much the firms had poured into Magento altogether. More on this tomorrow. |
This Top Silicon Valley Firm Just Made a Contrarian Bet with Its Newest Fund |
In Silicon Valley, venture firms with a track record of success find themselves awash in money thanks to the growing number of institutions that want to invest more of their capital in tech. In March, an SEC filing showed that General Catalyst had closed a $1.375 billion fund, the biggest vehicle in its 18-year history. Battery Ventures also closed on two funds earlier this year that are the 35-year-old firm’sbiggest to date. Sequoia Capital, meanwhile, is reportedly out raising $12 billionacross a series of funds, a move that’s unprecedented for the firm — or any U.S.-based venture firm, for that matter. Fifteen-year-old Emergence Capital could easily follow the same path. Emergence funds early stage ventures that are focused on enterprise and SaaS applications, and it does this very well. Its bets include the storage company Box (now public), the social networking company Yammer (sold for $1.2 billion to Microsoft in 2012), and Veeva Systems, the company that’s generally known for its customer relations software for the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, though envious investors recognize Veeva as the company that produced a more than 300x return for Emergence when it went public in 2013. (Emergence had invested just $6.5 million in the outfit and owned 31 percent of it going into the IPO. It was also Veeva’s sole venture backer.) Still, when it came time to raise its fifth fund, Emergence did not raise a billion-dollar fund, as it surely could have. Instead, the San Mateo, Ca., firm, which closed its fourth fund with $335 million in 2015, opted to increase the fund by 30 percent, closing its new vehicle this past Friday with $435 million. We talked the other day with firm cofounder Jason Green, who is one of four general partners, about the firm’s trajectory. Specifically, we asked why — like almost every other firm in Silicon Valley — it didn’t close its newest fund with exponentially more in capital commitments than its last fund. More here. |
New Fundings |
Bestow, a two-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based “insurtech” startup, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Valar Ventures, with participation from New Enterprise Associates, Core Innovation Capital, 8VC, and Morpheus Ventures. More here. CREXi, a three-year-old, Venice, Ca.-based commercial real estate marketplace, has raised $11 million in Series A funding from Jackson Square Ventures,Manifest Investment Partners, Lerer Hippeau, Freestyle Capital, TenOneTen Ventures and Founder Collective. TechCrunch has more here. Decent, a four-month-old, Sausalito, Ca.-based healthcare startup whose business is still largely under wraps, just raised $8 million in funding from Foundation Capital, Menlo Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Lux Capital, Maverick Ventures, Core Innovation Capital, Meridian Street Capital, Healthy Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, Abstract Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Ride Ventures, Sequoia Capital Scouts, Fenwick & West and Sure Ventures. Founder and CEO Nick Soman is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Foundation Capital, focused on blockchain-related stuff. More here. Hoop, a three-year-old, London-based online marketplace for finding and booking local children’s activities, has raised £4 million in Series A funding led by Edge Investment Partners, with participation from Business Growth Fund, an earlier backer. More here. Indee Labs, a three-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.- and Sydney, Australia-based developer of hardware for gene delivery, has raised $2.6 million in funding led by Founders Fund, with participation from Main Sequence Ventures. The startup had passed through Y Combinator last year. VentureBeat has more here. Nanit, a three-year-old, New York-based startup whose smart baby monitor uses computer vision technology, has raised $14 million in Series B funding two years after closing on $6.6 million in Series A funding. Jerusalem Venture Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Upfront Ventures, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Vaal Investment Partners. More here. OJO Labs, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based learning chatbot provider, has raised $20.5 million in Series B funding, including from LiveOak Venture Partners, Silverton Partners, Realogy Holdings Corp., Royal Bank of Canada,Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures and ServiceMaster. More here. Orbbec, a 3.5-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based motion sensing startup, has raised more than $200 million in Series D funding led by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial. Other backers include SAIF Partners, Green Pine Capital Partners, R-Z Capital and Tianlangxing Capital. China Money Network has more here. REBBL, a five-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based producer of organic coconut-milk “elixers,” has raised $20 million in funding led by CAVU Venture Partners. CNBC has more here. Selected, a two-year-old, New York-based online platform that matches teachers with jobs, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Propel Capital, with participation from Kapor Capital. More here. TheSkimm, a six-year-old, New York-based digital-media company built around a daily newsletter aimed at millennial women, has closed its $12 million Series C round after taking in some fresh checks from a group of mostly female investors, including Shonda Rhimes and Tyra Banks. Variety has more here. TradingView, a seven-year-old, New York-based social network for day traders, just closed on $37 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Jump Capital and DRW Venture Capital. More here. TuneGO, a 5.5-year-old, Henderson, Nev.-based tech platform that connects music fans with music from new artists, has raised more than $7.7 million in Series B funding led by Falcon Capital. More here. |
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New Funds |
Earlier today, at a conference taking place in Bellagio, Italy and organized by the Rockefeller Foundation, the venture firm Social Capital committed to invest in (and incubate, if need be) 10 companies that are focused on complex urban problems. The firm says it will dedicate $150 million toward the effort. More here. |
Exits |
Microsoft is acquiring Semantic Machines, a four-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based startup that wants to solve one of the biggest challenges in conversational AI: making chatbots sound more human. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed but Crunchbase shows the company had raised $20.9 million from investors that include General Catalyst and Bain Capital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here. Whisk, a U.K. startup that has built a B2B data platform to power various food apps, including making online recipes “shoppable,” has acquired Avocando, a competitor based in Germany. Terms aren’t being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here. |
People |
Former U.S. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama just struck a deal to produce films and series for Netflix. Last August, Eric Schmidt‘s Innovation Endeavors merged with the Israel-based venture capital firm Marker, and people have been churning out ever since, reportedly. According to a new write-up in Calcalist, Ziv Kop just became the third partner to leave the firm in the last eight months. Schmidt remains the main backer of Innovation Endeavors, which is currently raising a $300 million fund, says the Calcalist. Remember how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly slated to meet tomorrow with EU regulators in closed-door sessions? Well, surprise. It’s going to belive-streamed now. |
Jobs |
Maven Ventures, a seed-stage Silicon Valley-based firm whose past deals include Cruise Automation and Chariot, is looking to hire an analyst or associate onto its team. The role is based in San Francisco and Palo Alto. |
Data |
There are 143 tech billionaires in the world, and half of them live in Silicon Valley. |
Essential Reads |
Essential Reads How did Google get so big? Lyft is looking to get into the electric scooter biz, too. |
Detours |
Consumer Reports can’t recommend Tesla’s Model 3. The best way to persuade someone they are wrong. Everything you need to know about the royal wedding. And here, what went down at the reception. |
Retail Therapy |
Six accessories for keeping your sneakers out-of-the-box clean. |