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The Funded: 16 VC-backed businesses raise nearly $650M in Bay Area deals by Cromwell Schubarth — Silicon Valley Business Journal

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 4, 2018| Leave a Comment »

The Funded: 16 VC-backed businesses raise nearly $650M in Bay Area deals

Menlo Park-based crowd-sourced grocery delivery business Deliv raised $40 million in a Series C funding round. Enlarge

Menlo Park-based crowd-sourced grocery delivery business Deliv raised $40 million in a Series C funding round.

Courtesy photo

By  – TechFlash Editor, Silicon Valley Business Journal

Nearly $650 million in funding was disclosed by 16 Bay Area startups at midweek, along with a pair of M&A deals and new venture funds.

Here are the details:

Funding

• Coinbase Inc., San Francisco, $300 million: This digital currency wallet and platform is now Y Combinator’s fifth most valuable alumni after getting an $8 billion post-money valuation in this round led by Tiger Global Management. It was joined by Y Combinator’s Continuity fund, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital. Read more here.

• Deliv Inc., Menlo Park, $40 million: Investors in the Series C round of this crowdsourced same-day delivery service include Google, Clayton Venture Partners, UPS, General Catalyst Partners, The Macerich Company, PivotNorth Capital, RPM Ventures and Upfront Ventures.

• Handshake, San Francisco, $40 million: EQT Ventures led the Series C funding of this career network for U.S. college students. It was joined by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Omidyar Network and Reach Capital.

• The Athletic Media Co., San Francisco, $40 million: Founders Fund and Bedrock Capital co-led the Series C funding of this digital sports media startup. They were joined by Comcast Ventures, Evolution Media Capital, Courtside Ventures, The Chernin Group, YC, Advancit, Luminari, Amasia and BDMI.

• Quid Inc., San Francisco, $37.5 million: REV Ventures led round for this provider of a platform for analyzing large volumes of text. It was joined by Julian Robertson, Henry Kravis, Lixil Group, Artis Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Founders Fund.

• AppZen Inc., San Jose, $35 million: Lightspeed Venture Partners led the Series B funding of this AI-powered expense report auditing automation startup that was featured in The Pitch four years ago. It was joined by return backers Redpoint Ventures and Resolute Ventures. (Read more here.)

• Ethos Technologies Inc., San Francisco, $35 million:  Accel Partners led the Series B funding of this life insurance company. It was joined by investors including GV (formerly Google Ventures), Sequoia Capital and Arrive.

• Concord Worldwide Inc., San Francisco, $25 million: Tenaya Capital led the Series B round of this contract management platform provider. It was joined by Alven and CRV.

• Clear Labs Inc., Menlo Park, $21 million: Menlo Ventures led the Series B2 round of this food safety testing platform provider. It was joined by Wing VC, Dentsu Ventures, Felicis Ventures and Khosla Ventures.

• HeadSpin Inc., Mountain View, $20 million: Investors in the Series B round of this mobile app performance software startup include Iconiq Capital, Battery Ventures and EQT Ventures. The round was reportedly done at a valuation of $500 million.

• Sentieo Inc., San Francisco, $19 million: Centana Growth Partners led the Series A round of this financial research platform.

• Waterline Data Inc., Mountain View, $14.5 million: Menlo Ventures led the Series C round of this provider of data cataloging solutions and applications. It was joined by investors including Jackson Square Ventures, Partech Ventures and Infosys.

• Intabio Inc., Newark, $9.5 million: Northpond Ventures led the Series A round of this analytical platform provider for the development of biotherapeutic drugs. It was joined by investors including Genoa Ventures and Vertical Venture Partners.

• ZypMedia, San Francisco, $5.6 million: Archer Venture Capital led the Series C round of this creator of a programmatic advertising platform built specifically for media companies. It was joined by investors including U.S. Venture Partners and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

• Visla Labs, San Francisco, $3 million: Lux Capital led the seed round for this radiology diagnostics platform provider.

• Aura Health Inc., San Francisco, $2.7 million: Cowboy Ventures and Reach Capital co-led the seed round of this emotional well-being app provider. 

M&A

• San Francisco-based Atlassian Corp. plc (NASDAQ:TEAM) agreed to sell Jitsi, an open-source chat and videoconferencing tool it bought in 2015, to San Jose-based 8×8 Inc. (NYSE: EGHT).

• Carbon Health, a San Francisco-based platform for ongoing care management and virtual appointments, has merged with Direct Urgent Care, a network of Northern California urgent care centers. Carbon Health raised $6.5 million from investors who include Builders VC. (Read more here.)

Funders in the news

• Palo Alto-based True Ventures raised $350 million for its sixth early stage fund and $285 million for its Select Fund.

• Larry Cook joined Omidyar Network as head of fund operations. He previously was Intel Capital’s finance director.

•  Lynne Chou-O’Keefe, who has invested in healthcare for five years at Kleiner Perkins, has raised $50 million for a new firm she is forming called Define Ventures.

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The Funded: 5 Bay Area startups raise over $100M, Google buys one from Santa Clara – by Cromwell Schubarth – Silicon Valley Business Journal

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »

The Funded: 5 Bay Area startups raise over $100M, Google buys one from Santa Clara

Santa Clara-based 3D printing startup Arevo has created a bike with its technology and raised a Series B round of funding.

Enlarge

Santa Clara-based 3D printing startup Arevo has created a bike with its technology and raised a Series B round of funding.

Courtesy photo

By  – TechFlash Editor, Silicon Valley Business Journal

Five Bay Area startups disclosed more than $100 million in funding at week’s end and Google bought another one.

Here are the details.

• Parsable Inc., San Francisco, $40 million: Future Fund led the Series C round for this provider of a digital workflow platform for deskless industrial workers. It was joined by B37 and return backers Lightspeed Venture Partners, Airbus Ventures and Aramco Ventures.

• DigiLens Inc., Sunnyvale, $25 million: Continental AG invested in the Series C round of this augmented reality display maker for autos, planes and other devices. Read more here.

• Mynd Property Management, Oakland, $20 million: Lightspeed Venture Partners led the Series B round for this property management tech startup. It was joined by return backers Canaan Partners and Jackson Square Ventures.

• Arevo, Santa Clara, $12.5 million: Asahi Glass led the Series B round for this creator of a 3D printed carbon bike. It was joined by Sumitomo, Leslie Ventures and Khosla Ventures.

• BlueCart Inc., Mountain View, $5 million: Greycroft led the Series B1 investment in this hospitality industry marketplace and sales enablement platform provider.

M&A

• Cask Data Inc., Palo Alto, undisclosed amount: Google acquired this Big Data analytics startup that had raised around $40 million from firms that included Insight Venture Partners, Ericsson Ventures, Battery Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and Ignition Partners.

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No turkeys in flock of best Bay Area venture returns of all time – By Cromwell Schubarth – TechFlash Editor, Silicon Valley Business Journal

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

No turkeys in flock of best Bay Area venture returns of all time

Here are the Bay Area companies that showed up in a recent ranking by CB Insight of the best all-time venture returns.
By  –  TechFlash Editor, Silicon Valley Business Journal

“Returning the fund” is the phrase used in the venture world for investments whose returns cover all the bets a firm made from a particular fund.

But not all bets that “return the fund” are equal. In a week when Americans gather to thank their blessings, here is a CB Insights ranking of the 10 all-time best venture returns involving Bay Area-based companies.

The returns are based on how much was invested before a company’s IPO or sale, compared to its valuation at the time of the exit.

A few deals by Bay Area investors that returned the fund but involved companies that aren’t headquartered here have been left out.

That includes Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), which provided the third biggest venture return of all-time and was backed early by Accel Partners and New Enterprise Associates. It went public six years ago at a valuation of $12.7 billion after raising about $700 million in funding.

It also includes Snapchat parent Snap Inc., which was the fifth biggest return and was backed early by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Institutional Venture Partners. It went public this year at a valuation of about $33 billion after raising about $3.4 billion in funding.

In both those cases, however, the current market caps of those companies are a lot lower than they were on their Wall Street debuts — $3.1 billion for Groupon and $14.9 billion for Snap.

Let that be a reminder that it’s OK to push away from the feast before you overindulge.

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Most tech startups exit without raising funds, sell for under $50M by Cromwell Schubarht – Silicon Valley Business Journal

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Most tech startups exit without raising funds, sell for under $50M

Billion-dollar valuations and mushrooming funding round amounts gathered much of the attention of recent years in startup-land.

But a new report shows that the majority of tech startups exit before they raise any venture or private equity funding and their valuation on exit is less than $50 million.

Only 4 percent of the companies that went public or were acquired in the first half of this year did so at a valuation of $1 billion or more, like Twilio did with its IPO. Enlarge

Only 4 percent of the companies that went public or were acquired in the first half of… more

Wilson Alexander Aguilar

Venture investment research firm CB Insights said in a report on tech exits in the first half of 2016 that 53 percent involved startups that had raised less than $50 million. Another 26 percent were valued at between $50 million and $200 million.

Only about 4 percent were acquired or went public with a unicorn valuation of $1 billion or more. These included General Motors buying Cruise Automation for $1 billion, Twilio going public with a market cap of $1.2 billion and Cisco Systems buying Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion.

Marquee acquisitions like Cruise and Jasper have increased during the tech IPO drought of the past year or so, but remain rare, Josh Elman of Greylock Partners said last week.

“That is increasing but it’s really only the strong companies that are getting acquired,” Elman said. “The acquihire market, where every team is worth something, has been falling away.”

It’s easy to see why they say that launching a successful tech startup is hard when you consider all of those numbers in the context of this rule of thumb — between 90 percent and 95 percent of them fail to achieve any sort of exit at all.

But the CB Insights report shows that it may not be necessary to do any venture visits to Sand Hill Road to sell a tech startup for millions or even tens of millions.

About 72 percent of the companies that exited in the first half did so without raising any outside venture, private equity or growth funding. That’s actually down slightly from the first half of last year when the number was 75 percent.

Cromwell Schubarth is TechFlash Editor at the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

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Verizon to go ahead with bid for Yahoo as Google mulls offer by Cromwell Schubarth – Silicon Valley Business Journal

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Silicon Valley TechFlash

Verizon to go ahead with bid for Yahoo as Google mulls offer

Cromwell Schubarth TechFlash Editor Silicon Valley Business Journal

Yahoo’s sale “book” indicates a company in a financial free fall

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As layoffs proceed, Yahoo’s head of hiring bails on CEO Marissa Mayer

Verizon Communications will reportedly make a bid to buy Yahoo’s Web business next week and Google may bid for the Sunnyvale online company’s core business.

Bloomberg cited unnamed sources on those two potential Yahoo suitors. Its sources also said that AT&T, Comcast and Microsoft have decided against bidding.

If successful in buying Yahoo, Verizon reportedly plans to oust CEO Marissa Mayer and put AOL CEO Tim Armstrong in charge. Enlarge

If successful in buying Yahoo, Verizon reportedly plans to oust CEO Marissa Mayer and put… more

Bloomberg said that Time Inc. is reportedly still evaluating a bid and private equity funds Bain and TPG — among others — are also planning to enter the action, either alone or by backing a strategic acquirer.

First-round bids for the company’s main Web assets are reportedly due on Monday.

Verizon is said to be willing to acquire the Yahoo’s stake in Yahoo Japan Corp., figured to be worth about $8.5 billion, to help sweeten its offer. It may then give the Yahoo Japan stake to its shareholders or sell it.

Another potential player is Japan’s SoftBank Group, which is the majority owner of Yahoo Japan. But discussions there have reportedly centered around Softbank wanting to get a lower licensing fee before any sale, not in buying the rest of the shares in the company.

Verizon and its subsidiary AOL are working with at least three financial advisers on its bid, Bloomberg’s sources said. The company said late last year that it was interested in bidding for Yahoo and hiring so many bankers makes it appear that it is very serious about that.

Bloomberg’s sources said that Verizon values Yahoo’s core business at less than $8 billion, based on the financial information that it’s seen.

If successful, Verizon reportedly would replace Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Marni Walden, Verizon’s executive vice president, who would run a combined Yahoo and AOL.

Re/code reported on Wednesday that a Yahoo slide deck that has been shown to potential buyers projects that its revenue will drop by almost 15 percent and earnings by more than 20 percent for 2016.

Cromwell Schubarth is TechFlash Editor at the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

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