A WILD RIDE
Reports surfaced yesterday that Bird is raising even more capital. This time, the electric scooter company is looking at $200 million in venture funding at a $2 billion valuation. (Yes, this comes only two weeks after media reported on its $150 million round at $1 billion.)
If you’re getting confused as to who’s buying, who’s investing, who’s raising, and who’s getting in trouble with the city of San Francisco, welcome to the club. I wrote a story on all the e-scooter companies just three weeks ago, which is now wildly outdated. You know things are getting out of control when companies are raising money faster than you can hit the “publish” button.
Here’s an organized list so we don’t all go crazy:
• Two months ago, Bird raised $100 million in Series B funding at a $300 million valuation.
• Two weeks ago, Bird began raising $150 million at a $1 billion valuation. Sequoia Capital signed on as the lead investor.
• Bird is now raising an additional $200 million in funding at a reported $2 billion valuation. It is unclear who will lead this tranche.
• Bird plans to focus on global expansion, and The Information reports that it’s setting up an office in China.
• Lime, which is Bird’s closest rival, has raised a total of $132 million, but it’s reportedly in the middle of raising up to $500 million in new funding. Its backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Fifth Wall Ventures, and GGV Capital.
• Skip, a much smaller e-scooter player, is reportedly raising $25 million in Series A funding at a $100 million post-money valuation. Investors include Menlo Ventures, Accel, and Y Combinator.
• Uber recently acquired dockless e-bike service Jump Bikes (formerly known as Social Bicycles) for a reported amount of $200 million. The company had only raised little more than $11 million in venture funding from investors including Menlo Ventures, SOSV, and SineWave Ventures.
• Lyft is nearing a deal to buy bike-share company Motivate for at least $250 million, but now Uber is trying to swoop in and break up the deal.
One thing to note: See how everyone’s starting to invest in everything? Accel is backing both Bird and Skip, and Menlo is behind both Jump and Skip. Looks like a page out of Softbank’s playbook — who cares who wins the race if you’ve bet on the entire ecosystem?
A BILLION-DOLLAR DEAL: Toyota has agreed to invest $1 billion in Southeast Asia ride-hailing company Grab. A person familiar with the deal tells me that Grab is now valued at a little more than $10 billion post-money.
Like the e-scooter wars, the ride-hailing wars are just as tangled and confusing. General Motors has backed Lyft, while Toyota is an investor in Uber. More recently, Japanese tech giant SoftBank agreed to invest $2.25 billion in GM’s self-driving car unit Cruise. SoftBank is an investor in both Uber and Grab.
Toyota and Grab aim to “strengthen and expand their existing collaboration in the area of connected cars,” according to a statement by the companies.
In other words, traditional automakers are increasingly betting on the businesses that threaten to disrupt the old model of vehicle ownership. Toyota’s investment is the largest ever by a carmaker into a ride-hailing firm. Read more at Coins2Day.
CHANGE THE WORLD: Telling the stories of companies and business leaders that do well by doing good—that address social problems as part of their profit-making activity—is a central part of Coins2Day’s editorial mission. Later this summer, we’ll feature more than 50 such companies in our 4th annual Change The World list, with extensive coverage in our September 1 magazine issue and online. To learn more about the list, and to nominate your company or a company you admire, visit our Change The World information page.
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• Merrill Lynch to Pay $15.7 Million for Duping Mortgage Bond Customers
• How Big Tech Is Dealing with the Big Backlash (by Adam Lashinsky)
VENTURE DEALS
• Opendoor, a San Francisco-based online real estate marketplace, raised $325 million in Series E funding. General Atlantic, Access Technology Ventures, and Lennar Corporation led the round, and were joined by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, 10100 Fund, Invitation Homes, Norwest Venture Partners, Lakestar, GGV Capital, NEA, and Khosla Ventures.
• Breather, a Canada-based flexible workspace provider , raised C$60 million ($46 million) in funding, bringing the total to about C$150 million ($115 million). Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Temasek led the round, and were joined by investors including Ascendas-Singbridge.
• KRY, a Sweden-based digital healthcare provider, raised $66 million in Series B funding. Index Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Accel, Creandum and Project A.
• Back Market, a France-based provider of refurbished electronic products and appliances, raised $48 million. Investors include Groupe Arnault, Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures and Daphni.
• YugaByte, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based creator of a transactional database for globally distributed applications, raised $16 million in funding. Dell Technologies Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round.
• Andrew Alliance S.A., a Switzerland-based robotics company, raised $14 million in funding. Investors include Tecan Group, the Waters Corporation, Inpeco, Rancilio Cube, Sam Eletr Trust and Omega Funds.
• LevaData, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based cost management software solution, raised $12 million in Series B funding. Tola Capital led the round.
• Tropic Biosciences, a developer of new plant varieties in the tropical agriculture industry using CRISPR gene editing, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Pontifax AgTech led the round, and was joined by investors including Five Seasons Ventures, Tekfen Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Bits x Bites, and Midven-RSF.
• Paradromics, a San Jose, Calif.- based company developing brain machine interfacing technology for neuro disorders, raised $7 million in seed funding. Arkitekt Ventures and Synergy Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including It-Farm, Dolby Ventures, Alpha Edison, Loup Ventures, and Fusion Fund.
• The UCAN Company, a Woodbridge, Conn.-based maker of nutrition products, raised $5.75 million in funding.Eighteen94 capital led the round, and was joined by investors including S2G Ventures.
• NYIAX, a New York-based advertising contract, raised $5.6 million in seed funding. WestPark Capital led the round.
• Mapfit, a New York-based map platform, raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Investors include Cavalry Ventures, Weihua Yan, Roderick Thompson, Auren Hoffman, Daniel Waterhouse, Jeroen Seghers, Matias de Tezanos, and Joost de Valk.
• Metaboards, a UK-based metamaterial technology start-up, raised $5 million in funding. Oxford Sciences Innovation led the round, and was joined by investors including RT Capital Management Inc and Woodford Investment Management Ltd.
• HUNGRY, a Washington D.C.-based online marketplace that connects independent chefs with the lucrative office catering market, raised $1.5 million in seed funding. The investors were not named.
HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES DEALS
• Juvenescence, a Virgin, Utah-based developer of therapies for ageing and age-related diseases, raised $50 million in Series A funding. The investors in this round were not named.
• Broncus Medical Inc, a San Jose, California and Shanghai-based developer of diagnostic and therapeutic technology for lung disease, raised $15 million in Series A funding. The investor was Intuitive Surgical.
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
• Ironwood Capital made an investment in Bush Industries, a Jamestown, N.Y-based maker of “ready to assemble” and fully assembled commercial and home office furniture. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
• Main Post Partners invested in Nulo Pet Food, an Austin-based pet food brand. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
IPOs
• Adyen, a Dutch fintech firm, priced its IPO at the top end of its range, valuing the firm at 7.1 billion euros ($8.4 billion). General Atlantic, Index Ventures, and Iconiq Capital back the firm. It plans to list on the Euronext Amsterdam as “ADYEN.” Read more.
• Bloom Energy Corp., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based power cell maker, filed for a $100 million IPO. The firm posted revenue of $376 million in 2017. Alberta Investment Management Corp. (7.5% pre-offering), Advanced Equities Financial Corp. (6.6%), Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (15.9%), Kuwait Investment Authority (10.7%), and New Enterprise Associates (8.8%) back the firm. J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are underwriters in the deal. It plans to list on the NYSE as “BE.” Read more.
• Revolve, the Los Angeles-based online clothing retailer, is gearing up for an IPO in late 2018, the Wall Street Journal reports citing sources. The IPO would value Revolve at upward of $1 billion. Read more.
EXITS
• Renovo Capital acquired Rochester Gauges LLC, a Dallas-based maker of gauges and sensors that measure liquid levels. The seller was Gas Equipment Company Inc. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
FIRMS + FUNDS
• LLR Partners, a Philadelphia-based private equity firm, raised $1.2 billion for Equity Partners V.
• Leerink Revelation Partners, an investment partnership formed between Leerink Capital Partners and Revelation Partners, raised $227 million for its second fund, Leerink Revelation Healthcare Fund II.
• Alta Partners, a San Francisco-based healthcare-focused venture firm, raised $130 million for its new fund, Alta Partners NextGen Fund I LP.
• Romulus Capital, a Boston, Mass.-based venture capital firm, raised more than $83 million for its third fund.
PEOPLE
• Delta-v Capital promoted Dan Williams to partner and Colin Barclay to principal.
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Polina Marinova produces Term Sheet, and Lucinda Shen compiles the IPO news. Send deal announcements to Polina here and IPO news to Lucinda here.
