VC Reads, 6/3/2018

Inside Venture Capital (Jun 3rd, 2018)

--VC Reads--

-- What I wish I knew about fundraising as a first-time founder: Preethi Kasireddy, founder and CEO of TruStory, gives the perspective of a founder after the pivotal seed round.

-- How to Talk About Valuation When a VC Asks: Upfront Ventures’ Mark Suster (2x founder and former Salesforce VP) lays out the pertinent metrics.

-- A Fresh Perspective on Seed Investing: SV Angel’s founder announce a plan to begin investing with their own capital.

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--Consumer Internet--

-- HelloBike (Ant Financial), bike sharing platform: $321M from Ant Financial. Was valued at $1.47B.

-- Xiaohongshu (China), social network for international shopping: $300M D led by Alibaba, participation from Tencent, GSR, GGV, Zhen, Genesis, Adrian Cheng, Tiantu. Valued at $3B.

-- Bird (Santa Monica, CA), electric scooter sharing: $150M from Sequoia Capital. Was valued at $1B.

-- Wikia (San Francisco, CA), collaborative platform for wikis: $106.4M from undisclosed sources.

-- Hello Alfred (New York, NY), in-home digital assistant for weekly shopping: $40M B from Divco West, Invesco, NEA, Spark.

-- Coffee Meets Bagel (San Francisco, CA), online dating app: $12M B led by Atami Capital, participation from GingerBread, DCM, Wi Harper, Quest.

--Fintech--

-- Chime (San Francisco, CA), mobile spending tracking/payments apps: $70M C led by Menlo Ventures, participation from Forerunner, Aspect, Cathay Innovation, Northwestern Mutual, Crosslink, Omidyar Network.

-- FlyHomes (Seattle, WA), platform to offer home sellers all-cash offers while deals are in limbo: $17M led by Andreessen Horowitz, participation from Shasta, Zulily, Mark Vadon.

-- Safened (London, UK), B2B deposit platform: $16.3M from Rudolf Broker, Finch.

-- Nova Credit (San Francisco, CA), credit score platform for immigrants: $16M A from General Catalyst, et al.

--Biotech/Health--

-- Cortexyme (San Francisco, CA), Alzheimer’s/degenerative disease treatment: $76M B from Sequoia, Vulcan, Verily Life Sciences, EPIQ, RSL, Huizenga, Pfizer, Takeda, Lamond Family, Breakout, Dolby Family.

-- Camp4 (Cambridge, MA), treatment approach discovery platform: $30M A led by Andreessen Horowitz, participation from Polaris, The Kraft Group.

-- Modern Fertility (San Francisco, CA), women's health platform: $6M Seed led by Maveron, Union Square Ventures, participation from Sound Ventures, SV Angel, #Angels, et al.

--Enterprise--

-- Honest Buildings (New York, NY), real estate project management platform: $30M B from First Capital Realty, Brookfield Property, Oxford Properties, Durst Organization, DivcoWest, Rudin, C-III, QuadReal, Altus Group, Thrive, Navitas, Greensoil Building, Bienville Capital, Riverpark, Westly Group, Rockport, Circle.

-- Ridecell (San Francisco, CA), platform for ride-hailing, rental cars, shuttle services, et al.: $28.6M B led by Cox Automotive, participation from Initialized, DENSO, Penske, Deutsche Bahn, Mitsui.

-- Blackwood Seven (Copenhagen, Denmark), media planning platform: $19.6M from Jolt, Vækstfonden, Sunstone, Conor.

-- WhereTo (San Francisco, CA), corporate travel platform: $8M A from Emergence Capital.

-- Neighborhood Goods (Dallas, TX), location geared towards attracting customers for retailers through speaker series, bars, etc.: $5.75M Seed led by Forerunner Ventures, participation from Maveron, CAA, Global Founders, NextGen, Rise of the Rest, Michael Dubin, Alan P. Shor.

-- Pingboard (Austin, TX), live organization chart software: $5M Seed led by Active Capital, participation from Bill Boebel, Silverton, Capital Factory.

-- Bext360 (Denver, CO), supply chain streamlining platform for young companies: $2.15M Seed led by SKS Ventures, participation from Plug and Play, et al.

--Lifestyle--

-- Today (Wuhan, China), convenience store operator: $46.7M B+ led by General Atlantic.

-- ecobee (Toronto, Canada), smart thermostat: $36M C from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, AGL Energy, Business Development Bank of Canada.

-- Aiwa (Chicago, IL), speakers: $2.7M led by Fairlane Funds, Dormitus Ventures.

--Blockchain--

-- Paxos (New York, NY), blockchain-based settlement platform: $65M B from Liberty City, RRE, Jay Jordan, et al.

-- imToken (Hangzhou, China), blockchain-based digital wallet: $10M A led by IDG Capital.

--Cybersecurity--

-- Virtu (Washington, DC), end-to-end data encryption: $37.5M B led by Iconiq Capital, participation from Bessemer, NEA, Samsung NEXT, Blue Delta, Thyra Global, Soros.

-- CyberInt (Tel Aviv, Israel), cyber detection and response services: $18M led by Viola Growth.

--Industrial--

-- Protean Electric (China), in-wheel driving tech for hybrid/electric vehicles: $40M E led by Weifu High-Technology, Oak Investment Partners.

-- Voltaiq (Berkeley, CA), battery data management/development platform: $6.6M A led by Anzu Partners, participation from Bee, SJF, UL.

-- Emagispace (Colorado Springs, CO), sustainable building block technology: $5M B led by Alpha Edison.

--Edtech--

-- Trilogy Education (New York, NY), digital workforce training platform for universities: $50M B led by Highland Capital Partners, Macquarie Capital, and Exceed Capital, participation from Rethink Impact, City Light, Triumph.

--AI/Machine Learning--

-- Kneron (San Diego, CA), edge device-based AI computing for various uses: $18M A1 led by Horizons Ventures.

--Dev--

-- Cast (New York, NY), software intelligence platform: $12M from DevFactory, CM-CIC, Keren Finance, Boston Consulting.

-- Weights & Biases (San Francisco, CA), machine learning model debugging/visualization platform: $5M A led by Trinity Ventures, Bloomberg Beta.

--Agtech--

-- Stellapps (Bangalore, India), technology platform for dairy farmers: $14M B led by IndusAge Partners, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Qualcomm Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures, participation from Omnivore, Blume, Venture Highway, BEENEXT.

--VC Refresher-- This week saw the announcement of a new investment from SoftBank’s massive tech Vision Fund into a self-driving ope

This week's funding came in at $4,013,390,000, topping the last year's average by $1.2B and its median by $1.35B. The month of May's total funding came in at $15,133,175,000.

--M&A/IPO/New Funds-- --M&A-- -- Lyft acquires bike-share startup Motivate, $250M. -- Mobile gaming company Zynga acqu