| Hi, happy Monday, all. Hope yours has been less hectic than ours.:) |
| Top News |
| Donald Trump spoke on behalf of Russia today at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, undoubtedly stunning millions around the world as he called Putin a “good competitor” and accusing U.S. institutions of “foolishness.” Among many jaw-dropping moments during the televised event: Putin offered to have Russian intelligence agencies work with their American counterparts on the U.S. election meddling case. Trump called this “an incredible offer,” as everyone who has ever worked on behalf of U.S. intelligence spat out their morning coffee (we presume). Said Republican former press secretary Ari Fleischer to Bloomberg: “I continue to believe there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. But when Trump so easily and naively accepts Putin’s line about not being involved” in interfering with the last U.S. presidential election, “I can understand why Ds think Putin must have the goods on him.” |
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| New Fundings |
| 7Net, a five-year-old, China-based online exam grading service, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Sinovation Ventures, with participation from Wanrong Capital, Shanghai SIIC Fund Management, the Chinese education company Gaosi Education and Chinese game developer ELEX. China Money Network has more here. A-lign, a nine-year-old, Tampa, Fla.-based company that helps its corporate customers navigate their specific audit and security assessment needs, just raised $54.5 million from FTV Capital. More here. Eatigo, a five-year-old, Bangkok, Thailand-based restaurant booking startup, has raised around $10 million from TripAdvisor, says TechCrunch. More here. Fastly, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that operates a content delivery network to speed up web requests, has raised $40 million in Series F funding led by Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, with participation from Sozo Ventures, Swisscom Ventures, and existing investors. TechCrunch has more here. Greensill Capital, a seven-year-old, London-based provider of working capital for supply chain finance, has raised $250 million from General Atlantic in its first round of institutional financing. Private Equity News has more here. Kapwing, a year-old, San Francisco-based online video creation and editing platform, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Shasta Ventures, Sinai Ventures, Village Global, Shrug Capital, and ZhenFund. More here. Klang, a five-year-old, Berlin-based games studio that’s building a massive multiplayer online simulation called “Seed,” has raised $8.95 million in Series A funding. Northzone led the round, which brings the company’s funding to just less than $14 million. TechCrunch has more here. Pliant Therapeutics, a two-year-old, South Fran Francisco-based biotech startup that’s focused on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, has raised $62 million in Series B funding led by Cowen Healthcare Investments. Other in the round include Eventide Asset Management, Schroder Adveq, Menlo Ventures,SCubed Capital and Agent Capital. More here. PPRO, a 12-year-old, London-based business that is focused on cross-border payments for merchants, has raised $50 million in fresh funding led by PayPal, with participation from Citi Ventures and previous backer HPE Growth Capital. TechCrunch has more here. Toka, a months-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity startup cofounded by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, has raised $12.5 million in seed funding. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Dell EMC (through its venture capital arm Dell Technologies Capital), Israel-based Entrée Capital and New Haven, Ct.-based LaunchCapital. Calcalist has more here. Unacademy, a 7.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based outfit that produces educational videos in a wide variety of languages, has raised $21 million in Series C funding from Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. Unacademy has raised $38.6 million altogether. Financial Express has more here. Undo, a 13-year-old, U.K.-based maker of debugging tools, has raised $14 million in Series B finding led by Cambridge Innovation Capital, a Cambridge, UK-based builder of tech and healthcare companies. TechCrunch has more here. |
| New Funds |
| A Singaporean fund management firm and a Korean company are launching a $120 million venture fund for Southeast Asian tech companies. The fund, called the GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund, will reportedly invest in Series A- and Series B-stage start-ups with a “small proportion” reserved for South Korean companies looking to expand into the region via Singapore. Its average investment will be between $2 million and $5 million, says The Straits Times. More here. |
| Exits |
| Gett, a ride-hailing app that competes with Uber, is weighing an exit from the U.S. just over a year after spending $200 million to enter the market by acquiring Juno, a New York-based startup it acquired in April 2017 and now may sell. Read-it-later and bookmarking service Instapaper announced today that it will once again be an independent operation. Instapaper was mostly recently owned by social network Pinterest after an acquisition two years ago. Salesforce says it has signed an agreement to acquire Datorama, an Israeli cloud-based artificial intelligence marketing platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Israeli media reports it was worth more than $800 million. Reuters has more here. |
| People |
| Hosein Khajeh-Hosseiny is stepping down from his role as CEO and managing general partner of the venture and private equity firm Northgate Capital, he tells Axios. He plan to instead form and run a new tech consulting and early-stage investment firm called Open X Innovations. Goldman Sachs is expected to name its president, David Solomon, as its next CEOearly this week, says the New York Times. |
| Essential Reads |
| Uber is the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stemming from a complaint about gender inequity, according to the WSJ, which reports that the EEOC has been interviewing former and current Uber employees as part of its probe. On the heels of Lyft’s acquisition of bike-share company Motivate, the company is gearing up to fully integrate bicycle and scooter sharing into its app, it says. TechCrunch has more here. A handful of investors in Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital tell Bloomberg they will not support the venture firm’s next fund, following a string of departures. A third investor tells the outlet, “I don’t think there will be a next fund.” CRISPR might cause more unintended DNA damage than we thought. |
| Detours |
| The wildest Wimbledon in recent memory. What your favorite ’80s band says about you. |
| Retail Therapy |
| The Bell Bullitt Helmet, when you like to keep it simple. Also, Amazon Prime Day officially kicked off as of noon PST. Happy shopping if you can get the site to work for you. |