Venture Pulse
Snap, the parent company of messaging app Snapchat, today disclosed that it has priced its stock at $17 per share, effectively raising $3.4 billion in its initial public offering (IPO). Snap will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol SNAP tomorrow. Snap’s underwriters are getting 30 days to buy an additional 30 million shares of the company’s Class A common stock, according to a statement. Snap first publicly filed its form S-1, kicking off the process of going public, at the beginning of February. Two weeks later, Snap set an initial price range of $14 to $16 per share and said it was aiming to sell 200 million shares, meaning it would raise between $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion. But today Snap is going slightly above its estimated range. [ Venture Beat ]
Lyft is out pitching to investors while competitor Uber surrounds itself in controversy. The Wall Street Journal first reported that they are chatting about a $500 million round. We’re hearing that they are targeting a roughly $6 billion valuation, slightly above the $5.5 billion they were valued at in their last private round. The timing makes sense given the failed sale process last year, and while its likely coincidental, it won’t hurt that Uber is in the midst of a never-ending PR nightmare. Lyft has often been branded as the underdog and the friendlier of the two companies.
[ Tech Crunch ]
A startup that wants to build a blood test to screen for cancer just raised more than $900 million.Grail was created in January of last year by the gene-sequencing giant Illumina, and it was originally funded by its former parent company and a group of Silicon Valley investorsincluding Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Google Ventures. [ Business Insider ]
Funding history :
Mar, 2017 $900M / Series B
Jan, 2016 $100M / Series A
LATEST FUNDING
Renovate America, a leading U.S. provider of home-improvement financing, announced today that it has closed a $200 million credit facility with Bank of America N.A. to support the continued expansion of the HERO Program, the nation’s largest form of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. The credit facility will provide Renovate America with enhanced liquidity and will further diversify the company’s funding profile. Renovate America now has five warehouse lenders in aggregate, up from three last year. [ PR Newswire ]
Funding history :
Feb, 2017 $200M / Debt Financing
Oct, 2015 $90M / Private Equity
Jul, 2014 $50M / Private Equity
Oct, 2012 $6M / Series C
BlueVine, a Redwood City, CA-based provider of online working capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses, secured a warehouse credit line of up to $75m. The credit line was provided by Fortress Credit Corp. and/or funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC. The company intends to use the funds to expand its line of credit financing solution Flex Credit more than four times in 2017. [ Finsmes ]
Funding history :
Feb, 2017 $75M / Debt Financing
Dec, 2016 $49M / Series D
Jan, 2016 $40M / Series C
Sep, 2015 undisclosed amount / Series B
Jan, 2015 $18.5M / Series B
Aug, 2014 $1.5M / Venture
Mar, 2014 $4M / Series A
Aug, 2013 undisclosed amount / Series A
Freenome, a two-year-old liquid biopsy diagnosis platform that detects the cell-free DNA sequencing of cancer, has raised a huge Series A round — $65 million — led by Andreessen Horowitz, which also led the company’s $5.5 million seed round less than a year ago. Other investors in the deal include GV, Polaris Partners, Innovation Endeavors, Spectrum 28, Asset Management Ventures, Charles River Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Allen and Company and earlier backers Data Collective and Founders Fund. [ Tech Crunch ]
Funding history :
Mar, 2017 $65M / Series A
Jun, 2016 $5.55M / Seed
Logistics Startup Blackbuck raised $30 Million in Series C funding from clutch of new investors. The new investors of the startup are US based investors named Capital Sands and International Financial Corp which is an arm of World Bank. The new investors have invested $10 Million in the startup. [ Indian ceo ]
Funding history :
Feb, 2017 $30M / Series C
Dec, 2015 $25M / Series B
Jul, 2015 $5M / Series A
Tours and trips are perhaps the hottest part of the travel industry right now – as evidenced by an Airbnb acquisition last year before the tech giant rolled out its own Trips service. Eric Gnock Fah has been in the space since before it was cool. When he started Klook in early 2014 with two other co-founders, the crew wanted to fill in the bits not covered by all the flight and hotel-booking sites – the actual fun part of the holiday. So they started connecting with tour and experience providers around the world, giving users an easy way to book, say, a ride on the “Sagano Romantic Train” through cherry orchards in Kyoto, or a New York helicopter ride. [ Tech In Asia ]
Funding history :
Mar, 2017 $30M / Series B
Oct, 2015 $5M / Series A
Jun, 2015 $1.5M / Seed
Scottish cybersecurity firm ZoneFox has raised £3.6 million in a Series A round led by Archangels, with participation from The Scottish Investment Bank and TriCap. The Edinburgh-based company builds security software, namely its Augmented Intelligence product, focused on insider threats in businesses in sectors like finance, health, and gaming. [ Tech.eu ]
Funding history :
Mar, 2017 €3.6M / Series A
Nov, 2015 £650k / Seed
EXITS
Yelp has acquired restaurant technology startup Nowait in an all-cash deal valued at $40 million. Founded out of Pittsburgh in 2010, Nowait integrates its technology with that of restaurants to streamline and optimize front-of-house operations, including table turnover and waiting lists. The company had raised around $22 million in funding since its inception, including a strategic $8 million investment Yelp made in the company back in August. The $40 million Yelp is paying for Nowait includes the stake it already acquired. [ Venture Beat ]
Time Inc. has asked those interested in buying the media company to turn in bids by next week. Five companies have expressed interest in acquiring all of Time Inc., but the company is also considering taking an investment from private investors and may choose not to proceed with a sale at all, according to a company official with knowledge of the potential deal who was not authorized to comment publicly. [ USA Today ]
FUND RAISED
Silverton Partners has set a $100 million goal for its fifth venture capital fund, according to a securities filing, a big new pool for local companies to tap into when searching for growth capital. It would the largest investment vehicle yet for the Austin-based VC firm and a promising sign for the local startup funding scene, which is still without a dominant player after Austin Ventures in early 2015 pulled back from early-stage funding. [ Venture Beat ]
