What Goes Up, Must Come Down

Investors Feel the Force of Fiscal Gravity

It was inevitable.

The bubbly era that followed the pandemic panic may have ended in late March.

Deliveroo had a disastrous initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. Intermedia Cloud Communications of Sunnyvale, Calif., postponed its IPO, as did New York-based Kaltura. Compass, the real estate platform, decreased the number of shares in its IPO, from 35 million shares to 25 million, raising $450 million. Near the end of this month, Fortegra of Jacksonville, Fla., withdrew its IPO, without any explanation. The company had set IPO terms at 8.3 million shares, priced at $15 to $17 per share, which would have raised $132.8 million at the midpoint pricing.

The investor jitters at the end of March put a crimp in IPO filings by special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), which had filed for about 175 offerings last month. That has dwindled to 26 this month.

Has peak SPAC come and gone? Perhaps. There still seems to be a very active market in reverse mergers, where private companies merge with a publicly held entity, and then that entity takes on the brand, business, identity, and products/services of the former privately held company. If reverse mergers remain a hot topic, they could revive SPAC acquisitions and activity.

Sidley Austin, a Chicago-based law firm with offices around the world, recently reported that 69% of private equity firms expect to be engaged in SPAC-related transactions in the coming 12 months.

“I don’t think it’s going to change the playbook” for private equity firms, Patrick Galley, CEO and CIO of RiverNorth Capital Management, a Chicago-based investment firm, told Crunchbase. “I think it’s just another arrow in their quiver.”

SPACs have been quite active in making deals with startups involved in autonomous vehicle technology (LiDAR devices in particular), electric vehicles, and cleantech/greentech firms. What other fields will SPACs enter? Cybersecurity software and services, quantum computing, and fintech are some possible business opportunities, this analysis notes.

While the equity markets are currently going through some trials and tribulations, private equity and venture capital funding remains quite vigorous. The PE/VC crowd is easily taking in fresh capital, and new firms/funds are popping up in a number of places. Corporate venture capital funds are seeing a robust renaissance. There is the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund ($250 million for digitizing startups in India), TDK Ventures formed a second fund with $150 million to invest, CVS Health started a $100 million investment fund focusing on early-stage health-care companies, and Zoom Video Communications launched a $100 million strategic venture capital fund. New firms in the game include Animal Capital, Banana Capital, BaseLayer Ventures, Crosspoint Capital Partners, Cusp Capital Partners, Decarbonization Partners (a fund backed by BlackRock and Temasek), Dorilton Ventures, Footwork, Generation Food Rural Partners (a Big Idea Ventures fund), Pale Blue Dot, Stellation Capital, and Volo Earth Ventures.

Diversity Efforts

Change is slow in startups and venture capital for people of color. There are some advances in recent times. New York-based Harlem Capital Partners, established more than five years ago, is an early-stage venture firm investing in post-revenue, tech-enabled startups, focusing on minority and female founders. The company has made 24 investments, according to Crunchbase. Harlem Capital this spring closed its oversubscribed second fund. The firm originally set a target of raising $100 million, then aimed at an initial cap of $125 million, and ultimately took in $134 million from 14 world-class institutions, four global corporations, and six family offices as limited partners in Harlem Capital Partners Venture Fund II. Harlem Capital just led $3 million in seed funding for PreShow Interactive, a gaming application.

Another early-stage venture firm is Detroit-based Fontinalis Partners, founded in 2009. Operating in Motown, the firm has focused on mobility technology and has made 75 investments in its history. William Clay Ford, Jr., known as Bill Ford, the executive chairman of Ford Motor, established by his great-grandfather, is a co-founder of Fontinalis. The firm’s investments have included Gatik, Helm.ai, and Robust.AI. More recently, the firm participated in seed funding for Loop Insurance and Unfolded.ai, which offers a geospatial data analytics platform. Fontinalis maintains an office in Boston, a hotspot for startups in biotech, software, and other high-tech areas. It has raised a total of $260 million in a dozen years. Modest, compared with firms on either coast of the U.S., yet it stands out in the Midwest.

Robbie Robinson, a financial adviser to former President Barack Obama, established Pendulum Holdings, a venture capital firm, in 2019, Recode reports. The VC firm is reportedly raising up to $250 million for two funds, which will invest in startups with Black founders, to address the low level of venture funding traditionally going to such startups. President Obama is not an investor in those funds.

This article provides guidance to Black entrepreneurs on how they can start their own companies and get investments from reputable sources.

Sindhya Valloppilil and Chip Hazard also offer advice to potential founders in this analysis.

Leslie Feinzaig, CEO of the Female Founders Alliance, has suggestions that venture capital firms should follow to make their investments more diverse. She is a founder, a board member, and an investor.

Initial Public Offerings

A quick digest of IPOs, aside from SPACs, of which there were few.

Applovin raised $2 billion in its IPO.

TuSimple Holdings raised $1.4 billion in its IPO.

UiPath raised $1.34 billion in its IPO.

Agilon Health raised $1.1 billion in its IPO.

Endeavor raised $511 million in its IPO.

Zymergen raised $500 million in its IPO.

Aveanna Healthcare raised $459 million in its IPO.

Compass raised $450 million in its IPO.

Privia Health Group raised $449 million in its IPO.

GPS raised $422 million in its IPO.

Latham Group raised $380 million in its IPO.

Agiliti raised $368 million in its IPO.

DoubleVerify raised $360 million in its IPO.

MDA raised C$400 million (about $325 million) in its IPO.

Treace Medical Concepts raised $191 million in its IPO.

Alkami Technology raised $180 million in its IPO.

KnowBe4 raised $152 million in its IPO.

Smart Share Global raised $150 million in its IPO.

Rain Therapeutics raised $125 million in its IPO.

Werewolf Therapeutics raised $120 million in its IPO.

Vaccitech raised $111 million in its IPO.

NeuroPace raised $102 million in its IPO.

SkyWater Technology raised $97 million in its IPO.

Impel NeuroPharma raised $80 million in its IPO.

Karat Packaging raised $63 million in its IPO.

Segezha completed an IPO in Moscow.

Coinbase Global completed its direct listing.

Reverse Mergers

While SPACtion in general cooled off this month, the largest reverse merger ever announced was revealed in April. Singapore-based Grab, which has raised more than $12 billion in private funding, according to Crunchbase, has agreed to go public through a merger with publicly held Altimeter Growth Corp. (Nasdaq: ACG), a SPAC. Grab would get a pro forma valuation of nearly $40 billion in the transaction, which involves a public investment in private equity (PIPE) of more than $4 billion, provided by Fidelity Management & Research, BlackRock, Counterpoint Global, T. Rowe Price, Mubadala, Nuveen Investments, Permodalan Nasional Berhad, and Temasek.

Who else has announced or completed a reverse merger this month? They include Sarcos Robotics, Topps (yes, the baseball card company), Enjoy Technology (I do!), Better Therapeutics, LumiraDX (which chose a reverse merger over an IPO), Cellebrite, Sonder, Glass House Group, Signa Sports, Traveloka, Babylon (a London-based digital health application), Tango Therapeutics, Vicarious Surgical, Composecure, SmartRent, Vivid Seats (online ticketing company), Shapeways, Inspirato (Denver-based luxury vacation club company), and Plus.

Mega-Rounds

There were more than 115 mega-rounds that were made public this month. There may be even more. Who knows? Some startups stay in stealth mode for months and even years. Why give away the game?

One of the biggest fundings in April, almost $10 billion, was achieved by publicly held Meituan (HK: 3690), a Chinese delivery and ride-hailing services company that is competing with Alibaba Group, a very big enterprise, which invests in startups. Turkey’s Trendyol, an e-commerce startup funded by Alibaba, is seeking to raise $1 billion in new funding at a valuation of $15 billion.

Cruise, which is largely owned by General Motors, took in $750 million from Walmart, increasing its most recent funding round to $2.75 billion. Microsoft led a $2 billion round for Cruise in January.

Alpha Exploration, the company behind the popular Clubhouse social media application unveiled a year ago, just raised another round of funding, certainly a mega-round, although the amount was not disclosed. The Series C round is said to have a post-money valuation of $4 billion. Andreessen Horowitz led the new round, joined by DST Global, Tiger Global Management, and entrepreneur/investor Elad Gil. Separately, Twitter reportedly had talks with the goal of acquiring Clubhouse; no deal was made.

SoftBank Group Corp. spent $2.8 billion to acquire a 40% equity stake in AutoStore, a Norwegian developer of warehouse automation systems. The investment values the company at $7.7 billion. AutoStore was founded in 1997.

Endeavor, the owner of the William Morris talent agency and the UFC, got a private placement of $1.8 billion, while also going public at the same time.

Publicly held Invitae (Nasdaq: NVTA) got a $1.15 billion convertible note investment led by SoftBank. The San Francisco-based medical genetics company turned around to acquire Genosity of Iselin, N.J., for $200 million in cash and stock. The New Jersey biotech company offers laboratory sequencing technology.

Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, raised $1 billion in new funding, including $200 million from Sony. The latest round values Epic at $28.7 billion. Also investing were Appaloosa Management, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, GIC, T. Rowe Price, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, BlackRock, Park West, KKR, AllianceBernstein, Altimeter Capital Management, Franklin Templeton, and Luxor Capital. Epic Games has raised a total of $4.4 billion in private funding, per Crunchbase. It was established in 1991.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Regulators in the United Kingdom are evaluating Nvidia’s proposed $40 billion acquisition of Arm Limited, which is currently owned by SoftBank Group Corp., to see if there are national security implications in the change of ownership.

Medline Industries hired Goldman Sachs to find a buyer for the company, which could fetch more than $30 billion.

Kansas City Southern is being avidly pursued by Canadian railroad companies. KSU had agreed to be acquired by Canadian Pacific for $25 billion. Canadian National then made a counterbid for about $30 billion.

Micron Technology and Western Digital, leading players in the flash memory device market, are considering the purchase of Kioxia Group, the memory chip company owned by Bain Capital. The bidding may reach $30 billion and up.

Kioxia was once part of Toshiba, which may now be the target of private equity firms. CVC Capital Equity proposed to buy Toshiba for more than $20 billion. Once Toshiba rejected that overture, KKR and other potential bidders stepped up.

Bausch Health, which owns Bausch + Lomb, reportedly is thinking over the sale of all or part of its eyecare business, which could be worth $20 billion to $30 billion, Bloomberg News reports.

The European Union approved the proposed $21 billion acquisition of Maxim Integrated Products by Analog Devices.

Microsoft agreed to acquire Nuance Communications for $19.7 billion, including the assumption of debt. The tech giant was also in talks with Discord, which entertained other offers, then broke off negotiations.

Saudi Arabia is in talks to sell a 1% stake in Saudi Aramco to a “leading global energy company,” in a deal that could be worth around $19 billion.

Thermo Fisher Scientific agreed to acquire PPD for about $17.4 billion in cash.

Suez agreed to be acquired by Veolia for $15.44 billion.

EQT and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners are contemplating an offer of more than $15 billion for Royal KPN.

Prosus got $14.7 billion for an equity stake of about 2% in Tencent Holdings, lowering its ownership to 28.9%.

Thoma Bravo agreed to acquire Proofpoint for $12.3 billion in cash.

Realty Income agreed to acquire Phoenix-based VEREIT for about $11 billion.

Webster Financial will merge with Sterling Bancorp in a stock-swap transaction valued at about $10.3 billion.

Thoma Bravo completed its $10.2 billion purchase of RealPage, a software and analytics company.

Apollo Global Management may be invited to make an investment of more than $10 billion in Saudi Aramco’s oil pipelines.

Marvell Technology Group completed its $10 billion acquisition of Inphi.

Dell Technologies will spin off its 81% stake in VMware, a tax-free transaction that may yield nearly $10 billion for Dell, which is looking for a buyer for Boomi, a vendor of business software that may be worth about $3 billion.

Pamplona Capital Management is reportedly open to offers for Parexel International for about $9 billion, including debt.

Panasonic will purchase Blue Yonder for $8.2 billion, including debt. The Japanese company last year bought a 20% stake in the American software firm.

Coca-Cola Amitel shareholders gave the okay to a takeover offer of nearly A$10 billion (about $7.7 billion) by Coca-Cola European Partners.

Hitachi selected an investor group led by Bain Capital to acquire a 53% interest in the Japanese company’s metals business unit. Japan Industrial Partners and Japan Industrial Solutions are among the investors in the $7.5 billion deal.

Pioneer Natural Resources agreed to acquire DoublePoint Energy for around $6.4 billion in stock and cash.

Certares Management and Knighthead Capital Management increased their offer for Hertz Global Holdings to $6.2 billion. The higher offer includes $2.5 billion of preferred equity financing by Apollo Global Management. Centerbridge Partners, Dundon Capital Partners, and Warburg Pincus are also interested in the bankrupt company.

BancorpSouth Bank will merge with Cadence Bancorporation in a $6 billion all-stock transaction.

Vinci agreed to acquire the energy unit of ACS for €4.9 billion (more than $5.9 billion), compared with a non-binding offer of €5.2 billion (about $6.3 billion) made last year.

Allied Universal bought G4S for more than $5.27 billion.

Humana agreed to acquire the 60% stake it doesn’t already hold in Kindred at Home, the country’s largest home health and hospice care provider, from TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe at an $8.1 billion enterprise value.

40 North, an investment arm of Standard Industries, agreed to acquire specialty chemicals maker W. R. Grace & Co. for $4.63 billion in cash.

EQT agreed to acquire First Student and First Transit from FirstGroup for $4.6 billion.

Nestlé completed the $4.3 billion sale of its North American bottled water brands to One Rock Capital Partners and Metropoulus & Co. Meanwhile, Nestlé agreed to acquire core brands of The Bountiful Company, a manufacturer of nutritional supplements that this month filed for an IPO, for $5.75 billion. KKR is the majority owner of Bountiful, with The Carlyle Group as a minority owner. The transaction is expected to close in the latter half of this year.

Middleby agreed to buy Welbilt, a smaller competitor in commercial food-service equipment, for an implied enterprise value of $4.3 billion in stock.

Hellman & Friedman is buying a majority stake in Enverus for $4.25 billion, including debt.

Platinum Equity is in exclusive talks to buy Urbaser, a Spanish environmental management services provider, for around €3.5 billion (about $4.23 billion, including debt) from China Tianying, Bloomberg reports.

DSV Panalpina agreed to acquire the logistics unit of Kuwait’s Agility Public Warehousing for $4.1 billion in stock, creating the world’s third-largest freight forwarding company.

Taqa, a utility in Abu Dhabi, seeks to sell a 10% equity stake for more than $4 billion.

Vista Equity Partners took Pluralsight, a software firm, private in a $3.9 billion cash transaction.

Kimco Realty agreed to acquire Weingarten Realty Investors, a competitor, for about $3.87 billion in cash and stock.

KKR will acquire a 20% equity stake in Sempra Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure unit of Sempra Energy, for $3.37 billion in cash.

Apollo Global Management completed its $3.3 billion buyout of Michaels, the crafting retailer.

Stone Point Capital and GIC are reportedly negotiating to purchase Ascensus for about $3 billion. The provider of retirement and savings accounts is owned by Genstar Capital and Aquiline Capital Partners.

The Blackstone Group reportedly agreed to sell an Australian warehouse portfolio to ESR Cayman and GIC for $2.9 billion.

SoftBank Group is acquiring a 40% stake in AutoStore, a warehouse robotics firm in Norway, for $2.8 billion. Thomas H. Lee Partners, AutoStore’s majority shareholder, and EQT Private Equity are the sellers.

Silicon Laboratories agreed to sell its infrastructure and automotive chip unit to Skyworks Solutions for $2.75 billion in cash.

Entain, the British sports betting firm that owns Ladbrokes and Coral, offered to buy the betting and media business of Australia’s Tabcorp for A$3.5 billion (about $2.72 billion).

Genworth Financial called off the $2.7 billion buyout of China Oceanwide Holdings Group, as Chinese regulators wouldn’t move forward with the deal for more than three years.

KPS Capital Partners agreed to acquire an 80% stake in the cans unit of Crown Holdings for €2.25 billion (about $2.7 billion).

New York Community Bancorp agreed to acquire Flagstar Bancorp for $2.6 billion.

CenterPoint Energy agreed to sell its natural gas utility operations in Arkansas and Oklahoma to Summit Utilities for $2.15 billion in cash.

Prudential Financial wants to sell most of its retirement business, possibly worth $2 billion and up.

Charterhouse Capital Partners is restarting the sale process for Mirion Technologies, a San Ramon, Calif.-based nuclear measurement and analytics company that could be worth more than $2 billion.

Cleanway Waste Management agreed to acquire the Australian recycling business of Suez, the French multinational corporation, for A$2.52 billion (nearly $2 billion).

BC Partners seeks a buyer for Pharmathen, a drug manufacturer in Greece, which could be worth about €1.5 billion ($1.82 billion).

Thales is entertaining offers for its railroad signaling business, which may be worth €1.5 billion (more than $1.8 billion).

Italy’s DiaSorin agreed to acquire Luminex of Austin, Texas, for about $1.8 billion in cash.

KKR agreed to acquire Ensono for about $1.7 billion, Reuters reports. The sellers are Charlesbank Capital Partners and M/C Partners.

Ingersoll Rand agreed to sell its Club Car golf-cart business to Platinum Equity Advisors for $1.68 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the third quarter of this year.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to pay €1.38 billion (about $1.66 billion) for a 50% stake in a Danish wind farm from Osrsted AS.

AMETEK is acquiring four companies — Abaco Systems, Crank Software, EGS Automation, and Magnetrol International — for a total of $1.62 billion.

Hertz selected a $1.6 billion equity plan from Centerbridge Partners, Warburg Pincus, and Dundon Capital Partners, which would fund the car rental company’s exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

La Trobe Financial, an Australian credit firm owned by The Blackstone Group, reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to find a buyer or float its lending unit, which could be worth around A$2 billion (about $1.56 billion).

LafargeHolcim, the world’s largest cement maker, hired Banco Itau to find a buyer for its Brazilian unit, which could reportedly be worth up to $1.5 billion.

KKR agreed to pay $1.5 billion for Therapy Brands, a Birmingham, Ala.-based provider of mental and behavioral health practice management software, from Lightyear Capital, Oak HC/FT, and Greater Sun Ventures.

AGIC Capital is seeking a buyer for its control stake in Ritedose, a Columbia, S.C.-based contract development manufacturer focused on inhalation and ophthalmic products, according to Bloomberg. A deal could value Ritedose at around $1.5 billion.

Kantar, a British market research firm owned by Bain Capital and ACE & Co., is in talks to buy Chicago-based rival Numerator from Vista Equity Partners for around $1.5 billion, Reuters reports.

CVC Capital Partners and The Carlyle Group are seeking a buyer for Syncreon, an Auburn Hill, Mich.-based supply chain services company that could be worth up to $1.5 billion, Bloomberg reports.

Ridgemont Equity Partners is seeking a buyer for Worldwide Express, a Dallas-based provider of parcel and freight logistics services that could be worth at least $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The U.K. government launched a £1 billion (about $1.39 billion) privatization auction for thousands of miles of phone lines that run alongside railways.

Orocobre, an Australian lithium miner, is buying a smaller rival, Galaxy Resources, for A$1.78 billion (about $1.38 billion) in stock.

HYBE, formerly known as Big Hit, the South Korean entertainment group whose artists include BTS, agreed to buy Ithaca Holdings, the music and entertainment firm founded and led by Scooter Braun. The deal is worth about $1.1 billion.

GI Partners agreed to acquire Orbcomm for $1.1 billion in cash, including debt.

The Blackstone Group offered $1.1 billion for a majority stake in Mphasis, a listed Indian provider of IT outsourcing services. Co-investors would include the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and UC Investments.

Mubadala Petroleum of the United Arab Emirates agreed to buy a 22% stake in the Tamar natural gas field (operated by Chevron) from Israel’s Delek Drilling for $1.1 billion.

Kinderhook Industries is seeking a buyer for Avita, a Dallas-based pharmacy management company that could be worth more than $1 billion, PE Hub reports.

PCCW is considering a sale process for its IT and data centers unit, which could be worth more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake in Beautycounter, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based maker of “clean beauty” products, at a valuation north of $1 billion. Beautycounter had raised more than $100 million from FS Investors, Mousse Partners, TPG Growth, and other investors.

Autodesk completed its $1 billion purchase of Innovyze, which is based in Portland, Ore.

Bain Capital agreed to acquire Dessert Holdings for about $1 billion. Gryphon Partners is the seller.

Diligent completed its $1 billion acquisition of Galvanize, a Canadian provider of governance, risk, and compliance software-as-a-service that had raised $50 million from Norwest Venture Partners. Diligent investors include Insight Partners, Clearlake Capital Group, and The Blackstone Group.

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe is considering a sale process for Springstone, a Louisville, Ky.-based behavioral health hospital chain that could fetch at least $1 billion, PE Hub reports.

Siemens Healthineers is considering a sale of its ultrasound unit, which could be worth around $1 billion, Bloomberg reports.

Agtech/Foodtech

Agricultural and food technology are a hot area of investing. In addition to the wide ranks of food delivery companies, much is going on in agtech and foodtech. They may not have the sprawl of fintech startups yet; give it time, agtech and foodtech are growing.

Plant-based foods and other alternative sources of protein were once only of interest to vegans and vegetarians. That is rapidly changing.

“The field is only seven to 10 years into its existence, but we have seen leaps and bounds of progress in the past few years,” says Amy Huang, university innovation manager at the Good Food Institute, a not-for-profit think tank, which supports the development of safe and sustainable alternative proteins. “And now it is targeted at the 97% of meat eaters,” she added. “As a result, there is ample room for additional innovation.” Investors are taking note.

President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure program would provide funding for broadband access in rural areas, where food is grown. That could be a significant development for agtech, this analysis notes.

Bowl food is the new thing in fast food. Sweetgreen and Sweetfin are examples in the U.S. In Europe, there is Poke House, which has more than 30 restaurants in Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The chain offers “poke bowls” that are convenient and easy for delivery services to handle.

Icos Capital, a venture capital firm in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is collaborating with StartLife, a Dutch agtech/foodtech accelerator, to advise and fund startups in this market.

Welcome to the Upcycled Food Association, an organization aimed at reducing food waste. Its mark certifying upcycled food is set to start appearing this summer.

Swiggy, an on-demand food delivery platform operating in India, raised $800 million in Series J funding, valuing the company at almost $5 billion. Established in 2014, Bangalore-based Bundl Technologies Private Limited, doing business as Swiggy, has raised a total of $2.4 billion, according to Crunchbase. Investing in the new round are Falcon Edge Capital, Goldman Sachs, Think Capital, Amansa Capital, Carmignac, and existing investors Prosus Ventures and Accel.

Norway’s Oda, formerly known as Kolonial, received €223 million (about $268 million) in private equity funding led by Prosus and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The online grocer has raised nearly $372 million in private funding. Oda was founded in 2013.

Philadelphia-based Misfits Market, a subscription service for so-called “ugly” produce, raised $200 million in Series C funding co-led by Accel and D1 Capital Partners with participation by existing investors Valor Equity Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Sound Ventures, and Third Kind Ventures. Misfits Market was established in 2018 and has raised a total of more than $300 million in private funding.

CAVA, a Washington, D.C.-based Mediterranean restaurant chain, raised $190 million in Series F funding at a $1.3 billion valuation. T. Rowe Price led and was joined by Invus Group, Declaration Partners, Equilibra Partners Management, SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, Mousse Partners, Revolution Growth, and Lighthouse Investment Partners.

Other funding rounds in April: Hazel Technologies raised $70 million in Series C funding; Deliverect raised $65 million in Series C funding; Atlast Food Co. raised $40 million in Series A funding; Seed Health raised $40 million in Series A funding; Gathered Foods raised $26.35 million in Series B2 bridge funding; Hungry Planet raised $25 million in Series A funding; Manna raised $25 million in Series A funding; Mission Barns raised $24 million in Series A funding; Halter raised $23 million in Series B funding; Muncher raised $22 million in Series A funding; Territory Foods raised $22 million in Series B funding; Mori raised $16 million in Series B funding; Edifice Health raised $12 million in growth funding; Guardian Agriculture raised $10.5 million in seed funding; Milk Moovement raised $3.1 million in seed funding; Swarm Engineering raised $2.7 million in seed funding; MunchFit raised $1.7 million in equity crowdfunding; and Mound raised $1.6 million in seed funding.

In other news: KKR invested in Adopt A Cow, a Chinese direct-to-consumer dairy; About Health, a supplements company, was sold to Just Life Group for $17 million; Unilever agreed to acquire Onnit, a developer of food supplements in Austin, Texas; Gilde Buy Out Partners is in talks to sell Vivera, a Dutch maker of plant-based foods, for between €300 million and €400 million to Brazil’s JBS, Bloomberg reports; Ynsect, a French insect protein farm startup agreed to acquire Protifarm, a Dutch supplier of insects for animal feed. Ynsect has raised more than $370 million in VC funding, while Protifarm had raised $11 million from Oost NL and other investors; Camposol, Oatly, and Zomato have filed for initial public offerings, while Impossible Foods is preparing for an IPO; Redcon1, a sports nutrition brand, received private equity funding from Trivest Partners.

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning

Silver Lake agreed to invest about $800 million in Group 42, taking a minority interest in the artificial intelligence and cloud computing company in Abu Dhabi. G42 was established in 2018 and previously received private equity funding from Mubadala Investment.

Exscientia of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, raised up to $525 million in Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and joined by Novo Holdings, BlackRock, Mubadala, Farallon Capital, Casdin Capital, GT Healthcare Capital, Marshall Wace, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Laurion Capital, Hongkou Management, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. The startup uses an end-to-end AI platform for drug development. Exscientia was founded in 2012 and has raised a total of nearly $373 million in private funding, per Crunchbase.

San Francisco-based Scale AI received $325 million in Series E funding co-led by Dragoneer Investment Group, Greenoaks Capital, and Tiger Global with participation by Wellington Management, Durable Capital Partners, and existing investors Coatue Management, Index Ventures, Founders Fund, and Y Combinator. The company’s AI data platform offers training for machine learning applications. Scale AI was established in 2016 and has raised a total of more than $602 million in private funding.

Hive Technology of New York City raised $85 million in Series D funding to advance development of its cloud-based machine learning models that can be accessed through application programming interfaces. Hive was founded in 2016.

Cresta Intelligence received $50 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Allen & Company, and Porsche Ventures. The startup uses AI to mentor customer service agents in real time. Cresta was established in 2017 and has raised a total of $71 million in private funding.

Other funding rounds in April: Placer.ai raised $50M in Series B funding; Aisera raised $40 million in Series C funding; Snorkel AI raised $35 million in Series B funding; Blue dot raised $32 million in Series C funding; Alyce raised $30 million in Series B funding; Arturo raised $25 million in Series B funding; Windfall Data raised $21 million in Series A funding; Axiado raised $20 million in Series B funding; pulseData raised $16.5 million Series A funding; PHARMcadd raised $16 million in Series B funding; Auditoria.ai raised $15.5 million in Series A funding; Comet AI raised $13 million in Series A funding; Orca AI raised $13 million in Series A funding; Synthesia raised $12.5 million in Series A funding; Copysmith raised $10M in seed funding; Yembo raised $8.5 million in Series A funding; CrowdAI raised $6.25 million in Series A funding; Alcatraz AI raised $6.1 million in new funding; Deeplite raised $6 million in seed funding; Kinta AI raised $5.5 million in Series A funding; Aporia raised $5 million in seed funding; Synthesis AI raised $4.5M in seed funding; InfuseAI raised $4.3M in Series A funding; Moichor raised $4 million in seed funding; Hearby.com raised $1.5M in seed funding; and Kleen.ai raised $1.5 million in seed funding.

Automotive/Mobility

Chicago-based Clearcover raised $200 million in Series D funding led by Eldridge and joined by existing investors American Family Ventures, Cox Enterprises, and OMERS Ventures. The car insurance startup was established in 2016 and has raised a total of $304.5 million in private funding, according to Crunchbase.

SES of Woburn, Mass., received $139 million in Series D funding led by General Motors and joined by existing investors SK Inc., Temasek, Applied Ventures, Shanghai Auto, and Vertex Ventures. The company manufactures lithium-metal batteries meant for use in electric vehicles and other applications.

Paris-based Ornikar raised €100M (about $120 million) in Series C funding led by KKR and joined by existing investors Idinvest, BPI, Elaia, Brighteye, and H14. The company provides an online driving school. Ornikar was founded in 2014 and has raised a total of more than $174 million in private funding.

TechMet Limited of Dublin, Ireland, received $120 million in its second round of equity funding. The privately held company invests in critical metals for use in electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and energy storage. The largest shareholders in TechMet include the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Lansdowne Partners, Mercuria, and TechMet Chairman and CEO Brian Menell, who founded the company in 2017.

Other funding rounds in April: BlaBla Car raised €97 million ($116.6 million) in a convertible note; Dott raised $85 million in Series B funding; EasyMile raised €55M (about $66 million) in Series B funding; Spinny raised $65 million in Series C funding; GO Sharing raised €50 million (about $60 million) in growth funding; Xwing raised $40 million in Series B funding; IRP Systems raised $31 million in Series C funding; Universal Hydrogen raised $20.5 million in Series A funding; Battery Resourcers raised $20 million in Series B funding; Car Capital raised $20 million in debt funding; Gridential Energy raised $12 million in a convertible note; Holoride raised €10M ($12 million) in Series A funding; and Dat Bike raised $2.6 million in Pre-Series A funding.

In other news: Lyft sold its Level 5 autonomous driving unit to Toyota Motor’s Woven Planet subsidiary for $550 million in cash. Lyft will get $200 million upfront and $350 million over five years. Uber Technologies last year sold its Pittsburgh-based Advanced Technologies Group, its self-driving technology unit, to Aurora Innovation, a self-driving startup.

Hello, a Chinese bike-sharing marketplace, filed for a $100 million IPO. It plans to list on the Nasdaq and reports a $1.3 million profit on $932 million in revenue for 2020. The company raised more than $3 billion from firms like Ant Financial, Primavera Capital Group, Chengwei Capital, Fosun International, and GGV Capital.

Biotech

Adagio Therapeutics of Waltham, Mass., raised $336 million in Series C funding led by RA Capital Management and joined by Redmile Group, Federated Hermes, Foresite Capital, ArrowMark Partners, PremjiInvest, and existing investors Fidelity, OrbiMed, Polaris Partners, Mithril, GV, Population Health Partners, Adimab, and Omega Funds. The company develops antibodies to neutralize coronaviruses, such as COVID-19. Adagio was established in 2020 and has raised a total of $466 million in private funding, per Crunchbase.

San Francisco-based Benchling received $200 million in Series E funding led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities and joined by Altimeter Capital, Byers Capital, Elad Gil, and existing investors Thrive Capital, Benchmark, Menlo Ventures, Alkeon Capital, ICONIQ Capital, Lux Capital, Spark Capital, and Lead Edge Capital. The startup provides a cloud-based software platform for biology researchers and R&D organizations. Benchling was founded in 2012 and has raised a total of nearly $312 million in private funding.

Repertoire Immune Medicines of Cambridge, Mass., raised $189 million in Series B funding from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, PSP Investments, Alaska Permanent Fund, Invus, and original backer Flagship Pioneering. The biotech focuses on immune synapses. Repertoire was established in 2015 and has raised a total of more than $257 million in private funding.

Other funding rounds in April: Inscripta raised $150 million in Series E funding; Jaguar Gene Therapy raised $139 million in Series B funding; Virta Health raised $133 million in Series E funding; Arch Oncology raised $105 million in Series C funding; C2i Genomics raised $100 million in Series B funding; Theseus Pharmaceuticals raised $100 million in Series B funding; Antios Therapeutics raised $96 million in Series B funding; Bioheng Biotech raised $80 million in Series B funding; Alloy Therapeutics raised $75 million in Series C funding; Valenza Bio raised $70 million in Series A funding; AltruBio raised $63 million in Series A funding; EdiGene raised $62 million in Series B funding; Pendulum Therapeutics raised $54 million in Series C funding; Humacyte raised $50 million in corporate funding; Shoreline Biosciences raised $43 million in new funding; Volastra Therapeutics added $32 million to its seed round, now $44 million; Vizgen raised $37 million in Series B funding; Monopteris Therapeutics raised $20 million in Series A funding; ReAlta Life Sciences raised $20 million in Series A3 funding; ImmunoScape raised $14 million in growth funding; Rejuvenate Bio raised more than $10 million in Series A funding; and RNA Immune raised $10 million in seed funding.

In other news: Centessa Pharmaceuticals filed for a $100 million IPO; Talaris Therapeutics filed for a $100 million IPO; TScan Therapeutics filed for a $100 million IPO; Valneva filed for a $100 million IPO; and Vera Therapeutics filed for an $86 million IPO.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity companies remain a hot topic in startup funding, and some are bound for significant exits. The first quarter of this year saw more than $3.7 billion invested in cybersecurity firms, compared with $2.3 billion during the first quarter of 2020, Crunchbase reports. Several companies are expected to have initial public offerings this year.

Illumio of Sunnyvale, Calif., is reportedly in talks to raise a new round of $250 million led by Thoma Bravo, valuing the cloud cybersecurity vendor at $2.9 billion, according to Bloomberg News. The company has previously raised more than $332 million, per Crunchbase. Its backers include General Catalyst, JPMorgan Asset Management, Andreessen Horowitz, DCVC, 8VC, Harmony Partners, and Accel.

Atlanta-based OneTrust raised $210 million in a Series C extension led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation by Franklin Templeton. The startup helps clients with managing governance, privacy, and security requirements. OneTrust was established in 2016 and has raised a total of $920 million in private funding.

Signifyd of San Jose, Calif., received $205 million in Series E funding led by Rock Capital and joined by FIS, CPP Investments, and Neuberger Berman. The startup provides enterprise-grade fraud detection for e-commerce stores. Signifyd was founded in 2011 and has raised a total of $390 million in private funding.

San Francisco-based Sysdig raised $188 million in Series F funding co-led by Premji Invest and Third Point Ventures, with participation by Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, DFJ Growth, Glynn Capital, Goldman Sachs, Insight Partners, and Next47. The startup provides a dev-ops platform for software containers. Sysdig was established in 2013 and has raised more than $379 million in private funding.

Druva of Sunnyvale, Calif., received $147 million in growth funding led by CDPQ and joined by Neuberger Berman and existing investors Atreides Management and Viking Global Investors. The startup offers a software-as-a-service platform to protect and manage enterprise data across endpoint, data center, and cloud workloads. Druva was founded in 2008 and has raised a total of $475 million in private funding.

Other funding rounds in April: Vectra AI raised $130 million in growth funding; Deep Instinct raised $100 million in Series D funding; WhiteSource raised $75 million in Series D funding; Veriff raised $69 million in Series B funding; Sift raised $50 million in new funding; SafeGuard Cyber raised $45 million in debt/equity funding; AppOmni raised $40 million in Series B funding; Hypr raised $35M in Series C funding; BigID raised $30 million in Series D funding; Aleo raised $28 million in new funding; Perception Point raised $28 million in Series B funding; Talon Cyber Security raised $26 million in seed funding; ThreatQuotient raised $22.5 million in equity/debt funding; Cape Privacy raised $20 million in Series A funding; Cyrebro raised $15 million in Series B funding; Hack The Box raised $10.6 million in Series A funding; Cado Security raised $10 million in Series A funding; PlexTrac raised $10 million in Series A funding; Cigent Technology raised $7.6 million in Series A funding; Grip Security raised $6 million in seed funding; Kintent raised $4 million in seed funding; VISO Trust raised $3 million in seed funding; infiniDome raised $2.4 million in Pre-Series A funding; and Intrigue raised $2 million in seed funding.

In other news: Securiti secured funding from Cisco Investments. KnowBe4 completed an IPO, raising $152 million; its stock trades on Nasdaq as KNBE. Darktrace of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, plans an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

Digital Health

Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth led an investment of $350 million of Series E funding in API Holdings, the parent company of Mumbai-based online pharmacy PharmEasy. The healthtech startup offers a variety of services. Axelia Solutions Private Limited, doing business as PharmEasy, was established in 2015 and has raised a total of more than $651 million in private funding, according to Crunchbase.

New York-based Capsule received $300 million in Series D funding led by Durable Capital Partners and joined by Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, and Whale Rock, valuing the healthtech startup at more than $1 billion. Capsule was founded five years ago and has raised a total of $570 million in private funding.

KRY International of Stockholm, Sweden, raised €262 million (about $315 million) in Series D funding co-led by CPP Investments and Fidelity with participation by existing investors Ontario Teachers, Index Ventures, Accel, Creandum, and Project A. The startup helps patients make health choices. Kry was established in 2015 and has raised a total of nearly $569 million in private funding.

San Francisco-based Komodo Health received $220 million in Series E funding led by Tiger Global and joined by Casdin Capital and existing investors ICONIQ Growth, Andreessen Horowitz, and SVB Capital. The startup develops software that brings transparency and market intelligence to healthcare and life sciences. Komodo Health was founded in 2014 and has raised a total of $314 million in private funding.

Other funding rounds in April: Halodoc raised $80 million in Series C funding; Medable raised $78 million in Series C funding; Kaia Health raised $75 million in Series C funding; Vesta Healthcare raised $65 million in growth funding; Current Health raised $43 million in Series B funding; Firefly Health raised $40 million in Series B funding; Proximie raised $38 million in Series B funding; Cohere Health raised $36 million in Series B funding; THM raised $30 million in Series C funding; 1upHealth raised $25 million in Series B funding; Tomorrow Health raised $25 million in Series A funding; Glytec raised $21 million in debt and equity funding; CirrusMD raised $20 million in Series C funding; Canvas Medical raised $17 million in Series A funding; Vector Remote Care raised $12.5 million in Series A funding; Zedsen raised $12 million in Series B funding; DignifiHealth raised $7 million in seed funding; Olive Union raised $7 million in Series B funding; PursueCare raised $7 million in Series A2 funding; Aloe Care Health raised $5 million in growth funding; MD Ally raised $3.5 million in seed funding; 1Doc3 raised $3 million in Pre-Series A funding; Anima raised $2.5 million in seed funding; Votive Health raised $2.5 million in seed funding; and Oath Care raised $2 million in seed funding.

Robotics

Frost & Sullivan forecasts the worldwide market for industrial robotics will reach revenue of $38.3 billion in 2024, compared with $22.2 billion in 2020, for a cumulative annual growth rate of 12.2%. Pharmaceuticals will be the fastest-growing segment, with a CAGR of 17.2% from 2019 to 2024, reaching $3.33 billion by the end of the forecasted period, followed by food and beverage and electrical and electronics, expanding at 15.8% and 15.1%, respectively.

Memic Innovative Surgery of Tel Aviv, Israel, raised $96 million in Series D funding co-led by Peregrine Ventures and Ceros Financial Services with participation by OurCrowd and Accelmed. The startup develops a transvaginal robotic surgery system. Memic was established in 2012 and has raised a total of nearly $128 million in private funding, per Crunchbase. Your next surgeon could be a robot.

Plus One Robotics received $33 million in Series B funding co-led by McRock Capital and TransLink Ventures with participation from BMWi Ventures, Kensington Capital Partners, and Ironspring Ventures alongside existing investors. The startup develops robot perception software. Plus One was founded in 2016 and has raised a total of $43.6 million in private funding.

San Francisco-based Canvas raised $24 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures and joined by Suffolk Construction, Alumni Ventures Group, and existing investors Innovation Endeavors, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and Grit Labs. The startup provides construction robotics. Canvas came out of stealth mode in late 2020.

Multiply Labs, also headquartered in San Francisco, received $20 million in Series A funding led by Casdin Capital with participation from new investors Lux Capital and Pathfinder, Founders Fund’s early-stage investment vehicle, Fifty Years and Garage Capital. The startup develops advanced robotics technology to manufacture personalized pharmaceutical capsules. Multiply Labs was founded in 2016 and has raised a total of nearly $23 million in private funding.

Other funding rounds in April: Rapid Robotics raised $12 million in Series A funding; Pickle Robot raised $5.75 million in seed funding; Moray Medical raised $5.7 million in seed funding; MOVIA Robotics raised $5 million in seed funding; and Refraction AI raised $4.2 million in seed funding.

Software

Enterprise software applications and software development tools are popular with investors and users. Let’s review some of the month’s fundings.

Octopus Deploy of Brisbane, Australia, raised $172.5 million in Series A funding from Insight Partners, which took a minority equity position in the startup, which offers an automated deployment server. The money was the first outside funding for the company, which bootstrapped operations for about a decade. Read more about the company here and here.

Redis Labs of Mountain View, Calif., received $110 million in Series G funding led by Tiger Global, a new investor, valuing the decade-old startup at more than $1 billion. Redis Labs provides an in-memory database platform for applications and different services. The company was established in 2011 and has raised a total of more than $555 million, per Crunchbase.

Productboard raised $72 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global. Sequoia Capital is an existing investor in the startup, which provides a product management system. The company was founded in 2014 and has raised a total of nearly $137 million in private funding.

Berlin-based BRYTER received $66 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global and joined by existing investors Accel, Dawn Capital, Notion Capital, and Cavalry Ventures. The startup offers a no-code software development platform. BRYTER was established in 2018 and has raised a total of $89 million in private funding.

Other funding rounds in April: RapidAPI raised $60 million in Series C funding; Snorkel AI raised $35 million in Series B funding; Streamlit raised $35 million in Series B funding; Tines raised $26 million in Series B funding; Upsolver raised $25 million in Series B funding; Era Software raised $15.25 million in Series A funding; Innoveo raised $15 million in Series A funding; Opsera raised $15 million in Series A funding; Gitpod raised $13 million in new funding; Zedada raised $12.5 million in Series A funding; Celential.ai raised $9.5 million in Series A funding; Memfault raised $8.5 million in Series A funding; Lowkey raised $7 million in Series A funding; Hex raised $5.5 million in seed funding; Formation raised $4 million in seed funding; and Prescient Devices received $2 million in seed funding.

Semiconductors

This year has shown that microchips are vital to many aspects of modern life. The worldwide shortage of semiconductors has had a significant impact on automotive manufacturing, consumer electronics, and other industries. Microcontrollers, the chips that run microwave ovens and other fairly simple electronics, are especially in short supply. Artificial intelligence processors are a hot commodity in the industry, attracting many investors.

SambaNova Systems of Palo Alto, Calif., raised $676 million in Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and joined by GIV, Temasek, and existing investors BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV, Walden International, and WRVI. The startup is developing AI chips and integrated systems. SambaNova was established in 2017 and has raised a total of $1.1 billion in private funding, according to Crunchbase.

Groq of Mountain View, Calif., received $300 in Series C funding led by Tiger Global and D1 Capital Partners with participation by Addition and The Spruce House Partnership. The startup develops tensor processing units, integrated circuits used in machine learning applications. Groq was founded in 2016 and has raised a total of more than $362 million in private funding.

Tessolve Semiconductor of Bangalore, India, raised $40 million in private equity funding from Novo Tellus Capital Partners. The startup is a provider of semiconductor engineering services. Hero Electronix continues to be Tessolve’s majority owner. Tessolve was established in 1993.

San Francisco-based Density received $25 million in Series C funding. The startup develops infrared sensors and cloud-based AI software that counts the number of people within a room or a building, an important technology in the global pandemic. Density was founded in 2014 and has raised a total of more than $92 million in private funding.

Other funding rounds in April: Orbital Sidekick raised $16 million in Series A funding; LineVision raised $12.5 million in Series B funding; Teal Communications raised $9.1 million in Series A funding; Vesper Technologies raised $8 million in new funding; ePIC Blockchain raised $7.5 million in Series A funding; and Inari AI raised $2 million in seed funding.

In other news: Silicon Catalyst, an incubator for semiconductor-related startups, admitted six new companies to the program — AlphaICs, Lelantos, Oculi, Salience Labs, Sonical, and Visual Dawn. Sensata Technologies completed its $400 million purchase of Xirgo Technologies Intermediate Holdings. Skywater Technology, an American silicon foundry, completed an IPO, raising $97 million. Cerebras Systems introduced an AI supercomputing processor with 2.6 trillion transistors. GigInternational1, the seventh SPAC led by semiconductor vet Avi Katz, filed for a $200 million IPO. It was one of the very few SPACs filing for IPOs this month.

Odds and Ends

New York-based Slice, which provides an online ordering platform for pizzerias, raised $40 million in Series D funding led by Cross Creek and joined by 01 Advisors and existing investors GGV Capital, KKR, and Primary Ventures. MyPizza Technologies, doing business as Slice, was established in 2010 and has raised a total of $125 million in private funding, according to Crunchbase.

Another New York startup, Holler Technologies, received $36 million in Series B funding co-led by CityRock Venture Partners and New General Market Partners with participation by Gaingels, Interplay Ventures, Relevance Ventures, Towerview Ventures, and WorldQuant Ventures. The company develops messaging technology. Holler was founded in 2013 and has raised more than $54 million in private funding.

New York-based Yousician raised $28 million in Series B funding led by True Ventures and joined by the Amazon Alexa Fund, MPL Ventures, Mark Pincus, and other individuals. The startup provides an interactive music platform. Yousician has operations in Finland. It was established in 2010 and has raised a total of nearly $33 million in private funding.

Like cocktails? Chicago-based Bartesian received $20 million in Series A funding led by Cleveland Avenue and joined by Stanley Ventures. The startup offers a capsule-based machine for mixing cocktails at home. Bartesian was founded in 2014. Actress Mila Kunis has joined the company’s board of advisors.

Other funding rounds in April: Salty Dot raised more than $15 million; Sweet Flower raised $15 million in Series A funding; Hallow raised $12 million in Series A funding; and Strap Technologies raised $1.3 million in seed funding.

Fundraising

A quick compendium of fundraising by private equity and venture capital firms during the month of April: The Carlyle Group is raising $22 billion; KKR raised $15 billion; Ares Management raised €11 billion (about $13.2 billion); Bain Capital raised $11.8 billiion; Genstar Capital raised $11.7 billion for two funds; Ardia raised €7.5 billion ($9 billion); Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners raised €7 billion (about $8.4 billion); Tiger Global Management raised $6.65 billion; General Atlantic is raising $5 billion; BlackRock raised $4.8 billion; Providence Strategic Growth is raising $4 billion; IPI Partners raised $3.8 billion; ICONIQ Capital is raising $3.75 billion; AlpInvest Partners raised $3.5 billion; Thoma Bravo is raising $3 billion; Inflexion Partners is raising £2 billion (about $2.76 billion); CITIC Private Equity raised $1.8 billion with a goal of $3 billion; Valor Equity Partners raised $1.7 billion; Insight Partners raised $1.65 billion; Anthos Capital is raising $1.5 billion; The Riverside Co. is raising $1.5 billion; IK Investment Partners raised €1.2 billion ($1.44 billion); Crosspoint Capital Partners raised $1.3 billion; Peak Rock Capital raised $1.3 billion; Brightstar Capital Partners raised $1.27 billion; Vision Ridge Partners raised $1.25 billion; Energy Capital Partners raised $1.2 billion; D. E. Shaw & Co. raised $1 billion; and Decarbonization Partners is raising $1 billion.