FEBRUARY 08, 2021 VC Daily: Cargill Joins Probiotics Company's Fundraising; Hosts Virtual Pitches; Edison Eyes Fund Good day. Last week, startup guts with a strain of bacteria called B. eliminated commissions, making buying a accelerator 500 Startups held its second infantis, which protects newborns and share of stock about as easy as posting a virtual demo day since the pandemic nourishes a healthy gut. Because of photo on Instagram. It worked. During upended the event. Roughly two dozen factors such as rising antibiotic use in the pandemic, throngs of amateur startups, which joined the accelerator recent decades, many mothers don't have investors—homebound, bored and flush earlier this year, made rapid-fire two B. infantis to pass on their children, with stimulus checks—opened Robinhood minute pitches to investors who tuned according to Evolve. accounts to experience the market's in. * Cargill plans to help Evolve thrills. By the end of December, the firm explore new applications for its probiotic had amassed about 20 million users, Pawsh, a mobile pet-grooming technology, including human and animal according to people close to it, and weeks service, pitched investors on its uses. later its app hit the top of download "groomer-first business model" which 65% charts. It should have been a moment to Chief Executive Officer Karthik Roughly the share of lithium-ion celebrate. Instead, a recent Thursday Naralasetty said is experiencing 30% batteries that come from China. began with a panicked, predawn phone revenue growth. Edison Partners Eyes $425 Million call informing Mr. Tenev that Robinhood for Latest Fund needed to come up with billions of dollars Drover.ai pitched a hardware Growth-equity firm Edison if it wanted to open for business in a few device that scooter-sharing fleets could Partners is preparing to launch its latest hours. incorporate to detect poor scooter- fund, aiming to collect some $425 million, Industry News riding behavior. Better self-regulation according to people familiar with the Funds could ultimately help mobility startups matter, WSJ Pro reports. If the Princeton, Top Tier Capital Partners closed win city permits, the company says. N.J.-based firm reaches its goal, the 10th on nearly $1.2 billion in new capital Going virtual has its upside, 500 fund would be roughly 16% larger than its commitments for Top Tier Venture Startups principal Amit Bhatti said. predecessor, Edison Partners IX LP, Capital IX LP, Top Tier Venture Velocity "No more back and forth emails, which closed with $365 million in 2018. Fund 3 LP and related separate accounts. LinkedIn, business cards, they can share That fund was the firm's largest to date. The San Francisco-based firm invests in calendars and book a slate of meetings Edison focuses exclusively on smaller, niche-focused funds of funds and right away," Mr. Bhatti said. "We've growth-oriented companies and invests expansion-stage software and heard from many investors that it's much between $10 million and $30 million in technology startups worldwide. The easier now for them to maneuver around financial technology, enterprise solutions firm's capital under management and focus on their areas of interest as and health-care technology businesses. increased to more than $7.5 billion with well, accessing links to pitch decks and The firm stayed active with the new funds. additional materials without waiting through the coronavirus pandemic. Late Frontline Ventures launched a around at a booth." last year it led a fundraising effort for new fund with €70 million ($84 million) And now on to the news... Gohenry Inc., a money app and provider in commitments. Frontline Seed fund III Top News of prepaid debit cards with parental will make early-stage investments in Probiotics Pick Up. Food and controls. The business received $40 European business-to-business agriculture giant Cargill Inc. is betting million from Edison Partners, Gaia technology startups. Frontline Ventures, that probiotic technology from startup Capital Partners, Citi Ventures and Muse which has offices in London, Dublin and Evolve BioSystems Inc. will help infants Capital. San Francisco, raised $70 million last improve their health, WSJ Pro's Brian Robinhood's Reckoning: Facing March for Frontline X, a U.S.-based Gormley reports. Life After GameStop growth-stage fund. * Cargill and growth-equity Many startup founders dream of Scribble Ventures, an early stage investor Manna Tree Partners are leading the day their creation claims the top spot venture firm founded by former a financing for Evolve that the startup in Apple Inc.'s app store. For Vlad Tenev, Andreessen Horowitz Partner Elizabeth expects will reach $55 million. Evolve has Robinhood Markets Inc.'s chief executive, Weil, closed its inaugural fund with $42 closed on more than two-thirds of that it was more like a nightmare, WSJ million, or $7 million above its original amount so far, Chief Executive Timothy reports. Mr. Tenev and his co-founder, target. Scribble targets initial Brown said. Baiju Bhatt, had set out eight years earlier investments of $250,000 to $500,000 in * Evolve, a spinoff from the Foods to bring the stock market to a new class of pre-seed to early-stage Series A deals, for Health Institute at the University of investors. With engineers plucked from according to the firm's website. , Davis, makes Evivo, a Inc. and other tech giants, they People probiotic designed to populate infants' stripped down the trading experience and CloudBees Inc., an automated

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software delivery system provider, agriculture and energy, picked up a $50 Ventures, Allos Ventures, Alpha Edison, appointed Stephen DeWitt as the million Series E . Energize Lackawanna Group and others. company's new chief executive, replacing Ventures and AirTree Ventures led the co-founder Sacha Labourey, who will round, which saw additional participation Lyte, a San Francisco-based live become chief strategy officer. Mr. DeWitt from Bessemer Venture Partners, Scale event ticketing platform, added $5 was most recently chief strategy officer Venture Partners, Emergence Capital, million in Series B funding from investors at Automation Anywhere. Founded in Angelpad, Uncork Capital and Frontline including Uncorrelated and AllRise, 2010, San Jose, Calif.-based CloudBees is Ventures. bringing the round total to $38 million. backed by Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Class Technologies Inc., a The initial tranche of the round was Venture Partners, Verizon Ventures, Washington, D.C.-based creator of online raised in December from Social Capital, Delta-v Capital, Golub Capital and education software that integrates with Rocketship VC, Jackson Square Ventures, Unusual Ventures. Zoom, landed $30.8 million in Series A Accomplice, Correlation Ventures and PepGen Ltd., a developer of financing. Insight Partners and Owl others. treatments for severe neuromuscular Ventures co-led the round, which Ledn Inc., a Toronto-based diseases, named James McArthur as included contributions from Reach digital asset savings and credit platform, president and chief executive. He was Capital, Catalysis Capital Management, collected a $2.7 million investment. previously a venture partner at RA Diligent Software and others. White Star's Digital Asset Fund led the Capital Management. In December, U.K.- DealerPolicy, a Williston, Vt.- round, which included participation from based PepGen raised a $45 million Series based digital insurance marketplace for Coinbase Ventures, Global Founders A round from RA Capital, Oxford Sciences automotive retailers, landed $30 million Capital, CMT Digital, Kingsway and Innovation, CureDuchenne Ventures and in Series B funding led by 3L Capital and Darrow Holdings. the University of Oxford. Hudson Structured Capital Management Tech News Catamaran Bio Inc., a company Ltd. In addition to the funding, Wayne * Amazon union election to developing cell therapies for cancer, Pastore was appointed president and proceed as labor board denies delay appointed Alvin Shih as president and chief operating officer. He was previously request chief executive. He was most recently general manager and vice president at * Venmo's debt-collection CEO of Disarm Therapeutics. In Dealer.com. practices probed by CFPB November, Cambridge, Mass.-based Granulate, an Israeli startup that * China's SMIC says it's missing Catamaran Bio raised a $42 million Series optimizes infrastructure and workload out on the chip boom due to U.S. A round from Lightstone Ventures, performance, secured $30 million in restrictions Sofinnova Partners, SV Health Investors, Series B financing led by Red Dot Capital * Ford becomes an unlikely tech Takeda Ventures and Astellas Venture Partners. New investor Dawn Capital was darling Management. joined by existing backers Insight Around the Web Exits Partners, TLV Partners and Hetz * In need of truckers, Amazon Banzai, a provider of event Ventures in the round. plans incubator to create more shipping marketing automation software, acquired Tovala, a Chicago-based meal companies (The Information) webinar platform Demio for an service and countertop smart oven * Reddit documents a surge of undisclosed sum. In March 2020, provider, completed a $30 million Series new users to site and WallStreetBets Seattle-based Banzai raised a $7 million C round. Left Lane Capital led the (Bloomberg) from DNX Ventures and funding, and was joined by investors * The Founder Institute's VC Lab Vulcan Capital. including Finistere Ventures, Comcast is a free training program for budding New Money Ventures, OurCrowd, Origin Ventures and venture capitalists (TechCrunch) Nexthink, a Switzerland- and Pritzker Group Venture Capital. Left Lane Boston-based developer of software that Managing Partner Jason Fiedler will join provides visibility for IT teams, scored a the company's board. $180 million Series D round, giving the Deepgram, a San Francisco- company a $1.1 billion valuation. Permira based speech recognition technology led the funding, which included startup, nabbed $25 million in Series B participation from investors including funding. Tiger Global Management led Highland and Index Ventures. the investment, with participation from Bruce Chizen, a senior adviser at Permira, Wing Venture Capital, Citi Ventures, SAP. will join the company's board. io and Nvidia Inception GPU Ventures. LeaseLock, a Los Angeles-based Vendia, a San Francisco-based real estate insurtech platform, closed a multicloud serverless development $52 million Series B round. Westerly platform, raised a $15.5 million Series A Winds and Wildcat Venture Partners led round. Lead investor Canvas Ventures the investment, which included support was joined by BMW i Ventures, Sorenson from SoftBank Ventures , Vertex Ventures and others in the new funding. Ventures US, Liberty Mutual Strategic Waitwhile, a San Francisco- Ventures, American Family Ventures, based queue management platform, Moderne Ventures, Strata Equity Group, snagged $12 million in Series A funding. Veteran Capital and Mucker Capital. CRV led the round, and Kristin Baker DroneDeploy Inc., a San Francisco Spohn will join the board. startup whose cloud-based software Coterie, a commercial insurance allows users to glean insights from aerial startup, raised $11.5 million in Series A1 video and images taken by drones in funding. Intact Ventures led the round, industries such as construction, which included participation from RPM