Intelligence
Self-driving start-up Argo AI is considering going public this year. The company was valued at $7bn during a $2.6bn investment round from Volkswagen last July.
SoftBank will invest $2.8bn for a 40% stake in warehouse robotics developer Autostore.
Flink, the Berlin-based 10 min. grocery delivery service is about to close its Series A.
Coinbase just reported 56m users, $335bn in trading volume, and $1.8bn in revenue for Q1-21. What an absolute beast of a company!
Growberry, a Hungarian-based agrotech platform, is looking to raise up to €5m pre-Series A or a Series A by 3Q-22.
Provizio, a Limerick-based (Ireland) developer of accident-prevention technology for vehicles, is planning to raise between €15m and €20m in a Series A funding round later this year.
Finoa is expected to receive €12m of venture funding from Balderton Capital.
Taktile is expected to receive €6m of venture funding from Index Ventures and other undisclosed investors.
Tiger Global is about to invest a significant amount in Taxdoo.
Iconiq is looking for a new Partner to cover DACH. If you have any information, please email us: fundingroom@protonmail.com
Start-up of the week
Product
n8n is a free and open node-based Workflow Automation Tool. It can be self-hosted, easily extended, and used with third party web applications or custom in-house tools to automate repetitive tasks.
Location
Berlin, Germany
Raised
c. $1.5m
Investors
firstminute capital, Sequoia Capital, System.One, Tiny.VC
Revenue model
By workflow execution - an execution is when an entire multi-step workflow completes a "run".
Food for thought
There was bafflement late last week when shares of TV networks Viacom and Discovery lost nearly half their value. Now we know what happened…
For the past decade, 57-year old investor Bill Hwang (through his fund Archegos Capital) quietly built one of America's largest fortunes. In late March, Archegos imploded and Hwang personally lost $8bn over a 10-day span.
$8bn in 10 days!
Here is what happened. Hwang is a true immigrant success tale. Born Sung Kook Hwang, he moved from South Korea to America as a child. Hwang grew up in a religious household (father=pastor, mother=missionary) and to very modest means. He taught himself English working night shifts at McDonald's.
Hwang studied at UCLA in the 80s and his first job after graduation was as an equity salesman at Hyundai Securities. While there, he met (and impressed) investing legend Julian Robertson, who ran Tiger Management hedge fund. Robertson hired Hwang and taught him the ropes.
In 2001, Robertson staked Hwang with $1.2bn to start Tiger Asia, a NYC-based fund picking Asian stocks. His investing style later came back to haunt him:
owning only a handful of stocks
targeting "heavily shorted" names
using leverage to juice his returns
For years, Hwang delivered the goods: notching 40-80% gains per annum, but in 2008 he got badly burned shortening Volkswagen (despite managing an Asia fund).
In 2012, Hwang shut down Tiger Asia, which managed more than $5bn at its peak, after it was hit with insider-trading allegations. He returned money to investors and started Archegos Capital. Archegos is Greek for "leader" or "prince of Christ".
Archegos began with $200m but grew quickly. To juice returns, Hwang deployed a financial instrument known as a Total Return Swaps (TRS). In exchange for a fee, he bet on the direction of a stock and gained exposure without paying full price (it effectively created 5x leverage).
By 2021, he was leaning on 6 prime broker bank partners for his TRSs: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Nomura, Deutsche Bank, UBS. Despite the potential risks, the banks were happy to take fees from such a whale. Without realizing it, they created a financial time bomb...
Due to the nature of the swaps, the prime brokers built up massive long positions in Archegos portfolio companies. While Archegos portfolio swelled to $15-20bn, it's total exposure was $100bn+.
Viacom was the trigger for Archegos' collapse. From the TSRs, Hwang had a $10bn stake in the media firm (its share price was up 8x in one year). One March 22, Viacom announced a ~$3bn secondary share sale. It led to a 20%+ sell-off and put huge pressure on Hwang's portfolio.
If a portfolio is levered 5x, it only takes a 15-20% sell-off to wipe an investor out. Hwang's banks met and discovered the scale of Archegos' scheme. They could work together to unwind the swaps...or beat each other to the exits. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley peaced out…
On March 26, all the banks exited the trades by selling large blocks of Archegos-linked companies ($20-30bn in total). Viacom declined ~30% on the day. Similar block sales in Shopify, Farfetch, Discovery and Chinese tech firms hammered the stocks.
While Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley got out in time, Nomura (-$2bn) and Credit Suisse (-$3bn) both took 9-figure losses. Archegos saw $100bn+ evaporate. Hwang personally lost $8bn in 10 days...some traders called it "the fastest loss of such a large sum they had ever seen.”
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Funding rounds
Dach
Bryter, the Berlin-based developer of a no-code automation platform intended to help consulting firms, banks, corporates, and public administration across the globe to digitize and scale their services, raised a €55m Series B led by Tiger Global, with participation from existing investors Accel, Dawn Capital, Notion Capital and Cavalry Ventures. The fundraise comes only 8 months after their Series A round, bringing the total capital raised to date to over €75.8m. Read more.
Robotise, the Munich-based manufacturer of autonomous service robots intended to solve everyday challenges, closed a €15m round. Previously, the company raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Bayern Kapital.
Adtriba, the Hamburg-based SaaS solution for holistic marketing measurement and optimization, raised c. €4m. Together with legacy investors Lightfield Equity, Jens Schumann, lead investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg (IFH), Seed + speed Ventures, and Aschendorff NEXT are investing in the start-up. Read more.
Charles, the Berlin-based operator of a conversational commerce platform intended to help brands manage and build relationships with their consumers via messaging apps, raised €6.4m of seed funding in a deal led by Accel and HV Capital. Other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
LiveEO, the Berlin-based developer of real-time earth observation (EO) technology intended for improved safety and operational efficiency, raised a €5.2m Series A from Helen Ventures, Motu Ventures and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures. b-to-v Partners, Andreas Kupke and Andreas Bechtolsheim also participated in the round. Read more.
France
Jow, the Saint-Denis-based developer and operator of grocery shopping portal intended to automate the grocery shopping process, raised $19.4m of venture funding from undisclosed investors.
Toopi Organics, the Bordeaux-based developer of a biotechnology platform intended to transform and recycle human urine for agriculture and industry, raised €3.8m of funding from ADEME (The French Agency for Ecological Transition). Read more.
Smartway, the Brest-based provider of food waste management solutions intended to address the issue of wastage of food products and get the best value out of it, raised €10m of venture funding in a deal led by Supernova Invest. Read more.
Cryptio, the Paris-based developer of a bookkeeping software designed to offer portfolio analytics and automatic tax report for cryptocurrency investors, raised a $1.2m Seed round in a deal led by Draper Associates. Consensys Mesh and 6 other investors also participated in the round. Read more.
UK & Ireland
MPB, the Brighton-based marketplace that specialises in used cameras and photographic equipment, raised £49.8m in funding. The Series D is being led by new backer Vitruvian Partners, with significant participation from Acton Capital. Mobeus Equity Partners, Beringea and FJ Labs also participated. Read more.
eola, the London-based developer of an online booking and management platform designed to create and book adventure sports and activities, raised €2.3m of venture funding in a deal led by Pentech Ventures. Read more.
Maxwellia, the Macclesfield-based developer of prescription to over-the-counter conversion technology and medicines intended to widen access to medicines for self-care, raised €3.7m led by Praetura Ventures. Other investors include the Future Fund, Catapult Ventures, Alderley Park Ventures and Biocity along with individual and angel investors. Read more.
Pole Star, the London-based developer of a data analytics platform intended to mitigate risk for the maritime services industry, received an undisclosed amount of development capital from Wavecrest Growth Partners and ABRY Partners. Read more.
Cyclr, the Eastbourne-based developer of cloud-based API-as-a-Service (AaaS) platform built to create, manage and deploy integrations, raised £2m of venture funding in a deal led by Blackfinch Ventures. Juno Capital and other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Anima, the London-based developer of a healthcare management application designed to get the right care at the right time, raised a $2.5m Seed round in a deal led by Hummingbird Ventures. Amino Collective and other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Nordcis
Bob W, the Helsinki-based tech-driven hospitality provider offering a smarter and more sustainable alternative to hotels and short-stay rentals, has secured €10m in seed funding. The first raising of the seed round of €4m last year was extended, and an additional €6m majority equity was raised. The investment round was led by byFounders VC and private equity outfit Finnish Industry Investment (Tesi). Other top European real estate and venture capitalist investors include Kaamos, Superangel, United Angels and NREP through its 2150 investment wing, which just launched with €200m to back sustainable urban technologies. Read more.
Kolonial, the Oslo-based start-up that offers same-day or next-day delivery of food, meal kits and home essentials raised €223m in an equity round of funding. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Prosus are co-leading the round, with past backers Kinnevik and a strategic investor, Norwegian “soft discount” chain REMA, also participating. It also announced its rebrand to Oda. Read more.
Ally, the Stockholm-based developer of a web-based platform intended to digitize and simplify medical examinations, diagnoses, vaccines and other care for which users need to go to the hospital, raised SEK 18.5m of venture funding from Brightly Ventures, Almi Invest and Palmstierna Invest. Read more.
Epulze, the Örebro-based (Sweden) developer of an esports platform designed to offer stake-to-play challenges, raised SEK 57m of venture funding from Svea Ekonomi, Knutsson Holdings and Carucel Finance. Read more.
Others
AppTweak, the Brussel-based App Store Optimization (ASO) platform driven by data science, raised a $22m Series B from early investor Media Group Rossel. Read more.
Blue dot, the Stroombaan-based (Netherlands) makers of an AI-driven, cloud-based tax compliance platform, closed a $32m funding round led by Ibex Investors in partnership with Lutetia Technology Partners. Previous investors Lamaison Partners, Viola and Target Global also participated in the round. Read more.
Bidrento, the Tallinn-based developer of a software technology platform designed to easily manage residential rentals and properties, raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding in a deal led by Timo Rein and Urmas Purde. Read more.
Spoko, the Warsaw-based operator of a mobile payment platform designed to impart safe and fast money transfer facilities to customers, raised €5m from strategic investor FinTech Ventures. Read more.
Segron, the Slovakia-based developer of a test automation platform designed to automate network testing, raised €4.5m of venture funding in a deal led by Credo Ventures and OTB Ventures. Other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Interesting SPACs
WeWork will go public via a merger with SPAC BowX Acquisition Corp at a $9bn valuation. The deal will see WeWork receive $1.3bn directly from BowX, in addition to raising another $800m in PIPE. Read more.
Investors
Tiger Global raised $6.65bn for its 13th flagship growth equity fund. Read more.
Providence Strategic Growth is raising $4bn for its fifth fund. Read more.
General Atlantic has set its sights on $5bn as the target for its fourth flagship fund to invest in growth equity deals. Read more.
Kaya VC closed Fund IV, Central Eastern European start-ups: $80M (€72M). Read more.
AVP announced it has completed a €250m first closing of AVP Growth Fund II, a fund dedicated to supporting future technology leaders. The final closing will bring the fund to €500m at the end of the year. Read more.
Good reads
ebay: eBay’s app will soon be able to scan Pokemon cards to sell them more easily.
Tesla: Tesla will now let you buy a car with Bitcoin, or at least try to.
Walmart: As it grows its marketplace, Walmart is doubling down on its fulfillment services.
Deliveroo: Deliveroo serves up a setback to London’s IPO hopes.
Substack: How long can the Substack party last?
Clubhouse: Clubhouse launches payments so creators can make money.
Chart of the week
Tiger Global’s deal pace is insane. In the first three months of this year, the 100-person New York firm funded more that 60 companies worldwide, averaging more than four deals per week!