Funding Room | 4 February
What hat are you wearing?
Funding Rounds
Dach
Agile Robots, the Munich-based developer of an intelligent robotic platform designed to facilitate safe human-robot-interaction, raised a $130m Series A from New Hope Group (China), Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital China. Linear Venture, BoCom International, CMB International Capital and other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Compeon, the Dusseldorf-based provider of a platform for financial services brokerage, raised a $18m Series C led by Iris Capital, NRW.BANK and Qatar development bank. The company works with around 300 established banks, savings banks and alternative financial partners. Read more.
eGym, the Munich-based gym equipment startup, raised €28m after a year of business cuts and downsized dreams. The new funding comes from previous backers Nokia Growth Capital, Highland Europe, HPE Growth Capital and Bayern Kapital. Prior to the pandemic, the company had raised $100m in funding. Read more.
France
Chefclub, the Paris-based food-focused media brand on social media platforms, raised $17m in funding led by First Bridge Ventures. SEB Alliance, the venture arm of kitchen appliance maker Groupe SEB, Korelya Capital and Algaé Ventures are also participating. Read more.
Opencell, the Dijon-based developer of an integrated revenue management platform designed to manage subscriptions and usage from start to finish, raised a €6.8m Series A led by Seventure Partners, Alliance Entreprendre and its historic investor Capital Grand Est. Read more.
SESAMm, the Paris-based developer of financial software designed to detect online information useful to investors, raised a c. $9m Series B led by NewAlpha Asset Management and the Carlyle Group. Read more.
Tchek, the Marseille-based developer of an integrated vehicle diagnostic device designed to facilitate inspection of automobiles in real time, raised a $3m Seed round led by Région Sud Investissement. Read more.
Vroomly, the Paris-based developer of an online price comparison platform intended to create trust between car and garage owners, raised $5m from Via ID. Read more.
UK
Ben, the London-based developer of a human resource platform intended to improve the relationship between companies and their teams, raised a c.$2.5m Seed round led by Cherry Ventures and Seedcamp. Read more.
CybSafe, the London-based developer of a cybersecurity and data analytics software designed to create a safe and better digital world for all people, raised a c.$7.5m Series A led by IQ Capital with participation from Hanover Digital Investments (HDI) GmbH and B8 Ventures. Read more.
Limitless, the London-based AI-driven gig customer experience platform, raised a $10m Series B led by Redline Capital with participation from Genesys, AlbionVC and Unilever Ventures. Read more.
LoveCrafts, the London-based online crafts specialist, raised $22m in new funding from Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), Highland Europe and Balderton Capital, alongside Silicon Valley-based debt provider TriplePoint Capital. It has also acquired WEBS - America’s Yarn Store following the fund raise. Read more.
Phocas Software, the Coventry-based cloud-based BI and data analytics solution for the manufacturing, distribution, and retail industries, raised $45m in new funding led by Ellerston Capital with inclusion from existing investor OneVentures. Read more.
Vortexa, a London-based energy intelligence provider, raised a $19m Series B led by monashees with participation from all existing investors, including Notion Capital, Mosaic Ventures and Metaplanet Holdings. Read more.
Provar, the London-based test automation platform for Salesforce worldwide, raised a $17m Series A from Kennet Partners. Read more.
Nordics
Flowhaven, the Espoo-based licensing relationship management platform (LRM), raised a $16m Series A led by Sapphire Sport - a branch of Sapphire Ventures -with participation from existing investors Global Founders Capital and Icebreaker.vc. Read more.
Greater Than, the Stockholm-based provider of AI underwriting and digital insurance solutions for OEMs and insurance carriers on a global market, raised c.$16m from Cuarto, a subsidiary of Nidoco Group. Read more.
Others
Holded, the Barcelona-based developer of business management software designed to simplify task management, raised a $19m Series B led by Elaia, together with Lakestar, Nauta Capital and SeedRocket. Read more.
HousingAnywhere, the Rotterdam-based rental accommodation platform for mid-term stays, raised a $29m Series C from Real Web. Read more.
Nomo, the Barcelona-based provider of business management tools for SMEs and solo traders, raised a €2.5m Seed round from Banco Sabadell after having been spun out from the bank. Read more.
Soda, the Brussel-based provider of a data monitoring platform that streamlines how teams find the data worth fixing, raised a €11.5m Series A led by Singular with returning participation from seed investors Point Nine Capital, Hummingbird Ventures, DCF and angel investors. Read more.
Scalapay, the Milan-based third-party payment solution that enables customers to buy now and pay later (BNPL) without interest, raised a €40m seed round led by Fasanara Capital and also included Baleen Capital, and Italian Family Office Ithaca Investments. Read more.
Telemedico, the Warsaw-based provider of a B2B telehealth medicine platform, raised a $6.6m series A lead by Flashpoint Venture Capital, Uniqa Ventures, PKO VC, Black Pearls VC and Adamed. Read more.
Wallbox, the Barcelona-based maker of smart charging solutions for electric vehicles, raised c.$39m in funding. The round was co-led by Cathay Innovation and Wind Ventures with participation from Iberdrola and Seaya Ventures. Read more.
Gamespot & Robinhood
The story was covered by multiple outlets so we won’t be going into detail, but here is a good summary:
Also, Brad Feld wrote a post titled GameStop Phenomenon - it’s got a lot of good stuff in it.
SpaceX
Two days ago, SpaceX conducted a high-altitude flight test of its Starship prototype SN9. For SpaceX, the ability of Starship to successfully perform controlled vertical landings is critical. These landings, combined with in-space refuelling, will allow the rocket to land at “destinations across the solar system where prepared surfaces or runways do not exist, and returning to Earth,” according to SpaceX. Just like the SN8 test, the prototype crashed on landing, but the reason this time seems to be that one of the rocket’s three Raptor engines failed to re-ignite.
Stadia
Last week, we wrote about the future of cloud gaming (if you’ve missed it - click here) and two days ago Google Stadia announced that it is planning to shut down its internal development studio and divert all resources to enticing third-party developers to launching games on Google Stadia. What a setback! Here some thoughts on what went wrong:
1# In the history of the game industry, first party content has been required for the success of platforms. Mario for Nintendo, Uncharted for Sony, HL2 for Steam. Microsoft knew this when they bought Bungie to release the Xbox.
#2 You can’t just come to market and have the same games but fewer and non-exclusive. Epic’s found that success with Fortnite, which enabled its ability to create the Epic Game Store.
#3 Without first party, you’ll have the same content as everyone else. All other platforms are paying for exclusives to drive users as part of this war.
#4 Why buy games on Steam? Because the rest of your library is there. Game platforms are sticky because of their network effects. Other users play there, so your library grows there. That begins because of Half Life 2, because of Fortnite, because of Halo.
#5 In today's industry there is a massive battle for content, and exclusivity’s opportunity cost is so expensive, it is CHEAPER to acquire (see Microsoft’s purchase of Zenimax) than to pay for exclusivity, which ends up to be only a time window.
#6 There is no strategy that relies on merely publishing third parties that doesn’t result in failure. Third parties still have to develop exclusives, and those exclusives are going to be tremendously expensive, and take time, the very reasons first party is being shuttered.
Check out Jacob Navok’s twitter feed for more reasons on why Stadia failed.
Startup Of The Week
Product
Team management and performance dashboard for engineering teams, to deliver projects faster, improve quality and reduce meeting loads
Investors
Sequoia Capital, Y-Combinator
Revenue Model
SaaS subscription
Amazon
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is to step down as chief executive of the e-commerce giant that he started in his garage over 20 years ago. Time to watch an interview with Bezos from 1999!
Also, Amazon has been crushing it - take a look at Benedict Evans’ tweet:
Investors
Bond Capital, the growth equity spinout from Kleiner Perkins, is raising $1.5bn for its second fund. Read more.
GGV Capital raised $2.52bn for a family of new VC funds, including $1.46bn for its eighth flagship vehicle. Read more.
Verdane raised €540m for its second growth equity fund focused on Northern Europe. Read more.
Atomico, a European VC firm, promoted Ben Blume to partner. Read more.
Providence Strategic Growth raised €1.25bn for its first Europe-focused fund. Read more.
One Peak Partners, a London-based growth equity firm, promoted Christoph Mayer to partner. Read more.
Thought Of The Week
I wear many hats, and I suppose you do as well. I wear my business owner hat when I run/manage my company, my investor hat when I play VC, and my consultant hat when I head off to multiple meetings that seem to define the startup consultant world I live in. Of course, I wear my father hat, husband hat, football coach hat, and the hat that seems to get worn the least–the self hat. But what hat are you wearing when you are on Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is great (no doubt about that), but it lacks transparency. Are you on the platform because your PR company thought it would boost your reach or do you actually want to meet likeminded people? I am not saying that everyone has a hidden agenda, but what kind of hats people are wearing is not always clear to me. Some food for thought...