🚗 Didi Goes Ding-Ding
Plus: Tiger Global & Softbank VF 2 make moves, content creators see boon, Amazon & Google win + Indonesia's soon-to-be most valuable startup
Wrapped Up Newsletter #21
Today’s Menu
Quick Bits: Uber + Didi give back
Done Deals: Tiger Global + Softbank are everywhere
What Else We're Following: Bessemer’s distribution & conversion tactics + ByteDance’s founder speaks
Jobs - Internships/Full-Time: 12 full-time jobs and internship postings
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Quick Bits 🌎
Recap in the West
Uber gives back to drivers post-pandemic with its $250m stimulus. Pinterest gives back to creators with its $500k Creator Fund. Waymo changes head honchos. Facebook has another data breach and the EU wants answers. You can soon speak with Spotify. Facebook takes a page out of Venmo's book as it grows P2P payments in the U.S. Supreme Court sides with Google in Oracle suit. Tesla breaks records. Clubhouse gives content creators credit where it's due. Google I/O will return virtually because of you-know-what. Twitter allegedly tried and failed to take over Clubhouse. YouTube wins big during the pandemic. It's a big year for Robinhood and a bigger year for crypto. Amazon's win against the union is a win for e-comm.
Recap in the East
Didi Chuxing readies its ride to a $100bn IPO. Indonesia's two most valuable startups inch closer to a merger. Tencent's largest shareholder cashes out and nets $15b. Chinese crypto mining rig maker Ebang gets exposed over stock market fraud. Joko Widodo sets $200b goal for Indonesia's new wealth fund. Jack Ma gets a lesson in starting his own business school. Chinese crypto exchange pledges record amount to UNICEF's CryptoFund. Huawei diversifies from telecoms to AV/EV amid US sanctions. Full disclosure, Amazon is growing in India. LG is shutting down its smartphone business.
Done Deals ✍🏼
Funding Rounds
Indian on-demand food delivery platform Swiggy (Series J) picks up $800m at a valuation of $4.9bn to build an enduring iconic company from India
Singapore-based retail analytics company Trax bags $640m (Series E) led by Softbank VF 2 and BlackRock to expand its products, which combine computer vision and cloud-based software to help offline stores manage inventory
Indian social network ShareChat raises $502m (Series E) led by Tiger Global at a valuation of $2.1bn, up from ~$650m last year
New York-based digital mortgage lender Better.com gets $500m from SoftBank at a $6bn valuation
New Delhi-based social commerce startup Meesho raises $300m (Series E) led by SoftBank VF 2 to become the single ecosystem that enables small businesses to succeed online
Oslo-based online grocery delivery startup Kolonial rebrands to Oda and receives $265m on a $900m valuation to expand into more markets, starting with Finland and Germany
Michigan-based OneStream, a company that develops FP&A software, gets $200m (Series B) at a $6bn valuation led by D1 Capital Partners
San Francisco’s Patreon, a platform that allows artists to be directly funded by their fans, raises $155m (Series F) led by Tiger Global, tripling its valuation to $4bn
Tel Aviv-founded database platform Redis Labs raises $110m (Series G) led by Tiger Global, bringing the company’s valuation up to $2bn
California-based messaging-as-a-service startup Sendbird raises $100m (Series C) led by Steadfast at a $1.05bn valuation, boasting over 150m users
Conversation messaging platform Gupshup gets $100m at a valuation of $1.4bn from Tiger Global
Bangalore-based Groww, an investment app for millennials, raises $83m (Series D) at more than a $1bn valuation, led by Tiger Global
London-based open banking platform TrueLayer raises $70m (Series D) led by Addition
Brighton-based used camera equipment marketplace MPB snaps up $69m (Series D) led by Vitruvian Partners to expand into more markets
Berlin-based no-code software platform Bryter bags $66m (Series B) led by Tiger Global to invest into its platform and expand in the U.S.
San Francisco’s Streamlit, a framework for creating and deploying data science applications, nabs $35m (Series B) from Sequoia and expands into new commercial offerings
São Paulo-based fintech Cora banks $26.7m (Series A) led by Ribbit Capital after growing to ~60,000 customers and 110 employees
Dublin-based no-code automation platform Tines gets $26m (Series B) at a $300m valuation led by Addition to free analysts from spending time on routine repetitive tasks
Israel's Empathy, a digital platform for families to deal with the loss of their loved ones, emerges from stealth and picks up $13m (Seed) led by General Catalyst and Aleph, launching first in the U.S.
Helsinki-based tech-driven hospitality provider Bob W raises $11.8m (Seed) led by Founders VC and PE firm Finnish Industry Investment
Berlin-based conversational-commerce SaaS startup Charles raises $7.5m (Seed) led by Accel and HV Capital to scale and meet existing demand for its platform
San Francisco-based and YC-backed finance SaaS Abacum bags $7m (Seed) led by Creandum to empower finance teams with real-time data and collaboration tools
New Funds
New York-based PE giant KKR closes a $15bn fund targeting consumption and urbanization in Asia – one of the largest PE funds dedicated to the APAC region
China's Source Code Capital, which has backed some of the country's largest tech companies, raises $1bn for early- and growth-stage startups in B2C industries
Paris-based AXA Venture Partners raises $295 million for a new growth fund, expecting a final closing at $589m
Global VC firm AVP completes a first closing of its $295 million fund for European & US tech companies
Backed by 35+ tech founders and European VC Atomico, Portugal’s newest VC Shilling Founders Fund locks in $35.6m to spend on early-stage startups
Exits: Acquisitions, IPOs & SPACs
Indian online learning giant Byju’s acquires Indian tutor Aakash, a 33-year-old chain of physical coaching centres, for nearly $1bn
Oslo-based employee engagement and learning platform Motimate gets acquired by Kahoot! at an enterprise value of $25m
Utah-based robotic exoskeleton maker Sarcos announces SPAC plans, valuing the deal at $1.3bn
Berlin-based micro-mobility firm TIER acquires app maker Makery and establishes a new tech hub in Budapest
What Else We're Following 👀
What defines a company culture? What we can learn about culture working for Zuck vs. Bezos (Dan Rose on Twitter)
Tiger Global is determined to make its “investment flywheel spin faster” (The Information)
"When paired together, distribution and conversion have a pyrotechnic result — the combination produces a powerful chain reaction for emerging businesses." Bessemer Venture Partners discusses distribution and conversion models for consumer startups (BVP)
"Everyone is an ordinary person." ByteDance’s founder Zhang Yiming on doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind (Kr-Asia)
"The gender imbalance in startup funding in central and eastern Europe has actually worsened." How COVID-19 exacerbated the disparity in funding between female and male founders (Sifted)
Some (more) tips on how to pitch effectively (Medium)
Jobs - Internships/Full-Time 👩🏽💼
We have created a Notion page dedicated to aggregating job opportunities (internships & full-time). You can find this week’s job postings here.
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👋 Hey there! We are Jeff, Dom and Vas, coming to you live from INSEAD in Singapore. Thanks for reading Wrapped Up.
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