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Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, became the mayor of the Internet after building what became one of the largest social media platforms in the world. Through the power of online communities, as demonstrated through the uprising of GameStop and other meme stocks, he cultivated a virtual world that gave individuals (aka Redditors) the power to influence the offline world and shake up physical institutions.
Ohanian’s creative tendencies have given the co-founder the innate ability to discover ways to rethink the fundamental underpinnings of legacy institutions and rebuild systems, systems that are, more often than not, inequitable and biased. In his most recent endeavor to shake up the very system that has built up high-flying startups, including Reddit, Ohanian has formally closed his first $150m fund this past week for his newly formed VC firm Seven Seven Six.
What has been a milestone within a prolonged journey to redefine VC, the creation of Seven Seven Six is premised on disruption under several key elements.
As software is, indeed, eating the world, the firm believes VC isn’t insusceptible to the phenomenon as well. In response, Seven Seven Six has pioneered a software called “Cerebro”, which is a platform that meshes features from Reddit with productivity tools like Notion and Roam Research.
In hopes of promoting diversity and inclusion at its core, the firm has attracted an equitable share of women, Black and indigenous investors to be its backers.
In an industry traditionally known to be opaque and difficult to break into, Seven Seven Six strives to maintain public transparency to attract founders of all kind and has created an operator-in-residence program to train future investors-operators coming from diverse backgrounds.
These are just stepping stones aimed to level the playing field for those who aspire to become entrepreneurs and investors. Although its efforts are commendable thus far, Ohanian needs to ensure the firm’s track record meets the expectations set forth to him. Only then, are we able to judge whether or not the needle was moved in the right direction.
With 17 deals already made in the books, the fund aims to (co)/lead future seed investments. Some of its current portfolio companies include sports card trading platform Alt, photo-sharing app Dispo and plant-based protein maker Simulate.
- Jeff
Quick Bits 🌎
Recap in the West
Bezos is going to space. The heydays of cheap Ubers and Airbnb rentals are over. Covid isn’t stopping crypto enthusiasts from preaching at Bitcoin 2021. Hybrid workplaces versus remote work. Following Coinbase and Basecamp, Medium stands its ground on workplace behavior and culture. TikTok and WeChat are safe from Trump’s ban. LinkedIn bets on virtual events. Facebook gets in late to the smartwatch game. A critique over Y Combinator’s handling over dissent. Congress moves forward to break up Big Tech and boost tech research. Biden’s tax proposal over carried interest is spooking VC firms. Californians can now access driverless vehicles for free. Bank of England offers its cautious take on digital currencies.
Done Deals ✍🏼
🏦 Brazil’s Nubank raises $750m (Series G extension) led by Berkshire Hathaway, after ringing in $400m this past January, at a valuation of $30bn. Nubank is the largest digital bank in the world with 40m customers.
🌱 Hawaii-based Terraformation, a startup aiming to help companies and countries meet the net zero carbon goals of the future through rapid reforestation, closes $30m led by Sam & Max Altman to help restore 3bn acres of native ecosystems using tech such as solar panel-powered desalination.
🛍️ Aimed to help small businesses thrive digitally, online wholesale marketplace Faire bags $260m at a $7bn valuation led by Sequoia Capital to continue expanding into categories like food and apparel and further tap into the $1T European market.
✍️ French startup Yousign, an e-signature provider that complies with European regulation on digital signatures, gets $36.6m (Series A) led by Lead Edge Capital to expand its reach to more European SMBs and hire more talent.
💁♀️ London-based beauty and wellness booking service Fresha raises $100m (Series C) led by General Atlantic to fund acquisitions, build more complementary services and expand and grow the categories of companies that use its services, including those who specialize in mental health and fitness.
Recap in the East
Didi Chuxing’s massive $100bn valuation. A deep dive into China’s toxic work culture. Gojek workers go on strike under new incentive scheme. Chinese e-grocery giants Dingdong Maicai and Missfresh get a taste of the public markets. Disgraced Luckin founder learns from his mistakes. Shopee quietly breaks into LatAm. Alibaba bets on self-driving trucks and Foodpanda on driverless delivery. SoftBank puts its money where its mouth is on diversity in Europe. Thailand jumps the hype train and aims to issue its own central bank digital currency. Alibaba Cloud plugs $1bn into APAC startups, expanding beyond China. KKR addresses Japan’s labor shortage. Neobanks reaches a milestone in the Philippines. Traveloka has a data privacy issue. ByteDance blasts Tencent, again.
Done Deals ✍🏼
🏫 Edtech giant Byju’s becomes the most valuable startup in India after raising $350m from UBS Group, Zoom founder Eric Yuan, Blackstone and others at a post-money valuation of $16.5bn to eat up more startups.
🚗 Singapore-based online used car marketplace Carro hits unicorn status after raising $360m (Series C) led by SoftBank VF 2. The funding will be used to fund acquisitions, expand its financial services portfolio and retail services, and develop its AI capabilities for use cases including insurance policy charges and pricing strategies.
👨👩👧👧 Jakarta-based BukuWarung, a fintech focused on Indonesia’s MSMEs, gets $60m (Series A) at an estimated valuation of $225m led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital. This is the largest Series A round ever raised by a startup focused on services for MSMEs.
🐟 India-based online food produce company Licious (Series F) raises $65m from investors including Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Brunei Investment Agency and Vertex Ventures in its aim to hit $141m in revenue across 7 cities by 2023.
📝 India’s Classplus, a startup that develops web and mobile-based tutor enablement applications to help tutors connect with students and parents, raises $25m from Tiger Global, marking the VC’s fourth investment into the Indian edtech sector. Tiger Global has invested in Byju’s, Unacademy and Vedantu.
What Else We're Following 👀
A thread on Mark Zuckerberg’s fighter mentality when growing Facebook (Twitter)
The art of pursuing a project on one’s own - great read! (Paul Graham’s Essays)
“Speculating on the popularity of memes and their staying power is no different than any other form of speculation.” Fred Wilson changes his view on meme stocks (AVC)
Will the future of work be remote, in-person or a hybrid of both? (a16z)
Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear tweets key lessons (and hard truths) on the company’s 10th anniversary (Twitter)
A deeper look into the battle between GoTo and Chinese Big Tech in Southeast Asia (KRASIA)
Who’s Hiring 👩🏽💼
We will get back to you next week on job postings!
Feedback time!! 🙏
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