- Dog walking: Recode reported that SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBF, OTCPK:SFTBY) invested $300M in dog walking app Wag. SoftBank’s Vision Fund will receive a 45% stake in the startup and two board seats, which allows users in more than 100 U.S. cities to find a verified dog walker.
- CEO and co-founder Josh Viner stepped down ahead of the investment and former LifeLock head Hilary Schneider stepped up into the role.
- The original investment was supposed to be $100M, but SoftBank raised the offer as discussions continued. SoftBank supplied the entire investment and none of it went to buying out existing shareholders. Wag was valued at $650M in the transaction.
- Competitor: Rover has raised over $160M in funding from the likes of Menlo Ventures, Foundry Group, and Spark Capital.
- Big grocer: Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) led a $300M corporate round into online grocer Bigbasket, which brings the Indian company up to a $950M valuation with $885.7M in total funding. Other investors included Abraaj Group and Bessemer Venture Partners. Bigbasket previously held investment talks with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT).
- Groceries account for about $600B o India’s $399B retail market.
- Competitors: Online retailer Flipkart ($7.3B in total funding, SoftBank backing) and Grofers ($180.3M in total funding, SoftBank backing).
- Air taxi: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Toyota (NYSE:TM), and Jet Blue (NASDAQ:JBLU) were involved in a $100M Series B round in air taxi startup Joby Aviation. The round brings total funding up to $130M.
- The round will help the company develop its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air tax prototype supposedly in testing at the company’s private airfield in Northern California.
- Competitors: Air taxi development is a crowded field with Boeing (NYSE:BA), Airbus (OTCPK:EADSF, OTCPK:EADSY), Uber (Private:UBER), Intel-backed Volocopter, and startup Kitty Hawk among the players.
- Pea protein: Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) was among the investors in a $65M round for pea protein “milk" startup Ripple Foods. The round brings total funding up to $110M for the two-year-old company. Euclidean Capital led the round with other participants Khosla Ventures, Fall Line Capital, and S2G Ventures.
- Ripple created Ripptein, a pea protein the company claims is stripped of the “funky flavor” found in some plant-based protein substitutes. In development: pea milk ice creams.
- Competitors: Campbell Soup Company’s (NYSE:CPB) Bolthouse Farms brand has a completing pea milk product.
- Big data: Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) were among the investors in a $48M Series D round in big data startup Trifacta. The round brings total funding up to $124M and gives Trifacta a valuation of about $258M, according to PitchBook.
- Trifacta is a “data wrangler” that combines machine learning with human workers to query and organize data for various insights including risk analysis, IoT deployment, and customer relations.
- Competitors: GoodData ($101.2M in funding, Intel among backers), Looker ($117.5M in funding, backers include Goldman Sachs), and Sisense ($94M in funding) stand out in a crowding field.
- 3D LED: Intel Capital participated in a $36M Series C round for 3D LED developer and manufacturer Aledia. The round brings total funding up to $43.8M. Other backers included Braemar Energy Ventures, Demeter, the Ecotechnologies Fund of Bpifrance, and IKEA Group.
- Aledia plans to use the fund to speed up its LED tech development with new equipment. The startup is currently developing LEDs manufactured on 200mm/8-in. silicon wafers scalable to 300mm/12-inch that are targeted at mobile displays.
- Telehealth: Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) participated in a $25M round in telehealth company Tyto Care. The startup has the option to expand funding to $28M in the coming months. The initial round brings total funding up to $41.6M. Ping An Global Voyager Fund led the round with participation from Cambia Health Solutions, Orbimed, Fosun Pharma, LionBird and Qure.
- Tyto Care has three products: TytoHome for consumers, TytoPro for professionals, and TytoClinic for remote point-of-care locations. The company will use the funding to continue expansions into the US and Asian markets, the latter made easier by a financing-related strategic partnership with Ping An.
- Competitors: Include Doctor on Demand ($86.7M in funding, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) among backers) and Teladoc (NYSE:TDOC).
- Computer vision: GV (formerly Google Ventures), Home Depot (NYSE:HD), and Standard Industries led a $25M Series B round in computer vision startup Hover, which lets consumers easily create 3D models of their home. The round brings total fundraising to above $56M.
- Hover users take pictures around the home, upload the photos into the Hover 3D app, and it produces a 3D model of the home. Hover can then connect the user to local contractors, who can use the 3D model for giving a quote.
- Previously: SoftBank among backers of $175M AI Fund (Jan. 30)
- Now read: The New Corner Drug Store
3rd party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Investing.com. See disclosure here or
remove ads
.
Original article