MultiVersial Research: Primera semana

Nov 28th, weekly mail

Index:

1. Analyst Reports (Ir a la sección)

2. Tech verticals (Ir a la sección)

   1. IA

   2. Hardware & chips

   3. Blockchain & cripto

   4. CiberSecurity

3. Follow the money (Ir a la sección)

   1. Startups raising money

   2. Investors raising funds

   3. M&A transactions and Private Equity

   4. Companies looking for a buyer

   5. IPO, Direct listing, SPAC etc…

   6. Ease your Fomo (Ir a la sección)

---

1º Analyst Reports:

• Q3 Tech Valuations

• European Q3 valuations

• Generative AI: A Creative New World

• Fintech: The challenger bank playbook

---

2º Tech verticals:

IA

• Kite, a startup that used AI to help devs code, shuts down, saying state-of-the-art ML models don't understand the structure of code and too few devs would pay

• A look at Unstable Diffusion, which is trying to monetize AI porn generators; the group migrated from a subreddit to Discord, where it has over 45,000 members 

• Interviews with lawyers, analysts, and employees at AI startups on unresolved questions concerning copyright and fair use shaping the future of generative AI 

• China tops the US to take the top spot in research papers accepted by the prestigious International Solid-State Circuits Conference for its 2023 event 

Hardware & chips

• Research: discrete and integrated GPU shipments fell 25.1% YoY to 75.5M in Q3, desktop GPUs fell 15.43% YoY, and notebook 30% YoY, the biggest drop since 2009 

• An interview with AMD CEO Lisa Su on AMD's success at catching up to Intel, huge bets on custom chips, the PC slump, export restrictions to China, and more 

• A look at the 5G network challenges faced by telecom operators, including intense competition, tapering consumer demand, and sufficiency of 4G speeds 

Blockchain & cripto

• A New York judge issues a default ruling against two Russians Google accused of running a botnet infecting 1M+ devices, ordering them to pay Google's legal fees 

• FTX users flock to Telegram to reckon with their potential losses, where some say they believed FTX's links to the US made it unusually safe 

• Analysis: FTX Ventures, which launched a $2B fund in January 2022, participated in 47 venture rounds that raised ~$3B, with the firm leading or co-leading 19 

• DCG's Grayscale refuses to share proof of reserves, citing “security concerns”, as Grayscale Bitcoin Trust reaches new lows and DCG's Genesis halts withdrawals

• US DOJ says two Estonians were arrested for a $575M cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme that allegedly defrauded hundreds of thousands of investors 

• A look at Gary Gensler's plan to regulate most crypto as securities and questions over the SEC's handling of FTX, which met the regulator before its implosion 

• How centralized crypto exchanges could offer “proof of solvency” while protecting depositors' privacy by using ZK-SNARKs, a type of zero-knowledge proof 

• An interview with Brian Armstrong on crypto and economic freedom, Coinbase's “no politics in the workplace” policy, the crypto downturn, regulation, and more 

• SBF claims FTX had ~$60B in collateral in spring 2022, before a credit squeeze, market selloff, and “run on the bank” reduced it to $9B and led to bankruptcy

• A look at a letter from March by four GOP and four Democratic House members discouraging the SEC from probing crypto firms; five had donations from FTX staff 

• New York becomes the first US state to restrict crypto-mining as Gov. Kathy Hochul signs a bill imposing a two-year moratorium on permits at fossil fuel plants 

• Sources: Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao met with investors in Abu Dhabi last week to raise money for a crypto industry recovery fund

• A Netherlands court finds Tornado Cash developer Alexey Perstev is a flight risk and must remain in jail until February 20, 2023; Perstev was jailed in August

• US Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Durbin, and Tina Smith ask Fidelity to reconsider its upcoming Bitcoin 401(k) offerings announced in April 2022 

• Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says the exchange aims for a ~$1B fund to buy distressed assets and plans to make another bid for bankrupt lender Voyager Digital

CiberSecurity

• Microsoft says hackers used vulnerabilities in Boa web server, discontinued in 2005 but pervasive across IoT devices, to target the Indian power sector 

• Google blocklisted two Chrome “SearchBlox” extensions with 200K+ installs, after discovery of a backdoor that can be used to steal Roblox credentials and assets

• Victims of hacked Facebook accounts say Meta's customer support is largely unhelpful; Meta has no new initiatives for helping people recover their accounts 

• Overview of Xi Jinping's efforts to bolster China's hacking teams, already skilled in espionage, by focusing on cultivating talent and funding security research 

• 1Password unveils “passkeys” that replace passwords for secure user logins to apps on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, and Linux, coming in early 2023

• UK police, Europol, Dutch police, and others dismantle online phone number spoofing service iSpoof and arrest 146 people, including the suspected mastermind 

---

3º Follow the money

Startups raising money:

Startup name (Category), Round size, investment (millions of dólares) and investors.

• ISEE (Logística, vehículos autónomos), Serie B: 40M$ de Founders fund

• Parallel Domain (Data platform, vehículos autónomos), Serie B: 30M$; March Capital.

• Pickle Robot Company (robots at warehouses),Serie A: 26M$, Ranpak, JS Capital, Soros Capital.

• Swell (Virtual power plant),Series B: 120M$, SoftBank and Greenbacker Development Opportunities

• Prosper (SF-based lending platform), $75m, Neuberger Berman.

• Celebal Technologies (Indian software consultancy), $32m, Norwest Venture Partners.

• Ramani (Tanzanian fintech), Series A: 32M$, Flexcap Ventures.

• PayZen (health care financing tools), $20m, 7wire Ventures

• Nymbl Science (digital training for older adults),Series B: $12m, Cobalt Ventures and Outcomes Collective Growth Capital, 450 Ventures.

• Validic (remote care startup), $12m. Kaiser Permanente Ventures Arkin Digital Health, Green Park & Golf Ventures, Ziegler, Gore Range Capital, Greycroft Partners and SJF Ventures.

• Segmed (medical imaging startup), Seed: $5.2m. Nina Capital, iGan Partners, M3 Inc, Mighty Capital, Expeditions Fund and Alchemist Accelerator.

• RedBrick AI (medical imagery annotations solutions), $4.6m  Sequoia India and Southeast Asia.

• Saile (sales bots), Seed funding: $1.35m . Valor Ventures, KCRise Fund. 

• Bira 91 (Indian craft brewer), $70m  Kirin Holdings.

• CatalYm (immunotherapies developer) Serie C: €50m Brandon Capital  Jeito Capital Forbion, Novartis Venture Fund, Vesalius Biocapital III, Bayern Kapital, BioGeneration Ventures and Coparion.

• WorkJam (worker management app), Series D: $50m Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Inovia Capital Blumberg Capital and Demopolis Equity Partners.

• Cobee, (benefits app), Series B: €40m, Octopus Ventures,  Notion Capital Balderton Capital, Speedinvest and Dila Capital.

• Laundrygo (on-demand laundry service), Serie C: $37m . H&Q Korea SoftBank Ventures, Altos Ventures, Aju IB, KB Securities, Hanwha Securities, Badgers Investment, Pebbles Investment and Musinsa.

• Continuum, (metal recycler), $36m from Ara Partners. 

• Care.ai, (ambient clinical sensing tech), $27m  Crescent Cove Advisors. 

• Taktile (SaaS for automated business decisions), Serie A: $20m Index Ventures and Tiger Global.

• Turbine (cell stimulation platform, predicting cancer treatment effectiveness), Serie A: €20m Mercia, MSD Global Health Innovation Fund Day One Capital, Accel, Delin Ventures andhttps://www.axios.com/pro/retail-deals/2022/11/22/apphub-acquires-reviewsio-72-million-shopify-magento XTX Ventures.

• Freight Farms, (vertical farming company) Series B: $17.5m Aliaxis SA,Ospraie Ag Science, Spark Capital, Stage 1 Ventures and Alkaline Partners.

• Namecoach, (name pronunciation tech), $8m in Series A: Impact America Fund, Authentic Ventures, Metaplanet, Founders Fund, Engage VC, Ai Sprouts Fund I, GTM Fund, 640 Oxford, Transcend Network, Asymmetry Ventures, Forefront Venture Partners, Network.VC, Harbor Street Ventures, Seabed VC. 

• SocialClimb, (patient acquisition and health care marketing startup): $8.5m co-led by Spring Capital Partners and Resolve Growth.

•  Wesper, (home sleep lab and virtual sleep disorder treatments), $7.5m Series A Ceros Capital Markets.

• Clerk, (authentication and user management solution for React), $6.2m seed:  Andreessen Horowitz, S28 Capital, Fathom Capital, and South Park Commons. 

• Carv, (decentralized identity startup), $4m Vertex. 

• Leta (B2B supply chain and logistics SaaS) $3m The 4Di Capital, Chandaria Capital, Chui Ventures, PANI, Samurai Incubate and Verdant Frontiers Fintech. 

• FogPharma (precision medicines developer) $178m Serie D Arch Venture Partners, Fidelity, Milky Way Investments, VenBio Partners, Deerfield Management, GV, Cormorant Asset Management, T. Rowe Price, Invus, Farallon Capital Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Casdin Capital and PagsGroup. 

• SponsorUnited, (brand sponsorship marketplace), $35m Serie A Spectrum Equity.

• Fairmat, (recycled carbon fiber composite tech) €34m in Serie A. Temasek  CNP, Pictet Group, Singular and The Friedkin Group International. 

• Diffblue (autonomous AI-for-code software) $8m. Albion VC IP Group, Parkwalk, Hostplus & Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund.

• Beam, (public benefit administration platform), $6.4m in Serie A Potencia Ventures, Spring Point Partners, American Family Insurance Institute, Corporate & Social Impact, Imaginable Futures, Lumina Impact Ventures, Michelson Runway and Schmidt Futures.

• Surfboard, (collaborative planning tool for support teams) $5m Speedinvest, Fly Ventures and Seedcamp.

• Astera Labs, (chipmaker), $150m Serie D. Fidelity Atreides Management, Intel Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures. 

• Spot AI, (CCTV security camera tech), $40m. Scale Venture Partners, StepStone Group, Modern Venture Partners and insiders Redpoint Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. 

• Speak, (English language learning platform) $27m Series B. OpenAI Startup Fund, Founders Fund, Lachy Groom, Justin Mateen and Gokul Rajaram. 

• Soft Robotics, (food industry automation startup), $26m Serie C  Tyson Ventures.

• Service 1st Financial, (fintech for home contractors), $20m Serie B S2G Ventures.

• Upstart Power, (solid oxide fuel cell manufacturer), $17m Serie C. Itochu Corp., Enphase Energy, Sunnova, Rodgers Capital, H+ Partners and Felix Ventures.

• Narwhal, (build system for JavaScript code), $8.6m seed Nexus Venture Partners and Andreesen Horowitz.

• Zulu, (digital wallet), $5m seed. Cadenza Ventures, Nexo Ventures, Simplex, CMT Digital and Gaingels. 

• Anode Labs, (web3 platform for tokenizing energy storage assets), $4.2m. Lerer Hippeau and Lattice, VaynerFund, CoinShares and Digital Currency Group.

• Electric Era, (EV charging station startup) $4m seed Blackhorn Ventures, Proeza Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Remus Capital. Electric Era.

• Sematic, (open-source continuous ML platform), $3m seed. Race Capital , YC, Leonis Capital and Pioneer Fund.

Investors raising funds

• Foresight Ventures, (crypto), $10m incubator program.

• Fort Ross Ventures $150m (seed fund) and $200m (late-stage fund).

• Stonepeak Partners $15b and $20b(North American infrastructure fund), per Reuters.

• Ford Street Ventures, $20m (2º fondo)

• Apollo Global Management  $2.4b (long-only credit fundará comprar LBO bank loans). 

• HarbourVest $4.2b (6º co-investment fund).

•  HC9 Ventures, (1º fund) health care software and services startup, $83m for its debut fund.

• Kohlberg & Co. $5b (10º fondo). https://axios.link/3Ev2gZf

•  Morgan Stanley Investment Management $1b private equity fund (decarbonization).

• Seaside Equity Partners $218m (2º fund) $225m.

• Navis Capital Partners, PE firm $350m (1º private credit fund)

M&A transactions and Private Equity

• Blackstone to acquire a 52% stake in R Systems, a publicly traded Indian IT services company, for $359M 

• AppHub, a Boston-based e-commerce software provider backed by Silversmith Capital Partners, acquired Reviews.io, a British customer reviews platform, for $72m

• Hellman & Friedman and Permira completed their $10.2b take-private acquisition of Zendesk, an SF-based customer engagement software provider. 

• Independent Franchise Partners will oppose the proposed recombination of Fox Corp. (Nasdaq: FOXA) and News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA). 

• Chipper Cash, an SF-based cross-border payments company focused on Africa, agreed to buy Zoona, a Zambian online payment and agent services business. Chipper Cash has raised $300m, most recently at a $2.2b valuation, while Zoona raised $25m from firms like AHL Venture Partners, Quona Capital and the IFC.

• Global Infrastructure Partners agreed to sell Indian renewable energy producer Vector Green Energy for $345m to Singapore-listed Sembcorp Industries.

• Quadrant Private Equity pulled the auction for Australian amusement center operator The Entertainment and Education Group, for which it had sought A$1b bids, per The Australian. www.teeg.com

• Quantifeed, a Hong Kong-based automated investment platform whose VC backers include HSBC, acquired Alpima, a London-based asset management startup that raised $2m from Eight Roads and Fidelity International Strategic Ventures. 

• Atoss Software, a listed German workforce management software firm, is exploring strategic options after receiving PE takeover offers, per Bloomberg.

• Clayton Dubilier & Rice is in talks to invest around $1b into Pegasystems (Nasdaq: PEGA), a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of customer engagement and business process automation software whose market cap is nearing $3b, per Bloomberg.

• CIVC Partners made a minority investment in Signers National, a New York-based niche insurance distribution platform.

• EQT, KKR and PAG are the final bidders for London-based data center operator Global Switch, which is expected to fetch more than $10b, per Bloomberg. 

• Millstone Medical Outsourcing, a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners, acquired MycoScience, a Willington, Conn.-based contract manufacturing organization. 

• Motive Partners, a fintech-focused PE firm led by Blythe Masters, agreed to acquire German VC firm embedded/capital.

• RedBird Capital Partners has committed a minimum of $100m to Artists Equity, an independent production company formed by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

• Silver Lake agreed to sell ServiceMax, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based provider of field service management software, to PTC (Nasdaq: PTC) for $1.46b.

• Amagi, a New York-based developer of SaaS for broadcast and connected TV, acquired Streamwise, a Rye, N.Y.-based data aggregation and reporting platform for content distributors. Amagi is valued at over $1.4b by VCs, while Streamwise backers include JDS Sports.

• TF1 and M6, France's top two television networks, are selling their stakes in French streaming service Salto, per Variety. 

• Culture Partners, a Temecula, Calif.-based portfolio company of HKW, acquired Paradigm Learning, a Seminole, Fla.-based provider of gamified leadership development products. 

• The Rohatyn Group agreed to acquire Ethos Private Equity, an Africa-focused alt asset manager. www.ethos.co.za

• Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) agreed to buy South SF-based cancer drugmaker Imago BioSciences (Nasdaq: IMGO) for $1.35b in cash, or $36 per share (107% premium over Friday’s closing price).

• Accel-KKR acquired Salary.com, a Waltham, Mass.-based provider of compensation data and software, from H.I.G. Capital. 

•  Gallant Capital Partners invested in Lightning Step, a Houston-based provider of EMR and practice management software for the behavioral health industry. www.lightningstep.com

• International Chemical Investors acquired Benvic, a French thermoplastics maker, from Investindustrial. www.benvic.com

• San Francisco Equity Partners acquired DGS Retail, a Chicago-based provider of signage, displays and related goods to the retail, grocery and food end markets. www.customretailbydgs.com

• Wind Point Partners acquired Envera Systems, a Coconut Creek, Fla.-based provider of remotely monitored security for residential community associations, from Tinicum. www.enverasystems.com

• Digital World Acquisition Corp. says investors voted to extend the deadline to merge with Truth Social to September 2023, pending an investigation by regulators (Julian Mark / Washington Post)

• Mark Cuban's interactive streaming app Fireside acquires streaming platform Stremium and plans to launch on smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and other devices (Sarah Perez / TechCrunch)

• Vista Equity Partners has been in talks with Coupa Software as the firm considers making a bid for the company, Bloomberg reported. The business expense management SaaS company went public on the Nasdaq in 2016.

• Palo Alto Networks just announced its latest acquisition of Cider Security at a price or $195M in cash and perhaps up to $300M with other incentives.

Companies looking for a buyer

• Freetrade, a British no-commission stock-trading app, is hiring Bank of America to explore a possible sale. It’s raised nearly $100m in VC funding, from firms like Draper Esprit, L Catterton, Capricorn Capital Partners, Phoenix Equity Partners, Molten Ventures, Longbrook Ventures, Patha Capital and Left Lane Capital. 

IPO, Direct listing, SPAC etc…

• Able View, a Hong Kong-based cross-border brand management firm, agreed to go public via Hainan Manaslu Acquisition Corp. 

• Digital World Acquisition Corp. shareholders approved an extension to the SPAC's merger closing with Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, until next September.

• HyperloopTT, an LA-based hyperloop transportation company, agreed to go public at an implied $600m pre-money equity value via Forest Road Acquisition Corp. II , a SPAC formed by former Disney execs Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer.

• Zapp, a British maker of electric motorcycles, agreed to go public at an implied $573m post-merger value via CIIG Capital Partners II 

•  Volkswagen is speaking with investors about a possible IPO for its battery unit.

---

4º Ease your Fomo:

• Most Fed Officials Saw Slower Pace of Hikes Appropriate ‘Soon’

• Retail Earnings Are Surprisingly Strong. What It Means for Holiday Shopping.

• Billions of Dollars Are at Stake in a Puzzling Holiday Shopping Season

• Global Economy Slows, but Seems to Be Faring Better Than Feared

• Airlines Brace for Thanksgiving Travel. Remote Workers Will Complicate Things.

• FTX Assets Are Still Missing as Firm Begins Bankruptcy Process