The Briefing: Porch Acquires More Companies, Grab Financial Group Lands $300M, And More

Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the Crunchbase News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.

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Porch acquires four companies

Home services marketplace Porch announced Thursday that it acquired four companies, including Homeowners of America Insurance Company for $100 million. The company also acquired V12 for $22 million and PalmTech and iRoofing for undisclosed amounts.

Grab Financial Group lands $300M

Grab Financial Group, the fintech spinoff of Singapore-based ride-hailing giant Grab, raised $300 million in fresh financing at a reported valuation of $3 billion.

Hanwha Asset Management led the funding for the 2-year-old spinoff, which offers payments, credit and insurance. The funding will go toward hiring, expansion and rollout of new product offerings.

Senndr raises $160M for freight forwarding

Berlin-based digital freight forwarding platform Senndr raised $160 million in a new funding round that sets a valuation of more than $1 billion for the 6-year-old company.

Backers in the Series D funding round include Accel, Lakestar, HV Capital, Project A and Scania. With this latest financing, Senndr has raised at least $260 million to date in known funding, per Crunchbase data.

Funding rounds

Shippeo brings in $32M for supply chain logistics: Shippeo, based in France, raised $32 million in a new round of funding co-led by Battery Ventures and existing investors NGP Capital, ETF Partners, Partech and Bpifrance Digital Venture.
Xentral raises $20M to develop enterprise tools: Xentral, a German company that provides an enterprise resource system for online-oriented small and medium-sized businesses, secured $20 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Visionaries Club.
Mosaic raises $18.5M to develop financial data platform: Mosaic, the San Diego-based company building a strategic finance platform, raised an $18.5 million Series A round of funding led by General Catalyst.
Tradeswell gets $15.5M for e-commerce tech: Tradeswell, a startup that makes an operating system for digital marketplace brands, said it has raised $15.5 million in a Series A funding round led by SignalFire, the same investor that led its recent seed round. Construct Capital, Allen & Company LLC and The Emerson Group were also investors in the Series A. Venture investors have poured $21.1 billion into e-commerce companies globally since 2016, according to Crunchbase data, and 2021 is poised to be another strong year for online shopping and startups that supply technology to e-commerce retailers.
Twisto bags 16M euros for BNPL: Twisto, headquartered in Prague, secured 16 million euros ($19.4 million) in financing led by Zip Co. and Elevator Ventures. Twisto focuses on the “buy now, pay later” space and will use the funds to expand across Europe.
Prometheum secures $15M for blockchain securities ecosystem: New York-based Prometheum, said it has closed on an oversubscribed funding round of more than $15 million led by undisclosed investors.
RecVue raises $13M for order management: Monetization platform RecVue, provider of order lifecycle management tools designed to modernize the complex order-to-cash processes for enterprises, raised $13 million in a Series A round led by Cota Capital.
Own Up lands $12M for home financing: Own Up, a mortgage marketplace for home financing headquartered in Boston, announced $12 million in funding led by Brand Foundry Ventures.
ShotTracker scores $11M for sports data platform: DDSports, also known as ShotTracker, a Merriam, Kansas-based sports technology company, raised an $11 million round of funding led by Evertz Technologies and Verizon Ventures 1. ShotTracker captures performance data via sensors to provide statistics and analytics and will use the funds to accelerate its deployment across NCAA Division I Power 6 Basketball conferences.
Vue Storefront bags $1.5M for front-end e-commerce: Vue Storefront, an API-focused and front-end for e-commerce, closed on a $1.5 million seed round led by Movens Capital and SMOK Ventures.
Royale Finance banks $1.45M to merge DeFi with iGaming: Belize-based iGaming company Royale Finance raised $1.45 million to bring decentralized finance to iGaming. Contributors to the funding round include Alphabit Fund, AU21 Capital, Fomocraft Ventures, Kyros Ventures and Vendetta Capital.
Frankie Health secures $1.25M to target mental health: B2B mental health platform Frankie Health, headquartered in Ireland, closed on a $1.25 million investment round led by E15 VC.

More news

PowerPlant Ventures acquires ZICO from Coca-Cola: PowerPlant Ventures announced its fund has acquired ZICO coconut water from The Coca-Cola Company. PowerPlant Ventures, a growth equity investor, was co-founded and co-led by Mark Rampolla, who founded ZICO in 2004 and sold it to Coca-Cola in 2013. Terms were not disclosed.
P&G Ventures names challenge winner: P&G Ventures has named SAVRPak as the winner of its 2021 CES Innovation Challenge. The startup is developing a patch placed inside of a food storage container that removes moisture from the air and eliminates condensation to preserve food’s crispness and freshness.

Illuminate Ventures published a report Thursday entitled “Today’s MBA Student is Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur: A View of Gender’s Impact on Career Choices,” that highlighted MBA student and candidate interest in becoming entrepreneurs. It found:

Over 85 percent of respondents indicated that it was something they were considering as a current or future career path.
The top reason for not becoming an entrepreneur was the lack of financial security after graduation–a reason for both men and women–while woman respondents’ overall concern was availability of funding for a new venture.
For VCs, financial security was not viewed as a major barrier by either male or female investors.
They viewed having a unique idea as the greatest barrier to entry.

While MBAs were interested in careers in venture capital–63 percent of men and 53 percent of women–they strongly believed it is very hard to break into the space. Roughly 75 percent of female students perceived a “high barrier to entry,” as well as nearly 80 percent of male students.

Illustration: Dom Guzman