The Briefing: Udaan Raises $280M, Senti Bio Lands $105M, Starburst Data Gains Unicorn Status, 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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Udaan raises $280M for B2B e-commerce

India’s Udaan, operator of an online business-to-business marketplace, has raised $280 million in an extension of its Series D round.

New and existing investors participated in the financing, including Octahedron Capital, Moonstone Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Founded in 2016, Bangalore-based Udaan previously raised $899 million in private funding, per Crunchbase data.

Hootsuite acquires Sparkcentral

Social media management platform Hootsuite announced Wednesday its acquisition of Sparkcentral, a customer engagement tool that enables one-on-one messaging via social channels. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sparkcentral, based in New York and Belgium, has raised $37.6 million in funding since its founding in 2011, according to Crunchbase data. Its most recent investment was a $20 million venture round in 2016 led by Limburgse Reconversie Maatschappij.

The deal enables Hootsuite to tap Sparkcentral’s automated message distribution platform to connect all facets of the customer care workflow, the companies said in a written statement.

The acquisition is Canada-based Hootsuite’s 13th since being founded in 2008 and is its first since 2017, according to Crunchbase data. The company itself has just under $300 million in funding.

Funding rounds

Senti Biosciences raises $105M: Senti Biosciences, developer of a programmable biology platform for cancer therapies, raised $105 million in a new funding round led by the venture arm of pharma giant Bayer.
Starburst Data gets $100M for data analytics at unicorn valuation: Starburst Data, a Boston-based data access and analytics startup, said Wednesday that it has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Salesforce Ventures 1, as well as existing investors Coatue and Index Ventures. The latest round puts its valuation at $1.2 billion, according to the company, and triples its Series B valuation of $342 million.
Monument lands $10.3M for alcohol treatment platform: Monument, a New York-based online treatment platform designed for users looking to change their relationship with alcohol, announced a $10.3 million Series A round of funding led by VMG Catalyst. Monument launched in May 2020 following a $7.5 million seed round and has raised a total of $17.8 million.

Public offerings

Edtech startup Kahoot eyes public listing: Oslo-based online education company Kahoot is reportedly on track to list on the main Norwegian stock market by the end of March, CNBC reports. The plans for a listing follow several quarters of sharp growth, with the pandemic driving more people to online learning platforms.

Illustration: Dom Guzman