The Briefing: Adobe Buys Workfront for $1.5B, TIER Lands $250M, Hopin Raises $125M, 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.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

Adobe to buy Utah-based Workfront for $1.5B

Adobe said it would acquire Lehi, Utah-based project management software developer Workfront for $1.5 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of Adobe’s fiscal year. According to Crunchbase data, Workfront previously raised $95 million in venture funding and completed a $280 million secondary share sale last year.

The deal follows several other large acquisitions by San Jose, California-based Adobe in recent years: The Photoshop maker bought email marketing software maker Marketo in late 2018 for $4.75 billion, a few months after acquiring e-commerce platform Magento for about $1.7 billion.

Adobe, which offers a suite of marketing, analytics, e-commerce and image-editing software, has seen its stock price surge this year as the COVID-19 pandemic bolstered the remote-work and online-shopping sectors. It was one of several publicly traded companies who saw their shares take a hit on Monday, however, as drugmaker Pfizer announced promising early results for its coronavirus vaccine.

Spotify to acquire Megaphone for $235M

Spotify, the popular audio streaming platform, announced that it would buy podcast hosting company Megaphone. The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Spotify, including The Ringer and Gimlet Media. Megaphone had raised

TIER Mobility lands $250M for e-scooters

Berlin-based electric scooter company TIER Mobility raised $250 million in a funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund.

The investment reportedly valued the start-up just below $1bn, including the new funds raised. The financing comes as the company is working to grow its European footprint, including new initiatives such as the rollout of a smartbox with a foldable helmet available with scooters Paris and Berlin.

TIER has been operating amid the pandemic, with over 40 000 active scooters.

IVP, Tiger Global Lead Hopin’s $125M Series B

Virtual events provider Hopin announced a $125 million Series B round of funding. This is the London-based company’s third venture-backed investment this year—and its largest funding to date—to bring its total to more than $170 million raised since February. We covered both its seed and Series A rounds.

Existing investor IVP and new investor Tiger Global led the round and were joined by Coatue, DFJ Growth as well as other existing investors Accel, Northzone, Salesforce Ventures 1 and Seedcamp. The company plans to use the new funds to continue scaling and on product development.

In the past eight months, Hopin has been busy growing: it went from 5,000 registered users to 3.5 million users and from 1,800 organizations hosting events to more than 50,000, the company said. It now has more than 200 employees in 38 countries, up from eight, and plans to hire 150 more people by the end of the year.

In addition to the funding, the company unveiled the soft launch of Hopin Explore, which has amassed 15,000 monthly events that users can via a worldwide search and discovery tool.

Carbon Health secures $100M for primary care platform

Health care startup Carbon Health, based in San Francisco, raised its largest venture capital funding to date, $100 million in Series C funding. This comes six months after announcing its $28 million Series B.

Dragoneer Investment Group led the new round and was joined by existing investors Brookfield Technology Partners, DCVC and Builders VC. Including the Series C, Carbon Health has raised $172.5 million in venture-backed funding since the company was founded in 2015, according to Crunchbase data.

The company said it will put the new capital to work advancing its omnichannel care strategy and scaling its brand nationally as a primary care provider. In the past year, Carbon Health increased its presence to 27 clinics in six states and introduced virtual care in 16 states. The company intends to grow its clinic footprint to 1,500 locations across the U.S. by 2025, particularly in counties not currently met with care.

Funding rounds

IQM secures 39 million euros quantum computers: IQM, a Finland-based company providing hardware for quantum computers, announced 39 million euros in Series A funding to accelerate development and commercialization. Existing investor MIG Fonds led this round, with participation from all existing investors, as well as new investors, including Vsquared, Salvia GmbH, Santo Venture Capital GmbH and Tencent.
Buoy Health posts $37.5M for health care navigation tool: Buoy Health, a Boston-based company developing an artificial intelligent digital health care assistant, announced $37.5 million in Series C funding to value the company at nearly $200 million. Cigna Ventures and Humana led the funding round and were joined by Optum Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co and Trustbridge Partners. To date, Buoy has raised $66.5 million.
Tailscale brings in $12M for remote workplaces: Tailscale, developer of a corporate VPN alternative developer, raised a $12 million Series A after launching in April with $3 million in seed funding. The Toronto-based company’s Series A was led by Accel, with participation from Heavybit and Uncork Capital.
Maestro raises $7.2M for private equity management: Maestro, a New York-based software business focused on maximizing value in private equity-backed companies, completed $7.2 million in Series A financing led by S&P Global Market Intelligence, with Accordion participating.
Traive hauls in $2.5M for agriculture financing: Traive, a Brazil and Minneapolis-based agfintech startup offering financial services for the agriculture industry, closed on a $2.5 million funding round for technology and product development. SP Ventures led the investment Bread and Butter Ventures and Techstars.