The Briefing: Figure Launches SPAC To Raise $250M, Felyx Lands $29M, 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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Online lender Figure launches SPAC to raise $250M

Michael Cagney, the CEO of fintech startup Figure Technologies and former CEO of online lender SoFi, is heading a SPAC.

The blank-check company is sponsored by Fintech Acquisition LLC, which is an affiliate of Figure Technologies. The SPAC is seeking to raise $250 million, per its prospectus.

Founded in 2018, Figure is an online lender offering home equity lines, mortgages and personal loans. To date, the San Francisco-based company has raised $1.1 billion in debt financing and $400 million in equity financing, per Crunchbase data.

— Joanna Glasner

Transportation

Scooter startup Felyx raises €24 million: Amsterdam-based scooter sharing company Felyx has announced that it raised 24 million euros ($29 million) in a Series A funding round led by De Hoge Dennen Capital.

— Joanna Glasner

Health care

Zocdoc inks $150M: Digital health care marketplace Zocdoc announced $150 million in growth financing from Francisco Partners. The new funding gives New York-based Zocdoc total known funding of $375.9 million, according to Crunchbase data. The company, which specializes in online scheduling for in-person doctor’s appointments, said its revenue grew by more than 35 percent year over year before the global pandemic and was able to sustain growth during 2020. The company is profitable and poised to accelerate its pre-pandemic growth trajectory. The new funding will be deployed into sales and marketing and product development. In addition to scheduling doctor’s appointments, Zocdoc recently unveiled a vaccine scheduling service.

— Christine Hall

Fintech and e-commerce

• Coupang files for IPO: South Korea-based e-commerce marketplace Coupang filed to go public in the U.S. Friday. Since being founded in 2010 by Bom Kim, CEO, the company has raised $3.4 billion in known venture capital funding, most recently, a $2 billion private-equity round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund. Other backers include Sequoia Capital, Altos Ventures and Maverick Ventures, according to Crunchbase data. Coupang’s S-1 filing indicates that its initial public offering intends to raise $1 billion of capital. By all accounts, though, the company is huge: It reported revenue of nearly $12 billion in 2020, up from $6.2 billion in 2019. It also improved its balance sheet as it grew, lowering its net loss to $474.9 million in 2020 from $698.8 million in 2019. In addition, Coupang is aiming for a valuation of around $50 billion, Reuters reported. The company intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CPNG. Coupang joins other e-commerce brands that have gone public or are waiting to do so. Food-delivery app DoorDash began trading in December, and shares are currently trading at $202. Discount e-commerce retailer Wish also went public in December, and is trading at $27.45 per share. Still to come is Instacart, which Reuters reported chose Goldman Sachs to lead a 2021 IPO at a $30 billion valuation.
• Pago46 banks $3.5M: Pago46, a fintech platform enabling merchants to offer cash as a method of payment online without the need of a credit card or bank account, closed on a $3.5 million Series A round, which will be used to expand across Latin America. The round was led by Vulcano VC Fund, which was joined by Alaya Capital Partners. The company’s main offices are in Chile and San Diego, and it also has a presence in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, New York and Berlin. More than 40,000 users registered with the app in 2020, and the company now boasts more than 100,000 users.

— Christine Hall

M&A

DataDog buys Sqreen:  Datadog, a monitoring and security platform for cloud applications, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sqreen, a security software provider that helps enterprises detect, block and respond to application-level attacks. Terms weren’t disclosed. Founded in 2015, Sqreen previously raised $18 million in known funding.

— Joanna Glasner

Illustration: Dom Guzman