The Briefing: Roblox To Debut In 2 Weeks, Joby Going Public Via SPAC, 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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Roblox direct listing debut planned for March 10

Roblox, the online game and game creation platform, is back on track for a public market debut after delaying plans for its public offering last year. The company is expected to make its market debut March 10.

San Mateo, California-based Roblox had originally planned for a traditional public offering, but has opted instead to go public via a direct listing. The decision was motivated in part by concerns that giant first-day pops by companies like Airbnb and DoorDash made it hard to settle on the appropriate initial offering price for shares, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Founded in 2004, Roblox has previously raised at least $856 million in known private funding, per Crunchbase data. Its last private valuation, as of January was reportedly around $29.5 billion.

— Joanna Glasner

Joby Aviation to go public via SPAC

Joby Aviation, a Santa Cruz, California-based company developing electric aircraft, announced plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange through a merger with a SPAC called Reinvent Technology Partners.

The deal includes $910 million of fully committed funding from multiple institutional investors as well as Uber, a strategic backer. Under terms of the agreement, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a lead director of Reinvent Technology Partners, will join Joby’s board of directors.

Founded in 2009, Joby has previously raised at least $796 million in known funding, per Crunchbase data.

— Joanna Glasner

Fintech and e-commerce

RecargaPay, TCM, Finix, GiveSignup raise rounds: Brazil-based RecargaPay, providing a payments and mobile money ecosystem, raised $70 million in Series C funding co-led by IDC Ventures and Fuel Venture Capital. The new funding will be used to expand financial services offerings to small businesses and consumers as well as hiring new talent, and gives the company $134.6 million in total funding, according to Crunchbase data. RecargoPay said it is currently EBITDA positive with a revenue run rate of more than $50 million. Technology Commerce Management, providing predictive value analysis and financial performance of online stores for e-commerce aggregators, announced $28 million in pre-IPO equity and debt from undisclosed backers to facilitate the acquisition of 10 e-commerce businesses with eight based in the U.S. Of the fundraise, the Israel-based company closed $18 million in equity. Meanwhile, TCM is currently raising another round of funding and has signed with Canaccord Genuity to lead an initial public offering later this year. The e-commerce market is growing at an annual average rate of 21.6 percent with nearly $5 trillion in online sales forecasted for 2021. Payments infrastructure company Finix closed on $3 million in a Black and Latinx investor-led special purpose vehicle that gives the company more than $100 million in total funding since the company was started in 2016. The San Francisco-based fintech last raised a $30 million Series B extension last August. At the time, Richie Serna, Finix’s CEO, said the company’s transaction volume grew 4.5 times from Q2 2019 to Q2 2020, and the company experienced over 450 percent year-over-year growth. The global digital payments industry is already a $4 trillion market and is expected to be $6.7 trillion in the next three years, according to data from LearnBonds.com. GiveSignup, a supporter engagement platform for nonprofit revenue generation, announced a $3.2 million Series A led by Payroc. The company, headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, enables nonprofits to raise money and engage supporters from live and virtual run/walk/ride and ticket events to donation sites and fundraising campaigns.

— Christine Hall

Health care

Truvian raises over $105M for blood testing system: San Diego-based Truvian Sciences announced the close of more than $105 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing round led by TYH Ventures, Glen Tullman of 7wireVentures, and Wittington Ventures. The funds will go toward development of Truvian’s automated benchtop blood testing system.

— Joanna Glasner

Redox raises $45M: Redox, a company making health care data useful, announced a $45 million round of Series D funding led by Adams Street Partners. The latest round brings the company’s total funding to more than $95 million since its inception in 2014. The Madison, Wisconsin-based company said its data integration grew 300 percent and it surpassed 1,000 live connections on the Redox network as of October.

— Christine Hall

New fund

OakHC/FT closes fourth fund: Oak HC/FT, a venture growth equity fund investing in health and financial technology, announced that it raised $1.4 billion for its Fund IV — its largest fund to date, bringing the firm’s assets under management to $3.3 billion across the four funds. The firm said it has 60 companies in its portfolio. It was most recently involved in the rounds of Circulo Health, a Medicaid insurance company that raised a $50 million Series A, and payment platform Rapyd’s $300 million Series D, according to Crunchbase data.

— Christine Hall

Illustration: Dom Guzman