Briefing

The Briefing: Manbang Plans IPO Filing, Ethos Secures $200M, And More

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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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China’s Manbang reportedly plans US IPO filing

China-based Manbang, a truck-hailing platform that matches shippers with drivers and fleet operators, could file publicly as early as this week for a U.S. public offering that could value the company at up to $30 billion, according to a CNBC report citing unnamed sources.

The company, also referred to as the Full Truck Alliance, could reportedly raise around $1.5 billion through the offering. Most recently, the company raised $1.7 billion in a November round backed by Fidelity, Permira, Sequoia Capital China and the SoftBank Vision Fund.

Ethos raises $200M for life insurance

Life insurance provider Ethos reportedly pulled in $200 million in a fresh funding round led by General Catalyst. The financing sets a valuation of around $2 billion for the San Francisco-based company, which pitches itself as a simpler, more flexible option for securing life insurance compared to traditional carriers.

Founded in 2016, the company previously raised $109 million in funding with backers including Sequoia Capital, Google’s GV and Accel, per Crunchbase data.

— Joanna Glasner

Funding rounds

Zencargo snags $42 million: London-based Zencargo, a 4-year-old startup that provides digital logistics services for freight forwarding, raised $42 million in a Series B round led by Digital+ Partners.

— Joanna Glasner

Health care and wellness

Nuvalent closes $135M: Nuvalent, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, secured $135 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Life Sciences. Nuvalent creates precisely targeted treatments for clinically proven kinase targets in cancer. The new funding will support clinical advancement of two of its treatment programs.

Remedy Health raises $11M: Remedy Health, the company behind the Nourished brand of personalized gummy vitamins, announced $11 million in Series A funding from a group of backers that included ADM Ventures. The new funding brings the U.K.-based company’s total value to more than $71.6 million, according to Remedy.

GEM inks $10.5M: Consumer life science company GEM raised $10.5 million in seed financing led by CircleUp Growth Partners. The Los Angeles-based company is designing a next-generation nutritional system of whole food bites that contain superfoods, essential nutrients and vitamins, as well as probiotics to improve whole body health at a cellular level.

Qnami secures $4.4M: Qnami closed on a $4.4 million Series A funding round co-led by Runa Capital and SIT Capital. The funds will support extension of Switzerland-based Qnami’s patented quantum microscope technology.

— Christine Hall

Cybersecurity

Arkose Labs closes $70M Series C: San Francisco-based online fraud and abuse prevention company Arkose Labs closed a $70 million Series C led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and previous investors M12 and PayPal Ventures. The cybersecurity company has now raised a total of $114 million to date.

The company expects to use the new funding to continue to develop its platform, add to its headcount and expand globally.

— Chris Metinko

Enterprise Software

CircleCI hits $1.7B valuation: San Francisco-based CircleCI closed a $100 million Series F led by Greenspring Associates with participation from Eleven Prime, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Baseline Ventures, Threshold Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Owl Rock Capital and Next Equity Partners. The new round brings the company’s valuation to $1.7 billion.

CircleCI’s platform helps with the development of software by automating the build, test and delivery process — allowing companies to release and update software faster.

Founded in 2011, CircleCI has raised $315.5 million to date.

— Chris Metinko

Real estate

Plunk banks $6.5M: Bellevue, Washington-based Plunk, a mobile app using artificial intelligence and machine-learning to help homeowners see what a home could be worth if renovated, closed an oversubscribed $6.5 million in seed funding led by Unlock Venture Partners.

M&A

Apeel acquires ImpactVision: Apeel Sciences, which develops plant-derived shelf-life extension technology for fresh produce, announced the acquisition of ImpactVision. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ImpactVision, based in San Francisco, developed imaging technology that will enable suppliers to see inside fresh produce to determine its ripeness, freshness, nutritional density and other indicators of quality.

— Christine Hall

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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