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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Berlin-based neo-broker Trade Republic raises $900M
Berlin-based Trade Republic, a commission-free app for trading stocks, crypto and other assets, raised $900 million in a Series C funding round led by Sequoia.
The financing sets a $5.3 billion valuation for the 6-year-old company, which has been described as a European alternative to Robinhood. Trade Republic has primarily focused on stock trading, but recently began offering crypto.
Prior to its latest massive funding, Trade Republic had $95 million in known funding, per Crunchbase data, from backers including Accel and Founders Fund.
— Joanna Glasner
Funding rounds
Loom Raises $130M: Enterprise video messaging platform Loom is now valued at $1.53 billion after raising $130 million in new funding, Bloomberg reported. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which follows a $28.8 million fundraise in May 2020. Investors in Loom include Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins.
–Sophia Kunthara
Wasabi raises $25M: Cloud storage startup Wasabi announced it has raised $25 million in new funding led by Prosperity7 Ventures. The round is an extension of Boston-based Wasabi’s Series C financing announced in April, expanding the total funding raised for the round to $137 million and total funding to date to $244 million.
Fintech and e-commerce
Sunbit becomes a unicorn: Buy now, pay later technology company Sunbit announced $130 million in Series D funding led by Group 11 to value the company at $1.1 billion. Los Angeles-based Sunbit provides payment options both in-store and online at 7,300 locations, such as auto dealership service centers, optical practices, dentist offices and specialty health care services. The company intends to use the capital to attract more merchants and product development.
Figure Technologies banks $200M: Figure Technologies, a San Francisco-based financial services company leveraging blockchain technology, closed on $200 million in Series D funding Thursday to give it a $3.2 billion valuation. 10T Holdings and Morgan Creek Digital co-led the round.
Leif raises $60M: Leif, a tuition financing company, raised $60 million, which includes a $50 million credit facility and $10 million in equity by LL Funds. The New York-based company intends to use the new funding to continue developing its tuition finance management platform that offers outcomes-based financing.
Privacy.com, now Lithic, raises $43M: Card issuing platform Lithic, formerly Privacy.com in 2014, raised $43 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The company intends to use the new funding for product development.
— Christine Hall
Clean tech
Cervest secures $30M: London-based Cervest, creating an AI-powered climate intelligence platform, said it raised a $30 million Series A round led by Draper Esprit. Cervest enables enterprises, financial services companies, and governments to quantify their climate risk down to the asset level, and for the first time, across multiple decades and threats, according to the company.
— Christine Hall
Manufacturing
Boston Materials raises $8M: Boston Materials, a manufacturer of Z-axis Carbon Fiber products, closed on $8 million of financing, led by AccelR8 and Valo Ventures, to expand into new electric vehicles, aerospace, electronics and consumer applications.
— Christine Hall
Health care
Heru sees $30M: Miami-based Heru secured $30 million in Series A funding toward development of its wearable AI-powered vision diagnostics and augmentation software. D1 Capital Partners led the round. Heru’s augmented reality headsets and software work to correct the user’s vision defects in real time.
— Christine Hall
New fund
White Star closes crypto fund: White Star Capital, a New York technology venture capital investment platform, said it closed on its $50 million Digital Asset Fund, which will invest in crypto networks and blockchain-enabled businesses at each layer of the tech stack. The oversubscribed fund previously targeted $30 million and is backed by a group of investors including Bpifrance and Ubisoft. White Star’s platform now has more than $700 million of assets under management. The firm intends to invest in between 15 and 20 companies with the new fund, focusing on North America and Europe, with initial investment check sizes of between $500,000 and $3 million. The fund has already made six investments in companies including dfuse, Multis and Paraswap.
— Christine Hall
Bain Capital Ventures raises $1.3B: San Francisco-based Bain Capital Ventures announced $1.3 billion in new funds to back early-stage technology companies. The new money includes the firm’s ninth core fund — $950 million — and a $350 million co-investment fund for larger growth opportunities. BCV now has $8.3 billion in assets under management. In the last year, the company has made 37 new seed and Series A investments — representing 88 percent of all new investments for the firm.
— Chris Metinko
Public offerings
Procore prices IPO: Construction software provider Procore announced that it priced shares for its initial public offering at $67 each, above the projected range. Shares of the Carpinteria, California-based company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PCOR.
— Joanna Glasner
Enterprise software
Esper closes $30M Series B: Seattle-based Esper raised $30 million in a Series B led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors including Madrona Venture Group, Root Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures and Haystack. Esper’s platform allows developers and engineers to securely deploy and manage Android edge devices. Esper has raised a total of $40.6 million.
— Chris Metinko
Agriculture and foodtech
ProducePay lands $43M: ProducePay, providing financing, analytics and marketplace tools for the fresh produce market, announced a $43 million Series C funding round co-led by G2VP, IFC and IDB Invest. The new round gives the Los Angeles-based company more than $300 million in total debt and equity funding since its inception in 2014, according to ProducePay. The company has financed $3 billion of produce across 12 countries in North and South America and saw 2020 revenue double.
Because, Animals closes $3.7M: Pet food startup Because, Animals secured $3.7 million in seed funding led by Orkla ASA to continue growing cultured meat for dogs and cats. The company innovated a proprietary alternative to fetal bovine serum, an animal-based ingredient still heavily relied upon by other producers of cell-based meats. With this investment, Because, Animals will scale up production, accelerate development of its first commercial product, a cat treat and continue developing a culture-based dog food.
— Christine Hall
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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