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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Kahoot acquires Clever for up to $500M
Oslo-based Kahoot, a game-based online learning platform, announced that it acquired U.S. education portal Clever in a deal reportedly valued at up to $500 million.
Currently, more than half of all K-12 students in the U.S. log in to Clever to access digital resources, the company says. Clever says it sees opportunity through the Kahoot acquisition to expand its offerings internationally, as the latter reaches 200 countries with its content.
Founded in 2012, Kahoot previously raised $364 million in known funding, while Clever raised about $43 million, per Crunchbase data.
— Joanna Glasner
Bill.com to acquire Divvy in $2.5B deal
Cloud-based financial software company Bill.com confirmed on Thursday the acquisition of spend management company Divvy in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $2.5 billion.
San Jose-based Bill.com will acquire Draper, Utah-based Divvy for approximately $625 million in cash and $1.875 billion of Bill.com common stock, according to a written statement.
Since its inception in 2016, Divvy raised $417.5 million in known venture capital, according to Crunchbase data. It most recently raised $165 million in Series D funding in January. Meanwhile, shares of Bill.com trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BILL. Though the company’s share price was down 6 percent during the day’s trading Thursday, shares are trending up in after-hours movement, according to Yahoo Finance.
Both companies said that the acquisition will provide a one-stop-shop platform combining the spend management with automated payment and workflow capabilities and real-time insights to small and medium businesses.
The transaction is expected to close by September 30, 2021, according to Bill.com.
— Christine Hall
Funding rounds
Shift Technology secures $220M for insurance SaaS: Paris-based Shift Technology, a provider of AI-enabled automation and optimization software for the global insurance industry, announced that it raised $220 million in a Series D financing led by Advent International at a valuation of more than $1 billion.
Oculii picks up $55M for AI-powered radar: Dayton, Ohio-based Oculii, a provider of AI-enabled software for radar perception, announced that it raised $55 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Catapult Ventures and Conductive Ventures.
— Joanna Glasner
Lightmatter closes $80M Series B: Boston-based Lightmatter raised an $80 million Series B led by Viking Global Investors with participation from GV, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lockheed Martin, Matrix Partners, SIP Global Partners, Spark Capital and others. Using light, the company creates photonic compute chips specialized for AI. The company has raised $113 million to date.
— Chris Metinko
Health care
Dyno Therapeutics inks $100M: Dyno Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company applying artificial intelligence to gene therapy, announced a $100 million Series A financing led by Andreessen Horowitz. Dyno’s technology targets liver, muscle, eye and central nervous system diseases, and enables more effective, safer and more manufacturable treatments, as well as makes them applicable to more diseases, and will use the new funds to expand capacity.
Florence raises $80M: Florence, based in Atlanta, closed on an $80 million round of Series C funding to further develop its clinical trials platform. The round was led by Insight Partners and will enable Florence to connect pharmaceutical companies and study sites aimed at decentralizing trials for more efficient drug development lifecycles.
TwinStrand Biosciences lands $50M: TwinStrand Biosciences brought in $50 million in Series B funding to expand its technology for revealing exceptionally low-frequency genetic variants. Section 32 led the round.
Sporos Bioventures launches with $38.1M: Sporos Bioventures announced its company’s launch Thursday after closing on a $38.1 million Series A financing from undisclosed investors. The Houston-based company aims to catalyze the rapid and accurate development of cancer and immune disease treatments.
Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals secures $27M: Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, a New York-based biotechnology company focused on utilizing psychedelic-related medicines for the treatment of certain mental health conditions, closed on a $27 million Series A round of funding led by Prime Movers.
— Christine Hall
Fintech
FloatMe banks $25M: San Antonio-based FloatMe announced a $25 million financing partnership agreement with KSD Capital to accelerate growth and expand FloatMe’s product line to help millennials cover cash gaps and improve finances. Since the company’s launch in February 2020, FloatMe has saved members more than $30 million in overdraft fees through its financial platform, which provides its members with Floats to help members bridge cash gaps, alerts to notify them when they are at risk of overdraft, and personalized budgeting and financial education tools to help them plan for expenses.
Burnt Finance launches with $3M: A group led by decentralized finance company Injective Protocol is investing $3 million to launch Burnt Finance, a fully decentralized auction protocol built on the Solana blockchain network to enable fast and seamless auctions for a diverse array of assets, such as non-fungible tokens and synthetics. The investor group is known for burning and tokenizing an original Banksy piece in March that was sold for nearly $400,000. The platform is expected to launch in the third quarter of 2021.
— Christine Hall
Insurtech
180° raises $8M: Brazilian insurtech 180° brought in $8 million in seed funding led by Canary, Dragoneer Investment Group and Rainfall Ventures. The company was founded in 2020 and provides an insurance-as-a-service business model aimed at transforming how insurance is distributed and consumed in Latin America.
— Christine Hall
Public markets
dLocal files to go public: Cross-border payment processor dLocal, based in Uruguay, filed a Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with the intention to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol DLO. The company has raised a total of $357 million in known venture capital funding since its inception in 2016, according to Crunchbase data. dLocal reported working with more than 330 merchants and brought in $104 million in revenue in the past year.
— Christine Hall
New fund
QED Investors creates LatAm-focused fintech fund: QED Investors closed on a $12 million fund that will target seed and pre-seed fintech startups in Latin America. The Alexandria, Virginia-based firm, which has a focus in fintech, will invest its Fontes fund, named for the Latin word meaning fountains, across Latin America in strong founding teams that are working with a fintech element in the business model.
— Christine Hall
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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