Briefing

The Briefing: Hot IPO Summer Looms With Didi, Robinhood; Fresha Lands $100M, 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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Hot summer of IPOs looms with Didi, and Robinhood likely to follow

This summer is shaping up to be a big season for massive U.S. IPOs, with China-based ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing filing to go public, and stock trading platform Robinhood expected to follow shortly.

Didi submitted a filing Thursday for a U.S. IPO that showed a whopping $21.6 billion in revenue last year, as well as a modest profit in the first quarter of this year. The company is reportedly seeking to raise around $10 billion at a valuation close to $100 billion, according to a Reuters article citing unnamed sources.

Meanwhile, Robinhood’s filing for a public listing is also expected to come in time for a summer market debut, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The company could reportedly see a public valuation of $40 billion or more.

— Joanna Glasner

Funding rounds

Fresha lands $100M for beauty booking: London-based Fresha, a platform for booking beauty and wellness appointments, raised $100 million in a Series C round led by General Atlantic. The 6-year-old startup plans to use the funds to expand in new geographies and add more categories of companies to its service.

Incari raises $15M Series A: Berlin-based Incari, a developer of next-generation human-to-machine interfaces, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by investor and entrepreneur Lukasz Gadowski.

— Joanna Glasner

M&A

ReCharge acquires ElectricSMS: ReCharge, a subscription management software for e-commerce businesses, announced Friday that it acquired Los Angeles-based ElectricSMS in a multimillion-dollar cash and equity deal. ElectricSMS came out of software firm AE Studio and is now rebranded as ReChargeSMS. The company enables customers to manage subscription preferences in real-time, such as skip, revise, renew and reschedule orders through SMS chat.

— Christine Hall

New Funds

A-Street Ventures raises $200M for first fund: Bentonville, Akansas-based A-Street Ventures, a new VC fund, debuted with $200 million to invest in K-12 education, according to Axios. A Medium post announcing the fund says profits from investments will be reinvested or donated to charity. A-Street Ventures will be led by Marc Sternberg, who is stepping down as director of the Walton Family Foundation.

— Sophia Kunthara

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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