The Briefing: Perch Nabs $124M For Amazon Sellers, v2food Lands $55M For Plant-based Meat, 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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Perch raises $123.5M for brands on Amazon

Perch, a startup that acquires direct-to-consumer businesses that are selling on Amazon and growing their operations, has reportedly raised $123.5 million in a new funding round led by Spark Capital.

The Boston-based company focuses on products and brands that have a steady history of strong customer reviews and are consistently one of the top three products within their category on Amazon. Featured brands in its stable include makers of an exfoliating brush, slime-making kits, leggings, reusable straws and other products.

The company’s platform is used for sales analytics, pricing, advertising and marketing strategy, and inventory.

Funding rounds

V2food bites into $55M: Plant-based meat startup v2food announced $55 million in Series B funding led by a group of investors that includes ABC World Asia, Altitude Partners, China Renaissance, Esenagro, Horizons Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Marinya Capital, Novel Investments, Sequoia Capital China and Temasek. The Sydney-based company intends to use the funds to complete its production facility and launch products into new markets, including Asia.
4iQ secures $30M: Cyber intelligence company 4iQ said it raised $30 million in Series C funding, led by ForgePoint Capital and Benhamou Global Ventures, with participation by existing investors C5 Capital, Adara Ventures and new investor TheVentureCity. In addition, 4iQ announced its new CEO Kailash Ambwani. The new funding will enable the Los Altos-based company to ramp up go-to-market activities and accelerate product development.
Sami raises $16.8M: Brazil-based health plan operator Sami raised $16.8 million in Series A funding led by Valor Capital Group and Monashees. Other investors included Redpoint eventures and Canary. The company described the deal as “the biggest Series A funding round ever recorded for a health startup in Latin America.” With the new funding, Sami will serve small businesses and professionals in São Paulo.
Synthetaic raises $4.5M: Synthetaic, a Delafield, Wisconsin-based company that grows large and high-quality datasets sufficient for machine learning, announced $4.5 million in funding to date. That includes $1 million in pre-seed funding and a $3.5 million seed round led by Lupa Systems, with participation from Betaworks Ventures as well as TitleTown Tech.
Jam brings in $1.5M: Jam, a new in-the-flow company that turns any website into a collaborative document, announced $3.5 million in seed funding. Union Square Ventures led the round and was joined by Version One Ventures, BoxGroup and Village Global.