Funding activity for start-ups based in the Silicon Valley of California, USA, has been unprecedented in recent times, with US$1.7 billion invested in 28 companies from June 6-12 alone. In addition, 14 M&A transactions were also announced during the period.
In the weekly Silicon Valley Funding and M&A news report, issued by high profile investor and advisor Edith Yeung, it was noted mobile start-ups were the big funding winners, with six receiving USD$615.6 million.
Houzz (home design) raised $400M Series E led by ICONIQ Capital, Pinterest (visual bookmarking) raised USD$150M, Discord (gamer chat tool) raised USD$50M led by Index Ventures,Misterb&b (Airbnb for LGBTQ) raised USD$8.5M Series A led by Ventech and Project A Ventures, Alphonso (TV on mobile) raised USD$5.6M led by Manifest Investment Partners, and Upbeat (data driven PR) raised USD$1.5M from Philip Kaplan, Esther Dyson, Angel Investors Network, Y Combinator, StartX, 500 Startups, SV Angel, Quest Venture Partners, UpHonest Capital, Firstrock Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Maverick Capital, Draper Associates.
Seven enterprise start-ups raised USD$344.1M during the period, with illumio (segmented security) raising USD$125M Series D led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Others in this category to have raised funds during the period include Yubico (authentication) which raised USD$30M from NEA, Valley Fund and Bure, Netskope (cyber security) who raised USD$100M Series E led by Accel Partners and Lightspeed, Algolia (search API) who raised USD$53M Series B led by Accel Partners, Scout RFP (procurement) who raised USD$15.5M Series B led by Menlo Ventures, Autopilot (marketing automation) that raised USD$12M led by Blackbird Ventures and Balbix (breach-risk management) who raised $8.6M from Mayfield Fund.
IoT was also a start-up sector that raised considerable funds during the period, headlined by Essential (home automation) who raised USD$300M Series B. Other notables in this sector were August Home (smart lock) who raised USD$17.7M Series C led by AGL Energy, Kenzen (biosensor) who raised USD$5M led by Women’s Capital Connection, Gaingels, Hickory Venture Group, San Francisco 49ers, Flextronics International and Knightscope (security robotics) who raised USD$3M from Konica Minolta.
Healthcare & Biotech start-ups also saw funding interest, with EarLens (hearing aids) raising USD$118M Series C led by Vertex Ventures, Zipline Medical (tissue repair device) raising USD$12M Series E led by HighCape Partners, Rested (sleep tracking) raising USD$7.4M and Savonix (neurocognitive testing) raising $5.1M Series A led by DigiTx Partners.
In the e-commence sector, two Silicon Valley start-ups received funding, with The RealReal (luxury consignment) raising USD$50M private equity led by Great Hill Partners and Chewse (virtual meal manager) raising USD$7.3M Series B led by Foundry Group.
Two education start-ups were funded during the period, Coursera (online education) who raised USD$64M Series D led by GSV Asset Management and Booknook (literacy instruction) who raised USD$1.2M seed led by Reach Capital.
While only one fintech saw funding action in the period, the amount was significant, withAddepar (wealth management) raising USD$140M Series D led by 8VC, Harald McPike, Valor Equity Partners.
Other sectors also saw funding interest, with AI company Citrine Informatics (AI platform for materials & chemicals) raising USD$7.6M Series A led by Data Collective, Innovation Endeavors, Prelude Ventures, electric vehicle company Alta Motor raising USD$27M Series B led by Grassy Creek Ventures.
On the M&A front things were also busy during the period with 14 companies, headquartered within a 300 mile radius of Silicon Valley, entering into deals. These include:
- Longview merged with Tidemark (enterprise financial planning)
- Digital Realty Trust acquired DuPont Fabros (data centers) for $4.95B
- Eventbrite acquired Ticketfly (ticketing service) for $200M
- Ableton acquired Cycling ’74 (visual programming language)
- CallidusCloud acquired Learning Heroes (e-learning)
- Athenahealth acquired Praxify (health data)
- OwnLocal acquired Wanderful (deal & advertising)
- Osram acquired LED Engin (LED Supplier)
- FoxNext acquired Aftershock (mobile game)
- ECRM acquired RangeMe (retail product discovery)
- Bigfoot Biomedical acquired Timesulin (bluetooth-enabled insulin pen)
- Symantec acquired Watchful Software (data security)
- BlueCart acquired Sous (mobile app for kitchen teams)
- SYNNEX acquired Datatec Westcon-Comstor (tech distribution) North America and Latin America Businesses
Commenting on the Silicon Valley Funding and M&A news report, Edith Yeung said,”Over 28 Silicon Valley startups raised $1.7B last week. June is definitely a happening month in terms of fundraising.”
About Edith Yeung
Edith Yeung is the General Partner at 500 Startups China and Mobile Collective Fund primarily focusing on investing in education, entertainment, AI and consumer internet startups.
Prior, Edith was the VP of marketing & business development for Dolphin Browser (acquired by Changyou (NASDAQ: CYOU). Dolphin Browser is a Sequoia-backed mobile browser with over 150 million installs worldwide.
She also founded RightVentures – seed stage investment firm focusing on mobile and consumer internet companies. Edith is also a enterprise veteran working with companies like Siebel, Oracle, Autodesk, AT&T, etc.
Some of her investments include Penrose, Cryworks, SIlk Labs, Piper, Apptopia, Mobile Action, Andy OS, Quickly, Powercore, Pack, Ingrain, Hooked, Switch, Bento, DayDayCook, Palantir, Fleksy (acquired by Pinterest) and Human (acquired by Mapbox) etc.
You can also find some of her work on CNBC, CBS , NPR, Techcrunch, Next Web, Mashable, Read Write Web, Fora, etc.
She frequently speaks on mobile, VR, VR and China investment landscape.
