20 Startups Raise Over $223M, Investors Raise $1.7B for New Funds, and $87B in M&A
October 13, 2023's biggest news in the private markets.
Alpaca, a San Mateo-based startup that offers stock and crypto brokerage trading services via an to fintech companies and others has raised $15 million in the form of a convertible note from Japanese financial firm SBI Group.
AOA Dx, a three-year-old startup based in Boulder, Co., that is developing a liquid biopsy test for ovarian cancer, raised a $17 million round led by Good Growth Capital, with RH Capital, Y Combinator, Astia, Adaptive Capital Partners, and Gore Range Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $24.6 million.
Bon Vivant, a two-year-old startup based in Lyon, France, that is reprogramming yeast micro-organisms to produce animal-free milk proteins, raised a $15.8 million seed round co-led by Sofinnova Partners and Sparkfood, with additional funding provided by Captech Santé, Alliance for Impact, High Flyers Capital, Kima Ventures, Founders Future, and Pic.
Canopy Servicing, a startup based in Claymont, De., that is building software to facilitate loan servicing, raised a $15.2 million Series A1 round at a $35 million pre-money valuation, a 27% decrease from the valuation of its Series A. Foundation Capital and Infinity Ventures co-led the deal.
Carefull, a four-year-old New York startup that helps banks protect older customers from fraud and scams, raised a $16.5 million Series A round led by Fin Capital and including Bessemer Venture Partners, TTV Capital, Commerce Ventures, Montage Ventures, and Alloy Labs. The company has raised a total of $19.7 million.
Dutch, a two-year-old Oakland startup that provides online pet care and prescriptions, raised an $18 million Series B round led by Eclipse Ventures, with previous investors Forerunner Ventures and Bling Capital also taking part.
Optimize Health, an eight-year-old Seattle startup that sells remote care software to the healthcare industry, raised an $18 million Series B round co-led by Foundry Group and Escalate Capital Partners, with Bonfire Ventures, Daher Capital, Navigate Ventures, Attento Capital, OpenView, 500 Global, SOSV, and Jumpstart Capital also piling on.
Untangled Finance, a three-year-old London startup that focuses on tokenizing real-world financial assets using blockchain technology, raised a $13.5 million in round led by Fasanara Capital.
Upvest, a six-year-old Berlin startup whose API provides wealth managers trading, settlement, and custody services, raised a $31.6 million round led by BlackRock, with additional participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, HV Capital, Earlybird, Notion Capital, ABN Amro Ventures, and 10x Capital.
Kodex AI, a one-year-old Berlin startup that is developing an AI assistant for financial service professionals, raised a $1.7 round million round led by Signals VC, with Techstars and Deutsche Bank also chipping in.
Lakera, a two-year-old Zürich startup whose goal is to protect enterprises from LLM security weaknesses such as prompt injections and data leakage, raised a $10 million seed round. Investors included Redalpine, Fly Ventures, and Inovia.
Lanch, a Berlin startup that teams up with influencers and creators to launch ad hoc food delivery brands, has raised $6.9 million (€6.5 million) in Series A funding from Felix Capital and HV Capital, with numerous individuals participating.
Lopay, a one-year-old London startup that provides a point-of-service payment app and terminal to SMBs, raised a $7.4 million seed round. Investors included Backed VC, Portage, and The Venture Collective.
Moonhub, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that uses an AI chatbot to source candidates for recruiters, raised a $10 million seed round co-led by Khosla Ventures and GV, with AIX and Day One Ventures also joining in.
Neutral, a New York startup that operates an exchange specializing in tokenized carbon credits, renewable energy credits, and carbon forwards, raised a $3.2 million round led by North Island Ventures, with Redalpine, Digital Currency Group, Cerulean Ventures, Factor Capital, Very Early Ventures, and Rarestone Capital also pitching in.
Parsec, a seven-year-old New York startup that supplies DeFi and NFT analytics to crypto-facing institutions, raised a $4 million round. Galaxy Digital was the deal lead, while Uniswap, Robot Ventures, and CMT Digital also bought in.
Phasio, a two-year-old Singapore startup that helps local manufacturers manage their customer relationships, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Airtree Ventures, with 500 Global, Entrepreneur First, and Gattaca Ventures also climbing aboard.
Pickle, a New York startup that operates a peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace that lets users earn passive income from their closets, raised an $8 million seed round co-led by FirstMark Capital and Craft Ventures, with Burst Capital also contributing.
Propify, a one-year-old Boston startup whose API helps engineers at proptech companies reduce the amount of time it takes to onboard a new service, raised a $3.3 million seed round led by Prudence, with Fifth Wall, Y Combinator, RXR, and PropTech Angel Group also chiming in.
Relay, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that automates the creation of collaborative workflows, raised a $3.1 million round. Andreessen Horowitz was the deal lead.
Hillhouse, an investment firm backed by Yale’s endowment fund, is preparing to pitch a new Asia-focused credit fund to international investors; the fund may reach $900M-$1.1B.
US VC Ankona Capital closed its second fund at $129M to invest in early growth-stage B2B software companies.
SYN Ventures announced the first close of its dedicated cybersecurity seed fund at over $75M.
US VC Alethia Venture Partners launched its $50M inaugural fund, Alethia Opportunity Fund I, to invest in the beverage industry.
Boston PE firm BV Investment Partners raised a continuation fund that will allow it to maintain control of tax and accounting software provider Right Networks, which its $487M BVIP Fund VIII acquired in 2016.
Comcast and Disney hired investment banks to appraise Hulu as part of a five-year process to put the streaming platform under one owner; Hulu has a minimum valuation of $27.5B.
EU regulators ordered genetic testing company Illumina to sell cancer test maker Grail, which it acquired for $7.1B, for completing the deal before securing EU approval.
British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe is emerging as the frontrunner to buy into Premier League team Manchester United, which has a $3.2B market cap, thanks to his recently revised offer.
AccorInvest Group, one of the world’s largest hotel owners, is looking to sell $2.1B worth of hotel assets in Latin America and Europe to reduce debt.
Australian collaboration software company Atlassian will buy privately held video messaging platform Loom for ~$975M.
Industrial and automotive supplier Stabilus will acquire Dover’s DESTACO business, which is an industrial automation component supplier, at a $680M EV.
Apollo Global Management will buy The Restaurant Group, the owner of Wagamama, for $623M.
Hong Kong PE firm Templewater is nearing a deal to buy a controlling stake in Luye Medical Group’s oncology and cardiology businesses in Singapore at a ~$337M valuation, including debt.
Brooks Macdonald, a UK wealth manager worth ~$325M that oversees $20.7B in client assets, is working with a defense advisor on strategy amid takeover interest.
German insurance heavyweight Allianz will acquire financial services company Generali’s TUA Assicurazioni for $295M cash.
Filipino power retailer Manila Electric’s MGen Renewable Energy unit will invest $280M to buy shares in solar energy company SP New Energy.
US investment firm Live Ventures offered to acquire hardwood flooring retailer LL Flooring Holdings for ~$180M cash.
PGA Tour began a formal process to review outside investments separate from its negotiations over a deal with Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
Lender Antares Capital is weighing an acquisition of European private credit rival Hayfin Capital Management to create a private credit behemoth.
PE firm Platinum Equity emerged as the lead bidder for Jacobs Solutions’ federal consulting unit Critical Mission Solutions.