No traditional VC firm was in the top 10 highest-spending investors in 2021.

Plus: London's startup funding ecosystem is going wild.

Inside.com Part of   Network January 14, 2022

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Tiger Global and SoftBank pumped more money into startups in 2021 than any other firm, according to Crunchbase data. The investment juggernauts led or co-led rounds with a total value of $35.2B and $29.6B, respectively, throughout the year. No traditional VC firm made it into the list of the top 10 most active investors in technology startups. More:  VC firm Sequoia led or co-led rounds with a total value of $7.7B, followed closely by Andreessen Horowitz with $7B. In all, there were at least 17 venture investors who led or co-led funding rounds totaling $5B or more. Tiger’s biggest rounds included a $1.8B Series B for fusion energy upstart Commonwealth Fusion, which it led. It also co-led a $1.3B Series D for cloud security provider Lacework and an $800M Series E for challenger bank Revolut. SoftBank co-led a $3.6B investment in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart and a $1.2B Series D for senior-focused health care company Devoted Health.  All said, the firms were involved in 194 and 115 rounds, respectively. SoftBank’s round count came in behind Insight Partners’ 164. In terms of participating in the most rounds, all other investors were thoroughly trounced by the seed-stage strategies of Y Combinator and Techstars, which were involved in 633 and 381 rounds each.

London led all European cities with total VC investment of $25.5B in 2021, according to a report from London & Partners and Dealroom.co. That makes up about 63.7% of the U.K.’s total startup investment flow of $40B. The city’s funding total was driven by megarounds ($100M+), which made up over 60% of its funding over 64 rounds. More: The number of megarounds grew by a factor of over three from 19 in 2020 and 18 in 2019. It also added 20 unicorns, bringing its herd to 75. The new unicorn figure makes London the world’s fourth city in terms of startup investment activity.  The San Francisco Bay Area saw 133 startups climb to over $1B, followed by 69 in New York and 21 in Boston.  The funding activity was boosted by over 100% from $11.2B in 2020. VC firms in London raised $9.9B in dry powder in 2021, accounting for 35% of all European VC funds. Notable funds include the $3.1B raised by Index Ventures, the $600M raised by Balderton, and $550M raised by 83North. Fintechs attracted the largest amount of capital with $11.6B. There was also strong growth for telecoms, health, and impact tech startups.

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Highspot efficiency platform for sales teams attracted another $275M in fresh capital for the company. The infusion comes hard on the heels of $200M raised last year, most of which has yet to be spent, according to CEO Robert Wahbe. More: The latest Series F funding valued the firm at $3.5B, up 4x over the past two years. It was led by new investors B Capital Group and D1 Capital Partners, with participation from ICONIQ Growth, Madrona Venture Group, Salesforce Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Tiger Global Management. The global sales enablement market, which includes the tech Highspot offers to enable salespeople to clinch deals via Zoom via conversational assistance, was estimated at $1.7B in 2020.  It is expected to grow to $7.3B in 2028, according to Verified Market Research. Highspot employs 800 people and aims to add another 500 this year. Its customers include DocuSign, Workday, Siemens, Adobe, and others. The Seattle-based company has raised $600M to date.

Self-proclaimed industrial super-app Inxeption raised $275M in fresh funding. Of that, $125M came in the form of a Series E funding round led by Schonfeld Strategic Advisors with participation from the Bank of Montreal (BMO), Coatue, and others. The remaining funds were debt provided by BMO and another lender. More: The round valued Inxeption at $3B, a factor of four higher than its most recent funding round from early 2021. According to co-founder and CEO Farzad Dibachi, the company saw its revenue grow over 400% during 2021 to surpass $100M in annualized sales. It has a customer base of over 1,000. During the past year, Inxeption launched a marketplace and financial services arm. The former allows for B2B transactions for the firm’s third-party partners. It, and Inxeption’s new capital services division, come as an addition to its cloud-based digital commerce platform for industrial companies and supply chain operators. The San Francisco-based company has raised $336.5M to date, according to Crunchbase.

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Today's Funding 💸 Biotech/Health ONL Medical (​​Ann Arbor, Mich.), therapies for protecting the vision of patients with retinal disease: $46.9M B led by Bios Partners, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Kaitai Capital, PSQ Capital, Michigan Capital Network Venture. Alira Health (Framingham, Mass.), healthcare consultancy: $40M from Creadev, et al. Aulisa Medical (Palo Alto, Calif.), wireless continuous patient vital monitoring system: $13M A from undisclosed sources. Blockchain NEAR Foundation (Zug, Switzerland), open web3 hub: $150M Token Sale led by Three-Arrows Capital, participation from Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, a16z, Jump, Alameda, Circle Ventures, et al. Conduit, API to connect financial service to DeFi: $17M led by Portage Ventures, participation from Diagram Ventures, FinVC, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gradient Ventures, Jump Capital. Cannabis Vanagst (Denver, Colo.), platform to match short-term workers and full-time employees with job openings at cannabis companies: $19M led by Level One Fund. Data/Analytics TheMathCompany (India), data analytics and data engineering firm: $50M led by Brighton Park Capital. Observable (San Francisco, Calif.), data collaboration company: $35.6M B led by Menlo Ventures, participation from Sequoia Capital, Acrew Capital. Enterprise Arc (San Francisco, Calif.), full-service finance platform for SaaS: $161M from NFX, Bain Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Torch Capital, Dreamers VC, Soma Capital, et al. Virtana (San Jose, Calif.), observability platform for managing app workloads across public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments: $73M from Atalaya Capital Management, Elm Park Capital Management, HighBar Partners, Benhamou Global Ventures. Workstep (San Francisco, Calif.), workforce hiring and retention platform for supply chain companies: $25M B led by NewRoad Capital Partners, participation from Prologis Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Social Capital, Quiet Capital, et al. Swell (San Francisco, Calif.), APIs, storefronts, and a dashboard to detach backend from frontend for e-commerce companies: $20M led by VMG Catalyst, Headline, participation from Bonfire Ventures, Willow Growth, Commerce Ventures, Red Antler, et al. Seel (U.S.), underwriting service for e-commerce returns: $17M led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, participation from Foundation Capital, Afore Capital, West Loop Ventures. Second Nature (Tel Aviv, Israel), AI-powered sales coaching solution: $12.5M A from Signals Venture Capital, StageOne Ventures, Cardumen Capital, Zoom Video Communications, et al. DriverReach (Indianapolis, Ind.), recruiting and compliance management system: $7.5M A led by Fulcrum Equity Partners, participation from CreativeCo Capital. Fintech Gr4vy (San Mateo, Calif.), cloud-native payment orchestration platform: $15M A led by March Capital. Lipa Later (Nigeria), consumer credit/BNPL platform: $12M A led by Cauris Finance, Lateral Frontiers VC, GreenHouse Capital, participation from SOSV IV, Sayani Investments, Axian Financial Services. Fintech Farm (U.K.), digital bank creation platform for emerging markets: $7.4M Seed led by Flyer One Ventures, Solid, participation from TA Ventures, Jiji, u.ventures, AVentures Capital. Seashell (Seattle, Wash.), modern banking and investment experience: $6M Seed led by Khosla Ventures, Kindred Ventures, participation from Vlad Tenev, Marc Cuban, et al. Gaming Turnip (India), mobile-first gaming community platform: $12.5M led by Greenoaks, Elevation Capital, participation from SEA Capital, Vibe Capital, Andrew Chen, et al. Industrial Virnect (Seoul, South Korea), industrial extended reality solutions: $30M B from STIC Ventures, Lotte Ventures, Hanwha, et al. Logistics EVage (India), EV trucks for e-commerce delivery: $28M Seed led by RedBlue Capital. Transportation Smartlane (Munich, Germany), SaaS provider specializing in AI-based transport optimization: $7.1M A from Jova Direkt Invest, et al. Did you enjoy reading about all of today's funding in one place? The funding roundup is only available to free users on Mondays and Fridays. Upgrade to Inside VC Premium for either $10/month, or $100 billed annually, to receive the full list in every issue! For a limited time, we are offering a 14-day free trial. Click here to sign up! Sign up now to test Inside VC Premium

Quick Hits Watch & Win with "Easy Buckets"! New episodes feature basketball stars and a $100,000 Bitcoin Giveaway. Enter now for a chance to win your share.* Owl Ventures raised three new funds for its edtech-focused investment strategy: a $640M fifth flagship fund, a $270M second opportunities fund, and several special purpose vehicles with $100M. OSF Ventures launches its third fund with a $100M target to invest in companies working to improve patient care and operational efficiency. Google lost its patent case against smart speaker company Sonos. The tech giant will downgrade its connected speakers so that they no longer infringe upon the five patents in question, specifically removing the ability of Google Home speakers to synchronize. Local Motors, the crowdsourced producer of the "Olli" autonomous shuttle and Rally Fighter, will shut down today, according to this post. *This is a sponsored post.

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Inside VC's writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master's degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford.

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