Ripple Labs, known for its blockchain-based cross-border transfer tech, is buying back its $200M Series C investment. Investors, led by Tetragon and joined by SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures, invested at a $10B valuation. The buyback will value the stakes at a 50% premium, which gives the company a $15B valuation. More: - The uncommon move is tied to an ongoing lawsuit filed by the SEC. The Commission’s charge is based on the sale of $1.3B in unregistered securities by the company and its executives.
- The sale was of XRP, a digital asset affiliated with Ripple and once the second-most popular cryptocurrency after Bitcoin.
- Following the SEC’s suit, U.K.-based Tetragon also sued, seeking $175M in repayment from its Series C investment. It lost at trial and followed up by purchasing additional shares in Ripple during a secondary sale.
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that the entire situation puts Ripple in an awkward position of having an antagonistic relationship with a previous lead investor.
- Tetragon asserted that it supports the company and is convinced of its prospects.
- Crucially, the buyback will not touch Ripple’s Series A and B rounds, as those shares weren’t tied to governance or dividends rights like the preferred stock from the Series C rounds.
- All said and done, Ripple has $1B in cash in the bank and zero debt, according to Garlinghouse.
- Transactions on the company’s global payments network doubled in 2021, and its payment volume run rate exceeded $10B, doubling that of 2020.
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Jidu, a one-year-old Chinese EV maker, raised $400M Series A from Baidu and Geely. The two investors established Jidu with an initial $300M in start capital last year to compete with the likes of Tesla. The companies gave no statement on Jidu's valuation. More: - Geely is the car unit of Fiat Chrysler in the APAC region and was also instrumental in founding Mobike, the Chinese bike-sharing pioneer acquired by Meituan in 2018.
- Baidu, known for its search engine, wants to use its AI capabilities to give Jidu a leg up on the competition to mass produce "robot" smart cars.
- In order to get the tech off the ground as quickly as possible, Jidu uses a simulated prototype car to develop its smart cockpit and autonomous driving systems.
- That is opposed to the traditional method of testing individual hardware parts in a mass-produced vehicle.
- It is also working to build a fan community through its "Jidu Union" initiative. A competitor, Nio, is known for taking that route, and Tesla is, of course, a branding juggernaut in its own right.
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Facebook's Diem project, once expected to bring cryptocurrency to the masses, is shuttering its operations. According to sources, all remaining assets will be sold for $200M to a small California bank, Silvergate Capital, which serves bitcoin and blockchain companies. More: - Launched in 2019 as Libra, Diem was under fire from the very start despite partnering with big names such as PayPal, Visa, and Stripe.
- Its initial plan was to produce a stablecoin independent of any world currency (Silvergate had partnered with Diem to issue some of these stablecoins). It intended to use a basket of currencies to reduce any one government's ability to influence its coins.
- After immediate pushback from Washington, Facebook yielded and made the dollar the basis for its currency.
- Still, skepticism abounded, and early backers started dropping out of the project. Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify before Congress to defend the project.
- The deal with Silvergate was meant to appeal to regulators' desire for stability but was unable to reverse the months of antagonism, much of which was based on fears of the coin's use for illegal activities.
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Spanish e-commerce delivery platform Paack pulled in $225M (€200M) Series D led by SoftBank. The investing juggernaut deployed funds from its Vision Fund II and was accompanied by new investors Infravia Capital Partners, First Bridge Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst. More: - Returning investors include Unbound, Kibo Ventures, Big Sur Ventures, RPS Ventures, Fuse Partners, Rider Global, Castel Capital, and Iñaki Berenguer.
- Paack's value proposition is to integrate the software used for robotic warehouse operations with a logistics website for its e-commerce customers.
- Consumers are able to customize their delivery schedule at checkout.
- Paack recently managed to bump its Spanish operations into the black.
- Beyond its home market, Paack operates in the U.K., France, and Portugal. It hopes to soon achieve profitability there as well.
- As a last-mile logistics operator, Paack wants to prevent its business from contributing to climate change. It will deliver all parcels at carbon net-zero using electric vehicles and other measurements.
- The World Economic Forum expects the last-mile delivery business to grow 78% by 2030, causing a 33% rise in CO2 emissions.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - Kyverna (Emeryville, Calif.), therapies for serious autoimmune diseases: $85M B led by Northpond Ventures, participation from Westlake Village BioPartners, Vida Ventures, Gilead Sciences.
- Resilience (France), Cathay Innovation, participation from Singular, Exor Seeds, Picus Capital, Seaya Ventures: $45M A led by Cathay Innovation, participation from Singular, Exor Seeds, Picus Capital, Seaya Ventures.
- Mayd (Berlin, Germany), on-demand medicine delivery platform: $34M from Target Global, 468 Capital, Earlybird Venture Capital.
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- The stock market correction has already affected valuations in late-stage VC funding rounds, reports PitchBook.
- VC firms own, on average, 50% of tech firms when they go public, according to data from Sammy Abdullah. Founders only managed to hold on to 15%.
- Switzerland-based bank UBS will buy U.S.-based robo-adviser Wealthfront for $1.4B in an all-cash deal.
- High-speed connectivity provider Credo priced its shares bottom-range during 2022’s first big IPO. The company raised $200M in the downsized offering and was valued at $1.4B.
- Knightscope, provider of advanced physical security technologies, raised $22M during its IPO. The company now trades on the Nasdaq.
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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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