Makers Fund announced a third $500M fund targeting the interactive gaming sector. The firm will invest between $500,000 and $40M in each potential early-stage interactive entertainment startup. More: - In total, the firm has raised $460M in funds in 2017 and 2020.
- Since raising $200M towards its first fund in 2018, the firm has invested in over 90 global organizations.
- Its portfolio includes Indian-gaming company Loco, user-generated gaming content company Voldex, and esports betting platform Midnite.
- The firm has also backed Dream Games, Avia Games, Parsec, Genvid, Medal.tv, and VRChat.
Zoom out: - The gaming industry is witnessing increased dealmaking and higher investments. Per Makers’ general partner Michael Cheung, the industry was worth $170B in 2021, up from $100B in 2017, driven by increased customer adoption and engagement.
- Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $70B in January this year.
- Take-Two Interactive acquired Zynga for $12.4B.
- Griffin Gaming Partners announced a $750M gaming industry-focussed fund on Monday. In case you missed it, you can read Inside.com’s coverage in Monday’s newsletter here.
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Single-family rental investing platform Roofstock raised $240M Series E funding at a $1.9B valuation. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the financing round, which also saw participation from Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Citi Ventures, and others. More: - Roofstock provides a digital real estate investment platform catering to institutional and retail investors in the single-family rental home (SFR) sector, estimated to be worth over $4T.
- The Oakland, California-based firm processed over $5B in transactions, half of which occurred last year.
- The incoming funds will be used to bolster its Roofstock One offering, double its team, fund M&A, and accelerate product development.
- The company had earlier acquired Streetlane Homes, Stessa, and Great Jones.
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Capchase secured $80M Series B funding led by 01 Advisors. QED, Caffeinated Capital, Bling, Scifi, Thomvest Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, Invesco, and Gaingels participated in the funding. Capchase has raised over $400M funding so far. More: - The New York-based fintech startup offers a funding platform for startups to secure non-dilutive funding.
- Since launch, Capchase has facilitated over $2B in funding to 3,000 startups across the U.S. and Europe.
- The firm claims that 15% of that financing was invested in startups with female leaders or founders from minority backgrounds.
- The company’s product portfolio consists of three prime services: Capchase Grow, Capchase Extend, and Capchase Earn.
- Capchase Grow: to provide future capital based on recurring revenue of startups.
- Capchase Extend: buy-now-pay-later solution for business.
- Capchase Earn: high yield return product on idle cash.
- Capchase’s proprietary tool, CapScore, evaluates a potential business client’s loan repaying ability via analysis of hundreds of data points.
- Incoming funds will fuel regional expansion along with doubling the workforce.
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Denmark-based fintech company Lunar raised $77M (€70M) funds at a $2B post-money valuation. The funds are an add-on to the existing $232M (€210M) Series D from last July. The company anticipates further funding in the near future via a Series E round, which is expected to be closed in May this year. More: - The Nordic company provides bank accounts, loans, stock investment, and other services for small to medium businesses.
- Lunar reportedly has over 500,000 subscribers on its platform.
- At the recent funding round, the company also announced the launch of its crypto trading platform with the availability to trade Bitcoin, ether, DOGE, ADA, and DOT.
- The fundraise is led by Heartland with backing from Kinnevik, Tencent, and IDC Ventures.
- Seed Capital, Greyhound Capital, Socii Capital were past investors in the fintech startup.
- Actor Will Ferrell is an investor in Lunar.
- The company has raised ~$380M (€345M) in funding to date.
- Incoming funds will be used to fuel market expansion into other European regions beginning with Finland.
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Spain-based Amazon digital brand aggregator Yaba raised $83M (€75M) Series A funding. The funding was led by Crossbeam Venture Partners and Tikehau Capital. 10x Founders, Bonsai Partners, Aldea Ventures, JME, and Inveready, were joined by family office investors in the recent funding. More: - Yaba acquires and scales brands on the Amazon ecosystem across various verticals, namely household products, beauty, baby care, sports, and others.
- Its portfolio includes 12 brands generating over $20M in turnover, the most notable of which are Banbaloo and Superscandi.
- Yaba brings inventory management, sourcing, branding, marketing, and positioning expertise to invested companies.
- The startup will use the incoming funds for acquisitions, hiring new team members, and continuing expansion into Southern Europe.
- Using the funds, the company will also diversify into other eCommerce channels, most notably Lazada Group of Singapore and Shopee.
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Sofina led a $135M funding into Spanish survey and forms platform Typeform. The Series C funding round saw participation from Top Tier Capital Partners, GP Bullhound, Teamworthy Ventures, Trium Venture Partners, and previous investors General Atlantic, Index Ventures, Point Nine Capital, and Connect Ventures. Typeform has secured $187M of total investment to date. More: - Typeform was valued at $935M during the recent funding.
- Typeform’s platform is used by over 125,000 global businesses.
- The no-code SaaS platform drives engagement between businesses and their customers and witnesses over 500 million digital interactions every year.
- The platform integrates with prominent business tools, including HubSpot, Calendly, Slack, and more.
- Incoming funds will drive product development, expand the workforce, accelerate emerging technology adoption, and help form strategic partnerships.
- It last raised $35M through its Series B funding round in 2017.
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Quick Hits - The Path to AI Maturity provides insights from the C-suite on current levels of AI investment, priorities by stage of AI maturity, and more.*
- RefleXion Medical, a California-based biotech startup focusing on therapeutic oncology, raised $80M funding from investors including TPG’s The Rise, T. Rowe Price, Venrock, Pfizer Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and others.
- Financial planning and analysis platform for Excel DataRails secured $50M Series B funding. Qumra Capital led the funding into the NYC-based firm.
- New Stack Ventures raised a $42.6M second fund to invest in early-stage ventures. The fund will empower founders with diverse backgrounds that lack educational pedigree or come from locations where less VC funding is injected. Each investment will range between $400,000 to $1M.
- French PE firm InfraVia Capital Partners raised $5.5B (€5B) towards its fifth fund. The oversubscribed fund will target infrastructure investments in digital, education, health, and green energy domains. It is currently evaluating a stake acquisition into freight locomotive operator Akiem.
- Israel-based real-time threat intelligence solution Cybersixgill raised $35M Series B funding led by More Provident and Pension Funds. CrowdStrike Falcon Fund, Elron Ventures, SonaeIM, and OurCrowd participated in the funding.
- Israeli autonomous driving startup Autobrains raised $19M funding, bringing its total Series C funding to $120M. New backers Knorr-Bremse AG and VinFast join a list of notable backers in funding, including Temasek, Continental, BMW i Ventures, and more.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | 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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