Workplace communication platform Slack announced its third investment fund of $100M. Fund III will target software startups at seed and early stages. The company has made over 100 investments in North American and European startups since the launch of its first fund in 2015. More: - Its debut fund size was $25M followed by a $50M second fund.
- Slack Fund’s portfolio companies have raised $5.5B in funds.
- Hightouch closed its $40M Series B led by ICONIC Growth in Nov. 2021.
- Communication and video messaging platform Loom received $130M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- Dragoneer Investment Group and others led a $168M (£128M) Series F into people management platform Lattice.
- The fund helps the startups scale their organizations and will also be supported by Salesforce Ventures.
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Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz led a $150M Series B funding into Optimism. The Ethereum Layer 2 scaling platform was valued at $1.65B at the recent fundraiser. More: - Optimism's use of roll-up technology helps it to process transactions faster on the Ethereum chain.
- The platform is reportedly able to channel the cost savings to customers with lower gas fees than other platforms.
- Optimism claims its network gas fees are 10 times cheaper than Layer 1 solutions.
- The Ethereum platform received $3.5M seed funding in Jan. 2020, following which it raised $25M in Series A funding in Feb. 2021.
- Andreessen Horowitz led the Series A financing round.
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Cross River Bank is looking to raise $600M financing at over $3B valuation, per sources close to Bloomberg. Andreessen Horowitz and Eldridge Industries are set to co-lead the investment. The bank offers loans to fast-growing fintech startups and operates from Teaneck, N.J. More: - The bank has over $55B in loans.
- KKR & Co. last led a $100M funding round in 2018, with participation from CreditEase, LionTree Partners, Ribbit Capital, Battery Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz.
- Its parent organization issued $106M worth of subordinated notes in 2020 to fuel strategic growth plans.
- T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Whale Rock Capital Management LLC are poised to be amongst the group of participants in the ongoing fundraising.
- Coinbase, Affirm, Stripe, Upstart, and Rocket Loans are a few of its fintech partners.
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California-based Cresta secured $80M Series C financing. Tiger Global led the funding round. Cresta offers a suite of three products providing real-time intelligence for call center operations. The company received a $1.6B post-money valuation. More: - Cresta’s AI-driven platform is used by over 100 clients, including Verizon, CarMax, Earthlink, Intuit, Porsche, and others.
- The funding round saw participation from Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Porsche, Genesys, Five9, J.P. Morgan Chase, CarMax, and Zoom.
- It last raised $50M in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital in March 2021.
- Ping Wu, Google Contact Center AI’s co-founder, joined recently as a Vice-President of Engineering and Product.
- The recent funding will be used for product development, customer data analysis, and expanding its workforce.
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Oxio raised a $40M Series B investment led by ParaFi Capital. The New York-based company provides a Telecom as a Service platform. Including the current investment, Oxio has secured $65M funding so far. More: - Oxio’s platform packages 4G and 5G infrastructure capabilities as a white-label product for any brand or mobile service.
- Notable clients include Grupo Bimbo, Grupp Coppel, and Rappi.
- The company last raised $12M Series A funding in Nov. 2020, led by Monashees and Atlantico Capital.
- Other participants in the current funding round include Digital Currency Group, Ascend, Leyden, Multicoin Capital, Monashees, Atlantico Capital, FinTech Collective, Candel & Partners, LightShed Partners, and Sea Group.
- Incoming funds will help continue expansion into Mexico, the U.S., and LATAM region – most notably Brazil.
- The company intends to grow the team in the U.S. and Mexico with the recent funds.
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Chinese semiconductor packaging company SJ Semiconductor Co closed a $300M Series C investment. The firm was valued at over $1B at the recent funding. The first tranche was closed in Sept. 2021 at $108M, after which it received an add-on investment of $192M in the following months. More: - CMBI, CICC Capital, Oriza Rivertown, Oriza Hua Capital, Walden CEL, CCB PE, CCB Trust, Growth, Country Garden Venture, HTPE, SCGC, CITIC Securities, and GP Capital participated in the funding.
- SJ Semiconductor has secured over $630M in funding to date.
- The company will use the incoming funds for the construction of the new facility – scheduled to commence operations by the end of 2023 – and to scale production capacity.
- The factories are being built in the Jiangyin region, with the company anticipating the construction to cost $1.6B. It should produce over 120,000 wafer-level packaged IC units and 20,000 3D multi-die integrated chipsets once the factory reaches full capacity.
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- Chicago-based private equity firm Frontenac closed its oversubscribed 12th fund at $520M, against an initial target of $450M. Various foundations, multi-manager funds, pension funds, and family offices supported the funding. The firm targets lower middle market buyouts focusing on consumer, industrial, and service sectors.
- Cricket collectibles NFT marketplace FanCraze is raising $100M in Series A financing. B Capital Group and Insight Partners are leading the funding round, which includes participation from Christiano Ronaldo. The startup has partnered with cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, to create exclusive NFTs.
- Shanghai-based robotic automation startup DataGrand raised $90M (RMB 580M) Series C funding. CITIC Securities, CMS Securities, SCGC, Hundreds Capital, Xiang He Capital, and more participated in the funding. Proceeds from the fund will accelerate Intelligent RPA solutions.
- Hydrow secured $55M in Series D funding led by Constitution Capital. The Boston-based startup manufactures rowing machines that provide a feeling of rowing on water.
- Maritime technology company Nautilus Labs raised $34M Series B funding. M12 led the funding with participation by Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund into the New York-based maritime technology startup.
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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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