Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has raised $4.5B for its largest cryptocurrency and blockchain fund yet. The fund is the firm's fourth cryptocurrency and web3 fund. $3B from the fund is earmarked for venture investments, with the remaining $1.5B for seed investments. The Crypto Fund IV will be led by general partner Chris Dixon. More: - Despite the current slump in the cryptocurrency market, the firm is convinced of the sector's potential.
- Arianna Simpson, a general partner at a16z, told CNBC over the phone, "Bear markets are often when the best opportunities come about, when people are actually able to focus on building technology rather than getting distracted by short-term price activity."
- Andreessen Horowitz has raised $7.6B in total funds for crypto investments so far, with its first dedicated fund debuting four years ago.
- The preceding fund, Crypto Fund III, closed last year with $2.2B in commitments.
- Its first major investment in the crypto space was Coinbase in 2013, and it has since backed many crypto startups, namely Avalanche, Dapper Labs, and OpenSea.
- It also backed blockchain-based carbon-credit platform Flowcarbon, co-founded by Adam Neumann, yesterday. In case you missed it, you can read more about it here.
Zoom out: - Cryptocurrency sector gained traction last year with a record-breaking $25B of venture capital investments, up eight times than the year prior.
- Katie Haun, a former a16z general partner, launched her own firm Haun Capital and raised $1.5B for two crypto-focused funds.
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According to federal security filings seen by Axios, venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates has raised more than $5.1B for two new funds. The funds are believed to be earmarked for potential technology and life sciences startups, both sectors in which NEA has historically invested. The funds are split between early-stage and growth-equity financing funds. More: - The early-stage financing vehicle has secured $2.9B in commitments and is near its final closing target.
- The growth stage fund has secured $2.3B in funding.
- However, NEA is targeting a $3.7B close for its fund, per a different filing seen by Axios.
- The Menlo Park, Calif.-headquartered firm has raised a total of $18.4B across 13 funds.
- Notable portfolio investments include companies such as Databricks, Genies, Strive Health, Patreon, Robinhood, and Cloudflare, amongst others.
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San Francisco-based truck fleet management software provider Motive raised $150M in equity financing. The funding values the firm at $2.85B, up from its last $2.3B valuation secured last June. Motive, formerly known as KeepTruckin, provides fleet management, automation, driver safety products, and tracking solutions for trucking companies. Insight Partners and Kleiner Perkins co-led the current fundraising. More: - Proceeds from the current financing will help the company to advance its artificial intelligence capabilities, develop expense management software, and back sales efforts to bring in enterprise clients.
- Motive reported over $250M in annual recurring revenue, boosted by rising demand for its unsafe driving detection and fuel efficiency optimization software.
- The company declared that it's growing at an annualized rate of ~70%, with the current customer count totaling 120,000 businesses.
- Kleiner Perkins' general partner Ilya Fushman sees promising potential for Motive's products in the construction and oil and gas industries.
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Mobile fuel delivery company Booster secured $125M in a Series D funding round led by Rose Park Advisors. Booster delivers gasoline, diesel, and electricity charging for retail and consumer business fleets via its own set of trucks, some of which run on biofuel. Booster will use the incoming funds to expand its direct-to-vehicle fuel delivery network. More: - The San Mateo, Calif.-based company reported 125% YoY revenue growth in Q1 of 2022.
- Amazon, Imperfect Foods, and IBM are a few of Booster’s customers.
- Recently, United Parcel Service employed Booster’s services.
- A few of its customers run their fleets on recycled used cooking oil-derived biofuels.
- New investors Chaac Ventures, Equinor Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Thayer Ventures joined existing investors Renewable Energy Group (REG), Cercano Management, Conversion Capital, and others.
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German car subscription platform Finn secured $110M in Series B equity financing led by Korelya Capital. Finn will use the proceeds to accelerate core technology development, hire team members, and expand in the U.S. and Europe, with the company forecasting to reach 30,000 subscriptions by year-end. The recent fundraising valued the firm at over $500M. More: - Finn also raised $720M in debt funding, split between two tranches of $520M and $200M.
- Both are asset-backed securities, with Waterfall Asset Management contributing to both facilities.
- The $200M facility was secured in March 2020, while the $520M debt financing, also backed by Credit Suisse, was closed in Dec. 2021.
- The company opened its U.S. headquarters in New York City and intends to expand its car subscription services into California and Florida later this year.
- Finn’s subscription service is active in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
- Returning investors White Star Capital, HV Capital, Heartcore Capital, UVC Partners, and Picus Capital were joined by new investors Keen Venture Partners, Climb Ventures, Greentrail Capital, and Waterfall Asset Management in the funding.
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Israel-based scalable blockchain technology building startup StarkWare Industries secured $100M in Series D funding. The Greenoaks Capital- and Coatue-led funding increased the firm’s valuation to $8B, up four-fold since its $2B valuation at its Series C funding six months ago. More: - StarkWare has raised $273M in total funding to date, last raising $50M from its Series C funding round.
- The funding round saw participation from Tiger Global and other new and returning investors.
- The company claims that its platform, StarkEx, processes more transactions than Bitcoin.
- In two years since launch, the StarkEx platform has handled over $500B worth of transactions.
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- Santa Clara-based digital transformation technology WSO2 raised $93M in Series E funding, led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management Private Credit. RedStart Labs joined the investment.
- San Francisco-based biotechnology company Terremoto Biosciences closed its Series A funding round with $75M in financing. OrbiMed and Third Rock Ventures co-led the funding.
- Airspace, an AI-powered shipping and logistics tracking startup, received $70M in funding led by DBL Partners, co-led by Telstra Ventures and HarbourVest. Scale Ventures, Defy Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Prologis Ventures participated in the funding.
- Denver-based health insurance company Friday Health Plans raised $70M in equity financing and $50M in debt financing led by Leadenhall Capital Partners with participation from Vestar Capital Partners, Peloton Capital Partners, and others.
- Greycroft led a $52M Series A funding round into Utah-based corporate sales win-loss analysis technology provider Clozd. Madrona Venture Group and Album VC participated in the funding.
- Zip, a San Francisco-based purchasing requests, procurement approval, tracking, and sourcing platform, raised $43M in Series B funding at a $1.2B valuation. YC Continuity led the funding with participation from Tiger Global and CRV.
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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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