German instant grocery startup Gorillas to exit four markets and lay off 300 employees in a bid to focus on profitability. The decision represents a drastic change away from the company's "hyper-growth" strategy. The announcement comes on the heels of a rumored unsuccessful fresh fundraising by the company owing to the global slump in venture capital activity. More: - Sources informed Techradar that Gorillas has $300M cash in its accounts but needed a strategic pivot due to its monthly burn rate estimated to be between $50M-$75M.
- It last raised $1B in Series C funding at a $3B post-money valuation in Oct. 2021.
- The firm will exit Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Belgium to focus its efforts on Germany, France, the Netherlands, the U.K., and the U.S.
- The current focus regions contribute to 90% of the company's revenues.
- Gorillas' employee layoffs, which will affect half of its Berlin workforce, will mostly affect new employees who joined in the previous few months and are currently on probation.
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Cribl, a San Francisco-based data observability pipeline firm, secured $150M in Series D financing at a $2.5B post-money valuation. Tiger Global Management led the funding round. Proceeds from the funding will help scale operations. More: - Cribl's valuation rose from $1B in Aug. 2021, when it secured $209.8M in Series C investment led by Greylock and Redpoint.
- Along with the current investment, the company has raised over $400M in total funding to date.
- The company reported a 300% increase in annual recurring revenue in 2021, buoyed by a tripling of its consumer base.
- Notable clients include Accenture, Domino's, 7-Eleven, New Balance, Shutterfly, and Autodesk.
- The funding saw participation from CRV, IVP, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia, and Greylock Partners.
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SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led a $150M Series B funding round into livestream shopping event platform Firework. The funding valued the firm at $750M. Firework intends to use the proceeds from the funding to back strategic acquisitions, pursue research and development, and accelerate global growth with a particular focus on India. More: - Prior to the current funding, the firm raised $55M in a Series A funding round at a $230M valuation in March 2021.
- To date, the Redwood City, Calif.-based startup has secured $235M in funding.
- GSR Ventures, IDG Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners led the previous financing.
- Kraft Heinz, Albertsons, Unilever, American Express, and Fresh Market are among its 900 clients.
- Meta Platforms, Amazon, and YouTube are large companies that have developed their proprietary live-stream shopping tools.
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Flowcarbon raised $70M in venture funding and a token sale. The $32M Series A equity financing round was led by Andreessen Horowitz. The New York-based startup offers a voluntary carbon marketplace through its carbon-backed token called Goddess Nature Token (GNT). The company reported that GNT is "backed by certified credits issued over the last five years from nature-based projects." More: - Flowcarbon has partnered with Layer 1 blockchain Celo to offer $10M worth of GNT.
- Celo will use the tokens to offset their emissions.
- Other funding round participants include General Catalyst, Samsung Next, Invesco Private Capital, 166 2nd, RSE Ventures, Fifth Wall, Box Group, and Allegory Labs.
- Adam Neumann, founder of WeWork, co-founded Flowcarbon along with Dana Gibber, Caroline Klatt, Rebekah Neumann, and Ilan Stern.
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Venture capital firm Maveron raised $225M in commitments for its eighth fund. The firm was co-founded by Dan Levitan and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. The fund, which was reported today but closed earlier this month, will invest in e-commerce, healthcare, education, web3, and consumer-tech domain. More: - The company is known for investing in eBay in June 1998, three months before the company debuted on the public market.
- However, the company faced tough times in the 2008 recession, when a few of its limited partners withdrew their investments.
- The company has since bounced back, and its post-recession funds have generated an average internal return rate of 50%.
- It raised $180M for its seventh fund in 2019.
- The firm has been counseling its portfolio startups to focus on long-term business goals at the onset of the current downturn in fundraising.
- Maveron’s portfolio includes direct-to-consumer shoe business Allbirds, women’s retailer Everlane, and cryptocurrency investment platform Domain Money.
- Domain, founded by Adam Dell, received $33M in funding with participation from Maveron.
- The company’s successful exits include Zulily’s, an online retailer which secured $2.7B from its IPO, and Modern Fertility, a telemedicine provider acquired by Ro for $225M.
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Data observability software firm Monte Carlo cemented its unicorn status with a $135M Series D fundraise. The funding round valued the firm at $1.6B. IVP led the financing with participation from Accel, GGV Capital, Redpoint, Iconiq Growth, and GIC Singapore. Incoming funds will be used to accelerate product development, add new verticals, and back its go-to-market efforts. More: - The San Francisco-based company last raised $60M in Aug. 2021. The Series C fundraise was led by Iconiq Growth.
- Per Crunchbase, the firm’s total funding received to date totals $236M.
- The company has clients across the U.S., Middle East, and North African region, with the former generating two-thirds of its business.
- Affirm, JetBlue, PepsiCo, CNN, The New York Times, Asics, and Rivian are among its 150 clients.
- The company reported that it doubled revenue every quarter since its last fundraise.
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- David Chao, co-founder and general partner at DCM venture capital firm, has been nominated to join SoftBank Group Corp.’s board. Chao will supersede Lip-Bu Tan as an outside director after the latter’s term ends in June.
- HSBC Holdings Plc’s venture capital arm’s managing director Ore Adeyemi will depart from the company to form his own venture capital firm. HSBC’s Tom Bussey and Thomas Caine will join Adeyemi in the new firm.
- London-based Crane Venture Partners raised $140M for its second fund to back software infrastructure companies in the early stages between seed to Series A-stages.
- Latin American automated freight forwarding platform Nowports secured unicorn status with its $150M Series C fundraise led by SoftBank Latin America Fund. The firm was valued at $1.1B. Tiger Global, Foundation Capital, Monashees, Broadhaven Ventures, Mouro Capital, and Base10 Partners participated in the funding.
- Torch, a San Francisco-based coaching, mentoring, and group learning platform, raised $40M in a Series C funding round. 137 Ventures led the financing with participation from Initialized Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Obvious Ventures.
- Open-source software supply chain management firm Tidelift secured $27M in Series C fundraise led by Dorilton Venture. Kaiser Permanente, Atlassian Ventures, General Catalyst, and Foundry Group participated in the funding.
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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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