 Funding to Black-founded startups has totaled just $324M for the second quarter of this year, according to Crunchbase. That figure puts it on track to come in at its lowest quarterly sum since Q3’20, which saw only $180M deployed to such startups. More: - Meanwhile, the number of individual funding rounds for Black-led companies has continued its decline since Q1’21, which saw a record-setting 119 unique deals.
- With only 35 checks signed so far this quarter, funding activity for Black founders is well below its figure in recent years.
- The total of Black-led companies that have secured VC backing this year is 100 and counting.
- Still, as a percent, funding for Black founders measured as a percentage of funding deals and total dollars is in line with its recent figure.
- Startups with at least one Black founder have received 1.9% of deal counts and 1.2% of overall venture dollars invested in the U.S. so far this year.
- Total capital flows have fluctuated between 0.8% and 1.3% since 2017 per year as a proportion of U.S. funding, with the deal count being pegged somewhat higher at 1.8% and 2.6% of all dals in the same time frame.
- Though 2022’s total funding for Black-led startups stands no chance of reaching its 2021 peak of $4.8B, it is well on track to constitute the second-highest sum historically.
- So far, $100M has been invested in seed-stage Black-founded U.S. startups, $591M at the early stage, and around $876M for later-stage companies.
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Israeli product security platform Jit raised $38.5M in seed funding led by Boldstart Ventures. The round saw participation from Insight Partners, Tiger Global Management, and strategic angel investors. More: - Jit was founded by FXP, a Boston-Israel startup venture studio.
- The company’s platform claims to integrate security into the DevOps workflow through a conversion platform for security plans-as-code maintained on GitHub.
- It currently offers a public beta version and furthermore offers minimum viable security plans that are compliant with industry standards.
The wider lens: - Jit’s proposition is based on the insight that contemporary accelerated development processes have led to software quickly achieving perfect functionality while relegating security to an afterthought.
- According to a recent survey, 86% of developers do not consider application security to be a top priority while building code.
- Meanwhile, only 29% think it should be, while 67% admit to putting off security concerns due to time constraints.
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Best of Last Week M&A IPO - Food Rocket, a U.S.-based grocery delivery platform, is now considering an IPO after adding Guillaume Leger, the former CFO of Hong Kong Citigroup, to its board.
New Funds - Sequoia has launched two new funds for its India and Southeast Asia operations, totaling $2B for early-stage and growth investments in India and $850M earmarked for a similar multi-stage strategy in Southeast Asia.
- Lee Fixel's Addition is seeking to raise a fresh $1.5B fund for its Asia-targeted multi-stage investment strategy.
- Boston-based healthcare-focused venture capital firm Third Rock Ventures closed its sixth fund with $1.1B in commitments.
- Venture capital firm World Innovation Lab (WiL) secured $1B in funding to be deployed across its third growth fund, WiL strategic partners funds, and corporate VC funds.
- LGT Capital Partners closed its inaugural impact fund with $550M in capital commitments.
- Blockchain gaming technology company Immutable announced a $500M inaugural venture fund to back web3 and NFT startups.
- Founder's Point-of-View Ventures, dubbed FPV Ventures, secured $450M in capital for its early-stage-focused debut fund.
- Growth equity investment firm Glade Brook Capital Partners closed its third strategic growth fund at $430M.
- High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), a German public-private venture capital firm, secured over $417.7M (€400M) in commitments toward its fourth fund.
- Berlin-based Project A Ventures raised its fourth fund at $375M, the 10-year-old firm's largest to date.
- Inovia Capital, a Canadian multi-stage venture capital firm, secured $325M (CA$420M) for its fifth early-stage fund.
- Israel Secondary Fund has raised a third fund with $312M in fresh capital.
- U.K.-based Founders Factory announced a $122M (£100M) fund, called the Planet Fund, to back early-stage climate startups.
- Brazilian hardwood pulp producer Suzano launched a $70M fund to invest in Seed and Series A rounds for companies involved in climate technology, bio-based products, agroforestry, and sustainable packaging.
- California-based early-stage healthcare startup backer Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health raised $64M for its second fund.
- Los Angeles-based life- and physical-sciences venture capital firm Kairos Ventures secured $58M for its third fund.
- Dcode Capital has pulled in $50M to fund companies and speed up the process by which they get contracts with the federal government.
- Florida's The LegalTech Fund raised $28.5M for its latest vehicle, which it will use to pursue its global strategy.
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Several top executives at AI software startup DataRobot reportedly sold $32M in personal stakes last year. Its 1,200 employees were not offered the opportunity, despite many of them having been with the company for a decade. More: - In late Jan. 2021, DataRobot launched a tender offer for employees who had worked at the company for at least two years. They could sell up to 15% of their vested stock at $15 a share, which implied a valuation of around $3B.
- The sales from the executives were made at a valuation of $6.3B and later $7B.
- That figure has surely fallen as comparable publicly-traded companies have seen their multiples collapse.
- By imposing their multiples on DataRobot, given its poor financial performance in the interim, the company would have a valuation of just $1B to date.
- The firm missed one of CEO Dan Wright’s financial targets by over 75%.
- By the end of the fiscal year in January, DataRobot’s ARR had risen just 25% annually to $17M, a fraction of the $255M target.
- Meanwhile, the company’s cash burn nearly tripled to $68M in Q1’22 compared to the same period a year earlier.
- None of the executives who sold shares were founders, but rather recent hires.
- They included Wright himself, as well as the firm’s CFO, CRO, go-to-market officer, and chief legal officer.
- DataRobot has raised $1.05B in venture funding to date from investors including New Enterprise Associates, Tiger Global Management, Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, and others.
- It has been a unicorn since 2019.
The wider lens: - While executives selling stock is nothing unusual, such decisions will come under scrutiny as the tech market worsens.
- Spending increased after Wright was brought on as CEO in 2021 and was followed by layoffs just last month.
- Wright insisted that the company had three years of runway. However, with a current annual burn of $250M and cash on hand of only $400M, it is hard to understand how that statement can be true.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - Swing Therapeutics (San Francisco, Calif.), digital therapeutics: $10.3M A led by Jazz Venture Partners, participation from Alumni Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Asahi Kasei Corporate Ventures, et al.
Blockchain - Mosdex (Helsinki, Finland), cryptocurrency arbitrage platform: $20M led by Evli Bank, participation from Lifeline Ventures, NordicNinja VC, Petteri Suorsa, Magnus Eskelinen, et al.
Enterprise - Ahana (San Mateo, Calif.), SaaS platform for Presto: $7.2M led by Liberty Global Ventures, participation from GV.
- Amy (Tel Aviv, Israel), pre-meeting prospect research automation platform: $6M Seed led by Next Coast Ventures, Lorne Abony, participation from Jim Mellon and Eric Ludwig, Micha Breakstone, et al.
Fintech - Auxilius (New York, N.Y.), clinical trial financial management platform: $10M A led by Renegade Partners, participation from Bain Capital Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, Andy Palmer, Chase Gilbert, et al.
- Mono (Colombia), corporate or business account provider for startups: $6M Seed led by Tiger Global, participation from Soma Capital, Y Combinator.
Did you enjoy reading about all of today's funding in one place? The funding roundup is only available to free users on Mondays and Fridays. Upgrade to Inside VC Premium for either $10/month, or $100 billed annually, to receive the full list in every issue! For a limited time, we are offering a 14-day free trial. Click here to sign up! | | | |
Quick Hits - Learn why many SMEs are pivoting away from perimeter-based security to a Zero Trust model.*
- Cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund Three Arrows Capital has hired lawyers as its losses force it to consider asset sales and selling to another firm. The firm was hit hard by the collapse of so-called stable coins TerraUSD and Luna.
- Brex, a VC-backed lender to startups, has dumped tens of thousands of SMBs who lack "professional funding." From now on, the firm will only serve VC-backed customers. Its former clients have until Aug. 15 to withdraw their funds.
- FPV Fund, founded by veterans from Felicis Ventures and Morgan Stanley, raised $450M for its maiden fund to invest in startups across categories and stages, though with an emphasis on early-stage rounds.
- Peter Thiel, one of the original backers of big tech, is now set on destroying it, say sources close to the investor. The PayPal founder's departure from Facebook's board was years in the making, and he has pumped $20M into 16 political campaigns from conservative politicians with alignment with Trump.
- ByteDance has shut down gaming developer 101 Studio, which it acquired three years ago, and fired half of its 300 employees. The decision marks a retreat from the gaming industry and a win for Tencent, whose dominance in mobile gaming ByteDance had hoped to challenge.
- Adobe tools help you create, manage, and distribute personalized content. Take this self-assessment to test your brand's content velocity.*
*This is a sponsored post.
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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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