Swedish fintech giant Klarna is reportedly seeking fresh funding at a $15B valuation, according to sources for the Wall Street Journal. That figure is less than one-third of the $45.6B the company was valued at after a funding round led by SoftBank last June.
More:
- The reports of the massive down round come on the heels of other rumors last month that the company was seeking to raise $1B at a valuation in the range of the low $30Bs.
- There is no guarantee that the deal will take place, caution sources.
- The fundraising could total $500M if it goes through.
- Klarna’s interest-free, fee-based BNPL model has proven popular but massively unprofitable.
- The company processed $80B worth of transactions in 2021, up 42% from the previous year.
- However, the firm’s net loss quadrupled in Q1’21 to $250M (2.57B Swedish krona) from a year earlier.
- As investor appetite for high-growth startups surrounded by red ink waned, the company decided to let go of 10% of its workforce.
- Beyond the inherent problems with its cash flow, Klarna is facing increased competition from the likes of Apple, which recently entered the BNPL space following Barclays and PayPal.
- The entire segment has also ended in the crosshairs of regulators. The U.K. has begun regulating BNPL products in order to protect consumers.
| |
Little Leaf Farms, which claims to have revolutionized lettuce agriculture, has raised $300M in fresh capital led by The Rise Fund. A portion of that sum is constituted by a debt investment from Bank of America. More: - Using hydroponic production, Little Leaf’s greenhouses capture rainwater and reduce total water use by 90% compared with traditional field-grown greens.
- It also employs solar panels to further reduce the carbon footprint of its growing operations.
- Beyond that, it does not use pesticides or human harvesters. By the time the greens reach consumers, it has never touched human hands.
- Present largely in grocery stores in the Northeast, Little Leaf has boosted its sales by 50% and represents 42% of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) lettuce produced in the U.S.
- The company already has operations in Devens, Mass. and San Francisco and has further plans to expand to McAdoo, Pa. this year. After its Pa. expansion the company will have four greenhouses.
- Maya Chorengel, Co-Managing Partner of The Rise Funds, will join Little Leaf Farms’ Board of Directors.
| |
 A message from LAIKA If you’re trying to close deals, SOC 2 is probably a thorn in your side. What is it, and who cares? Your business needs SOC 2. But building compliance from scratch is complicated, time-consuming, and the cost can be crippling. Laika has you covered. Uncomplicate SOC 2 with our guide for growth-minded founders. In the guide by Laika you’ll learn: - What is SOC 2 compliance and why it matters for your startup
- How to close more deals faster by becoming SOC 2 compliant
- How to prepare for SOC 2 compliance
- What to expect in terms of time and cost
- What to do after the report is in
What makes Laika the authority on SOC 2? They’re the only compliance automation solution that was built by compliance experts. Learn how to turn compliance from a pain point into a secret edge over your competitors. Download Now 
| |
 SoftBank's financial activity has pulled back sharply after reaching an all-time high with $23B deployed over 65 deals in Q3’21, . Crunchbase data finds that its total deal activity measured by dollar volume in Q4’21 and Q1’22 together did not reach that sum. More: - Both quarters saw a total of $9.9B deployed through SoftBank’s Vision Funds, with total funding deals coming in at 49 and 52 respectively for each three-month period.
- Meanwhile, Q2’22 has seen the behemoth pump the breaks even harder.
- So far, it has only signed 25 checks worth $4.4B with just a few weeks remaining before the quarter is over.
- Faced with an increasing debt load and $27.7B loss for its past fiscal year, SoftBank COE Masayoshi Son announced a more defensive posture for the firm, breaking markedly from its past strategy.
- Last year, SoftBank Vision Fund participated in nine funding rounds of $1B or more.
- That included leading or co-leading rounds for India-based Flipkart, South Korea-based Yanolja, and Massachusetts-based Devoted Health.
- The year to date has not seen a single round of such magnitude. The company has instead only participated in the $935M funding round for logistics company Flexport.
- Beyond that, it reneged on a promise to pump $1.35B into self-driving startup Cruise and sold its existing stake to General Motors.
| |
Indian direct-to-consumer brand aggregator Goat Brand Labs raised $50M in a Series A from Winter Capital, Vivriti Capital, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, and Oxyzo. The investors join existing backers Tiger Global, Flipkart Ventures, Mayfield, and Better Capital, which participated in the Bengaluru-based company’s $36M funding round last year. More: - Earlier reports of the deal indicated that Goat Brand would issue convertible notes, though these reports appear to have been false.
- The company did not disclose a valuation or revenue figures.
- However, it acquired 15 brands in the last year, including celebrity-styled Label Life, fashion jewelry Voylla, Indian wear trueBrowns & Abhishti, and children’s wear Frangipan.
- In general, Goat Brand seeks to acquire companies with $2M-$10M in annual revenue. It claims to be able to help companies reach profitability while growing them by two-three times within one year.
- With the new funding, Goat Brands is looking to expand its portfolio and is currently in talks to add 12 companies to its roster.
- It claims to have already scaled its brands by 85% while keeping them profitable.
- Though Flipkart and Amazon have the largest presence in Indian digital commerce, smaller competitors such as Goat Brand abound.
- Other players in India include Mensa, Global Bees, EvenFlow Brands, 10club, and Powerhouse91.
| |
 A message from ADOBE MARKETO Discover the many benefits of account-based marketing. As more and more organizations turn to ABM, the true extent of its business benefits are being revealed — and they’re huge. Get all the details in our new fact sheet. We lay out seven reasons why ABM is a business imperative and how it will benefit the way you do business. Account-based marketing (ABM) is one such technique that funnels marketing efforts to specific accounts. While ABM is not a new concept, it’s quickly becoming table stakes for B2B brands of all sizes due to recent technological innovations. A 2020 Terminus report revealed that 94.2 percent of all respondents had an active ABM program (up from 77 percent in 2019). That’s because it works. Download our fact sheet to learn seven key benefits of account-based marketing and why it has become a business imperative for creating revenue. Download Now
| |
 Today’s Funding 💸 Adtech/Martech - Base (Kfar Saba, Israel), B2B customer marketing platform: $15M from Wing VC, Vertex Ventures Israel.
Biotech/Health - Nacuity Pharmaceuticals (Fort Worth, Texas), treatments for retinitis pigmentosa, cataracts, and other ocular diseases caused by oxidative stress: $16.5M led by Foundation Fighting Blindness.
Blockchain - Tellie (Los Angeles, Calif.), site builder for web2 and web3 creators: $10M A from Malibu Point Capital, Galaxy Digital, Osage Venture Partners, Dapper Labs, SXSW Innovation Fund, et al.
- Kaleidoco (New York, N.Y.), Web3 entertainment: $7M Seed from Animoca Brands, GameFi Ventures, Gemini, Jane Street, Adit Ventures, Merit Circle, Nexo, et al.
Consumer - Saysh (Los Angeles, Calif.), community-centered lifestyle brand: $8M A led by IRIS, Athleta.
Cybersecurity - RapidFort (Sunnyvale, Calif.), platform assisting developers to reduce the potential attack surface of their applications: $8.5M Seed led by Felicis, participation from ForgePoint Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Global Founders Capital, Plug & Play Ventures, GIT1K Club.
DevOps - Grid.ai (New York, N.Y.), open source PyTorch Lightning framework: $40M B led by Coatue, participation from Index Ventures, Bain, Mantis VC, First Minute Capital.
- Finout (Tel Aviv, Israel), host monitoring app for cloud software and platforms: $18.5M A from Team8 Capital, Pitango First.
- Dynaboard (San Francisco, Calif.), platform to build production-ready web applications: $6.6M Seed led by XYZ Venture Capital, participation from Floodgate Fund, General Catalyst, The General Partnership, The House Fund, Abstract, Mantis, et al.
Enterprise - airSlate (Boston, Mass.), global leader in workflow automation solutions: $51.5M led by G Squared.
- Ceipal (Rochester, N.Y.), AI-powered talent acquisition platform: $21M Debt/Equity from Camden Partners, Topmark Partners, Evergreen Mountain Equity Partners, et al.
- Canditech (Tel Aviv, Israel), online job-simulation platform for recruitment platform: $9M led by Insight Partners, StageOne Ventures.
Fintech - Abacus Insight (Boston, Mass.), data management and interoperability solutions for healthcare payors: $28M C led by MultiPlan Corporation, participation from Blue Venture Fund, CRV, .406 Ventures, et al.
- Able.ai (San Francisco, Calif.), loan deployment acceleration platform: $20M A led by Canapi Ventures.
- PredictSpring (San Francisco, Calif.), omni-channel commerce and modern POS tech: $16M from Salesforce Ventures, Felicis, Novel TMT Ventures.
Foodtech - Fellow (San Francisco, Calif.), specialty coffee gear: $30M B led by NextWorld Evergreen.
Gaming - FanClash (India), e-sports fantasy sports platform: $40M B led by Alpha Wave Global, participation from Sequoia Capital India, Info Edge, Polygon.
- VersusGame (San Mateo, Calif.), mobile gaming platform: $25M A from APEX Capital, Brightstone Capital Partners, Feld Ventures, Gaingels, Kombo Ventures, Lifeline Ventures, et al.
Industrial - General Radara (Belmont, Calif.), high-resolution 3D radar systems: $22M A from Octave Ventures, Disruptive Technology Advisors, participation from Kleiner Perkins.
Robotics - Corvus (Boston, Mass.), warehouse inventory drones: $5M from Spero Ventures, S2G Ventures, One Way Ventures, Flight Ventures, F7 Ventures.
Want to read 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 - Trying to deliver on big expectations with a small team or budget? Use this worksheet to learn how you can do more with less.*
- Reddit will buy Spell, a platform to run experiments on machine learning algorithms, for an undisclosed sum.
- Notarize, the provider of an online notarization platform, will cut 25% of its workforce, totaling 110 jobs. The development marks the company’s second round of layoffs, the first of which was back in 2019.
- Inovia Capital, a Canadian VC outfit focusing on early-stage bets on sustainable businesses, raised a fifth fund with $325M in capital commitments.
- Peachtree Minority Venture Fund has launched to teach minority founders how to access VC funds while making investments in on select of the 24 founders pro cohort. So far it has signed three checks.
- Google for Startups has begun deploying its $4M grant to 40 Black-led tech startups across Europe. Initially totaling $2M, the fund will be distributed largely to British startups, with other European countries making up the rest.
- JOKR, an on-demand food delivery platform, will shutter its U.S. operations in Boston and New York to focus on Latin America. Its U.S. business accounted for only 5% of its sales.
*This is a sponsored post.
| |
- June 22 - AMA with Daniel Stedman (Pressto) (Register Here)
- June 29 - June 30 - Polkadot Decoded: The Biggest Polkadot Event of the Year (Register Here) *
- June 30 - HR Strategies to Retain Remote Employees (Register Here)
- July 20 - Need To Know NoCoder - Yassine Tahi (Kinetix) (Register Here)
- July 20 - The Rise of Metaverse Gaming (Register Here)
- August 17 - Investments To Make In Down Markets (Register Here)
- September 14 - Are Electric Cars Worth It? (Register Here)
*This is a sponsored listing.
| |
 |  | 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 | Gregory Bridgman is a writer and researcher with an academic background in politics and the philosophy of science and technology. He holds a BA from the University of Cape Town, an MS from University College London, and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge. He is interested in climate issues, technological changes, and the implications of the fourth industrial revolution. | |
Laika is a unified compliance platform that automates workflows for audits, infosec monitoring, and vendor due diligence in a single, collaborative space. | |
| |
Comments
Post a Comment