SoftBank's Vision Fund led a $101M Series D into Japanese startup LegalForce, representing its fourth investment in its home country. The round was also supported by Sequoia Capital China and Goldman Sachs Group, as well as existing backers Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Mizuho Capital. More: - LegalForce provides an AI platform that analyzes legal documents for loopholes in order to catch potentially costly legal risks.
- The company currently has 2,000 clients including Nomura Holdings and All Nippon Airways and has raised $132M to date.
- The round was comparatively small for SoftBank, which has previously stayed away from Japanese companies because of the perception that they grow too slowly.
- Hitherto its bets on Japanese companies were restricted to endoscopy company AI Medical Service, pharmaceuticals firm Aculys Pharma, and online sneakers marketplace Soda.
- Aculys Pharma is currently developing a treatment for narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
The wider lens: - SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son recently announced that the investment giant will cut startup investments by 50% to 75% in an effort to keep its loan-to-value ratio below 25%. He marked the 25% ratio as a threshold he does not want to cross in ‘normal times’.
- The stock market collapse hit the investment giant hard, resulting in a $13.15B annual loss.
- The firm decided to cut the pay for its top executives following the $27.6B loss from its Vision Fund.
Meanwhile: - Japanese officials are preparing a tax reform to free up $74.4B (10 trillion yen) for startups each year, according to Bloomberg sources.
- The country has not historically had a large startup sector, and, if successful, the plan would boost available funds by a factor of ten.
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 Accel has been put on pace for its lowest quarterly deployment since Q1’21 after participating in only $3B worth of funding rounds in Q2’22 so far. This figure is not even on track to reach half of the $6.8B that Accel funneled into investments during the same quarter one year ago. More: - Surprisingly, the decline in the dollar volume has not corresponded to a fall in the number of rounds.
- The last three months saw the firm involved in 44 rounds, compared with 63 in the same three months one year ago.
- This indicates a substantial decline in the average size of Accel’s investment per round.
- Precise data cannot be found for its actual investment per round. However, the average investment amount in the rounds in which the firm participated over the last three months was $68M. This figure can be compared to almost $108M a year ago.
- Still, the top-tier investor did not stay completely away from high-ticket investments this year.
- It participated in a massive $12.5B round for Indian food-delivery service Swiggy in January, which saw ten firms write checks.
- However, that was the only round so far in 2022 to crack Accel’s top five largest rounds since 2021.
Reminder: - While the firm appears to be slowing down, it has not stopped putting together massive funds.
- Earlier this week, it announced its latest global late-stage fund with $4B in fresh dry powder.
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Appsmith, a low-code platform for internal dev teams, has raised a $41M Series B led by Insight Partners. Participation came from Accel, Canaan Partners, OSS Capital, and individual angel investors. The company has 95 employees spread across the U.S., India, and Nigeria. More: - Co-founder and CEO Abhishek Nayak says that the firm plans to double its headcount by early next year and double down on a geographically diverse team.
- Appsmith targets experienced developers instead of business users with its platform.
- It helps teams speed up the process of pumping custom apps for internal use, as opposed to customer-facing apps, the usual bread-and-butter of low-code platforms.
- To that end, it provides a drag-and-drop interface including several front-end options, data connectors, and controls, in addition to the ability to link to a data set and a customizable access control panel.
- While still pre-revenue, Appsmith has grown the user base by a factor of 15 in the last year. 7,000 companies are active on its platform and use the tool every month.
- Currently, it is focused on engaging the open-source community but will get started on its commercial product shortly.
- Nayak estimates that he has a four-year runway, which is probably related to investors’ willingness to sign off on a $41M Series B round, something of a rarity these days.
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Indian fintech player Pine Labs has acquired API infrastructure company Setu in a cash-and-stock deal worth between $70M and $75M. The announcement comes several months after reports of the deal pegged its size at $70M to $100M. More: - Setu was founded in 2018. It was intended to provide APIs for banks and other financial institutions to launch their own digital financial products.
- It had raised about $18.5M prior to the acquisition from Falcon Edge, Lightspeed Venture Partners US, Lightspeed India Partners, and Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund.
- The firm will maintain its own branding and independent operations.
- Pine Labs entered the digital payment gateway segment with the launch of its service Plural, which serves online merchants and D2C brands.
- The company, founded in 1998, currently has a valuation of over $5B and backing totaling $1.2B from Temasek, PayPal, Alpha Wave, and others.
- In the last two years, it has acquired Mumbai-based online payments platform Qfix Infocomm and Kuala Lumpur-based payments and discovery platform Fave. The latter was a $45M all-cash deal.
- Pine Labs is currently eyeing a potential listing in the U.S. Reports claim that it filed confidential IPO paperwork with the SEC to raise $500M, though the current downturn has forced it to adopt a more patient approach.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - Idoven (Madrid, Spain), early detection and precision medicine for cardiovascular diseases: $19.8M led by Insight Partners, Northzone, participation from Wayra.
- Magnetic Insight (Alameda, Calif.), imaging diagnostics: $17M B led by Celesta Capital, participation from Alumni Ventures Group, Gaingels, et al.
- Global Premier Fertility (Irvine, Calif.), fertility center operator: $11M C led by Triangle Capital Corporation.
Climatetech - Vibrant Planet (San Francisco, Calif.), comprehensive platform for forest treatment: $17M Seed led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund, The Jeremy, Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust, participation from Valia Ventures, Earthshot Ventures, et al.
Cybersecurity - ConductorOne (Portland, Ore.), control activities automation platform: $15M A led by Accel, participation from Fuel Capital, Fathom Capital, Active Capital.
Enterprise - JobGet (Boston, Mass.), mobile app for hourly workers: $40M B led by Jazz Venture Partners, Sanabil Investments, participation from Pillar VC, et al. The company also raised $12M in debt.
Fintech - Hokodo (London, U.K.), digital trade credit provider: $40M B led by Notion Capital, participation from Korelya Capital, Mundi Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, Anthemis, Mosaic Ventures.
- Tapcheck (Los Angeles, Calif.), employee financial wellness and earned wage access platform: $20M A led by PeakSpan Capital.
- Kasheesh (New York, N.Y.), digital payment platform: $5.5M from Tribe Capital, Anthemis, Courtside Ventures, et al.
SocialTech - Aidaly (Boston, Mass.), compensation and financial services for family caregivers based on state benefits: $8.5M led by Seven Seven Six, participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Operator Partners, Precursor Ventures, Primetime Partners, Scribble, Shrug, Polymath, et al.
Transportation - Synop (New York, N.Y.), electric vehicle fleet operations platform: $10M Seed led by Obvious Ventures, participation from Wireframe Ventures, Congruent, Better Ventures.
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Quick Hits - During uncertain times, customer-centric businesses stay afloat. Find out why in this deep dive.*
- Swedish EV developer Polestar will merge with SPAC Gores Guggenheim to raise $850M, less than the $995M it predicted in May. The firm sold 29,000 vehicles in 2021. It expects this figure to grow to 290,000 by 2025.
- Spanish graphic resources producer/distributor Freepik will buy Videvo for an undisclosed sum. Freepik is an Oxford-based company offering videos, audio clips, and motion graphics.
- Berlin-based Productsup, a product-to-consumer software company, acquired World of Content, a Dutch product experience management provider, for an undisclosed sum.
- Starburst, a data warehouse analytics service provider, absorbed Tel Aviv-based Varada for its data lake analytics capabilities. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
- Uipath, the RPA software unicorn, has launched a venture arm targeting startups operating in automation, AI, and ML. It has also invested in airSlate, a no-code workflow SaaS platform.
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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 | 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. | |
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