Customer experience software company Zendesk has accepted a $10.2B acquisition offer from a consortium led by investment firms Permira and Hellman & Friedman. The announcement comes just two weeks after the company reasserted its intent to remain public. More: - The deal will be made at $77.50 per share, Zendesk said in its announcement on Friday.
- However, the price is well below the $127-$132 per share Zendesk was offered in a takeover bid from a similar but unnamed private-equity group in February.
- That deal would have valued the company at $17B but was rejected by the board.
- A month later, a shareholder vote also rejected a measure to acquire SurveyMonkey for $4.1B.
- After the decision last week, the company's board unanimously concluded that the sale was the only way to satisfy many of its disgruntled inventors.
- Zendesk was founded in 2007 and raised $85M before going public in 2014.
- Its backing came from VCs CRV, Redpoint, Benchmark, and Matrix Partners, in addition to Singapore EBD.
- According to its website, the San Francisco-based company has roughly 5,450 employees and more than 160,000 paid accounts.
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Jakarta-based Deliveree pulled in $70M in fresh Series C funding led by Partners and SPIL Ventures for its logistics platform. The round was also supported by Inspire Ventures and brought the company's total funding up to $109M. More: - Deliveree's platform aims to bring down the cost of product transport by enabling clients to not only book trucks but also calculate the optimal route based on location, trucking loads, and the weather.
- The company did not report its revenue but noted that it has boosted its transaction value by 3.2x in the last two years. It aims to bring the total transaction volume up to $100M by the end of this year.
- Currently, it has 500 employees and works with 100,000 drivers on its platform.
- The firm is currently active in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
- In the first two countries, the cost of shipping is unusually high. While 8% of the price of a pair of Nike shoes in the U.S. consists of logistics costs, that figure jumps to between 25% and 30% for the two archipelago nations.
- Founder and CEO Tom Kim claimed that before Deliveree entered Indonesia's trucking market, a 40% to 50% utilization rate was considered above average.
- He asserted that truckers using Deliveree's dynamic marketplace can achieve a utilization rate as high as 80% by avoiding trips with empty beds and circuitous routes.
- The company takes a 20% cut of the fee it charges customers. The remaining 80% goes to the independent trucker or trucking company.
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Best of Last Week M&A - NASDAQ-listed personal finance products recommendation platform NerdWallet entered a definitive agreement to acquire On the Barrelhead for $120M.
- Venture capital firm Battery Ventures exited its investment in SPT Labtech after the latter was acquired by private equity firm EQT for $797M.
- Payments technology provider Paya Holdings is reportedly seeking a buyer after seeing its share price fall 50% since its SPAC debut.
- Dentsu Group, a Japanese conglomerate, acquired Pexlify, a Dublin-based Salesforce consultancy, for an undisclosed sum.
- MetaCompliance, a California-based provider of a security and compliance training platform, acquired Moch, a Copenhagen-based cybersecurity and compliance provider, for an undisclosed sum.
- Spanish graphic resources producer/distributor Freepik will buy Videvo for an undisclosed sum.
- 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.
IPO/SPAC - Swedish EV developer Polestar will merge with SPAC Gores Guggenheim to raise $850M, less than the $995M it predicted in May.
- ABB, an EV charging tech developer, has postponed its $750M IPO citing poor market conditions.
- Roxe, a blockchain payments infrastructure company, will merge with SPAC Goldenstone Acquisition to enter the Nasdaq with a $3.6B valuation.
New Funds - Accel announced its latest global late-stage fund at $4B.
- Japanese officials are preparing a tax reform to free up $74.4B (10T yen) for startups each year, according to Bloomberg sources.
- LocalGlobe, a venture capital firm based in London, closed a $500M fund.
- Robin and Saul Klein have merged their respective VC vehicles, LocalGlobe and Latitude, under one parent organization, Phoenix Court Group, which has announced a $500M maiden fund.
- European life sciences-focused venture capital firm Forbion held the first close of its inaugural growth fund at $500M (€470M).
- Matrix Partners is raising a fourth India fund at $450M.
- FTSE 250-listed investment firm IP Group launched its cleantech investing venture arm named Kiko Ventures with $450M (£375M).
- 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.
- World Fund, a German venture capital firm, is soliciting investment for a new fund with the goal of making it Europe's largest climate-tech-focused fund with $365M (€350M).
- Israeli venture capital firm Greenfield Partners closed a new $350M fund bringing its assets under management to over $500M.
- Parisian VC outfit Breega has raised a new fund with $262.5M (€250M) to push past the seed stage into Series A+ investments.
- Triptyq Capital announced the launch of its first fund with $40M to support companies providing technology solutions for the creative economy.
- Presto Ventures, a British venture capital firm, raised a $36.8M (€30M) fund to back 40 B2B seed and pre-seed stage startups across Central and Eastern Europe.
- Blu Venture Investors closes its Cyber Fund at $25M for early-stage investments.
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Berlin-based WorkMotion secured $50M in Series B capital led by Canaan for its HR-tech for global employment. The injection included $10M in debt funding and saw follow-on participation from Activant Capital, XAnge, and Picus Capital, plus first-time checks from Heliad Equity Partners and GR Capital. More: - WorkMotion's Global Talent OS platform automates away the complexities facing HR departments in navigating the necessities of a globalized, often remote workforce.
- It removes the need to enlist third parties to hire globally and provides benefits for remote-first teams, such as managing "work-from-abroad" requests.
- The majority of the capital from today's round will go into improving the platform's underlying technology.
- Prior to today's funding, 2020-founded WorkMotion had raised about $24M in Series A funding in Aug. 2021.
- At the time, it had a distributed team of over 60 people and worked with over 170 companies, managing more than 500 remote employees across the world.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 Agtech - Symbrosia (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii), seaweed feed additive that reduces livestock methane emissions: $7M A led by Danone Manifesto Ventures, participation from Pacific6, HATCH, Presidio Ventures, Kamehameha Schools, Mana Up.
Blockchain - System 9 (Los Angeles, Calif.), digital asset marketing platform for the alt-coin market: $5.7M led by Capital6 Eagle, participation from Kronos Asset Management, C2 Ventures, Gate Ventures, et al.
Enterprise - Eppo (San Francisco, Calif.), A/B experimentation platform provider: $19M led by Menlo Ventures.
- Brave Group (Tokyo, Japan), virtual IP platform for anime: $10M led by Dawn Capital, Osaka Gas Co.
- Designstrip (Montreal, Canada), visual communication and creative tools: $10M led by Insight Partners, participation from Silicon Valley Bank.
Fintech - Autobooks (Detroit, Mich.), payments and accounting platform for car companies: $50M C led by Macquarie Capital, participation from Baird Capital, Commerce Ventures, Draper Triangle, MissionOG, TD Bank.
Robotics - Apptronik (Austin, Texas), mobile robotic systems that can work alongside humans: $14.6M Seed from Capital Factory, Grit Ventures, Perot Jain, et al.
Telecoms - Tibit (Petaluma, Calif.), network devices for fiber broadband access: $30M C from Liberty Global, Swisscom Ventures, Intel Capital, Ciena, Juniper Networks, Solasta Ventures.
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- Zomato, the Indian food delivery, restaurant discovery, and dining services giant, has acquired Blinkit, a 10-minute grocery delivery startup, in a $568.1M all-stock deal.
- Crypto exchange FTX is reportedly in talks to acquire a stake in crypto lender BlockFi a week after it gave the company a $250M credit line. No equity agreement has been reached yet.
- ESO (Employee Stock Option) Fund has raised a fifth fund at $200M. The firm helps employees cash out their stock options and takes an equity share in exchange. The company has been involved in $1B in transactions.
- Material Bank, an architectural design and construction materials marketplace, will acquire Architizer, a database of architectural projects, for an undisclosed sum.
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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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