State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) plans for four states, namely New York, Colorado, Oregon, and Montana, were approved by the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday. Plans that have been approved total $750M in value. With the recent approvals, the total sanctioned under the COVID-19 recovery venture capital program now totals $2.25B. More: - The SSBCI program provides capital to small businesses and entrepreneurs in the form of venture capital, loans, and collateral support.
- The $10B program is a part of the $1.9T American Rescue Plan Act.
- New York state is set to receive $501.5M of the sanctioned amount, of which the state intends to set aside $154M for venture capital and accelerator funds.
- Colorado, Oregon, and Montana are set to receive $104.7M, $83.5M, and $61.3M of the sanctioned amount, respectively.
- In July, the treasury had approved plans for nine states worth $940M.
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Venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Bessemer Partners all held public stock in portfolio technology companies they had previously invested in. The stock values of their combined holdings dropped 44% over the three-month period ending June 30. The loss equates to ~$18.3B. More: - The value of public stocks held by Sequoia dropped by 42%.
- During the three-month period, DoorDash, Snowflake, Nu Holdings, and Unity Technologies stock prices plummeted by half.
- As of June 30, the value of the shares amounted to $7.7B.
- Andreessen Horowitz’s holdings dropped 55% of their value, with Coinbase’s 75% stock value plunge being the most damaging stock in its portfolio.
- Bessemer’s holdings declined by 46%.
- Owing to the recent uptick in the stock market since June, all of the three venture firms have been able to recover a part of their losses, with their combined portfolio value up by $6.6B.
- Sequoia has recovered 22% of its losses; however, the portfolio value is still down 30% since Q1.
- Many venture firms have changed their exit strategies in recent years, with some preferring to hold on to more public stocks.
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Cointelegraph research shows that venture capital funding for blockchain startups declined 43% MoM in July. According to the Q2 Venture Capital Report, deal values contracted by 16%, now averaging $26.8M. Despite the drop in funding, blockchain startup funding has already crossed 2021’s records. More: - In June, blockchain startups raked in $3.5B in capital, while in the following month, the amount dropped to $1.98B.
- The overall number of deals declined 26% MoM.
- In total, five VC firms raised $100M+ funds in July.
- The majority of the capital inflow is still invested in Web3 startups.
- Web3 startups received 44% of the share, with DeFi receiving 27% of the total funding.
- Including July’s tally, startups have already raised $31.3B in capital so far this year.
- In the entire last year, blockchain startups secured $30.5B in funding.
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Ryan Breslow's new firm Love Health raised $7.5M in seed funding. The firm aims to crowdsource pharmaceutical research by giving members the opportunity to purchase tokens and vote in favor of homeopathic medicines, which according to them, should advance to clinical trial phases. More: - Love Health intends to back the clinical studies.
- The firm received a $180M valuation at the fundraiser, which was led by Human Capital and MaC Venture Capital.
- Love Health is one of the many firms Breslow has been working on since stepping down as the CEO of one-click payment checkout firm Bolt.
- Bolt was valued at $11B during their $355M Series E funding round.
- Breslow faced backlash due to his tweets targeting rival Stripe and accelerator Y Combinator.
- Additionally, he is known to have exaggerated client metrics and the platform's capabilities.
- Breslow maintains his reasons for stepping down were unrelated to this.
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Fundamentum Partnership received $227M in capital commitments for its second fund. The Indian venture firm was established by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and Daksh founder Sanjay Aggarwal. The firm intends to invest in consumer-focused and software startups in India. More: - Most of the investments the firm makes are in growth stage startups, at or beyond the Series B stages.
- Fundamentum hopes to back four to five startups every year.
- It intends to lead or co-lead $25M to $40M funding rounds.
- Online pharmacy portal Pharmeasy and car marketplace Spinny are the two unicorns amongst its portfolio companies.
- Fundamentum has invested in six companies from the first fund, after evaluating over 500 investment opportunities.
- The recent fund was not open to institutional investors; however, the company may open up that option in the future.
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Argentinian restaurant management solutions provider Fudo raised $7.5M in a Seed funding round. The financing was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Atlántico, and MAYA Capital. Fudo’s platform includes tools for order and delivery management, inventory control, data analytics, and point-of-sale services. More: - Several angel investors participated in the fundraiser along with Collaborative Fund, Goodwater, and Latitud.
- The firm intends to use the incoming funds to enter into new regions and expand product offerings.
- The company will increase business operations in Mexico and aims to launch in Brazil later this month.
- Fudo has teams in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil.
- The firm reported that it now has over 10,000 restaurants using its platform.
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- Joel Dudley to lead biotech investments for Innovation Endeavors, a venture capital firm co-founded by Eric Schmidt. He was previously the chief scientific officer at health tech unicorn startup Tempus.
- Pre-money valuations of early-stage startups backed by venture divisions of corporates and pension funds continue to rise and hit $75M median values in the first half of this year. The median valuation of early-stage startups funded by traditional venture capital firms was $43M.
- French life-sciences research firm Eurobio Scientific acquired Dutch molecular diagnostic kits producer Genome Diagnostics for $135.4M (€135M).
- Q Capital Partners led a $20M Series B funding round into South Korean healthcare startup AIRS Medical.
- BlueTape, a construction industry focussed financing solution, raised $5M in seed financing from Chicago Ventures. The firm also received a $50M debt financing from Arcadia Funds.
- Accounting software provider Bookkeeper360 secured $3.5M in seed 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 and 1972 Fords. | |
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