 VC firms in the U.S. are facing the new challenge of hiring the right people to fill their European offices. The talent exists, but the pool of candidates overseas is much narrower, a source told CNBC. More: - In the past year, Sequoia, Lightspeed, Bessemer Venture Partners, and General Atlantic have all started expanding or opened new offices in Europe, where the VC industry is still relatively nascent compared to the U.S.
- U.S. VC firms are finding it difficult to find the right hires overseas, and only a small number of appointments have happened so far:
- Europe's VC industry has grown from around 100 tech investors and a handful of VC funds 10 years ago to thousands currently. Many have only been VCs for several years or less.
- Many U.S. VC firms are seeking the right hires who can be "instantly successful," according to Alex Lim, a managing partner at London-based Blossom Capital.
CNBC 
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 Jitendra Gupta's neobank Jupiter secured $86M in funding to further its customer acquisition efforts and expand into lending and wealth management. The fully digital bank has just under half a million users and is targeting a million customers by April, Gupta said. More: - Gupta is a co-founder of fintech startup CitrusPay, which was acquired by PayU in 2016 for $130M, one of the largest Indian fintech exits at that time.
- In 2019, he founded Bangalore-based Jupiter, which released its beta this year.
- The fintech firm is now doubling its transaction volume each month and expects to end December with $60M in transactions, Gupta said.
- The Series C round brings the startup's valuation to $710M, up from $300M in August. The round was led by QED Investors and Sequoia Growth fund, with participation from existing investors Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, 3one4 Capital, and others.
Zoom-out: - Google-backed neobank Open acquired consumer neobanking platform Finin in a $10M cash-and-stock deal this month.
- Globally, the leading 20 neobanks have a collective ~180 million customers and are "growing fast," according to Jefferies analysts.
TECHCRUNCH
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- 28% of people admitted using their personal device for work more than their work-issued device
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Paradox, a maker of conversational recruiting software, secured a $200M Series C at a valuation of $1.5B. The round was co-led by Stripes, Thomas Bravo, and Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Indeed, Workday Ventures, Willoughby Capital, Geodesic, Twilio Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures, Principia Growth, DLA Piper Venture Fund, and Brighton Park Capital. More: - Paradox's recruiting platform and AI assistant, Olivia, helps companies automate tasks such as scheduling interviews and onboarding.
- The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based firm is focused is on prominent corporate clients, including Nestle, McDonald’s, and CVS Health.
- It has 500 clients and a three-year revenue growth rate of close to 2,000%.
- In August, Paradox acquired Traitify, a personality assessment firm, expanding its presence into Baltimore.
- The company is now hiring in sales, product management, marketing, engineering, and other areas. Its offices are in Scottsdale, Baltimore, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Vietnam.
AZ INNO
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Today's Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - TandemAI (Suzhou and Shangai, China), computational platform to design and optimize drug candidates: $25M seed and pre-Series A led by OrbiMed and Chengwei Capital.
Cybersecurity - PlainID (New York and Tel Aviv, Israel), cybersecurity, authorization, and identity access management solutions provider: $75M C led by Insight Partners, participation from Itai Tsiddon, Viola Ventures, and existing investors.
- Privoro (Chandler, Ariz.), mobile security hardware provider: $30M B led by Tracker Capital Management.
E-commerce - Purple Dot (London, U.K.), waitlist and pre-order platform for fashion brands: $4M led by Unusual Ventures, participation from previous investors Connect Ventures, Moxxie Ventures, and family office of Paul Forster...
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! | | | |
 A message from SEEDINVEST The next era of fundraising online is here SeedInvest is where high-growth startups go to fundraise online. From a Seed round to a $20M+ Series B, founders in SaaS, consumer, robotics, and more are harnessing the power of equity crowdfunding to take their company to the next level. Here’s what 250+ successfully funded companies know about SeedInvest: - Equity crowdfunding is complementary to traditional VC - SeedInvest companies have received follow-on funding from Greycroft, Menlo Ventures, Tiger Global, and more.
- Your fundraise can be a major growth catalyst - We’ve seen measurable lifts in sales, signups, and press mentions from the moment some companies launch their fundraise.
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Chinese VC firm and Xpeng investor Eastern Bell Capital raised more than 13 billion yuan ($2.04B) in its latest round, one of the largest fundraises this year for a China-based GP. The closure of the USD Fund II and RMB Fund VI brings Eastern Bell's total assets under management to 27 billion yuan ($4.2B). More: - The funds will continue to invest primarily in Chinese startups focused on the industrial internet and supply chain innovation.
- The two main investment focuses are industrial digitalization and consumption upgrades.
- The RMD fund drew investment from government funds, banks, and insurers, while the dollar fund attracted overseas sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and family funds.
- In the first 11 months of 2021, Chinese VC and private equity firms closed over 7,300 new funds that raised a collective $645.8B, up from $451.8B in 2020.
CNA
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VC firm Calibrate Ventures launched its second fund of $97M to back early-stage AI and automation startups. Calibrate Fund II is more than 20% larger than its first fund, which raised $80M in 2018. More: - The firm's co-founder and managing partner, Jason Schoettler, told TechCrunch that it has already made several unannounced investments from Calibrate Fund II.
- Its first fund claimed investments in Built Robotics, Soft Robotics, Talage, Embodied, FarmWise, and TruckLabs.
- Those portfolio companies have gone on to raise $425M+ in financing and create more than 530 jobs.
- The Pasadena-based VC firm invests in Seed or Series A companies that leverage advanced automation, which it defines as applying technologies to "a task, process, or workflow to make it safer, cheaper, faster, more reliable, or more sustainable."
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Quick Hits - Spend less time fundraising and more time building your business. Apply now to get started.*
- Recursive Capital announced that Abubakar Nur Khalil will take on the role of CEO in addition to his CTO duties.
- The EU's antitrust regulator cleared Microsoft's planned acquisition of AI and speech tech firm Nuance Communications.
- The top 10 deals in enterprise M&A this year reached nearly $121B, topped by Oracle's bid to acquire Cerner.
- Nexus Venture Partners co-founder Naren Gupta has passed away at age 73.
- More than 340 U.S. startups became unicorns this year, setting a new record.
*This is sponsored content.
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 |  | Beth is an Inside Analyst and a former public policy/investigative reporter. She has covered AI, VR, technology, and e-commerce for Inside. When she's not busy writing, she's hiking in Arizona's desert, playing pickleball, or trying out new Mexican food recipes. |   | | 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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