Crunchbase reports that its list of "truly terrible" SPAC performers has seen further declines since it was published in December. Of the 49 companies it contains, all but five have continued to fall. Moreover, 75% of them were recently trading below $4. More: - That decline represents a drop of 60% or more from the $10 per share break-even price with which SPACs are listed.
- Several household names are on the list, including Faraday Future, the EV company currently trading at around $3.
- While tech stocks are down across the board, the inclination to merge with a SPAC was concentrated in particular sectors, namely 3D printing, digital health, insurtech, and automotive.
- Three 3D printing companies — Desktop Metal, Markforged, and Shapeways — are all trading below $4, while four digital health companies — Better Therapeutics, Babylon, Talkspace, 23andMe — also have that ignominious title.
- Two particularly bad performers are car marketplaces Cazoo and Carlotz, which are now trading around $2 per share and $1 per share, respectively.
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Veza, a cybersecurity startup formerly known as Cookies.ai, raised $50M led by Accel at a $500M valuation. The company also announced two previously undisclosed rounds: A $40M Series B in June 2021 led by GV and a $16.6M Series A in October 2020 led by Norwest Venture Partners. More: - Veza was founded two years ago with the intent to provide a platform enabling companies to gain insight into which customer or corporate data their employees can access.
- For example, it provides transparency regarding which employees have the ability to alter or delete code repositories on GitHub or access Snowflake databases.
- It can also determine who has access to internal systems overseeing employee access to corporate and customer accounts and subscriptions, a critical node that was exploited to gain access to Twitter and Robinhood in recent years.
- This is important during the pandemic to prevent hacks of newly remote workers’ accounts, meaning the ongoing hybrid environment keeps Veza’s platform relevant.
- The company has yet to publicize its business metrics. CEO and co-founder Tarun Thakur nevertheless noted that its ARR has tripled every quarter since the launch of its subscription product in May 2021.
- Overall sales are reportedly on track to grow by six times this year.
The wider lens: - Investment in cybersecurity startups rose by nearly 50% YoY to $6B last quarter, according to Crunchbase.
- That figure is still down from $8.2B in Q4’21.
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A group of angel investors with ties to both Russia and the West has organized an evacuation project for Ukrainian women and children. Through the financial backing of members of Club Changer, the organization claims to have shepherded 7,500 people out of the country via bus. More: - The initiative was spearheaded by Brooks Newmark, an angel investor in the U.K. and former senior partner at Apollo Global Management, and Raitis Bullits, an investor and entrepreneur born in Latvia.
- It counts to its ranks over 200 angel investors from 19 European countries, who have collectively raised $316,500 for Club Changer.
- Beginning with Luxembourg, Club Changer has now deposited evacuees in Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, and Riga.
- In addition to its ongoing rescue mission, Club Changer has also begun pulling together funds for Ukrainian startups or projects seeking capital right now, including visual effects company Zibra AI and venture studio Pawa.
- The group's idea thereby is to lay the groundwork for the rebuilding of Ukraine after the war has ended.
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Strider Technologies, a strategic cyber intelligence platform for enterprise and government markets, raised $45M Series B. Valor Equity Partners led the round, with DataTribe, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and One9 Ventures participating. More: - The fresh capital brought Strider’s funding raised to date up to $57M since its 2009 launch. It declined to disclose a valuation.
- It has operations in Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C, and London, U.K.
- Costa Saab, from Valor Equity Partners, will join Strider's Board of Directors.
- The company’s platform is designed to identify, manage, and respond to nation-state-directed activities targeting personnel, intellectual property, and supply chains.
- With a target of Fortune 500 companies and state actors themselves, Strider claims 450% ARR growth in 2021 and a customer retention rate of 100%.
- It did not indicate what the base was for its revenue growth, nor how many customers it has.
- It did, however, note that its customers were in the semiconductor, pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense, and energy & chemicals industries.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 Aerospace - Adranos (West Lafayette, Ind.), manufactures solid rocket motors: $20M A led by Bob Bishop, participation from Impala Asset Management, et al.
Biotech/Health - Pheast Therapeutics (Palo Alto, Calif.), checkpoint therapies to fight cancer: $76M A led by Catalio Capital Management, ARCH Venture Partners.
- Implicity (Cambridge, Mass.), remote patient monitoring and cardiac data management solutions: ...
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- Goldman Sachs acquired a minority stake in ISpot.tv for $325M. ISpot helps advertisers verify the impact of their TV and streaming-video ads. The company had raised $58M to date.
- Forever 21’s parent company Authentic Brands Group has sued Bolt, an $11B-valued payments startup, for causing it to lose out on $150M in online sales. It moreover claims that Bolt used an overstated relationship with Authentic to raise more capital from investors.
- Beamery, a talent data marketplace, acquired Flux, a talent mobility system, for an undisclosed sum.
- PayPal will shutter its San Francisco office due to its desire to reduce its carbon footprint.
- Left Lane Capital closed its second fund at $1.4B to pursue a global strategy of investing in consumer technology businesses.
- Stride Consumer Partners closed its first fund at an oversubscribed $420M to bet on consumer products and services.
- To deliver real-time analytics on massive datasets, developers must balance latency, throughput, concurrency, and data freshness. Watch Molecula's Webinar.*
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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. | |
Laika is a unified compliance platform that automates workflows for audits, infosec monitoring, and vendor due diligence in a single, collaborative space. | |
Connecteam is the all-In-One Employee Management Software. Time Tracking, Shift Scheduling, Communication, and Much More. | |
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