VC Deals Only. Weekend Edition. New Culture Raises $3.5M Seed Round for Its Lab-Grown Cheese

VC Deals

Caper wants to deliver a major update to the self-checkout aisle without keeping its dreaded catchphrases, i.e. “Unknown item in the bagging area,” “Please place the item in the bag.” The New York startup is tapping some of Silicon Valley’s more recognizable VC firms to fund their dreams for a shopping cart of the future that uses computer vision and other sensors to let shoppers quickly scan items as they drop them into their carts.More

Karuna Labs, a San Francisco, CA-based creator of personalized chronic pain management programs using VR, raised $3M in seed funding. The round was led by Baseline Ventures, with participation from Anorak Ventures, the AET Fund, the Hustle Fund, Correlation Ventures, and Dreamit Ventures. The company intends to use the funds for clinical validation studies as well as further development of its technology and medical/gaming team. More

Before he founded the plant-based burger company Impossible Foods, Patrick Brown, who spent 25 years as a biochemistry professor at Stanford, also co-founded a Hayward, Ca.-based food company called Kite Hill that has developed numerous nut milk and cheese products that it says are healthier and more sustainable than their dairy counterparts. More

Loadsmart, a Chicago, IL- and NYC-based digital freight technology company, raised $19m in funding. Backers included Ports America, Maersk Growth, Chromo Invest and Connor Capital SB. This latest round follows Loadsmart’s series A round in late 2018, bringing total funding to date to $53.4m. The company intends to use the funds for its new Smart Drayage initiative. More

JobTeaser, the graduate recruitment and career guidance platform, has raised £45 million in new funding to help it expand its careers service to more students across the U.K. and Europe. The investment is led by Highland Europe, with continued backing from existing investors Alven, Idinvest Partners, Seventure Partners and Korelya Capital. It brings the total amount raised to £61 million since the company was founded all the way back in 2008. More

New Culture, a company making cheese through genetically engineered microbes, has closed a $3.5 million seed round of funding led by Evolv Ventures, the venture fund of Kraft-Heinz. Bee Partners, Mayfield, CPT Capital, Boost VC, and SOSV also participated in the round. Started in New Zealand and recently relocated to San Francisco, New Culture makes animal-free cheese not with plant-based ingredients but with biotechnology in a lab. More

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Austin-based Realized, a wealth management platform for investment properties, said Tuesday that it has raised $6 million in its latest funding round. Calibrate Ventures led the funding round, which the company said will go toward expanding its employee headcount and its technology. Rice Park Capital also took in the funding. Realized CEO David Wieland said the additional capital would allow the company to serve more families, CPAs, attorneys and other potential customers.  More

WaveOptics, a company that develops core optical components for augmented reality (AR) displays, has closed its “oversubscribed” series C round of funding at $39 million. The Abingdon, U.K.-based startup announced the first $26 million tranche of its series C funding last December, and has now added a further $13 million to the pot, courtesy of Chinese electronics company Goertek, an existing WaveOptics partner, and Australian superannuation fund Hostplus. More 

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IPOs

Biotech start-up 10x Genomics surged as much as 49% in its market debut Thursday. The stock opened trading at $54 and rose as high as $58 per share midday before closing at $53. The company, which provides scientists gene sequencing technologies to help cure chronic diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's, priced its 9 million shares Wednesday night at $39 per share, above the expected range of $31 and $35. More

Exits

Spotify today took another step in its efforts to build out services for artists to help diversify itself away from a business model predicated on paying music streaming royalties to labels: it has acquired SoundBetter, a music production marketplace for artists, producers, and musicians to connect on specific projects; and for people who are looking to distribute music tracks to those who want to license them. More

Syncsort, a Pearl River, N.Y.-based leader in Big Iron to Big Data software, is to acquire Pitney Bowes’ Software Solutions business.The amount of the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the calendar year, pending regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, was $700 million. It is backed by affiliates of Centerbridge Partners, L.P. and Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. Debt commitments have been provided by Jefferies Finance LLC, Credit Suisse, Golub Capital LLC, and Antares Capital LP. More