Working Capital Financing: Greensill Raises $800M in Funding from SoftBank Vision Fund

Greensill, a London, United Kingdom–based non-bank provider of working capital finance for companies globally, received an $800m in funding.

The SoftBank Vision Fund made the investment.

The company intends to use the funds to:

– accelerate development of new technology to further improve access to capital for companies globally,

– enhance its ability to support the development of a broad, liquid capital market for working capital finance assets, and

– accelerate its recent entry into Brazil and enter multiple global markets including China and India.

Led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Lex Greensill, Greensill is a provider of working capital finance for companies globally. The company provides businesses with alternative sources of funding, allowing them to provide suppliers with the opportunity for faster payment, while at the same time preserving their own capital position.

Greensill provides Working Capital Finance facilities to customers across Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

The company owns Greensill Bank, which, founded in Bremen, Germany in 1927, has a suite of proprietary Supply Chain Finance Funds run by world leading fund management organizations, and works with more than 100 institutional investors that together provide stable funding. Greensill has extended more than $60 billion of financing to more than 8 million customers across 60 countries since inception.

The company is headquartered in London with offices in New York, Frankfurt, Chicago, Miami, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Sydney, Warrington and Bundaberg.

With the Vision Fund, Greensill will build on its partnership with General Atlantic to continue developing its global network, further grow its established origination and distribution strategy, and explore new opportunities for collaboration.

Source. FinSMEs, Staff, May 13, 2019

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Collective Health raises $205M Series E led by Softbank to reduce healthcare’s complexity

Employee health benefits platform company Collective Health has raked in a massive $205M Series E funding round led by mega-investor Softbank as it looks to boost its nationwide growth and build on momentum with its employer customers.

The San Francisco-based company serves around 200,000 members across more than 45 self-funded employer clients with care navigation tools and healthcare resources that make benefits easier to access and understand, stripping away administrative burden and lowering healthcare spending in the process.

A large part of the company’s value proposition in is updating and unifying the range of technology systems into one streamlined platform. The company largely functions as a third-party administrator for self-funded employers and works to effectively administer benefits and negotiate provider networks.

Collective Health was founded in 2013 and has raised a total of $435 million. Over the past year the company said it seen 85 percent membership growth.

On the employer side, Collective Health’s platform gives companies visibility into their total range of healthcare costs, which can be used to inform more efficient resource allocation and benefit offerings.

“There’s no question about the scale of the problem, we spend $1.2 trillion on healthcare and the industry still operates in the fax era of technology,” said Collective Health co-founder Rajaie Batniji.

“Softbank sees the same opportunity we do in taking healthcare payments and coverage into the modern era we need to employer employers to take control over their own healthcare spend.”

The capital injection will help the company expand its range of enterprise customers, as well as bring new healthcare partners onto its platform including new local and national medical networks and integrated digital health products.

Collective’s customer base – which includes clients like Zendesk, Pinterest and Activision Blizzard – has been largely limited to technology companies.

“One of the biggest changes we’ve been focused on is moving firmly out of the early adopter phase and into mainstream with clients in nursing, retail and CPG.” Batniji said.

“We’re really moving into a diversity of sectors because if we’re going to transform healthcare we have to prove that this is a solution that works for everybody.

Investment dollars will also go toward continuing development of the company’s tech stack with faster payment systems, faster fraud detection and machine learning-based technology that can better personalize and guide member health recommendations.

Additionally, the company is focused on growing its 500-person headcount across its San Francisco headquarters and its satellite offices in Chicago and Lehi, Utah.

“The complexity around healthcare coverage is making us sick and we see the opportunity here to make the member experience better and fundamentally improve the healthcare system. We firmly believe that this will lead to improved health outcomes and people being healthier,” Batniji said.

The investment into Collective Health represents a major healthcare bet from Softbank’s Vision Fund, which has backed companies like Slack, Uber and Nvidia.

In healthcare, Softbank has invested in a number of mainly biotech-focused companies including Relay Therapeutics, Roivant Sciences and Zymergen. Also participating in the funding round were investors including DFJ Growth, PSP Investments, Founders Fund and NEA. Softbank will be receiving a board seat as part of the deal.

“With US healthcare costs at $3.65 trillion in 2018, Collective Health is reinventing the healthcare experience for companies and their employees,” SoftBank Investment Advisers Senior Managing Partner Deep Nishar said in a statement.

“Their innovative business model and technology platform are not only helping employers understand and optimize their healthcare spend, they are also providing employees with a better healthcare experience.”

Source. Medcitynews, Kevin Truong, June 17, 2019

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DoorDash picks up $600M Series G as valuation soars

By Ian Agar

DoorDash, the on-demand food delivery service, cannot stop delivering funding rounds, either.

The company has officially gone parabolic with a $600 million Series G on a stunning $12.6 billion valuation, a nearly 78% surge from its $7.1 billion valuation in February. Newcomer investors Darsana Capital Partners and Sands Capital joined existing investors Coatue Management, Dragoneer, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Softbank Vision Fund, and Temasek.

DoorDash said Thursday that in 1Q, it saw an astronomical 280% YoY increase in annualized gross merchandise value to $7.5 billion. It's unclear if this figure is compared with 2017's results or if that is a forecast for the rest of 2019. The company did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

The delivery service also reported operations in over 4,000 cities in the US and Canada, with a goal of growing to 100 Canadian cities by the end of the year, up from around 50 currently. 

Perhaps most pivotal in this regard was the company's Series D in March 2018, which saw SoftBank's Vision Fund leading a massive $535 million round. This funding injection reportedly allowed DoorDash to grow from its comparatively tiny 600-city footprint to the enormous list it now oversees.

While DoorDash was happy to expand so quickly thanks to the windfall, SoftBank is also happy to diversify its food delivery bets. The Tokyo-based firm is Uber's largest shareholder, and in turn, has helped fund DoorDash's competitor, Uber Eats.

Profitability question

The topic of profitability is not mentioned in DoorDash's blog post, continuing a wider investment trend of turning a blind eye to blood-red profit/loss statements in favor of pursuing industry disruption.

In hindsight, such priorities were apparent in DoorDash's massive Series D round last year. In allocating the funds, geographical growth was favored over working toward a consistently profitable operation, allowing the company to uproot local, in-house delivery services at restaurants.

The company has also sought to achieve a presence through corporate partnerships and white-label services. For example, on May 2, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts announced a partnership to offer free DoorDash delivery services to guests staying in over 3,700 of the hotel company's locations. Such a partnership complements DoorDash's existing white-label services provided to dining chains such as Denny's and Wingstop.

If DoorDash can continue striking high-profile corporate partnerships while replacing traditional in-house delivery employees at restaurants, a profitable business model could be worked out later to take advantage of an enormous established network.

Source. Pitchbook, Ian Agar, May 23, 2019

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Ride-hailing firm Grab raises $1.5 billion from SoftBank, takes its latest funding round to $4.5 billion

By Paul Sawers

Grab, the Southeast Asian tech giant known for a range of transport-focused services — covering ride-hailing, ride-sharing, food delivery, and logistics — has raised another $1.5 billion, taking its series H round to a hefty $4.5 billion.

The latest cash injection arrived via the SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF), a $100 billion investment fund set up by Japan’s SoftBank, which has previously invested in Grab alongside such big names as Microsoft, Toyota, and Hyundai.

“The investment is a clear statement of belief in our vision to grow Southeast Asia’s technology ecosystem as the region’s number one super app,” said Grab CEO and cofounder Anthony Tan. “Looking ahead, we aim to continue improving the lives of many millions of Southeast Asians by providing enhanced income opportunities through our platform and giving our users more choice and convenience.”

Grab has now raised nearly $9 billion since its inception in 2012, almost double the amount raised by Lyft in the U.S., though roughly a third of Uber’s $25 billion. Both Uber and Lyft are scheduled to go public in the coming months, while Grab has given no indication of any immediate IPO plans.

Grab bolstered its growth last year when it merged with Uber in Southeast Asia, revealing that its revenue doubled between March 2018 — when the merger was announced — and December 2018. This deal was Uber’s third such consolidation effort after it sold its Chinese arm to Didi Chuxing,followed by a merger with Yandex.taxi in Eastern Europe. However, Grab and Uber’s deal faced tougher scrutiny from regulators, and Singapore’s anti-trust watchdog eventually slapped the duo with a $9.5 million fine, in addition to other competition measures.

With another $1.5 billion in the bank, Grab said it plans to double down on its existing services and launch new ones, covering parcel delivery, digital payments, financial services, and more.

Source. Venturebeat, Paul Sawers, March 6, 2019