Special Weekend Edition. UiPath Closes a Series D round of $568M. Post Money Valuation Estimated at $7B

VC Deals

Biolux Research, a Vancouver, Canada-based developer of innovative Light Accelerated Orthodontic products, closed a $14M Series A funding round. The round was led by Venrock and joined by Correlation Ventures, insiders and other investors. Biolux manufactures OrthoPulse®, an FDA cleared orthodontic device currently being sold in the United States, Europe, and Asia. OrthoPulse is a non-invasive technology which, when used ten minutes each day, can accelerate orthodontic treatment. More

Companies are on the hunt for ways to reduce the time and money it costs their employees to perform repetitive tasks, so today a startup that has built a business to capitalize on this is announcing a huge round of funding to double down on the opportunity. UiPath — a robotic process automation startup originally founded in Romania that uses artificial intelligence and sophisticated scripts to build software to run these tasks — today confirmed that it has closed a Series D round of $568 million at a post-money valuation of $7 billion. More

Mejuri, a Toronto, Canada-based direct-to-consumer online jewelry retailer, raised $23m in Series B funding.The round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Incite Ventures, BDC Capital, Felix Capital, Imaginary Ventures, and Dash Ventures.The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and grow its business reach. More

Roundtrip, a company offering a non-emergency medical transportation solution, has raised a $5.14 Series A round, according to a news release sent to MedCity. Motley Fool Ventures led the round, while Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University participated. More

Zenoti, the leading enterprise cloud platform for the beauty and wellness industry, announced today that it has closed a $50 million Series C funding round led by Tiger Global Management with participation from Norwest Venture Partners and Accel. Already the leading software choice for salon and spa chains, Zenoti has thousands of customers spanning 44 countries. More

New Funds

Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm known for early bets in Twitter, Etsy and Tumblr, has $450 million in capital commitments to plow into the next generation of technology startups. The capital, which comes in just above the $429 million USV filed to raise earlier this year, is divided across two new funds: $200 million for its 2019 Core Fund and $250 million for the 2019 Opportunity Fund. More

Harrison Street, an alternative real asset investment firm dedicated to the Education, Healthcare and Storage sectors, closed its second European closed-end fund, Harrison Street European Property Partners II, L.P., at €500m. More

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IPOs

Do Wall Street investors believe that exosomes, the tiny bubbles once thought to be just cellular garbage bins, may be the key to treating a slew of potential diseases? The coming IPO for Codiak Biosciences will present a test case. Codiak, a Cambridge, MA, company run by former Biogen research chief Doug Williams, outlined plans late Monday for an IPO. More

Plant-based meat maker Beyond Meat Inc on Tuesday increased the expected price range and size of its initial public offering, ahead of an expected market debut on Thursday, indicating strong investor demand. The company said it expects to offer 9.63 million shares, up from 8.75 million shares and the IPO to be priced between $23 and $25 per share, up from $19 and $21 per share. More

Partnerships

The government-run health system in England is partnering with several major drug companies in an effort to tackle the hepatitis C virus in the country. More

Corporate M & As

Walmart has agreed to buy India's leading online retailer Flipkart, paying $16 billion for a controlling stake of 77%. Flipkart gives Walmart access to a market it has been trying to crack for years. The Arkansas-based retailer has been restricted by local regulations to operating wholesale outlets in the world's fastest growing economy. More

Exits

Curaleaf Holdings Inc., the most valuable U.S. marijuana company, is making a big bet on cannabis oil. The Massachusetts-based company is buying the regulated cannabis business of Cura Partners Inc., a maker of oil for vape pens, in a stock deal valued at about US$950 million. That makes it the largest acquisition so far between U.S. cannabis companies. More

PE Deals

Imperial Dade, a leading distributor of disposable food service and janitorial supplies in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement for Bain Capital Private Equity to acquire a majority stake in the company. Imperial Dade will continue to be led by its current management team, who will remain significant investors in the company. More

Blackford Capital has sold its portfolio company Custom Profile to the employees of the company in partnership with Mosaic Capital Partners through an employee stock ownership plan. The sale of Custom Profile is Blackford’s second exit from its 2012 vintage Michigan Prosperity Fund. More

Legal News

Qualcomm will book a one-time payment of $4.5 billion to $4.7 billion next quarter from its settlement with Apple in a patent battle, the mobile chip maker said Wednesday as it reported its quarterly earnings.  More

Health News

If you think your prescription drugs cost more every year, you’re probably right.  Dozens of pharmaceutical companies kicked off 2019 with price hikes on hundreds of medications, and new government estimates say that drug spending could rise 6.1 percent annually by 2020.  More

Events

Medcity Invest: Population Health; New Orleans. May 22, 2019. To highlight the importance of population health and the innovation and investment that is occurring in the field.  More

VC Deals Only: Small Door Raises $3.5M in Seed Funding

VC Deals Only: Small Door Raises $3.5M in Seed Funding: Small Door Inc., a NYC-based veterinary company which integrates medical advances, technology, and hospitality best practices, closed a $3.5...

Small Door Raises $3.5M in Seed Funding

Small Door Inc., a NYC-based veterinary company which integrates medical advances, technology, and hospitality best practices, closed a $3.5M seed funding.

The round was co-led by Lerer Hippeau and Primary Venture Partners, with participation from Brand Foundry Ventures, Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg, Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Jonathan Neman, Nathaniel Ru, and Nicolas Jammet.

The company plans to use the funds for:
– new hires,
– build out of virtual and digital offerings, and
– construction of veterinary practices.

Founded as a Public Benefit Corporation by Florent Peyre and Josh Guttman, Small Door built a technology stack that provides members with 24/7 access to the medical team via a mobile app and a personalized approach to managing their pet’s health that guides them through lifestyle and nutrition choices in conjunction with diagnostics, imaging, prescription medications, and priority access to specialists.

Its veterinarians – specialists including everything a patient may need, from orthopedic surgeons to board-certified oncologists – are trained at the top veterinary programs in the US and Europe.

The company will open its first flagship practice in Greenwich Village in the fall of 2019.

In conjunction with the funding, Small Door announced a team of founding advisers, including:
– Dr. Tom X Lee, co-founder of One Medical Group;
– Dr. Richard Park, co-founder of CityMD;
– Martin Tiveus, former CEO of Evidensia; and
– Dr. Douglas Palma from Animal Medical Center.

Source. FinSMEs, Staff, May 2, 2019

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VC Deals Only: BlackBuck raises $150 million to digitize freight ...

VC Deals Only: BlackBuck raises $150 million to digitize freight ...: By Manish Singh India’s trucking system has a big inefficiency problem that continues to drag the economy. BlackBuck, one of the handful o...

BlackBuck raises $150 million to digitize freight and logistics across India

By Manish Singh

India’s trucking system has a big inefficiency problem that continues to drag the economy. BlackBuck, one of the handful of logistics startups that is trying to overhaul this system, just raised $150 million in a Series D round to further pursue its mission.

The new round was led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and Accel at a valuation just shy of $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. Wellington, Sequoia Capital, B Capital, Light Street and existing investors Sands Capital and World Bank’s investment arm International Finance Corporation also participated in the round.

The four-year-old B2B startup, which connects businesses with truck owners and freight operators, has raised about $230 million in equity financing and another $100 million in debt financing to date, CEO Rajesh Yabaji told TechCrunch in an interview.

Yabaji said the startup will use the fresh capital to expand and improve its technology stack that enables truck drivers to find more work, and grow its fleet of driver partners. As of today, BlackBuck has 300,000 trucks on its platform and about 10,000 clients, including big names such as soft drinks manufacturer Coca-Cola, consumer goods giant Unilever and automotive conglomerate Tata .

BlackBuck has developed a simplified app for truck drivers in India, who are typically not very literate, to help them accept work and easily navigate to their destination using Google Maps. On the client side, businesses can fire up a similar app to place orders. Recently it also tied up with insurance company Acko to cover all the trucks on its network.

As things work at the moment, truck drivers in India often struggle to find any work on their way back from a drop. Yabaji says BlackBuck enables them to find 25% to 30% more work opportunities. The startup takes between 15% to 20% of that, which is how it makes money.

India’s logistics market, valued at $160 billion, has attracted major VC funds in recent years. Delhivery, a supply chain startup, has raised north of $670 million from SoftBank and Tiger Global among others. Rivigo, a startup that rotates drivers to improve efficiency, has raised north of $215 million from SAIF Partners and Warburg Pincus.

It’s a capital-heavy business. BlackBuck, which employs about 2,000 people, generated $135.5 million in revenue at a loss of $17 million in fiscal year 2018, according to regulatory filings. Yabaji says the startup aims to aggressively grow its business, so profitability is not something it is hoping to go after in the immediate future.

“Given the market we are in today, in terms of private capital being available, we do not have to do IPO for a really long time. It is all about optimizing for the objective,” he said.

BlackBuck said it will also give about 200 of its employees an option to liquidate up to 25% of their vested shareholding in the company at the current price.

Source. TechCrunch, Manish Singh, May 1, 2019

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VC Deals Only: Examity raises $90 million for online proctoring p...

VC Deals Only: Examity raises $90 million for online proctoring p...: By Paul Sawers Examity , a platform that serves online course providers with proctoring services to authenticate the identity of student...

Examity raises $90 million for online proctoring platform that thwarts exam cheats

By Paul Sawers

Examity, a platform that serves online course providers with proctoring services to authenticate the identity of students and ensure they don’t cheat, has raised $90 million in a round of funding from Boston-based private equity firm Great Hill Partners.

The online education industry is expected to grow from a $4 billion market today to $21 billion by 2023. That’s why massive open online courses (MOOCs) have attracted significant investment, with Coursera last week announcing a $103 million funding round. But supervising tests online is inherently trickier than in brick-and-mortar exam halls, which is why Examity has been working to help remote proctors since its inception in 2013.

“As college cheating scandals continue to make headlines, institutions are turning to technology to validate the learning experience and ensure confidence in student outcomes,” said Examity founder and CEO Michael London.

Authenticate

The Newton, Massachusetts-based startup offers a handful of services to ensure the person being tested is who they say they are and that they follow the rules for the duration of the test. The first step is to verify the individual’s ID before the test starts, which requires test-takers to create an Examity profile (if they haven’t done so already) and upload a copy of their government ID.

Different exams will require different levels of verification, which is why Examity gives its clients a range of options — including automated ID verification, which uses “proprietary technology coupled with other factors” to validate the student’s identity.

Examity also offers mobile ID verification, which employs biometric authentication — including fingerprint, face, and voice recognition — to validate the test-taker’s ID. And then there is live authentication, which relies on a real person to confirm the student’s identity and run through the exam rules while inspecting their test environment.

Post-verification, Examity offers its customers the option of live or automated proctoring, with the latter using what Examity calls “proprietary machine learning algorithms” to detect unusual behavior, using data captured from screenshots, audio files, and video.

Examity had previously raised around $30 million, and with another $90 million in the bank it plans to expand the scope of its coverage across universities, employers, and certification providers to ensure all exams are administered with integrity.

The company claims that more than 500 colleges and employers use its services to administer remote exams, including a number of traditional educational institutions, such as Penn State University, Texas A&M University, and Indiana University. It expects to proctor more than 2 million such exams this year, and it also works with established online education platforms, including Duolingo and Coursera, as well as private companies such as Amazon.

According to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics, around a third of all college students take at least one course online. And with the corporate elearning market expected to grow from a roughly $20 billion business today to $30 billion by 2022, the need for remote proctoring technology will only grow.

“As online learning becomes ubiquitous in not just the classroom but also the workplace, universities and employers are increasingly emphasizing the security and integrity of the test-taking experience,” said Chris Busby, a partner at Great Hill Partners.

Source. Venturebeat, Paul Sawers, April 30, 2019

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