Weekly Top-tier Fundraising Apr. 26th
1 Clubhouse valued at $40 billion 2 Genome editing in China raised $62 million 3 Provision of mobile data for government raised $41 million, etc. 11 in total
SEQUOIA CAPITAL
①CoLearn / Indonesia's online learning platform B2B Education
$10 million Series A
Highlights: Indonesia, as a market, has the fourth largest education ecosystem in the world with 50 million students, 3 million teachers, and 500,000 schools. However, young people have not been able to access high quality education. CoLearn is solving that problem.
②Razorpay / Provides payment management services to businesses in India B2B software
$160 million Series E
注目のポイント:In India, the market, Stripe, a major player in the US, had not been deployed. In this context, Razorpay was able to grow into a market leader.
③Productboard / Product management system for enterprise B2B software
$72 million Series C
Used by more than 4,000 companies, including Microsoft and UiPath.
Highlights: Customer enterprises were slow to respond to changing customer needs, unable to innovate quickly, operating inefficiently, and at high risk of product failure Productboard provides a product management system to deeply understand customers.
④ Laiye / Provides RPA tools and chatbots in China B2B software
$72 million Series C
Highlights: The pandemic has drawn attention to RPA, and UiPath is preparing for an IPO in the US.
⑤EdiGene / Developing genome editing therapy in China B2B Biotechnology
$62 million Series B extend
Highlights: Sequoia has been actively investing in Chinese pharmaceutical companies, with clinical CRO dMed, oncology and immunology company D3Bio, genetically engineered vaccine company RecBio, and antibody therapeutics company Transcenta raising over $100 million.
FOUNDERS FUND
①Replica / Provides people's movement data to government B2G software
$41 million Series B
Highlights: Due to the pandemic, people's movement and spending became irregular, and public institutions such as subways needed reference data to adjust their plans. Replica solves that problem.
②Seed Health / Research and development of microbiome B2B biotech
$40 million Series A
Highlights: The microbiome is one of the hottest areas of biotechnology, and Sequoia is investing in microbiome company Pendulum Therapeutics this month.
ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ
①Clubhouse / Audio SNS B2C Social
Amount not disclosed Series C
Raised $100 million in February.
https://www.joinclubhouse.com/
Highlights: Rapidly growing demand due to the pandemic; Twitter negotiated to acquire it for $4 billion.
②Aleo / Zero-knowledge proof of concept developer platform B2B blockchain
$28 million Series A
The world's leading developer platform for absolute privacy on the blockchain.
Highlights: So far, a16z has invested in privacy-centric blockchain technologies such as Oasis Labs, Keep, and Orchid.
③Deel / Remote Recruitment Platform B2B Software
$156 million Series C
Y Combinator alumni. A platform for employees and contractors working overseas, providing the same level of environment (tools, benefits) as employees working at headquarters. Navigates local laws, taxation, and payroll, and makes it possible to hire remote workers around the world. The number of customers has grown from 500 at the time of procurement last September to 1,800.
Highlights: While the pandemic has accelerated the hiring of remote workers, hiring overseas has required a lot of work, including legal procedures Deel is trying to solve this problem.
④RapidAPI / API platform B2B software
$60 million Series C
It provides APIs for providers such as Microsoft, IBM, Twilio, SendGrid, Nexmo, and Crunchbase. About 3 million developers are registered, an increase of more than 750,000 in one year.
Highlights: As many companies are going digital in the wake of the pandemic, APIs are essential and demand has increased.