The popular fast-fashion startup based in China has reportedly raised $2 billion at two-thirds of its valuation, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company rose through The Crunchbase Unicorn Board ranks during the pandemic, receiving a valuation of $100 billion and ranking just under the likes of TikTok owner ByteDance and SpaceX. But this new round of funding cut its valuation down to $66 billion. No big deal — it’s still the fourth-highest-valued startup in the world. 

Shein quickly won the hearts of American consumers as e-commerce and delivery exploded during work-from-home orders, and investors took note — in 2021, funding rose to more than $27 billion, around three times higher than the year before. 

The company has remained relatively quiet as rumors swirled that the e-commerce giant had a plan to raise money and, later on, go public. But while Shein contemplates its lofty plans, the company faces numerous obstacles to going public, including weaving through complex international regulations and declining activity in e-commerce.

E-commerce loses its luster

Funding toward e-commerce has seen a slow but steady rise in the last 10 years. 

That all changed in 2021, when the tech industry pinpointed e-commerce as a long-lasting consumer behavior much like working from home was. Funding jumped around 3x higher than 2020, and then immediately crashed to normal levels in 2022. Several big tech giants like Amazon and Meta were quick to build up their e-commerce services, only to lay off thousands of workers when those strategies didn’t play out. 

It’s unclear if Shein will face a similar, less drastic fate. The company reportedly garnered $23 billion in revenue in 2022, on par with other fast-fashion retailers like H&M and fashion conglomerate Inditex, which owns popular brands like Zara. But the e-commerce model isn’t as popular as it once was, and global regulations around environmental and sustainability laws could dwindle its popularity even further.

Stricter environmental regulations

Shein’s clothing is known for being extremely cheap — women’s shirts sell for as little as $2. The company has had to dodge questions over forced labor and environmental impacts of its production line. 

Despite telling U.S. congressional members Shein worked with third-party firms to audit its supply chain of forced labor, the company used cotton from Xinjiang (which has been cited for using forced labor) in at least two instances. In some instances, workers spent 18-hour days in the factories, or were given one day off a month, which violates China’s labor laws. 

The European Union is also setting strict sustainability standards on imports, taxing companies more based on how high their carbon footprint is. This could drive up the price of Shein-made items, or require the company to make changes to its supply chain in order to lower its environmental impact. 

If Shein does go through with its IPO, it has the potential to disrupt the $1.53 trillion apparel industry, but changing headwinds could ruin its course.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Shein raised money at a third of its previous valuation. We have updated the story to reflect the accurate number.

Related Crunchbase Pro queries:

• Global Funding Toward E-Commerce Startups

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BoltRock Holdings and Centaurus Capital led the round for Boston-based Gradiant, which is now valued at $1 billion. 

The startup develops technology to reduce water usage and wastewater treatment systems for companies in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, food and beverage, and other water-demanding industries. The company says its client list includes chip companies Micron Technology and TSMC, pharma giants Pfizer and GSK, and food and beverage manufacturers AB InBev and Coca-Cola.

The company said it will use the fresh capital to expand into new markets, including the Middle East and Europe, and to invest in R&D.

“As global manufacturing and supply chains continue to advance, they demand more and more water resources which are increasingly rare and finite,” Centaurus founder John Arnold said in the funding announcement. “We are excited to partner with a company that has truly proven the ability to support these demands in an economic and energy efficient manner.”

Gradiant has now raised $392.4 million total, per Crunchbase data. The company was founded in 2013 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It now has more than 900 employees internationally, it says, and has achieved more than 100% top-line revenue growth for four consecutive years. 

Gradiant marks one of the largest venture funding rounds so far this year. It’s also the largest, by far, funding in the wastewater treatment space, at least since the beginning of 2022. 

Other recently funded startups in the industry include:

• Heartland Water Technology, which develops wastewater technology for the energy industry and raised just under $45 million last year;
• ZwitterCo, which raised $33 million last year and uses a membrane technology for water treatment; and
• Greyter, which makes water recycling systems for residential and commercial buildings and raised $10 million in January.

Related Crunchbase Pro queries

• Funding To Wastewater Startups In 2022 and 2023

Related Reading

• The Crunchbase Megadeals Board
• The Crunchbase Unicorn Board

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In its first acquisition, San Francisco-based Ripple has acquired Switzerland-based Metaco for $250 million — half in cash and half in equity, according to Ripple.

So what does each of these companies do and why does this acquisition make sense? Let’s take this nice and slow.

Privately owned Ripple is the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency exchange. 

Metaco makes technology allowing financial institutions to store and manage digital assets. This is a big deal, especially after several major firms (FTX) collapsed, leaving investors facing big losses.

Why Metaco matters

The fact that Metaco is based outside the United States where crypto regulation is much clearer is a bonus for Ripple as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wrestles to figure out the future of crypto regulation.

The Swiss company is also a legit player in its own right with clients including Citi, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale‘s digital asset arm.

Metaco has raised a total of $20 million in funding over four rounds. Its latest funding was raised on July 14, 2020, from a Series A round. Metaco is funded by 11 investors. Verve Ventures and Standard Chartered Bank are the most recent backers, according to Crunchbase data.

Investor enthusiasm in crypto waned after a drop in cryptocurrency prices in 2022. A slew of major crypto firm failures didn’t help. Yes, we are talking (again) about FTX.

In a statement on its website, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said, “Through the strength of our balance sheet and financial position, Ripple will continue pressing our advantage in the areas critical to crypto infrastructure. Bringing on Metaco is monumental for our growing product suite and expanding global footprint.”

Ripple is no slouch either.

It  has raised a total of $293.8 million in funding over 14 rounds. Its latest funding was raised on Aug. 21, 2021, from a  Series B round. Ripple is funded by 43 investors. Uday Kumar Bangalore Shivaraman and Azure Ventures Group are the most recent investors, according to Crunchbase data.

While crypto prices are on the rise, the dramatic collapse of FTX still hangs over the entire sector with several other lenders and exchanges.

Related query:

• 2023 Crypto Funding

Related reads:

• Ledger Locks In $108M To Lock Up Crypto
• SVB, Signature Shutdowns Not Chilling Crypto

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Growing up bouncing between southern Florida and Puerto Rico, Peter Henry knew one thing for certain — always have a Plan B.

Being raised by a single parent, money was tight. When disasters hit — such as hurricanes — hard times quickly became harder.

“I remember, I think, it was Hurricane George. It was devastating,” said Henry, remembering bathing outside in what little water was available. “We went through some rough times. But you can’t rely on others, you rely on you.”

Those experiences — and that mindset — helped prepare Henry for what came last fall. Like the hundreds of thousands of other employees in the tech industry, Henry was laid off from MetaMap where he was vice president of revenue.

“It was tough, but it also was an opportunity,” said the 33-year-old Henry. “You can either cry about it or move on.”

Henry moved on to Agricompa, a fintech company that enables small and medium-sized farmers in Latin America to access loans and other services specifically for them.

While many may seek out the cold comfort of a new job with a well-established company after the trauma of a layoff, Henry — and many others like him — have instead used the tech job cuts as their chance to pursue their dreams.

“In a sense, it was a relief,” he said, “I could focus on what I wanted to do.”

Lessons from baseball

What Henry wanted to do was help Latin American farmers after seeing firsthand many of the issues they faced.

In 2013, Henry bummed around Venezuela playing baseball after taking time off from Stanford and that school’s baseball team.

“I hung out at farms,” Henry said. “I actually did my thesis on the informal economy in Venezuela.”

Even after graduating, Henry continued to hang around Latin America, first taking a baseball development job with Major League Baseball before moving on to a sales job in Puerto Rico for PayJoy — which offers credit to underserved consumers in emerging markets around the world — in 2015.

The job appealed to Henry and his personality for several reasons. First, sales stoked his competitive fire like baseball and sports did. He could prepare and plan for sales — just like he would practice and train in baseball.

“Winning a sales call is like winning an at-bat,” Henry recalled. “I also liked that it’s about tribulations, persistence and consistency. In baseball, you have to learn to accept failing. I couldn’t, I used to let the strikeouts get to me.

“Now, I don’t let that phase me,” he said

He also fell in love with the entrepreneurial and startup aspect of the business. Lastly, he liked the impact he thought the company could have.

“Bouncing between the U.S. and Latin America, I sometimes didn’t have the right paperwork or ID, so I could relate,” Henry said. “I liked the positive social impact.”

After 17 months there, Henry followed that entrepreneurial spirit he fell in love with and co-founded Miami-based online real estate company Home61 before moving on to fintech identity startup MetaMap.

There, Henry led the expansion for sales, product, marketing and customer success in all of LatAm, Brazil, Africa and Southeast Asia. He helped grow revenue from zero to $18 million ARR in 18 months.

Hard times

During his time at MetaMap the seeds for his future were planted — literally.

When the pandemic hit, Henry was living in Mexico City. Not enamored with the idea of isolating with the city’s other 9 million people, he and his wife Oris went to the Dominican Republic and bought a three-acre farm.

The idea of farming and being self-sufficient appealed to Henry, and the isolation of the pandemic seemed a perfect time to try it out.

However, that would not be the only life-changing moment about to happen for Henry.

In October of last year, Henry got the call that he and his team were being laid off. His job, with a $240,000 salary and $130,000 in bonuses, was gone.

While a layoff can be a traumatic milestone for many, Henry’s baseball career would not let him see it that way.

“In sports, you can always be waived or let go,” Henry said. “So I always have the feeling you can be let go at any time.”

His upbring also prepared him for such a moment. Growing up in a home where finances could sometimes be “mismanaged” taught Henry the importance of saving for a rainy day.

“I always had something saved, I always have a Plan B,” he said.

Growing up in the midst of the Global Economic Crisis in 2008, also likely affected his mentality toward money and savings, he added. 

“These crises affect how you deal with a lot of stuff,” he said.

Support from those close to him also did not hurt.

“My wife always has pushed me to do my own thing,” he added.

Fintech for farmers

A few days after getting the layoff notice, what would become Agricompa was founded with three of his former MetaMap partners — Pierre Antoine Rohr-Lacoste, Carlos Ruiz and Amaury Soviche.

Through talks with coffee roasters and cacao farmers in Mexico, Colombia and Africa, Henry knew small growers seemed to always suffer from cash-flow issues. 

One of the main issues is limited access to cash, Henry said. Many farmers in Latin America don’t have the paperwork or documentation for their farms, limiting the extent the property can be used as an asset.

There also is not immediate accessibility to a bank in many of these regions.

“In some of these rural areas, you can be two to three hours away from a bank,” he said.

There also can be hangups in the time it takes distributors and packing companies to actually pay small farmers.

Henry knew he could help fix some of these problems.

“I’m not a pro farmer, but I’m a pro at building teams and startups,” he said.

While the startup is still in beta-stealth, the concept is to offer an all-in-one agro management platform that allows packing and trade companies to manage cash flow and consolidate operations while being able to pay out farmers quickly with fast and hassle-free financing and ERP solutions.

Despite not being fully launched, 150 farmers are already on the platform. The company has eight employees and plans to operate first in the Dominican, Mexico and Colombia.

The startup also has raised $100,000 from Day One Ventures’ Funded, not Fired program that is supporting laid off tech workers’ dream of starting their own companies.

“Day One has been great,” he said “We do a weekly call with other founders in Day One’s portfolio. It has been really helpful.”

The company also has additional money from other angel investors and the like. Henry expects to start seeking out a proper Series A in the final quarter of the year.

Henry, who has always had a passion for farming and roasting coffee, has great expectations for what the company can become as he writes the next chapter of his story.

“We want to be the Shopify for agro,” Henry said.

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First Republic Bank became the third regional bank in less than two months to fail — joining SVB and New York-based Signature Bank — as many fear the banking contagion will continue to spread.

While not having the same tight associations with the tech industry as SVB, First Republic Bank did have an expanding technology division and served as the bank of a growing number of startups.

That likely was one reason the bank moved quickly during the collapse of SVB to shore up its own house, receiving funding from the Federal Reserve Bank and JPMorgan Chase to bring its reserves to $70 billion. 

In the end, that was not enough to assure clients, as the bank reported it had lost $102 billion in deposits in the first quarter — more than half of what it held at the end of last year.

Tech and banks

JPMorgan Chase will now take over First Republic’s $229.1 billion of assets and $103.9 billion in total deposits, as well as 84 offices in eight states.

The move likely will not ease concerns in the tech community, as all three banks had significant ties to the industry. 

SVB had relationships with more than 50% of all venture-backed companies in the U.S. and countless VC firms, while Signature Bank — mainly known for its real estate division — also had significant venture lending and crypto ties. 

Just on Friday, the Federal Reserve Board released a report on SVB’s collapse, concluding it was due to bank management’s inability to manage risk properly, and lax Fed supervision and regulation.

It also said SVB’s issues showed “systemic consequences through contagion” that can occur regardless of a bank’s size and role in the financial network.

That becomes truer by the day.

Further reading:

SVB Collapse ‘A Textbook Case Of Mismanagement’ — Fed Report

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Positive indicators are scarcer. That’s why it’s encouraging to see at least one small sign of positive momentum coming from the startup sector. It comes in the form of more money.

In recent quarters we’ve seen unprecedented sums going to software startups focused on tracking and reducing carbon emissions, and on speeding up the shift to cleaner energy sources. The funding surge comes amid a broader rise in funding to climate-focused startups of all stripes.

A sampling of top funding recipients for climate and clean energy software shows at least $1.68 billion in capital raised since the beginning of 2022, per Crunchbase data. For a sense of where the money is going, we chart out 34 of the most recently or heavily funded companies below:

Consumer is out, enterprise is in

The most heavily funded companies are an enterprise-focused bunch, with many of the largest rounds going to those selling technologies to energy industry customers.

Washington, D.C.-based Arcadia, a climate software and data startup focused on decarbonizing the electric grid, is a perennial top fundraiser in this space. The company closed on $325 million in the past year alone, in rounds led by Magnetar Capital and J.P. Morgan, bringing total funding to over $495 million.

Aurora Solar, a platform for designing and cost-estimating solar power installations, is also up there, with $523 million in funding to date, including a $200 million Series D a year ago. It’s currently posting annual revenue over $100 million while still growing over 50% per year, according to John Tough, managing partner at backer Energize Ventures.

But Aurora isn’t the only company in the space with significant revenue that’s scaling fast. Since launching early-stage-focused Energize seven years ago, Tough said he’s seen revenue at climate- and clean energy-focused software companies rising alongside venture investment.

“When we launched in 2016, there probably wasn’t a single (software-focused) company in the solar or wind space with more than $25 million in revenue,” he said. “Now there are a dozen.”

Tough sees the likelihood of further growth given that companies in the energy industry have historically spent less on software than those in other sectors. One analysis his firm conducted estimated that energy companies spent only about 1% of their budgets on software — roughly half the Fortune 2000 average.

A maturing startup pipeline

The pipeline of funded climate and clean energy software startups is also maturing at a rapid clip.

In an initial Crunchbase roundup of climate software deals, published in October 2021, virtually all the cited companies were seed or Series A funded at the time. Since then, a majority have raised subsequent rounds and a number have moved on to Series B.

Clean energy-focused software companies, meanwhile, are also moving to later stage, with the largest funding recipients mostly at Series B and beyond. Per Tough, there are also a handful with metrics suitable for a public offering should the IPO window open further.

That could be in the cards. This week, Silicon Valley-based Nextracker, a provider of software and hardware for solar tracker systems, raised $638 million in its IPO after raising its price per share to $24. The higher-than-expected demand for its offering bodes well for other clean energy- and climate-focused offerings.

Impact of broader slowdown to be seen

Still, the resilience of climate and clean energy software funding comes against a backdrop of falling venture investment across most other industries. As tech valuations flatten and the biggest growth investors scale back the pace and size of deals, it’s not unlikely this space will see some impacts too.

For now, though, it looks like this corner of the space continues to heat up — but in a good way.

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Our Next Energy, a battery production startup, announced on Wednesday it raised a whopping $300 million Series B, bringing total funding to $390 million and raising its valuation to $1.2 billion, according to Crunchbase data.

The Series B was led by Franklin Templeton Investments and real estate-focused Fifth Wall with additional participation from the likes of Temasek Holdings and Coatue. The latest raise will help fund the operations of its battery cell factory that completed construction in December and will formally launch in 2024.

“We are transitioning from a startup funded by venture capital to a manufacturer fueled by growth capital,” said ONE CEO Mujeeb Ijaz. (Ijaz previously worked at Ford and Apple’s secretive transportation initiative before founding the company in 2020.) “That’s important in this environment where urgent demand for U.S.-based cell manufacturing is on the rise.”

Charging up the market

Indeed, the U.S. trails China in battery manufacturing. And, thanks to the rise of electric vehicles and the subsequent need for high-powered, easy-to-scale battery technology, that’s something the U.S. government is looking to change. 

The Inflation Reduction Act promises subsidies for EV companies, including a tax credit for those that use battery materials sourced in the U.S. The U.S. also passed a new law called the Invent Here, Make Here Act to prevent new developments in battery technology made in the U.S. from going overseas.

This comes at a time when supply chain issues and the rising cost of battery and metal material are bottlenecking U.S.-based electric-car manufacturers. Funding for electric-vehicle startups has plummeted from its 2021 highs thanks to the rising cost of materials. General Motors announced on Tuesday electric-vehicle production would slow down due to manufacturing and logistics issues. 

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With layoffs, massive funding pullbacks and an overall sense of doom clouding the economy, we naturally saw attention drawn to our coverage of those issues. Readers want to be prepared and understandably gravitated toward our reporting on why these unfortunate economic events are happening.

Layoffs specifically drew interest from readers, namely our updated tracker of tech companies that cut workers in a given week. This year we also launched The Crunchbase Unicorn Board, where we list the most valuable private companies in the world, and our Emerging Unicorn Board of up-and-coming unicorns.

1. Weekly tech layoffs: Earlier this year we noticed the uptick and then steady pace of tech companies laying off workers. Hence, we began tracking those numbers — seeking tips from readers and also watching for the latest layoff news. As of mid-December, 90,000 workers in the U.S. tech sector have been laid off in mass job cuts so far in 2022. Companies large and small made unfortunate debuts on this list, which we will continue to update throughout 2023.

2. The Crunchbase Unicorn Board: Earlier this year, we launched our curated list of private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more. New companies are added to the board as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round. Data for companies already on the leaderboard is updated when there is a new funding round announced.

3. Layoff analysis: Consistently throughout the year, we have paused to reflect on what our layoff tracker told us. These analyses (including this one written by reporter Chris Metinko in May and others written later in the year by Sophia Kunthara and Keerthi Vendatam) provided thoughtful insight on the road ahead.

4. Emerging Unicorn Board:  In addition to the Unicorn Board, we also launched the Crunchbase Emerging Unicorn Board this year to track global private companies on the path to achieving unicorn status. Powered by Crunchbase’s comprehensive data, this list is updated as companies reach a valuation of $500 million or more but less than $1 billion and consistently drew readers this year.

5. VCs spent billions on scooters, with little to show for it: Five years ago, the scooters came. These nimble little vehicles offered riders a quick trip to work or a quick trip to the ER, depending on who you asked. Scooter mania spread worldwide, fueled by more than $5 billion in total funding. Since then, many scooter stocks have been tossed aside with Bird just a penny stock. We wrote about the industry and readers took an interest in what we had to say.

6. The VC reset: Senior Data Editor Gené Teare has done a stellar job this year providing monthly recaps of funding at every stage. This report from May held particular appeal for readers as it illustrated that while late-stage and technology-growth investing have been most severely impacted, seed funding remains surprisingly robust (at the time, anyway). Times have certainly changed since then.

7. Global VC pullback dramatic in Q3: With our recap of Q3 data, we could definitively say that the big global venture capital pullback we were all expecting had arrived. Venture and growth investors in private companies scaled back their investment pace significantly as the slump in the public markets stretched into the third quarter.

8. Self-driving truck upstart Embark: From $5B+ to basically worthless: San Francisco-headquartered Embark, which develops autonomous driving technology for the trucking industry, has presided over a roughly 98% share price decline since going public a year ago. In the process, it’s wiped out close to $5 billion in market capitalization. Contributing reporter Joanna Glasner dove into the company’s numbers and her insights struck a chord with readers.

9. VCs embrace a new type of dating app: Nothing better than a startup dating story in February. We wrote about a fresh crop of dating startups getting venture funding to help people find connections in new mediums.

10. Y Combinator warns of economic downturn: In May, accelerator Y Combinator warned the good times may be coming to an end for startups and the venture market. “No one can predict how bad the economy will get, but things don’t look good,” the letter said. The warning came shortly after SoftBank announced it would become much more selective in investments after posting a loss of $27.7 billion on investments in its Vision Fund for its just-ended fiscal year.

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As we’ve documented several times over the past few quarters, venture-backed companies that went public via SPAC deals have mostly posted exceedingly poor returns. As we revisit a previously curated list of truly terrible SPAC performers, it’s clear they’re closing out the year at a particularly low point.

How bad? Out of a selected set of 50 completed SPAC deals, at least 24 were trading below $1 per share 1. Because most blank-check companies initially price at $10 per share, that means they’re down 90% or more to date.

Here’s a list2 of the 24 sub-$1 names from our sample:

No sector has been spared, as one can see from the broad array of industries represented among these beaten-down stocks. It includes autonomous driving (Embark, AEye), electric vehicles (Faraday Future, Lightning eMotors, Xos), telehealth (Babylon, Talkspace), and real estate (Offerpad, Doma), among others.

What’s also noteworthy is that the vast majority are trading at a lower point than they were a couple quarters ago. So no, things aren’t looking up yet.

And that’s not the worst

And trading below $1 isn’t necessarily the worst fate for a troubled SPAC. A few others have either declared bankruptcy or sold to acquirers for an even smaller pittance of their former price. 

One of the higher-profile casualties was Enjoy Technology, a mobile retail company founded by former Apple store executive Ron Johnson, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. The company had previously raised more than $230 million in known venture funding from backers including Kleiner Perkins, Oak Investment Partners and L Catterton, and another $250 million from SPAC investors.

In the biotech space, meanwhile, Clarus Therapeutics, a developer of androgen-based medicines that went public in September 2021, is also winding down. The company announced in September that it has filed for Chapter 11 and is selling its sole commercial asset, a therapeutic for testosterone deficiency.

Metromile, the pay-per-mile car insurance provider, also took a hit. The one-time unicorn sold to fellow insurtech Lemonade at a valuation representing a roughly 95% cut from Metromile’s peak public share price.

Rounding out the list, Carlotz, a used car marketplace, sold this month to Shift Technologies, a used auto e-commerce platform trading for 23 cents a share, in a deal that appears to be valued at roughly $20 million. Carlotz previously raised over $160 million in venture and SPAC-related financing.

Any success stories out there?

No company on our sample list of 50 currently has shares trading above the $10 break-even threshold for SPAC deals. The top performer — consumer health platform Hims & Hers — was recently trading at a little over $7.

Meanwhile, there are 15 companies with shares between $1 and $2, listed below:

The remaining companies on our list are trading between $2 and $7. 

This story isn’t over

For anyone who binge-watches drama shows, the SPAC plotline is looking sort of familiar. We’re at that point where the protagonist is looking outmatched and on the cusp of defeat. 

If this was Hollywood, of course, the protagonist would suddenly summon the strength for a big comeback, overcome foes and declare victory. But we’re in the real world, where this kind of underdog story only occasionally plays out. 

At any rate, this does look like the back-against-the-wall moment for many SPACs. It’d be nice if 2023 could bring us some of those much-awaited dramatic turnarounds.

Further Reading

Some Beaten-Down SPACs Recover Amid Tech Rally

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Last week it seemed like big rounds were making a comeback. That’s not the case this week, as even the largest rounds were on the small side and there weren’t a lot of them. Investors continued to go big on biotech and another agtech company made the list, along with a mini golf startup—a first.

1. Odyssey Therapeutics, $168M, biotech: Developing drugs is big business, for both biotech firms and investors. This week, Boston-based Odyssey Therapeutics closed a $168 million Series B led by General Catalyst. Odyssey is developing precision immunomodulators and oncology medicines to treat serious human diseases. The company’s drug discovery engine uses artificial intelligence and machine learning for molecular design, a functional genomics platform for target discovery and other proprietary tech. Founded last year, Odyssey has raised nearly $386 million, according to the company.

2. Uniswap Labs, $165M, crypto: Crypto and blockchain have been relatively quiet recently, but there does usually seem to be at least one round that makes this list every week. This week it was New York-based Uniswap Labs—the company behind the Uniswap Protocol exchange— that landed a $165 million Series B led by Polychain Capital. The raise values the company at $1.66 billion, TechCrunch reported. Founded in 2018, Uniswap is a decentralized exchange platform operating on the Ethereum blockchain. The exchange allows users to deposit tokens into larger liquidity pools and buy and sell at predetermined pricing. In a blog post announcing the round, the company said it has now supported $1.2 trillion in trading volume to date. The company has now raised $176 million, according to Crunchbase data.

3. TripActions, $154M, travel: TripActions has been in the news a lot lately. Just two weeks after it was reported the company had confidentially filed to go public next year, the Palo Alto, California-based business travel startup raised $304 million at a $9.2 billion valuation. The round is comprised of $154 million in equity from new and existing financial investors and a $150 million structured capital transaction led by Coatue. The business travel startup raised $275 million in a Series F round led by Greenoaks Capital last October at a $7.25 billion valuation. In May, Bloomberg reported the company was in negotiations to raise funding at a $9 billion valuation. Late last month, Business Insider first reported the company had filed confidentially to go public and is aiming for a $12 billion valuation in Q2 of next year. The report also said Goldman Sachs has been hired to handle the listing.

4. Puttshack, $150M, sports: Who didn’t at one point love miniature golf? Apparently many people still do. Chicago-based Puttshack locked up a $150 million from funds managed by BlackRock and continued support from Promethean Investments. The company blends a night out—food and beverages—with miniature golf and uses its patented Trackaball technology to help automate scoring and create interactive games at each hole. Puttshack plans to use the new cash to expand into many more locations across the U.S. Founded in 2017, the company has now raised $244 million, according to Crunchbase.

5. Soli Organic, $125M: Agtech continues to be big with investors. Virginia-based indoor farming startup Soli Organic raised $125 million Series D led by CDPQ. Soli sells greens and herbs. However, unlike most indoor farming companies that use hydroponics and vertical farming tech, Soli utilizes soil and its own special fertilizer to grow their crops indoors. The company has been around for a while. It started off as Shenandoah Growers in 1989—making it an OG of the agtech sector. The company has raised $487.5 million since being founded, according to Crunchbase data. 

6. Neumora Therapeutics, $112M, biotech: Watertown, Massachusetts-based Neumora Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech firm developing medicines for brain diseases, closed a $112 million Series B from investors that included Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), Amgen, ARCH Venture Partners and others. Founded in 2019, Neumora has raised $650 million in capital, per the company.

7. SprintRay, $100M, 3D printing: Los Angeles-based dental 3D printer maker SprintRay raised more than $100 million in a Series D led by the SoftBank Vision Fund 2, according to a Deal Street Asia report. This is the first disclosed round, per Crunchbase data.

8. Matchpoint Therapeutics, $70M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Matchpoint Therapeutics, a developer of precision covalent medicines to treat immune diseases, closed on a Series A funding of $70 million led by Sanofi Ventures. The company has raised a total of $100 million including its seed round led by Atlas Venture and Access Biotechnology.

9. NorthOne, $67M, fintech: New York-based financial management platform NorthOne raised a $67 million Series B from new and existing investors. Founded in 2016, the company has now raised more than $90 million from investors such as Redpoint and Battery Ventures, per Crunchbase.

10. Ascidian Therapeutics, $50M, biotech: Boston-based Ascidian Therapeutics came out of stealth and announced it had raised a $50 million Series A from ATP, who also developed the company. Ascidian is trying to treat human diseases by replacing mutated exons at the RNA level.

Big global deals

With so few large rounds this week in the U.S., the biggest round globally went to a China-based firm.

• Horizon Robotics, which creates computing platforms for smart vehicles, received a $1 billion investment from Volkswagen for a joint venture. 

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Oct. 8 to 14. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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