Components in the News January 31, 2023: Juul in Deal Talks, Starlink in Africa, & More

What our Analysts Have Been Reading….     Overview Juul in Deal Talks with Tobacco Giants Discord Acquires Social Media App Gas BigPanda Names New CFO SpaceX’s Starlink Launches in Africa for the First Time Ripple Partners with Montenegro to Create a CBDC ______________________________________________________________________ Juul is exploring a potential partnership, having had conversations with Philip Morris, […]

Houzz Common Shares Down 11%

Houzz is the leading online home remodeling and design platform, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes. It is also a component in the Prime Unicorn Index benchmark, the standard bearer for private markets benchmarking. Its last preferred round of Series E was $400mm on May 25, 2017, led by Sequoia, Wellington, […]

Components in the News January 17, 2023: Layoffs at Carta & Whoop, Plus More

What our Analysts Have Been Reading….     Overview Carta Lays off 10% of Staff Whoop Cuts 4% of its Workforce Instacart to Pay $5.25M Settlement Impossible Foods Hires its First Chief Demand Officer Newsela Appoints New CEO ______________________________________________________________________ Carta Lays off 10% of Staff: The layoff was attributed to the pain seen across the entire […]

Bolt Struggles to Maintain its Valuation

Bolt Financial, a one-click payment platform and Prime Unicorn Index component, appears to be struggling to maintain its valuation as certain VCs have marked down their investments in the company.  According to data from the Prime Unicorn Index, Bolt has raised nearly $815M over nine rounds, with the most recent round in January 2022 bringing […]

Real Estate Platform, Lessen, is raising $400 million in new Series C funding round

Lessen, Inc. has just authorized a new Series C preferred stock which could increase the valuation to $2.27 billion if all Series C shares are issued. The real estate property services company is previously backed by Navitas Capital, General Catalyst, Khosla and Fifth Wall. The most recent Series C round follows $170 million raised for […]

Components in the News January 3, 2023

What our Analysts Have Been Reading….     Overview Relativity Space Plans for First Rocket Launch Juul to Pay $1.7B to Settle Youth Vaping Lawsuits SpaceX’s Starlink Announces 1M Users; Starlink V2 Planned to Launch this Month Plaid Lays Off 20% of Staff Instacart Introduces Discounted Subscription for SNAP Users ______________________________________________________________________ Relativity Space Plans for First […]

Locus Robotics has a new down round

Locus Robotics has just authorized a new Series F preferred stock which could slightly increase the valuation to $1.97 billion if all Series F shares are issued. The autonomous mobile robot company is previously backed by Tiger Global, Scale Venture Partners, Zebra Ventures and other strategic investors. The most recent Series F round follows $12 […]

Inari Agriculture is raising $150 Million

Inari Agriculture has just authorized a new Series E preferred stock which could increase the valuation to $1.6 billion if all Series E shares are issued. The sustainable food system company is previously backed by Alexandria Venture Investments, Flagship Pioneering, Pavilion Capital, G Squared, and other stratgic investors. The most recent Series E round follows […]

Whatnot Has a New $310 Million Series D Round

Whatnot has just authorized a new Series D preferred stock which could increase the valuation to $3.8 billion if all Series D shares are issued. The live stream platform and marketplace is previously backed by CapitalG, Y Combinator, A16Z and other stratgic investors. The most recent Series D round follows $141 million raised for Series […]