Lume Weekly Private Market News & Notes 9.19.2022
Covers news about startups, private deals, technology, and innovation in the private market
📊 Stats of the Week 📊
Breakdown of the percentage of fintech companies in Y Combinator’s past few batches according to TechCrunch
💰 Fundraising & Merger and Acquisition 💰
Web3 infrastructure startup Mysten Labs hits $2B valuation (Sep 8)
Mysten Labs, the developer of the Sui Layer 1 blockchain, has raised a $300M Series B at a more than $2B valuation. The round was led by FTX Ventures. Mysten raised a $36M Series A led by a16z last December.
Lease-to-own fintech startup Kafene raises $18M to battle BNPL (Sep 13)
Kafene, a lease-to-own startup aimed at underbanked consumers who don’t have access to traditional credit, raised $18M in a Series B funding round.
EV charging startup TeraWatt Infrastructure raises $1B (Sep 13)
A San Francisco-based charging startup raised a huge Series A of more than $1B. Launched out of stealth in May 2021, TeraWatt Infrastructure has built out a network of charging stations for the operation of light- to heavy-duty fleets.
Ethic, a socially responsible investing app, raises $50M (Sep 14)
Ethic, a fintech platform that focuses sustainable investing, announced that it has closed a $50M Series C funding round led by the Jordan Park Group. The round also saw participation from UBS.
Ex-Citadel Securities duo launches crypto high-speed trading firm (Sep 14)
Two Former Citadel employees unveil Portofino Technologies that aims to provide liquidity across web3 services and sectors. Founded in 2021, Portofino has traded billions of dollars across centralised and decentralised cryptocurrency exchanges and raised $50M in equity funding.
Neobank for migrants Majority closes $30M Series B (Sep 14)
Majority, the mobile banking for migrants in the US, has raised $30M in Series B funding led by Valar Ventures.
Verkada, maker of building security tools, raised $205M at $3.2B valuation (Sep 14)
Verkada sells video security cameras, door-based access control, environmental sensors and alarms, all connected on a cloud-based platform. It announced a $205M Series D raise at what it says is a $3.2B valuation.
Crypto exchange FTX eyes raising money to fund acquisitions (Sep 14)
FTX is reported raising capital in parallel with a potential acquisition. The cryptocurrency exchange is seeking the same $32 billion valuation it was assigned the last time it raised money early this year.
Magna, a Carta-like platform for token cap tables raises new round at $70M valuation (Sep 15)
Token management platform Magna closed a $15M seed round at a $70M valuation led by Tiger Global and Tusk Venture Partners.
Adobe to acquire figma for $20B (Sep 15)
Adobe announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Figma, a leading web-first collaborative design platform, for $20B in cash and stock, that is at about 50x of Figma’s revenues.
Ratio secured $411M in equity, credit for flexible subscription payment models (Sep 15)
Ratio, a fintech platform that combines payments, predictive pricing, and financing into one platform for SaaS companies, announced that it raised $411M in equity and debt funding.
HR startup Atlas secures up to $200M in funding (Sep 15)
Atlas, a startup with a cloud-based human resource management platform, announced that it has closed a $200M Series B round from Sixth Street Growth.
Blockchain Startup Aptos Labs quadruples valuation in 6 Months (Sep 15)
Aptos Labs, building a scalable Layer 1 blockchain, has quadrupled its valuation since March after Binance venture capital arm made a new, undisclosed strategic investment in the Web3 infrastructure firm.
🗞 Others News 🗞
White House releases six proposals for reforming tech industry regulation (Sep 9)
The White House has released six proposals for reforming tech industry regulation that span areas such as privacy, transparency, market competition, safety, algorithmic decision-making and legal protections.
Metaverse trademark filings through August exceeded all of 2021 (Sep 7)
US trademark applications for NFT, Metaverse, and Web3 projects are on the rise, even cryptocurrencies have plummeted to price levels not seen in months. Mastercard, McDonald’s, Gatorade and the U.S. Space Force have all, in 2022, made filings with the USPTO suggesting virtual products or involvement with crypto and blockchain.
Revolut launches online checkout feature (Sep 12)
Fintech Revolut launches its own one-click payment checkout feature for online purchases. UK and EEA merchants can now use ‘Revolut Pay’ as a payment method - alongside the likes of PayPal and Apple Pay.
Mercury announced launch of its new corporate credit card (Sep 12)
Mercury announced that it launched a new corporate credit card offering 1.5% cashback on everything, no personal credit check and the first step to qualifying for the card is having just $50,000 in a Mercury account.
Venture lending flourishes amid VC funding pullback (Sep 13)
Venture debt in the U.S. totaled $17.1B for the first half of this year, up 7.5% from the first six months of last year. VC funding totaled $147.7B for the same period of 2022, down 8% from 2021.Â
Biden to announce $900M to build EV charging stations (Sep 14)
President Joe Biden on Wednesday will announce the approval of the first $900M in U.S. funding to build electric vehicle charging stations in 35 states as part of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the White House said
Ethereum switches to proof-of-stake (Sep 15)
Ethereum has completed its long-discussed Merge switching from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. According to the Ethereum Foundation, the transition reduces Ethereum’s energy consumption by 99.95%.