Lume Weekly Private Market News & Notes 3.27.2022
Covers news about startups, private deals, technology, and innovation in the private market
📊 Stats of the Week 📊
Global M&A activity remained solid in 2022 according to PitchBook
💰 Fundraising 💰
Gravie secures $75M in financing (Mar 9)
Gravie, an employer health benefits startup, announced that it raises $179M equity investment led by General Atlantic. Gravie currently works with more than 1,200 companies nationwide. Founded in 2013, Gravie has raised more than $340M, according to Crunchbase data.
Credable raises $2.5M to accelerate embedded finance in emerging markets (Mar 20)
Credable, that provides its clients with the technology stack, scoring capabilities and banking partners, has raised a $2.5M seed round. It follows the pre-seed round was secured in early 2021. So far, over 1.2 million people have opened accounts on its platform and more than 200,000 customers have used its banking products according to TechCrunch.
eToro raises $250M at $3.8B valuation (Mar 21)
eToro, an Israel-based trading platform, announced that it raised $250M at a $3.5B valuation after its plan to go public via SPAC fell through. Financial highlights for 2022:
Total commissions of $631 million;
Commissions by asset class: 48% equities, 27% commodities, 19% crypto assets, and 6% currencies;
Funded accounts as of December 31, 2022 were 2.8 million.
Fintech startup Rain raises $116M (Mar 21)
Rain, CA-based provider of financial wellness products for employees, raised $115M in funding, encompassing $66M in equity and $50M in debt.
Chatbot Startup Character.AI valued at $1B in new funding round (Mar 23)
Character.AI, a 16-month-old start-up that builds online chatbots, announced that it had raised $150M in a recent funding round that valued the company at $1B led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Beam, a fintech startup out to help contractors get paid faster, raises $4M (Mar 23)
Beam, a five-month-old startup out to more easily help general contractors pay subcontractors and get paid themselves, has raised $4M in a seed funding round led by Accel.
Reselling marketplace Kream’s valuation rises to $742M with $168M Series C (Mar 23)
Kream, a secondhand clothing marketplace, announced it raised $168M in Series C funding. The company says its monthly active users have more than doubled to 5.3M from 2.2M last October, and its gross merchandise value shot up by 270% and 190% in Q3 and Q4, respectively, from a year earlier according to TechCrunch.
BitKeep secures $30m investment (Mar 23)
BitKeep, a decentralised multi-chain wallet, has secured $30M in investment. Last year, the company raised $15M at a $100M valuation.
🗞 Others 🗞
Polygon partners with Salesforce for NFT-based loyalty program (Mar 17)
Salesforce has partnered with layer 2 blockchain platform Polygon for an NFT-based loyalty program.
Curve brings wearable payments tech to users (Mar 21)
Curve will offer its customers the opportunity to make contactless payments via a range of fashion items, including rings, bracelets and clothing.
Klarna plugs ChatGPT into its platform for faster product recommendations (Mar 23)
Buy now, pay later company, Klarna announced its integration with ChatGPT. Users can ask ChatGPT questions. For example, “I have $150, which headphones can I afford?” and receive a selection of items relevant to that request.
Brex launches in-app travel solution (Mar 22)
All-in-one fintech Brex announced Brex travel, travel expenses management.
First Citizens buys Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits and loans (Mar 26)
First Citizens BancShares has agreed to buy the loans and deposits of the failed Silicon Valley Bank — the preeminent bank for tech startups. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced the deal.
US moves forward plan to ban TikTok (Mar 27)
Lawmakers have said they’re moving forward with plans for a national ban on TikTok. TikTok now has more than 150 million users in the US. Biden admin demands TikTok's Chinese owner sell stakes or risk being banned.