Lume Weekly Private Market News & Notes 11.28.2022
Covers news about startups, private deals, technology, and innovation in the private market
📊 Stats of the Week 📊
Pitchbook VC valuations report shows that early-stage valuations stay above 2021 while late-stage both deals and valuations slow down.
💰 Fundraising 💰
Weka announces $135M investment on $750M valuation (Nov 15)
Weka, a startup that helps companies move data between sources without having to make a copy first, announced that it raised $135M Series D at $750M valuation.
Contentstack raises $80M Series C (Nov 15)
Content management system developer Contentstack closed an $80M Series C led by Georgian and Insight Partners. The company claims to have doubled its customers since last summer and surpassed 50,000 users on the platform.
Astera Labs raises $150M Series D at an valuation of $3.15B (Nov 17)
Astera Labs provides data and memory connectivity solutions for some of the biggest chipmakers in the world including Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The company announced that raised a $150M Series D led by Fidelity Management and Research that values the company at $3.15B.
Prosper a peer to peer lending platform raises $75M (Nov 21)
Prosper raised $75M in growth capital. In the third quarter, the company facilitated over $1B of personal loan originations (2x+ yoy growth) through its platform.
Novo, neobank for small businesses, hits $720M valuation (Nov 22)
Small business banking platform Novo has raised $35M at a pre-money valuation of $720M, up from $610M (pre-money) in January. The new funding round is an extension of its Series B fundraise earlier this year.
🗞 Others 🗞
Klarna launches open banking product (Nov 17)
Klarna's open banking unit, Klarna Kosma, has unveiled an initiative to let startups access open banking services at 15,000+ partner banks.
Pipe’s founding team stepping down as the company looks for successors (Nov 22)
Harry Hurst, Co-founder / CEO of Pipe said, “they are looking for a new CEO”. According to Harry, Pipe has capitalized with over half a decade of runway. TechCrunch reported that since Pipe was founded, 22,000 companies have signed up for Pipe and $7B of ARR (annual recurring revenue) has been connected to the platform. Harry insists that traction is not the issue here, telling that Pipe is on track to “3x” its revenue this year compared to last year.
BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (Nov 28)
Cryptocurrency firm BlockFi on Monday filed for bankruptcy. According to Pitchbook, BlockFi blamed its bankruptcy on the recent downfall of FTX.