Lume Weekly Private Market News & Notes 8.29.2022
Covers news about startups, private deals, technology, and innovation in the private market
📊 Stats of the Week 📊
According to a Loup Ventures study, 75% of American iPhone owners have activated Apple Pay on their phones.
📰 Portfolio Company and Past Transactions News 📰
T-Mobile phones will connect to SpaceX’s Starlink for free starting next year (Aug 25)
U.S wireless carrier T-Mobile will use SpaceX's Starlink satellites to provide mobile users with network access in parts of the United States, the companies announced last Thursday.
💰 Fundraising & Merger and Acquisition 💰
Celonis raises $1B in funding at $13B valuation (Aug 23)
Celonis announced that it has secured $1B in funding ($400M equity raise and credit facility for up to $6000M). The funding gives the company a valuation of nearly $13B.
The distributed computing startup Anyscale raises $99M (Aug 23)
Anyscale founded by a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, said it has closed on a $99M Series C round of funding. The round was co-led by existing investors Addition and Intel Capital.
SmartMoving raises $41.4M to help automate the moving process (Aug 23)
SmartMoving, a Dallas-based software solutions company focused on the moving services business, announced landing a $41.5M raise from Mainsail Partners.
Zilliz raised a $60M for cloud vector database (Aug 24)
Zilliz, a San Francisco, CA-based vector database company, raised $60M in Series B funding led by Prosperity7 Ventures.
Spectral raises $23M to help create web3 credit scores (Aug 24)
Spectral, a credit risk assessment infrastructure for web3, has raised $23M in a round co-led by General Catalyst and Social Capital according to TechCrunch.
Landing raises $125M for ‘flexible’ apartment living (Aug 25)
Alabama-based Landing raised a $125 M Series C round led by Delta-v Capital to expand its network of apartments across the country.
Zumper raises $30M to meet flexible, short-term rental demand (Aug 25)
The online rental marketplace Zumper, has raised $30M in a Series D1 round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins. According to TechCrunch, the funding closed earlier this year but is only being announced last week.
NFT Genius raises $10.5M in Series A, valued at $150M (Aug 26)
NFT Genius, a CA-based developer of experiences and marketplace technology for the NFT market, raised a $10.5M Series A funding at a $150M valuation.
Zuora to buy Zephr, for up to $50M (Aug 28)
Zuora, a US cloud-based subscription management platform provider, announced its planned acquisition of Zephr, a UK-based subscription experience platform used by global digital publishing and media companies.
🚀 Product Launches 🚀
Klarna and StyleSeat team up to offer consumers flexible payments (Aug 22)
Klarna announced its newest partnership with StyleSeat, the top online destination for booking beauty and wellness services. Through this partnership, consumers can now shop and pay on StyleSeat with Klarna's buy-now-pay-later solution to meet their beauty and haircare needs.
Ramp allows businesses to finance invoices on 30, 60, 90 day terms (Aug 23)
Ramp, offers corporate card, announced that it will now offer businesses the option to make payments on flexible terms through its new Flex solution.
Rho launched expense management for businesses (Aug 25)
Corporate spend and cash management company Rho announced the launch of its expense management for organizations.
CoinDCX launches Defi app (Aug 26)
CoinDCX, Indian crypto exchange, launched Okto, a Defi mobile app that aims to make Defi accessible to masses.
Sony to integrate Discord voice chat in “the coming months” (Aug 27)
Sony will be providing full PS5 Discord integration soon, with a release date scheduled for “the coming months”.
🗞 Others News 🗞
Crypto firm FTX gets warning from FDIC to stop ‘misleading’ consumers about deposit protection (Aug 19)
FTX, the crypto exchange, received a warning from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, telling the company to stop “misleading” consumers about the insurance status of their funds.
Stripe valuation marked down 64% by T. Rowe Price Global Tech Fund (Aug 23)
According to regulatory filings, Stripe's valuation was marked down 64% to $23.04 per share as of June 30 by the T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund, following the prior price recorded at the end of 2021.
Real estate tech startup Reali announced to shut down (Aug 25)
Reali, the real estate and fintech platform transforming home buying and selling, announced it will begin a shutdown and will be laying off most of the workforce on September 9, 2022.
The company has raised more than $290M in debt and equity funding. Its last raise was a $100M Series B last year led by Zeev Ventures.