Lume Weekly Private Market News & Notes 9.26.2022
Covers news about startups, private deals, technology, and innovation in the private market
📊 Stats of the Week 📊
According to Renaissance Capital, it was the worst 3rd quarter for new issuers in over a decade, with 25 IPOs raising $2.4B.
💰 Fundraising & Merger and Acquisition 💰
Education fundraising platform GiveCampus raises $50M (Sep 19)
GiveCampus, a fundraising platform for education-related nonprofits, announced it raised $50M led by Silversmith Capital Partners. The startup launched in 2015 and says it has since processed $2B in donations to more than 1,000 educational institutions.Â
Sardine raises $51.5M led by a16z (Sep 19)
Sardine, a fraud prevention provider for cryptocurrency startups, announced it has raised $51.5M in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) Growth Fund after closing $19.5M for its Series A earlier this year. Its CEO and co-founder Soups Ranjan said Sardine customers include crypto exchanges FTX and Blockchain.com as well as fintechs such as Wealthsimple and Digit.
Lynk comes out of stealth raises $3M in seed capital (Sep 20)
Lynk, a branded payment platform, allows companies can own their payment ecosystem without upfront fees, large cash reserves, or the cost of hiring an engineering team. The startup announced a $3M raise from Samsung Next, Plug and Play Tech Center, Tribe Capital and more.
Crypto tax reporting app Binocs helping users navigate regulations raises $4M (Sep 21)
The startup announced that it has raised $4M led by EENEXT and Arkam. Founded in May this year, Binocs currently has over 1,000 users, including retail and institutional investors.
Web3 bug bounty platform Immunefi raises $24M (Sep 21)
Immunefi, a platform that helps web3 projects launch bug bounty programs and whitehat hackers earn money, has raised $24M in a Series A funding round. The startup earns a 10% commission on bounty payouts.Â
OpenStore bags new funding as valuation soars to $970M (Sep 22)
OpenStore, founded in 2021 as a way for Shopify entrepreneurs looking to move on to sell their businesses in a matter of days with a cash offer, just closed a $32M round led by Lux Capital that values it at $970M.
Deep Instinct raises $62.5M in financing (Sep 22)
Deep Instinct, a New York-based threat-prevention technology company, raised $62.5M in funding led by BlackRock.
An infrastructure for hiring remote employees startup Remofirst raises $14.1M (Sep 22)
Remofirst, a recruitment tech company that helps employers manage globally announced a seed funding round of $14.1M. In early 2021, the company raised a pre-seed round of $275,000 and then managed to grow the company to more than seven figures in revenue while becoming cash-flow positive — with no customer churn.
Nibiru, a crypto derivatives protocol valued at $100M (Sep 23)
Nibiru, a crypto derivatives protocol co-founded by Tribe Capital GP Arjun Sethi, has raised $7.5M in seed funding at a valuation of $100M.
🗞 Others News 🗞
Wall Street-backed crypto exchange EDX Markets is set for November debut (Sep 13)
EDX Markets will start trading a limited number of spot, crypto tokens starting with a November trial period, with the official launch in January. It is backed by Charles Schwab, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial.Â
ByteDance eyes $3B share buyback amid halted IPO plan (Sep 16)
TikTok maker ByteDance is eyeing share buybacks for as much as $3B from investors at a valuation of roughly $300B as its IPO plans go to the back burner, setting a price of about $177 per share. The set price would value ByteDance at around $300B.
Instacart plans to focus on selling employees' shares in IPO (Sep 19)
Grocery delivery app Instacart plans to focus on the sale of employees' shares in its IPO and does not intend to raise much capital for the company.
Firework announces strategic partnership with Walmart (Sep 20)
Firework, a leading video e-commerce solution, announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Walmart Connect, a closed loop omnichannel media business of Walmart, to bring livestream and premium shoppable video content to Walmart's experience.
Kraken’s Jesse Powell to step down as CEO of crypto exchange (Sep 21)
Jesse Powell, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, is planning to step down as CEO, Kraken confirmed with CoinDesk
Nasdaq launches crypto custody service (Sep 22)
Stock market operator Nasdaq is making a push into crypto, launching a digital asset custody service for institutional investors.