Spotify Went Shopping, Plus 30+ VC Deals Announced (that you might have missed)

Hello hello!

Below is a summary of all the VC deal action that happened during the week that was (Oct 2-Oct 8 2022).

😠 If you're the impatient type ;) you can get a real time feed of these announcements by following @vcdeals on Twitter.

📪 And if you want this in your Inbox on Sundays so you can get ready for Monday, click here and pop in your email address.

Best,

John Gannon // VC Deals

P.S. This will take about 10 minutes to read cover to cover.

🤗 M&A

When the startup Square Off  showed off its robotic chess board at the Hardware Battlefield event it charmed audiences with pieces that moved on their own. Thursday morning, it took the next step in the startup lifecycle, as Miko  announced that it has acquired a majority stake of 70% of the firm. “We’re thrilled to join forces with Miko on this journey to revolutionize edutainment for kids,” Square Off’s co-founder and CEO, Bhavya Gohil , said in a short press release tied to the news.

Spotify this Wednesday announced it’s acquisition of Dublin, Ireland-based content moderation tech company Kinzen , which had been working in partnership with the streamer since 2020. Deal terms were not disclosed. At Spotify, Kinzen’s technology will be put to use to help the company better moderate podcasts and other audio using a combination of machine learning and human expertise — the latter which includes analysis from local academics and journalists, the company says. Find more news at TechCrunch. 

NAVER Corp , the South Korean search giant, announced on Monday it plans to acquire secondhand apparel marketplace Poshmark  for $1.2 billion in cash. The deal values publicly traded Poshmark’s shares at $17.90 — a 15% premium over today’s closing price — and the companies expect it to close by Q1 2023, subject to approval by Poshmark stockholders and “the satisfaction of certain other customary closing conditions.” Get to TechCrunch for more news. 

Entertainment platform Fandom  announced Monday its acquisition of seven entertainment and gaming brands from Red Ventures , including online publications Comic Vine, Cord Cutters News, GameFAQs, GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic and TV Guide. Here's more from their CEO, Perkins Miller .

💰 Funding Announcements

Alleva, a company dedicated to providing software to the behavioral health industry, announced a series A funding of $12 million. Get more at VC News Daily. 

Fintor a fintech startup making it easier for non-accredited investors to invest in real estate properties, has just launched its mobile app for both iOS and Android. It also just raised a $6.2 million extension funding round from its existing investors, including Public.com, Hustle Fund, 500 Global, VU Ventures, Graphene Ventures and angel investors such as Manny Khoshbin , Andy Madadian, Cindy Bi , and Marcus Ridgway. See the announcement from their CEO Farshad Yousefi .

Jiko announced that it has closed a $40M Series B funding round led by Red River West. Read more in VC News Daily. 

A Kenya-based venture studio with a focus on tourism, Purple Elephant Ventures , has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to build the next generation of startups that use technology to modernize the tourism sector. Hear from their CEO Ben Peterson here in this post on LinkedIn.

Among the vendors trying to help organizations and governments gain actionable insights into the supply chain is New York-based Altana , which just raised raised $100 million in a series B round of funding. The new funding comes just a year after the company raised a $15 million Series A in September 2021. Here's Evan Smith with the details on the deal. 

Finance automation startup MESH raised $60 million in series C funding toward its goal of automating payment and financial reporting at scale. Find more details at VentureBeat. 

Gather AI , a supply chain robotics company, announced a $10 million Series A financing round led by Tribeca Venture Partners . Gather at VC News Daily for more news. 

Qunnect a quantum tech provider, has announced its Series A financing of over $8M, led by Airbus Ventures. Get more details at VC News Daily.

WorkSpan , an Ecosystem Cloud platform, has raised $30 Million in Series C funding led by Insight Partners. Get more news at VC News Daily. 

Elpha Secure , a cybersecurity insurance startup, has completed a $20 million Series A funding round. Find more in VC News Daily. 

The Rounds may have landed on a solution to make online commerce more efficient and more eco-friendly — as its newly announced $38 million Series A implies. Get well-rounded at TechCrunch. 

Revelio Labs a startup developing analytics software for HR teams, today announced that it raised $15 million in a Series A round with participation from Elephant Partners, Alumni Ventures, BDMI, K20 Ventures, Techstars and Barclays. Bringing the company’s total raised to $19 million, the proceeds will be put toward expanding Revelio’s offerings for corporate HR and strategy said CEO Ben Zweig  in TechCrunch.

Cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf , which last July raised $150 million at triple its previous valuation ($4.3 billion), opted for all debt in its latest funding round. The company announced Thursday that it secured $401 million in convertible notes from Owl Rock, with participation from new and existing investors Viking Global Investors, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Neuberger Berman. Become one of the pack and head over to TechCrunch for all the news. 

deWiz Golf 's swing modifier wearable tech, a Swedish developed and produced product, has closed out its current Series B funding round with more than 43 million SEK (nearly 4M USD) in new investment dedicated to its deWiz Golf business. Swing over to Business Wire for more details. 

Seoul-based fintech startup Korea Credit Data (한국신용데이터) said Thursday that it has raised $24.7 million in Series D extension financing. Get more news in TechCrunch. 

Attack surface management solution NetSPI announced on Thursday that it has received $410 million in growth funding from global investment firm KKR. Head over to VentureBeat for more details or see commentary from investor Gustavo Alberelli on the transaction in this LinkedIn post.

Cloud-based real estate brokerage Pinnacle Realty Advisors announced the closing of its seed round led by Launchpad Capital . To date, Pinnacle Realty Advisors has raised over $5M. Get more at Business Wire.

Form Energy  announced a $450 million Series E financing round led by TPG. Head over to VC News Daily. 

Eclypsium, Inc. announced it has raised $25 million in Series B financing led by Ten Eleven Ventures. Get more at VC News Daily. 

Xembly , a startup that's built an AI assistant for teams, closed a $15 million Series A round led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from Arif Janmohamed at Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ascend, Seven Peaks Ventures and Flex Capital, bringing the startup’s total raised to $20 million. Get Arif's take in this LinkedIn post.

LineVision , a provider of overhead line monitoring for electric utilities, announced the closing of its $33 million Series C financing round. Get connected on VC News Daily.

Railsr , the London startup that rebranded from Railsbank earlier this year, has raised $46 million. The round was a Series C that is coming in the form of $26 million in equity and $20 million in debt. Anthos Capital led and Ventura, Outrun Ventures, CreditEase and Moneta also participated. Mars Capital provided the debt. Nigel Verdon provided some commentary in this post on LinkedIn.

Vergent Bioscience , a clinical-stage biotechnology company, announced the close of a $21.5 million Series B financing. Find more news in VC News Daily. 

Katalyst, a new standard in health and fitness, announced its Series A fundraise led by Stripes. Get more news at VC News Daily. 

Tines , a no-code automation platform aimed at security teams, today announced that it raised $55 million in an extended Series B round led by Felicis . This round brought the startup’s total raised to $96.2 million. CEO Eoin Hinchy tells the story in this LinkedIn post.

bunny.net , a Slovenian startup, has now raised a $6 million funding round led by Runa Capital and Capital Genetics. Hop on over to TechCrunch for more news. 

Humaans , an HR tech startup that lets organizations build a customizable HR stack that manages employee documents, data, payroll, contracts and other components of “people ops” closed a $15 million Series A round led by Lachy Groom with participation from notable individual investors Tobias Lütke and Stewart Butterfield . In 2021, the London-based startup raised $5 million in seed funding from Y Combinator and angels including former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner . Get more of the news in TechCrunch. 

Securiti , launched its data security cloud and announced a $75 million Series C. The company has now raised more than $155 million in just three years. Find more details in TechCrunch. 

Polco , a data-driven civic participation SAAS platform for community members and leaders, has raised $14 million in funding. Get more news at VC News Daily. 

SingleStore , a cloud-native database, has closed its F-2 round of financing at $146 million, led by Goldman Sachs . Find more at VC News Daily. 

Tally , a financial automation company has raised $80 million in Series D funding, led by Sway Capital . Read more in VC News Daily. 

Loop just raised $60 million offering turn-key EV charging station networks. Circle back to TechCrunch for more news.

On Saturday, Juno  announced it has raised $18 million in a Series A financing round. The funding was led by ParaFi Capital’s Growth Fund and saw participation from scores of backers including Greycroft , Antler Global, Hashed, Jump Crypto, Mithril, 6th Man Ventures, Abstract Ventures and Uncorrelated Fund. Find more at TechCrunch.

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John Gannon // @vcdeals // VC Careers