UBER → DOORDASH
Good morning, Term Sheet readers.
DoorDash announced that it has hired Prabir Adarkar as its first chief financial officer, a sign that the startup is growing up.
Adarkar previously led Uber’s Global Finance team of more than 500 employees. Note that Uber hasn’t had a CFO since 2015, so Adarkar was the most senior person in the company’s finance department. At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech this week, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said it’s been difficult to find someone to fill the role.
Adarkar will join the company in August and will report to DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu. This is a huge get for DoorDash as the company continues to scale rapidly following a mammoth $535 million funding round at a $1.4 billion post-money valuation.
Doordash’s Xu appeared at the Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen alongside Sequoia Capital partner Alfred Lin and outlined the company’s perspective. Andrew Nusca, Fortune’s editor who interviewed Xu at the conference, reports:
“The CEO demurred when I asked him about reported plans to merge with logistics rival Postmates, but allowed that DoorDash plans to expand beyond food delivery. In a memo published Thursday morning, Xu wrote that Prabir has “a sharp mind, possesses an owner’s mentality, and leads from the front.” The co-founder added that DoorDash plans to triple its geographic footprint to 1,600 cities and hire 250 people ‘to aggressively scale our platform.’”
CEO OUTLOOK: KPMG released its annual Technology Industry CEO Outlook report this week. The survey of 104 global tech CEOs revealed some interesting insights about a range of topics, including territorialism, growth, technology for social good, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.
Here are some of the findings:
• Tech CEOs are optimistic about revenue growth, with the majority (52%) expecting topline growth of more than 2%.
• More than 80% indicated that they have an appetite for mergers and acquisitions in the next three years. It is expected that the flurry of M&A activity in the tech sector will continue.
• Tech CEOs identified a “return to territorialism” as the No. 1 threat to their companies’ growth. A more nationalistic approach to trade is the top concern for 54% of the global tech CEOs surveyed.
• Here’s the one that will make you go “hmm” — A whopping 70% of tech CEOs say they have overlooked data that was contrary to their own experience and intuition. 🤔🤔🤔 Additionally, tech CEOs place almost equal levels of trust in social media (75%) as they do in traditional media (74%).
THE LATEST FROM FORTUNE...
• 70% of Americans Think Technology Increases People's Bias (by Kristen Bellstrom)
• Anxious About a Trade War? Here's Where to Invest (by Chris Matthews)
• Chance the Rapper Buys Local News Site to Amplify 'Diverse Voices and Content' (by Sarah Gray)
• How Fortune's 40 Under 40 Gets Stuff Done (by Megan Arnold)
VENTURE DEALS
• Even, an Oakland-based provider of a financial app to to help hourly workers manage their pay, raised $40 million in funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Valar Ventures, Allen & Company, Harrison Metal, Ron Conway, Silicon Valley Bank, and Bull City Venture Partners.
• Culture Amp, an Australia-based employee feedback platform, raised $40 million in Series D funding. Blackbird Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Felicis Ventures, Index Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Skip Capital and Grok Ventures.
• Embark Trucks, a San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of autonomous trucks, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Data Collective, YCombinator, SV Angel and AME Cloud.
• R4 Technologies, a Ridgefield Conn.-based artificial intelligence startup, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Pilot Growth Equity led the round.
• Giant Oak, a Arlington, Va.-based data analytics software company, raised $10 million in funding. The investor was Edison Partners.
• Ursa Space Systems, an Ithaca, N.Y.-based provider of geospatial intelligence solutions, raised $5.7 million in funding. RRE Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including S&P Global and Paladin Capital Group.
• Venminder, an Elizabethtown, Ky.-based solution for third party risk management, raised $5 million in Series B funding. MissionOG led the round, and was joined by investors including Bain Capital Ventures.
• Diveplane, a Raleigh, N.C.-based AI software startup, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Investors include Steve Nelson, Anna Spangler Nelson, and Lee Roberts. Read more.
• Lifebit, a London-based genomics data startup, raised $3 million in seed funding. Pentech and Connect Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Beacon Capital and Tiny VC.
HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES DEALS
• Quantapore Inc, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based biotech firm, raised $15.55 million in funding. Northern Light Venture Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Tsingyuan Ventures, Sangel Venture Capital, Baidu Ventures and Cloudstone VC.
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
• Silver Lake offered to invest about $500 million in iHeartMedia, a San Antonio, Texas-based radio broadcaster that filed for bankruptcy protection in March, according to The Wall Street Journal. Read more.
• GCR, a portfolio company of Hammond, Kennedy, Whitney & Company Inc, acquired MB3 Technologies Inc, an Ottawa, Ontario-based software development company focused on emergency grants management. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
• Riskonnect, a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo, agreed to acquire Marsh ClearSight LLC, a Chicago-based provider of safety, and claims software and services and a business unit of Marsh. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
• Eckhart Inc, a portfolio company of LFM Capital, acquired Eagle Engineering, an Iowa-based tool manufacturing company. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHER DEALS
• Krispy Kreme is nearing a deal to acquire Insomnia Cookies, a New York-based chain of bakeries. The deal values Insomnia Cookies at less than $500 million, according to CNBC. Read more.
• Telia Company acquired Bonnier Broadcasting, a Sweden-based media company, for $1 billion deal.
IPOs
• Canuelas Mill, a Buenos Aires, Argentina-based food company, withdrew is $302 million in an IPO of 19.5 million ADSs(50% insider) between $14 to $17 a piece. In 2016, the company posted sales of $2 billion on earnings on $53 million. J.P. Morgan and UBS were joint global coordinators in the deal, with HSBC and Itau BBA as joint bookrunners. The company planned to list on the NYSE as “MOLC.”
EXITS
• Diversis Capital and Schawk Digital Solutions sold BLUE Software, a Chicago-based label and artwork management software company, to Esko. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
• Galvanize will acquire Hack Reactor, a San Francisco-based highly operator of immersive coding programs. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Hack Reactor had raised less than $1 million in funding from investors including Mobile Makers Academy and MakerSquare.
• Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. agreed to sell Sage Automotive Interiors, a Greenville, S.C.-based developer of automotive interior solutions for automotive manufacturers, to Asahi Kasei Corporation. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
• Compass Partners acquired German maker of ophthalmic lenses Rodenstock, Dutch pure play education content business Infinitas Learning, and U.K..-based recruitment agency Protocol, from Bridgepoint. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
FIRMS + FUNDS
• Valor Equity Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, raised $1.05 billion for its fourth fund.
• Strattam Capital Management, an Austin, Texas-based private equity firm, raised more than $200 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing.
• The Westly Group, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based investment firm, raised $130 million for its third venture fund.
PEOPLE
• Nan Li has been promoted to managing director at Obvious Ventures.
• IVP promoted Alex Lim to vice president.
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Polina Marinova produces Term Sheet, and Lucinda Shen compiles the IPO news. Send deal announcements to Polina here and IPO news to Lucinda here.
