Once valued at $47 billion, battered and bruised coworking startup WeWork saw its valuation drop to $2.9 billion as the coronavirus compounded the SoftBank-backed company’s woes.
Now a competitor is gearing up for an initial public offering soon.
Industrious, a coworking startup with over 95 locations in the U.S. told Bloomberg Friday that it has begun interviewing investment bankers ahead of a potential IPO slated for the spring or summer of 2021 and will add Mary Hogan Preusse, a board member at Kimco Realty, to its board. Hogan Preusse will become the company’s first female board member.
The news comes as the pandemic shutters offices and dampens the sharing economy, a painful crosspoint for coworking spaces. Like its peers, Industrious made cuts, laying off 18% of its workforce, or 90 employees, in April. Another 64 were furloughed.
Unlike WeWork, known for taking on outright leases on companies, Industrious has been pivoting toward management-sharing agreements with landlords so the company doesn’t have to “put millions and millions to fix the space up,” CEO James Hodari told Fortune last year. IWG, another competitor, has also sought to disperse risk by franchising its brand rather than renting office spaces themselves.
PPP purgatory: On Thursday, the House almost unanimously passed a bill offering businesses greater flexibility in the Paycheck Protection Program. The bill would extend the time in which businesses need to spend funds from eight weeks to 24 weeks and alter the time that they must spend on the funds on payroll for full forgiveness to 60%.
But don’t expect an easy pass in Senate. Senate Republicans have shown resistance to the House legislation over “inadvertent technical errors,” per Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). The Senate meanwhile has its own PPP extension bill.
Change the world: Fortune is seeking candidates for the annual Change the World list of companies that are doing (financially) well, by doing good. Last year, Qualcomm featured as number one for its work on sensors that could have a profound impact on the environment. Have a nominee in mind? Make a nomination here. Note: The list prioritizes companies with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing giant, raised $500 million for its autonomous driving subsidiary. SoftBank led the round.
- Mabwell Biotech, a Shanghai-based developer of monoclonal antibodies and long-acting recombinant proteins, raised RMB1.97 billion (US$278.5 million) in Series A funding led by Shiyu Capital. Read more.
- Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotech developing testing for Covid-19, raised $70 million in funding from Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN) and existing investors General Atlantic and Viking Global Investors.
- Benchling, a San Francisco-based life sciences R&D cloud platform, raised $50 million in Series D funding. Alkeon led the round and was joined by investors including Spark Capital, Lux Capital and ICONIQ Partners.
- Palvella Therapeutics, a Wayne, Penn.-based biopharmaceutical company focused on genetic diseases, raised $45 million in Series C funding. Investors include CAM Capital, Samsara BioCapital, BVF Partners L.P., Adams Street Partners, Opaleye Management, Ligand Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: LGND), Agent Capital, BioAdvance and Nolan Capital.
- Otrium, an Amsterdam-based company selling clothing at the end of the seasons at a discount, raised $26 million in Series B funding. Eight Roads Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Index Ventures and Hans Veldhuizen. Read more.
- Tia, a New York-based women’s health startup, raised $24.3 million in Series A funding. Emily Melton, a managing partner at early-stage venture capital firm Threshold Ventures, led the round. Other investors include Define Ventures, ACME and Torch Capital. Read more.
- Variant Bio, a Seattle-based company developing therapeutics by studying the genes of people from understudied populations, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Lux Capital led the round.
- Accern, a New York-based AI startup, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Fusion Fund led the round and was joined by investors including Mighty Capital, Allianz Life Ventures, Vectr Fintech Partners and Viaduct Ventures.
- Stackin’, a Los Angeles-based text-message based financial platform, raised $12.6 million in Series B funding led by Octopus Ventures.
- Siren, a maker of socks that monitor diabetes patients, raised $11.8 million in Series B funding. Anathem Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Khosla, DCM, and Founders Fund. Read more.
- Commerce Layer, an Italy-based API maker for commerce, raised $6 million in Series A funding. Benchmark, led the round, and was joined by investors including Mango Capital, DAXN, PrimeSet, SV Angel, and NVInvestments.
- Stringr, a video-focused startup, raised $5. million in funding. Investors included Thomson Reuters, G5 Capital, and Advection Growth Capital. Read more.
- Caraway, a New York-based direct-to-consumer home brand, raised a $5.3 million in seed funding. Investors include Republic Labs, Springdale Ventures, Wesray Social, Bridge Investments, WTI, CompanyFirst, and G9 Ventures.
- RudderStack, a San Francisco-based open source customer data platform, raised $5 million in seed funding. S28 Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Salil Deshpande (Uncorrelated Ventures) and Florian Leibert (468 Capital).
- a55, a Latin American income-secured SME lender, raised $5 million in funding. Santander Innoventures led the round.
- Truth{set}, a San Francisco-based quality monitor of consumer data, raised $4.8 million in seed funding from super{set}, WTI, Ulu Ventures, and strategic angel investors.
- Cabana, a Seattle-based luxe mobile hotel company, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Craft Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Goldcrest Capital. Read more.
- Warehouse Exchange, a Los Angeles-based on-demand warehouse platform, raised $2.2 million in seed funding. Investors included Xebec Realty.
- Kippo, a Los Angeles-based dating and social app for gamers, raised $2 million in seed funding. Primer Sazze Partners led the round.
OTHERS
- Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) acquired Rivet Networks, an Austin-based maker of software and cloud-based technologies for network connectivity. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Comcast is spinning off Blockgraph, a data platform for creating targeted ads, and selling two-thirds of it to Charter Communications Inc. and ViacomCBS. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Read more.
IPOs
- Legend Biotech, a Somerset, N.J.-based cell therapy oncology biotech spinning out of GenScript, plans to raise $350 million in an offering 18.4 million ADSs priced between $18 to $20. It posted revenue of $57.3 million in 2019 and a loss of $133 million. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “LEGN.” Read more.
BANKRUPTCIES, HANG UPS, AND BREAKUPS
- NMC Health PLC, a hospital operator based in the United Arab Emirates, filed for bankruptcy protection. Read more.
EXITS
- Keysight Technologies agreed to acquire Eggplant, a London-based software testing firm, for €350 million ($385 million). The Carlyle Group was the seller. Read more.
- Connexity, backed by Symphony Technology Group, acquired Skimlinks, a provider of monetization solutions for commerce-oriented publishers. Skimlinks has raised funding from investors including Greycroft. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) agreed to acquire ThousandEyes, a cybersecurity company. The deal is worth nearly $1 billion, Bloomberg reports citing sources. ThousandEye has raised from the GV, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital Read more.
F+FS
- KKR raised $4 billion across two funds: the $2.8 billion KKR Dislocation Opportunities Fund, and $1.1 billion from separately managed accounts committed to the same investment opportunities.
- Salesforce Ventures launched a $125 million Europe Trailblazer Fund.
- Natalie Hwang, the former head of Simon Property Group Inc.’s venture capital arm, launched a new firm and is seeking $200 million for a debut fund. Read more.