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The pandemic is the last straw for some San Francisco-based tech leaders.
Startup investor Keith Rabois recently revealed plans to leave the tech hub in favor of Miami, telling Fortune, “I think San Francisco is just so massively improperly run and managed.” Now Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and Splunk CEO Douglas Merritt reportedly plan to make Austin their new permanent residences, per The Information, and Brex co-founders Henrique Duburgras and Pedro Franceschi have landed in Los Angeles.
Oh, and Palantir co-founder and 8VC Founding Partner Jon Lonsdale has decamped for Austin.
Each has his own motivations—be it the city’s management, the wildfires, the high taxes, or some combination of all of the above—but here’s a notable excerpt from Lonsdale’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal from earlier this month that explains much of his.
“Politics in the state is in many ways closed off to different ideas. We grew weary of California’s intolerant far left, which would rather demonize opponents than discuss honest differences of opinion.”
Lonsdale’s op-ed tells us more than just the fact that people are leaving the city. While more exits from San Francisco will happen, Lonsdale notes that “few top venture capitalists consider living anywhere other than California and a handful of global financial centers.” While exits from the crowded and troubled city are splashy, it’s worth meditating upon who stays to understand the full impact of the changes on the city.
RETHINKING THERAPIES MANUFACTURING: Botech investments have gone through the roof in recent months. Adding to the deluge is RESILIENCE, a company seeking to speed up the manufacturing of therapeutics. On Monday, the company came out of stealth with some $800 million in capital from investors led by ARCH Venture Partners and 8VC. Also named as investors were GV and NEA.
“COVID-19 has exposed critical vulnerabilities in medical supply chains, and today’s manufacturing can’t keep up with scientific innovation, medical discovery, and the need to rapidly produce and distribute critically important drugs at scale,” Robert Nelsen, RESILIENCE’s chairman and managing director at ARCH Venture Partners said in a statement. “We are committed to tackling these huge problems with a whole new business model.” Read more.
HOUSEKEEPING: My colleague, Anne Sraders, who has kindly helped curate the deals section today, will be taking over Term Sheet tomorrow. Please send any deals to her at Anne.Sraders@fortune.com.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
Anne Sraders curated today’s Term Sheet.
VENTURE DEALS
- Relativity Space, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based company 3D printing rockets and building large metal 3D printers, raised $500 million in Series D funding. Tiger Global Management led the round and was joined by investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, ICONIQ Capital, General Catalyst, XN, Senator Investment Group, and Elad Gil. Other investors include BOND, Tribe Capital, K5 Global, 3L, Playground Global, Mark Cuban, Spencer Rascoff, and Allen & Company.
- AppsFlyer, a San Francisco-based marketing analytics firm, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Salesforce Ventures as an extension to its $210 million series D round led by General Atlantic from earlier this year.
- Waterdrop, a Chinese insurance tech startup, raised $150 million from Tencent, Bloomberg reports. Read more.
- Current, a New York City-based U.S. digital bank, raised $131 million in Series C funding. Tiger Global Management led the round and was joined by investors including Sapphire Ventures, Avenir, Foundation Capital, Wellington Management Company, and QED Investors.
- Percepto, an Israel-based maker of autonomous drones for inspections, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Koch Disruptive Technologies led the round and were joined by State of Mind Ventures, Atento Capital, Summit Peak Investments, Delek-US, U.S. Venture Partners, Spider Capital and Arkin Holdings.
- Well Health, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based patient communications company, raised $45 million in Series C funding. Lead Edge Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Martin Ventures, Jackson Square Ventures, Health Velocity Capital, Summation Health Ventures, Structure Capital, and Freestyle Capital.
- Turtlemint, an India-based insurtech platform, raised $30 million in funding. GGV Capital led the round and was joined by investors including American Family Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, SIG Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Trifecta Capital.
- HMBradley, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based digital bank that helps customers prioritize saving by offering high interest rates, raised $18.3 million in Series A funding led by Acrew Capital.
- Metigy, an Australia-based marketing solution for small businesses, raised $15 million. Cygnet Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Regal Funds Management, OC Funds, Five V Venture Capital, and Thorney.
- Carbice Corporation, an Atlanta-based maker of products that lower temperatures in product packaging, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Downing Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Toyota AI Ventures.
- Flyreel, a Denver-based solution residential and commercial property insurance, raised $10 million in Series A funding. IA Capital Group led the round and was joined by investors including Guidewire Software (NYSE: GWRE), Gradient Ventures, State Auto Labs, and Donan Engineering.
- Altana AI, a New York-based federated data platform that powers international commerce, raised $7 million in seed funding. Amadeus Capital Partners led the round and was joined by Schematic Ventures, AlleyCorp, and Working Capital.
- Lunewave, an Arizona-based maker of radars for autonomous vehicles, raised $7 million. Investors include Proeza Ventures, Blue 9 Capital, Tsingyuan Ventures, and Intact Ventures. Read more.
- Audoo, a London-based audio meter company, raised £5.2 million ($6.2 million) in Series A funding. Investors included Björn Ulvaeus and Tileyard London.
- Mother Raw, a Toronto-based maker of plant-based dressings, marinades, dips, condiments and quesos, raised $6.1 million in Series A funding. Forage Capital Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Export Development Canada and Whitecap Venture Partners.
- Lightspin, a Tel Aviv-based cloud security company, raised $4 million in seed funding. Ibex Investors led the round.
- Daylight Labs, a startup started by former Sequoia partner Amy Sun aimed at gig economy workers, raised $3.8 million, per an SEC filing. Read more.
- Hasty, a Berlin-based maker of an annotation tool for A.I., raised $3.7 million in seed funding. Shasta Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including coparion and iRobot Ventures.
- Hellosaurus, a New York-based company creating video classes for kids, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. General Catalyst led the round.
- Konnecto, a Tel Aviv-based platform for customer analysis, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. TPY Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Differential Ventures, Magna Capital Partners, SeedIL Ventures, and Hike Ventures.
- Opteran, a U.K.-based natural A.I. silicon chip maker that gives robots and machines improved senses and navigation, raised £2.1 million ($2.8 million) in seed funding. IQ Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Episode1,Join, Seraphim Capital, and the Northern Triangle Initiative.
- Cure Hydration, a New York-based maker of an electrolyte powder, raised $2.6 million in seed funding. Lerer Hippeau led the round and was joined by investors including M3 Ventures, Litani Ventures, Andy Roddick, Nas, Matthew Dellavedova, Philip Krim (CEO of Casper), and Nick Green (CEO of Thrive Market).
- Phood, a New York City-based platform to help businesses prevent food waste, raised $2 million in seed funding. New Stack Ventures and Story Ventures co-led the round. Read more.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Investors including the Qatar Investment Authority and Canada’s Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec invested $800 million in Inigo, an insurer formed by Lloyd’s of London. Read more.
- Provenance invested $40 million in MeUndies, a Los Angeles-based men’s and women’s underwear, sleepwear, and loungewear brand.
- Baring Private Equity Asia will acquire Virtusa (Nasdaq: VRTU), a Southborough, Mass.-based information tech company for about $2 billion.
- Billhighway, backed by Lovell Minnick Partners, acquired Impexium, a McLean, Va.-based maker of software for managing associations. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Turnspire Capital Partners acquired the Goodyear Air Springs, a Fairlawn, Oh.-based provider of air springs to vehicles from EnPro Industries, Inc. (NYSE: NPO). Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- DWS invested in DataLink Software, a Tampa, Fla.-based healthcare technology company backed by Revelstoke Capital Partners that connects health care providers with payers. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
- Hospice Source, owned by TCP, acquired Superior Healthcare, a Martinez, Calif.-based hospice medical equipment provider. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
EXITS
- McCormick & Company (NYSE: MKC) agreed to acquire Cholula, a hot sauce brand, from L Catterton for $800 million.
OTHER
- HelloFresh agreed to acquire Factor75, a Batavia, Ill.-based provider of fully-prepared meals for up to $277 million.
- Kahoot! acquired Drops, a Tallinn, Estonia-based language learning platform, for up to $50 million.
IPO
SPAC
- Metromile, a San Francisco-based digital auto insurer, will combine with Insurance Acquisition Corp. II, a SPAC sponsored by Cohen & Company. The combined firm will have an estimated value of $1.3 billion.
- Tiga Acquisition, formed by Tiga Investments, raised $240 million. Read more.
- Spring Valley Acquisition, which is seeking a target in the clean energy and power industries, raised $200 million. Read more.
- 10X Capital Venture Acquisition, which is seeking a target in tech-enabled e-commerce, healthcare, and other industries, raised $175 million. Read more.
- Genesis Park Acquisition, which is seeking a target in the aviation and aerospace sectors, raised $150 million. Read more.
- Breeze Holdings Acquisition, which is seeking a target in the oil and gas industry, raised $100 million. Read more.
BANKRUPTCIES, HANGUPS, AND BREAKUPS
- Guitar Center Inc, a Westlake Village, Calif.-based instrument retailer, filed for bankruptcy protection.
F+FS
- Bain Capital, a Boston-based private investing firm, raised $800 million for its second impact investing fund. Read more.
- Growth Catalyst Partners, a Chicago-based middle market private equity firm, closed its debut fund with $130 million. Read more.
