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How will Clubhouse monetize?
That’s the $1 billion question for the audio-only social app that launched roughly a year ago. Late Monday, I slipped into a modest-sized Clubhouse room and caught users gushing over the newest feature on the platform: payments.
Just hours earlier, the buzzy unicorn began rolling out a way for users on its platform to monetize. The feature, simply called “Payments,” allows users to send tips to others on the platform. Clubhouse added that it would roll out the ability for people to receive them “in waves.”
But Clubhouse is sending all of the proceeds to creators, with Stripe taking a “small card processing fee.”
“Clubhouse will take nothing,” the company’s blog post said.
Enabling such payments is about prioritizing growth as well as attracting and keeping users (à la Roblox, which pays its game creators handsomely and marks such payouts as its largest single expense) rather than establishing a financial bottom line. That’s not surprising for a startup flush with venture capital funding.
But how does it eventually monetize? Clubhouse co-founder Paul Davison has previously said that it plans to focus on user monetization over advertising, and floated the idea of “subscriptions and ticketed events” with CNBC in February. Whether it could take a cut of those potential future offerings remains to be seen.
COULD A DIGITAL CURRENCY MEAN MORE FIREPOWER IN ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS? Here’s a Wall Street Journal story covering China’s ambitions to create its own digital currency. Yes, a lot of money today already moves digitally, sight unseen, with the press of a button or swipe of a card. But a truly digital currency offers tantalizing new prospects.
Among them is the use of digital currency as another form of firepower in times of a financial downturn. Doubtless you’ve heard the anxieties by now: With the U.S. Federal Reserve keeping interest rates so low, experts stress over whether the country has enough weapons in its arsenal to weather another downturn. Other countries meanwhile have tried negative interest rates in an attempt to jumpstart spending, with mixed results. Now China, as part of its digital currency tests, is playing with the idea of “expiration dates” to encourage users to spend the money more quickly, per the Journal.
Of course, new forays also come with new anxieties. With China, the concern is the extent to which Beijing will track its users’ spending. While multiple countries today are playing with the idea of creating their own central bank digital currency, China is the furthest along in its venture.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Swiggy, an Indian food delivery startup, raised $800 million in funding. Investors included Falcon Edge Capital, Goldman Sachs, Think Capital, Amansa Capital, Carmignac, Prosus Ventures and Accel. Read more.
- OneStream Software, a Rochester, Mich.-based corporate performance management software company, raised $200 million in Series B funding valuing it at $6 billion. D1 Capital Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Tiger Global and Investment Group of Santa Barbara.
- Inscripta, a Boulder, Colo.-based genome engineering company, raised $150 million in Series E funding. Fidelity Management & Research Company led the round and was joined by investors including T. Rowe Price Associates.
- Sendbird, a San Mateo, Calif.-based mobile engagement and communication company, raised $100 million in Series C funding. STEADFAST Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global Management, and Meritech Capital.
- Carousel Group, a Madrid-based sports betting and casino operator, raised $50 million in Series A funding from xSigma Entertainment, a subsidiary of ZKIN International.
- Fyllo, a cannabis digital marketing and compliance solution, raised $30 million in Series B funding. JW Asset Management and Sol Global.
- Cora, a São Paulo-based lender to small and-medium-sized businesses, raised $26.7 million in Series A funding. Ribbit Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Kaszek Ventures, QED Investors, and Greenoaks Capital. Read more.
- Upsolver, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based engineering platform for cloud analytics, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Scale Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including JVP, Vertex Ventures US, and Wing Venture Capital.
- Syzygy Plasmonics, a Houston-based maker of photocatalyst for the industrial gas, chemical and energy industries, raised $23 million in Series B funding. Horizons Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Equinor Ventures.
- Windfall Data, a San Francisco-based analytics company, raised $21 million in Series A funding. En Pointe led the round and was joined by investors including EPIQ Capital Group, Bonfire Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Cherubic Ventures, and ValueStream Ventures.
- Bartesian, a Canada-based company with a cocktail maker, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Cleveland Avenue led the round.
- Empathy, a New York and Tel Aviv-based platform death planning, raised $13 million in seed funding. General Catalyst and Aleph led the round.
- ThreatQuotient, a Reston, Va.-based security operations platform, raised about $13 million in equity funding. Investors included New Enterprise Associates, Adams Street Partners, Escalate Capital, Blu Ventures, Cisco Investments, and Gaingels.
- Zedsen, a London-based health tech company using bloodstream data, raised $12 million in Series B funding valuing it at $110 million. Investors included Joseph R. Grano (former CEO of UBS Financial Service) and Nasser Kazeminy (founder of NJK Holding).
- Medxoom, an Atlanta-based healthcare marketplace, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Castellan Group led the round and was joined by investors including Las Olas VC and TTV Capital.
- Olive Union, a Carson City, N.V.-based company making earbuds, raised $7 million in Series B funding. Investors included Beyond Next Ventures, Bonds Investment Groups, an Japan Policy Finance Corp.
- Grata, a New York-based maker of a search engine for discovering small to middle market private companies, added $6.2 million to its seed round. Investors included Flex Capital and Touchdown Ventures.
- Kinta AI, a San Francisco-based manufacturing software startup, raised $5.5 million in Series A funding. Lachy Groom’s LGF and Mo Koyfman’s Shine Capital led the round.
- infiniDome, an Israel-based GPS jamming monitoring and protection company, raised $2.4 million in “pre-Series A” funding. Next Gear Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Honeywell Ventures.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Apollo Global Management is leading a group of investors seeking to acquire a stake worth about $10 billion in Saudi Aramco’s oil pipelines, per Bloomberg. Read more.
- KKR agreed to pay about $3.4 billion for a 20% stake in Sempra Energy's infrastructure unit, including the liquefied natural gas project. Read more.
- SoftBank Group agreed to buy a 40% stake in AutoStore, a Norway-based robotics firm, for $2.8 billion. The stake is being acquired from majority shareholder Thomas H. Lee Partners and investors including EQT Private Equity, valuing the firm at $7.7 billion. THL and EQT will remain among the shareholders. Read more.
- Alpine Investors made a majority investment in Interskill Learning, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based supplier of online mainframe training. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- FFL Partners invested $100 million in Velocity Global, a Denver, Colo.-based hiring company. Velocity also acquired iWorkGlobal, a San Francisco-based staffing company that is a subsidiary of Gary D. Nelson and Associates. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- H.I.G. Capital acquired and took private SMTC Corp. (Nasdaq: SMTX), a Canada-based electronics manufacturing services provider.
- Magna Legal Services, a portfolio company of CIVC Partners, acquired Kim Tindall & Associates, a San Antonio, Tx.-based provider of court reporting and record retrieval services. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Payroc WorldAccess acquired Retriever Merchant Solutions, a Munster, In.-based sales distribution platform. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Right Time Group of Companies, backed by Gryphon Investors, acquired Romaniuk Heating and Air Conditioning, a Canada-based provider of residential and commercial HVAC, air quality, plumbing and hot water services. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Rotunda Capital Partners acquired Storm Smart, a Fort Myers, Fla.-based installer of storm protection products. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Vālenz, a portfolio company of Great Point Partners, acquired Kozani Health, a Mesa, Az.-based maker of medical claims and billing software. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
EXIT
- Kelso & Company acquired Ferraro Foods, a Piscataway, N.J.-based specialty foodservice distributor primarily to Italian restaurants and pizzerias, from Kainos Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Reputation acquired Nuvi, a Lehi, Ut.-based social customer experience software company. Ten Eighty Capital backed Nuvi. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHER
- Cleanaway Waste Management acquired the local assets of Suez, a French waste and water management firm, for about A$2.5 billion ($1.9 billion). Read more.
IPO
- Alkami Technology, a Plano, Tx.-based provider of digital banking platform to regional banks, plans to raise $141 million in an offering of 6 million shares priced between $22 to $25. General Atlantic and S3 Ventures back the firm. Read more.
- Rain Therapeutics, a Newark, Calif.-based Phase 3-ready biotech developing in-licensed therapies for cancer, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.
- VectivBio Holding, a Switzerland-based biotech focused on gastrointestinal disorders, plans to raise $128 million in an offering of 7.5 million shares priced between $16 to $18. Investors include Versant Capital and Orbimed Private Investments. Read more.
- Reneo Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego-based biotech focused on genetic mitochondrial diseases, plans to raise $100 million in an offering of 6.3 million shares priced at $15 to $17 apiece. Investors included NEA and Novo Holdings. Read more.
- Impel NeuroPharma, a Seattle-based late stage biotech focused on central nervous system diseases, filed to raise up to $75 million. Investors include KKR, VenBio, and Vivo Capital. Read more.
SPAC
Sarcos Robotics, a Salt Lake City-based maker of robots, plans to go public via merger with Rotor Acquisition, a SPAC. A deal values the duo at $1.3 billion.
Juniper II, a SPAC from current and former Honeywell execs focused on the industrials sector, filed to raise $400 million.
- Enjoy Technology, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based retail store operator, is in talks to merge with Marquee Raine Acquisition, a SPAC, per Bloomberg. A deal could value the firm at about $1.6 billion. Read more.
BANKRUPTCIES
- The Collected Group Company, a Los Angeles and New York-based women’s fashion firm, filed for bankruptcy protection. KKR backs the firm. Read more.
F+FS
- Genstar Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, closed Genstar Capital Partners X with about $10.2 billion.