Inside will be hosting “Meet Our Fund”, a two-day reverse demo day where 25 venture capital funds and accelerators will pitch to 10k+ founders! This event is free thanks to our many sponsors, including BurnRate.io, a revenue tracking platform that helps you pinpoint exactly when and how to grow your business.If you are interested in attending our event, click here to reserve your spot! Stephen |
| PayPal announced a further investment of $50M in Black and Latinx-led early-stage venture capital funds. That doubles the $50M commitment the payment company made last year. The company will invest alongside the firms in certain cases.More:The total of $100M for Black- and LatinX-led funds came from a $535M pledge to support Black and minority-owned businesses and communities in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the ensuing protests.PayPal CEO Dan Schulman explained the moves as a way of creating long-term generational wealth creation. The funds will go to a total of 11 VC firms from a pool of 200 applicants. Not all are oriented on fintech, but some – such as Noemis Ventures – are known for their financial technology focus.Barry Givens, General Partner at Collab Capital, raised $52M from investors including PayPal, and noted that the company is not looking to dish out charity; it is looking for returns.Other selected firms include Aperture Venture Capital, Interlace Ventures, Kapor Capital, MaC Venture Capital, Seae Ventures, SV LATAM Capital, and more. |
| Sinch, a Swedish communications platform focused on building customer engagement APIs, raised $1.1B (SEK9.4B) from Temasek, SoftBank, and others. The company trades Nasdaq Stockholm and currently has a market cap of ~$11B.More:The share issuance saw 7,232,077 stakes sold at $156.6 (SEK1,300) apiece.Temasek and SoftBank took 2,085 million and 0.7 million shares, translating to a $252M and a $110M investment, respectively.SoftBank previously invested $690M in Sinch at an $8.2B valuation. That was directly before Sinch acquired network-based voice and messaging services provider Inteliquent for $1.14B.Sinch did not discuss the exact purpose of the new investment, only saying that it would shore up the company’s finances to make room for further M&A activity. Prior to this funding, Sinch had raised $1.5B and had been acquired by CLX Communications. |
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 A MESSAGE FROM DEALSTREETASIAThe smartest investors start their days reading DealStreetAsia. Do you?DealStreetAsia provides news and perspectives on some of Asia’s most opaque markets to international and regional investors.10 to 15 original stories per dayBreaking news on PE and VC deals across Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, India, China and moreDealStreetAsia’s aim is to chronicle Asia as it negotiates a new Golden Age of investing.For a limited time, get 1 week of insights for $2/day.Here are some of our recent headlines:SG’s newly-minted unicorn PatSnap eyes new markets, set to expand pharma databaseGojek arm Go-Ventures to reach $100m deployment target by Q1-endInvestor appetite for AI-enabled drug discovery growing in China: Insilico founderSUBSCRIBE NOW |
 Analyses Made EasyThe Future of SaaS**The following summary is based on a report of the same name by 500 Startups.Over $48B was invested across over 2,600 companies in SaaS in 2020 (see graph above).That value outstrips the prior high in 2019 of $43.6B. InQ1 2021, almost $14B was raised, the highest figure on record.The compound annual growth rate in SaaS venture funding remained robust over the past 10 years, exceeding 6% for aggregate VC invested and 13% for deal volume.Recent forecasts predict that…Want to keep reading this piece? Most of my Analyses Made Easy features are reserved for premium subscribers. To gain access to all my premium features, upgrade to Inside VC Premium for either $10/month or $100 billed annually. For a limited time, we are offering a 14-day free trial of premium. Click here to sign up! (Other recent premium features included Silicon Valley’s Impossible 2020 and What Happens Next, a Pitchbook report on LP cash flow, Autotech and the SPAC, and more.)SIGN UP NOW TO TEST INSIDE VC PREMIUM |
 Today’s Funding AerospaceMerlin Labs (Boston, Mass.), autonomous flight tech for fixed-wing aircraft: $25M from GV, First Round Capital.AgtechTerraClear (Grangville, Idaho), AI and Robotics to clearing fields of rocks: $25M A led by Madrona Venture Group.AR/VRVirtuix (Austin, Texas), VR entertainment system: $19M Crowdfunding on SeedInvest.Biotech/HealthEsco Life Sciences (Singapore), provider of life sciences tools and services:…To continue reading about today’s funding and receive my complete list with every issue of Inside VC, upgrade to Inside VC Premium for either $10/month or $100 billed annually! For a limited time, we are offering a 14-day free trial of premium! Click here to sign up!SIGN UP NOW TO TEST INSIDE VC PREMIUM |
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| A MESSAGE FROM REPLICATEDOn-Premises Software Continues to Grow to Meet Customer DemandDespite the rise in cloud-based applications, on-premises software continues to show significant growth and demand from Enterprise software customers.Join us as we discuss a new report from Dimensional Research, and sponsored by Replicated, that surveyed over 400 software vendor engineers, CTOs, CIOs, and other decision-makers about their experiences with selling and building on-premises Enterprise software.This webinar will focus on some truly groundbreaking takeaways from this report that include:Over 90% of respondents reported growth in on-prem sales over the past 5 years.Over 50% of respondents’ revenue can be attributed to on-prem software sales.86% of respondents are using Kubernetes for their on-prem softwareJoin David Gehringer, Principal at Dimensional Research, as he dives into the data and provides context. Come with questions! We’ll end with a Q&A session.SAVE YOUR SPOT |
| Quick HitsYou could have finished that project by now. Get used to getting to the finish line faster with expert freelancers by your side.*Sam Altman-founded OpenAI launched a $100M to invest in early-stage AI startups. China-backed/Africa-focused fintech platform OPay is in talks to raise up to $400M according to a report. The new fund would come at a $1.5B valuation, a significant step up from its previous $50M and $120M funding rounds.Payment company Paymentus saw its share price open up 37% at $28.76. The company raised $210M by pricing 10 million shares at $21 and currently enjoys a $3.4B valuation.Boston-headquartered payment platform Flywire offered 10.4M shares at a price of $24 each to raise $251M at a $3B valuation.Job-search and recruiting platform ZipRecruiter closed at $21.10 after its first day of trading. The new price gives the company a $2.8B valuation.Chinese gaming giant NetEase’s music streaming arm has filed for an IPO in Hong Kong to reportedly raise $1B.The strongest customer relationships are built on trust—not third-party cookies! Download the eBook to start your first-party data strategy.**This is a sponsored post. |
  Inside VC’s writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master’s degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band.EDITORSheena Vasani is a professional tech writer, creator, and UC Berkeley, Dev Bootcamp, and Thinkful alumna who writes Inside Dev and Inside NoCode. She recently launched Affordable Mental Help, a directory listing free and low-cost mental health resources. You can contact her at sheenavasani1[at]gmail.com. |
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