Here’s a round-up of the most important deals and news in venture capital from the past week.
Adyen shares began trading on Wednesday in Amsterdam, marking one of Europe’s biggest technology initial public offerings in recent years. On Tuesday, Adyen priced its shares at 240 euros (about $280) giving the company a valuation of 7.1 billion euros (roughly $8.3 billion). Thepayments processing firm, which also sells point-of-sale systems for physical stores, competes with Stripe, Square and PayPal, among others. Adyen raised more than $266 million in venture funding prior to its IPO from firms including Index Ventures, Iconiq Capital, General Atlantic and others.
Avalara went public on Thursday, pricing shares at $24, which gave the company a valuation of $180 million. Seattle-based Avalara sells automated tax compliance software for enterprise use. Customers include Pinterest, The New York Times and Fandango (CNBC parent Comcast owns Fandango). The company, which was founded in 2004, had raised funding from Warburg Pincus, Battery Ventures, Sageview Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures and others.
Toyota is pouring $1 billion into Grab, the Singapore-based ride-hailing firm that bought out Uber’s business in Southeast Asia. Grab said the investment is the largest ever by an automotive manufacturer into the ride-hailing sector. The company intends to use the capital, and its partnership with Toyota, to expand its online-to-offline business in Southeast Asia, including food delivery and electronic payments.
Electric vehicle maker Byton raised $500 million in a series B funding round. Investors included FAW Group, Tus-Holdings, and Chinese car battery company CATL. Byton CEO and Co-founder Carsten Breitfeld previously worked as BMW Group Vice President and head of BMW’s i8 group.
OpenDoor, the home-selling platform created by entrepreneur Keith Rabois, raised $325 million in venture funding. Investors included Lennar, a publicly-traded home construction and real estate company, General Atlantic, Access Technology Ventures and Travis Kalanick’s venture firm the 10100 Fund. The new round values OpenDoor at around $2 billion.
The venture arms of Cisco and HP joined SoftBank Vision Fund in a $250 million investment in Cohesity, which provides “hyperconverged secondary storage” to large enterprises such as Hyatt, the U.S. Department of Energy and Piedmont Healthcare.
Volkswagen led an $80 million investment in Gett, a ride-hailing platform that connects riders to taxi drivers and other vetted transportation providers. Gett previously acquired and does business as Juno in New York City.
Groupe Arnault, which controls the luxury goods group LVMH, has invested in a $48 million round for Back Market, a French online marketplace for refurbished electronics and appliances. Items ordered through Back Market come from certified repair and refurbishing services, and include a minimum 6-month warranty. Eurazeo, Aglae Ventures and Daphni also invested.
Airbus Ventures, GV (previously known as Google Ventures) and Kleiner Perkins invested $35 million in a series A round for SpinLaunch, a space tech start-up. SpinLaunch is building “space catapults,” as an affordable alternative to rocket-based methods of space launch. SpinLaunch is targeting 2022 as its first-launch date, according to Space.com.
Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions was among investors in a $15 million series B round for Mindstrong Health. The start-up uses software to track the way an individual uses their smartphone, and studies “digital biomarkers” to predict, and potentially treat, deteriorating mental health or brain functions.
G2VP closed its debut fund at $350 million, the firm announced on Tuesday. The firm is led by former Kleiner Perkins investors David Mount, Daniel Oros, Ben Kortlang and Brook Porter who were responsible for that firm’s Green Growth Fund. G2VP says it intends to invest in tech start-ups in transportation, energy, agriculture, manufacturing and logistics.
— Arjun Kharpal, Andrew Wong and Sara Salinas contributed to this report.
Source: Tech CNBC
Top VC news: Adyen goes public, Toyota investing billion in ride-hailing giant Grab