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| How Loud Capital's Pride Fund 1 is uplifting LGBTQ startups | |  | | (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images) | | | When the founders of Loud Capital's recently launched Pride Fund 1 needed a CEO, they didn't pull from the tried-and-true venture capital network. Instead, they tapped someone from the LGBTQ community who could speak to the entrepreneurs they wanted to reach. - Densil Porteous, CEO of the new fund, sees the vehicle as an opportunity to uplift founders from an often-overlooked group.
- Most diversity-focused funds take a broad approach toward underrepresented entrepreneurs, but few have specifically sought out investments in the LGBTQ community.
- LGBTQ startup founders reportedly receive less than 1% of venture funding in the US, and more than a third keep their sexual orientation hidden while fundraising.
| | | | | | | | | | Used car startup Cazoo achieves unicorn status | |  | | Cazoo founder and CEO Alex Chesterman (Courtesy of Cazoo) | | | Cazoo, an UK online retailer for used cars, has raised £25 million (about $31.3 million) in funding, pushing its valuation to over $1 billion. Investors in the round include Draper Esprit, DMG Ventures and General Catalyst.
The investment comes about three months after Cazoo raised £100 million in prior funding. Since its creation 18 months ago, the company has secured more than £200 million in total capital. It claims to be the fastest UK business ever to reach unicorn status.
Cazoo buys and reconditions used vehicles and provides financing and part-exchange to buyers. It was founded by serial entrepreneur Alex Chesterman, who previously created property company Zoopla, which was acquired by Silver Lake, and streaming specialist LoveFilm, which later sold to Amazon. | | | | | | | |
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| A message from Twin Brook Capital Partners | | |
| Emphasis on portfolio management is on the rise | | While robust originations and underwriting experience remain critical, investors and private equity sponsors are eager to understand private debt managers' approaches to portfolio management, including how they think about both strategies for taking borrowers through periods of growth and managing issuers through periods of distress.
Drew Guyette, chief credit officer and senior partner at Twin Brook Capital Partners, discusses his thoughts on how portfolio management has changed over the years, why focus on the subject has increased, and how approaches in the lower middle market and BSL market differ: | | | | | | | |
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| | Companies of every stripe are launching new efforts to virus-proof the workplace, creating a multibillion-dollar market that's equal parts opportunity and experiment. [The New York Times]
A startup called OnX Offroad wants to help adventurers explore locations off the beaten path. But its founders fear that, in doing so, they might eliminate part of what makes those places special. [Outside]
Maria Konnikova has written multiple best-selling books about psychology. Some of her best lessons about the way people think, though, came from a recent transformation into a professional poker player. [Wired] | | | | | |
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| | Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: | | 7 VC valuations | 1370 People | 340 Companies | 15 Funds | | | | | | |
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| DispatchHealth picks up $135.8M Series C | | | DispatchHealth, which provides in-home healthcare for a variety of diseases, has raised $135.8 million in a round led by Optum Ventures. Founded in 2013, the Denver-based company operates across 19 US cities. | | | | | | | | Somatus pulls in $64M for kidney care | | | | | | | | | BrightInsight shines with $40M Series B | | | | | | | | | Away brings home new funding | | | New York-based Away has raised between $30 million and $40 million in new funding, according to Axios. Backed by investors including Battery Ventures and Accel, the company makes high-end luggage sold through its website. | | | | | | | | Andreessen leads $26M Series B for Rasa | | | | | | | | | Nylas snags $25M Series B | | | Nylas, a cloud-based API platform provider for developers, has raised $25 million in funding co-led by 8VC and Round13 Capital. San Francisco-based Nylas has over 450 global customers including Comcast and Hyundai. The startup plans to double its workforce over the next year and use the capital in part to scale sales and marketing activities. It was valued at $66 million in 2018, according to PitchBook data. | | | | | | | | Armored Things brings in $7M to manage crowds | | | Crowd intelligence startup Armored Things has raised an additional $7 million in seed capital, bringing its total funding to $14.8 million. Will Ventures led the round, with participation from Splunk, Glasswing Ventures, Inovia and MassVentures. The Boston-based startup makes a platform that tracks the movement of people in large venues to manage security and density. The Los Angeles Football Club will use Armored Things' software to assist with its pandemic-era reopening. | | | | | |
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| Morningstar invests in Allocator | | | Morningstar has agreed to take a minority stake in Allocator, the privately held provider of a platform that limited partners use to track their portfolio companies. Morningstar, which offers a range of research and data tools for investors in public and private markets, is the parent of PitchBook. Under the agreement, Brett Kaluza, PitchBook's vice president of customer success, will join London-based Allocator's board. | | | | | | | | | | Fintech startup ScaleFactor to shut down | | | Fintech startup ScaleFactor has decided to shut down after the pandemic eliminated demand for its bookkeeping and payroll software, according to Forbes. The Austin-based company reportedly told its 100 employees Tuesday that half of them would be laid off and by August, only 10 would remain to help wind down operations. ScaleFactor had raised $60 million in a funding round last July at a $360 million valuation, according to PitchBook data. | | | | | |
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| Mastercard to purchase Finicity for $825M | | | Mastercard has agreed to pay $825 million for Finicity, a provider of real-time financial data and insights. Finicity, which is based in Utah, raised a $42 million Series B led by Experian Ventures in 2016. The company's shareholders could receive up to $160 million in additional payment based on the company meeting certain milestones. | | | | | | | | An IPO in the works at MessageBird | | | MessageBird, a Dutch software company focused on connecting businesses to their customers across various channels, has begun working with bankers on an IPO that could occur during the next year, according to Bloomberg. A competitor of Twilio, the company raised $60 million in 2017 from Accel and Atomico. | | | | | |
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| Amazon launches $2B venture fund for climate tech | | | Amazon has committed $2 billion to The Climate Pledge Fund, a venture vehicle that will invest in companies addressing sustainability and low-carbon challenges. The idea behind the fund is to help Amazon and other companies fulfill the goals of The Climate Pledge, which aims to meet the Paris climate agreement targets a decade early, in 2040. Amazon's fund will target industries including transportation, logistics, energy, manufacturing and agriculture. | | | | | |
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| Bill Ackman plans super-sized SPAC | | | A special-purpose acquisition company backed by Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management has filed for an IPO that plans to raise $3 billion from outside investors and could ultimately raise a total of $6.45 billion. The SPAC could target a takeover of what it refers to as a "mature unicorn," according to an SEC filing, defined as a company that has stayed private despite a lofty VC-backed valuation and significant scale and market share. The move is the latest sign of a SPAC surge so far in 2020. | | | | | |
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| Softbank-backed OSIsoft looking for buyers | | | | | | |
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"Regionally, the UK & Ireland led the way in Q1 2020 and contributed 38.3% of B2C deal value. A notable deal for the region involved the €782.9 million sale of the iconic Ritz Hotel in London to a private Qatari investor, recently revealed as Abdulhadi Mana Al-Hajri."
Source PitchBook's Q1 2020 European M&A Report | | | | | |
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شغل الشاعر سعيد فرج باحريز رحمه الله الناس في المكلا وحضرموت عموماً باشعاره التي كانت لها مدلولات عميقة وثاقبة ومعانٍ بليغة وحكيم...
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