The Consumer Roundup #20
Discover more from The Consumer VC
Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.
This issue is brought to you by Vauban from Carta - the easiest way to launch & run your venture investing.
Hey Friends,
I hope you are all having a great long weekend so far. If you were able to join us in Dallas this past week, it was great seeing you! I certainly had a blast. Special thanks to Matt Alexander, Marisa Bertha, Blake Wiley, Greg Russell and Lindsay Lightman for being our speakers. Also a special thanks to RevTech Ventures for hosting and Marc Nathan for co-producing the event with me.
This week we have a couple of fun things going on –
📆 If you’re based or visiting LA, we’re hosting another coffee meetup for consumer founders & investors this Wednesday (5/31) morning in Venice, CA. Manufactured and Yotpo will be taking care of your coffees. Hope to see you there.
RSVP Here For Coffee Meetup in LA
📆 Also on Wednesday (5/31) at 1pm PDT, I will be moderating a webinar that has become a hot topic in this current climate: Debt & Equity: How to Finance Your Consumer Brand. We’re going to discuss when consumer founders should use debt vs equity as they think about growing their businesses. Really excited to be joined by Cessna Mac from Amberstone, Jonathan Maroko from FlowFi and Keith Kohler from K2 Group.
RSVP Here For the Webinar
Now on to our fundraising update –
Deals & Debuts
Consumer Technology
Ola Electric, India’s largest scooter company, is planning on raising $800 million to $1 billion through its IPO - Economic Times
Chalo, the Indian-based company that’s focused on digitizing bus commutes with digital payments and commute tracking, raised $45 million Series D and secured an additional $12 million in debt. The equity round was led by Avataar Ventures. Existing investors Lightrock India, WaterBridge Ventures and former Google executive Amit Singhal. Trifecta and Stride Ventures financed the debt - TechCrunch
BandLab Technologies, the Singapore-based parent company of social media creation platform BandLab, raised $25 million Series B1 led by Cercano Management (formerly Vulcan Capital) and participation from Prosus Ventures - TechCrunch
Hopscotch, the Indian brand offering fashion wear for kids, raised $20 million Series E led by Amazon with participation from IIFL Seed Venture Fund, RPG Ventures, Lionrock and Techpro Ventures - TechCrunch
Semafor, the global news platform and digital media company, raised $19 million from Henry Kravis, Jamal Daniel, Jerry Yang, Jorge Paulo Lemann and Stand Together - Variety
Checkmate, the iphone shopping app that “pulls all your shopping into one place, tracks your packages and saves you money on 40,000 online stores”, raised $15 million Series A led by Google Ventures with participation from Mantis VC, Wischoff Ventures, BDuck Capital and Saurabh Gupta, and Paris Hilton - TechCrunch
Kira Learning, the company that uses AI to teach anyone computer science targeting K-12 students and teachers, raised $15 million Series A from NEA and the AI Fund - PR Newswire
Laced, a UK-based authentic premium sneaker resale marketplace, raised $12 million led by Talis Capital, with participation from H&M Group Ventures, B&Y Venture Partners and Truesight Ventures - TechCrunch
Lifeforce, a health optimization platform founded by Tony Robbins, raised a $12 million Series A co-led by Peterson Ventures and M13 with participation from Serena Williams and Scottie Upshall - Sports Business Journal
Faye, the travel insurance tech company, raised $10 million Series A led by Munich Re Ventures, Viola Ventures and F2 Venture Capital with participation from Menora Tech and Mike Nelson - CTech
Boombox.io, the AI music collaboration software that helps musicians extend their creative process, raised $7 million seed round from Forerunner, super{set} startup studio and Ulu Ventures - Music Business Worldwide
Gan.ai, the AI video creation platform, raised $5.2 million seed round $5.2 million led by Surge, Sequoia Capital’s rapid scale-up program with participation from Emergent Venture - TechCrunch
Kiwi, the Latin America fintech company that wants to give underbanked consumers credit access, raised a $4.5 million pre-series A funding round and a $75 million credit facility. Advent-Morro Equity Partners, Altio Capital and Independent Capital led the equity round and i80 Group financed the debt - Business Wire
Onyx Private, the fintech company that’s providing banking and investment services to affluent millennials and Gen Zers, raised $4.1 million from Village Global, Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, One Way Ventures, 186 Ventures and Olive Tree Capital - TechCrunch
Skorlife, the app that wants to help Indonesians with their credit scores, raised a $4 million seed round led by Hummingbird Ventures, with participation from QED Investors and AC Ventures and Saison Capital - TechCrunch
Plenty, a platform that helps couples discuss, invest and manage their money together, raised $2.75 million pre-seed round from Phenomenal Ventures, 35 Ventures, Adam Nash, Xtripe Angels and Inovia Capital - TechCrunch
A Quick Word From Our Sponsor
Vauban from Carta is the easiest way to launch & run your venture investing. They offer SPVs, and fund vehicles for GPs at all stages of the journey - from your first syndicate to operating a multi-million dollar venture fund. Their end-to-end platform automates your back-office and manual workflows so you can focus on what matters: finding the next unicorn & building investor relationships.
CPG & Consumer Goods
Incredo (formally DouxMatok), the food tech better for you sugar brand, raised $30 million Series C co-led by dsm-firmenich Venturing and Sienna Venture Capital with participation from Ferrero, Teseo Capital and Pitango and BlueRed Partners - TechCrunch
G.O.A.T Fuel, a health-focused energy drink founded by NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, raised $5 million Seed round led by Stage 1 Fund and Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners with participation from Eddie DeBartolo Jr. and Marc Lore - PR Newswire
r.e.m beauty, the beauty brand founded by Ariana Grande, raised investment from Sandbridge Capital - PR Newswire
Stephen Curry, the NBA superstar, partnered with Boone County Distilling to create the new bourbon brand, Gentleman’s Cut - WSOC-TV
Retail Tech
Datasembly, which provides retailers and CPG companies with big data analytics on product pricing, product promotions, and insights into assortment, raised $16 million Series B led by Noro-Moseley Partners with participation from Grotech Ventures, Topmark Partners and Staley Capital - TechCrunch
Genetica, the AI cannabis retail platform, raised $500k seed round led by Ensemble, Michael Heller, Show Me Organics, Executives from Hara Supply, and Mitchell Harounian - PR Newswire
Funds Raising Funds
Craft Ventures, founded by David Sacks, raised $1.6 billion across three new venture funds - Venture Capital Journal
Moonfire Ventures, a seed-stage VC firm that’s based in London and is focused on AI, web3, AR/VR, health, work, finance, and gaming, closed $115 million Fund II - TechCrunch
Thank you for reading!