This post is part of our Startup Funding Benchmarking Series exploring the allocation, concentration, and macro trends in the financing of high growth startups.
September had a bit of a sleepy start for fundraising, likely created by a combination of investors in “wait and see” mode due to shaky public markets and a well-timed holiday weekend that made the first week a wash. Private markets came back strong yesterday, and we have adjusted the Q3 total funding pace upward by a full $1 billion dollars from last week’s estimate.
Big deals this week have formed a bit of a trend, with a $160 million Series D from Insight Venture Partners going to French ride-sharing service BlaBlaCar (MM Growth: 1,314). Uber (MM Growth: 57,597) pulled in another $1.2 billion in Series G financing led by Baidu, which brings their total lifetime funding to $8 billion, and announced plans for massive expansion into China. For context on that huge total funding number, Lyft’s (MM Growth: 2,516) total announced funding stands at a paltry $1 billion by comparison, with their most recent round of $150 million Series E coming from notorious activist investor Carl Icahn.
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Interesting Investments in September
Uber $1.2 billion Series G — Is Travis Kalanick the most skilled startup fundraiser of all time? Despite a huge decline in the Chinese stock market, the company is expanding aggressively into the country. www.uber.com
Mia $150 million Series C — The Chinese version of Diapers.com www.mia.com
Blablacar $160 million Series D — The hottest Parisian startup is riding the wave (see what I did there?) www.blablacar.in
Wrap Media $12.7 Series B — We don’t often see companies raise $16 million without launching, and look forward to getting the early access we requested from a Wufoo form on their site just now. www.wrap.co
Harmonix Music Systems $15 million Series A — the creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band are at it again, and at 138 employees this an unconventional Series A. I wonder if they can take any credit for Foundry Group partner Jason Mendelsohn’s pitch perfect performance of U.S. National Anthem at Wrigley Field earlier this summer? www.harmonixmusic.com
NextLesson $2.9 million Seed — named seed investors are pretty impressive: Michael Birch (Beebo / The Battery), Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Thomas Layton (Upwork), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo), Jeremy Stoppelman (Yelp), Nirav Tolia (Nextdoor), and Drew Houston (Dropbox). www.nextlesson.org
MockBank $400K Seed — Would you have guessed this Indian startup is a test prep service from their name? Reminds me of Rocket Internet naming schemes for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on… www.mockbank.com
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