Exits
SurveyMonkey made its stock market debut Wednesday. The software company, founded in 1999, offers digital survey and data analytics services for enterprise and personal use. It sold 15 million shares at $12 per share in the initial offering. Early investors include Spectrum Equity and Bain Capital. Tiger Global holds 25 percent of the company's outstanding shares after the offering, according to the company's amended prospectus. The Sheryl K. Sandberg Revocable Trust — named for the Facebook COO and wife of former SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, who died in 2015 — owns 8.5 percent of the company. The company's founder Ryan Finley, holds 7 percent of the outstanding shares.
Start-ups
Indian hotel tech startup OYO on Tuesday announced a $1 billion funding round, led by SoftBank's Vision Fund. Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners also participated in the round. Founded in 2013, OYO partners with independent and small hotel owners and works with them to standardize the rooms and services. OYO plans to invest $600 million of the new funds in China. The company will use the remaining funds to expand in India and enter new markets.
The Vision Fund also led a $400 million Series F round for real-estate startup Compass, the company announced Thursday. Compass aims to ease the buying and selling of homes by working with real estate agents. Founded in 2012, the company operates in more than a dozen major U.S. markets. Qatar Investment Authority also participated in the round, which brings Compass' total funding to $1.2 billion.
SoftBank took a minority stake in online real estate marketplace Opendoor with a $400 million investment from The Vision Fund, the company announced Thursday. SoftBank will install a managing director, Jeff Housenbold, on Opendoor's board of directors. Total equity funding for Opendoor now exceeds $1 billion. The company aids in the buying and selling of homes, and operates in 19 cities.
Digital payments firm Stripe closed a $245 million Series E round, led by Tiger Global, the company said Wednesday. The new round values Stripe above $20 billion, a dramatic surge from its most recent $9.2 billion valuation in 2016. The company operates in 25 countries and charges fees for processing payment transactions. DST Global and Sequoia also participated in the round, Stripe said.
A seizure-detection device company raised $35 million in Series B financing. Ceribell, based in Mountain View, California, makes EEG systems for the quick diagnosis of patients with suspicion of seizure. Optimas Capital Partners Fund and The Rise Fund led the round.
Restaurant review site The Infatuation raised $30 million from media and technology holding company, WndrCo. The site, founded in 2009, offers unique recommendations across two dozen cities and, earlier this year, bought the Zagat brand from Google. The newest funding will help The Infatuation launch in new cities, the company said in an announcement Thursday. WndrCo was founded by media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. Its other two founders, Ann Daly and Sujay Jaswa, will join the company's board of directors.
Sequoia Capital led a $27 million Series B round in Maven — a health tech startup that operates a digital women's and family health provider network, the company said Wednesday. Spring Mountain Capital also participated in the round, which brings Maven's total funding to $42 million. Sequoia partner Jess Lee will join the Maven board.
Peter Thiel's Founders Fund led a $22 million Series A funding round in Cargo, a maker of snack boxes and vending machine-like devices for the ride-sharing economy. Cargo has inked partnerships with Uber and Snap. The company counts celebrities like Maria Shriver and Steve Aoki among its investors and has raised $30 million to date.
Microsoft's corporate venture arm, M12, led a $21 million Series B funding round in Netradyne, an AI firm focused on driver and fleet safety. Reliance Industries Limited and Point72 Ventures also contributed to the financing, which follows a $16 million Series A round.
A Xiaomi-backed maker of rice cooker and kitchen appliances raised "tens of millions" of dollars in a Series C round led by Nokia Growth Partners, according to Chinese media. Chunmi was founded in 2013 and counts Xiaomi, GGV Capital and Shangshi Fund among its investors, according to the report.
Amazon's Alexa Fund made its first investment in a homebuilder earlier this week, participating in a $6.7 million funding round in Plant Prefab. The Southern California company says it uses sustainable construction processes and materials to build prefabricated custom single- and multifamily houses. The start-up is aiming to use automation to build homes faster and bring down costs. Obvious Ventures, the firm co-founded by Twitter's Ev Williams, also participated in the round.
Property tech firm HqO raised $6.6 million in seed financing. The company operates in tenant experience for commercial real estate and is based in Boston. Accomplice and Navitas Capital were among the leaders of the financing.
A company working to digitize the sense of smell raised $3.3 million in seed financing. New York-based MouSensor is backed by imec.xpand and Alexandria Venture Investments. The company says it wants to build the "first-ever digital database of scent."
Funds and firms
Chicago-based Energize Ventures closed its first fund with total commitments of $150 million, the firm said Thursday. The fund digital solutions for energy and industrials in an effort to accelerate the transition to clean energy. The fund's portfolio of companies includes data analytics and cybersecurity firms.
—Reuters and CNBC's Eugene Kim contributed to this report.
