ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

Hello and welcome to Last Week In Venture, a roundup of venture deals from the past week that you may have missed.

Follow Crunchbase News on

The Crunchbase News team has covered some of the biggest new funds and funding rounds. This includes a $3.8 billion fund for Tiger Global, $1.85 billion for Bessemer Venture Partners and $1 billion for Thrive Capital, all while public markets took a serious tumble. Beyond these big funds, we looked at big rounds from Knotel, Prescient, Epic Games and Bytedance, among other stories.

Believe it or not, way more happened than even that. It’s easy to miss what companies outside the spotlight are contributing to the global startup ecosystem. But that doesn’t mean their stories aren’t worth sharing.

Let’s dive into the week that was in venture-land.

Jeepers Creepers What’s On Your Peepers?

While many folks will put on a pair of glasses this weekend to round out a Halloween costume, many more of us wear glasses everyday.

Here’s what’s going on in the specs space:

• is a New York-based company which designs and distributes children’s glasses with optional bright plastic top frames kids can switch out depending on their mood or outfit. Like its grown-up competitor , Pair Eyewear gives a pair of glasses to a child in need for each set sold. On Monday, the company announced that it from , , , and .
• While not technically from this week, glasses lens replacement service raised a round last week. And talk about a niche market to start with. “We are the preferred prescription provider of Snapchat Spectacles,” CEO Andrew Bilinsky told . Lensabl in a venture round led by . Bilinsky said that Lensabl is “already talking to and partnering with a variety of brands” besides .

The Global Scooter Invasion Continues

Like a leviathan, the tentacles of the lightweight electric vehicle industrial complex continue to encircle the globe.

Here’s the latest outbreaks of scooterpox:

• ?? The market moves quickly. Investors and reporters joke about companies announcing seed rounds one week and Series A rounds the following week. , a German electric scooter service, actually did it though. On October 15th it announced led by . A mere 8 days later, on October 23, the company announced it raised led by .
• ?? , a Singaporean electric scooter service, in a seed round led by . A number of U.S. and Chinese venture firms in the round. The company’s CEO, Alan Jiang, previously led APAC operations at bike-sharing giant . And before that, he “played a key role in launching Uber across Asia, including China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam,” according .
• ?? This time it’s Belgian bikes, not scooters. Brussels-based is a new electric bike startup that built its own hardware and software from the ground up. It’s not a bike-share service; Cowboy makes electric-assisted, app-connected bikes and sells them directly to consumers. The company announced that led , which lassoed €10 million for Cowboy.

And for those of you who made it to the end, a lagniappe: . Have a safe and happy Halloween weekend. Not too much horsing around, you hear? ?

Image Credit:  Last Week In Venture graphic created by   Cover photo and thumbnail by Ìý´Ç²ÔÌý±«²Ô²õ±è±ô²¹²õ³ó.