-backed has reportedly shut down operations, according to an by Protocol’s Biz Carson.

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Brandless, a direct-to-consumer startup focused on food, beauty and personal care products, had announced it had raised a total of $292.5 million since its inception in 2016, according to .

led its last funding round, , which valued the company at $500 million, according to Crunchbase. At that time, our former editor-in-chief Alex Wilhelm pointed out the fact that it was “a huge check at a large cost in equity terms.” But it turns out that SoftBank had only provided about $100 million upfront with a commitment to “fund around another $120 million if certain milestones were met. That final tranche never came,” according to Axios.

led its $35 million Series B in July 2017, a round that also included participation from NBA player , , and , among others.

Back in 2017, Crunchbase News sat down with  , co-founder and CEO of  to talk about how the company wanted to eliminate the inefficiency of the brand tax while changing the way people shop and live.

Background

It was bound to happen eventually. With all its misteps over the past couple of years, SoftBank was bound to have a portfolio company shut down.

The news that Brandless has shuttered is not entirely shocking, considering that last June, it got a new CEO amidst “turmoil” within the company, according to .

Looks like Brandless’ vision of $3 home goods just couldn’t keep up with the steep competition from rivals like . In fact, soon after it got that big cash infusion from SoftBank, the startup’s strategy seemed to change. According to TechCrunch’s Connie Laizos, in January 2019, the “company added baby and pet products to its stable of offerings, some of them at a ”

In a statement to , Brandless blamed a “fiercely competitive” retail market that was “unsustainable” for its business.

The news is the latest in a string of bad publicity for SoftBank. In January, we reported on how SoftBank-backed Colombian delivery unicorn had been hit with a trade secrets lawsuit. Also in January, we covered how two SoftBank-funded startups were in the news for either confirmed or rumored layoffs: Rappi had , according to Axios. And published an article that discount lodging provider reportedly was “firing thousands of staff across China and India.”

That followed pizza-making robot startup , also backed by SoftBank, laying off  53 percent of its employees.

SoftBank, a Japanese investment conglomerate, has been accused of overinflating valuations with its fat checks, and it’s not ending well for many companies. But the practice of investing too much, perhaps too soon, may be catching up with SoftBank. Earlier this year, that SoftBank is cutting its ties with startup investments, even after signing term sheets.

In fact, SoftBank’s heavy-handed check-writing is leading investors and startups alike to rethink sky-high valuations in favor of a path to profitability.

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Founded in 2016, Ethos says its mission is to make “modern, ethical life insurance” accessible to the masses through its proprietary technology.

The company claims it makes getting a life insurance policy “fast, easy and inexpensive” by “turning a process that was once like going to the DMV to more like shopping online.” It also claims to “prioritize people over profit,” which is refreshingly noble. Ethos is licensed in 49 states.

The San Francisco-based startup has attracted a bevy of investors in a relatively short amount of time. Existing investors , , and also participated in the latest round, which brings the company’s to $106.5 million. Ethos raised a $35 million last October that was led by Accel, and an $11.5 million Sequoia-led in June 2018.

Besides some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent VCs, Ethos has also raised capital from , actor Robert Downey Jr.’s , NBA player , Arrive, a subsidiary of , and actor .

So, how does it work exactly? A prospective customer can apply and qualify for a policy in about 10 minutes, CEO and co-founder told Crunchbase News last October, without having to go through medical exams or blood tests—as most people do when applying through more traditional life insurance providers. That’s because the company applies data science and predictive analytics to determine an individual’s life expectancy, he said. He and his former Stanford University grad school roommate, , previously founded secondary life insurance marketplace .

Rapid Growth

GV general partner and Ethos board member noted in a written statement that his firm has been “consistently impressed by the company’s commitment to growth, customer traction, and execution to date.” Indeed, Ethos says it’s quadrupled its revenue since last October (although it would not disclose the exact amount). Additionally, it is “insuring thousands of new families every month” and has “tens of thousands” of customers.  Ethos currently has about 90 employees, compared to 35 at the time of its last raise in October.

“The nice thing  is we have the majority of our money left over from the last round. So raising more money was not something we needed to do,” Colis told Crunchbase News. Rather, he added, it was more about being able to more optimally take advantage of market conditions. As for Austin, Colis said the city offered “great access to talent.”

“In general, there is a similar growth and entrepreneurial mindset going on in the city that is similar to what we see in San Francisco,” he told Crunchbase News. (Ethos joins a bunch of other companies that have either relocated to, or opened a secondary office in, Austin in recent years.)

The company plans to use its latest capital toward “continued momentum, supporting product refinement, technical team hires,” according to Colis.

Ethos is just one of a number of startups working to digitize the insurance industry. Last week, Sophia Kunthara reported that Ohio-based car insurance startup was set to raise $350 million in a funding round that would bring the company’s valuation to $3.65 billion. Like Root, has also gained traction from investors looking to influence the user-led future of policy purchases. Also in July 2018, online small business insurance provider raised $83 million in a led by .

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(formerly Google Ventures) led the round, which also included participation from , , and . Previously, ThousandEyes had raised just over $60 million. Its last raise occurred in 2016, a led by .

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The money will go toward product innovation, “acceleration of go-to-market activities and expansion of global operations,” according to a company press release. San Francisco-based ThousandEyes describes itself as “Google Maps for the Internet.”

It aims to help IT teams see what’s breaking or slowing down the paths that their websites, applications or services take to get to their end users, so they can either re-route or get the problem fixed before it impacts their customers.

“Whenever a SaaS application or service goes down or slows down, every minute counts for IT teams to figure out what’s going on before customers start complaining, or worse, going to a competitive service,” wrote CEO and co-founder , via email. “ThousandEyes helps IT teams ‘see’ into the Internet and cloud to identify the problem immediately, meaning they’re spending their time getting the issue fixed, rather than spending time trying to find what’s wrong.”

Its customers span a variety of industries and include , , , Box, and .

In a blog post, Thomvest’s said his firm was impressed from its first meeting with ThousandEyes:

Our first realization after the intro meeting with ThousandEyes was that this was as scrappy a team as they come. Following the completion of their PhDs at UCLA, Mohit (Lad) and received a $150k NSF grant, which they used to construct their grandiose vision of ‘a Google Maps for the internet’ and subsequently garner quite a few customers. To put this in perspective, these guys had accomplished more at the pre-seed stage than most companies have at their Series B.

, general partner at GV, noted that the company has seen “remarkable traction” with Fortune 500 customers.

“As enterprises increasingly rely on applications and services in the cloud, their CIOs and CTOs are losing visibility and control of the networks and outages impacting end-user digital experiences,” Munichiello said in a written statement. “ThousandEyes delivers mission-critical visibility into every network an enterprise relies on, and ultimately has an objective view of enterprise services, clouds, and their performance that is unparalleled in the technology ecosystem.”

During its last fiscal year (which lasted from February 2018 through January 2019), ThousandEyes opened new operations in Ireland, Australia, Germany, and The Netherlands. It also increased its full-time employee headcount by 25 percent to more than 250 employees in that same timeframe. Besides its San Francisco headquarters, ThousandEyes has offices in London, Austin, New York, and Tokyo.

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