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Advance, a private family-owned business that invests in media and technology companies, and existing backer , a consumer-focused investment firm, participated in the second tranche of the round.

Culver City, California-based , which is profitable, reached unicorn status with the first tranche of its series D. This extension gives the company a post-money valuation of $1.9 billion. With this extension, the company has raised a total of $658.7 million since its 2011 inception, according to .

Scopely, which has 800 employees working in five countries, has certainly seen impressive growth. The company saw a 72 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2014 to 2019. Plus, it reached more than “$1 billion in lifetime revenue” last summer.

In 2019, Scopely acquired , saw success with its game MARVEL Strike Force, and launched Scrabble® GO.

The company plans to use its new capital toward more mergers and acquisitions and expand  its portfolio of games across new genres.

“When we first announced our Series D funding late last year, a number of discussions with strategic partners who share our vision for the future of interactive entertainment were ongoing,” said , Scopely co-founder and Co-CEO, in a written statement.

In a announcing the extension, Driver and co-CEO said:

“Our global team, who is now working remotely to best protect their health and their families’ health, has truly rallied as one to continue serving our players and maintain the social connection and experiences they rely on from us. … We are acknowledging this additional financing, which has been in the works for several months and was completed earlier this year, as it was shared publicly by the FTC following regulatory approval this week.”

Investors weigh in

Janine Shelffo, chief strategy and development officer at Advance, said her firm has been closely watching the gaming industry and “identified Scopely as a rising force.”

“We are deeply impressed with its industry-leading technology platform and analytics capability, which it has leveraged to create a diverse portfolio of consistently successful games,” she continued.

, TCG’s co-founder and partner, said Scopely has consistently outperformed expectations since his firm first backed the company nine years ago.

“As the traditional media industry continues to go through unprecedented change, we believe that Scopely has all the ingredients for tremendous success—exposure to games (the fastest-growing sector in media), a scalable and durable technology platform, a diversified set of well-known IP, an attractive economic profile and a team hyper-focused on execution and long-term success,” Jacobs continued.

If it’s making so much money, why the large raises? Managing Partner told me last October that the M&A space in gaming was heating up.

“There’s a lot of interesting companies and assets that they can acquire and incorporate into the broad Scopely platform,” he said.

Scopely does have a good track record. According to Viswanathan, it’s produced six games in a row that are on track to reach or surpass $100 million in gross lifetime revenue, which he said “is pretty astounding.”

“Gaming is a massive market, worth over $130 billion, and mobile gaming is the fastest-growing piece of it, representing about half,” Viswanathan told me last October. “In Scopely, we see significant scale, growth and profitability–an unusual trifecta. We see a huge market opportunity in front of them.”

NewView of , aka New Enterprise Associates, in late 2018, raising $1.35 billion for its debut fund. NEA had a small position in Scopely and NewView brought that over when it broke out.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Gaming may not be taken seriously by all. But if this round is any indication, maybe it should be.

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, , , and participated in the financing. With the latest round, Tempus has now raised $620 million since its September 2015 inception, according to Crunchbase Previous backers include and Denmark’s .

Tempus says it has built an operating system to deliver personalized cancer care. It’s using its new capital to expand  into other disease areas, including diabetes, depression and cardiology.

The startup is on a mission to redefine how genomic data is used in a clinical setting. It’s built out an interactive analytical and machine-learning platform so patients can benefit “from the treatment of others who came before.”

Tempus’ genomics tests analyze DNA, RNA and proteomic data to understand a patient’s tumor at the molecular level with the goal of identifying customized treatment options.

Currently, Tempus works with thousands of oncologists across hundreds of medical systems. It claims to have the “world’s largest libraries of clinical and molecular data, and an operating system to make that data accessible and useful.”

As anyone who’s had a family member battle cancer can attest to, the thought of more personalized (and better!) care is more than welcome.

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The new fund will focus on early-stage investments in technology and health care, and brings NEA’s total committed capital to nearly $24 billion. 

 NEA has invested in high-profile companies like ,   and . Most recently, it invested in ’s $22 million and ’ $105 million , both announced last week, according to Crunchbase.

Along with the new fund, the firm announced it named Liza Landsman as a general partner. Landsman joined NEA as a venture partner in 2018 after her time as president of Jet.com, an NEA portfolio company.

“We are deeply grateful to our limited partners for their commitment to NEA and their confidence in our ability to execute on the tremendous opportunity ahead,” NEA managing general partner Scott Sandell said in a statement. “As technology transforms every industry globally and life sciences innovation continues to accelerate, NEA is in a great position to continue doing what we do best—work alongside entrepreneurs to build great companies that will shape the future of how we live, work and play.”

NEA, which was founded in 1977, says it has had more than 230 of its portfolio companies go public and has been involved in more than 390 mergers and acquisitions.

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New backer also participated in the financing, which brings San Francisco-based Zumper’s total funding since its 2012 inception to more than $150 million. and led the company’s $46 million in September 2018 (at which time the company had a pre-money valuation of $200 million, according to Crunchbase). The company has a long list of high-profile investors including , and .

, CEO and co-founder of Zumper, declined to disclose the company’s current valuation, saying only it is “a significant step up from our 2018 valuation.”

Zumper’s self-described mission is to make renting an apartment “as easy as booking a hotel.” The startup claims to be the largest privately held rental marketplace (in terms of users) in the United States. Last year, 67 million people used Zumper to find, list, or rent properties in the U.S. and Canada. Georgiades expects that number to climb to 80 million this year, saying he company helps advertise more than 1 million listings a month.

‘Airbnb for one-year leasing’

The residential real estate market space is a crowded one for sure, and Zumper competes with the likes of publicly traded .

For Georgiades, Zumper differentiates itself in that it helps people in all steps of the process, making it a true “end-to-end” marketplace.

For example, Zumper offers renters the ability to find, apply for and then book an apartment. They can also digitally pay their rent to their landlord. It also helps small landlords and multifamily properties with things like finding tenants, marketing and collecting rent.

The company makes money in two ways: Landlords pay to be at the top of its feed for more exposure, in a classic lead-generation model; and also pay Zumper to close leases. For example, if a landlord uses its tools to conduct a transaction, it pays Zumper a fee per transaction.

Georgiades declined to disclose revenue figures but said the company saw its “pretty sizeable” revenue rise by 100 percent year over year last year.

“We’re not going from a small number to a small number,” he told Crunchbase News.

Meanwhile, the company doubled its headcount to 200 compared to about 100 a year ago. Zumper’s employees are spread across offices in San Francisco, Scottsdale, New York, Chicago and Providence, Rhode Island.

Looking ahead, the company will use the new capital to grow its sales and engineering teams and invest in scaling its transactional tools. Currently, 90 percent of its audience finds Zumper organically, according to the company.

“Ultimately, we want to be the Airbnb for one-year leasing,” Georgiades said.

For , co-founder and managing partner of e.ventures, Zumper’s progress so far has been “striking.”

Yesterday, we wrote about a similar offering in the United Kingdom. London-based it had raised about $13 million. Goodlord’s SaaS (software as a service) platform aims to make the rental process smoother and more efficient for landlords, leasing agents and renters alike. It handles a wide range of services from contracts to references to payments.

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Today, though, it’s making waves for different reasons. Stock markets around the world roil and churn as investors grapple with the implications of a particularly virulent and aggressive respiratory virus formally known as SARS-CoV-2, which originated in China but is now rippling across the planet.

This is the sort of moment some risk-loving swing traders live for, the sort of moment others dread, the sort of moment where some people want to watch their stocks and make some money moves. On Monday, , 10.8 billion shares traded hands, 50 percent higher than the 50-day moving average.

None of those shares were traded on Robinhood, because Robinhood has been in the midst of a prolonged service outage that stretched into a second day.

On Tuesday morning, stated that it was experiencing a system-wide outage affecting all facets of its service except for market data and dividends. During this time, I attempted to sign up for a Robinhood account for testing purposes. I succeeded in entering my information and creating the account, but was faced with a series of error messages when I tried to hook up my bank account and perform other functions on the company’s mobile application.

As of about 11 AM Central Time on Tuesday, Robinhood’s status page indicates that all systems are operational with the exception of its email support system, which had been experiencing reliability issues since Monday morning.

The company said it will work with customers “on a case-by-case basis” and possibly offer compensation or other forms of restitution to people whose trading accounts were affected by the company’s system outage.

Robinhood was one of several companies rumored to seek IPOs in 2020. With the reputational damage and the as-yet unknown costs stemming from its early March outage, its path to public markets now looks decidedly more uphill.

According to Crunchbase data, Robinhood has raised from investors including , , and .

Robinhood was valued at $7.6 billion in its Series E round, which netted the company $373 million over two tranches. Crunchbase News covered the first $323 million close in late July 2019, and the company to extend its Series E round at the end of October 2019.

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-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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Casper priced its shares at $12, the bottom of its range, on Wednesday night. And while 21 percent is a nice pop on the first day of trading, it’s important to note that it comes after the company slashed its IPO price range.

Casper previously priced its shares between $17 and $19, but lowered its price range to $12 to $13 in a Wednesday morning regulatory filing with the . So while �䲹������’s stock was trading above $15 on Thursday, that’s still below what the company originally thought its stock was worth.

As it makes its public debut, it’s notable that Casper is worth significantly less than it was just a year ago.

With an IPO price of $12, �䲹������’s valuation comes out to about $475.5 million ($490.6 million if underwriters exercise their options). Casper was last privately valued at about $1.1 billion after its $100 million in March 2019. When the company priced its shares between $17 and $19 last week, its valuation fell to about $786 million.

Casper raised as a private company, according to Crunchbase, with backers such as and . Like many venture-backed startups that have made it to the IPO stage, it isn’t profitable. The company reported $312.3 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2019, with $67.4 million in losses.

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Casper set a price range of between $17 and $19 per share last week. That range raised some eyebrows, because even if the company priced its shares at the high end, it would bring �䲹������’s valuation to about $786.2 million–significantly less than its last private valuation.

After Casper raised its $100 million in March 2019, it was valued at about $1.1 billion. But with the updated price on Wednesday, �䲹������’s market capitalization would be $514.6 million if it prices at the high end of its range.

When Casper filed its S-1 with the last month, it reported $67.4 million in losses on $312.3 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2019. Revenue grew 20.3 percent from the same period the year prior, and its losses were up about 5 percent during the same period as well. More on �䲹������’s financials here.

As we wrote earlier, venture-backed startups looking to go public are having something of a moment of reckoning regarding their valuations. After WeWork’s failed IPO and other lackluster public debuts of buzzy unicorns, there have been a lot of questions around valuations of unprofitable startups.

The company raised $339.7 million in funding while private, with backers including and .

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This is less than the 2018 all time high of 158 companies, and above 2017 (102 companies), 2016 (87 companies) and 2015 (106 companies). To qualify for this distinction, venture-backed privately held companies were valued in a funding round at $1 billion or more.

In the US, 78 new unicorns emerged in 2019, 11 more than in 2018. China unicorn creation slowed down substantially in 2019 with 22 new unicorns from a high of 58 in 2018. The next highest count of new unicorns is Germany and Brazil with five, a record for both countries. Israel, India, and the UK all report four new unicorns this year.

Unicorn Funding By Year

To understand 2019 through a different lens, let’s switch gears from the 2019 new unicorn cohort to funding to all unicorn companies. In 2019 unicorn companies raised $85.1 billion — down from 2018 at $139 billion, and 2017 at $93.8 billion.

Despite concerns about a changed venture funding market after WeWork pulled their IPO on Sept. 30 2019, funding to unicorns was up quarter over quarter by 11 percent, but the quarter was down year over year by 54 percent. It is worth noting that 2018 included two of the largest rounds ever to unicorn companies with $14 billion invested in Ant Financial, and $12.8 billion in Juul. However, these two rounds alone do not account for all the increased funding to unicorns in 2018. We fully expect 2019 invested dollars to increase at a greater rate than prior years as new unicorns are minted in 2020.

2019 Unicorn Cohort

2019 new unicorn companies collectively added , and $50.5 billion in equity funding in total over time. The leading sectors for 2019 unicorns were in Financial Services, Commerce and Shopping, Data and Analytics, Transportation, SaaS, and Health Care.

The five most highly valued new unicorns include:

• ($7.3 billion) the autonomous vehicles subsidiary from Uber
• ($7 billion) an e-commerce platform for pharmaceutical products
• ($6.2 billion) unifying customer analytics
• ($5 billion) Travis Kalanick’s smart kitchens for food delivery
• ($5 billion) a sustainable automotive technology company

Six companies that became unicorns in 2019 and also went public in the same year, listed in order of IPO valuation, are:

• ($3.7 billion) a genomics platform
• ($1.7 billion) targeted at treating infectious diseases
• ($1.7 billion) a marketplace for luxury goods
• ($1.6 billion) which automates back office financial operations
• ($1.4 billion) a producer of Blockchain servers
• ($1.3 billion) to manage healthcare data

All of these companies had an increased valuation at their IPO over their last private funding round in 2019, ranging from 25 percent for Health Catalyst to 189 percent for 10X Genomics.

Investors In The 2019 Unicorn Cohort

With $50 billion invested in this new unicorn cohort, it is interesting to look at the investors fueling the growth of these companies. The most active investors in companies that became unicorns in 2019 by portfolio count include the following:

with 13 portfolio companies, and with 11, , , , and at 10. This list of investors includes a mix of early and late stage venture, corporate venture, and private equity/alternative investors all actively seeking stakes in highly valued venture backed companies.

The most active investors by deal count, which showcases investors who are in multiple rounds for companies who joined the unicorn ranks in 2019 include the following: New Enterprise Associates in 30 rounds, Insight Partners (26), and GV (25), and Spark Capital (24).

2019 Unicorns By Founders

While there is no shortage in funding for these high-value companies, there remains a discrepancy between the number of male and female founders that reach the coveted unicorn status. Five (4 percent) of new unicorns in 2019 had female-only founders and 16 (12 percent) were co-founded by a female-male team. Overall, 114 (84 percent) unicorns in 2019 had male-only founders.

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