The new round was led by , with participation from existing investors , and . Music group Swedish House Mafia also participated.

Nothing, founded in 2020, launched its Phone (1) product last year. Even amid declining cell phone sales, the product sold out and never made the U.S. Its new Phone (2) — set for a July 11 launch — will make the U.S. market and is highly anticipated.

“In just over two years, we’ve assembled one of the strongest teams in the industry and sold over 1.5 million devices worldwide,” co-founder and CEO said in a release. “It’s clear that there’s real demand for an innovative challenger in the consumer tech industry, and with this new round of financing, we’ve never been better positioned to realize our vision to make tech fun again.”

Growing fast

The London-based startup is not small by any means, with more than 450 people across seven offices worldwide. The company made $200 million in revenues in 2022 and is on pace to exceed that this year, .

Aside from its phones, the company also has released earbuds and a sound stick. The company has sold more than 1.5 million devices, per the report.

Part of the company’s fast success is undoubtedly due to its engagements with its customers. It has raised nearly $14 million in crowdfunding and attracted more than 8,000 investors in those rounds.

Nothing also has ongoing sustainability initiatives and promises its new phone will have a lower carbon footprint than the first iteration.

Founded in 2020, the company has raised more than $250 million to date, per the company.

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That has seemed only to accelerate this month, as 1 — ’s venture arm — announced it will double the size of its Generative AI Fund to $500 million just three months after establishing it. That was followed by AI startup raising a $90 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation that included an investment from — ’s venture capital arm.

However, while everyone already knows and are making strong bids to be dominant players in the AI ecosystem with their startup investments, there are several other tech giants that also quietly have placed some bets in AI and others who have made surprisingly few.

Let’s take a look at some companies and their VC arms not covered last month and what they’ve done:

Qualcomm Ventures

Nvidia isn‘t the only U.S.-based semiconductor giant that has been looking at AI startups for the last handful of years.

, ’s investment arm, has taken part in 34 funding deals since the start of 2019 involving startups using AI, per Crunchbase .

The firm’s most active year was — not shockingly — 2021 when it invested in nine startups using AI. That included taking part in a $235 million Series C investment in Israel-based — now called Oosto – a vision AI and facial recognition company. Those nine deals totaled $714 million in total (although Qualcomm Ventures’ stake is not known).

This year, the venture arm has made four deals in the AI space, including investing in Union City, California-based , which develops an AI-powered learning platform for manufacturing and repair, and Brazil-based , which uses AI to try to solve waste issues.

Those deals this year, however, have been relatively small, totalling only $37 million.

Cisco Investments

Few corporate VC arms are as old as — founded 30 years ago — and few have the breadth of their investment portfolio.

For some reason it is sometimes easy to pass over the networking giant and its VC arm, but they don’t overlook much — including AI. Just this week, that would compete with offerings from the likes of and others.

While not nearly as active as some other VC arms, Cisco Investments has made eight different deals that would fall into the AI sector, per Crunchbase .

Its most recent deals include participating in a $4.7 million round for Israel-based , an automatic speech recognition technology platform last December, as well as a huge $140 million Series D for Palo Alto, California-based , a startup specializing in conversational automation, in March 2021.

The deals the investment arm participated in last year totaled $78 million — actually down from 2021 when it took part in two rounds that totaled $160 million.

Amazon Alexa Fund

Another company one would logically think has its eye on AI would be retail and web giant . However, for the most part Amazon and its division have only made a select few investments in AI-related startups.��

However, its has been quite active in making AI deals — participating in 20 different rounds since the start of 2019, per Crunchbase .

The fund has not made any deals this calendar year, but made a handful even last year, including participating in a $55 million Series D for Irvine, California-based , a deep learning tech company that develops AI voice and sensor solutions, in March 2022.

That same month, the fund also participated in a $24 million Series A in London-based . The startup uses artificial intelligence and expert analysts to detect and assess disinformation that can harm companies and governments.

The deals the fund participated in last year totaled $85 million.

The others

Some other big tech goliaths also have made a select few deals in the AI space — although logic would dictate they will make more.

Social media and advertising giant made a handful of deals between 2021-22, but none this year, per Crunchbase .

However, its deals were rather intriguing. Meta took part in a $19 million Series A for Paris-based , an AI-enabled image capturing app which creates studio-quality product pictures.

Meta also was included in Mountain View, California-based ’s $7.2 million seed round. The metaverse startup is a developer platform for AI-driven virtual characters and immersive realities.

is another company that has not made too much noise investing in AI startups through the years, but the company did make a couple this year — its only, per Crunchbase .

Most notably, Oracle took part in Toronto-based ’s $270 million round in May. The startup’s AI platform competes with .

It also took part in a pre-seed round for New Haven, Connecticut-based , which provides AI-based image analysis for chest diseases. ChestAi:

Just like the other companies and VC arms mentioned above, expect the number — and value — of the AI deals the likes of Meta and Oracle will participate in to significantly increase in the coming months.��

Further reading:

• AI Investing Boom Is Not New To Tech Giants (At Least Not Their VC Arms)

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding rounds here.

March did come in like a lion — at least compared to last week. Startups in cyber, defense and biotech all saw some large rounds in a week that for once was not dominated by artificial intelligence. Five VC-backed companies all saw nine-figure rounds this week, a strong start to the last month of the quarter.

1. , $300M, cybersecurity: Cybersecurity startup Wiz graduated to decacorn just this week, as the company based in the U.S. and Israel raised $300 million in fresh capital at a valuation of $10 billion. The Series D funding was led by . Founded in 2020, Wiz has now raised a total of $900 million, according to Crunchbase data. The funding for the cloud security startup came with other news; Wiz announced it won’t move any of that money to Israel due to ongoing unrest about proposed reforms to the country’s judicial system. Some fear the proposed judicial system reforms would undermine Israel’s democratic foundations and grant unchecked power to the government.

2. , $230M, drone: Drone startup Skydio locked up a $230 million Series E at a $2.2 billion valuation led by — more than double its valuation from just a couple of years ago. The new round comes almost exactly two years after the company raised a $170 million Series D at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Skydio produces drones for the consumer, enterprise and government sectors. Its drones are used by every branch of the , by over half of all , and it now has more than 1,200 enterprise customers. Founded in 2014, Skydio has raised $562 million in total, according to the company.

3. , $200M, biotech: A couple of biotech startups rank pretty high on the list this week. The first is Cargo Therapeutics, which closed a $200 million Series A co-led by , and Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund. The San Mateo, California-based company is developing CAR T-cell therapies for cancer. The startup is in phase 2 clinical trials for its treatment of large B-cell lymphoma. Founded in 2021, this is the biotech firm’s first outside funding, per Crunchbase.

4. , $135M, biotech: The second biotech firm with a nine-figure raise this week is on the opposite coast. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Chroma Medicine locked up a $135 million Series B led by (formerly Google Ventures). The startup’s gene editing platform does not rely on cutting or nicking DNA — which introduces risks — to regulate gene expression like most other therapeutic programs. Founded in 2021, the company has now raised $260 million, according to Crunchbase.

5. (tied) , $100M, health care: Companies offering fertility health care benefits are becoming more commonplace in the U.S. Kindbody is one of those startups that partner with companies to offer employees family-building benefits, and this week the New York-based firm raised $100 million in capital from . The new cash values Kindbody — founded in 2018 — at $1.8 billion. Kindbody, which owns and operates fertility clinics, has now raised more than $290 million in debt and equity, per the company.

5. (tied) , $100M, biotech: Bats have kind of been put through the ringer the past few years, what with the pandemic and all (although the new DOE report may dispute that). However, maybe they can also help human health. New York-based Paratus Sciences launched with a $100 million Series A co-led by , , , and . The startup is looking at what bats and other animals can tell researchers about human health. Paratus is focusing on developing human therapeutics in areas like inflammation.

7. , $80M, education: Fresno, California-based Bitwise Industries, which attempts to bring coding skills to historically underrepresented minorities, closed an $80 million round led by existing investors and . Founded in 2013, the company has now raised approximately $158 million, per Crunchbase.

8. , $76M, marketing: New York-based marketing tech startup Wunderkind raised a $76 million Series C led by , . Founded in 2012, the company has raised nearly $152 million, per Crunchbase data.

9. , $75M, software: Seattle-based Temporal, whose platform helps in application development, raised $75 million in a Series “B-Prime.” joined existing investors in the round. Founded in 2019, Temporal has raised more than $200 million, per the company.

10. , $67M, retail: San Francisco-based Shef, a chef-to-consumer marketplace, closed a Series B led by that included $66.5 million in equity and $7 million in debt. Founded in 2019, Shef has raised more than $100 million, according to the company.

Big global deals

Very surprisingly, the top nine rounds all occurred in the U.S. this week. The only large raise this week to crack the top 10 was:

• Tokyo-based space tech startup raised a $76 million Series G.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Feb. 25 to March 3. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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As we’ve documented several times over the past few quarters, venture-backed companies that went public via SPAC deals have mostly posted exceedingly poor returns. As we revisit a previously curated list of , it’s clear they’re closing out the year at a particularly low point.

How bad? Out of a selected set of 50 completed SPAC deals, at least 24 were trading below $1 per share 1. Because most blank-check companies initially price at $10 per share, that means they’re down 90% or more to date.

Here’s a list2 of the 24 sub-$1 names from our sample:

No sector has been spared, as one can see from the broad array of industries represented among these beaten-down stocks. It includes autonomous driving (, ), electric vehicles (, , ), telehealth (, ), and real estate (, ), among others.

What’s also noteworthy is that the vast majority are trading at a lower point than they were a couple quarters ago. So no, things aren’t looking up yet.

And that’s not the worst

And trading below $1 isn’t necessarily the worst fate for a troubled SPAC. A few others have either declared bankruptcy or sold to acquirers for an even smaller pittance of their former price.��

One of the higher-profile casualties was , a mobile retail company founded by former store executive , which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. The company had previously raised more than $230 million in known venture funding from backers including , and , and another $250 million from SPAC investors.

In the biotech space, meanwhile, , a developer of androgen-based medicines that went public in September 2021, is also winding down. The company announced in September that it has filed for Chapter 11 and is selling its sole commercial asset, a therapeutic for testosterone deficiency.

, the pay-per-mile car insurance provider, also took a hit. The one-time unicorn sold to fellow insurtech at a valuation representing a roughly 95% cut from Metromile’s peak public share price.

Rounding out the list, , a used car marketplace, sold this month to , a used auto e-commerce platform trading for 23 cents a share, in a deal that appears to be valued at roughly $20 million. Carlotz previously raised over $160 million in venture and SPAC-related financing.

Any success stories out there?

No company on our sample list of 50 currently has shares trading above the $10 break-even threshold for SPAC deals. The top performer — consumer health platform — was recently trading at a little over $7.

Meanwhile, there are 15 companies with shares between $1 and $2, listed below:

The remaining companies on our list are trading between $2 and $7.��

This story isn’t over

For anyone who binge-watches drama shows, the SPAC plotline is looking sort of familiar. We’re at that point where the protagonist is looking outmatched and on the cusp of defeat.��

If this was Hollywood, of course, the protagonist would suddenly summon the strength for a big comeback, overcome foes and declare victory. But we’re in the real world, where this kind of underdog story only occasionally plays out.��

At any rate, this does look like the back-against-the-wall moment for many SPACs. It’d be nice if 2023 could bring us some of those much-awaited dramatic turnarounds.

Further Reading

Some Beaten-Down SPACs Recover Amid Tech Rally

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After exploding during the pandemic, online retail growth in the U.S. continues to slow, posting single-digit growth in the last four quarters. Online’s share of total retail sales as of the second quarter of 2022, according to the .����

Ontario-based , which enables small retailers to set up e-commerce channels, acknowledged that the growth seen during the pandemic was not sustainable. CEO and co-founder announced the company laid off 10% of its employees, or around 1,000 team members, in July.

Even mighty is affected. The company’s online shopping business compared to a year ago, although Prime Day’s shift from July to June did impact the numbers.����

But not all e-commerce sectors are slowing. Scattered niches with a mix of business-to-business and direct-to-consumer offerings are still gaining market share in 2022. They’re finding ways to win with livestreaming, wholesale matching and shopping rewards. Here are four companies that have doubled—or in one case, quadrupled—their valuations from their 2021 fundings per a Crunchbase News analysis.

Live shopping 

Marina Del Rey, California-based , a live marketplace for selling collectibles such as sneakers, trading cards and rare toys, raised a $260 million Series D in July. and ’s led the large round, which gave Whatnot a valuation of $3.7 billion, up 147% from its $1.5 billion valuation in September 2021.��

Whatnot grew sales 20x year over year in 2021, and its monthly revenue is up 3x so far in 2022. Co-founder has credited the launch of livestreaming on Whatnot’s app in July 2020 with changing the course of the business.��

Livestream has also excited investor interest in , a business-to-business livestream and short video shopping company. Based in the Bay Area, Firework helps retailers connect with consumers through its website and channels, and across social platforms.��

In May, Firework raised a $150 million Series B led by the . That round pushed the company’s valuation to $750 million, up 226% from its prior valuation of $230 million in March 2021.��

Wholesale marketplace 

South Korea-based focuses on the wholesale side of things. Tridge, which matches wholesale buyers and sellers for agricultural products, raised a $37 million round in August, led by . That round earned Tridge a $2.7 billion valuation, up more than 400% from the company’s $500 million valuation in July 2021. The company provides a trusted place for wholesale agriculture analysis, supply and purchasing across 150 countries.��

Rewards

Shopping rewards app announced a funding of $240 million in equity and debt led by at a valuation north of $2.5 billion. The Wisconsin-based company was last valued at $1 billion just over a year ago. Fetch Rewards users scan their purchase slips to earn points toward gift cards or other rewards. The company recently announced 17 million active monthly users, up from 7 million in March 2021. led Fetch Rewards’ first seed round in 2014.

Update: Fetch Rewards announced 17 million active users as of August, 2022

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For retailers, this has translated into fewer buyers for items like clothes, furniture and gadgets. shares tanked earlier this week after the retailer said it is having to cut prices to reduce merchandise levels, which brings profits down. Items like kitchen appliances and exercise equipment that were backlogged a year ago are now overflowing stores and warehouses.��

The slowdown also has extended to providers of backend software and services to online retailers. This week, —the stock market poster child for the e-commerce boom of 2020 and 2021—posted a quarterly loss and downwardly revised forecasts, and said it will cut 10% of its workforce.

Shopify shares, down about 80% from highs last fall, are also emblematic of broader sector woes. Others in the e-commerce software space, including relatively recent market entrants like and , are also down sharply.

For startup investors in the retail-focused SaaS startups, meanwhile, all of this is happening at a particularly inconvenient point in time.

That’s because last year, investment in e-commerce software companies hit an all-time high, with more than $4.8 billion in global venture funding, per Crunchbase data. This year started hot as well, with a decline in funding in the past couple months only slightly offsetting a rollicking first quarter. For perspective, we chart out investment to the space for the past 5+ years below:

Where did venture investments go in 2022?

, a provider of tools for retailers and brands to beef up their e-commerce presence, was the largest equity funding recipient in the space this year, per Crunchbase data. The Boston-based company closed on a $200 million Series F round in April at a $2 billion valuation.����

Other big funding recipients included:

• Austin-based , developer of an analytics platform for brands to accelerate online growth, was another big funding recipient, raising $240 million in a February debt and equity round.

• Lehi, Utah-based , a provider of package-tracking tools for online orders, raised $200 million in a January Series B at a $1.25 billion valuation.
• Boston-based , developer of an AI-enabled platform for online customers to find products, raised $169 million in a June Series C.��
• Toronto-based , which pitches itself as a commerce platform aimed at helping online brands “go borderless,” raised $150 million in a January Series C round led by .

Notably, big financings followed several quarters of sharply rising revenue for funded companies.

Salsify, for instance, said it generated over $110 million in annual recurring revenue in 2021, up over 50% from 2020. Cart.com, meanwhile, said its revenue grew over 400% in the year leading up to its last funding round.

Market conditions, however, are sharply different from even a couple quarters ago. And the swell in online shopping that began in the early days of the pandemic has since receded.��

As Shopify CEO in a letter to employees this week, when the COVID pandemic set in, almost all retail shifted online, and demand for software to help with that shift skyrocketed.��

“We bet that the channel mix—the share of dollars that travel through e-commerce rather than physical retail—would permanently leap ahead by five or even 10 years,” he wrote. “It’s now clear that bet didn’t pay off. What we see now is the mix reverting to roughly where pre-COVID data would have suggested it should be at this point. Still growing steadily, but it wasn’t a meaningful five-year leap ahead.”

For venture-funded e-commerce software software startups, it’s likely a similar trajectory will apply. ������Ƶ haven’t abandoned their online shopping carts. And it’s reasonable to expect steady growth ahead. But the environment is now one in which supercharged growth will likely be much harder and costlier to achieve.

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, which is essentially a mobile, on-demand retail store, wouldn’t confirm the amount of its raise, but sources familiar with the deal told Crunchbase News it’s $150 million.

The Menlo Park startup in a press release disclosed only that it had “secured a significant investment from ” in what it described as a Series C growth round. LCH Partners is the new consumer technology platform of global investment company .

Enjoy also said in a release the new financing brings its “total investment” to more than $350 million. Previous backers include , , , and . Its Crunchbase profile shows a $50 million led by Highland Capital in 2015, and a $30 million in 2014.

, the individual responsible for the now ubiquitous Apple stores, co-founded Enjoy in 2014 although the service launched in 2015. (Johnson also once served as CEO of JCPenney in an experience that as “tarnishing” Johnson’s star)

Today, Enjoy partners with companies like AT&T, Google, Sonos, and EE, a British mobile network operator that is part of British Telecom Group, “to deliver the store to their customers.” It also goes beyond delivery to offer help in setting up devices, and helping consumers learn how to use them.

“One of the highlights of my retail career was creating a new channel for Apple customers, which was the Apple Retail Store,” said Johnson, who serves as Enjoy’s CEO. “Now I get to do it again by creating the mobile retail store for not just one company, but for many great companies around the world.”

I asked Enjoy reps for some growth metrics and while the company would not disclose revenue or even revenue percentage growth, it did say the company currently has more than 1,500 employees compared to more than 950 a year ago. Its goal is to increase that to more than 2,000 employees by next spring.

Enjoy plans to use the new capital (in part) for expansion into more local markets in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It now operates in more than 54 U.S. markets and will be available in 11 markets in the UK by the end of 2019. The company also plans to expand to one more country this year and additional countries in 2020.

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Disclosure: The author’s husband works for Apple.

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On Monday, NYC-based retail shop with the SEC indicating it’s raised $10.5 million out of a targeted $11 million in equity-only funding. The company received its first capital commitment in early April and raised from five investors.

Camp is a retail concept for kids and their parents, offering a rotating selection of toys and other goods alongside experiences like cooking and craft classes. The shop has which gives kids access to free activities ranging from music to crafts and yoga classes. Among other features, membership comes with one free “date night drop-off” per month, letting parents send their kids to Camp between 6 PM and 9 PM on select Friday and Saturday nights. For non-members, date night drop-off is $60.

Camp has one shop open on 5th Avenue in Manhattan and has a Brooklyn location set to open soon.

Camp was founded by , who currently serves as both Camp’s CEO and as the chief marketing officer of online media company . According to , he began working on Camp in June 2018.

The filing lists the executive and non-executive members of the company’s board. These individuals include:

• The aforementioned Benjamin “Ben” Kaufman.
• , who currently serves as Macy’s brand experience officer. Before joining Macy’s, Schechtman was founder and CEO of , an NYC-based retailer which curated its wares from “the point of view of a magazine,” frequently rotating its collection around themes. for an undisclosed sum back in May 2018. According to her Crunchbase profile, Schechtman sits on the advisory boards of a number of retail ventures including , , and others. She also sits on for the National Retail Federation.
• , a co-founding general partner at . Robinson discloses his board membership on RRE’s website. According to his profile, Robinson is a board member and observer to multiple decentralized ledger technology companies, including , , , , and others. His non-blockchain investments include newsletter media company and programmatic direct mail service , among .
• , co-founding partner of , an NYC-based venture firm investing out of its recently-raised . Brown was previously a partner at , and before that was at JP Morgan, according to of NYC-based VC investors specializing in retail and fashion upstarts. Imaginary Ventures has invested in a number of companies in the fashion and retail space, including the likes of , , and , among others.

This is not Ben Kaufman’s first foray into retail. Before Buzzfeed, Kaufman was founder and CEO of , a company which wanted to “make invention accessible.” The scope of that venture was impressive; according to of Quirky’s ultimate demise, “it created value by bringing together a community of inventors, filtering out the ideas, fine-tuning the design, manufacturing the product, and managing retail partners.”

Founded in 2009, Quirky raised in combined debt and equity funding before it in 2015. Kaufman was also founder of , which got its start making cases and battery packs for iPods but has since expanded to the smartphone market.

It’s through prior work with Quirky that Camp now counts RRE as an investor. Jim Robinson represented RRE since back in April 2010 and followed on . The firm back in November 2018. An indicated the company raised $6.27 million of a targeted $6.77 million funding round. , founder and CEO of Buzzfeed, was listed as a non-executive director on that filing, though today’s filing suggests he is no longer on the board.

Buzzfeed, which “handles media and activation sales for Camp,” is also a portfolio company of RRE Ventures.

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According to issued this morning, Foot Locker’s investment is also expected to “help accelerate GOAT Group’s global operations.”

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The funding brings s total raised  since its inception in 2015. Most recently, in February 2018, it raised $60 million in  with a pre-money valuation of $190 million. led that round, which also included participation from , and .

Foot Locker Chairman and CEO Richard Johnson said the athletic shoe retailer is always looking at “new ways to elevate” its customer experience and “bring sneaker and youth culture to people around the world.”

These days, more and more people are opting to buy shoes online via apps such as GOAT. I have a tween who is currently obsessed with high-end sneakers so I can personally attest to the current demand in this space. Foot Locker, despite having more than 3,000 retail locations in 27 countries, clearly recognizes the value of mobile and internet channels.

“We are excited to leverage GOAT Group’s technology to further innovate the sneaker buying experience and utilize their best-in-class online marketplace to help meet the ever-growing global demand for the latest product,” Johnson added.

In that press release, GOAT Co-founder and CEO said his company pioneered a “ship-to-verify model” to make customers feel more secure when purchasing sneakers from the secondary market.

“Foot Locker will support our primarily digital presence with physical access points worldwide, bringing more value to our community of buyers and sellers,” he said.

Scott Martin, a senior vice president at Foot Locker, will join �Ұ�����’s board as part of the financing.

The investment is the latest in a string of Foot Locker investments in digital companies. It also recently put money into women’s activewear brand , children’s lifestyle brand , and footwear design academy . But this investment in GOAT is by far its largest yet.

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