A virtual reality startup raised money to start producing original content, Goldman Sachs invested in an Uber clone focused on garbage hauling and a German meal-delivery service secured a $3 billion valuation. Here’s what happened on the funding front this week in the tech industry:
Capital Gains: European Meal Kits, Uber for Garbage and More Funding News
Goldman Sachs and Leonardo DiCaprio are getting into garbage.
Todd Bernard
- There’s a new European unicorn: French company BlaBlaCar, a ride-sharing service for long distances, raised a $200 million Series D funding round at a $1.6 billion valuation (Forbes).
- Clover Health, a medical insurer for senior citizens that uses advanced data analysis to track patient health and outcomes, raised $100 million in equity and debt financing, including $4 million from First Round Capital (Fortune).
- YouTube star Michelle Phan’s makeup subscription service, Ipsy, raised a $100 million round from Uber investor TPG Growth and Sherpa Capital. Previously, the company had raised less than $3 million (Racked).
- Germany-based meal-kit delivery service HelloFresh landed an $85 million investment from the Scottish firm Baillie Gifford. The deal sets HelloFresh’s value at around $3 billion (Bloomberg Business).
- Institutional Venture Partners led a $50 million investment in Compass, an online real-estate service. The round reportedly sets the company’s value at around $800 million (Bloomberg Business).
- Virtual reality startup Jaunt raised a $50 million Series C round, as it looks to build out an in-house, original VR content studio. Less than a year ago, Jaunt raised a $28 million Series B. In the first half of 2015, VR companies have collectively raised about $250 million (Variety).
- Rubicon Global is an Atlanta-based startup whose app and website connect businesses and residential customers with waste collection services for on-demand pickup. It is functionally the same as Uber or any other so-called “sharing economy” app. This week, Rubicon scored $50 million in funding (at a $500 million post-money valuation) from an investment group led by Nima Capital, with participation from Goldman Sachs, Wellington Management, Leonardo DiCaprio and others (Wall Street Journal).
- HelloTech pays college students to provide customer support for people who aren’t as tech familiar. This week, the company raised $12.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Accel Partners and CrossCut Ventures.
- Iron.io, which automates computing tasks for tech companies (and competes with Amazon Web Services’ Lambda), raised $8 million in a round led by Baseline Ventures (VentureBeat).
- Political news analysis app Sidewire, which is getting a lot of love from within the Beltway, launched this week and announced that it had raised $5 million. Spark Capital led the investment.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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