Several companies raised massive rounds and a few tech giants announced adjustments to their office reopening plans last week. Read more of the latest news from the Bay Area tech scene. This is the Built In SF weekly refresh.
Gupshup secured $240M. The latest raise is the second half of a round that the company got started back in April. The conversational messaging platform brought in $100 million at the time, securing its status as a unicorn with a valuation of $1.4 billion. Gupshup’s API is used by enterprise teams to better engage with customers via multi-channel messaging. The company’s intent is to get users to converse with brands the same way they would with friends or family. Following the latest raise, Gupshup will continue to invest in product development as well as expand its go-to-market initiatives around the world. [Built In SF]
Algolia brought in $150M. The Series D for the search API startup secured the company’s status as a unicorn with a valuation surpassing $1 billion. Algolia enables developers to integrate real-time search within an app or website using its API. The unicorn serves over 10,000 customers including corporate leaders like Slack, Stripe and Medium. The latest raise follows what has been a period of extensive growth for the platform. Algolia’s annual recurring revenue has increased by 180 percent year over year, according to the company. [TechCrunch]
Robinhood launches IPO. The increasingly popular stock trading app sold shares in its IPO at $38 a piece. For that price, the company’s valuation jumped to nearly $32 billion. All told, Robinhood sold off 52.4 million shares, raising close to $2 billion. The decacorn, last valued at $11.7 million in September, will trade under the ticker symbol “HOOD.” [CNBC]
Neuralink raised $205M. The Series C for Elon Musk’s software company featured a long list of well-known investors including Google Ventures, Craft Ventures and Founders Fund. Neuralink’s brain machine interface was created for therapeutic use in patients with head injuries. The company’s primary product, the N1 Link, is a WiFi-enabled brain implant that can be used to wirelessly transmit data. Funds from the latest round will be used to take Neuralink’s product to market as well as accelerate research and development. [9to5Mac]
Twitter closed its offices in response to CDC guidelines. The social media giant closed its San Francisco and New York-based offices last week “in light of current conditions.” The announcement comes among growing concerns of the Delta variant as Covid-19 cases continue to climb across the U.S. and vaccinations seem to have hit a standstill. The company said it plans to continue to closely monitor local conditions and make changes to its policy as needed. Other tech giants have made similar adjustments to their reopening procedures, as Google announced it would extend its work-from-home policy through October 18. [TechCrunch]
SF Tech Quote of the Week
In more VC funding news: AI robotics company Covariant raised $80 million in a Series C round led by Index Ventures. Just two years after its launch, the company has raised a total of $147 million. Following the raise, Covariant plans to continue product research and development as well as hire for its team. [PR Newswire]
SaaS company Homebase brought in $71 million in a Series C led by GGV Capital. The HR platform helps over 100,000 small businesses manage, schedule and onboard hourly employees. The company will use funds from the latest round to expand the range of tools and services that it offers on its platform. [Businesswire]
Fintech platform Eco raised $60 million in a funding round co-led by Activant Capital and L Catterton. The “smart money” platform acts as a digital wallet that tracks savings and spending. Eco plans to invest the additional capital in continued product development as the company continues to scale. [FinSMEs]
Streaming data platform Coralogix grabbed $55 million in a Series C round led by Greenfield Partners. The company’s tech provides engineering teams with trend analysis that doesn’t rely upon traditional tools like storage or indexing. Coralogix will use the fresh capital to bring additional functionalities to its platform. [PR Newswire]
Teamflow, a virtual office management startup, raised $35 million in a Series B led by Coatue. The fresh injection of capital places the company’s valuation at $225 million. Teamflow’s platform virtually simulates a regular office to encourage more cross-team communication and collaboration in the remote work era. Over the past 12 months, the startup has raised a total of $50 million. [Grit Daily]
Blameless, an end-to-end site reliability management platform, brought in $30 million in a Series B round led by Third Point Ventures. The Blameless platform provides development teams with organized workflows across the entire software lifecycle. The company will use funds from the latest raise to hire for its team. [GlobeNewswire]
