Welcome to The Beat, a roundup of local technology news. |
Sara: Another web3 startup is reeling from a security breach, losing around $200 million-worth of crypto tokens. Bay Area-based Nomad operates a bridge connecting different blockchains to each other under common protocols, much like we expect emails or phone calls to work regardless of the carrier. But a software bug allowed users in the know to steal the funds, according to Bloomberg News. Nomad recently raised more than $20 million and has marketed itself as a more secure blockchain bridge that could prevent exactly this type of hack. "Isn't a hack just a bug bounty? … you can make the argument that the hacker deserves it if you believe that code is law," Edge & Node business lead Tegan Kline said during a web3 conference in June. I'm disinclined to agree.
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Breaking down the day's biggest Inno story. |
Despite the venture funding slowdown, early-stage startups with mixed gender founding teams might have a slight advantage when it comes to raising new capital. A new report from Dropbox subsidiary DocSend shows that teams with a mix of male and female founders raised a bit more on average than those with all-female or even all-male teams when raising pre-seed rounds. Mixed gender teams with at least one ethnic or racial minority also did a bit better overall when compared to all-white teams, except for all-female teams with minority founders which met with more investors and still raised less than all-white, all-female teams.
DocSend surveyed more than 300 pre-seed startups and analyzed their pitch decks to compile the report. It may be difficult to extrapolate larger trends from such a small sample size, but I think systemic bias is clearly a factor. And the report seems to imply that male founders benefit from having a woman on their team and white founders benefit from having a person of color on their team, but women of color still have a harder time being taken seriously by potential investors.
Read Sonya Herrera's story to learn more about DocSend's report on how gender and race impact pre-seed funding rounds. |
Inside the people, companies and organizations making moves around the Bay Area. Information comes from LinkedIn profiles, press releases and Inno reporting. |
Fresh Faces
Woodside-based debt financing firm Runway Growth Capital has hired Brad Pritchard as a managing director of technology. Pritchard was most recently a managing director at BlackRock and also has experience at Hercules Capital, Wells Fargo Securities, Banc of America Securities, SG Cowen and GE Capital.
Google's venture arm GV promoted Ben Robbins to general partner. Robbins joined the firm in 2014 as a venture partner and has been focused on investments in healthcare. M&A Watch
San Ramon-based Rootstock Software was acquired by Gryphon Investors, a private equity firm in San Francisco. The deal was announced in a press release but the terms were not disclosed. Rootstock develops enterprise cloud software built on Salesforce's platform that's tailored to manufacturing, distribution and supply chain businesses. Rootstock has raised more than $29 million since 2010 but its valuation was undisclosed, according to PitchBook.
Two San Francisco-based startups are joining forces: office productivity software developer Envoy is acquiring OfficeTogether, a desk reservation and team scheduling tool, for an undisclosed amount. OfficeTogether raised $2.2 million in 2020 and another undisclosed round in 2021, according to PitchBook. Envoy has raised $205.5 million through a Series C and is valued at $1.4 billion. |
All the best seed and series A funding rounds. |
Mable is a new telehealth app that's exclusively focused on treating migraines, and it's doing it by using genomics to create personalized care plans.
"Most migraine treatment plans today fail to consider the crucial role of genetics," Roman Rothaermel, Mable's co-founder and CEO, said in a blog post. "We concluded that individualized, DNA-guided care was the smart approach to a powerful new alternative for the underserved migraine community."
The San Francisco startup is gearing up to launch in 41 states by the end of the year, and says it already has a waitlist 5,000 people long. It has raised $3.2 million.
Get more details on recent seed rounds in today's Early Money. |
The biggest news from the tech world. |
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The events and happenings to know in the ecosystem |
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Where the Beat does its own thing... |
Tiffany's is getting into the NFT business. The luxury jewelry designer will create up to 250 custom pendants based on CryptoPunks artwork. First step: buy an NFTiff (as Tiffany's is calling its NFT) for 30 ETH (currently worth around $50,000) and make sure it's located in the same wallet as your CryptoPunks NFT. Second step: redeem your 1-inch long, 18k gold, gemstone and diamond encrusted pendant. In case you were looking for a way to show off how unaffected you are by inflation.
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