Fundraising in the Time of COVID 19
Tech startups have been busy even during the past many months of lockdown. Here is an article from Emerging Tech Brew. We highly recommend you subscribe to their newsletter.
Drones: Skydio is emerging as the de facto drone rival to China’s DJI by focusing on autonomous software. The Redwood City California startup announced a $100 million Series C this week, using the occasion to unveil its new X2 enterprise drone (pictured above). In their promo video, you will notice a few shots from Santa Cruz.
Robotic process automation: RPA has piqued investors’ interest during the pandemic. On Tuesday, RPA startup UiPath got a piece of the excitement, raising a $225 million Series E and unlocking decacorn status with a $10.2 billion valuation.
Telemedicine: Yesterday, Doctor on Demand announced a $75 million Series D. Something, something, years of telemedicine adoption in months…
Chipmaking: Chinese startup Eswin raised a $283 million Series B. The deal was a month ago, but I’m still including it because 1) that’s a large Series B and 2) China developing chip self-sufficiency is a key storyline of the 2020s.
EVs: As Tesla’s stock hangs out in the stratosphere…
Ford and Amazon-backed Rivian raised $2.5 billion in fresh financing last week.
Karma Automotive received a $100 million lifeline from investors, per Bloomberg.
Fisker recently raised $50 million to hold it over until a Q4 IPO (more on that below).