From Crunchbase January 23, 2019
2018 was the year supergiant VC deals became a nearly everyday occurrence. Equity funding rounds of $100 million or more dominated the global VC market, accounting for a vanishingly small percent of total deal volume, but accounting for 56 percent of the total dollar volume.
Here’s the thing about these supergiant VC deals though. The New York Times headline from August 2018 said it simply: $100 million was once big money for a startup. Now, it’s common. In our Q4 and end-of-year analysis of the global VC market, Crunchbase News found that there were over 500 rounds in the “supergiant” size class throughout 2018, worldwide. Although we covered many of them last year, there were just too many to discuss individually.
“Supergiant” stars aren’t the absolute biggest, brightest things in the universe, though they loom larger than just about everything else. Supergiant VC rounds bent the curve of the venture market. But, there’s another size up. Hypergiant stars are many times the size of supergiant stars, and, so, it follows that hypergiant VC rounds would follow a similar pattern.
In a prior exploration of beyond-supergiant VC, Crunchbase News defined“hypergiant rounds” as any VC round of $250 million or more (at least 2.5x larger than the “supergiant” threshold). These are the deals that shine a bright and sometimes harsh light over a given market. And, at this point, there are sufficiently few of them that we can track a whole year’s worth of hypergiant deals.
So, below, you can find an ever-expanding list of hypergiant rounds from 2019, filed in reverse-chronological order based on announcement date. We’ll update this post on a weekly basis.
January
Zhangmen
Zhangmen is a K-12 personalized online tutoring company based in Shanghai, China.
- The company raised $350 million in a Series E round announced on January 23rd. The deal was co-led by China Media Capital and CICC Alpha.
- The company was founded in 2015.
- Crunchbase does not have a complete funding history for Zhangmen at time of writing. The first round listed on Zhangmen’s Crunchbase profile is a CN¥200 million Series C deal, led by Huaxing Growth Capital and announced in December 2016. Zhangmen’s $120 million Series D round was co-led by Warburg Pincus and Genesis Capital. The Series D deal was announced in January 2018.
DaDa
DaDa is a Shanghai-based online education service for English language learners.
- The company raised $255 million in Series D funding led by global private equity and growth-stage investment firm Warburg Pincus. Yonghua Capitaland TAL Education Group participated in the deal, which was announced on January 16th.
- The company was founded in April 2013, according to Crunchbase data.
- Prior to its Series D round, DaDa raised over $600 million in prior funding. That includes a $500 million Series B round raised from undisclosed investors back in April 2016.
Rubrik
Hailing from Palo Alto, Rubrik is a provider of enterprise-focused data backup, management, and recovery services.
- Rubrik raised $261 million in a Series E round announced on January 15. Bain Capital Ventures led the deal, which reportedly valued the company at $3.26 billion, post-money. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, and Khosla Ventures—a veritable who’s who of old school Silicon Valley VC—participated in the round.
- The company was founded in 2014.
- Before its hypergiant Series E round, Rubrik had raised $292 million in prior venture funding, according to Crunchbase data.
Knock
Launched by the founding team members of real estate listing site Trulia, Knockis a “home trade-in” platform for existing homeowners. The company is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Almost exactly two years after closing a $32.5 million Series A round, Knock announced it had raised $400 million, led by Foundry Group, in a Series B round disclosed on January 15th. An undisclosed portion of that total was debt financing. Prior investors RRE Ventures, FJ Labs, WTI, and Corazon Capital participated in the round; Company Ventures joined the Series B as a new investor.
- The company was founded in 2015.
- Besides the Series B round announced in January 2019 and the Series A from January 2017, Knock’s only other known funding was a $2 million seed roundannounced in May 2016. Knock also received an unspecified amount of non-equity assistance from NY-based Grand Central Tech.
- Crunchbase News covered the news of Knock’s Series B round as it was publicly announced.
Yimidida
Shanghai-based Yimidada develops logistics management systems.
- Yimidada raised a CN¥1.8 billion ($266.2 million) Series D round led by private equity firm Boyu Capital. HOPU Investment Management Companyand Source Code Capital participated in the deal, which was announced on January 14th.
- The company was founded in March 2015.
- Prior to raising its Series D round, Yimidada had raised $137.4 million in known venture funding, which includes a $79 million Series C announced in April 2018.
N26
German fintech company N26 is a provider of mobile banking and international money transfer infrastructure and services.
- N26 raised $300 million in a Series D round led by Insight Venture Partners. Greyhound Capital and Singapore’s government-backed fund GIC participated in the deal. It was announced on January 9th and valued the company at $2.7 billion, post-money.
- The company was founded in February 2013.
- Prior to its Series D round, N26 had raised nearly $213 million in prior venture capital funding.
- Crunchbase News covered N26’s Series D round, as well as the $160 million the firm raised back in a Series C round from March 2018.
The We Company
Née “WeWork,” the recently re-christened The We Company is a New York City-based commercial real estate company that offers temporary, shared, and private workspace options to clientele ranging from individuals to corporations.
- The company raised $1 billion in a Series H round formally announced on January 9th. SoftBank (not the Vision Fund) invested $2 billion total in the transaction: $1 billion from the de novo equity financing, and an additional $1 billion in equity acquired through a secondary stock sale from prior shareholders. These were the final parts of a transaction that ultimately netted The We Company $6 billion.
- The company was founded in 2010.
- Prior to the $6 billion deal (which included debt and warrant issuance was announced in several parts between August 2018 and January 2019), The We Company had raised nearly $6.8 billion in prior equity and debt funding.
- Crunchbase News covered the deal when it was announced.
Grab
Grab, a ride-hailing platform offering transportation in shared and private car rides, as well as motorbikes, is based in Singapore.
- The company raised $350 million in the latest tranche of an extended Series H round, formally announced on January 7th. Tokyo Century led the deal.
- Grab was founded in June of 2012. Prior to the company’s multi-part Series H round (the first part of which closed in June 2018) Grab had raised at least $4.135 billion in VC, PE, and debt financing.
- Crunchbase News covered Grab’s never-ending Series H round back in December 2018. Between the first tranche from June 2018 and the last (for now?) $350 million raised in January, Grab has raised at least $3 billion in its Series H round.
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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