Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the Crunchbase News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.
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Report: Fanatics scores $320M for sports merchandise e-commerce
Fanatics, the Jacksonville-based licensed sports merchandise retailer, has raised $320 million at a $12.8 billion valuation, Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The round was led by existing investors Silver Lake, Blackstone, Fidelity Investments, Neuberger Berman, Thrive Capital and Major League Baseball, according to the report.
The funding will be used in part to pursue mergers and acquisitions and for international expansion, sources told Reuters. Fanatics had previously raised $2 billion in funding, according to Crunchbase data. It has already made at least five known acquisitions, including most recently acquiring WinCraft and Top Of The World Headwear late last year.
— Marlize van Romburgh
Blockchain.com lands $300M at $5.2B valuation
London-based Blockchain.com, a service for buying, selling and transacting with cryptocurrencies, announced that it raised $300 million in a Series C round at a post-money valuation of $5.2 billion.
DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital led the financing for the 10-year-old company, which has seen rapid growth in recent quarters. Blockchain.com says it has over 31 million verified users in over 200 countries and has seen a 3x increase in active users over the past 12 months.
— Joanna Glasner
Everlywell acquires PWNHealth, Home Access Health to form Everly Health
Digital health company Everlywell said Wednesday it acquired both PWNHealth and Home Access Health Corp. to form a new parent company, Everly Health, to provide high-quality diagnostic care with a user-first digital experience. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
New York-based PWNHealth, a telehealth network and provider of diagnostic testing, will be rebranded as Everly Health Solutions and will operate as an independent subsidiary of Austin-based Everly Health, according to the company. Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Home Access Health Corp., now a subsidiary of Everly Health, exists to inform consumers about their health through easy-to-use, self-collected lab tests.
Everlywell founder and CEO Julia Cheek is now CEO of Everly Health. PWNHealth’s CEO Sanjay Pingle will serve in a transitional role during the integration and also join the board of Everly Health.
Everly Health was founded in 2016 and raised a total of $325 million in known venture-backed funding to date, according to Crunchbase data. It most recently raised $75 million in secondary market funding in January.
The combined companies support more than 20 million people annually in all 50 U.S. states, Canada and Puerto Rico.
— Christine Hall
Fintech
Feedzai raises $200M to fight fraud: Feedzai, a developer of risk management tools to prevent fraud and money laundering in transactions, raised $200 million in a Series D funding round reaching a valuation that it says is “well above $1 billion.” KKR led the round, which also includes participation from existing investors Sapphire Ventures and Citi Ventures.
— Joanna Glasner
Health care
• Ginger raises $100M Series E for on-demand mental health platform: San Francisco-based mental health startup Ginger said Wednesday that it had raised a $100 million Series E financing round led by funds managed by Blackstone Group, bringing its total funding to more than $220 million. Ginger’s funding comes amid a boom in investment for startups offering mental health services. The Crunchbase dataset shows close to 300 known venture deals since 2016 in U.S. startups working in mental health. Since that time, investors have pumped nearly $2.6 billion into these companies, according to a Crunchbase News analysis conducted last month. Of that, nearly $1 billion was raised in 2020 alone, marking a 112 percent increase compared to 2019.
Ginger, which provides on-demand virtual mental and emotional support, said it has experienced 3x revenue growth over the past year and that more than 10 million people in more than 40 countries have access to its platform. Employers who use its platform to provide mental health care benefits to employees include ViacomCBS, Delta Air Lines, Domino’s, SurveyMonkey and Sephora, according to the company.
— Marlize van Romburgh
• Courage Therapeutics lands $1M to treat eating disorders: Biotechnology company Courage Therapeutics secured its first financing, a $1 million seed round, to develop treatments for eating disorders. The Newton, Massachusetts-based company was co-founded by Dan Housman in Roger Cone’s laboratory at the University of Michigan in 2019. The seed is led by UM’s Biomedical Venture Fund and includes reinvestment by its founders and a group of angel investors. The funds will enable the company to move its candidate compounds into multiple animal models.
— Christine Hall
Foodtech
• Sakara Life gobbles up $15M for food as medicine: Sakara Life, a direct-to-consumer, New York City-based wellness and lifestyle program, closed on $15 million in Series B funding to expand into new consumer packaged goods verticals. The round was led by John Replogle, Silas Capital and Bob Mylod. As part of the investment, Replogle joined as chairman of Sakara’s board of directors to grow the new vertical into a fully comprehensive global lifestyle brand. Founded in 2012 by Danielle DuBoise and Whitney Tingle, Sakara previously raised $5 million in Series A funding in 2015 and has since grown 15x in revenue, according to the company. In addition, it sold approximately 2 million meals in 2020, and is expected to approach $150 million in profitable revenue in 2021.
— Christine Hall
• iFoodDS raises $15M for food supply chain safety platform: iFoodDS, a Seattle-based food supply chain safety software startup, said Wednesday that it has closed a $15 million Series A funding round led by Insight Partners. The company’s cloud-based platform gives retailers, foodservice chains, processors, shippers, packers and growers visibility across the supply chain and delivers real-time food safety practice assessment and data capture, according to the company. The startup said in the past year it has doubled its headcount and acquired HarvestMark and its line of traceability products.
Its funding follows what was likely a record year for venture investment in the agtech and food supply chain spaces, with over $4.1 billion invested in 2020.
Travel
Hopper raises $170M: Hopper, the app known for monitoring flight prices and suggesting when to book travel, has raised $170 million in a Series F round led by Capital One. The company also announced it will be partnering with Capital One to launch Capital One Travel, a booking service for cardholders. The new funding comes after a difficult year for the travel industry, but ahead of an expected resurgence in leisure travel.
— Sophia Kunthara
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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