📅 [10/26/20–11/1/20] Weekly Digest #5
👋🏽 Welcome to Doing Well by Doing Good, a newsletter and podcast series highlighting the companies aiming to be profitable with a purpose. Get the latest updates
Happy post-Halloween Monday! Hope you’re ready for the weekly report on Doing Well by Doing Good!
DWDG News
- Check out our latest Bonus Podcast synthesizing what we learned from our interviews with founders so far
- Airbnb says it’s creating an endowment fund to help support its hosts as it prepares for an IPO by placing 9.2 million shares into the endowment and allowing hosts to apply for grants from the fund once its value tops $1 billion. The program will “give hosts a seat at the table, and an opportunity to take part in our company’s success.”
DWDG Fundings
Ketos, a 5.5-year-old, Milpitas, Ca.-based water intelligence and analytics company, has raised $15 million in funding. Motley Fool Ventures led the round, joined by Citi and Illuminated Funds Group. [ Techcrunch Report]
- Doing Good: Clean water is a fundamental right for everyone, but the reality of infrastructure is that those that need it most, don’t receive it. Ketos’ intelligence and analytics is helping to solve this challenge.
ShearShare, a 3.5-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based marketplace service connecting stylists with open seats at hair salons, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding from Precursor Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and Structure Capital, among others, long with a non-dilutive cash grant from Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. [ TechCrunch Report]
- Doing Good: ShearShare enables hair stylists, typically freelancers and independent contractors who make money on a per seat basis, to reduce empty salon seats and maximize revenues.
Faire, the 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based online wholesale marketplace connecting more than 100,000 local retailers and 10,000 brands, has officially closed a $170 million Series E round led by Sequoia Capital that pegs Faire’s valuation at $2.5 billion. That’s more than double the valuation it was assigned when it raised a Series D round less than one year ago. (Bloomberg reported last week that this deal was in the works.) [ Forbes Report]
- Doing Good: Faire enables small mom-and-pop shops, typically subject to high volatility, to better compete with large online retailers like Amazon by reducing their inventory risk.
Gig Wage, a six-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based startup focused on helping contractors get paid faster and more efficiently, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round led by publicly traded Green Dot. Other participants in the round include Continental Investors, Techstars, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and others. [ FinLedger Report]
- Doing Good: Gig Wage enables gig workers, often a population vulnerable due to a lack of benefits and certainty in payments, to have more stable and reliable income streams.
Sinai Technologies, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based decarbonization software platform, has raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by Afore Capital, with participation from Abstract Ventures and Coelius Capital. [ ZDNet Report]
- Doing Good: Sinai Technologies sells software whose key success metric is to reduce carbon emissions positively contributing to curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
WareIQ, a year-old, Bangalore, India-based startup that operates a management system for warehouses across the country for customers with little prior e-commerce experience, has raised a $1.65 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, FundersClub, Pioneer Fund, Soma Capital, Emles Venture Advisors and the founders of Flexport. [ TechCrunch Report]
- Doing Good: WareIQ makes efficient logistics and new revenue streams available to small mom-and-pop business owners without the means to compete against bigger players individually.
Lunchbox, a year-old, New York-based startup that allows restaurants to build ordering experiences on their own websites and apps, has raised $20 million in Series A funding at a $100 million valuation. Coatue led the round, joined by 645 Ventures and Primary Ventures. [ TechCrunch Report]
- Doing Good: Lunchbox helps reduce dependence on third party ordering experiences and fees, which has hurt small businesses providing an alternative.
DWDG Careers
Here’s to a relaxing and productive week (like this bear and his coffee)!
Catch you on the other side!
✌🏽Anand
Originally published at https://dwdg.substack.com.
