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Why Draper Esprit doubled down on its status as a publicly listed VC

by Anna Heim

We cover a lot of venture capital news here at TechCrunch. New funds, partner changes, the funding rounds themselves — the list is long. Lately, we’ve had to touch on rolling funds, solo GPs and a faster-than-ever investing cadence that has rewritten the rules of venture investing. Gone are the days when investors can take weeks, let alone months, to get into a hot deal in today’s turbocharged private markets.

But there’s another venture capital trend worth discussing: venture capital firms going public. This July, for example, London-based Forward Partners went public on the AIM, a sub-market of the well-known London Stock Exchange. Augmentum Fintech is another example of a London-listed venture capital firm. The investing group focuses on European fintech.

Most recently, Draper Esprit, another British venture capital firm, moved from the AIM to the LSE proper, with a secondary listing on Euronext Dublin. TechCrunch has cited Esprit partners in our explorations of the European venture capital scene in the past, especially in our regular digs through the startup hub’s numbers.

To understand why Draper Esprit not only decided to stay public but doubled down on its structure by moving to the main boards in London and Dublin, we got on the horn with the firm’s co-founder, Stuart Chapman. What follows is an edited and condensed transcript of our call. Coming up, The Exchange has analysis and further interviews about whether the trend of floating venture capital firms may spread, and why other investing groups opted (Read more...)

Wayflyer raises $76M to provide ‘revenue-based’ financing to e-commerce merchants

by Mary Ann Azevedo

Wayflyer, a revenue-based financing platform for e-commerce merchants, has raised $76 million in a Series A funding round led by Left Lane Capital.

“Partners” of DST Global, QED Investors, Speedinvest and Zinal Growth — the family office of Guillaume Pousaz (founder of Checkout.com) — also put money in the round. The raise comes just after Wayflyer raised $100 million in debt funding to support its cash advance product, and 14 months after the Dublin, Ireland-based startup launched its first product.

With an e-commerce boom fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wayflyer is the latest in a group of startups focused on the space that has attracted investor interest as of late. The company aims to help e-commerce merchants “unlock growth” by giving them access to working capital (from $10,000 up to $20 million) so they can improve cash flow and drive sales. For example, more cash can help these merchants do things like buy more inventory in bulk so they can meet customer demand and save money. 

In a nutshell, Wayflyer uses analytics and sends merchants cash to make inventory purchases or investments in their business. Those merchants then repay Wayflyer using a percentage of their revenue until the money is paid back (plus a fee charged for the cash advance). So essentially, the merchants are using their revenue to get financing, hence the term revenue-based financing. The advantage, Wayflyer says, is that companies make repayments as a percentage of their sales. So if they have a slow month, (Read more...)

Canada’s newest unicorn: Clio raises $110M at a $1.6B valuation for legal tech

by Mary Ann Azevedo

Clio, a software company that helps law practices run more efficiently with its cloud-based technology, announced Tuesday it has raised a $110 million Series E round co-led by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. and OMERS Growth Equity.

The round propels the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company to unicorn status, valuing it at $1.6 billion. Clio last raised in September of 2019 when it brought in $250 million in a Series D financing. With the latest funding, Clio claims that it’s the “first legal practice management unicorn” globally. The investment also brings its total capital raised since its 2008 inception to $386 million.

Founder and CEO Jack Newton says he and Rian Gauvreau launched Clio during the 2008 recession after seeing the struggles solo lawyers and small firms faced when running a business. Historically, legal practice management software was limited to server-based solutions designed for enterprise businesses — not small law firms, Newton said. Clio was formed to change that.

Clio co-founders Jack Newton and Rian Gauvreau; Image courtesy of Clio

“Much like how Microsoft Windows defined the operating system for personal computers decades ago, Clio has developed a software platform for law firms and their clients that is cloud-based and client-centric by design,” Newton said.

The company’s platform aims to serve as “an operating system” for lawyers, offering cloud-based legal practice management, client intake and legal CRM software. Clio has more than 150,000 customers across 100 countries. Many of the lawyers using Clio are smaller and solo practitioners, but the (Read more...)

Squarespace raises $300M at a staggering $10B valuation

by Mary Ann Azevedo

Squarespace has raised $300 million in a round of funding that values the company at a staggering $10 billion valuation.

New backers include Dragoneer, Tiger Global, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and Spruce House. Existing backers Accel and General Atlantic also participated. 

Squarespace founder & CEO Anthony Casalena said the fresh capital will advance the company’s growth initiatives and help it scale its product suite.

The move comes less than two months after the company filed confidentiality to go public via a direct listing or initial public offering.

Squarespace, which has helped millions create their own websites, was founded in 2003 and bootstrapped until a $38.5 million Series A in 2010 that was co-led by Accel and Index Ventures.

The online website creation and hosting service — which has now expanded into e-commerce by hosting online stores — then raised another $40 million round in 2014. But it is perhaps best known for its epic 2017-era $200 million secondary round that General Atlantic financed. That round was raised at a $1.5 billion pre-money valuation.

At that time, TechCrunch reported that Squarespace was a profitable company, with revenues increasing 50% in the prior year, to about $300 million. Execs are declining to comment on the company’s latest funding round beyond a post on its website.

New York City-based Squarespace has over 1,200 employees spread across its headquarters and offices in Dublin, Ireland; Portland, Oregon; and Los Angeles, California. 

(Read more...)