North America

Firefly emerges from stealth with $21.5 mln in seed funding

San Francisco-based Firefly, which provides a digital advertising platform for rideshare drivers, emerged from stealth and announced it has raised $21.5 million in seed-stage funding. Funding was led by NFX, with participation from Pelion Venture Partners, Decent Capital (which is funded bu Tencent founders), Jeffrey Housenbold (of Softbank's Vision Fund), Cross Culture Ventures, Muse Capital, StartX and others. The company was founded in 2017.

PivotNorth to raise "early" venture fund

PivotNorth Capital has set out to raise an "early" venture-capital fund, according to a filing with the SEC.

Ground transportation-focused Autotech seeks $225 mln for second fund

Menlo Park, California-based Autotech Ventures, is seeking to raise $225 million for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing. The firm said last year it raised $120 million for its inaugural fund. The firm is headed up by Managing Directors Alexei Andreev, Quin Garcia and Daniel Hoffer. Autotech Ventures focuses on connected, autonomous, shared and electrified vehicles and related mobility services.

VC-backed Moderna Therapeutics goes public

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna Therapeutics, a developer of messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines, has raised $604.3 million for its IPO after pricing its over 26.2 million shares at $23 per share. The stock began trading December 7, 2018 on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "MRNA." Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters. Moderna's pre-IPO backers include Sequoia Capital China, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Pictet, Viking Global Investors, ArrowMark Partners and Alexandria Venture Investments.

Demeter Group rakes in over $14 mln for sophomore fund

San Francisco-based Demeter Group, which invests in luxury wine and spirit brands, has raised over $14 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. No target was listed on the document.

Amity Ventures leads Series A round for Avochato

San Francisco-based Avochato, a business communications software firm, has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Amity Ventures led the round with participation from other backers that included XSeed Capital.

Google's Gradient Ventures backs autonomous logistics company Wise Systems

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Wise Systems, which develops autonomous dispatch and routing software for delivery fleets, announced it has raised $7 million in Series A funding. Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused venture fund, led the round. Existing investors E14 Fund, Neoteny, Trucks Venture Capital and Fontinalis Partners also participated. The company, founded in 2014 by MIT and Harvard University graduates, has now raised $8.5 million in total funding.

Underscore leads $11 mln funding in Forge.AI

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forge.AI, an artificial intelligence company that focuses on decoding unstructured information machine-learning ready data, announced it has raised $11 million in Series A funding. Underscore VC led the round, which included participation from Accomplice, Boston Seed Capital, Imagination Capital and Project 11 Ventures. The company was founded last year by CEO Jim Crowley, COO Jennifer Lum and CTO Jack Crowley.

Hercules Capital gets approval to reduce asset-coverage requirement

Hercules Capital said it received approval at a special stockholders meeting to reduce its asset-coverage requirement to 150 percent from 200 percent. The reduction applies to asset-coverage requirements contained in the Small Business Credit Availability Act.

Costanoa raises $75 mln for opportunity fund

Palo, Alto, California-based Costanoa Ventures, an early-stage venture firm focused on tech startups that solve "real-world business problems," has raised $75 million for its opportunity fund. In September 2017, the firm closed its third fund at $175 million, as previously reported by PE HUB.