Weekly Round Up: 1/15/21

At Greenspring we believe in venture capital's ability to propel innovation, job creation and positive societal change. We celebrate those who think differently, take measured risk and challenge perceptions. Here's what's trending in VC this week:

Congratulations to Affirm, Inc. and the teams at Greenspring managers Lightspeed Venture Partners and Founders Fund on yesterday’s IPO! More details here. #AFRM

Congratulations to the Top 25 Machine Learning Startups to Watch in 2021 named by Crunchbase, including Databand.ai, LeadGenius, Securiti and Zest AI, backed by Greenspring managers Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, LaunchFund, Mayfield Fund and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Find the full list here.

TechCrunch recently interviewed 8 leading VCs, including Ethan Kurzweil and Sakib Dadi from Greenspring manager Bessemer Venture Partners and Gigi Levy-Weiss from Greenspring manager NFX, on their thoughts about the shifting trends and opportunities within the social gaming industry in 2021. Read their predictions here.

Join Greenspring manager LocalGlobe and Future Africa on 1/19 at 10 AM EST for a panel about building a thriving seed ecosystem in Africa and how venture can help solve the continent’s biggest social challenges. Register here.

Webflow, a company that helps businesses build no-code websites, has raised $140 million Series B led by Greenspring managers Accel and Silversmith Capital Partners. Read more here.

Stytch, which provides user infrastructure for modern applications, improving security and user experience with passwordless authentication, has raised $6 million in seed financing led by Greenspring manager Benchmark. Read more here. 

“We’re seeing totally new industries emerge and flourish from digital content to virtual childcare to creating an online store front, and this has really ushered in a new era of entrepreneurs, many of which are building for a digital-first and online-first world.” Check out more insights from Talia Goldberg, Partner at Greenspring manager Bessemer Venture Partners, in this conversation with Jill Malandrino discussing the role entrepreneurs will play in the COVID-19 rebound here.

What does it take to become a partner at a VC firm? Mercedes Bent, Partner at Greenspring manager Lightspeed Venture Partners, describes how it took a year of meetings and researching over 60 startups to land a job at Lighstpeed. Read about her journey via Business Insider here.

We’re thrilled to announce that we recently led a $35 million Series B round in residential real estate platform La Haus, also backed by Greenspring manager NFX. The company is transforming the highly fragmented LatAm real estate industry through a first-of-its-kind, end-to-end marketplace aimed at addressing the many hardships home buyers and sellers face in Latin America. Read more here. 

“Upon entering the workforce, millions of GenZennial knowledge workers dreamed of opportunity and recognition, yet our current remote reality has left many of us with a sense of stagnation and anonymity. As we crawl out of our COVID-induced caves and collectively figure out the future of work, it is worth reflecting upon Why We Work and how new systems can better support us in fulfilling such intrapersonal aspirations.” Meera Clark, Partner at Greenspring manager Obvious Ventures, reflects on how we can design a better toolkit for professional development in our new world here.

Huge congrats to Greenspring direct investment and RV-rental platform Outdoorsy on their sales milestone of $1B in transactions, as well as their recent key hires from Airbnb and Metromile! With 200,000+ unique vehicles available to rent in 4,800+ cities across 14 countries, Outdoorsy has emerged as the preferred form of travel for consumers, offering a self-contained mode of transport that allows its guests to safely hit the road amidst growing health concerns, while at the same time empowering RV owners to establish a new source of financial income and support. Read more here.

Senti Biosciences, which develops cancer therepies using a new programmable biology platform, has raised $105 million in recent financing with participation from Greenspring manager Pear VC. Read more here.

We are excited to announce the launch of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained, a podcast about Limited Partners who think differently about allocating to venture. With this podcast, we sit down with LPs to unpack what makes a strong GP/LP relationship, how they think about investing and portfolio construction, deal diligence, the macro environment, and more. In our inaugural episode, Greenspring Partner Hunter Somerville sits down with Ryan Rathman and Travis Haney from the State of Michigan Department of Treasury Bureau of Investments. Listen to the episode here.

Our Greenspring manager #JobOfTheWeek this week is from Foundation Capital who is looking to hire an Associate Partner to develop investment theses, source investment opportunities, and work with other partners through the investment life cycle. Sound like something of interest? Apply here. 

Syndio, an analytics platform introducing new workplace tools to boost fairness in the workplace, has raised $17 million in Series B financing led by Greenspring manager Bessemer Venture Partners. Read more on how this company is trying to resolve pay gaps here. #VCforGood

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