Weekly Round Up: 1/29/21

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:

🌐We’re hoping to see immigration policy evolve this year to be consistent with its outsized impact on the innovation economy. As we’ve written before, we believe that America must be an attractive option for disruptive innovators, and foreign-born entrepreneurs are no exception. While our country still leads the global entrepreneurship index, its entrepreneurial edge hangs in the balance and it is critical that we nurture and protect our position through a thoughtful approach to entrepreneurial visas. Read more here. 

📣Calling early stage healthcare companies: CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield has just launched 1501 Health, an incubation and investment program that provides capital, expertise and support centered around growing and scaling your startup to improve the future of healthcare. Learn more about the application process, which opens on February 1, 2021 and closes February 22, 2021, here.

“The digitization of healthcare data over the last decade has created a massive opportunity to redefine care delivery, accelerate pharmaceutical innovation, and reinvent how patients interface with the system and engage with their care.” Read Greenspring primary manager Bessemer Venture Partners’ most recent blog post on the 10 laws of healthcare that will shape future investment decisions here.

Greenspring primary manager High Alpha is taking applications for Resilient, a new venture studio program that is looking to fund and support B2B Software-As-A-Service companies in 2021 with aspiring immigrant entrepreneurs – regardless of visa status! These entrepreneurs will join the High Alpha Innovation team for a week in March designed to help them convert their idea into a business model. Applications are being accepted till 1/31. More information and application details here. 

“One of the things we’ve seen in COVID is that job seekers, particularly from low-income backgrounds, women, people of color, have been disproportionately affected, especially if you aren’t living in a tech city like San Francisco or New York City. We want to expand access. There’s so much untapped talent that tech companies aren’t accessing or seeing that is more than qualified to do these jobs.” Flockjay, which provides a 10-week training program to help people land jobs in tech sales, has raised $11 million in Series A financing led by Greenspring primary manager Lightspeed Venture Partners. Read more here. 

Lifelong and remote learning are making EdTech mainstream, say 13 top VCs, including Greenspring primary managers Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. Check out their insights on the trends driving the vertical’s growth here.

There’s nothing like a good burger with a soda right? Well Obvious-backed Beyond Meat and Pepsico are teaming up to develop, produce and market snacks and beverages that are plant based! Read more about this here.

Huge congrats to Tope, Russell and the team at Greenspring direct investment and online appointment scheduling software provider Calendly, on raising the largest venture round in the history of Atlanta! The $350 million financing was led by Greenspring primary manager Openview Venture Partners and values the company at $3B. Read more here. 

Airspace Technologies, a tech-enabled shipping service for time-sensitive items ranging from aircraft parts to human organs, has raised $38 million in Series C financing with participation from Greenspring primary managers Scale Venture Partners and Defy Partners. 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.

The content here is for informational purposes only and should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice. It does NOT constitute an offer or solicitation to purchase any investment or a recommendation to buy or sell a security. In fact, the content is not directed to any investor or potential investor and may not be used to evaluate or make any investment.