附近上门

Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the 附近上门 News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.

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鸥苍蝉别肠迟 raises $224M debt and equity for bug farms

, a French startup that builds insect farms for use in feedstocks, has added $224 million in equity and debt funding.

Backers in the round include Los Angeles VC firm and the , an eco-focused investment vehicle financed by actor .

The financing includes $139 million in debt and another $65 million in equity, according to a .聽 It will go toward constructing what 鸥苍蝉别肠迟 says will be the world’s largest insect farm, with an aim of producing more than 100,000 tons per year.

The company sees a core use for its product in fish feed for aquaculture, as well as potential in pet foods.

Funding rounds

• Dialpad raises $100M Series E: , a provider of cloud-based phone, video and contact center systems for businesses,聽 $100 million in a Series E funding round led by , at a聽 reported valuation of $1.2 billion.
• Onapsis secures $55M for SaaS expansion: Cybersecurity and compliance company raised $55 million in Series D financing, led by and, with participation from existing investors, and. The investment will be used to significantly scale the company through rapid expansion into the mission-critical SaaS applications market, starting with protection and compliance for and applications. Federation Bio launches with $50M, new CEO:
• Federation Bio launches with $50M, new CEO: , a microbial therapeutics company, debuted with $50 million Series A financing. led the financing, joined by existing investors and , and new investors and . The company, which is targeting diseases in which the human microbiome can play a curative role, intends to use the new funds to accelerate one of its programs to the clinic in 2022. In addition, the company appointed , Ph.D., as CEO, taking over from Venrock partner and founding CEO .
• Skilljar inks $33M for expansion: Customer education platform announced $33 million in Series B funding. led the round with participation from existing investors , and . Skilljar will use the new funding to expand its team, fuel go-to-market programs, and accelerate product development.
• Walnut raises $2.5M to be 鈥榃ix for sales demos鈥�: New sales demo platform closed on its $2.5 million seed round to enable customer-facing sales representatives to create, personalize, and manage the sales demo experience. The round was led by with additional investments from , , , , , and .
• Doppler raises $2.3M: New universal secrets manager raised $2.3 million in seed funding led by , with participation from , and , among others. The company is touting the creation of the industry鈥檚 first universal secrets manager for developers that works across every language, stack and infrastructure.
• Empowerly brings in $1.6M to democratize college admissions: Edtech startup , which also launched today, raised $1.6 million from , , and , as well as angel investors and . The funds will be used to expand service offerings and make new hires.
• GigaPoints secures $1.5M to provide credit card recommendations: Another new startup, , a platform that provides personalized credit card recommendations based on a user鈥檚 spending, announced $1.5 million in seed funding. Participating in the round were, and a group of angel investors. GigaPoints plans to use the funding for marketing, additional hiring and platform development.

New funds

• Greycroft closes two funds: Venture capital firm announced that its newest funds, Greycroft VI and Greycroft Growth III, have raised a total of $678 million. Greycroft VI is a $310 million venture fund with an emphasis on early-stage investments, while Greycroft Growth III is the firm’s newest growth-stage fund with more than $368 million of commitments. Including these new funds, Greycroft has raised $2 billion in commitments across 10 investment vehicles and has more than 200 active investments. In August, we profiled the firm to discuss why its investments hadn鈥檛 slowed down during the pandemic.
• Salesforce closes on second impact fund: announced the closing of its second Impact Fund from its strategic investment arm, 1. The will accelerate the growth of cloud companies addressing areas, such as education and workforce development, climate action, diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as providing tech for nonprofits and foundations. The Global Impact Investing Network the market size at $715 billion, up more than 40 percent from last year. Salesforce Ventures introduced its first back in 2017, and to date, has invested in more than 25 companies.
• Draper Goren Holm launches first fund: announced the launch and first close of Fund 1. The venture studio鈥檚 first traditional venture fund of $25 million will invest seed and Series A funding into promising fintech and blockchain startups.

Other news

• SEC charges McAfee with fraud: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has charged businessman and computer programmer with fraud for promoting investments in initial coin offerings (ICOs) to his Twitter followers without disclosing that he was paid to do so. McAfee鈥檚 bodyguard, Jimmy Watson Jr., was also charged for his role in the alleged scheme.
• Faraday eyes public offering via SPAC:聽Electric vehicle maker is about potentially going public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, according to a Reuters interview with company CEO Carsten Breitfeld.
• ZeroFOX acquires Cyveillance: Digital risk production company acquired the 鈥淐yveillance鈥� business from for an undisclosed amount. Cyveillance provides comprehensive threat intelligence services in the financial services, energy and public sectors. ZeroFOX has raised over $150 million in funding to date, including a round in February, according to 附近上门 data.

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