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A New Era in Sports
A VC Looks to Change the Game With its New Fund, Biotech Companies Enter a New Dimension, and a Startup Democratizes On-Cloud Development.
Adam from VC Brags
January 26, 2023
Welcome Shareholders,
In this daily edition of the Brags Newsletter, we'll cover the latest on a sports VCs second fund, a new biotech fund led by investors from Lux and Obvious ventures, and a startup founded by an ex-Uber engineer building a cloud platform to deliver tools to developers. So sit back, grab a snack, and enjoy!
Before we get started today, we have an exciting announcement to make! VCBrags and Miami Hack Week are hosting a Happy Hour on Feb 1st. To know more and sign up for the event, please fill out the form below.
Who's Raising?
The Venture Arm of Sapphire Ventures has raised $181 million in fresh capital through a new funding round led by City Football Group, the parent company of English Premier League Team Manchester City.
Other investors include Boston Celtics Owner Stephen Pagliuca, Philadelphia 76ers co-owner David Blitzer, Major League Soccer franchise owner Stephen Kaplan, owners of Indiana Pacers, owner of the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning Jeff Vinik, and several other prominent sports-linked personalities.
Sapphire Sport plans to invest at least $5 million in 20 companies and remain invested for up to ten years. With its recent Raise, Sapphire sport now has close to $300 million under management. It's successful portfolio investments include media company Overtime, live sports streaming service Buzzer, virtual sneaker game Aglet, and Tonal home gyms.
Venture Today đź‘Ź
Three former investors who worked at Lux Capital and Obvious Ventures have teamed up to start Dimension, which targets young biotechnology companies.
The New York and San Francisco-based company has raised $350 million from investors to invest in companies at the intersection of technology and life sciences. The firm's founders include ex-Obvious Ventures managing director Nan Li and Lux General Partners Adam Goulburn and Zavain Dar.
Dimension currently has three investments on its books, including plant-powered drug discovery company Enveda Biosciences; Kaleidoscope Bio, which provides a cloud-based research platform; and open-source software infrastructure provider for drug Research and Development Lamin.ai. The Venture firm said that it would look to invest its funds in between 20 and 25 startups, with cheque sizes varying between $1 and $20 million.
Startup of the Day
DevOp-focused DevZero, founded by an ex-Uber engineer, announced $26 million in funding, including a previously unannounced $5 million seed round and a new $21 million Series A.
DevZero has built a cloud-based system that allows developers to build and test code, reducing the burden on local machines and potentially saving development time and costs.
In general, larger companies build custom solutions to move their development and testing tools onto the cloud, but DevZero targets smaller teams, including startups, which found such tools to be out of reach before. The new Series A was led by Anthos Capital, with participation from Foundation Capital, Fika Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group, while the Seed round was led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Fika and Madrona.
Memes and Other Things
