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JP Morgan Taps Into VC Market With New Acquisition, F3C Raises $25 Million Targeting Consumer Brands, and a Startup Looks to Heat Up the Cooling Tech Game with New Funding.

Author

Adam from VC Brags
March 22, 2023

Welcome Shareholders,

In this daily edition of the Brags Newsletter, we'll cover how JPMorgan is looking to make the most out of the SVB collapse with a new acquisition, a VC looks to build a community of co-investing founders in the consumer brand space, and a startup looks to transform the cooling technology industry with new funding.

So sit back, grab a snack, and enjoy!

Venture Today 👏

  • In an effort to strengthen its relationships with venture capital investors and their companies, JP Morgan, the largest bank in the United States by assets, is acquiring five-year-old Utah-based startup Aummi.

Although the exact terms were not disclosed, JPMorgan is paying around the same valuation Aumni received during its last fundraising round in 2021, which was $232 million.

Founded in 2018, Aumni is a data platform that simplifies the analysis and understanding of user holdings through an intuitive dashboard. The company has data on 18,000 portfolio companies valued at $3.6 trillion. The platform charges subscription fees based on the assets under management and the number of companies tracked.

Investors have turned to Aumni in recent weeks following SVB's collapse. Concerns have grown about uninsured deposits at mid-sized banks with VCs wanting to ensure their portfolio companies had legal rights to inspect their financial books and to know where they banked.

JP Morgan said it would integrate Aummi with its Capital Connect private markets platform. The service is also expected to complement the bank's 2021 acquisition of Global Shares, a software provider that manages employee stock plans.

Who's Raising?

  • The Family Fund & Founder Community announced $25 million in new capital commitments with a focus on becoming the largest community of co-investing founders in the late-seed and Series A stages of consumer brands.

General partners Kurt Seidensticker, Sean Kelly, and Josh Wand, founders of Vital Protein, SnackNation, Caroo, and Forcebrands, have built a community of over 50 CEOs and founders, which includes Amanda Baldwin of Supergoop, Tyler Ricks of SuperCoffee, Jake Kassan of MVMT, and Jordan Bass of HOP WTR.

The Family Fund claims that its "secret sauce" is that all members are operators themselves, which means they possess an intimate understanding of the startup journey and what it takes to establish a prosperous company.

The new fund has made nine core investments, including Flossy, Elemind Technologies, Hopwater, and Ghost. Flossy offers pay-as-you-go dental services, Elemind Technologies develops a new type of wearable that adjusts behavior and enhances sleep with ultrasound-modulated brainwaves, Hopwater offers a non-alcoholic beverage, and Ghost provides supplements and energy drinks.

Startup of the Day

  • HT Materials Science (HTMS), an Irish cooling technology company, has secured $15 million in a Series A from investors, including Barclays, Aramco Ventures, CDP Venture Capital, and Progress Tech Transfer.

The Dublin-based company, founded in 2018, has developed a heat transfer fluid named Maxwell for commercial and industrial heating and cooling systems. According to the International Energy Agency, space cooling demand had the highest annual growth in 2021 among all building end uses, representing almost 16% of electricity consumption in the buildings sector.

HTMS anticipates that Maxwell brings a substantial reduction in energy consumption and an increase in system capacity that could potentially address a €50 billion ($54 billion) market across the US and Europe.

Memes and Other Things

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