Unicorn company

Brand-building platform Heyday locks in $555 million Series C

Brand builder and consolidator Heyday raises $555 million in Series C

Amazon built its business around access, connecting its millions of sellers with its millions of customers in one simple platform. As we now know, that model was pretty effective. It’s been so effective, in fact, that other brands are building their businesses around Amazon’s business.

Brands that exist solely to buy and scale other brands — aggregators, as they are sometimes called — are all the rage right now among big-money investors. Last year, Thrasio, which acquires and scales businesses...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/brand-building-platform-heyday-locks-in-555-million-series-c

GrubMarket makes yet another acquisition, but this one is different

GrubMarket acquires Oakwood Transportation to expand food supply chain through logistics and trucking capability

Thirty. That’s the number of acquisitions food tech unicorn GrubMarket has completed since the beginning of 2019, and the company is only picking up the pace. One-third of those acquisitions have taken place since June of this year, an incredible number that’s growing larger by the month.

That includes this month, when GrubMarket announced its 31st acquisition since 2019, buying Oakwood Transportation for an undisclosed amount. At first glance, the purchase might seem like just another addition...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/grubmarket-makes-yet-another-acquisition-but-this-one-is-different

Why logistics’ latest unicorn is ready to break the $10B barrier

Fabric achieved logistics unicorn status, but it's not stopping there

Retail is in the midst of a metamorphosis. 

The role of the physical store is changing as consumers explore options other than in-store shopping –– according to the National Retail Federation, more than half of retailers currently offer or plan to offer a ship-from-store option, and another two-thirds currently offer or plan to offer buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS). And then there’s e-commerce, which now accounts for about 15% of all retail sales.

Increasingly, companies are spending less...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/why-logistics-latest-unicorn-is-ready-to-break-the-10b-barrier

ShipBob reaches $1B valuation with new funding round

The money keeps flowing into the last-mile logistics space and the latest company to reap the benefits is cloud-based platform ShipBob, which announced a $200 million Series E round Tuesday morning.

The new funding, which brings total funding in the company to $330.5 million according to Crunchbase, doubles ShipBob’s valuation from its Series D funding round in September 2020 to more than $1 billion today, it said in a release.

The Series E financing was led by Bain Capital Ventures, which led...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/shipbob-reaches-1b-valuation-with-new-funding-round

Direct-to-consumer brand Misfits Market achieves unicorn status

Food waste in the United States is estimated between 30% and 40% of the total food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA’s Economic Research Service estimated the loss at 31% at the retail and consumer levels.

There are a number of reasons for food loss – from spoilage to production problems. At the retail level, overordering and the removal of blemished or less pristine product from store shelves leads to waste. Several startup companies are attempting to tackle...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/direct-to-consumer-brand-misfits-market-achieves-unicorn-status

Stripe most expensive startup in US with $95B valuation

Payments technology provider Stripe has raised $600 million in additional funding for a $95 billion valuation, making the firm the most valuable startup in the U.S., according to CB Insights, which pegs the company’s valuation second only to China’s Bytedance in the world. Bytedance is valued at $140 billion. 

Stripe, which is based in San Francisco, California, and Dublin, Ireland, was valued at $36 billion last April when it also raised $600 million. Total funding across 15 rounds is now $2.2...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/stripe-most-expensive-startup-in-us-with-$95b-valuation