Advanced battery maker Enovix Corp. this week refilled its coffers with a little help from John Doerr and T.J. Rodgers.
The Fremont company (Nasdaq: ENVX) raised $150 million in new funding through the sale of five-year 3% convertible notes. As part of the deal, Doerr, the chairman of Kleiner Perkins, and Rodgers, the founder of Cypress Semiconductor who is the battery maker's chairman, each invested $10 million.
The company plans to use the new funds to help build out production lines for its batteries in Malaysia.
Enovix has been making its initial batteries, which are designed for mobile devices, in low volumes at its headquarters location. It plans to start high-volume manufacturing next year at the Malaysian plant it's constructing.
The note sale came less than two years after Enovix went public in a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, a deal that provided it with $385 million in capital.
Rodgers has a long history with the company. He backed it before it went public, then headed the SPAC that took it to Wall Street.
Doerr, meanwhile, is a longtime investor in green and sustainable technology companies.
Their investment paths have crossed several times in the past, including at Enphase Energy Inc., a Petaluma solar energy company that Rodgers
was involved in.
Enovix announced the note sale after the markets closed on Monday. Since then, its shares (Nasdaq:ENVX) have dropped more than 5%. Even so, its stock price is up about 13% over the last year.
Here is more Bay Area venture and startup news from midweek:
Fundings
- Noah Medical Corp., San Carlos, $150 million, Series B: Softbank Vision Fund and Prosperity7 Ventures led the round for this developer of medical robots. Tiger Global, Hillhouse, Sequoia China, Shangbay Capital, Sunmed Capital, Lyfe Capital, 1955 Capital, AME Cloud Ventures also invested.
- EdgeQ Inc., Santa Clara, $75 million, Series B: Phaistos Investment Fund led the round for this developer of wireless networking chips.
- Return to Corporation (dba Semgrep), San Francisco, $53 million, Series C: Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round for this provider of a software bug and vulnerability detection service. Felicis Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and Sequoia Capital also participated.
- Safe Securities Inc., Palo Alto, $50 million, Series B: Sorenson Capital led the round for this provider of a cybersecurity risk assessment software. Western Technology Investment, Telstra Ventures and Fidelity Investments’ Eight Roads subsidiary also invested.
- DittoLive Inc. (dba Ditto), San Francisco, $45 million, Series A: Acrew Capital led the round for this provider of database technology that's designed to sync data in real time, even without an internet connection. U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, True Ventures and Amity Ventures also participated.
- Henry Labs Inc. (dba Clerkie), San Francisco, $33 million, Series A: Left Lane Capital led the Series A round for this provider of loan management software for lenders. Wellington Management Company, Flourish Ventures, Citi Ventures, CMFG Ventures and Vestigo Ventures also invested.
- Memora Health Inc., San Francisco, $30 million: General Catalyst led the round for this provider of patient care software. Northwell Holdings, PagsGroup, Andreessen Horowitz, Transformation Capital and Frist Cressey Ventures also participated.
- Kindred Concepts Inc., San Francisco, $15 million: New Enterprise Associates led the Series A round for this operator of an online home swapping service. Andreessen Horowitz, Caffeinated Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Outset Capital also invested.
- Evergrow Inc., San Francisco, $7 million: First Round Capital led the round for this provider of a service that helps companies buy renewable energy tax credits. XYZ Venture Capital, Congruent Ventures and Garuda Ventures also invested.
M&A
- Akamai Technologies Inc. agreed to buy Neosec Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Based in Milpitas, Neosec is a provider of a cybersecurity service focused on APIs, or application programming interfaces. Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM) is a Massachusetts-based provider of content delivery and cloud services.
Funders in the news
- Define Ventures raised $460 million for two new funds. The San Francisco firm focuses on investing in startups in the health-care sector.
- Congruent Ventures raised $300 million for a new fund. The San Francisco firm focuses on investing in climate-tech startups.
- Institutional Venture Partners added Tamar Yehoshua as a venture partner, Blair Shane as a partner and chief marketing officer and Davey Nickels as a senior vice president and head of talent. Before joining the Menlo Park firm, Yehoshua was chief of product at Slack Technologies Inc. Nickels was previously head of people at Robinhood Markets Inc. Shane was the CMO at Sequoia Capital and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
