It's a special edition of The Beat today as our national tech editor, Kyle Alspach, is joining in on the daily dish...Let's see what we have:
The Big One
Chris: Jet — the much publicized Amazon competitor e-commerce site founded by Marc Lore — has raised $140 million in new funding just months before it launches its platform. The deal includes $125 million that is structured as debt investment that automatically converts later into company equity at a discounted price per share. (Investors don’t usually like these sorts of provisions, so it shows the investors are really into Jet.) Lore was the co-founder of Quidsi (diapers.com), which was eventually acquired by Amazon for $545 million. The new company will use a 'live' membership-based network to provide discounts that are otherwise currently unavailable online. The idea is to create a "smart cart" experience rather than an impulse buying ecosystem predicated on deadlines and timers. Several reports suggest that the deal was done at a $450 million pre-money valuation.
Kyle: The story of a startup looking to directly challenge Amazon is pretty irresistible. Obviously we'll have to wait and see what Jet actually has to offer—and whether it's actually distinct from Amazon in ways that the average consumer cares about. But the fact that investors are so stoked suggests we'll all be following Jet closely.
Making Moves
Chris: The Advisory Board Company (ABC) announced its second acquisition in less than 24 hours on Thursday, scooping up Alabama-based startup GradesFirst after first securing D.C.-based Clinovations Wednesday night. According to ABC, this is the first platform that advisors and other students support systems can use to predict which students are at risk and connect them to the resources they need. GradesFirst will serve as the first one-stop student success solution for ABC's flagship Education Advisory Board technology membership, the Student Success Collaborative. Details regarding GradesFirst’s valuation and acquisition agreement were not made public.
Kyle: I for one will be interested to see if ABC can keep up its pace of making an acquisition approximately every 12 hours.
Chris: Reston, Va.-based Avizia — developers of video conferencing technologies focused on telemedicine — has secured a $4 million funding raise led by Washington, D.C.-based NextGen Angels, Blue Venture Investors, Middleland Capital and an unnamed firm, Avizia CEO and founder Mike Baird confirmed.
Baird told DC Inno that the latest funding round — the company's largest to date — will be used to accelerate development, expand its workforce and explore potential deals similar to December’s Emerge.MD merger. Only seven months ago the company employed just 22 people, but things have quickly changed. As of Tuesday’s funding round, the company now boasts 55 full-time staff members with plans to expand to approximately 80 in 2015.
Kyle: The exciting thing here for consumers is the possibility of online doctor visits through what Avizia is providing. Always felt it makes zero sense that doctors require sick people to leave their homes and travel to their office in the age of FaceTime and Skype.
Another One Bites the Dust
Chris: LivingSocial has sold off Let’s Bonus, the last of its non-English international properties, according to an internal memo leaked to TechCrunch. "While Let’s Bonus has been a valuable part of the LivingSocial portfolio, this was the right decision for both LivingSocial and the local business,” general counsel Jim Bramson wrote in the memo.
What We're Reading
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- Could a torrent website become the next Netflix?
Reach outTips? Rumblings? Complaints? Something you want to see in the email? Reid@dcinno.com
