Technology

Livongo Healthstock jumped over ten percent on a day that saw most exchanges tumble after a day of crazy volatility.

The digital diagnostics and therapeutics company is benefiting from booming demand for digital health services as remote medicine takes center stage for beleaguered health care providers looking to keep treating patients while also responding to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Livongo, a provider of behavioral management treatments and diagnostic tools for chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension, weight management, and mental health, sits squarely in the center of current medical needs.

The company announced a revised preliminary guidance for its first quarter 2020 revenue to be in the range of $65.5 million to $66.5 million versus prior guidance of $60 million to $62 million according to the company.

The better-than-expected results sent the stock surging in trading on Tuesday, jumping $3.07 per share to close at $33.16, a better than ten percent gain even as the major indices fell in late trading.

&We began 2020 well positioned to pursue our mission of empowering people with chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives, and now more than ever, our efforts are necessary to support our Members and Clients through the COVID-19 pandemic,& said Zane Burke, Livongochief executive, in a statement.

&Our record Client launches of over 620 in the first quarter and Member enrollment are ahead of expectations and we continue to see strong demand in our pipeline. Livongo is in the unique position of providing assistance to some of the most vulnerable populations, people with chronic conditions, and according to last weekCDC report, 78 percent of people who were admitted to the intensive care unit due to COVID-19 had at least one pre-existing health condition.&

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began in late December, digital health startups have seen demand soar. Everything from telemedicine consultations to digital diagnostics and remote monitoring and triaging of health conditions has seen record growth.

Livongo is an early, public, beneficiary of a trend thatplaying out in private startups as well. Thatreflected in recent rounds for telemedical startups like K Health, which raised $48 million in a Series C round. Or in the financing for the Seattle-based startup 98point6, which raised $43 million in a Series D funding round.

&Virtual care plays an important part in enabling social distancing to help flatten the curve and slow the spread of COVID-19,& said Brad Younggren, MD, chief medical officer of 98point6, in a statement.

Last valued at $5 billion, restaurant management platform Toast has joined the sweep of startups laying off employees due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Toast reduced the size of its staff by 50% through layoffs and furloughs, according to a blog post from ToastCEO, Chris Comparato. It also reduced executive pay across the board, froze hiring, halted bonuses and pulled back offers.

The companyflagship product helps restaurants process payments and handle orders through a mix of hardware and software. Think handheld ordering pads, self-service kiosks and display systems for kitchens. It also connects businesses to food delivery services like Grubhub.

Toast sits on the bridge between two industries in the spotlight, for better or worse, right now: restaurants and fintech. But restaurants have been hit hard as eateries were forced to close down due to state mandates, or to simply promote social distancing. As a result, fintech companies that help restaurants work better and depend on foot traffic are seeing less transaction volume.

Comparato, in the blog post, cited how restaurant revenue broadly took a huge hit in March, which naturally trickled down to Toastoperations.

&With limited visibility into how quickly the industry may recover, and facing slower than anticipated growth, we now find ourselves in the unenviable position of reducing our headcount,& he wrote. He noted that before the pandemic hit, Toast revenue grew 109% in 2019. In an interview with Crunchbase News in February, chief financial officer Tim Barash said that the companygoal in the next few years is to go public.

The Toast employees laid off were offered a &severance package, benefits coverage, mental health support, and an extended window during which they can purchase vested stock options,& the blog post detailed. Toast is also developing a program to help those laid off or furloughed look for new roles, a move that mimics other efforts we&ve seen across the startup world.

Investors in Toast include TCV, Tiger Global Management, Bessemer Venture Partners and T. Rowe Price Associates.

Neat, a Hong Kong-based fintech startup, announced today that it has raised a $11 million Series A to help small businesses do cross-border banking. The round was led by Pacific Century Group, with participation from Visa and MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, and returning investors Dymon Asia Ventures, Linear Capital and Sagamore Investments.

Neat also announced a strategic partnership with Visa, which means that in the next few months Neat will start issuing Visa credit cards to SMEs and startups.

This brings Neattotal funding to $16.5 million, including its seed round announced at the end of 2018.

Like San Francisco-based Brex, which achieved a $2.6 billion valuation last year, Neat focuses on giving startups and small businesses a more efficient, online alternative to traditional banking.

Its services allow them to open business accounts for multiple currencies online, send and receive payments from different countries and apply for corporate credit cards. Neatnew funding will be used for expansion, with a focus on Southeast Asian customers that do trade with European companies. Last year it opened a Shenzhen office to serve Chinese export businesses, as well as an office in London for Western European companies that trade in China.

Neat co-founder and CEO David Rosa told TechCrunch that businesses are still looking to digitize more of their operations despite the worldwide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. &Neat is serving entrepreneurs around the world that trade with Asia. Before they may have fitted visits to the bank into their business trips to Hong Kong, this is no longer an option,& he said.

Corporate credit cards can be difficult for startups and SMEs to get because they typically need about three years of audited financials to qualify even for low spending limits, Rosa said. Employees often cannot get a corporate card because their managers do not have the tools to control their spending limits, making reimbursement more difficult. Neatpartnership with Visa aims to solve many of the problems they encounter (it also offers a Neat Mastercard). In the future, Neat will launch tools for automated payroll, accounting and logistics.

In a statement, MassMutual Ventures managing director Ryan Collins said, &We&re proud to support Neat in the companyvision to support entrepreneurs. There is a clear demand for better financial products for SMEs, especially when it comes to cross-border payments and trade, and we&re confident that Neatpassionate and innovative team will deliver.&

As the world locks down borders and capital flows to brace for the impact of coronavirus, Brazilian startups continue to attract international attention. Three large acquisition deals dominated the Latin American tech headlines this month, all coming from the regionlargest country. As investments have waned, these deals offer hope for some increased liquidity in Latin Americastartup ecosystem.

At the beginning of the month, Brazilian real estate leader Grupo ZAP was acquired by OLX Brasil for $640 million, solidifying the classifieds platformposition in the local property market. The deal will enable OLX to offer its customers more than 12 million listings from 40,000 agencies and individuals.

Grupo Zap merged with the property rental platform VivaReal in December 2017, becoming the de facto largest real estate portal in the country. While the brands have operated separately, they jointly receive more than 40 million visits per month to help Brazilians find properties for rental and purchase. The acquisition is still under review from Brazilantitrust agency, CADE, and will be finalized later this year.

Meanwhile, Peixe Urbano reported its intention to acquired Grow Mobility, the alternative mobility company created from the merger between MexicoGrin and BrazilYellow. Peixe will own the majority share in the e-scooter and bike-share startup, which has recently struggled to turn a profit. After leaving 14 cities in February, Grin Mobility is only active in Brazilthree largest cities today, as well as in a few countries around Latin America, despite a promising partnership with Rappi in 2019. Grow Mobility raised $150 millionin January 2019 when Grin and Yellow merged and seemed to be one of the fastest-growing startups at the time; however, this deal is rumored to be a total write-off for the startupinvestors.

Finally, a Swedish cloud communications platform called Sinch AB announced it would acquire Movilestrategic communications company, Wavy, for $68.3 million (BRL$554 million) and more than 1.5 million shares in the publicly traded company. Movile is one of Brazillargest tech businesses, a telecommunications company striving to become the regionTencent. Wavy is Brazilsecond-largest messaging provider and also operates in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay, relaying more than 13 billion messages per year. Sinch will use the acquisition to grow into the Latin American market, where Wavy currently employs over 260 people across nine offices in the region. At the time of purchase, Wavy was growing at 200% year-on-year, hinting at strong growth for the new business over the coming years.

Movile also announced the arrival of a new CEO, Patrick Hruby, in the last week of March. His predecessor, Fabricio Bloisi, co-founder and CEO since 1998, will take a seat as board president and will continue to act as CEO of iFood. Hruby previously spent five months as an Executive in Residence at Movile, where he worked closely on operations with all Movile companies: iFood, MovilePay, PlayKids, Sympla, Wavy and Zoop. Movile is one of Brazilleast-known unicorns, quietly building a mobile empire for the region with a goal of impacting over one billion people.

Credijusto raises $100M to support SMEs in need

The Mexican credit provider, Credijusto, announced in mid-March that it had received $100 million in debt from Credit Suisse to help the startup extend more loans to SMEs affected by the economic impact of the coronavirus. Small businesses in Mexico already struggle to access financing from banks, and the current economic projections will likely cause financial institutions to hold off on risky investments for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, this credit crunch has caused a surge of interest in Credijustoproducts: online small-business loans. The startup uses an algorithm to rapidly calculate risk and interest rates, providing much-needed liquidity for SMEs struggling in the face of financial turmoil. Credijusto also recently raised a $100 million debt vehicle from Goldman Sachs, alongside a $42 millionSeries B equity round from Goldman and Point72 Ventures in September 2019.

Cornershop, iFood: Keeping up with coronavirus delivery demands

While in the U.S., Instacart and Amazon are scrambling to keep up with the boom in delivery orders, Latin American delivery giants Cornershop and iFood face similar challenges. Mexican-Chilean delivery app Cornershop, which was acquired by Uber last year for $450 million, revealed they had just nine months of operating capital left as they face unprecedented order volume.

Despite the large acquisition deal, Cornershopcase remains under review by the Mexican antitrust organization, COFECE, which blocked their previous $225 millionacquisition offer from Walmart. Cornershopco-founder and CEO Oskar Hjertonsson took to Twitter to share the challenges his company is facing as demand for grocery delivery surges due to coronavirus concerns. He notes that grocery delivery has become an essential service in many areas with severe quarantines, yet with the acquisition still in question, Cornershop does not have the resources to serve the current demand.

Two Mexican regulators are currently fighting over the jurisdiction to review this case, which has been going on for more than six months without a resolution. Cornershop has been at the mercy of Mexican officials since June 2018, when they first announced their Walmart acquisition. On Twitter, Hjertonsson urges Mexican officials to move forward on the decision as soon as possible to capitalize on an opportunity to help millions of Latin Americans who are currently in lockdown, as well as bringing in the resources needed to protect their delivery staff.

At the same time, Brazillargest food delivery company, iFood, announced the launch of a new fund to help small restaurants survive the economic tumult brought on by the coronavirus. The food industry has been one of the hardest-hit by the pandemic, as many restaurants live on small margins. To combat this trend, iFood launched a $9.8 million fund that will support small restaurants within the iFood network.

The company also announced that it would speed up receipt processing during April and May, helping small businesses receive their payments within seven days without extra cost. This measure will inject an additional $117 million into the Brazilian restaurant market. Finally, iFood seeks to support its restaurant partners by returning all fees they receive for delivery during the coronavirus epidemic. Realizing that restaurants must rely on delivery orders to survive this period, iFood has extended these measures to over 120,000 restaurant partners in 1,000 cities across Brazil.

News and Notes: Vai.Car, ClassPass, Superlogica and NotCo

Despite public health and economic concerns about COVID-19, the Latin American startup ecosystem remained active this month, with startups raising large rounds from local and international firms alike. Brazilcar rental startup Vai.car raised $85 million from the Brazilian investment platform XP Investimentos, which IPO&d at the end of 2019. The startup targets a young market by enabling medium-term car rentals that are delivered to the userdoor and unlocked with face recognition technology. Vai.car also partners with Uber and 99 to help drivers access vehicles from their fleet of more than 25,000 cars.

U.S. gym-sharing platform Classpass expanded aggressively into Latin America this month through the acquisition of ChileMuvpass and ArgentinaClickypass. These platforms work similarly to Classpass, allowing users to access a network of gyms and fitness classes across the country. Classpass launched in Brazil in December 2019 and became the first unicorn of the decade, with a $285 million Series E in early 2020.

The Brazilian payments management platform Superlogica raised a $63.5 million round from U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus in mid-March. Superlogica helps companies manage recurring payments using a subscription model powered by artificial intelligence. The startup currently serves customers in more than 45,000 rental properties around the country.

Chilean plant-based food tech startup, The Not Company, announced a partnership with Burger King to create a vegan Whopper across the United States. The RebelWhopper is made of plant-based meat and features NotCosignature NotMayo, a mayonnaise made without animal products, which rapidly became a household name in Chile. The Not Company raised $30 millionfrom Bezos Ventures and other investors in 2019 and has continued to expand rapidly into Argentina and Brazil over the past year.

The past six weeks have been characterized by global uncertainty about the future of the economy and international relations as COVID-19 has made its way into every country in the world. However, deal flow in Latin America was still strong in March, bringing large deals and several acquisitions, especially in Brazil, even as the country refuses to lock down to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Notably, despite travel restrictions, many of the deals this month were led by foreign VCs, hinting at a potential for quicker feedback loops in the region as investors disburse capital without traveling first.

It is hard to see today what the new normal will be globally, and specifically in venture and tech in Latin America. Almost every country has closed its borders, some more forcefully than others, and many are waiting out the pandemic in some level of quarantine. Just Mexico and Brazil, the regionlargest economies, remain adamant about keeping their cities running normally, even encouraging their citizens to visit bars, restaurants and museums as their neighbors shutter businesses. Time will tell how this decision will affect startups and investments, as well as their citizens and political stability, across the region.

Tyto Care, the provider of a home health diagnostic device and telemedicine consultation app, said it has raised $50 million in a new round of funding.

The round was led by Insight Partners, Olive Tree Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures, according to a statement, and brings the startuptotal capital raised to more than $105 million.

The funding comes just as Tyto has seen a dramatic surge in demand brought on by the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tyto Caretoolkit is being used as a telehealth diagnostic solution that was already seeing three times sales growth in 2019 alone.

Last year, the company inked a deal with Best Buy and works with most of the major telemedicine providers, including American Well, Teladoc and others.

Previous investors Orbimed, Echo Health, Qure, Teuza and others also participated in the new financing, the company said in a statement.

With the financing, Tyto Care is well-positioned to both buy and build new tools based on its existing diagnostics platform, as well as expand its home health testing kit into new areas.

Companies like Scanwell Health are providing at-home diagnostic tests for things like urinary tract infections, and Tyto Care chief executive Dedi Gilad definitely sees options for new products around different kinds of at-home tests, the Tyto Care founder said in an interview.

All of this new capital comes with surging demand where Tyto Caretelehealth technology is being used by every hospital in Israel to provide remote examinations of quarantined and isolated patients infected with COVID-19. Other hospital networks are also turning to the companydiagnostics tools for similar applications, the company said.

The remote medical exams can protect health providers from exposure to SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and enables uninfected patients to get an examination of their basic health remotely, without needing to go to a medical facility.

&Over the past two years, Tyto Care has increased momentum faster than ever before and is playing a leading role in changing how people receive healthcare. Telehealth is heeding the call of the COVID-19 pandemic and we are proud that our unique solution is aiding health systems and consumers around the world in the fight against the virus,& said Gilad, in a statement. &This new funding comes at a pivotal moment in the evolution of telehealth and will enable us to continue to transform the global healthcare industry with the best virtual care solutions.&

Activant Capital, a seven-year-old, Greenwich, Conn.-based growth equity firm thatstill making a name for itself, has managed to secure $257 million in fresh capital commitments, despite that the U.S. economy appears to be headed into a recession.

Itsomething of a coup for founder Steve Sarracino.

It also begs the question: Who is Steve Sarracino, and why are people trusting him and his 10-person firm with their investing dollars?

To find out more, we reached him last week at his home, where — like a lot of us — his young children whooped and hollered in the background. Amid the din, he explained his trajectory to date: Wharton. Summer internship at McKinsey. A gig as a vice president at the private equity firm American Capital, where he cut his teeth working on buyouts. He also recounted joining a small venture and private equity firm in San Francisco called Serent Capital that was co-founded by two former McKinsey partners.

Itthere that the story arc changes a bit. Sarracino says he got himself fired from that last job, and that he found himself in 2009 with &literally no job [prospects]& and ¬hing to do.& Worried about losing any momentum he had begun to gather, he talked with mentors who told him if he wanted to stick with investing, he&d better start doing one deal at a time and hope these turned out.

They did. In fact, by 2015, Sarracino persuaded investors to commit $75 million to Activantdebut fund. Its second fund closed with $129 million in 2017.

He called it a &long process,& but today, Activant sits between venture and growth deals, with a 15-year investing horizon and a concentrated approach to taking stakes in companies, many of which happen to center around e-commerce infrastructure and payments.

One of these is Bolt, a young San Francisco-based company thattrying to build a more seamless checkout process for online retailers that compete with Amazon and, toward that end, integrates with shopping carts used by customers of Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento, for example. It last year closed on $68 million in Series B funding led by Activant and Tribe Capital and has raised $90 million altogether.

A more recent check went to Deliverr, a San Francisco-based logistics and fulfillment company that promises its customers fast delivery by renting warehouse space around the country versus using a centralized warehouse model; the company closed on $40 million in Series C funding earlier this year led by Activant. (Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen also joined the round.)

Activant has also in recent months backed Finix, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based payments infrastructure company whose Series B round Sequoia Capital led but later backed out of, citing a conflict of interest. (As we reported last month, Sequoia simply walked away from its $21 million investment in Finix because of its ties to the powerful payments company Stripe, which might not have liked the tie-up.)

Without specifying how much Activant has invested in each of these companies, Sarracino said last week that checks from the firm typically range from $25 million to $65 million, though the team has gone &as low as $15 million.& He said Activant — which also backed the predictive analytics company Celect before it sold last year to Nike — will also occasionally write $3 million or $4 million checks into young startups that are too early-stage for the outfit but that it wants to track closely.

Asked how big a stake it wants for its checks, Sarracino insisted that it doesn&t think in terms of targets. It instead &targets returns.& He also said he doesn&t care who else is involved in a company before Activant finds it. Though somewhat hard to believe, he tells us that when the firm is discussing deals, no one on the team is allowed to bring up who invested in a company previously because he doesn&t want a particular brand (or lack thereof) to influence Activantdecision-making.

As for its newest fund, even while itroughly twice the size of its last vehicle, Sarracino said the plan is to continue to make three to four investments each year and that the portfolio will feature just eight or nine portfolio companies when all is said and done.

Before we parted ways, we had to ask about fundraising in the age of COVID-19. We wondered if perhaps the firm closed its newest fund earlier this year, before the spread of coronavirus turned the U.S. economy upside down, and was just announcing it belatedly.

He said it closed on March 31, and that commitments to Activantnewest efforts came from North American and European &foundations, endowments, family offices that donate incredibly amounts of money . . .&

He said that to &hold this thing together through March was a testament to our business.&

He sounded relieved. He also sounded like right now, he sees Activantmission — beyond making money — as helping small and medium-size businesses bounce back from the brink, where many are hanging on by their fingernails at the moment. Indeed, he said the firm is actively looking for more infrastructure plays toward that end.

&More than ever, we can&t allow the SMB world to get hollowed out here by Amazon. I do think making their e-commerce businesses more robust [through bets like Deliverr and Bolt] can help get them back.&