Tracking Tiger Global (Week 50) | 13.12-19.12.21
10 announced deals ranging from $11m Series A to $325m Series E
Dear subscribers,
Welcome to the latest edition of Tracking Tiger Global, a newsletter that provides weekly updates on Tiger Global’s latest investments. This Substack started as a “joke” but has turned into an interesting learning opportunity for me as I get to learn about awesome tech companies across sectors and geographies while tracking Tiger Global. Please note that the Subtack is not affiliatied with Tiger Global and any of its portfolio companies and other entities mentioned below.
10 new deals with Tiger’s involvement were reported last week. Given the number of deals, I will keep the company profiles short in this edition…
Guardio (Israel | $47m Series A | SaaS | Tiger led)
Mesh Payments (US | $50m Series B | Fintech | Tiger led)
Ophelia (US | $50m Series B | Healthtech | Tiger led)
Cockroach Labs (US | $278m Series F | SaaS | Tiger participated)
Creditbook (Pakistan | $11m Series A | Fintech | Tiger co-led)
Elementary (US | $30m Series B | Hardware + SaaS | Tiger led)
Nansen (Singapore | $75m Series B | Fintech | Tiger participated)
Nowports (Mexico | $60m Series B | Logistics | Tiger led)
Rokt (US | $325m Series E | SaaS | Tiger led)
Taxdoo (Germany | $64m Series B | SaaS | Tiger led)
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Guardio ( Israel | $47m Series A | SaaS | Tiger led)
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Israel, Guardio is a lightweight browser extension designed to help users browse quickly and securely. They raised $47m in funding (previously bootstrapped) at a rumoured valuation of $500m. The round was led by Tiger Global.
According to Venturebeat, “Guardio’s software offers anti-phishing protection from emails and webpages that attempt to steal personal or payment information. It can keep track of email accounts to deliver alerts on breaches and mute unwanted notifications, as well as block malicious extensions that control browser settings and install malware, spyware, or adware.”
With its freemium model, Guardio is currently targeting consumers and micro businesses. It has 1 million active users, of which 100k are paying users ($9.99 per month or $72 annually; excluding discounts).
The company currently has c.30 FTEs and plans to use the proceeds to expand its workforce and fuel product development.
Source: Venuturebeat
Mesh Payments (US | $50m Series B | Fintech | Tiger led)
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in the US, Mesh Payments is a leading corporate payment and spend management platform. They raised $50m in Series B funding, led by Tiger Global.
According to Calcalistech, “Mesh Payments’ platform allows CFOs to centralize and manage all of their company's payments in one place, replacing the corporate credit cards that provide no oversight or information in real-time.” As per a company press release, “Businesses get full control over their spend together with tailored insights for each payment and the tools needed to optimize their spend in real-time. Mesh provides a full solution tailored to individual payment types, SaaS payment management, travel payment management and more. The platform already powers some of the world's fastest-growing brands, including Monday.com, Hippo Insurance, Sezzle, Riskified and Snyk.”
“The company has demonstrated staggering growth of roughly 10x over the past nine months. Mesh plans to use the funding to continue its accelerated growth, expand its US operations and introduce additional products that transform the way finance professionals manage payments by giving them a new level of control and visibility”
Source: Press release, Calcalistech
Ophelia (US | $50m Series B | Healthtech | Tiger led)
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in the US, Ophelia (YC-backed) is a digital provider of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD). They raised $50m in Series B funding, led by Tiger Global.
According to a company press release, “a major barrier to expanding access to MAT in the U.S. has been a longstanding shortage of prescribers. In order to prescribe buprenorphine (FDA-approved medication for MAT), clinicians need a separate license from the federal government called an x-waiver, which only 5% have. They are also restricted in the number of patients they can treat — often only 30 patients at a time. At such a low patient volume, they are not eligible for hire by most treatment programs, so many work in other settings where they do not treat any OUD patients.
To solve this problem, Ophelia has created a digitally native clinical model, called the Ophelia Care Model, which adapts the widely successful Massachusetts Collaborative Care Model to telemedicine. By combining team-based care with a robust clinician training program and collaborative clinical software, the Ophelia Care Model creates treatment opportunities for the 50,000+ licensed MAT clinicians who previously had no way of treating patients.”
“Ophelia treated its first patient in early 2020 and has since seen rapid adoption by both patients and clinicians. Today, it is licensed to provide care in 27 states and has national and regional insurance contracts covering 75 million lives […]. Its outcomes are impressive, including 70% six-month retention, 60% 12-month retention, a patient NPS of 91, and a clinician NPS of 90. In addiction treatment, retention is considered the primary clinical outcome metric, with industry averages typically ranging around 30% at six months.”
Source: Press release
Cockroach Labs (US | $278m Series F | SaaS | Tiger participated)
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in the US, Cockroach Labs is the creator of CockroachDB, a cloud-native, distributed SQL database. They raised $278m in Series F funding at a $5bn valuation, led by Greenoaks with participation from Tiger Global and other investors.
According to Venturebeat, “CockroadDB is a distributed SQL database used by enterprises to store multiple copies of their data in different cloud and regions to ensure uninterrupted access.” In October, Cockroach Labs launched CockroadDB Serverless, which enables users to spin up a “scalable database in seconds without thinking about hardware or capacity planning.”
According to a company press release, “the funds will be used to support Cockroach Labs' ongoing investments in the development of their innovative and fast-growing cloud database as well as its continued customer growth and expansion into new markets.”
Sources: Press release, Venturebeat
CreditBook (Pakistan | $11m Series A | Fintech | Tiger led)
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Pakistan, CreditBook is a bookkeeping platform for SMEs. They raised $11m in Series A funding, co-led by Tiger Global and Fistminute Capital. CreditBook is Tiger Global’s first investment into Pakistan.
“Starting with a simple digital ledger, the company has also been building secure software for millions of businesses to manage their credit, sales and expense cycles.”
According to Pymnts.com, “Pakistan has about 30m micro-small-and medium-sized enterprises that operate manually and use cash.” CreditBook currently processes 2.4m+ transactions every month and is represented in 400+ cities and towns in Pakistan.
Sources: Pymnts.com, Techcrunch
Elementary (US | $30m Series B | Hardware + SaaS | Tiger led)
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in the US, Elementary is a developer of an advanced vision system that leverages AI to improve QA workflow in factories. They raised $30m in Series B funding, led by Tiger Global.
Elementary’s software, deep learning AI and camera systems are built to capture visual data, deliver fast and reliable real-time judgements. The core product is a radiation inspection camera for automated deep learning-based inspection of moving production lines. Furthermore, Elementary provides a no-code tool to create inspection routines and train models to inspect goods, parts and assemblies. The benefits of the hardware + software platform include higher yield by part and batch, higher performance by facility and supplier, defect traceability and standardisation of inspection metrics.
Over 250m inspections have been performed to date. New funding will be used to expand Elemantary’s customer base and double the company’s workforce over the next year.
Sources: Techcrunch
Nansen (Singapore | $75m Series B | Fintech | Tiger participated)
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Singapore, Nansen is a blockchain analytics platform that enriches on-chain data with millions of wallets labels. They raised $75m in Series B funding, led by Accel with participation from Tiger Global and other investors. The company had just announced their $12m Series A in June-21.
As per Accel’s blog post on the investment, “[…] with the explosion in activity in crypto, including new areas like NFTs and DeFi, transaction information has become extremely fragmented across different projects, exchanges, and chains. Consequently, there’s a huge need and opportunity for a trusted single source of truth when it comes to insights and data for crypto market participants, individuals and institutions alike.”
“Nansen brings together public on-chain data with a proprietary database of activity across 100m+ blockchain wallets to provide real-time actionable insights for investors and financial institutions on the expanding blockchain landscape.” Crypto investors use Nansen to discover opportunities, perform due diligence and defend their portfolios with real-time dashboards and alerts.
According to a company press release, “the funding will be used to fuel Nansen’s next phase of growth and development, accelerate hiring and the development of new product offerings for retail and institutional customers, as well as expand Nansen’s global presence by adding innovative platform features and multichain integrations.
Sources: Press release, Accel's fundraising announcement
Nowports (Mexico | $60m Series B | Logistics | Tiger led)
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Mexico, Nowports is a digital freight forwarder in LATAM providing extensive shipment services that connect the continent with the rest of the world. They raised $60m in Series B funding, led by Tiger Global.
“Nowports streamlines the import and export processes of Latin American companies and improves the visibility of their supply chains with valuable information. The company seeks to expand as a digital freight forwarder to become a complete solution with financing services and cargo insurance in a single place.” Logistics services include maritime, aerial and ground (full cargo and partial cargo). Furthermore, Nowports offers merchandise insurance, inventory financing, and custom agent and review at origin.
Nowports will use the funding to boost its expansion efforts in Brazil, develop the capacity of its offices, and provide its clients with development support.
Sources: Press release
Rokt (US | $325m Series E | SaaS | Tiger led)
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in the US, Rokt is a leading AdTech solutions provider using AI and ML to make transactions more relevant to each shopper. They raised $325m in Series E funding at a $1.95bn valuation, led by Tiger Global.
According to WSJ, “Rokt offers tools that let companies make personalized marketing offers during and after an [online] transaction. For example, New York Rangers fans purchasing seats at Madison Square Garden on Ticketmaster could also receive an offer to book parking at a nearby lot or to get a discount on Uber, depending on whether they are coming in from out of town or live near the arena. In other cases, Ticketmaster might simply want the fan to download its own app or view another internal marketing offer.”
“Rokt’s technology enables cross-selling and upselling efforts based on a client’s existing commercial relationships. […]. It also operates a marketplace to connect different businesses and vendors—including integrating payment and shipping providers—from which it takes a cut of the transaction.”
Sources: WSJ, Press release
Taxdoo (Germany | $64m Series B | SaaS | Tiger led)
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Germany, Taxsoo is a tax compliance software platform for e-commerce in the EU. They raised $64m in Series B funding, led by Tiger Global.
According to a company blog post, Taxdoo’s [long term vision] is to build “the Financial Operating System for e-commerce: flexible apps running on top of a wealth of financial data that automatically considers all applicable regulations. This includes use cases like VAT, invoicing, accounting, payments, and will enable customers and their accountants to build their own workflows on top of these. At the same time, third-party developers will be able to contribute their own apps and seamlessly integrate their solutions with Taxdoo.”
Sources: Company blog post, Techcrunch