Ele.me, a Chinese food delivery service, has raised $1.25 billion from Alibaba Group and its Internet finance arm Ant Financial. Alibaba has invested $900 million, while $350 million comes from Ant Financial. Ele.me faces competition in China from other food delivery services such as Baidu, Meituan-Dianping and Koubei.
Affirm, a financial services technology company led by Paypal co-founder Max Levchin, has raised a $100 million Series D funding round. Founders Fund led the round, with participation coming from existing investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Jefferies and new investors. Affirm will use the new funds to increase its loan distribution capacity, grow its merchant clientele and expands its financial product offerings. “Max changed the payments industry forever with his work at PayPal, and we think Affirm is positioned to be just as impactful,” said Founders Fund partner Brian Singerman – who joins Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Jeremy Philips of Spark Capital on Affirm’s board of directors. “Affirm’s technology brings much-needed transparency and accountability to a stagnant industry that’s no longer meeting the needs of consumers.”
Vacasa, a vacation rental company, raised a $35 million funding round led by Level Equity. The company will use the new capital to accelerate domestic and international growth. “It’s a big vote of confidence for an investor of this caliber to embrace the Vacasa vision. So far, we’ve been successful in growing Vacasa without external capital. The new financing will help us accelerate our pace of expansion into markets and countries where we do not have a presence, giving our customers access to some of the most desirable destinations in the world,” Eric Breon, CEO and co-founder, said.
Swiss data analytics and cybersecurity company Nexthink has raised $40 million in a funding round led by Highland Europe. The company has also expanded its recently established U.S. presence, where it currently employs around 10 people. The plan is to grow the office to 120 local employees over the next 18 months.