The Stuff Of Legends: Unicorns Private VC-Backed Companies

From the Crunch Network

Unicorns gorge as investors dish up bigger rounds, more capital

Posted 4 hours ago by Gené Teare (@geneteare), Joanna Glasner 

According to this report, during the course of last year, investors put a record amount of capital into members of the Crunchbase Unicorn Leaderboard, a list of private venture-backed companies valued at more than $1 billion.

Globally, a staggering $66 billion went into unicorn companies in 2017, up 39 percent year-over-year, according to an analysis of Crunchbase data. The ride-hailing space was the single largest recipient of investor dollars, with several rivals in the space raising billions. Investors also poured copious sums into co-working, consumer internet and augmented reality.

 

More of the  Crunchbase data can be accessed by going to this site > https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/03 

 

 

"Newcomers also joined the unicorn club for the first time in 2017, albeit at a slightly slower pace than the preceding two years. For all of 2017, 60 new startups were added to the unicorn list. This compares to 66 newly minted unicorns in 2016 and the record-setting 2015 with 99 newcomers.
Below, we break down the leading locations for new and existing unicorns, top sectors for investment capital, exits and a few other trends affecting the space. . .

Geographic breakdown

The vast majority of unicorns are headquartered in either the U.S. or China, and that’s also the case for newcomers to the Unicorn Leaderboard.

The newcomers were a pretty diverse bunch, spanning industries from

• agtech to enterprise software, including no-cost stock buying platform Robinhood,
• online education provider VIPKID 
• cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Coinbase.

Sectors

Unicorn investors showed a particularly strong appetite, however, for companies in a handful of sectors.

Ridesharing, in particular, had a strong funding year, with companies in the space taking more than 10 percent of all unicorn investment.

Bike-sharing was also big. Two new entrants onto the unicorn list came from that space: Ofo and Mobike.

Other recipients of really substantial funding rounds, even by unicorn standards, include U.S. co-working giant WeWork and China-based consumer internet players Toutiao and Koubei.

 

Exiting the board

So a lot of unicorns are raising big rounds. But is there any sign members of the group will eventually produce returns for investors?
Overall, 2017 provided some modestly positive news for unicorn exit watchers.

• Fifteen venture-funded companies with private valuations of a billion dollars or more went public last year, more than double 2016 levels and the highest total since Crunchbase began tracking the asset class.
• Unicorn IPOs weren’t just more common in 2017. Performance was often quite good, too. Many of last year’s newly public companies sustained market caps far higher than their last private valuations.

Lately, going public seems to be a better option for investor returns.

 

Averages point to more exits ahead

For the 45 unicorn companies that have gone public, the average time to go public has been 26 months after first being valued at $1 billion. For the 25 companies that have been acquired, the average time to get acquired is 24 months after first being valued at $1 billion.

Go Joe GO > Run Like Hell + Give 'Em All Ya Got!

The Friday Cover from Politico
Is Joe Arpaio the Next Roy Moore?

Image Credit:  M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO                       

He’s got money, charisma and a presidential pardon. Now he thinks—and local Republicans fear—he can win the GOP Senate primary in Arizona.

By Ben Strauss February 02, 2018

START-OFF QUESTION: How does Tyler Montague, a politician and banker from here in Mesa get into the thick of this?

Sheriff Joe has declared he's in the running in the upcoming primary election to replace Republican Jeff Flake retiring from the U.S. Senate.

(Image credit: M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO)

“It’s a stain on the party,” said Tyler Montague, a Mesa banker who heads the Public Integrity Alliance, a 501(c)(4) that mostly backs Republican candidates.

“It brings the whole party down to clownville.” Should Arpaio manage to win the primary, these same party activists suspect he would get crushed in November.

Paul Marchant, a local party chairman, is one of these Republicans. The week before the state convention, he helped circulate a resolution that called on Arpaio to withdraw from the race.

“This is the guy,” an Arpaio supporter in the Church for the Nations lobby informed the ex-sheriff, who now stood face to face with Marchant, a middle-aged man with a salt and pepper goatee.

“You?!” Arpaio looked at Marchant. “You want me to retire?”

“Yes!” Marchant said. “We have two great candidates," a reference to Kelli Ward, a Tea Party favorite, and Martha McSally, a member of Congress and Mitch McConnell’s preferred candidate.

There’s a real sense he could win the primary and ‘Roy Moore’ us. . .

—there is no graceful way to push out a legend.

When the reporter later suggested that the presumptive Democratic nominee, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, would be an interesting opponent in the general election, he asked why. . . and then reporter mentioned that she had a liberal background and would be the first openly bisexual senator. “Bisexual? Is that when they like both?” Arpaio asked.

He shook his head and said, “She’s not more interesting than me.”
READ MORE > https://www.politico.com/magazine

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About the reporter: Ben Strauss is the co-author of Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA, winner of the 2017 PEN/ESPN award for literary sports writing

 

Air Quality Stakeholder Meeting | Clean Power Plan - EPA's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking | Friday, Feb.

Hey! Anyone who breathes here in Arizona IS A STAKEHOLDER . . . Clean air????
Are U kidding? Let's get real and take advantage to send in your thoughts and comments.
Anybody else Freaking' Out????
 

Air Quality Stakeholder Meeting
Clean Power Plan
EPA's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

ADEQ invites you to attend a stakeholder meeting to discuss EPA's development of the Clean Power Plan. ADEQ seeks your ideas and input in developing comments in response to EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, published on December 28, 2017. 

EPA is soliciting information from the public as the agency continues to evaluate the Clean Power Plan. EPA is requesting information on what to consider in a future regulatory action establishing greenhouse gas emission guidelines from power plants, the respective roles of state and federal governments, as well as emission reduction strategies, compliance measures, and state planning requirements. Comments must be received before February 26, 2018.

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When: Friday, February 9, 2018, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Where: Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
1110 W Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ
Room 250

Parking
Directions
RSVP:
Natalie Muilenberg
nm3@azdeq.gov
(602) 771-1089

---

 

Follow along with the presentation:

Join WebEx Meeting
Meeting number (access code): 800 728 659
Meeting password: uPGEmrht
Call in: 1-240-454-0879

WebEx Help
Agenda below:

• 2018-02-09_Clean_Power_Plan_ANPRM_Stakeholder+Meeting_AGENDA.pdf

Going "Politico" > No Comment

The nation's cartoonists take on the FBI memo, the State of the Union, and reports that @realDonaldTrump wanted to fire Robert Mueller last summer http://politi.co/2GHgmbs pic.twitter.com/FXl9BJX6J7

5:40 AM - 2 Feb 2018        

• 103 Retweets
• 182 Likes
• 

19 replies 103 retweets 182 likes

 

Just Encouraging Meaningful Community Engagement

That's right!  
(Where else can you get hyper-local Iglobal independent news, information and entertainment all from one source)
Thank you so much, dear readers, for visiting this site time-and-time again

Pleased to report more than 175,000 people see, read and enjoy this blog.


 

PBS Segment On ICE Deportations Features Mayor John Giles

Pleasantly surprised that the same conservative city that elected Russell Pearce to the Arizona State Legislature - the same state that gave us Sheriff Joe and SB1070 - has changed its tune or at least "the lip-service" from Mesa Mayor John Giles, who's featured in this PBS report from yesterday (it was uploaded on 24 January 2018)
. . . what's the story with the mayor's right eye???

ICE issues directive to make deportation arrests at courthouses

Politics Feb 1, 2018 10:09 AM EST

SAN DIEGO — Federal immigration authorities formalized a policy Wednesday to send deportation agents to federal, state and local courthouses to make arrests, dismissing complaints from judges and advocacy groups that it instills fear among crime victims, witnesses and family members.
The two-page directive from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it will enter courthouses only for specific targets, such as convicted criminals, gang members, public safety threats and immigrants who have been previously deported or ordered to leave. Family, friends and witnesses won’t be picked up for deportation but ICE leaves a caveat for “special circumstances.”
The policy, signed by ICE acting director Thomas Homan, says immigration agents should generally avoid arrests in non-criminal areas of the court, like family court and small claims, unless it supervisor approves.
ICE — in a not-so-subtle jab at “sanctuary cities” that limit work with immigration authorities — said “increasing unwillingness of some jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE in the safe and orderly transfer of targeted aliens inside their prisons and jails has necessitated additional at-large arrests.”
Immigration agents made courtroom arrests under the Obama administration, but the pace appears to have picked up under President Donald Trump, whose administration has seen a roughly 40 percent surge in arrests overall and has casted a much wider net.
Read more > PBS Newshour
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Published on Jan 24, 2018

Two dozen cities that shelter undocumented immigrants have been sent letters by the Justice Department, threatening to subpoena them over proof that they are complying with immigration rules. The news angered some mayors meeting in Washington for a conference. John Yang talks to Republican Mayor John Giles of Mesa, Arizona, and Democratic Mayor Kathy Sheehan of Albany, New York.

Making a Georgetown University Story Hyper-Local Here In Mesa

Make that real local, folks. Hoya Saxa
Way-back when your MesaZona blogger studied hard at Georgetown University for four years in The College of Arts & Sciences in Washington DC and enjoyed urban life for the very first time, we didn't have to deal with issues that one of these current students from Mesa is forced to deal with.
Please take the time to read the testimony of one student.
The Georgetown Voice                  
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Solidarity Shouts: Immigrant Solidarity

By: Arisaid Gonzalez Porras and Anahi Figueroa-Flores 02/02/2018
"My name is Arisaid Gonzalez Porras, and I came to the U.S. at the age of one. For the past 17 years, I have been raised in Mesa, Arizona–the only place I consider home. However, starting on September 8, 2019, I could be deported back to a country of which I have no memory. Since the DACA program was terminated, I have been constantly thinking about my future. Despite obtaining a degree from Georgetown, I will not be able to pursue a career without a social security number. That special number is the only thing preventing me from owning a home, being able to vote, getting a driver’s license, and much more. Many people consider these simple things, but for me, they are luxuries. . . "
GO ON. AND RED MORE >
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Solidarity Shouts is spearheaded by members of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee (GSC). GSC is a non-hierarchical, consensus-based group that organizes around issues of labor in solidarity with workers on campus, in the DC region, and around the world.
GSC believes in the dignity of all work and workers, and stands against all forms of oppression and exploitation. General body meetings for GSC are every Monday at 9pm in White-Gravenor 202. Even though members of GSC are coordinating this column, the perspectives shared do not necessarily represent the views of GSC as a whole. GSC simply sees the need for a leftist perspective on issues concerning campus, local, and international politics. In particular, this column will expand on the perspectives traditionally underrepresented in the mainstream left, informed by critiques of capitalism, imperialism, racism, sexism, and other exploitative systems. Solidarity Shouts appears every other Friday.