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This episode is presented by Invest

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Puerto Rico. If you believe your

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business can go anywhere, Puerto Rico

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is the place. Hello

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and welcome back to Equity, the TechCrunch

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podcast, where we unpack the numbers and

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the nuance behind the headlines. This is

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Alex and today is April 17th, 2024.

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Welcome to our Wednesday show where we

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dig into the critical startup and venture

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capital stories from the week thus far.

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Today on the show, we have an absolutely

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packed list that I'm very excited about. We're

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going to start with two startup rounds that

0:44

call my eye. They are in very different

0:46

markets, an IPO update and $11 billion bonanza

0:49

for space startups. Two new venture capital

0:52

funds that I think are both pretty

0:54

darn interesting. And then to close that

0:56

mammoth and recent Horowitz Hall. Let's go.

1:02

First up is a startup that I

1:04

keep saying is two chains, but actually

1:06

it's not. It's two chairs and it

1:08

just raised a series C. Let's talk

1:10

about it. So two chairs started

1:12

off life as a startup that

1:14

wanted to use a matching algorithm

1:16

to connect people to therapists that

1:18

they would then see IRL. Then

1:20

COVID-19 happened and the whole world

1:23

went online. So the company was

1:25

forced to reconsider its face to

1:27

face focus. Now, the adoption of

1:29

the remote first treatment model has

1:31

helped the company grow faster and

1:33

we think as well less expensively

1:35

than it would have had it

1:37

continued to emphasize seeing patients in

1:39

person. And the company says

1:41

that its revenue expanded eightfold in the

1:43

last three years. That's the type of

1:45

growth that every VC wants to see.

1:48

Now, today, two chairs has 500

1:50

therapists that see patients virtually and

1:53

that series I mentioned is worth

1:55

$72 million. And

1:57

it's a blend of equity and. Now,

2:01

why does a virtual therapy

2:03

network need debt? Well, Two

2:05

Chairs has an interesting twist

2:07

on the therapy startup formula,

2:09

as TechCrunch reports, and I

2:11

quote, CEO Alex Katz

2:13

says the primary difference between

2:15

his company and other virtual behavioral

2:17

health platforms, including Talkspace and

2:19

Teladoc owned BetterHelp, is that Two

2:22

Chairs employs, quote, the vast

2:24

majority of its therapists while most

2:26

competitors contract with their clinicians. Hiring

2:29

people costs more money. If you need more money, debt's

2:31

cheaper than equity if you can afford it. So that

2:33

makes a lot of sense to me. And

2:36

given that my view is that therapy is good and

2:38

that we can all be a little bit better than

2:40

we are, I dig this route.

2:44

From saving ourselves to saving the

2:46

planet, let's talk about Quilt, a

2:48

climate tech company that just raised

2:50

a big Series A. I

2:52

love Tim DeChant. He's one of TechCrunch's

2:54

best. He covers climate tech for us.

2:57

And he has an absolute soft spot

3:00

for heat pumps. I mean, the market

3:02

does too, but Tim does as well.

3:05

Enter Quilt, which is focusing on,

3:07

you guessed it, heat pumps. Now

3:09

Tim writes that heat pumps actually

3:11

outsold gas furnaces for the second

3:13

year running and that homeowners in

3:15

the U.S. who installed them are

3:17

eligible for thousands of dollars in

3:19

incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act.

3:22

Pretty bullish for heat pumps overall. That

3:24

said, the market still has some issues,

3:27

one of which is that heat pumps

3:29

are just different enough from existing heating

3:31

and air conditioning setups to give consumers

3:33

pause. So what Quilt wants

3:36

to do is offer a sleeker design

3:38

that can be installed in more places

3:40

around the room than what its competitors

3:42

offer. And in anticipation

3:44

of its forthcoming product introduction, Quilt

3:46

raised a massive $33 million Series

3:50

A, led by Energy Impact

3:52

Partners and Galvanize Climate Solutions.

3:55

It's a big Series A for this market

3:57

and also notably, it comes just a year.

4:00

After he raised a million dollars

4:02

seed run so investors are pretty

4:04

bullish on what wealth has couldn't.

4:06

Mighty. Was this heating and cooling

4:08

or only going to become more important

4:11

around the world as our climate changes

4:13

and the sheer amount of electricity that

4:15

we are spending on indoor climate control

4:17

is rising and is going to be

4:19

a little bit scary. So Alternative Solutions

4:22

sounds pretty good. Though. I leave

4:24

you with a question: Why is this sort

4:26

of called quilt. Much.

4:29

Leave the early stage and go all the

4:31

way to the very end of start of

4:33

life and talk about Ip owes and we

4:35

had to that are coming. First. Up

4:37

Rubric, which is working on data management

4:39

and Security And then there's I Bought

4:41

A which is a rewards technology business.

4:43

Now the news this week is that

4:46

Rubric expects to list it shares on

4:48

the New York Stock Exchange or the

4:50

Nice at a price of between twenty

4:52

eight and thirty one dollars per share.

4:54

That's according to a filing dropped earlier

4:56

this week. The company is worth about

4:59

five point two billion at the midpoint

5:01

end of Us and dissipated Ip arranged,

5:03

And that goes up to about five

5:05

point four billion at the top. And

5:08

that means that this is actually

5:10

end up I've yo from Rubric

5:12

Spinal Private Price. We. Should get

5:14

more data as the company looks to list

5:17

next week but it all looks pretty good

5:19

for rubric thus far. And then

5:21

there is I bought a which is

5:23

expected to price after the bell today

5:25

and and trade tomorrow a file for

5:27

a larger offering earlier in the way

5:29

to boost the in the number of

5:31

shares that will be sold it it's

5:33

ipo Though the increase is only from

5:35

existing shareholders I bought are still plans

5:37

to sell the same two point five

5:39

million users in the deal more on

5:41

that Friday when we get some data

5:43

I love and I feel. What's.

5:46

next intact that's not the

5:48

right question is where porto

5:51

rico more than just tropical

5:53

paradise it's innovations paradise where

5:55

startups and global players coexist

5:57

in avast and vibrant ecosystem

5:59

were talents runs deep, highly

6:01

skilled, and bilingual. Plus, the

6:04

island offers the most competitive

6:06

tax incentives in the US.

6:08

If you believe your business

6:10

can go anywhere, Puerto Rico

6:12

is the place. Find out

6:14

more at investpr.org/TechCrunch. All

6:18

right, let's put down all things

6:20

terrestrial, point our eyes at the

6:22

stars, and talk about space because

6:24

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has pronounced

6:26

the agency's $11 billion 15-year mission

6:30

to collect and return samples from

6:33

Mars is insufficient. Nelson said

6:35

that, quote, the bottom line is

6:37

an $11 billion budget is too

6:39

expensive and a 2040 return

6:41

date is too far away. We need

6:43

to look outside the box to find

6:46

a way ahead that is both affordable

6:48

and return samples in a reasonable timeframe.

6:50

This means that they're going to go

6:52

out and talk to industry, which means

6:54

startups can take a bite out of

6:57

that $11 billion Apple. I think

6:59

this is awesome. I love the NASA said, hey,

7:01

we can't do this. We're going to go out

7:03

and get help. What's out there in the private

7:05

market? And I'm hoping that there are a bunch

7:07

of startups that have technology that can accelerate our

7:09

mission to Mars so they can bring back Martian

7:11

rocks and stare at them here on earth. Go

7:14

get that cash, startups. Next

7:19

up, venture capital news in three parts.

7:21

First up, Bay Bridge Ventures is raising

7:23

$200 million for a

7:25

new climate fund. This comes at

7:27

a time when investors do seem

7:29

to be quite a bit more

7:32

bullish on climate tech. Just for

7:34

example, SOSV announced a $306 million

7:36

deep tech fund earlier

7:39

this week that is going to be 70% focused

7:42

on climate. Then there's New Summit

7:44

Investments, which is raising a $100 million

7:46

fund and Congruent Ventures last year put

7:49

together a $275 million

7:52

fund, turning down $325 million in additional LP interest at the same

7:54

time. So I presume. that

8:00

given that kind of background, Bay Bridge Ventures

8:02

should be able to raise its climate fund

8:04

pretty quickly if they do and they fill

8:07

it out, we'll bring that to you at

8:09

that time. Moving

8:11

along, former senior SpaceX executive Tom

8:13

Ochonaro is teaming up with SpaceX

8:16

alum turned VC Achal Upadia and

8:18

one of Sequoia's top finance leaders

8:20

Spencer Hemphill on a new venture

8:23

called Interlogos Capital. TechCrunch has learned

8:25

SpaceX of course is a company

8:27

that has many spin-offs over the

8:29

years. Here's one more. But

8:33

the big VC story this

8:35

week is that Andreessen Horowitz

8:38

has raised $7.2 billion in

8:40

new funds. This was

8:42

announced in a post from Ben

8:44

Horowitz entitled New Funds, New Era.

8:46

But if you know Andreessen as

8:48

a place that raises lots of

8:50

money, it seems like New Funds,

8:52

same era. Here's the breakdown. $3.75

8:54

billion for growth investments. The FT

8:56

does note that that sum is

8:58

lower than entries in Horowitz's 2021

9:00

era $5 billion growth fund. But

9:03

I think the differential

9:07

makes good sense. $1.25 billion for AI infrastructure.

9:09

$1 billion for AI apps. $600 million

9:15

for American dynamism, which is, you know,

9:17

defense tech and so forth here in

9:19

the States. And then $600 million for

9:21

gaming. Now, where's the money for crypto?

9:24

Well, there isn't actually a need for

9:26

a new crypto fund given how big

9:28

the last Andreessen Horowitz crypto fund was

9:30

back in 2022. I

9:33

think the numbers that we just ran

9:36

through show how much cheaper growth investing

9:38

is today. And perhaps most

9:40

importantly, that Andreessen Horowitz still has

9:42

the magic touch when it comes

9:45

to fundraising. I want to know

9:47

how though. So what we need

9:49

are some solid leaks on its last

9:51

couple of funds performance because I am

9:53

so, so curious what you have to

9:55

have as a track record recently to

9:57

raise this much money for your next

9:59

set. of funds. All

10:04

right, friends, that is our show for

10:06

this lovely Wednesday morning. Of course, equity

10:08

is back on Friday with our news

10:10

roundtable roundup. We'll kick through the

10:12

biggest news, including just what's going on over

10:14

at rippling. But if you need more from

10:17

us in the meantime, we are equity pod

10:19

over on x and threads. I'm alex. I'll

10:21

talk to you soon. Bye Okay. Equity

10:26

is hosted by myself alex swolehelm

10:28

and tech crunch senior reporter mary

10:30

an asveto We are produced

10:32

by tereza lokun solo with editing by kell

10:35

price durbin is our illustrator and a big

10:37

Thank you to the audience development team and

10:39

henry pikavet who manages tech crunch audio products

10:41

Thank you so much for listening and we'll

10:43

talk to you next time