Kong Secures $1.4 Billion Valuation to Build Connection for Apps
- CEO says video-conferences helped raise money in pandemic
- Company aims to provide tech backbone for mobile applications
Covid-19 has made plenty of things hard. Raising venture capital isn’t one of them, said Kong Inc. Chief Executive Officer Augusto Marietti.
“The amount of volume you can do is huge,” Marietti said in a recent interview. “It was like online poker with each Zoom. Next. Next. Next.”
Marietti said he spent five days in December at his dining room table in what were essentially back-to-back calls on Zoom. He raised $100 million at a $1.4 billion valuation for his software company and said he turned down offers from investors for an additional $180 million because he didn’t want to sell more shares.
Marietti is one of more than 300 startup founders to raise a round of $100 million or larger in 2020, part of a trend that pushed total venture funding to an historic high of $130 billion. Not having to drive up and down Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley or fly to New York for in-person meetings saved tremendous time, he said.