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Last week, we examined the explosive growth of startups like DoorDash, UiPath and WeWork—businesses that burst onto the VC scene and have seen their valuations rise steadily with every new funding, plotting a pleasing course up and to the right. But that's not the path followed by every startup that has its moment in the sun.

Sometimes, a journey through Silicon Valley includes a few more twists and turns.

SoFi and Foursquare, two companies that were the talk of the VC town several years ago, have resurfaced with new fundings. And that's one of nine things you need to know from the past week:
  The company that created the check-in has seen plenty of stops and starts. (Rost-9D/iStock/Getty Images Plus) 1. They're back SoFi has been a major presence on VC radars since at least 2012, when the online lender raised nearly $80 million in funding at a $180 million valuation. Investors were hooked by the company's peer-to-peer model, which was designed in part to cut traditional banks out of the lending process. So they supplied it with a steady stream of cash. SoFi first attained unicorn status in February 2015; later that year, it raised $1 billion at a $3.6 billion valuation, figures even more impressive four years ago than they are today.

In the time since, though, SoFi has in some ways stagnated. Until this week, it had raised only one round of VC funding in the past four years, despite releasing a stream of new products and diversifying into areas like consumer investing and banking. A major shake-up came in 2017, when CEO Mike Cagney resigned amid charges of sexual harassment. 

While other unicorns were seeing their valuations climb into the stratosphere, SoFi was simply holding steady. On Wednesday, though, SoFi made its return, unveiling a $500 million investment from the Qatar Investment Authority—the Middle Eastern nation's sovereign wealth fund—at a post-money valuation of $4.8 billion. 

That means the round came at a pre-money valuation of $4.3 billion. That's below the $4.4 billion valuation SoFi attained with its prior funding, a Silver Lake-led round in 2017. It's still the sort of number most startups would kill for. But it's not what many might have predicted half a decade ago. 
 
It's been an even longer saga for Foursquare, which originally emerged around the turn of the decade as a social app where users would share their locations with each other. The company raised more than $70 million between 2009 and 2011, seeing its valuation over that span shoot up from a mere $6.4 million to nearly $561 million. Three years later, in 2014, Foursquare raised another $77 million at a $650 million valuation. 

But as the world changed, and as the internet changed, Foursquare's product grew stale. It announced a pivot in 2014, branching into the realm of discovery by helping users find local restaurants and businesses. Over time, its business model continued to shift as Foursquare realized the value of the location data its users willingly submitted, and it began to sell that data to other businesses. Around the same time, it raised a Series E that came at a $317 million valuation, a down round that lopped hundreds of millions off its on-paper worth. 
 
But that was not the end. In what's likely a surprise to some, Foursquare is still in the business of knowing everywhere you go. And this week, it reportedly raised $150 million in new funding from The Raine Group—the company's largest investment ever—to help finance its acquisition of Placed, a competitor that uses location data to help brands track the effectiveness of their ads. 

SoFi and Foursquare's latest deals were two of the biggest VC investments of the past week. They were also reminders that the startup game can be played at many different paces.  2. X marks the spot The business of offering corporate credit cards is paying off in a major way for Brex, which is in the process of raising new funding at a $2 billion valuation, according to reports that emerged this week. Brex was valued at $1.1 billion less than eight months ago. Another company with a similar name is raising a unicorn round of its own, as Trax—a computer vision startup focused on the retail space—is reportedly bringing in $100 million at a valuation north of $1 billion.  3. Paying for payments In the latest of a string of mega-deals announced in the payments sector during 2019, Global Payments agreed this week to acquire TSYS in a move valued at about $21.5 billion. It's the latest sign of the impact companies like PayPal and Square are having on the industry, forcing more established (and more traditional) players to consider M&A as a way to keep up.  4. A sports swap One of the most iconic magazine titles in America is on the move, as Meredith agreed this week to sell Sports Illustrated for $110 million to Authentic Brands Group, a private equity-backed holding company that owns the rights to several fashion brands and celebrity likenesses. Meredith has been busy lining up divestitures in the wake of the publisher's acquisition last year of Time Inc., including the $190 million sale of the company's flagship Time title to Marc Benioff and Lynne Benioff.
  The days when this was a sports writer's toolkit have long since passed. (ERphotographer/iStock/Getty Images Plus) 5. Around the world Warburg Pincus unveiled this week a $4.25 billion target for its latest fund, which will focus on China and Southeast Asia, with the firm doing its part to continue what's been a steady increase in fund sizes in the region. Reports emerged about six months ago that Warburg Pincus had conducted a first close on $14 billion for its newest flagship fund. In other recent fund news with a distinct regional focus, African investor Helios Investment Partners has reportedly set out to raise $1.25 billion for its latest vehicle, which would represent the largest pool of capital in firm history.  6. Security sales A pair of VC-backed companies focused on high-tech security are on the verge of entering private ownership. In one of this week's moves, Palo Alto Networks agreed to pay $410 million for Twistlock, a container security startup that had last raised a $33 million Series C in August 2018. In another, FireEye announced its $250 million takeover of Verodin, which makes software that helps other companies test the effectiveness of cybersecurity measures.  7. PE powers' European vacation Reports surfaced this week that KKR is negotiating an investment in Axel Springer that could take the German publishing giant private, sending stock in the company soaring and giving it a market cap of nearly $6 billion. In London, meanwhile, Apollo Global Management decided it was time for an exit, as its portfolio company Watches of Switzerland conducted an IPO that raised £220 million (about $278 million).  8. A new C-suite As the private equity industry matures, more and more firms are faced with questions of succession. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice answered those questions this week, announcing that Nate Sleeper will become its new CEO at the start of next year, replacing Donald Gogel, who will remain as CD&R's chairman. Two other acronymic investors made major personnel moves of their own this week, as TPG Growth brought on Heather Smith Thorne as a partner and IVP promoted Tom Loverro to general partner.  9. Taking the lead  It was a busy week for one of the most prominent names in Silicon Valley, as Sequoia led new investments in a pair of different companies. The firm was the main investor in a $110 million Series D for Dashlane, which focuses on managing and protecting digital identities, valuing the business at $505 million. Sequoia also led a $35 million Series B for Whole Biome, a healthcare company focused on microbiomes, with participation from other firms like True Ventures and Khosla Ventures.