Turkish instant delivery firm Getir has bought its German rival Gorillas. The move will create a merged entity with a $10B valuation. Getir's valuation will fall from $11.8B in March to $8.8B. Gorillas' valuation will decline from $3B to $1.2B. More: - Both companies have combined to receive $3B in venture funding in the past two years.
- Gorillas had a monthly burn rate of "tens of millions of euros" and was facing a cash shortage despite raising $1.3B since its inception in 2020, according to the Financial Times.
- VCs have become increasingly reluctant to back unprofitable startups this year amid a shift in market conditions.
- Tencent and Delivery Hero are among the Gorillas' investors that will get an equity stake in Getir and $40M.
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More manufacturing companies are acting like VCs by investing in climate tech startups. ABB Technology Ventures, for example, builds circuit breakers, light switches, and electric car chargers and is using its investment arm, ABB Ltd., to fund promising climate tech startups. More: - In 2022, ABB wrote checks to 10 startups totaling $100M.
- Previously, the company had invested $250M over 11 years.
- ABB is looking for "VC-like returns," however, what makes its investments unique is that the company is also exploring startups that it may acquire or partner with in the future.
- ABB is joined by Schneider Electric SE's investment arm, SE Ventures, which recently opened a second €500M fund for industrial automation and climate tech startups.
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Microsoft acquired British hollow core fiber (HCF) cable maker Lumenisity for an undisclosed sum. Microsoft intends to use Lumenisity's technology in reducing latency and optimizing its global cloud infrastructure. Lumenisity had raised $15.35M (£12.5M) in total funding to date. More: - Lumenisity was spun off Optoelectronic Research Centre at the University of Southampton in 2017. Its technology combines optical fiber and coaxial cables to deliver transfer speeds ranging from 10 Gbps to 400 Gbps.
- Lumenisity's HOF cables have a 50% reduction in latency over traditional fiber cables.
- EuNetworks Fiber U.K. is reportedly testing the cables at the London Stock Exchange.
- Microsoft is confident that Lumensity's products can be beneficial to healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, retail, and government sectors.
- Notable backers of the firm include Business Growth Fund and Parkwalk Advisors.
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Banzai, a Seattle marketing software startup, will go public after it agreed to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Banzai will also acquire marketing optimization startup Hyros for $110M. More: - Banzai offers an end-to-end video engagement solution for intent-driven videos, webinars, virtual events, and other digital marketing campaigns.
- 7GC Holdings and Berlin-based Hennessy Capital will lead the SPAC.
- SPACs re-emerged during the pandemic’s low-interest rate environment, as capital flowed to startups and entrepreneurs used SPACs to enter the public markets quickly.
- However, the upcoming recession has slowed down that trend, and more than 55 SPACs have been canceled in 2022.
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The Israel-based identity-protection startup Rezonate has launched from stealth. The announcement comes after the company raised $8.7M. More: - Investors included several anonymous angels, State of Mind Ventures, Flybridge, toDay Ventures, Merlin Ventures, and more.
- The startup is building what it claims to be the "industry's first cloud identity protection platform."
- The program helps security teams to identify security threats across cloud infrastructures in real time.
- Rezonate plans to use the funds to scale its platform and court new partnerships.
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Brodmann17’s co-founder and CEO, Adi Pinhas, announced in a LinkedIn post that the company has shut down its operations. Pinhas cited a lack of investor backing as the reason behind the move. More: - Pinhas said that investors were waiting until next year before making investments.
- Although the firm has received acquisition offers, all deals failed to materialize.
- The Israeli firm had nabbed $25.2M in total funding to date, the last of which came in the form of an $11M Series A in 2019 led by OurCrowd.
- Maniv Mobility, AI Alliance, UL Ventures, Samsung NEXT, and Sony Innovation Fund were among the firm’s backers.
- Brodmann17 was developing computer vision and deep learning-powered software for autonomous vehicles that would able to run on low-end processors and take advantage of existing sensors on the car like camera, radar, and lidar.
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- SoftBank-backed messaging platform IRL is being investigated by the U.S. SEC for misleading investors. The SEC is evaluating whether the firm inflated the number of users on its platform after some employees expressed concern about the actual figures in May.
- British e-commerce tech startup Primer has laid off a third of its workforce, or 85 employees. The move is a part of its restructuring and cash conservation efforts in anticipation of a tough environment next year.
- Israeli CloudOps management solutions provider MoovingON is expanding to the U.S. and is bringing its data management, observability, and automated remediation platform, moovingon.ai, to the region. To help its expansion, it has inked a partnership with multi-cloud service provider 2bcloud.
- ScalingX, a global community developing blockchain and Web3 technologies, established an accelerator and incubator program called zkTech. The firm will invest between $100,000 to $500,000 in startups working on zero-knowledge-proof scaling technologies.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot.
Jigney Pathak is a Business Researcher at Inside who loves technology, finance & sports. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration with a finance specialization & has previously worked at Salesforce.
Courtney Rawlings is an Inside Research Analyst living in Los Angeles, California. She has returned to her hometown of LA after spending several years working at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is completing a Ph.D. in Art and Architectural History.
Martin Ruiz-Cantu has an MS in Global Business and Finance from Georgetown University. He previously worked for HSBC and the World Bank.
| | | | Editor | Vibha Chapparike is a Freelance Writer & Editor at Inside.com. With her post-graduation in Management and Finance completed, Vibha is expanding her knowledge in venture capital, business, startups, and technology. She has had a career in public relations and communications. An ardent reader and writer currently residing in Singapore, you can follow Vibha on Twitter @VChapparike. | |
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