Valuations of seed stage startups rise / New VC program for laid off tech workers / Teamraderie raises $7M

Plus: carbon management software company Planetly shuts down

Inside.com Part of   Network November 09, 2022

Seed-stage investments continue to be robust despite the venture funding pullback. Median pre-money valuations of seed-stage startups remained at $10M. Early-stage venture capital firms had accumulated $73B in dry powder through funds smaller than $250M before June 30, 2022.  More: In recent months, several larger funds and non-traditional investors have continued to back seed-stage startups.  In the year to date, nontraditional investors have invested $6.7B in seed stage deals, of which nearly $2B was invested in Q3 2022.  Seed stage valuations of startups established outside the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, and Boston regions have increased by 33% compared to last year.  In Q3, 49% of seed-stage deals originated from these four regions. Median pre-money valuations for early-stage startups declined from $60M in Q1 2022 to $45M in Q3.

Venture capital firm Day One Ventures will invest $100,000 in 20 startups this year as part of its newly unveiled "Funded not Fired" program. The fund will also invest $1M and lead the pre-seed round of the "top businesses" in the program. More: Day One Ventures raised a $52.5M fund in Nov. 2020. It has allocated between $5M-$10M out of this fund for the program. GP Masha Bucher said the program targets employees let go by tech giants such as Twitter and Stripe. Bucher told TechCrunch interested founders don't need an established company to apply, but at least one member of the team must have been laid off recently.

Teamraderie, a startup that helps companies host team-building events, raised $7M at a $60M valuation. The round was led by Founders Fund but also saw participation from 12 chief human resource officers and chief people officers. More:  Teamraderie lets its clients participate in virtual courses hosted by celebrities such as Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov and Pulitzer Prize recipient Marcia Chatelain. The company has 200 clients, including Microsoft, Google, and IBM. The company says 50,000 people in 50 countries have used its platform. Teamraderie has secured $9M in funding since it was founded in 2020. Zoom out: Founders Fund partner Keith Rabois told TechCrunch that the number of term sheets he's given to companies has declined from “twelve or thirteen” in 2021 to two so far this year.

Carbon management software startup Planetly has shut down and laid off all 200 employees. The German startup was acquired by SoftBank-backed OneTrust in December last year. Employees were informed about the closure on Nov. 4.  More: Planetly, established in 2018, provided businesses with a SaaS platform to measure and reduce their carbon emissions.  While the official reason why OneTrust shut down Planetly is unknown, sources told Business Insider that the company was probably less of a strategic match to the parent company's core business than previously anticipated. The firm has raised a total of $5.7M from investors to date.  BMW, HelloFresh, and The Economist Group were among Planetly’s notable customers.  In June, the parent company OneTrust laid off 950 employees. The same month, it nabbed $100M in debt funding from KeyBanc Capital Markets and Goldman Sachs Group. Zoom out: Emitwise, Planetly's competitor, also reduced its headcount last month.

Cybersecurity platform Veriti has raised $18.5M in funding from Insight Partners, NFX, and Amiti. The startup plans to use the funding for product development and marketing strategy.   More:  Veriti was founded in 2021 and is described as a security platform that integrates a company’s security stack to analyze and identify security gaps and misconfigurations automatically.   The cybersecurity platform aims to address enterprise complexity and data quantity issues.  The product purports to monitor threat exposure, provide visibility into vulnerabilities, and increase return on investment for enterprises by leveraging security configuration, logs, and sensor telemetry.   The company has not disclosed its current revenue.

Milan-based startup AEHRA has debuted new electric vehicles (EVs) expected to be on the market in 2025. The newly launched company aims to bring luxury to the global EV sector.   More:  AEHRA plans to launch a sedan and an SUV model in 2025, with annual production ranging from 20,000-25,000 vehicles. The high-end vehicles are targeted at high-income earners and cost between $160,000-$180,000 depending on the model. AEHRA’s EVs will be introduced to the U.S. and Europe, followed by China.   The startup’s debut comes at a critical time; the EU is banning sales of new fossil-fuel-burning cars by 2035.   Italy-based Ferrari and Lamborghini have also shared plans to develop EVs.

Quick Hits: Looking to upgrade your expense management software AND plan a flight in the near future? Demo Divvy by Nov. 10 and get a $250 Delta Airlines gift card.* EQT Ventures received $1.1B (€1B) in total commitments towards its latest fund dedicated to back early-stage startups across Europe.  Mark Gardner, a former executive at Thermo Fisher and current vice president at Quest Diagnostics, joined biotech startup Pleno’s board of directors. His addition will enable Pleno to take further steps into the biological target detection domain. Indian HR tech platform Keka nabbed $57M in Series A financing led by WestBridge Capital. The funding is the largest yet for a SaaS platform in India.  Web3 communication infrastructure platform Notifi secured $10M in seed funding co-led by Hashed and Race Capital, with participation from Struck Capital, HRT Capital, and Wintermute.  Video news media startup, The Recount is exploring a possible sale. The firm fired half of its 75 employees last year before letting go of the other half earlier this month. It had secured $3M bridge financing earlier this year.  San Francisco, Calif.-based digital customer engagement solutions developer Agent IQ secured $10M in funding. The Series A round was led by Mendon Venture Partners. *This is sponsored content.

Upcoming Events: November 29 - Learn about concrete 3D printed houses: how it works, market snapshot and investment opportunity. (Register Here) * January 31 - Growth Summit'23 (Register Here) *This is a sponsored event listing.

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. Isabel Guerriera is an Inside Freelance Writer and Editor currently living in Madrid, Spain.   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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Meta lays off 11,000 workers / Binance backs out of FTX deal / Twitter rolls out and cancels "official" badge

Plus, Bitcoin fell to $16,853 on Wednesday.

Inside.com Part of   Network November 09, 2022

Facebook parent Meta Platforms announced it is laying off 13% of its workforce, or about 11,000 workers. The move comes after investors shared concerns about the company’s direction, reduced ad revenue, and heavy investment in the metaverse. More: Meta’s expenses rose to $22.1B in Q3, up 19% compared to last year. The company’s revenue fell 4% to $27.71B, and its operating income dropped 46% YoY to $5.66B. In a note to employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is making cuts across all units; however, the recruiting team will be significantly impacted since the company plans to hire fewer people next year. Meta extended its hiring freeze through Q1 of 2023. Zuckerberg said impacted employees would receive 16 weeks of pay plus two additional weeks for every year of employment. Meta will also cover health insurance for dismissed employees for six months. As of September, Meta has more than 87,000 employees.

Crypto exchange Binance said it would not buy FTX after reviewing the company’s finances. Binance said it had hoped to support FTX’s customers by providing liquidity, but the issues it uncovered at FTX are beyond its control and ability to help. More: On Tuesday, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao announced the company had reached an agreement with FTX to buy the crypto exchange’s non-U.S. operations for an undisclosed amount. On Wednesday morning, reports began to circulate that Binance was scared off by what it found in FTX’s books just half a day into its due diligence. Binance confirmed on Wednesday afternoon in a series of tweets that it was indeed pulling out of the deal. Binance’s decision to step away from the transaction raises questions about FTX’s future and those of its investors and customers who have their funds in FTX. FTX has halted both crypto and fiat withdrawals from the exchange. FTX and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, were praised this summer for bailing out struggling crypto lenders by providing liquidity. Bankman-Fried provided loans and acquired stakes in BlockFi and Voyager Digital, spending nearly $1B. In January, FTX was valued at $32B. In related news: In an email to employees, Zhao said he did not master-plan FTX’s collapse. He added that FTX’s failure would not be good for anyone in the crypto industry and that Binance employees should not view FTX’s potential collapse as a win. Zhao told Binance employees not to buy or sell FTX’s FTT tokens.

On Wednesday, Twitter began rolling out and later canceled its "official" badge for high-profile accounts. The grey "official" badge was placed under Twitter's blue verified logo and given to several high-profile users, including government, business, and media figures. More: Following public criticism of the new feature, Twitter removed the "official" badge. Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company would try "lots of dumb things" in the coming months and keep things that work and change things that don't. Last week Musk announced plans to charge users $8 per month to get verified and would open verification to everyone. Musk has faced heavy criticism over the decision to open Twitter verification to all users, with some pointing out that Twitter's verification badge was a way to determine the real identity of public figures and organizations rather than a status symbol. In related news: On Wednesday, Musk held a Q&A hosted by Twitter's Client Solutions Leader, Robin Wheeler, and Twitter's Head of Trust & Safety, Yoel Roth, discussing advertising and the company's future. Over 100,000 tuned in to the Space, and the recording of the Space show has more than 1 million views.

Germany blocked a Chinese investor from buying ERS Electronic, a domestic Bavaria-based semiconductor manufacturer. ERS makes thermal chucks used to hold semiconductor wafers in place while they’re being probed. More: German economy minister Robert Habeck disclosed the country’s decision to block the sale. The German government also blocked the sale of Elmos’ semiconductor plant based in Dortmund to Chinese-owned Silex Microsystems. The blocked deals come days after German chancellor Olaf Scholz made his first official trip to China. Scholz’s visit was the first visit by a western leader since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The economy ministry said the Elmos deal, if allowed to go through, would have endangered Germany’s public order and security.

The SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are investigating crypto exchange FTX over possible mismanagement of customers' funds. The regulators are also looking into FTX's relationship with the other crypto firms owned by FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. FTX has been embroiled in a recent liquidity crisis after the price of its native token, FTT, fell more than 75% on Tuesday. More: According to sources, the SEC began investigating FTX US months earlier over its crypto-lending activities. U.S. regulators are also investigating FTX US's relationship with Bankman-Fried's trading house, Alameda Research. According to sources, U.S. regulators have asked for details about the ownership structure of FTX US and FTX.com. FTX.com is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda and is headquartered in the Bahamas. FTX.com serves non-U.S. customers. FTX US operates as a separate U.S.-regulated crypto exchange headquartered in Miami, Florida.  U.S. regulators also inquired whether customer accounts were properly separated between the firms and the composition of the investor base at FTX.com.

Roblox shares fell more than 20% on Wednesday after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings. The online gaming company posted $517.7M in revenue, up 2% YoY, and bookings of $701.7M, up 10% YoY. Roblox reported a larger-than-expected net loss of $297.8M, or 50 cents a share, compared to a net of $74M posted last year. More: Roblox said it had 58.8 million average daily active users, up 24% YoY. Hours engaged on the platform were 13.4 billion, up 20% YoY. Roblox reported average bookings per daily active user was $11.94, down 11% YoY. Roblox shares are down ~69% YTD.

Quick Hits Looking to upgrade your expense management software AND planning a flight in the near future? Demo Divvy by Nov. 10 and get a $250 Delta Airlines gift card.* Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu ordered Russian troops to withdraw from the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine. Kherson was the first and only provincial capital to fall under Russian occupation; it connects the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) plans to build another multibillion-dollar factory investment in Arizona. The new facility would manufacture 3-nanometer transistors. TSMC is the world’s largest contract chip maker. Microsoft is facing an antitrust complaint from the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (Cispe), a trade group that counts Amazon as one of its members. The complaint accuses Microsoft of using its dominance in productivity software to direct customers in Europe to its Azure cloud service. Bitcoin fell nearly 10% to $16,853 on Wednesday, its lowest level in almost two years. Ether also fell 14% to $1,128 on Wednesday following news of Binance abandoning its plan to buy Sam Bankman-Freid’s FTX after a review of the exchange’s financials. *This is a sponsored listing.

Upcoming Events November 29 - Learn about concrete 3D printed houses: how it works, market snapshot and investment opportunity. (Register Here) * January 31 - Growth Summit'23 (Register Here) *This is a sponsored listing.

Vanessa Omeokachie is a writer for Inside.com; she writes the daily Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, traveling, and exploring.  Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

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