Hey, Insider! Want to be featured in next week’s newsletter? Answer our weekly question: How can you find accurate market data for assessing your startup’s potential? Share your response here. | |  Karan | |
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Months after its most recent funding round in Q2 2022, the HR startup Deel Inc. announced it is now valued at $12B. Used for hiring employees living abroad, Deel claims it is now a profitable company according to EBITDA measurements. Founded in 2019, Deel's annual revenue has jumped from $4M in 2021 to $295M as of Jan. 1, 2023. More: - In Q2 2022, the company raised $30M through primary shares and $20M in secondary transactions from stock-holding employees.
- The startup recently used its valuation to purchase the Australian payroll company PayGroup for $83M.
- Deel charges $49/month per contractor and several hundred for full-time employees.
- The company is currently managing about 120,000 workers.
- Deel plans to double its revenue in 2023 and reach $1B in yearly revenue by 2027.
- The startup plans to expand its HR program to compete with traditional HR companies like Rippling and Gusto.
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Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures has participated in a $12M phase 2 seed funding round for Australian climate technology startup Rumin8 Pty. The firm is working on reducing methane emissions arising out of the animal agriculture industry by developing a synthetically-replicated supplement for livestock. The firm intends to use the proceeds to accelerate commercial trials of its product, accelerate brand development, and construct the pilot manufacturing plant. More: - The fresh funding brings the firm’s total funding raised to date to over $17M.
- Rumin8’s initial seed round was led by Prelude Ventures in Jul. 2022.
- Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, Nicola Forrest, and Michael Bloomberg are other billionaires besides Gates that have backed the Perth, Australia-based startup.
- Rumin8 intends to conduct commercial trails across Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and the U.S.
Zoom out: - Livestock accounts for a third of global methane emissions.
- According to a study, feeding seaweed to cows could reduce methane emissions by 98%.
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Japan plans to lift a 1998-era regulation that limits how much money domestic VCs can invest in international startups. By removing the restriction, Japan hopes to increase annual startup investments to ~$77.2B (10 trillion yen), which is about 10x the current rate. More: - Under the current law, 50% of a venture fund must be invested in domestic startups.
- By updating the statute, Japan believes its startups can attract more foreign investment and help domestic VCs bring more money into the country.
- Japan is dissatisfied with just six unicorn startups, a small number compared to the U.S.'s ~600 or China's ~100.
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Share Creators raised $5M for massive digital files collaboration and management. The funding round was led by 5Y Capital and Foxit. More: - The startups address the need for advanced content storage and management platforms that have risen due to the increase of remote workers.
- In particular, Share Creator works with remote workers that create virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and whose video consumption has significantly increased.
- The startup mainly focuses on game developers, e-commerce marketers, and product designers.
- The market for global enterprise content management is expected to reach $29.64B in 2028.
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The majority of employees at Google's internal incubator Area 120 have been let go following widespread layoffs across the parent organization, Alphabet. According to an internal email, only three of the projects from the division will be absorbed into Google's core product areas this year. More: - Area 120 was established in 2016 by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai to develop experimental apps and services that could emerge as new drivers of revenue and be absorbed into Google's core products.
- In 2021, the division was taken under the wing of Google Labs, led by Clay Bavor.
- GameSnacks, AdLingo, Tangi, Checks, Tables, Stack, ThreadIt, Orion, and ThreadBite, have all emerged from Area 120 in the past.
- Details about which of the currently incubated projects will be shut down are unclear as of now.
- The incubator typically has around 20 projects underway at any time.
- The video dubbing platform Aloud is reportedly being retained, according to sources.
- Half of the projects at Area 120 were already canceled last year in September.
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Coverdash launched its business product that allows smaller businesses to source insurance coverage in seconds. The startup also raised $2.5M in seed capital. More: - Coverdash focuses on small businesses, e-commerce merchants, and gig-economy workers in the U.S.
- They also provide embedded technology to help their clients plug their end-to-end insurance experience with a single line of code.
- The value proposition of Coverdash is to make it easier for small businesses to buy insurance.
- The startup helps clients get a quote, bind policies, pay for them and manage them in seconds.
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I'm Kiani from Inside.com, and last week, we asked our startups community, "What's your favorite startup (besides your own)?" Here's a highlighted response we received: - Daniel James Scott (p/sparkcatalyst | LinkedIn), Co-Founder at Life Transcript Co, answered Jumbo Privacy, writing, "Cannot oversell Jumbo Privacy enough. Protect yourself, your identify, and your phone. And they are in non-stop beast mode launching fixes and features and programs."
Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business or contact you for more! ⭐️
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Quick Hits: - Employee training is crucial, but building a scalable program for it is complex work. Use this checklist to take yours to the next level.*
- British AI-voice tool startup ElevenLabs secured $2M in pre-seed funding from Credo Ventures.
- HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah led a $1.1M seed funding into the professional networking platform Peerlist.
- Merchant commerce company PineLabs has acquired enterprise platform Saluto Wellness for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will strengthen its business offerings under the Qwikcilver division.
- 10 startups graduated from 917Ventures’ accelerator program, which it ran in partnership with venture capital firm 500 Global.
- Dutch legal technology platform Reyen Court is closing physical offices, reducing tools deployed, and reducing workforce count to focus on being cash-flow positive by next quarter.
- Indian deeptech battery startup Log9 has secured $40M from its Amara Raj Ventures and Petronas Ventures-led Series B funding round.
- Revolutionary Talent is the Future of HR. Are you ready to tackle your goals?*
*This is sponsored content.
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Upcoming Events: - January 23 - Inside Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 24 - Inside Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 25 - Quantum Miami '23 (Register Here)
- January 26 - Growth Experimentation Workshop: From Strategy to Process by GrowthHackers.com (Register Here)
- January 29 - Inside Interview with Lacework - 4 Common Attack Paths in Cloud Security (Register Here)
- January 31 - AMA with LinearB - Improving workflow for developers w/ Ori Keren (Watch On Demand)
- January 31 - AMA with Gun.io - Building and managing software development teams w/ Deividi Silva (Watch On Demand)
- April 18 - Human Resources Summit'23 (Register Here)
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot.
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 is a Business Researcher at Inside.com. He has a Master's in Global Business and Finance from Georgetown University. He previously worked at HSBC and the World Bank. He is passionate about finance, startups and tech.
| | | | 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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Laika is a unified compliance platform that automates workflows for audits, infosec monitoring, and vendor due diligence in a single, collaborative space. | |
