Hey, Insider! Want to be featured in next week’s newsletter? Answer our weekly question: What's your favorite startup (besides your own)? Share your response here | |  Karan | |
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JPMorgan Chase is suing startup founder Charlie Javice for allegedly creating fake accounts and lying about the number of people using her program. According to the suit, Javice told JPMorgan Chase that her company Frank, which helped users apply for financial aid, had about 5 million users. However, the lawsuit alleges that, in actuality, 4.25 million users were fraudulent. More: - Javice launched Frank in 2017, and by 2021, she had sold the startup to JPMorgan Chase for $175M.
- JPMorgan Chase claims Javice paid a data science professor $18,000 to create a list of over 4 million fake users.
- Javice denies these claims calling them "retaliatory and misleading."
- Javice's attorney said she is being falsely accused because the company "couldn't work around those privacy laws," believing "Frank was a proven acquisition machine for college-aged students."
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U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla) has submitted a proposal to back 15 Hispanic-led startups in the fiscal year 2023 under a new initiative dubbed LatinTech Accelerator. The program aims to invest $500,000 in each startup in the Tampa Bay area. More: - The proposal has been submitted for review to the House Appropriations Committee.
- Local nonprofit tech incubator and accelerator Tampa Bay Wave will manage the initiative along with the Tampa Bay Latin Chamber of Commerce.
- Linda Olson, founder and CEO of Tampa Bay Wave, hopes that the LatinTech Accelerator will help empower Hispanic businesses in the region.
- Hispanics must own a majority (51%) stake in any startup to qualify for the program.
Zoom out: - The program aims to rectify the funding deficit for Latino-founded startups, which received only 2.1% of total venture funding across the U.S., per data collated by LatinxVC.
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The Indian social media startup ShareChat recently announced it would lay off 20% of its employees or about 400 people. The company did not disclose which roles would be affected. More: - The startup has secured over $1B in funding from companies like Twitter, Google, Tiger Global, and Temasek.
- Most recently, in May 2022, ShareChat raised $300M Series H.
- ShareChat CEO Ankush Sachdeva told employees that the company had to lay off staff to "ensure the financial health and longevity" of the company, having "overestimated the market growth in the highs of 2021."
- Laid-off staffers will receive two weeks' pay per year they worked for the company, and their health insurance policies will continue until June 2023.
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Canadian fintech startup Clearco’s co-founder Michele Romanow is stepping down from the CEO role. The firm is lining up Andrew Curtis to step into the role vacated by Romanow. Last July, it fired a quarter of its workforce, and it plans to cut its workforce strength by another 30% this week. More: - Clearco, which extends capital to e-commerce businesses, was valued at $2B in 2021 before its subsequent slump due to tough macroeconomic conditions in 2022.
- In 2021, it generated nearly $100M in revenue.
- The company closed its operations outside North America last year and was in talks with potential buyers.
- Notable venture firms Y Combinator, SoftBank Vision Fund, Silicon Valley Bank, and others invested nearly $1B in equity and debt into the company to date.
- The company has reportedly raised $30M recently and is looking to raise $20M more.
- Romanov will remain with the firm as its co-executive chairman.
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Kwara, a Kenya fintech that digitizes credit unions, raised a seed extension of $3M. The startup recently signed an exclusive digital solutions distribution agreement with the Kenya Union of Savings & Credit Cooperatives, the national body that represents credit unions. More: - Kwara doubled its client base in 2022.
- They currently work with 4,000 credit unions through its banking-as-a-service offering.
- The funding will also help Kwara acquire RNET, a software company and provider for credit unions.
- The main investors of the seed extension were DOB Equity, Globivest, and Willard Ahdritz.
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Gigged.AI, a startup that developed artificial intelligence-powered recruitment software, secured £1.6M ($1.75) in seed funding. The software matches candidates with technology skills with relevant hiring companies. More: - Gigged.AI received the funding mainly from Par Equity and Techstart Ventures.
- The value proposition of its service is that it also provides an overview of a business's current talent capabilities to prevent unnecessary hires.
- Some of the startup's clients are BBC and Skyscanner.
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I'm Kiani from Inside.com, and last week, we asked our Inside Startups community, "How do you balance the demands of running a startup with your personal life?" Here are some highlighted responses we received: - Manoj Ranaweera (p/ManojRanaweera), CEO at SkillledUp Life, answered vulnerably, "Sadly, I don't have a personal life. Somehow, I managed to stay married with two young daughters. My biggest achievement to date is not any of my startups or exits but managing to keep the family together for all these years. I've seen many family breakups as well as suicides among folks running businesses. So I feel very lucky and hope to remain lucky as long as I can."
- Soozy Miller (p/SoozyMiller), Executive Coach at Control Your Career, answered openly, "I decided after COVID quarantine (in New York) that I needed to be with people because I have a home office. So I started working at the local YMCA front desk. This gets me away from my computer and gives me more human interaction. This, in turn, makes me better for my company. I work 20 hours per week, and I work out 3-4X per week because I have a free gym membership--it's perfect."
Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business or contact you for more! ⭐️
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- Venture capital firm Fractal Growth Partners is looking to raise a debut $250M fund to back post-seed stage technology focussed startups in India. Individual checks will range from $10M to $15M.
- Latvian wind turbine inspection and repair startup Aerones raised $30M in Series A funding co-led by Lightrock and Haniel. The firm intends to increase its workforce and expand into Africa and Australia with the funds.
- Reefknot Investments, a joint venture between Temasek and Kuehne + Nagel, led an $11M Series A funding round into logistics provider Locad, which the firm intends to use to add more warehouses and hire employees in Southeast Asia and Australia.
- Swiss startup Apostrophy is poised to launch its privacy-focussed mobile phone operating software dubbed AphyOS this week. The startup is also looking to raise $11M in funding this year.
- Octanom Tech unveiled an AI-powered investing and trading platform for retail investors called Hedged.
- Venture Thrive is now accepting applications from CEE-based startups for its climate tech accelerator program’s first cohort. The firm has earmarked €1.5M ($1.6M) for equity-free investments.
- As your business grows, so does the number of employees and the information they have access to. In this short video, security experts at Vanta demystify access reviews.*
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Upcoming Events: - January 12 - AMA with Gun.io - Building and managing software development teams w/ Deividi Silva (Watch On Demand)
- January 13 - AMA with LinearB - Improving workflow for developers w/ Ori Keren (Watch On Demand)
- January 16 - Inside Marketing Coffee Break (Register Here)
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- January 26 - Growth Experimentation Workshop: From Strategy to Process by GrowthHackers.com (Register Here)
- February 23 - Startups Book Club, February 2023 (Join The Club)
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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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