Hey, Insider! Want to be featured in next week’s newsletter? Answer our weekly question: How much should startup founders pay themselves in early-stages of their business? Share your response here. | |  Karan | |
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As the cost of space launches and materials decreases, more startups are looking to enter the industry. The Space Regulatory Bootcamp helps these startups learn about important regulations regarding the field, including working with the U.S. government. More: - The Bootcamp has secured backing from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX.
- The Bootcamp will take place from Feb. 21-23 at Q Station in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- During the three-day workshop, attendees will learn how to secure government contracts, including the Small Business Innovation Research or Small Business Technology Transfer contract.
- The Bootcamp covers various topics such as export control, cybersecurity, foreign investment, crowdfunding, government licensing, and federal contracting regulations.
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Microsoft is in advanced talks to invest $10M into autonomous trucking startup Gatik. In return, the California-based startup will use Microsoft's Azure cloud and edge computing for its autonomous trucking services. More: - Gatik is reportedly valued at $700M at the funding.
- To date, the firm has raised $121.6M in total financing, the last of which came through an $85M Series B round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies in Aug. 2021.
- Other notable backers of the firm include Innovation Endeavors, Goodyear Ventures, and RyderVentures.
- The startup was founded in 2017 by Gautam Narang and Arjun Narang.
- Gatik is developing autonomous medium-duty trucks for B2B short-haul logistics.
- The firm is poised to integrate class 6 autonomous trucks into Pitney Bowes' e-commerce network in Texas by Q1 2023.
Zoom out: - In Jan. 2021, Microsoft invested in robotaxi company Cruise at a $30B valuation.
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 A message from ARRIVED Unbelievable: a must-see real estate investing hack. Arrived is an easy-to-use real estate investment platform offering SEC-qualified investments, and it’s backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos and Marc Benioff. In a few clicks, you can: - Browse properties (<1% make it through vetting): AirBnBs, long-term rentals, and more coming soon.
- Pick your favorites: invest anywhere between $100 to $50K per property.
- Boom: you're officially earning income and appreciation while Arrived manages your properties.
Both first-time investors and long-time real estate millionaires are flocking to Arrived, funding over 200 properties and $75M of property value since last year. Demand is high. What’s holding you back? Browse properties
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Recently laid-off tech employees are founding startups and securing early-stage funding from VC firms. For instance, Day One Ventures announced it would support newly laid-off employees' startups by writing 20 $100,000 checks. More: - Similarly, Index Ventures also announced its Origin's fund would invest $300M in early-stage startups.
- U.S. Venture Partners and Austrian VC disclosed similar goals.
- In H2 2022, major tech companies like Meta, Microsoft, Twitter, and Snap, laid off some 150,000 people.
- Many of these people are now attempting to be entrepreneurs.
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Product Science, a startup that develops mobile app performance monitoring tools, raised $18M in funding. The startup's platform studies app code to find flaws and minimize perceptible crashes, freezes, and errors. More: - A survey sponsored by HP found that 53% of app users have uninstalled apps that present issues like lag.
- Product Science supports app developers with updates needed to keep up with increasing phone speeds.
- Its product studies pre-production code using AI.
- The company's tools show video recordings of apps next to performance traces, providing insights into what is happening behind the screen.
- The startup has raised a total of $18M in seed funding.
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Wyre, a crypto payments company, has ceased operations. The move comes after Bolt backed out of its $1.5B acquisition deal. The shutdown was attributed to the ongoing crypto funding winter. More: - Employees were notified of the decision via email by Ioannis Giannaros, the company's CEO.
- To date, the firm has raised $29.1M in equity funding from backers like FJ Labs, Samsung NEXT, Kraken, Great Oaks Venture Capital, and Draper Associates.
- Pantera Capital led the firm's $8M Series B round in Dec. 2018 and its subsequent $3M follow-on funding in Aug. 2020.
Zoom out: - Wyre is the latest company to close operations due to the venture funding pullback in the crypto space and the implosion of major players like FTX.
- Other notable crypto companies to shut down include Terra/LUNA, Celsius Network, and Three Arrows Capital.
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SurrealDB, a startup offering database-as-a-service, raised $6M. The funding will support the startup's value proposition that focuses on flexibility in querying data. More: - Increasingly, companies adopt fully managed, cloud-based database services.
- A MariaDB survey found that 61% of IT Heads, Database administrators (DBAs), and software developers were fully migrated or about to complete a full database migration into the cloud.
- SurrealDB wants to support that trend by providing a platform for building and scaling applications quicker while allowing for the storage and querying of data in a structured yet flexible way.
- SurrealDB was bootstrapped for three years and has yet to generate revenue.
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I'm Kiani from Inside.com, and in December, we asked our Startups community, "Why do you think it's important to support startups over big businesses?" Here's a thoughtful highlight from one of our community members. Eric Quanstrom (p/QUANSTROM | LinkedIn), CMO at CIENCE, wrote, Startups are typically more innovative, creative and agile. Startups can create more competition in a market and can help drive down prices. Startups are job creators, which can help stimulate an economy and drive economic growth. Startups (by definition) = new ideas and technology. Startup support helps to foster innovation and encourages entrepreneurs to take risks and develop new ideas. Want your question featured? Ask a question! 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: - This year, try a resolution that sticks - going to therapy with BetterHelp. Save 25% off your first month.*
- B2B edtech platform Uolo acquired Tekie, a coding tutoring platform, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help Uolo expand its product offerings for K-12 schools.
- Electric vehicle subscription startup Autonomy informed employees that the firm is in a “very very tight cash position.” However, the firm, which has raised $500M in debt and venture funding to date, is in talks with investors to raise additional funding. It raised bridge funding to cover payroll.
- Visa encourages startups in the APAC region to apply for its 2023 Accelerator Programme.
- The British telecom giant BT Group is about to acquire a stake in the drone startup Altitude Angel by investing £5M ($6M) into the firm via its upcoming Series B round.
- Accel and Foundamental VC co-led a $6.6M seed funding round into the collaborative design platform Snaptrude.
*This is sponsored content.
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Upcoming Events: - January 05 - AMA with Gun.io - Building and managing software development teams w/ Deividi Silva (Watch On Demand)
- January 06 - AMA with LinearB - Improving workflow for developers w/ Ori Keren (Watch On Demand)
- January 10 - Inside Startups Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 17 - Inside Marketing Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 18 - Inside Interview with Lacework - 4 Common Attack Paths in Cloud Security (Register Here)
- January 31 - Growth Summit 2023 (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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