Hey, Insider! Want to be featured in next week’s newsletter? Answer our weekly question: Do you have any product managers on your team, and what led to hiring your first one? Share your response here. | |  Karan | |
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Cisco Systems acquired Santa Clara, Calif.-based cloud network security startup Valtix for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help Cisco strengthen its security cloud portfolio and help its clients secure workloads across multi-cloud environments. More: - Valtix's platform offers continuous visibility and control over cloud assets across several cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
- Valtix claims that its platform can be deployed in five minutes and increases productivity tenfold.
- Since its founding in 2018, Valtix has raised $26.5M to date in total funding.
- Cisco's venture capital arm Cisco Investments co-led a $12.5M round into Valtix along with Northgate Capital in Jan. 2021.
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Flock, an insurtech startup, raised a $38M Series B led by Octopus Ventures. The London-based company plans to use the new funds to expand to new markets. More: - Flock's product works by collecting driving data and other external variables to determine incentives for connected car fleets.
- Flock claims over 600 fleet customers, including Jaguar Land Rover, European EV subscription company Onto, and one-third of independent fleet contractors for Amazon.
- The round included participation by Chamath Palihapitiya's Social Capital, MuleSoft's founder Ross Mason's family office, and Foresight Ventures, among others.
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Note-taking and task management application startup Evernote laid off 129 employees. Parent company Bending Spoons told TechCrunch that Evernote "has been unprofitable for years, and the situation was unsustainable in the long term," forcing it to make the decision as it sets sights on profitability. More: - TechCrunch's analysis shows that the layoffs were conducted across all divisions, impacting product design, HR, engineering, sales, customer service, and marketing teams.
- This is the third major round of layoffs over Evernote's two decades of operations.
- Evernote was averaging $100M in ARR over the last five years.
- Italian app developer Bending Spoons acquired Evernote in Nov. 2022, shortly after it raised $340M in a funding round.
- TechCrunch suspects that increased investor pressure or Bending Spoon's desire to see a quick return on investment may have been the underlying cause behind the layoffs.
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Legal tech startup Robin AI raised $10.5M in Series A funding led by Plural. The British firm is one of the few to leverage Anthropic's generative AI models to draft and negotiate legal contracts. Incoming funds will be used to accelerate product development and expand its team, especially the sales and marketing division, from 75 to 100. More: - Robin AI's model is trained on 4.5 million legal documents.
- The firm acquired competitor LawGeex, for an undisclosed sum.
- It previously raised a $3.3M seed extension funding round from SoftBank in Dec. 2021.
Zoom out: - Quora's chatbot Poe is the other startup known to leverage Anthropic's AI models.
- Anthropic, backed by Google, has its own ChatGPT-like platform dubbed Claude.
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Champions Round, a fantasy sports app for Gen Z, raised a $7M Series A. The company plans to use the funds to work on its "Creator Rooms" feature, which would enable sports creators to engage with users through snake drafts and polls. More: - The round was co-led by Point72 Ventures and Goodwater Capital, with participation from Pipeline Capital, Quest Venture Partners, and Mana Ventures, among others.
- According to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, over 30 million people in the U.S. participate in daily fantasy sports games.
- Champions Round has received funding from athletes, including former NBA point guard Baron Davis and New Orleans Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu, among others.
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CollX, a startup that develops an app that determines the value of trading cards, raised $5.5M. The company claims more than 600,000 users scanned over 100 million cards. More: - CollX runs images through a database of more than 20 million cards, including Pokemon and sports.
- The round was led by Brand Foundry Ventures, with participation from Next Coast Ventures, FJ Labs, and 114 Ventures, among others.
- "The secondary market for cards is big, but we see an opportunity for it to grow 2x to 3x," said Brand Foundry's Wesley Gottesman.
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I'm Kiani from Inside.com, and last week, we asked our community, "How many hours a week do you typically spend working on your startup(s)?" Here are some highlighted responses we received: - Theodoros Moulos (p/tmoulos), CEO at GrowthRocks, answered, "Well, let's just say my startup is like a good dream that I never want to wake up from. I spend about 14 hours a day turning it into a reality, another 4 hours thinking about how to improve it, and even my dreams are consumed with ideas to make it better."
- Dave Poku (p/davepoku), Founder of Lumacart, answered, "Easily 120+ hours. But then again I have multiple projects I am working so."
- Wes Boudville (p/wesboudville), Founder of metasafe.page, answered, "I try to work 40 hours a week. I deliberately don't want to do the 60+ hours that some endure. It's a marathon I'm running."
Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business or contact you for more! ⭐️
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- Wectory co-founder and CEO Mikhail Balabanov shares fundraising tips for startup founders. Founders must ask VCs who have declined to invest to introduce their firm to other funds, spend less time obsessively researching the VC firm, and approach fund managers directly while raising capital, says Balabanov.
- Tech-enabled financing platform Marco Financial secured a $200M credit facility from MidCap Financial Investment Corp and Castlelake. The firm will use the capital to provide loans to startups and exporters in Latin America.
- David Krieger's new home maintenance startup Onder emerged from stealth. Krieger was formerly the senior director for product and strategy at Expedia.
- Property data analytics startup CoreLogic acquired Australian prop-tech digital advertising startup Plezzel. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space announced SpadXTech as one of the six startups joining its accelerator program, Advancing Climatetech and Clean Energy Leaders Program (ACCEL).
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot.
Nicolas is a Sr. Analyst at Inside, covering startups and transportation trends. He is an avid map maker and data nerd. Nicolas has worked in the shared-scooter space, as well as advised e-bike and moped start-ups. | | | | 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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