Klarna, a fintech focusing on payment plans for e-commerce, observed a 71% YoY increase in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Germany as its largest market by revenue. The Swedish company's app reached more than eight million MAUs, up from six million MAUs in Feb. 2022. More: - Klarna has a total of 34 million users in the U.S.
- The company claims to host a network of 500,000 retailers globally, including Instacart, Etsy, Groupon, and Samsung.
- Klarna, known for BNPL, launched a card in the U.S. in June after reaching a waitlist of over one million users.
- 80% of the adult population in Germany uses Klarna, according to its CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski.
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Snowflake revealed it acquired SnowConvert, a set of tools for migrating databases to data cloud, from Mobilize. The companies claim SnowConvert has migrated over 1.5 billion lines of code. More: - Snowflake has been on an acquisition spree, purchasing forecasting company Myst, document automation platform Applica in August, and data app development company Streamlit in March.
- The deal includes moving part of Mobilize's team to Snowflake and expanding its presence in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Bellevue, Washington.
- $SNOW was up 0.34% MoM on Wednesday afternoon.
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Starco Brands acquired plant-based food product maker Soylent Nutrition for an undisclosed sum. Since May of last year, the Los Angeles, Calif.-based startup was exploring sale options to tie itself to a larger organization and unlock new levels of growth. As part of the transaction, Soylent's shareholders and founder will receive shares of Starco, making them the single largest voting block in the firm. More: - After the transaction is concluded, Demir Vangelov will remain as Soylent's CEO, with Starco confirming that the newly acquired entity will function as a separate business unit.
- Per Vangelov, Soylent was profitable and nearly touched $100M in revenue in 2022.
- To date, the firm has raised over $133M in venture funding.
- Notable backers of the firm include Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and The Production Board.
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Dan Rogers, formerly a president at data management firm Rubrik, is set to succeed Edith Harbaugh as CEO of LaunchDarkly. Co-founder Harbaugh will remain with the firm, taking up the role of executive chairman. Investor Bessemer Venture Partners' partner Mary D'Onofrio expects Rogers to scale the business further. More: - LaunchDarkly provides a management platform for software development teams.
- The Oakland, Calif.-based company counts Atlassian, Intuit, IBM, and SAP as its customers.
- Under Harbaugh's leadership, LaunchDarkly grew to $100M in annual recurring revenue.
- The company was last valued at $3B in 2021 and has raised over $330M to date.
- Notable backers of the firm include Redpoint Ventures, Insight Partners, and Bloomberg Beta.
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Kaito, a startup building a search engine for crypto, raised a $5.3M Seed round led by Dragonfly Capital. "Anything that lives on the blockchain, a generic search engine is not looking at today," said Yu Hu, Kaito's founder and CEO. More: - Hu was a manager at Citadel and worked in traditional finance for almost a decade.
- Kaito's MetaSearch enables the search of crypto keywords through Twitter, Discord, Mirror, podcast transcripts, and governance forums, among other sources.
- The startup is integrating ChatGPT and GPT-3 into its product.
- Kaito plans to reward users for contributing through a tiered system, based on the Wikipedia model.
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Mike Romanowicz's prop-tech startup Den secured $3M in venture funding co-led by Gutter Capital and Crossbeam Ventures Partners. Den provides customizable architectural plans for houses and end-to-end construction management. "People are constantly promoting prefabrication as a solution, but for us, we're trying to think about airtight specifications," said Romanowicz. More: - Romanowicz was formerly the director of product management and strategic partnership at WeWork.
- He stepped down from his position in January earlier this year to focus on growing his then-side hustle into a full-fledged startup.
- Romanowicz is confident that the company's approach and lean capital strategy will help them differentiate itself from its peers.
- He adds that the firm intends to remain "asset-light" and focus on process, design, IP, and technology to scale the company while minimizing external funding.
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- Digital currency brokerage platform startup FalconX expanded operations into Singapore to cater to institutional clients across the APAC region.
- Internet service provider Starry Group, which went public a year ago via a SPAC merger with FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp., filed for bankruptcy.
- Former Coinbase Global COO Asiff Hirji joined cryptocurrency startup MoonPay as its president and chief operating officer. The move comes as MoonPay is venturing into the NFT market.
- Clayton Wood announced in a LinkedIn post that he is stepping down from the CEO role at food automation startup Picnic.
- Payments solutions provider DataMesh Group raised $30M in Series A funding led by NAB Ventures in a bid to expand its reach in the payments processing industry.
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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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