OfColor founder Yemi Rose offered advice on achieving equity pay for workers of color in startups, urging them to consider the employee's circumstances and background when determining equity pay since workers of color may not have generational wealth at their disposal. Rose adds that it's not just about "giving pay equality, but the amount of money that employees of color are able to keep is significantly lower" due to their accumulated medical, housing, and other debts. More: - Rose recommends that organizations should focus beyond equal pay for employees of color.
- He adds that DEI workshops are insufficient and that workers of color must be actively supported for leadership roles and resources.
- He adds that startups could "completely fund employees' health-insurance premiums, provide nonelective retirement contributions, and fully fund their accounts up front."
- Rose's fintech startup OfColor builds generational wealth amongst workers of color by providing financial therapy and counseling through coaching, content, and community-based initiatives.
- In addition, the firm also provides educational packages to enterprises, such as MetLife.
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Otter.ai revealed it is launching an artificial intelligence meeting assistant, OtterPilot. The new product would summarize meeting points with links to key moments and send them via email to a group. More: - "AI is helping us in every aspect of our life. Every day when I drive to work, I am helped and inspired by advancements in Tesla's Autopilot system," said Otter.ai CEO Sam Liang.
- Otter.ai claims to have transcribed over 1 billion meetings from 100 million meetings in 2021.
- The startup's backers include Slow Ventures, GGV Capital, the Duke Angel Network, and NTT Docomo, among others.
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Flyhomes, which works on 3D tours and home-buying simplification, announced it is acquiring the hosting app Loftium. Flyhomes experienced layoffs in November and July amid changes in real estate demand due to rising interest rates. More: - Loftium first launched in 2017 by providing down payment assistance for Airbnb hosts who agreed to split profits.
- In 2019, Loftium pivoted to renting homes to aspiring Airbnb hosts before launching its host-to-own program in 2022.
- The startup operates its host-to-own program in Denver and Portland.
- Flyhomes' backers include former Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff, Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, and Fifth Wall, among others.
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Worklife Ventures founder Brianne Kimmel is establishing a new bootcamp for AI startups that are shaping the future of work. She committed $20M to back startups that complete the program, which aims to help founders achieve product-market fit and scale their organizations. More: - The AI bootcamp is currently invite-only and is an extension of Kimmel's SaaS bootcamp.
- Kimmel intends to back pre-seed and seed-stage startups.
- The program is on the lookout for 30 startups that are leveraging generative AI or traditional AI to create data or developer tools.
- It will provide guidance on topics such as product positioning, pricing, community building, and other relevant topics.
- In addition, it will hold weekly discussions with executives from notable startups, such as Grammarly, Notion, and Figma.
- Kimmel has previously backed several AI startups as an angel investor.
- Worklife's portfolio includes AI startups Artifact and Viable.
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Authentication and user management startup Descope emerged from stealth with a $53M seed funding. Descope intends to expand the product's scope and boost R&D with fresh funding. More: - The California-based startup provides a no-code drag-and-drop workflow for incorporating user access controls, single sign-on, and passwordless authentication tools in B2B and B2C applications.
- Descope was founded by the former core team of cybersecurity startup Demisto, which was acquired by Palo Alto Networks for $560M in 2019.
- Lightspeed Venture Partners and GGV Capital led the funding round with participation from Unusual Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Cerca Partners, J Ventures, and others.
Zoom out: - Per Markets & Markets, the passwordless authentication market is forecasted to grow from $6.6B in 2021 to $21.2B in 2027.
- Descope's competitors include Stytch and Auth0.
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Capsule, a startup that works on AI-driven video editing, raised a $4.75M Seed round. 90% of its customers are in the enterprise category, including Snowflake, Salesforce, and the Wall Street Journal. More: - "Despite the large number of video tools in the market, the needs of enterprise teams have largely been ignored. Ask anyone in marketing, comms, sales, or success, and they'll tell you video outperforms all other formats, but they'll also tell you they don't get to use it often enough because of how costly and complex it is to make," said the startup's CEO Champ Bennett.
- Capsule's team first built a GIF capture tool and social network Phhhoto, which shut down in 2017 amid competition from Instagram's Boomerang. They also built an experiential marketing business for live events, Hypno, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Capsule previously raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding with participation from Bloomberg Beta and Array Ventures, among others.
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Quick Hits: - Athletic Brewing is pioneering a non-alcoholic craft beer revolution and donating 2% of sales towards protecting and restoring local trails.*
- Former employees of HR startup Free Agency claim that CEO Sherveen Mashayekhi's aggressive micromanaging leadership style is hurting the company's growth prospects.
- French startup Bene Bono, which tackles food waste, plans to expand operations to Spain. The news comes as the firm raised €7M ($7.4M) in funding from Stride VC, Project A, and Kima Ventures.
- Warner Music Group's former CEO, Steve Cooper, joined NFT marketplace and Web3 startup OneOf's board of directors.
- Chinese EV startup Jidu, backed by Baidu and Geely, plans to integrate a conversational AI platform called Ernie bot into its in-car user interface and assisted driving tech.
- Customer intelligence startup Amperity is planning to let go of 10% of its workforce. This is the Seattle-based firm's second round of layoffs in six months.
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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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