Tel Aviv-based Hexa, a startup that works on digital twins, raised a $20.5M Series A led by Point 72 Ventures. The company works on 3D representations of assets such as furniture or fashion products. More: - "You have to make it easy to use, inexpensive, and fast to return on your investment," said Hexa's CEO Yahiel Atias.
- Hexa claims Macy's, Crate & Barrel, and Logitech among its clients.
- Hexa takes 2D images and converts them to .obj and .gltf file renderings that enable navigation around the objects.
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Entitle, an Israeli startup that works on cloud developer permissions management raised a $15M Seed round led by Glilot Capital Partners. "We felt it was kind of the boring part of cybersecurity that nobody wanted anything to do with. And we saw this from the other side of things," said Entitle's CEO and co-founder Ron Nissim. More: - The startup aims to automate the granting and revoking permissions process.
- Entitle claims Lemonade, K-Health, At-bay, and Hippo, among its customers.
- A Microsoft report found that 95% of permissions are actually unused.
- According to Crunchbase, the round included participation from Elron Ventures, Google principal engineer Yair Weinberger, and Kmehin Ventures, among others.
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SoftBank-backed Japanese marketing tech firm Geniee acquired Indian startup Zelto for $70M in cash. Post the acquisition, Zelto will continue to run as a separate entity. The acquisition will enable Zelto to boost its expansion plans across Southeast Asia and the U.S. More: - Some angel investors received 40 times the return on investment after exiting Zelto.
- The firm had raised nearly $2.5M in total venture funding.
- Geniee CEO Tomoaki Kudo invested in the firm seven years ago.
- Zelto provides a revenue optimization platform for content creators and web publishers.
- Zelto was last on the brink of running out of cash in 2014.
- The company recouped its operations since and has been profitable for several years.
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Kruze Consulting's data seen by Pitchbook showed that fintech, SaaS, e-commerce, and healthcare startups are witnessing a drop in revenue growth due to deteriorating economic conditions. Fintech startups, which registered a 500% revenue growth in 2021, saw the most decline in 2022. More: - Despite the decline, fintech startups grew 70% on average in 2022 before tapering off to 25% in the last two months of the year.
- The downturn has hit neo-bank, crypto, and robo-adviser startups the hardest, while credit card and B2B fintech firms have fared relatively well.
- Revenues of e-commerce, SaaS, and healthcare startups grew by 6%, 58%, and 22%, respectively, in 2022.
- In 2021, the same industries reported revenue growth rates of 84%, 98%, and 23%, respectively.
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Seoul-based startup Indent, which works on providing customer reviews to companies, raised an $8.1M Series A led by SV Investment. The funding will go toward the development of its VREVIEW product, a chatbot that collects video reviews and ratings from customers. More: - The startup claims over 40 customers in the U.S., Japan, and China.
- Indent says it has more than 12 million registered users.
- The company has 27 employees in South Korea.
- The round included participation from LG's telecom unit Uplus, Korea Investment Partners, and Crit Ventures, among others.
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Seattle, Wash.-based drone maker Brinc's CEO Blake Resnick said that vertical integration of its supply chain and manufacturing most components in-house had given the company a competitive advantage. Brinc unveiled its new drone called Lemur 2, which is equipped with features such as autonomous flying, 3D mapping using LiDAR, obstacle avoidance, night-vision, and thermal sensing. More: - Resnick cited favorable geopolitical environment and ban on Chinese drone products as major growth drivers.
- The firm strengthened its engineering department with 15 hires from Amazon's Prime Air division.
- Resnick said Brinc's mission "is to revolutionize public safety by leveraging technology to de-escalate dangerous situations."
- The products are intended for law enforcement and emergency services agencies.
- Brinc has raised over $80M in venture funding to date and counts Index Ventures, Next Play Ventures, and OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman as its notable investors.
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- Figure emerged from stealth and showcased pictures of its general-purpose humanoid robots, dubbed Figure 01. The alpha build of the product is in the testing phases and rivals Tesla's Optimus prototype.
- Digital freight startup Transfix's co-founder and CTO Jonathan Salama will take over the CEO role from Lily Shen as she steps down for personal reasons.
- B Capital, a venture firm founded by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, secured $500M in capital commitments toward its first healthcare-focused fund.
- Akamai Technologies entered a definitive agreement to acquire Kubernetes-based data storage platform Ondat for an undisclosed sum.
- Seattle, Wash.-based clothes rental startup Armoire Style roped in former Microsoft engineer and co-founder of UpLift Group, Laura Butler, as its CTO.
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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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