Google Cloud announced a strategic partnership with AI-assisted coding startup Replit. The San Francisco, Calif.-based startup will get access to Google Cloud's infrastructure and foundation models to power its Ghostwriter AI-assisted coding platform. In return, Google will get access to Replit's collaborative code editing platform and help the firm distribute its software to a larger audience. More: - Google's move comes as it sets out to "empower the next 1 billion software creators."
- Replit claims developers use its platform to generate nearly 30% of their code.
- The Ghostwriter platform has 20 million users.
- Replit has raised over $100M in equity funding to date from institutional investors, including Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz, and A.Capital Ventures.
Zoom out: - Bloomberg reckons that Google made the move to ward off competition from Microsoft after its subsidiary GitHub launched the Copilot product last year, which uses OpenAI's language-generating AI to generate code.
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Salt Labs, a startup that seeks to give rewards to hourly workers, raised $10M to launch in the spring. The startup's co-founder and CEO, Jason Lee, compares the app to a frequent flyer program for gig workers. More: - Workers would be able to earn a virtual currency called Salt per hour worked.
- "We think this is the ideal time to rethink employee loyalty and better align enterprises' long-term interests with those of their workers," said Lee.
- The startup has 100 users in the closed Alpha.
- Jason Lee and Rob Law previously founded DailyPay, which enables users to receive their earned but unpaid income.
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Turntable Live, a music sharing app, raised $7M in Seed funding as it seeks to launch to the wider public this year. Turntable Live is a separate company born out of a previously shuttered app that closed before launching an app due to founder disagreements. More: - Turntable Live is the second startup to emerge from the legacy Turntable, as Turntable.fm (also known as tt.fm), founded by early employee Joseph Perla, raised $7.5M in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- The round for Turntable Live was led by Founders Fund, with participation from f7 Ventures, WordOut CEO Michael Guimarin, former Discord VP Julia Tang, and Acme Innovation co-founder George Howard, among others.
- The app would enable users to choose avatars made by GitHub and Twitter logo designer Simon Oxley.
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Seattle, Wash.-based HR platform startup Mystery rebranded as Glue to better reflect its mission of boosting employee morale and engagement in distributed workforces. The firm is developing a new AI platform that analyzes employees' connections in the workplace and gives HR leaders actionable insights into strengthening them. Glue announced that it had acquired HR software company PopStage for an undisclosed sum. More: - CEO and co-founder Shane Kovalsky said, "We're trying to keep people connected and make sure the best people stick around. We're the Glue that keeps your company together."
- Glue started as a dating service in 2018 before shifting its focus to a morale-boosting virtual events platform for businesses in 2021.
- After raising $18.5M Series A funding from Greylock, Moving Capital, and Endeavor in Feb. 2022, the company pivoted again into making a platform to increase employee engagement.
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Open Payments, a Swedish B2B fintech, raised €3M (~$3.25M). The startup enables online banking through customers' business systems and interfaces. More: - "We see an increasing demand from leading accounting and ERP systems and other financial systems that want to utilize Open Banking in their products in a secure and reliable way," said Louise Brandt, CEO and founder of the startup.
- Open Payments plans to scale the product and expand to new markets.
- The startup uses banks' APIs to enable payments, account reconciliation, and cash management.
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Cultivate meat startup New Age Eats shut down operations after it ran out of capital and failed to secure fresh funding, CEO Brian Spears announced through a LinkedIn post. The firm had racked up debt and had no immediate plans for product commercialization. Hence, Spears made the "painful decision" to shut down the firm. More: - The Berkeley, Calif.-based company raised $32M in total funding from investors, of which $2.7M came through a seed round in 2020, followed by $21M through a Series A round in 2021.
- New Age Eats was building a 23,000-square-foot product manufacturing facility in Alameda, California.
- By Jan. 2023, the plant was 90% completed, with 80% of the required capital already invested.
- The firm's problems started compounding after delays in constructing the facility, forcing Spears to put up the facility for sale.
- After failing to find a buyer for the facility, Spears looked at potential buyers for the entire firm.
- However, potential buyers backed out due to the company's debt.
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- British AI startup ElevenLabs is looking to raise $15M at a $100M valuation. Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly set to lead the funding round.
- Subscription-based newsletter publishing platform Substack secured over $5.5M worth of commitments through its crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder.
- Pricing platform Orb secured $14M in Series A funding led by Menlo Ventures. It nabbed $5.1M from its Greylock-led seed round, which was previously undisclosed.
- Social club and co-working space startup Groundfloor is expanding into Oakland, with plans to venture into San Rafael and Los Angeles later this year.
- Saudi Arabia-based insurtech startup Rasan roped in Morgan Stanley and Saudi Fransi Capital to outline plans for an IPO listing in Riyadh.
- Two Boxes, a Denver-based startup improving the goods return process for e-commerce companies, emerged from stealth with a $4.5M seed round led by Vinyl Capital.
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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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