Kevin O'Leary, best known for his position as an investor on Shark Tank, advised startup founders to "not put any more than 20% of liquid assets in any one institution" after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. He cited SVB's "idiot management" and "incompetent board" as the reason for the bank's failure. O'Leary warned founders to be careful and brace for other possible bank collapses. More: - O'Leary stressed that SVB's downfall was due to its exposure to long-term bonds.
- He added that his portfolio companies had deposits in SVB, although he didn't disclose the specifics.
- Although the FDIC now has control over SVB, O'Leary expressed concern about how the regulators were handling the crisis.
Zoom out: - On Thursday, eleven banks agreed to deposit $30B in the First Republic to rescue the embattled regional bank.
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Corporate credit card startup Parker emerges from stealth with $157M funding, of which a $31.1M Series A round closed today. Majority of the funding was closed last year, including a previously undisclosed $5.9M seed round and $70M of venture debt and warehouse debt funding from Triple Point Capital and Jefferies. More: - The warehouse debt facility includes an option to increase the facility by $50M.
- Valar Ventures led Parker's Series A round.
- Incoming funds will be diverted into product development and strengthening engineering and go-to-market capabilities as the startup gears up for national expansion.
- Parker claims their corporate credit cards have a limit of nearly $10M, 10 to 20 times higher than traditional offerings.
- Currently, the firm caters to organizations with between $3M to $100M in annual sales.
- The firm believes its USP is the underwriting process, which takes into account the cash flow of the business while determining the credit limits.
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 A message from CONSTRUCTOR 4 Essential Ecommerce Strategies to Increase Profit and Succeed in a Challenging Economy For ecommerce companies, 2022 was a year of whiplash. Shoppers have returned to stores in droves, but online spending and expectations for amazing omnichannel experiences are here to stay. The question is, are you using your tech, data, and human resources effectively to meet these emerging expectations? Digital transformation is no longer optional. It is critical. With inflation rising and a recession looming, success in 2023 demands that you protect revenue centers while staying agile enough to keep pace with global trends and evolving consumer needs. Download The 2023 Ecommerce Playbook to learn four steps ecommerce retailers should take to keep up with consumers and offer better experiences than their competitors. Download now
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U.K.-based startup Seldon, which works on a cloud-agnostic MLOps platform, announced it raised a $20M Series B. Seldon competes with startups such as Arise, Dataiku, DataRobot, and Fiddler. More: - MLOps involves the deployment and maintenance of machine learning models' efficiency and impartiality.
- The startup claims a 400% growth rate since its ~$8.6M Series A in November 2020.
- Seldon claims it reduces its deployment time by 84%.
- The new round was led by Bright Pixel (formerly known as Sonae IM), with participation from AlbionVC, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Cambridge Innovation Capital.
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Google Cloud announced it is partnering with Seattle-based startup LevelTen Energy to reduce the time it takes to negotiate a deal between clean energy developers and buyers. Traditionally, agreements can take more than a year to complete. More: - The deals currently begin with a request for proposals, followed by complex analytical processes to narrow the proposals, then a negotiation between the buyer and the seller results in a term sheet.
- Google and LevelTen's process reduces the complexity of the analytics, eliminates the short list of candidates and the term sheet, and replaces it with an executable power purchase agreement.
- LevelTen has raised $68.3M since its inception in 2016, including participation from Alphabet in 2021.
- The companies plan to make the simplification tool widely available this year.
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 A message from FORTE GROUP ChatGPT, "when it comes to whether 'ilities' should be prioritized in software engineering, who is right, the CTO or the CEO?" To learn the answer firsthand, join Forte Group on March 30th, 2023, for a virtual panel discussion, "The balance between business expectations and CTOs' software sustainability needs." This webinar is ideal for CTOs, IT managers, project managers, software developers, and anyone involved in making technology decisions within their organization. At this event, you will learn the following: - The key challenges arise when balancing business expectations with software sustainability needs.
- Real-world examples of how companies have struggled to strike this balance and the consequences of making short-sighted decisions.
- Practical tips and strategies for finding a better balance between these competing needs.
- How to communicate the importance of software sustainability to business leaders.
- How to prioritize investments in innovative and sustainable technologies.
- How to foster collaboration across different parts of the organization.
Save Your Spot
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Klimato, a Stockholm-based startup that helps restaurants calculate the carbon footprint per dish, raised a €4.2M (~$4.48M) round. The company aims to use the funds to expand to new markets, including France, Germany, and the U.S. More: - Klimato launched its cloud-based dashboard in 2018, which tracks emissions across the value chain.
- The startup's clients include Marriott, Hilton, Sodexo, and KFC, among others.
- According to Klimato, its clients were able to reduce CO2 emissions per dish by 23% in 2022, with 57% of the dishes served by its customers resulting in an impact below 0.5 kg. (1.1 lbs.) CO2e.
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Tempo Software acquired online project management software developer LiquidPlanner for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help expand Tempo's product portfolio on Atlassian's marketplace. Post the acquisition, Tempo will have a workforce strength of 350 employees. More: - Tempo serves nearly 28,000 customers through the Atlassian Marketplace, making it one of the largest vendors on the platform.
- The Boston, Mass.-based firm recently posted over $100M in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
- Private equity firm Diversis Capital owns a majority stake in Tempo.
- LiquidPlanner provides predictive scheduling, workload management, and time-tracking tools.
- The firm raised $17M in venture funding to date, the last of which came through a $2M Series C round led by TVC Capital in Nov. 2018.
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- The Atlanta Hawks established its venture capital division, Hawks Ventures. The venture fund has been given $50M to invest in minority- and women-led early-stage startups.
- Techstars and Louisiana Economic Development jointly announced a new startup accelerator program. The program will operate under J.P. Morgan's $80M Advancing Cities Fund.
- Zus Health raised $40M in Series B funding at a $190M post-money valuation from Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, and others.
- Alexis Ohanian's VC firm Seven Seven Six led an $8M Series A round into the virtual music coaching platform Trala.
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Upcoming Events: - March 20 - Inside Interview with Rollworks - Clearing the Path to ABM Success: Addressing the Issues Holding You Back (Watch On Demand)
- March 21 - Inside Startups Coffee Break (Register Here)
- March 27 - Inside Interview with Zscaler - Zero Trust Defense Strategies to Take Your Security to the Next Level (Watch On Demand)
- March 30 - A panel on how CTOs balance and prioritize NFRs into their roadmaps (Register Here) *
- March 30 - Inside.com Book Club - The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Register Here)
- April 18 - Human Resources Summit'23 (Register Here)
*This is a sponsored event listing.
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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. | |
Read Constructor's 4 Essential Ecommerce Strategies to Increase Profit and Succeed in a Challenging Economy | |
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