What the numbers say: Last year, 26 digital healthcare startups conducted layoffs to extend their cash runways and conserve cash as interest rates increased and venture funding retreated. This year, 18 digital health startups have already conducted layoffs and will likely cross last year's tally. Color, Cerebral, and Innovaccer laid off 300, 285, and 245 employees, respectively, in 2023. Relevance: Last week, weight-loss telehealth startup Calibrate Health reduced its workforce strength by 18%, adding to its layoffs tally after laying off 24% of its workforce in July 2022 to reach profitability. The company pivoted from offering obesity drug prescriptions to becoming a workforce benefits service provider. Pharmacy startup Medly declared bankruptcy Dec. 2022, laying off 100% of its workforce. Mindstrong Health laid off 128 employees recently, including the CEO and CFO. 
What's next: VC firm Andreessen Horowitz's general partner Julie Yoo reckons further layoffs are on the horizon as startups will reduce their expenses even further this year to avoid raising down rounds. Yoo adds, "Companies will go through multiple rounds of layoffs as the market signals don't turn significantly better, and they'll have to continue to extend their runway if they're trying to avoid raising a round that they believe will be punitive in some form."
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Distributed database startup Ditto secured a $45M Series A funding round led by Acrew Capital. The company emerged from stealth today. Ditto's Intelligent Edge Platform is a distributed database that can run even in areas with limited or poor network connectivity. Incoming funds will be used to further expand its software development kit, commercialize the platform, grow the sales and support teams, and acquire customers in the travel, education, and retail industries. More: - U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), True Ventures, and Amity Ventures participated in the funding round.
- Ditto's platform works on edge and cloud devices, facilitating peer-to-peer data synchronization between devices.
- The platform leverages Bluetooth, peer-to-peer Wifi, and local wired networks to synchronize data.
- Notable clients of the platform include Alaska Airlines, Japan Airlines, Hugo, and Lufthansa.
- Per CEO and co-founder Adam Fish, the company has secured a $950M deal with the U.S. Air Force.
Zoom out: - Per Technavio, the peer-to-peer data synchronization market is forecasted to grow at a rate of 25.22% CAGR to become a $12.84B market by 2026.
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U.K. credit card startup Yonder has secured £12.5M ($15.5M) in equity funding and £50M ($62M) in debt through its Series A. The round was led by Northzone and RTP Global, with additional participation from angel investor Joseph Moore, founder of Crust Bros. More: - The U.K.-based startup combines a credit card with a points-based rewards scheme that can be used at multiple London venues such as cinemas, wine merchants, and eateries.
- Yonder, which is popular among Gen Z, looks to offer a unique path to credit card rewards offered by many traditional providers in Europe.
- The company also noted it plans to extend its Series A round to members through a private crowdfund, set to go live sometime in April.
- The new round of funding has resulted in a post-money valuation of more than £70M ($87M).
- The company has raised a total of £38.8M ($48.2M) from venture investors.
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Rally, the e-commerce checkout platform for merchants, has raised $12M in its Series A. The round was led by March Capital, with additional venture participation from Elix Capital, Commerce Ventures, Afore Capital, and Alumni Ventures. More: - The company offers e-commerce businesses a one-stop checkout solution, post-purchase tools, and payment integrations to help boost revenues.
- Rally's funding round will be put towards product development and go-to-market strategies, as well as building out payment options and rails to accept cryptocurrencies.
- The new investment, which closed in early 2023, gives Rally a total of $18M in funding raised.
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Evergrow, the all-in-one platform for clean energy tax credits, has announced a $7M second round of financing. The round was led by investors First Round Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Congruent Ventures, and Garuda Ventures. More: - The company partners with project developers, corporations, and financial institutions to make it easy to unlock funding for decarbonization.
- The additional funding will be used to build out the platform's due diligence process, risk management and underwriting, and transactional bandwidth.
- Evergrow currently has over $150M worth of clean energy projects and tax credits live on its platform.
- The momentum comes after The Inflation Reduction Act allocated hundreds of billions of dollars toward investment in clean energy, which helped fuel investment in the clean energy space.
- The company has raised a total of $14M in funding to date.
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Nonprofit venture fund Bronze Valley is partnering with accelerator platform Gener8tor to launch two accelerators in Delaware for startup-led founders from underrepresented backgrounds. The two programs are named gBETA and gALPHA. More: - gBETA program is aimed at startups founded by women identifying as Black, indigenous, or people of color.
- The non-equity program will last 12 weeks, during which founders will receive mentorship, access to investor networks, and resources for go-to-market strategies.
- Bronze will invest $100,000 in five startups that successfully complete the accelerator program.
- The gALPHA program will cater to entrepreneurial students at historically Black colleges and universities.
Zoom out: - Bronze Valley is trying to address the shortage of funding for firms established by BIPOC entrepreneurs.
- In 2022, Black-founded startups secured $2.3B in VC funding, representing just 1.1% of the overall VC deployed throughout the year.
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- Africa-focused e-commerce startup Copia Global is scaling back its expansion plans due to the slump in VC funding. The company will exit Uganda and lay off 350 employees.
- Architect Financial Technologies, a crypto infrastructure startup established by former FTX U.S. executive Brett Harrison, is launching a trading platform that will offer users access to futures and crypto markets.
- Dell Technologies led a $12M seed extension round into Israeli photonic quantum computer maker Quantum Source. The extension brings the total raised under the seed round to $27M.
- AI-powered contract management software developer Lexion secured $20M in Series B funding led by Point72, with participation from Citi Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot.
Robel is a writer for Inside.com. He was born and raised in the Bay Area but now lives in the Midwest. He is passionate about all things tech, venture, city, and state government, and in his free time enjoys outdoor activities including biking, hiking, and running. | | | | 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. | |
