Hey Community! We wanted to give you the cliff notes on what should be focused on in 2023 to keep your HR sector up-to-date. How are we doing this? We are hosting a virtual HR Summit on April 18 and 19, created for our audience of executive business leaders who may want to level up their HR know-how. Register here to get the HR lessons in your inbox after the event. | |  Karan | |
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What the numbers say: According to data from fintech platform Stripe, the number of "breakout startups" — new businesses with unusually rapid revenue growth — in Miami increased by 89% between 2016–17 and 2021–22. Miami, the Bay Area, New York, and Los Angeles are the top startup hubs in the U.S. What happened: The data shows that startups are moving away from previous hubs, such as San Francisco. Many have either moved out of the city or transitioned to a completely remote work culture. 26% of U.S.-based breakout startups were based in California, down from 31% in 2018. Relevance: Many businesses choose to relocate to South Florida due to low tax rates, supportive governmental policies, and lower cost of living. Data from census.gov shows that the number of startups established in Florida is growing, with the gap between the state and California widening in recent months.
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Energy Exploration Technology, a Texas-based company known as EnergyX, raised a $50M Series B to fund research and development for lithium metal anodes and solid-state lithium metal batteries. The round was led by General Motors' venture arm. More: - The automaker will receive first rights to purchase the lithium products as part of the strategic investment.
- EnergyX is running a pilot mineral extraction program in the area known as Lithium Triangle, at the border regions of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.
- The plant is able to recover 90% or more of the material in brine by pumping water underground to flush out lithium.
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 A message from AXIOS PRO Record amounts of dry powder were raised in 2022. In our latest industry report, Axios Pro uncovers where it’s headed this year. Why it matters: During an economic downturn, dealmaking doesn't stop—it gets more selective. In this report, you’ll learn about key sectors for concern and opportunity from 10 of the smartest journalists covering VC, PE and M&A today. - And if we do enter a recession this year, we’ll help you understand what matters, what to watch, and what’s coming.
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Carbon Robotics, an AgTech startup that focuses on machines that get rid of weeds, raised $30M. The LaserWeeder machine uses heat to eliminate weeds without damaging crops or the soil. More: - The startup claims the machine has zapped more than 500 million weeds for over 40 kinds of crops.
- Carbon Robotics says its product will be in 17 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces.
- The company plans to use the funds to expand to European farms.
- Carbon Robotics estimates its total addressable market (TAM) at $41B.
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Outcome Health's former CEO Rishi Shah, former president Shradha Agarwal, and former CFO Brad Purdy were convicted on multiple counts of defrauding pharmaceutical companies and investors on Tuesday. In late 2019, the SEC charged the three executives with fraud after uncovering that the medical advertising firm inflated business metrics to raise funding from investors, overstated revenue, billed clients for ads it never ran, and manipulated third-party studies to show improved effectiveness of targeted medical ads. More: - Three months before the allegations emerged in 2019, the firm had nabbed $487M in funding from investors, including Goldman Sachs, Alphabet, and Pritzker Group, at a $5.5B valuation.
- The executives reportedly allocated $225M as dividends for Shah and Agarwal.
- Out of the almost $500M in loans availed by the company, the duo allegedly diverted $38M to themselves.
- After investors sued the firm, Shah stepped down from his post and returned $159M to the firm.
- Out of 22, 17, and 15 wire, bank, and mail fraud charges imposed, Shah, Agrawal, and Purdy were found guilty on 19, 15, and 13 accounts, respectively.
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British AI startup ElevenLabs is in talks with investors to raise $18M in seed funding at a post-money valuation of $100M, sources informed Business Insider. Andreessen Horowitz and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman are reportedly leading the round. More: - ElevenLabs was established by former Palantir executive Mati Staniszewski and former Google executive Piotr Dabkowski.
- Staniszewski and Dabkowski are the startup's CEO and CTO, respectively.
- The platform is leveraging AI to develop a text-to-speech platform.
- Per Business Insider, several European investors tried to join the current investment but could not.
- The firm raised $2M in pre-seed funding led by Credo Ventures two months ago.
- ElevenLabs is capitalizing on its revenue growth and the heightened investor interest in the generative AI sector to secure funding from investors.
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Artifact, a news aggregator app by Instagram co-founders, is launching a comments section. In order to leave a comment on a news article, the app requires phone number verification. More: - The app also requires the creation of a profile to comment on, which would include a reputation score based on user votes on comments.
- The reputation score would also be determined by an algorithm based on other signals in the app.
- "My belief is that one of the most interesting things to do around news and written content is to discuss it with others," said Artifact co-founder Kevin Systrom.
- The app was launched in January and became open to the public in late February. According to data.ai, Artifact has more than 200,000 installs.
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Quick Hits: - They're "realigning" the $19.4B joint surgery market…with robotics. Invest in Monogram ahead of their planned Nasdaq listing.*
- VC funding for crypto and blockchain startups declined 87% YoY to $900M in Q1 2023.
- Canadian industrial headset startup RealWear terminated its SPAC merger with Cascadia Capital's blank cheque entity Cascadia Acquisition Corp. The combined entity was earlier valued at $375.5M.
- Frictionless authentication solutions provider Descope is giving startups access to its Pro Tier free of charge for one year through its Hello World Startup plan.
- Google selected SpaceChain, a satellite platform providing secure custody, asset transactions, and smart contracts, to join its Google for Startups accelerator program.
- Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan received backlash from portfolio startups over its decision to eliminate the late-stage funding last month.
- Put your data where your compute is — close to your users. Turso brings the SQLite database experience to the Edge. Get Started Free.*
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Upcoming Events - April 12 - Monthly Meditation guided by Nicholas Whitaker (Register Here)
- April 13 - Inside Interview with Lacework - The Evolution of Cloud Security w/ Ulfar Erlingsson (Watch On Demand)
- April 13 - Inside Marketing Coffee Break w/ Paolo Dello Vicario (ByTek) (Register Here)
- April 14 - Inside Interview with Landing - The Ultimate Corporate Housing Resource with Torger Philosophos (Register Here)
- April 18 - Human Resources Summit'23 (Register Here)
- April 18 - Inside Interview with TravelBank: Why Employee Happiness Is Falling More Into The Financial Sector (Watch On Demand)
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | 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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