What the numbers say: M&A deal count declined for the fourth consecutive quarter in Q1 2023. 867 venture-backed European startups were involved in M&A transactions in Q1 2023. The deal count remained stable from the preceding quarter, declining just 1% from 877 deals in Q4 2022. However, the deal count declined significantly compared to the peak values of 1,077 from Q1 2022. Why it matters: Enterprise communication platform Zoom defied the M&A drought trend by acquiring Irish employee engagement startup Workvivo for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition, Zoom's fifth yet to date, will help the firm provide additional services for the enterprise market. Where to see the impact: M&A activity was initially expected to pick up this year as cash reserves dwindled at many startups. However, the continued downward trajectory of the M&A deal count indicates the organizations are probably waiting for the valuations of target startups, especially early-stage startups, to drop even further.
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Citi invested an undisclosed amount in Built Technologies, a startup focusing on real estate and construction payments. The software enables administrators to manage construction loans. More: - The company claims more than 250 asset managers and developers in North America.
- Built Technologies has a marketplace to automate inspections, project monitoring, and contractor management.
- The company last raised $23.6M via private equity in July 2022.
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Respondology, a Colorado-based company that seeks to remove toxic or bot comments from apps, raised an $11M Series A. The startup claims to remove toxic comments in 22 languages in less than a second. More: - Respondology has 240 customers in sports, consumer brands, and entertainment.
- The startup's clients include the Detroit Pistons, Detroit Lions, NASCAR, and the Denver Broncos.
- The round included participation by Iron Gate Capital, SJF Ventures, Zelkova Ventures, Boulder Heavy Industries, and RLB Holdings, among others.
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Startup studio and VC firm Betaworks is launching a new "camp" program to back early-stage AI startups. The firm will invest $500,000 in 10 startups. The program is supported by Mozilla Ventures and Greycroft. More: - Betaworks' program will run from mid-June to mid-September.
- In addition to one-on-one mentorship and collaborative opportunities, the team will provide access to AI platforms developed by Hugging Face and Stability AI.
- Betaworks CEO is bullish on the future prospects of AI, believing that it has "the potential to affect every sector, and every part of how we live, work, play and even die."
- He is confident that disputes over copyright, intellectual property, and attribution model ownership will be resolved over the next few years without hampering startups in the sector or their business models.
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Whizz, a startup that works on e-bike subscriptions for last-mile deliveries, raised $3.4M. The company claims 2,000 delivery workers are using its e-bikes. More: - The round was led by Joint Journey and TMT Investments, with participation from s16vc.
- Whizz last raised a $1M pre-seed round with participation from TMT and Kontinuum.
- The New York-based startup claims $2M in annual recurring revenue.
- "We haven’t had any issues with demand, in fact, on the contrary, the challenge for us has been providing supply. However, if you try to blitz scale, you risk losing focus and efficiency," said the company's CEO, Mike Peregudov.
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Maersk-backed B2B trucking startup Trella is exiting Pakistan, citing economic volatility in the nation. The Egyptian startup expanded into the country in 2020. Trella will retain some staff to assist its operations in Egypt, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. More: - Trella stopped taking orders on its platform last month.
- Sources close to the matter informed Bloomberg that the recent macroeconomic volatility in Pakistan has made the business unsustainable.
- The nation's currency lost a third of its value, and fuel prices doubled after a delay in its loan program from the International Monetary Fund.
- The firm has raked in $69.1M in total funding to date, $42M of which came through a venture round in 2021 from Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk.
Zoom out: - Trella follows in the footsteps of other startups that have exited Pakistan, including VavaCars and Swvl Holdings.
- Meanwhile, Careem suspended delivery services, while Airlift went bust.
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- NASA is launching a startup studio in collaboration with FedTech. The studio will help commercialize the use of NASA's climate-related technology.
- Reef.ai, a startup helping other startups track their annual recurring revenue, net revenue retention, and other metrics, secured $5.2M in funding led by Spark Capital, with participation from Startup Capital Ventures, Builders VC, and Dig Ventures.
- 500 Global launched a new accelerator program in Georgia to invest $100,000 in nearly 100 pre-seed startups across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Baltic region.
- German stock photography startup EyeEm filed for bankruptcy.
- Eliminate application bottlenecks by bringing the performance and data portability of open source, lightweight SQL close to your users with low overhead.*
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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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