| 1 | | Electric cargo vehicle manufacturing startup Altigreen is looking to raise $85M (7B rupees) in fresh funding. The firm is aiming for a valuation of $350M in the upcoming round. Fresh funds will enable the firm to scale production and develop new models. More: - CEO Amitabh Saran informed Bloomberg that the firm expects to close the fundraising by July.
- Last year, the firm raised ~$36M (3B rupees) through a Series A round led by Sixth Sense Ventures.
- The firm is backed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance New Energy, Xponentia Capital Partners, Momentum Venture Capital, and Accurant International.
- Altigreen claims that it has a current annual production capacity of 55,000 three-wheeler electric cargo vehicles.
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| 2 | | 
What happened: EV charging startups are looking to capitalize on California's new regulations aimed at increasing the adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV). The state of California allocated $391.4M for grants to build medium- and heavy-duty ZEV infrastructure in the fiscal year 2021-22. For the fiscal year 2022-23 and 2023-24, the state has allocated $298.9M for medium- and heavy-duty infrastructure. Schematic Ventures' general partner Julian Counihan said, "You are seeing new business models that are just directly a result of the regulation and the grants." Relevance: Per the new rules, trucking companies and owner-operations must purchase EV trucks starting Jan. 1, 2024. The state intends to replace more than 30,000 trucks with zero-emission vehicles by 2035. However, the state lacks sufficient EV charging infrastructure. Daimler Truck North America's CEO John O'Leary estimates that 30 new DC chargers must be added daily between now and 2026 to satisfy the demand for projected EV trucks. 
Why it matters: California's new regulations aim to solve the charging infrastructure dilemma plaguing the EV industry. Funding is being allocated to build public charging infrastructure and hydrogen refueling stations under the EnergllZE project. The California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP) provides rebates of up to 75% towards the costs associated with installing publicly available EV charging stations. Funds for the initiatives are earmarked from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program. In addition to EV charging infrastructure and NEVI funds, the state is also channelizing funds from other federal programs, including the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant, Low No Emission Grants Program for Transit, and Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities grants. | | | |
| 3 | | Blockchain startup accelerator Cronos Labs launched the second cohort of its accelerator program, backed by $100M in investment. The accelerator has already chosen eight startups: Omnus, DeMe, Furrend, Solace, Sakaba, Eisen Finance, Earn Network, and CorgiAI. More: - While Cronos' primary focus was on Web3 game creation, digital transactions, decentralized social networking, institutional trading, and liquid marketplace startups, one of the significant themes was the convergence of AI and blockchain technology.
- The startups in the second cohort are set to receive an upfront seed payment of $30,000 before the 12-week program commences.
- At the end of the program, the cohort will be able to demo their final products to investment partners, including NGC, Fundamental Labs, Spartan Group, and Delphi Digital, to garner additional backing from investors.
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| 4 | | Grocery startup Lula Convenience's co-founder and CEO Adit Gupta stressed the importance of pivoting quickly and focussing on the original mission, not letting the firm be distracted by too many products or features. Gupta adds that these traits are critical in building resilient startups, especially in current times where funding is hard to come by. More: - Gupta, who previously co-founded VyB Technologies, says, "The worst thing I did with my last company was never pivot at all, just keep building for years and years."
- Unlike VyB, his new venture Lula pivoted many times in order to come closer to finding a product-market fit.
- Lula transitioned from a startup that assisted mom-and-pop convenience stores in expanding their consumer reach via delivery networks to a business-in-a-box platform.
- Comcast Ventures' managing partner Allison Goldberg agreed with Gupta's hypotheses, adding that firms should also avoid trends and technologies if it is not suited to their original purpose.
- Goldberg added, "Don't say you're AI if you're not," highlighting the number of startups incorporating AI into their platforms.
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| 5 | | Japanese space robotics startup Gitai closed a new $30M (4B yen) funding round to back its expansion in the U.S. The firm intends to use the proceeds to increase its number of employees in the U.S., adding more engineers to its workforce. More: - Gitai is developing robotic arms and rovers for routine maintenance, construction, assembly, and inspection of space machinery, a task considered dangerous for human astronauts.
- CEO Sho Nakanose said, "Huge space companies such as SpaceX and BlueOrigin are solving the space transportation problem, and now the bottleneck has changed from transportation costs to operational costs."
- Gitai is backed by Global Brain Corp., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and Yamato Holdings.
Zoom out: - NASA's lucrative contracts are enticing global space startups to relocate operations to the U.S.
- Nakanose decided to move operations to the U.S. for the same reason, adding that "The Japanese space market is limited."
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| 6 | | Operations management SaaS platform developer Zluri is in talks with investors to raise between $15M to $20M through a Series B funding round. Sources informed Startup Story Media that existing backer Lightspeed Ventures Partners might lead the fresh funding along with Eight Roads Ventures. More: - Existing investors Kalaari Capital, MassMutual Ventures, and Endiya Partners are poised to extend their support in the new round.
- Zluri intends to use the proceeds to fund expansion into new segments.
- The firm last raised a $10M Series A funding from Kalaari Capital and Endiya Partners in Jan. 2022.
Zoom out: - Per Tracxn, mid-stage SaaS startups raised $1.4B in 2022 across 34 deals.
- SaaS startups witnessed a 35% drop in funding in 2022, a smaller drop compared to the 60% slump across all sectors in the year.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Demo Divvy + get a $100 Amazon gift card. Divvy, BILL's spend and expense management solution, is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to manage your company spending.*
- Australian enterprise software startup Complexica raised $6.5M in fresh funding led by Acorn Capital.
- Finnish energy tech startup Vensum raised €3.8M ($4.07M) in seed funding led by Lifeline Ventures, with participation from Grid.vc, Harjavalta Oy, and Business Finland.
- Azur Innovation Fund invested $1.1M in Moroccan home services marketplace startup PrestaFreedom.
- Indonesian shrimp farming management software and IoT device startup Jala Tech expanded operations to Vietnam.
- AI investments: Harness the power of a technology expected to add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.*
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 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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