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| Hey Insiders, Today we are taking a look at Thomson Reuters' acquisition of Casetext, Parabola's $24M funding round, and Convoy's layoffs. We have also rounded up the top leadership changes in startups this week. Scroll down for some quick hits, and then let us know what other content you'd like to see in future issues. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Thomson Reuters is planning to acquire Casetext, a legal tech startup, for $650M. Founded in 2013, Casetext began as a knowledge-sharing community for lawyers but pivoted to developing automated workflows using machine learning. More: - The startup uses generative AI to help with legal research memos, contract analysis, and preparation for depositions.
- Casetext claims a client base of 10,000 law offices and corporate legal teams.
- Prior to the acquisition, the startup raised $64M through a round led by Union Square Ventures.
- Thomson Reuters plans to spend $100M per year on generative AI and earmarked $10B for mergers and acquisitions until 2025.
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| 2 | | Eva Gouwens is stepping down from the CEO role at Fairphone, a Dutch startup that makes smartphones and headphones from sustainable materials. Gouwens took over the CEO role from founder Bas van Abel five years ago. The company is currently on the lookout for a replacement. AeroVanti, Veralox Therapeutics, Waave, and JumpStart also announced leadership changes. Hires: - Scott Hopes is set to take over the CEO role of aviation startup AeroVanti from founder Patrick Britton-Harr. The move comes a month after the company's past clients sued it for alleged fraud and misrepresentation.
- Veralox Therapeutics, a biotech firm developing therapies for Type-1 diabetes and psoriasis, announced Jonathan Mow as its new CEO. Mow was formerly the CEO of PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals. The firm also announced it had secured $24M from investors.
- Open banking fintech startup Waave announced Belinda Jonovska as its COO. Jonovska previously worked at Qantas and eBay Australia.
Departures: - JumpStart's CEO Ray Leach will step down from the role in September to focus on a new startup venture.
- Israeli AI-powered recruitment platform Joonko's founder and CEO, Ilit Raz, stepped down from the role after an extensive probe done by investors uncovered that she "engaged in egregious, unethical and fraudulent conduct, which caused harm to the company and its shareholders."
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| 3 | | Parabola, a startup that focuses on back-office processes, raised a $24M Series B led by OpenView. The company uses AI to automate and categorize logs and documents. More: - "Our core differentiator is our ability to be owned directly by an operations team to build solutions to their own problems without getting bottlenecked on data and IT," said Alex Yaseen, the startup's CEO and founder.
- The company plans to use the funds for hiring and product R&D.
- Other participants in the round include Matrix, Thrive, Abstract Ventures, and Flexport.
- A McKinsey survey revealed that 66% of organizations used process automation in one or more business functions.
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| 4 | | Trucking marketplace startup Convoy announced its fourth round of layoffs since the start of last year. The company did not reveal the number of employees the current layoffs will affect. However, Convoy confirmed that the layoffs are limited to the customer experience operations team. News of the layoffs comes a week after co-founder Grant Goodale stepped down from his role as chief experience officer, transitioning into an advisory role later this month. More: - The Seattle-based startup announced the first round of layoffs in June 2022, reducing its workforce strength by 7%, followed by another round in October.
- In February this year, it conducted a third round of layoffs.
- At the same time, it closed its Atlanta office.
Zoom out: - The firm was valued at $3.8B last year when it raised a $260M funding round, making it one of the highest-valued startups in the Seattle region.
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| 5 | | Boulder, Colorado-based accelerator Techstars is looking to raise a $150M fund, per a U.S. SEC filing seen by The Business Journals. The filing did not reveal the exact purpose for which the amount will be used. More: - Techstars provides virtual, on-premise, and hybrid accelerator programs across 36 cities in the U.S. and 12 other nations.
- Notable startups such as Bevi and CareAcademy, which emerged from Techstar's previous accelerator programs in 2014 and 2017 respectively, have gone to raise subsequent funding rounds.
- Bevi raised $70M last year, while the latter secured investment from Goldman Sachs.
- Last March, Techstars earmarked $80M to invest in nine cities across the U.S. in partnership with JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- A month later, it announced the Rising Stars Fund, an initiative aimed at supporting underrepresented founders across the U.S.
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| 6 | | Job search site Teal is acquiring OwnTrail, a social startup focused on careers, for an undisclosed amount. OwnTrail lets users highlight career and personal growth milestones to share with other users. More: - The social platform has 6,600 users, and a total of 35,000 milestones posted.
- The site, which worked through subscriptions, would adopt a free model upon the acquisition.
- Founded in 2020, OwnTrail raised $250,000 via crowdfunding, followed by a $570,000 round. The startup joined Techstars' Anywhere Accelerator this year.
- "We had a lot of momentum going from a product, community, and team standpoint, but it was just not possible to raise additional funding in the current market — even after having just completed Techstars," said the startup's CEO, Rebekah Bastian.
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Term of the Day Gamification: Gamification is the addition of fun, addictive, game-like elements in non-gaming services such as websites, online communities and digital products. Question of the Week How do you feel about the phrase "The customer is always right"? Join the conversation |
 | Analyst | | 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. | | This newsletter was edited by Beth Duckett | |
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