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| Hey Insiders, Today we are taking a look at WasteFuel's $10M funding round, DigitalOcean's acquisition of Paperspace, and Inspace's $6M Series A fundraiser. We have also rounded up the top early-stage funding rounds of 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 | | WasteFuel, a Los Angeles-based startup producing methanol from waste, raised $10M from BP Ventures. The startup plans to use the funds to build a waste-to-methanol plant in Dubai. More: - The company sources its waste from municipalities and waste management companies to produce bio-methanol via anaerobic digestion.
- As part of the deal, BP plans to work with WasteFuel on production and source directly from the startup for areas such as shipping.
- The round included participation from Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures, i(x) Net Zero, and shipping giant Maersk, among others.
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| 2 | | 
VCs deployed $133M in early-stage North American startups this week between July 1 to July 7, per Crunchbase data. Insurance startups raked in 21% of the funding this week. Fashion, renewable energy, and fintech startups nabbed 16%, 12%, and 10% of the financing, respectively. Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - D2C insurance provider Steadily Insurance Agency raised $28.5M in Series B funding led by Zigg Capital, with participation from Matrix Partners, Koch Ventures, Clocktower Technology Ventures, and Nine Four Ventures.
- Ten Thousand, a New York-based men's activewear clothing manufacturer, raised $21.5M in Series A funding led by Provenance, with additional support from Fernbrook and Alfa.
- On-demand manufacturing order management technology solutions maker Gooten closed its Series A funding round at $11M. KEC Ventures led the round, joined by INX International, Tech Pioneers Fund, and others.
- Cavli Wireless raised $10M in Series A funding led by Chiratae Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures.
- Decentralized social network platform Bluesky raised $8M in seed funding led by Neo.
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| 3 | | Cloud hosting firm DigitalOcean acquired New York-based cloud computing and AI development startup Paperspace for $111M. Customers will be able to test, develop, and deploy AI applications once Paperspace's solutions are integrated with DigitalOcean's product suite. More: - DigitalOcean provides online database, storage, app hosting, and other cloud services.
- CEO Yancey Spruill said, "We're excited to expand our portfolio tailored to the world's small- and medium-sized (SMBs) businesses and startups with simplified AI and machine learning offerings."
- Daniel Kobran and Dillon Erb co-founded Paperspace in 2014 to provide low-cost virtual machines and high-performance workstations for cloud-powered design, visualization, and gaming.
- It pivoted into AI later, providing cloud-based AI training and hosting services.
- The firm has raised $35M to date from Battery Ventures, Intel Capital, SineWave Ventures, and Sorenson Capital.
Zoom out: - Paperspace is DigitalOcean's fourth acquisition since its public debut in 2021.
- It last acquired Pakistan-based cloud hosting service provider Cloudways for $350M.
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| 4 | | Inspace, a platform for 3D virtual inspections of real estate, announced a $6M Series A. The round was led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital and recurring investor Our Innovation Fund. More: - The startup plans to use the funds for R&D projects, including AI-generated documentation and predictive insights.
- Inspace works with property groups, including M&G, Lendlease, JLL, and PGIM, among others.
- The company claims 90% of Australia's top commercial property landlords use the tool.
- Inspace was founded in 2017 as a way for architects and builders to avoid construction mistakes prior to pivoting.
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| 5 | | California Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) requested the state's Labor and Workforce Development Agency to investigate HR startup Deel for reportedly misclassifying employees as independent contractors to avoid giving them employment benefits and labor protections. Padilla also believes that Deel advised clients to misclassify workers to avoid taxes. More: - The San Francisco, Calif.-based startup was last valued at $12B.
- Since its founding in 2018, Deel has secured nearly $700M in funding from VC firms, including Andreessen Horowitz and Emerson Collective.
- An Insider report published earlier this March reported that half of the company's workforce was classified as independent contractors, including CEO Alex Bouaziz.
- Deel dismissed the claims, arguing that less than 1% of its U.S.-based workforce were independent contractors.
- Padilla wrote to Secretary Stewart Knox and the Labor and Workforce Development Agency last week, urging them to open an investigation into the matter, citing the Insider article.
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| 6 | | CoMotion, the innovation arm of the University of Washington, and BECU, a Seattle-based non-profit credit union, announced the winners of its Fintech incubator. The selected startups are My Financial Therapist, Nickels, and Stakana. More: - My Financial Therapist is a Seattle-based app that helps individuals and organizations with financial literacy driven by AI insights.
- Nickels develops white-label financial software for banks and credit unions, including developing cost analysis reports.
- Stakana develops analytical tools for credit unions and community banks for identifying customer churn and personalizing client outreach.
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- VCs invested $31.8B in U.S. startups in Q2 2023, down 50% YoY and 32% QoQ. Seed-stage startups raked in $3B, down 35% YoY and 7% QoQ.
- Israel Innovation Authority announced a $11M program to back startups working on delivery technology, bio-convergence, and education sectors.
- Hong Kong-based accelerator Brinc launched a new three-month program for climate tech startups, wherein startups will receive guidance on scaling up the business and introductions with Brinc's network of investors in addition to fundraising support.
- Venture incubator Dpixel has selected four startups for its Metaverse 4 Finance incubation program.
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Term of the Day Digital agency: A digital agency provides specialized services for businesses in digital marketing and advertising, with expertise in areas such as web design. Question of the Week What's your stance on employees discussing their salaries with each other? Join the conversation |
INSIDE STARTUPS LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) |
 | 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 Vibha Chapparike | |
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