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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - 💰 Access management startup Veza's $15M funding round
- 🤝 Check Point's acquisition of Perimeter 81 for $490M
- 💹 Serve Robotics public listing via a reverse merger with Patricia Acquisition Corp
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Veza, an identity and access management startup, raised $15M through a round led by CapitalOne and ServiceNow. The new round values the company at $415M. More: - The startup creates an authorization graph to analyze metadata in internal apps and databases for risky permissions.
- Veza was founded in 2020 and left stealth mode in Apr. 2022. It expects to have 150 employees by the end of the year.
- The company claims over 100 customers, including Wynn Resorts, SoFi, Intuit, and Zoom.
- IBM estimates that data breaches cost organizations an average of $4.45M.
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| 2 | | Cybersecurity company Check Point is set to acquire cloud-based security solutions startup Perimeter 81 for $490M. What happened: The acquisition will help Check Point expand its cloud network security solutions portfolio. Check Point has acquired seven companies over the past four years. Perimeter 81's price during the transaction has halved over its $1B valuation from Jun. 2022. The Israeli startup had raised $165M in venture funding to date, including a $100M B Capital Group-led Series C funding fourteen months ago. 
What the numbers say: Perimeter 81's acquisition comes amidst a tepid M&A environment. M&A transactions have failed to live up to initial expectations of an uptick in deal-making, hoping that cash-rich firms would scoop up smaller firms at discounted prices. Instead, the deal value fell 6.5% in Q2 to $873.4B compared to the previous quarter. The drop suggests that PE firms and corporates are holding back their transactions in hopes of further decline in valuations. Median deal multiples have already dropped 19.1% over 2021's median values of 8.6x. Relevance: Other notable M&A transactions that closed recently include Rubrik's acquisition of Laminar for an undisclosed sum and Thales SA's acquisition of Imperva from Thoma Bravo for $3.6B. Q: Do you think the number of M&A transactions will increase later this year? Tell us what you think here. | | | |
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| 3 | | Middleware Lab, an AI-driven app observability platform, raised a $6.5M Seed round led by 8VC. The startup builds real-time monitoring tools for distributed architecture and analytics. More: - Middleware's platform is based on Chat GPT-based AI agents that detect log errors and configuration mistakes.
- Other participants in the round include Fin Capital, Vercel CEO Gullermo Rauch, Beat Venture, and Tokyo Black, among others.
- "Generative AI represents a revolutionary technological shift that will completely change the software development, monitoring, and maintenance process," said Tokyo Black's founding partner Keenan Rice.
- The startup previously raised a $500,000 pre-Seed round from Y Combinator, Leonis Investissement, and Begin Capital in Apr. 2023.
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| 4 | | Autonomous food delivery robots maker Serve Robotics went public via a reverse merger with blank check entity Patricia Acquisition Corp. The Los Angeles, Calif.-based startup also raised $30M in funding led by existing investors Uber, Nvidia, and Wavemaker Partners ahead of its merger. More: - Serve Robotics emerged from on-demand delivery company Postmates' division Postmates X.
- The firm spun out after Uber acquired Postmates for $2.65B in late 2020.
- With the current fundraising, Uber and Nvidia have a 16.2% and 11% stake in Serve Robotics, per regulatory filings seen by TechCrunch.
- The firm has inked an agreement with Uber to deploy up to 2,000 robots for Uber Eats.
- Per co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani, the firm has seen a 30% MoM growth in delivery volumes in the past 18 months.
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| A message from our sponsor, Virtuix. |  | | The video game industry is estimated anywhere from 5-10x the size of the global box office — and it's estimated to grow another 2.5X by 2035. Virtuix is giving investors an exciting opportunity to tap into this growth as they bring their ultimate gaming experience to millions of homes around the world. Virtuix’s Omni is an omni-directional treadmill that lets players walk and run freely in 360 degrees inside video games and other virtual worlds. The company has already shipped 4,000+ Omni Pro units and 70+ Omni Arena systems — a multiplayer esports attraction — to major customers like Dave & Buster’s. Now, Virtuix has started shipping beta units of its first consumer product, the Omni One. The company has $16M in revenue so far and $35M raised from investors, including Mark Cuban. And you can join them by investing in Virtuix before their funding round ends on August 10th. Learn More | |
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| 5 | | Micro-mobility startup Veo secured an e-scooter permit from New York City and will start selling its Cosmo X scooter starting this week. Veo intends to sell 1,000 scooters in the first batch in 2023. Veo is starting with fewer deliveries in the first batch on purpose, as that would give it time to gauge customer interest and finetune the D2C business model. More: - The Chicago, Ill.-based startup believes that this strategic decision will help it avoid a similar fate to micro-mobility peers Bird and VanMoof, both of which failed despite the popularity of their bikes.
- Veo has already deployed the same scooter for shared use, which gives it further confidence about turning it into a success.
- The firm also intends to expand its network of service and distribution centers throughout the country to avoid the servicing and repair issues that plagued VanMoof.
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| 6 | | Basys.ai, a healthcare administration startup, raised a $2.4M pre-Seed round led by Nina Capital. The company uses generative AI and deep learning to automate up to 90% of health insurance authorizations for medical procedures and medicine. More: - Basys' model is trained on longitudinal data of more than 10 million patients from the Mayo Clinic and the Joslin Diabetes Center.
- The company began by selling to providers but pivoted to capturing the business of health insurance companies.
- Basys is currently holding tests with two large companies in Minnesota and Massachusetts.
- The round included participation from Eli Lilly's venture arm, Two Lanterns Venture Partners, and the Mayo Clinic, among others.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Wiz surveyed security organizations at hyper-scaling enterprises to uncover how they're adapting in 2023 and beyond. Cloud Security Workflow Handbook.*
- Fintech startup Brex now has $7B in customer deposits after getting 4,000 new accounts following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March.
- AI startup Anthropic released version 1.2 of its Claude Instant chatbot, with significant improvements in coding, reasoning, math, and multilingual abilities.
- Food waste management startup Mill will soon be able to sell its chicken feed derived from household food waste after the Association of Feed Control Officials unanimously approved using "dried recovered household food" as an ingredient in animal feed.
- Incidence management platform maker Rootly secured $12M in Series A funding led by Renegade Partners. Google Gradient Ventures and XYZ Ventures participated in the funding round.
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Term of the Day Guest posting: Guest posting is the practice of writing content for another website with the purpose of driving traffic back to one's own website. Question of the Week Do you think the 9-to-5 workday still relevant in today's modern workplace? 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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