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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - 🔋 AI-powered battery health startup Accure's $7.8M funding round
- 💰Communion Save's £2.5M seed round
- 🤖 Ex-Starbucks exec joins Atypical AI
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Accure Battery Intelligence, a startup building solutions for managing battery health, announced a €7.2M ($7.8M) round of funding led by HSBC Asset Management and Blue Bear Capital. The company focuses on a range of sectors, including transit, EVs, marine, and insurance. More: - Accure works on providing a third-party view using artificial intelligence to predict battery cell behavior.
- The startup claims it prevented over 50 battery incidents globally.
- "As the world's use of batteries grows exponentially in our homes, businesses, vehicles, and electric grids, the need for safety and reliability has never been greater," said Christophe Defert, head of climate technology investments at HSBC.
- The round also included participation from Riverstone Ventures and Capnamic Ventures.
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| 2 | | British fintech startup Communion Save received £2.5M ($3.2M) in pre-seed funding. What happened: Target Global led the fundraiser with additional backing from angel investors Max Rofagha, Greg Marsch, and Erin Lantz. The startup intends to use the proceeds to scale operations and boost development. 
What the numbers say: Communion's funding round comes as pre-seed funding stabilized in Q2 2023. Pre-seed startups collectively raised $972M in Q2, higher than the previous quarter's tally of $827M. However, 80% of the total pre-seed investments included SAFE Notes. Relevance: Median valuation cap for post-money SAFEs was $10M in Q2 2023. The median valuation cap has declined from $15M at the start of 2022. Q: What are some pitfalls in raising capital through SAFEs or convertible notes? Let us know here. | | | |
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| 3 | | Former Starbucks engineering executive Ryan Bruels is joining Atypical AI as head of engineering. The startup raised $4M through a pre-seed round that included participation from Bloomberg Beta, Ascend, and SNR, among others. More: - Atypical uses artificial intelligence for education tools for personalized experiences for learners of diverse abilities.
- "I wish every student could be met every day precisely where they are, not where a school system arbitrarily wishes they were. I believe the future absolutely will look this way, and I believe Atypical will create this future for all of us," said Kirby Winfield, founding general partner at Ascend.
- Atypical was founded this year by its CEO, Bethanie Maples, formerly a Stanford AI researcher and product lead at Google AI and Alphabet's X Moonshot Factory.
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| 4 | | "Startup foundry" DataTribe is inviting applications for its 2023 Startup Challenge. Tech startups accepted in the program will be able to get $20,000 and up to $2M capital. DataTribe will back new startups up to pre-Series A stages. More: - The challenge is open to cybersecurity and data science startups working on national security, defense tech, national labs, research and development, and other commercial applications.
- Founders must have a minimum viable product ready or a solid concept.
- Additionally, founders must have raised $1.2M and should have a scalable idea.
- DataTribe has made seed investments in six startups that emerged from the last five programs.
- BalanceTheory, a participant in the previous program, secured a $3M round in Dec. 2022.
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| 5 | | Novig, a sports betting exchange, announced it raised a $6.4M Seed round led by Lux Capital. The startup ran a beta test with 200 users earlier this month, where 15,500 orders were placed across 1,290 markets. More: - Launched in March 2021, the company raised an $800,000 pre-seed round led by Lux Capital and Innospark Ventures before going through Y Combinator last summer.
- Novig partnered for 10-year access with Full House Resorts and its Bronco Billy's Casino in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
- The startup plans to apply for licenses in New Jersey and Ohio, to then launch in other countries in the next 24 to 30 months.
- Novig plans to charge small fees to users whose winnings surpass $10,000.
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| 6 | | Pharmaceutical company Merck launched a new biotech accelerator program called Merck Digital Sciences Studio (MDSS). MDSS aims to back 12 early-stage startups leveraging AI and machine learning tools in the biotech sector. More: - The firm will provide up to $150,000 in funding in convertible notes.
- Additionally, the firm will provide access to cloud computing resources through Microsoft for Startups program.
- Merck will also help the startups launch their pilot programs.
- The 10-month program is a collaboration between Merck and the New Jersey Innovation Institute.
- Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Northpond Ventures, and McKesson Ventures have backed MDSS.
- "The biopharmaceutical industry has only just started to harness the tremendous opportunity presented by emerging technological developments in AI and ML," said Merck Research Laboratories senior vice president Fiona Marshall.
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- Construction industry mobile training solutions developer CaHill Tech received $250,000 bridge funding from Western New York Impact Investment Fund. Additionally, the startup got a $750,000 grant from the state's office of strategic workforce development and $50,000 from the state transportation department.
- Insurance technology startup Modives closed its seed funding round at $3M.
- Shayan Hamidi launched Rechat, a relationship management, marketing, and transaction management super app for real estate agents.
- Google unveiled a new 10-week accelerator program to help African startups develop AI solutions to tackle local challenges.
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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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