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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - 👥 CoinDesk's layoffs ahead of a potential sale
- 💹 Better.com's SPAC merger receives shareholders' approval
- 💵 Mixlab's $10M Series A extension
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you! Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Crypto-focused media company CoinDesk announced it will lay off an undisclosed number of employees. This follows reports about a possible sale of the company to a group of investors led by Tally Capital and Capital6 for $125M. More: - "This was a required step to ensure a financially sound business moving forward and to set us on the path to close the deal to sell CoinDesk," said Kevin Worth, CEO of the media company.
- Founded in 2013, CoinDesk was acquired by ADG for $500,000 in 2016.
- The site is known for breaking the story on failed crypto exchange FTX's balance sheet.
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| 2 | | Shareholders of digital mortgage lending startup Better.com approved its upcoming SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp. Better.com will brave the subdued SPAC listing market, which has seen several lackluster transactions in recent quarters. What happened: Aurora's CEO Arnaud Massenet said, "At least 65% of the outstanding ordinary shares of the company entitled to vote at this meeting have voted in favor of (the) proposal." Per SEC filings, Better.com will go public "on or about Aug. 22, 2023." Relevance: Better.com is also set to receive at least $550M from SoftBank as part of the transaction. The firm may receive an additional $200M if Novator decides to exercise its $100M option, which SoftBank would be compelled to match. Better.com's SPAC merger with Aurora was initially valued at $6B in May 2021, with later estimates upping the value to $7.7B. The company has faced numerous challenges, including layoffs, high-profile resignations, and negative publicity, which caused it to postpone its SPAC merger. 
What the numbers say: SPAC activity has dropped globally, with only 16 such transactions occurring in the U.S. in the first half of 2023. SPAC listings this year are less than a quarter of the 68 transactions closed in H1 2022. Proceeds from SPAC listings fell to $1.82B in H1 2023, down 84.5% YoY from 2022 H1's tally of $11.79B. Q: Do you think Better.com's SPAC listing will be a success? Let us know here. | | | |
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| 3 | | Mixlab, a startup focusing on digital prescription management for veterinarians, secured a $10M Series A extension led by Vanterra Ventures. The company raised its $20M Series A in 2021. More: - Mixlab enables veterinarians to deliver prescriptions to pet owners and provides next-day free delivery to all 50 states.
- The company claims 2,000 active user clinics and 50% YoY sales growth.
- The startup plans to use the new funds to open a new location in the Miami area and for product expansion.
- The pet care sector is projected to reach $368B by 2030.
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| 4 | | AI startup Modular is reportedly in talks with investors to raise a new Series A funding round. The company is targeting a valuation of about $600M. General Catalyst is one of the investors that Modular has held talks with. More: - The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup leverages software advancements to boost the performance of AI training GPUs in order to train more powerful models.
- Its software works by combining popular AI frameworks using modular components.
- Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE, "Modular has built a software layer for building AI models that can be trained and run without Nvidia's chips. Instead, they can run on regular silicon CPUs from AMD and Intel."
- The firm last raised $30M in seed funding in Jun. 2022.
- GV had led the round with participation from Greylock, SV Angel, and The Factory.
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| 5 | | Olis Robotics, a startup focusing on industrial robot monitoring, raised $4.1M through a round led by PSL Ventures. The company's product, Olis Connect, is able to communicate issues to robot owners via a secure connection without connecting to the cloud. More: - "Robot downtime can cost a large plant over $1M per hour. When every minute counts, you need to leverage remote tools to react as quickly as possible no matter where you are," said the startup's CEO, Fredrik Ryden.
- The Seattle-based startup is currently monitoring robots made by Universal Robots and FANUC, which provide 20% of the more than 3.5 million operational industrial robots globally.
- Spun out of the University of Washington, Olis Robotics initially focused on remote control systems for underwater and space robots in collaboration with the U.S. Navy and NASA.
- Olis changed its name from BluHaptics in 2018 following the pivot.
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| 6 | | Fintech startup Brex launched a group events solution to give businesses a unified platform to create and manage large corporate events. While the new product might seem like a departure from their credit card-focused domain, Vineet Taneja, VP of product, assured that the platform is a natural extension of its current portfolio. More: - Taneja said, "We saw a 3x jump in the [number of] offsites companies are organizing."
- Brex's new offering is strategically timed to capitalize on this remarkable shift.
- With the new platform, businesses can manage event budgets, customize travel policies, plan events, and manage company expenses.
- GoGuardian and SeatGeek have already been using Brex's new events platform in beta mode.
- The new solution is part of its Brex travel product portfolio.
- Brex's travel product — launched earlier this March — has already seen a 20% to 25% MoM increase in travel booking.
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| 7 | | 
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| 8 | | Quick Hits: - The AWS Cookbook — packed with practical insights and hands-on examples — is a must-have for your cloud toolkit.*
- South Korean telecom firm SK Telecom invested $100M in AI chatbot maker Anthropic. As part of the deal, Antropic will build a large language model for the telecommunications sector.
- Warehousing startup Flexe hired David Kipe as its chief operating officer. Kipe was formerly the EVP and COO at Majestic Steel USA.
- EV automaker Tesla completed the acquisition of German EV wireless charging solutions startup Wiferion.
- The SEC fined EV startup Canoo $1.5M for "reporting failures" related to its unrealistic revenue projections.
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Term of the Day Metaverse commerce: Metaverse commerce involves individuals using AR or VR headsets to shop for a product within a platform. Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? 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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