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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - 🛰 Sidus Space's acquisition of Exo-Space
- 🇪🇺 Euro startups scaling back expansion plans
- 💵 Cerby's $17M funding round
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Sidus Space announced the acquisition of Exo-Space, a startup that offers edge computing on orbit. 15% of the acquisition would consist of an undisclosed cash amount, with the rest comprising stock options and performance incentives. More: - Sidus Space has manufactured hardware for Boeing's Starliner reusable spacecraft and Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplane, among others.
- Formerly named Craig Technologies Aerospace Solutions, Sidus was renamed and spun out of Craig Technologies following a $15M initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
- Sidus plans to integrate Exo-Space's tech into satellite buses as part of its space ridesharing services.
- "The more satellites on orbit, the more data you're processing, the more customers are reaching, and that's where we see that growth," said Carol Craig, Craig Technologies' founder.
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| 2 | | European startups are scaling back their expansion plans due to the dip in venture funding pullback. 
What the numbers say: Venture funding deployed into European startups slumped 61% YoY, per Pitchbook data reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The decline in VC funding for European startups is higher than the 49% YoY dip witnessed by U.S. startups. Investors are shying away from the asset class, instead making other relatively safer bets. To bridge the funding gap, the European Investment Bank earmarked €3.75B ($4.1B) to invest in regional tech companies. What happened: Due to the difficulty in raising fresh funds, several startups are cutting costs and lowering their growth ambitions. Austrian edtech startup GoStudent laid off 10% of its workforce and retreated from the U.S. market. Spanish food-delivery startup Glovo laid off 250 employees, or 7% of its workforce. Why it matters: The fundraising challenge also threatens Europe's ambitions to foster new startups. Funds that are yet to deploy capital will be eyeing new investments, giving startups some relief amidst the challenging VC funding environment. Q: What cost-cutting initiatives did your firm initiate to conserve capital in recent times? Let us know here. | | | |
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| 3 | | Cerby, an identity and access management startup, raised a $17M Series A led by Two Sigma Ventures. The company focuses on non-standard enterprise apps that may not meet the same security standards as those managed by an IT department. More: - Cerby automates human security tasks based on single sign-on and lifecycle management cues from upstream identity providers.
- The round included participation from Salesforce Ventures, Okta Ventures, AV8, and Founders Fund, among others.
- The startup competes with Strata Identity, which emerged from stealth with $7M in 2022.
- Cerby has 26 active customers, including Colgate-Palmolive and an undisclosed healthcare provider.
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| 4 | | Turkish rapid delivery startup Getir is laying off over 2,500 employees, impacting 10% of its global workforce. This move has brought into focus the company's ongoing struggles amidst reports of empty shelves at warehouses, the unavailability of perishable goods on the platform, and even difficulties in meeting financial obligations to suppliers. More: - Getir currently operates in Turkey, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S.
- Out of the current five markets in which Getir operates, only its home market is profitable.
- Earlier this year, the firm stopped operations in France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
- Getir raised a $500M down round led by Mubadala earlier this April at a $6.5B valuation, a steep decline over its peak $11.8B valuation from Mar. 2022.
- Last December, Getir acquired struggling peer Gorillas for $1.2B, less than half its peak valuation from 2021.
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| 5 | | Aircon Air Freight, a startup that uses AI to reduce freight costs, raised $3.3M led by Underscore Ventures. "We are challenging the status quo of long-term dominance by large established players and offering small and medium-sized forwarders a seat at the table for the very first time," said the company's CEO, Chris Condon. More: - The platform works by using artificial intelligence to optimize space on aircraft and consolidate cargo headed for the same destination.
- Aircon last raised a venture round in Jun. 2023. The company previously raised a $1M pre-Seed round from Schematic Ventures.
- The freight space has been implementing AI solutions to optimize cargo, including DHL Freight's and Ryder's use of generative AI.
- Ryder acquired AI fleet management company Baton in Sept. 2022.
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| 6 | | Seattle-based immigration startup Boundless Immigration acquired immigration consulting firm Bridge for an undisclosed sum. Bridge's team of 40 employees will merge with Boundless' workforce. More: - Bridge provides international talent recruitment and legal expertise to clients.
- The firm counts Coca-Cola, Vanta, Insider, WebFlow, Opendoor, and Carta among its 1,000 clients.
- Bridge raised a $800,000 seed round in 2014.
- Boundless CEO Xiao Wang said the acquisition would help create a "one-stop-shop" for consumer and enterprise immigration management services.
- Boundless will integrate Bridge's compliance and reporting features into its offerings.
Zoom out: - This is Boundless' second acquisition to date.
- It acquired RapidVisa in 2020, shortly after raising a $7.5M funding round.
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- Code security startup Pixee emerged from stealth with pixeebot, an interactive GitHub App to fix vulnerabilities and bugs.
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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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