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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - 🤝 Thomson Reuters' acquisition of Casetext
- 💥 Why British firms that pursued SPAC listings in the U.S. lost $29.5B value
- 👥 Artly's $518,000 crowdfunding campaign
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Thomson Reuters completed the acquisition of Casetext, a generative AI startup for legal professionals, for $650M in all-cash. The media company plans to invest over $100M per year in AI capabilities and plugins. More: - Casetext claims over 10,000 law firms as clients.
- The startup developed CoCouncil, an AI legal assistant launched this year and built on top of OpenAI's GPT4.
- The product reviews documents, writes legal memos, deposition preparation, and performs contract analysis.
- Thomson Reuters began offering its Westlaw generative AI service in July through a closed beta program.
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| 2 | | The reversal in SPAC markets has wiped away $29.5B value in British companies that pursued a SPAC listing in the U.S. 
What the numbers say: An analysis by Bloomberg and the London Stock Exchange Group estimates that investors in the SPAC transactions lost 90% of their original investment. On average, online car marketplace Cazoo Group, payments firm Paysafe, and EV automaker Arrival have lost 88% of value. Due to the plunging stock prices, four British companies — AI-powered healthcare platform Babylon, connected car company Wejo Group, music streaming service Akazoo, and semiconductor firm Rockley Photonics — were compelled to delist in the U.S. What happened: British firms were drawn to the SPAC listings in the U.S. due to higher valuations on the other side of the Atlantic. While the firms achieved higher valuations, many suffered from high redemption rates, where investors redeem their shares in case they don't like the target acquisition company. The large redemptions often left a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars. Where to see the impact: Despite the bursting of the SPAC bubble, many British firms are still keen on pursuing a SPAC listing overseas to get a higher valuation. The Financial Conduct Authority is carrying out a Primary Markets Effectiveness Review to make domestic listing options more attractive. Q: Given the changing regulatory landscape, what are your views on SPAC listings compared to traditional IPOs? Let us know here. | | | |
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| 3 | | Robot coffee-maker startup Artly raised $518,000 through equity crowdfunding on StartEngine. The campaign would value the company at $100M. More: - "The response from existing venture capital investors to Artly's decision to go the crowdfunding route has been mostly supportive, despite some initial resistance due to the novelty of regulation crowdfunding," said Meng Wang, the startup's CEO and co-founder.
- Artly previously raised $10M from Amino Capital, Aimtop Ventures, SV Tech, and LDV Partners, among others.
- Wang said the crowdfunding campaign was not driven by the current state of venture capital.
- Artly generated $911,907 in net revenue in 2022, increasing from $109,257 in 2021.
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| 4 | | OpenAI, the Sam Altman-led startup behind ChatGPT, has announced its first acquisition to date. The firm is acquiring digital products startup Global Illumination. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. More: - In a blog post announcing the acquisition, OpenAI said, "The entire (Global Illumination) team has joined OpenAI to work on our core products, including ChatGPT."
- Thomas Dimson, Taylor Gordon, and Joe Flynn formed Global Illumination in 2021.
- The New York-based startup builds AI-powered creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences.
- It is most recently credited with building a Minecraft-like open-source sandbox multiplayer online role-playing game for the web called Biomes.
- Global Illumination has secured funding from VC firms Paradigm, Benchmark, and Slow.
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| 5 | | Former Zillow CEO Spencer Racoff is joining his former colleagues in launching heyLibby, a generative AI startup that seeks to automate the sales process for SMBs. The startup's target user includes realtors, contractors, event planners, and personal trainers, among other areas. More: - "The idea is to help these SMBs answer the same questions and turn a DM into a qualified prospect," said Rascoff.
- Rascoff left Zillow in 2019 and incubated heyLibby through 75 & Sunny Labs.
- The startup's LLM is built on OpenAI's API and "may develop its own model in the future."
- The chatbot lets business owners customize questions and answers and are notified of interactions.
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| 6 | | Former Google executives David Ha and Llion Jones established an AI startup named Sakana, which takes its name from the Japanese word for fish. The startup aims to build smaller AI models that work together, drawing inspiration from a swarm of fishes or a colony of bees. More: - Ha and Jones reckon that using smaller AI models could make it cheaper to train AI and could be run on the computing power currently available.
- Ha worked on generative AI at Alphabet's Google Brian division in Japan, later becoming the head of research role at Stability AI.
- The duo co-authored Google's most influential paper in the field, "Attention is all you need."
- The newly formed startup is still in the early stages, with plans to open an office in Tokyo soon.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - The AWS Cookbook — packed with practical insights and hands-on examples — is a must-have for your cloud toolkit.*
- Arthur released Generative Assessment Project, an open-source platform that identifies the right large language model based on a firm's needs.
- The U.S. Air Force's Defense Innovation Unit is investing $235M into aerospace startup JetZero, which is building a blended-wing body aircraft with a lower fuel burn rate than traditional jetliners.
- Insurtech startup HealthBird joined Google for Startup's Latino Founders Fund program.
- Brandon BioCatalyst and ANDHealth launched a $50M CUREator+ incubator program. The program will give up to $5M in non-dilutive funding.
- IPOs are a rare chance to invest in VC-backed startups, but this AI company opened its round to retail investors. Invest and learn more about Jurny.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
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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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