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| Hey Insiders, Here are the latest stories: - Corteva sues Inari Agriculture
- 31 company-sponsored secondary transaction programs occurred in H1
- Nord Security raises $100M at a $3B valuation
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Seed and crop protection giant Corteva Agriscience Inc. filed a lawsuit against seed-gene-editing startup Inari Agriculture in federal court in Delaware. Corteva alleges that Inari illicitly obtained its patent-protected seeds from a U.S. depository and was looking to patent the seeds in the U.S. after making minor changes to the plants' genetics. More: - Corteva, which spun out of DowDuPont in 2019, claims that Inari used a seed-distributor company to purchase its proprietary seeds from the American Type Culture Collection and shipped them from the U.S. to Belgium.
- According to the suit, Inari has not sold any gene-edited products derived from Corteva's seeds but was planning to commercialize them.
Zoom out: - Massachusetts-based Inari partners with seed makers to use its gene-editing technology to enhance their products.
- The firm, valued at $1.5B last year, is focused on developing new varieties of corn, soybeans, and wheat to make them more resilient to climate change.
Q: What strategies can companies use to safeguard their proprietary technologies and prevent competitors from infringing upon them? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | 31 company-sponsored secondary transactions took place on the Carta platform in H1 2023, almost matching H2 2022's tally of 32. 
What the numbers say: Liquidity transactions worth $377M were completed on the Carta platform in H1 2023. The deal value was the lowest so far this decade, suggesting that buyers are still waiting for the buy-ask spread to reduce. Relevance: The average size of the secondary transactions in H1 2023 was $12.2M. The figure is less than half of H1 2022's value of $25.3M and nearly a third of H1 2020's figure of $35.5M. The value of liquidity programs increased by 69% from Q1 to Q2. 37% of the startups organizing the secondary transactions were valued at less than $250M, while 43% were valued at $1B or more, and 10% were worth $2.5B or more. | | | |
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| 3 | | Nord Security, a VPN provider, announced it raised a $100M round led by private equity group Warburg Pincus. This brings the company's valuation to $3B. More: - Nord last raised $100M at a $1.6B valuation in Apr. 2022. The round was led by Novator Ventures, with participation from Burda Principal Investments and General Catalyst. Novartor and Burda also invested in the new round.
- Besides its VPN, the company also works on the NordPass password manager and the NordLayer enterprise remote access networking.
- Nord operates in over 20 countries and employs 2,000 people globally.
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| 4 | | Transfr, which works on virtual reality tools for career development, announced a $40M Series C led by ABS Capital. The startup claims it has facilitated close to 400,000 training simulations. More: - "In less than three years, the company has grown from serving customers in only one state to working with nonprofit, public sector, and enterprise partners in more than 40 states," said Transfr CEO and founder Bharani Rajakumar.
- The company plans to add foreign language offerings, including training courses in Spanish.
- A PwC study found that VR was 52% more cost-effective in a classroom of 3,000 corporate learners.
- Deloitte estimates that 25% of company meetings will have a VR element by 2024.
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| A message from our sponsor, Trustero. |  | | It’s about time someone (or something) handled compliance for you. Meet Ero, the first AI Co-Pilot for Security and Compliance from Trustero. Ero is a powerful new compliance robot from Trustero. It ensures your audit ready before your SOC 2 audit begins by performing a complete digital scan of your environment and telling you how to close compliance gaps. In the Ero White Paper you will learn how Ero: - Streamlines audits
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| 5 | | Generative AI for cybersecurity startup Nexusflow announced a $10.6M Seed round led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from Fusion Fund. This gives the company a $53M post-money valuation. More: - Nexusflow synthesizes data from security sources and uses tools via their APIs to get results for natural language commands.
- The company plans to use the funds to double its team to 20 full-time employees by the end of the year.
- Nexusflow was founded by UC Berkeley computer science professor Jiantao Jiao, former director of machine learning software at SambaNova Jian Zhang, and former CTO at Synopsys Kurt Keutzer.
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| 6 | | AI-powered brand and marketing content creation platform maker Jasper hired Timothy Young to succeed outgoing CEO Dave Rogenmoser. Rogenmoser, who is also Jasper's co-founder, will help Young transition into the role over the next two months. More: - Young was previously a president at Dropbox and vice president of product and engineering at VMware.
- Rogenmoser will retain his post of the chairman of Jasper's board.
- The Austin-based startup laid off an undisclosed number of employees earlier this June.
- Jasper has raised $143M from investors to date, of which it raised $125M less than a year ago when it crossed a valuation of $1.5B.
- VMware, Pfizer, and Anthropologie are some of Jasper's most notable clients.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - No-code development is here to stay according to industry experts. Gartner predicts 80% of technology products will be built by those who are not IT professionals by 2024.*
- AI-powered drug discovery and product development biotech Evozyne closed its Series B funding round at $81M. Fidelity Management & Research and OrbiMed co-led the funding round, supported by NVentures, Paragon Biosciences, and Valor Equity Partners.
- Freight technology and transportation service company Loadsmart acquired NavTrac, a firm building computer vision for yard, terminal, and asset management, for an undisclosed sum.
- Identity and access management startup ProofID acquired identity governance and administration solution Regatta Solutions Group for an undisclosed sum.
- So far in Q3, tech startups in India have raised $1.5B in VC funding, which is 29% lower QoQ and 54% lower YoY.
- NEXT WEEK in LA, redefine development at DockerCon! Use DCHALF for 50% off in-person registration, or participate online for free. Come learn with us!*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
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16 | | Meet Our Fund 5, Building and Investing in AI | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
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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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