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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - Ex-Googlers' new firm Essential AI's $40M funding
- Germany completes 45% of startup initiatives
- Lyten's $200M Series B
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Essential AI, a stealth-mode startup established by ex-Googlers Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar, is about to raise $40M in fresh funding, sources told Bloomberg. The firm intends to build large language models-based software for companies. More: - The firm had raised $8M in capital led by Thrive Capital a few months ago.
- Vaswani and Parmar co-authored the paper "Attention is all you need," which established the basic concepts of large language models, the technology that powers the current generation of generative AI chatbots.
Zoom out: - The duo also founded Adept, a San Francisco, Calif.-based machine learning research and product lab.
- Adept has raised $415M in Series B funding to date, the last of which came in the form of a $350M Series B funding round led by General Catalyst and Spark Capital in Mar. 2023.
Q: Do founders with prior experience at renowned companies find it easier to secure startup funding? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | The German government had initiated measures to promote startups in the nation in Jul. 2022, of which it has already implemented 45% of the initiatives, per the economics ministry. 
What the numbers say: German government startup commissioner Anna Christmann noted that the government has concrete plans in place for the remaining half of the measures. However, 4% of the proposed initiatives are awaiting finalization. What happened: The government introduced the measures last year after recognizing the importance of startups in reinvigorating the nation's economy. Startups in Germany contributed to 4.7% of the nation's economic output in 2022. The cumulative valuation of German startups in 2022 was $168B. The nation has 31 unicorn startups with a more than $1B valuation. Where to see the impact: The German government introduced the Future of Financing Act and the Skilled Immigration Act last year. Measures proposed in the Future of Financing Act include simplifying listing requirements, digitizing capital markets, and increasing the tax allowance for employee share ownership from €1,440 ($1,549) to €5,000 ($5,380). | | | |
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| 3 | | Electric vehicle battery startup Lyten announced it raised a $200M Series B led by Prime Movers Labs. The company focuses on producing lithium-sulfur batteries, which are characterized by their lightness and energy density. More: - The round included participation from FedEx, Stellantis, Triatomic Capital, Walbridge, and Honeywell.
- Lyten plans to use the new funds to build an automated pilot line in San Jose, California, where it plans mass production to start in 2024.
- The news comes within weeks of battery recycler Redwood Material's $1B Series D and Ascend Elements' $542M Series D.
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| 4 | | Gable.ai, a data workflow startup founded by former members of digital freight company Convoy's data team, emerged from stealth mode. The company raised $7M to develop "GitHub for data." More: - The startup works on a B2B data infrastructure platform for developer collaboration and data contract execution.
- The Seed round was led by Crane Venture Capital, Essence Venture Capital, and Zetta Venture Partners.
- Gable brings the number of startups founded by former Convoy employees to at least 25, including marketing company Wolfscale, leads platform HeyLibby, analytics platform GoodShip, and the Seattle NFT Museum.
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| 5 | | Social media startup BlueSky revealed it surpassed one million users on Tuesday. The app had reached one million installs in July; however, not all those who downloaded it had invite codes to create an account. More: - Created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, BlueSky paused sign-ups as it experienced performance issues due to high demand in July.
- BlueSky has opted for a gradual rollout in contrast to Meta's Threads, which reached 30 million sign-ups within 24 hours and 100 million within five days, largely driven by its Instagram user base.
- BlueSky raised $8M in a Seed round led by Neo in Jul. 2023, which followed $13M from Jack Dorsey in March.
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| 6 | | Intercity bus transportation startup Kolors is acquiring B2B van pooling service provider Urbvan from Swvl for $12M in cash. With the acquisition, Kolors will be able to expand into door-to-door transportation in Mexico. The move is part of Kolors' broader initiative to tap into a new demographic consisting of business travelers. More: - Kolors intends to increase Urbvan's service footprint from the present 24 cities to 40 cities across Mexico.
- "Not only is Urbvan in great shape, but the main reason for the acquisition was to complement Kolors's digital mass mobility ecosystem and offer our millions of passengers complementary mobility alternatives, especially when 30% of Kolors passengers travel for work, and the tickets are paid by an employer," said Kolors CEO and co-founder Rodrigo Martinez.
- Kolors is funding the acquisition with capital from an undisclosed pre-Series B round.
- The firm has officially disclosed securing funding worth $20M from Toyota Ventures, Up Ventures, Tuesday Capital, and Maniv Mobility.
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- UBQ Materials, an Israeli startup converting landfill waste to bioplastic, bagged $70M in fresh funding led by Eden Global Partners.
- Alza, a startup aimed at fulfilling the bank needs of immigrants from Latin or Central America, emerged from stealth. The firm had previously raised a $6.6M funding round led by Thrive Capital in late 2021.
- Real estate startup Flyhomes is set to acquire a few assets from real estate lending startup Home Sale Assured for an undisclosed sum.
- German authorities stopped Chinese firm Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology from taking over complete control of German satellite startup KLEO Connect.
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Term of the Day Return on investment: Return on investment measures the amount of realized value produced minus the cost to achieve that result. Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? Join the conversation |
INSIDE STARTUPS LEADERBOARD (30 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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