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| Hey Insiders, Here are the latest stories: - Fintech startup Braid shuts down
- IRI initiative invested less than $30M in crypto startups
- AMD acquires AI startup Nod.ai to bolster its software capabilities
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Consumer payments wallet fintech startup Braid has closed operations. In a blog post, co-founder Amanda Peyton said they made the decision after concluding that it was not a viable business venture. More: - Braid was left "in a coma from Jul. 2022 to Jan. 2023" after a sponsor bank left the company.
- The startup's struggles continued despite finding a new partner.
- Peyton said, "What we found, instead, was every additional partner had the potential to break big, important parts of our stack. Building a multiplayer offering meant we had to be as close to the metal as possible, because a lot of our UX didn't really exist off-the-shelf. After several painful migrations, our distaste for contractual and technical lock-in grew dramatically."
- Peyton acquired Briad's intellectual property in an auction after the company shut down.
- Briad had raised $10M in total funding from Index Ventures, Accel, and other investors.
Q: How can startups mitigate the challenges after losing sponsors or partners? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | The Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI), launched by Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao in the midst of the crypto downfall to invest $1B in struggling startups, has only invested $30M since inception, per a Bloomberg analysis. 
What the numbers say: Nine participants had pledged to invest in the IRI program out of the 18 initially announced. However, only one has invested all the amount it had committed. The initiative has quietly unwinded while struggles for crypto startups have deepened. What happened: A Binance spokesperson said the IRI had backed 14 blockchain projects. Since the IRI was not structured as a fund, members of the IRI program could invest in the companies or acquire them outright. Binance had committed $1B in branded stablecoin BUSD. The other nine participants had pledged smaller amounts in BUSD, USDC, BTC, or other digital tokens. Why it matters: Binance has since moved out $985M of the capital committed to the initiative. "We didn't identify as many projects who would meet our criteria, and this is the same for the other investors," said Binance Labs' business strategy and operations head, Dana Hou. | | | |
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| 3 | | Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced plans to acquire AI startup Nod.ai for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help AMD bolster its software capabilities. More: - Nod.ai optimizes AI software to run on high-performance hardware using advanced compiler-based approaches instead of legacy kernels.
- The firm had raised $36.5M from investors to date.
- AMD senior vice president Vamsi Boppana said, "The acquisition of Nod.ai is expected to significantly enhance our ability to provide AI customers with open software that allows them to easily deploy highly performant AI models tuned for AMD hardware."
- AMD will house Nod.ai under its newly created AI group, which employs about 1,500 engineers.
Zoom out: - Allied Market Research predicts that the AI chip market will grow by 38.2% CAGR to touch $383.7B by 2032.
- Meanwhile, the entire AI market is predicted to reach $594B by 2032.
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| 4 | | Neura, a Germany-based robotics startup, announced a $16M round led by U.S.-based private equity firm InterAlpen Partners. The company plans to use the funds to launch in the U.S. in 2024. More: - Neura develops collaborative robots with reflexive sensory processing for autonomous and predictive actions, including assistants for manufacturing and laboratories, autonomous vehicles for indoor navigation, and industrial task automation.
- The startup is currently working on a humanoid robot.
- The U.S. robotics sector is estimated to reach $7.7B in revenue in 2023. Globally, the market volume is projected to reach $45B by 2028.
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| 5 | | Social media startup BlueSky is releasing its latest version, 1.52, warning users of misleading links. The app is also adding the option for email verification. More: - With the new changes, BlueSky will also prioritize followers in search and suggestions.
- An Android update to the app would make the image viewer easier to pan and zoom and make alt text selectable.
- BlueSky surpassed one million users in September. Among its competitors, Mastodon has 1.8 million MAUs and Threads more than 100 million registered users.
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| 6 | | TabbyML, an open-source coding assistant, raised $3.2M in Seed funding from Yunqi Partners and Zoo Capital. The startup launched its product in April, and the GitHub repository has been starred more than 11,000 times. More: - TabbyML aims to lower the barrier to deployment by recommending models trained on 1 to 3 billion parameters.
- "As the cost of computing power goes down over time and the quality of open source models continues to improve, the competitive edge of GitHub and OpenAI will eventually diminish," said the startup's co-founder, Meng Zhang.
- This marks Zoo Capital's third known investment for the year, after Mol Breeding, a molecular plant technology company, and Xingan Technology, which produces SiC power semiconductor products.
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- Circuit board design startup SnapEDA is rebranding itself to SpanMagic. The firm also announced a new AI tool, dubbed SnapMagic Copilot, to automate circuit board design.
- Chinese EV startup WM Motor filed for bankruptcy. The company said in a statement, "WM Motor's planned reorganization will introduce strategic investors from across the globe to achieve its rebirth."
- The founding team of cloud-native security pioneer Twistlock is back with a new security governance startup called Gutsy. The firm emerged from stealth with a $51M seed funding round led by YL Ventures and Mayfield.
- NoxuData, a startup that helps CPG data teams analyze and visualize their data, bagged $250,000 in pre-seed funding after successfully completing Madrona Venture Labs' Launchable: Generative Apps program.
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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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