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| Here’s a look at today’s Startups briefing. - General Atlantic leads a $200M Series B round into QI Tech.
- Web3 startups say finding product market fit is a bigger challenge than funding.
- SkyDrive to begin eVTOL production.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Brazilian banking-as-a-service startup QI Tech secured $200M in fresh funding to pursue strategic M&A opportunities and an aggressive growth strategy. General Atlantic led the Series B funding round. More: - QI Tech has been profitable since the start, bootstrapping the firm for the initial two years of operation.
- The firm raised its first outside funding in Nov. 2021, which was a $50M Series A round led by the Sovereign Investment Fund of Singapore (GIC).
- The company reported $21.2M in net revenues during H1 2023, up 89% YoY.
- QI Tech has more than 300 customers, the most notable of which are Shopee, Vivo Telefonica, and 99.
- The firm claims that its USP is creating a "one-stop-shop" solution, offering digital registration tools, data validation, credit scoring, digital account opening, wire transfers, and credit underwriting services.
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| 2 | | Web3 startups think that achieving product market fit is a bigger challenge than raising funding in the current environment, per a survey done by VC firm Bloccelerate. 
What the numbers say: 29% of Series B and later startups ranked finding product market fit as their biggest challenge. The results were surprising given that Series B startups typically gear up for growth and likely solve product market challenges in the Series A stages. The discrepancy could potentially indicate that Web3 startups were able to raise higher sums and advance their firms to Series B stages without actually achieving product market fit, taking advantage of investors' enthusiasm for Web3 startups in the previous years. Per LedgerInsights, the difficulty in finding product market fit potentially highlights the lack of real-world use cases for Web3 applications beyond DeFi. Relevance: Overall, difficulty in raising funding was the third biggest problem that startups face. Getting the product and market timing right was "a really big problem" for around 36% of the respondents. Previous research done by accelerator IdeaLab found that getting the timing right was the single most important determinant of a startup's success, more so than the idea, team, and business model. | | | |
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| 3 | | SkyDrive is planning to begin production of its eVTOLs in Japan through a collaboration with Suzuki. The companies expect to build 100 aircraft annually beginning in the spring of 2024. More: - The two companies have also been collaborating on market entry plans for India, focusing on the tourism sector.
- SkyDrive obtained a ¥12.4B ($82.5M) grant from Japan's Small and Medium Enterprise Innovation Promotion earlier this month.
- The startup last raised ¥3.9B Series B in Aug. 2020.
- Founded in 2018, the company performed its first crewed flight test in 2019 and is currently in the process of obtaining certification from Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau.
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| 4 | | Isabelle Kenyon is stepping down from the CEO role at weight loss startup Calibrate. Sources informed Fortune that CFO Dave Fielding will also step down. Executives Scott Honken and Ed Cudahy will reportedly oversee day-to-day operations. More: - The move is part of a broader restructuring initiative overseen by Redesign Health – the startup studio that launched Calibrate in 2019 – and investor Madryn Asset Management.
- Madryn and other investors will invest an additional $20M into the firm as part of the restructuring initiative.
- Calibrate's investors are looking to reduce the company's D2C operations and get it to profitability.
- The Founders Fund and Tiger Global-backed firm ran into trouble earlier this year after a medication shortage forced the firm to refund patients' subscription fees.
- The firm failed to raise fresh funding, forcing it to lay off 250 employees.
- Conditions worsened after acquisition talks with a "large healthcare leader" fizzled out.
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| 5 | | Funnel Leasing, a Tampa-based AI-powered PropTech startup, raised a $32M Series B extension led by RET Ventures. This brings the company's Series B to $60M. More: - Funnel Leasing develops a virtual leasing agent, online leasing, and resident portals.
- The startup claims a customer base surpassing one million managed units.
- Funnel plans to use the funds to build out its sales team.
- "If we had to do a termination or acquisition, like a lot of other companies, then the product would have stayed where it is, and we couldn't expand the offering. Now that we have this capital, we can take that product and focus on distributing it to more end users," said Funnel's CEO, Tyler Christiansen.
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| 6 | | SeaHawk Media, which focuses on custom WordPress development, raised an undisclosed investment from WPBeginner Growth Fund. SeaHawk works with over 1,000 brands and agencies, including GoDaddy and DreamHost, offering white-label development and services such as WordPress site migration. More: - WPBeginner Growth Fund's investments, which specifically focus on WordPress, include startups such as MemberPress, Pretty Links, Uncanny Automator, and FunnelKit.
- "I wanted to offer a reliable WordPress Pro services partner to our SMB audience that can handle all their website's technical needs at affordable prices while also offering our freelancer and WordPress agency audience a great solution to build recurring revenue by adding white-label services to their clients," said WPBeginner CEO Syed Balkhi.
Zoom Out: - Last week, WordPress' parent company, Automattic, acquired the all-in-one messaging app Texts.com for $50M.
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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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