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| Hey Insiders, Here are the latest stories: - Samsung invests in Skipify.
- RevRoad raises $61M for Utah startups.
- Anyplace raises a $8.27M Series B.
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Nicolas
p/mobilitynerd | |
| 1 | | Samsung announced a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount in Skipify. The startup partners with financial institutions to store customer's payment information and authenticate customers at checkout. More: - This marks Skipify's second strategic investment in two months, following a partnership with American Express to link their credit cards with participating merchants.
- A PYMNTS Intelligence-ACI Worldwide study found that 60% of customers used digital wallets to pay bills.
- Skipify raised a $35M Series A led by Synchrony Ventures with participation from PayPal and Okta in Feb. 2022.
Q: Would you be more willing to buy online at a site that has e-wallet integration? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | RevRoad Capital announced it raised $61M for its debut fund for seed investments for startups based in Utah. The firm first launched in 2017 as a series of services, such as legal and sales support for startups, in exchange for equity. More: - The Utah fund will be managed by David Mann, who previously worked at RevRoad and Amazon Game Studios.
- RevRoad has participated in more than 57 rounds, including competitor insights platform Particl's $8.5M Series A and electric drive systems startup Hyperdrive's $6.5M seed round.
- In July, the firm opened an office in Orlando to focus on Florida startups after securing $15M in funding.
- At the time, its portfolio had a combined value exceeding $1.5B.
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| 3 | | Hospitality startup Anyplace raised $8.27M for its Series B funding round. The round was LAUNCH Fund with additional participation from CapitalX, Gaingels, Riverside Ventures, Potluck Ventures, MSIVC, FreakOut Shinsei Fund, and Delight Ventures. More: - Anyplace business model focuses on fully equipped, furnished apartments for remote work.
- The company generates revenue by leasing unfurnished spaces in bulk, furnishing and equipping them for remote work, and then subleasing them.
- Anyplace currently manages over 100 units in four cities: New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, with annual occupancy rates ranging from 80% to 85%.
- The company noted its plan to expand to new markets, including Miami, Boston, Austin, and Seattle, and enhance customer experiences with personalized local concierge services.
Note: Founder and CEO of Inside.com Jason Calacanis is an investor in Anyplace. | | | |
| 4 | | Aindo, an Italy-based generative AI startup, announced a €6M ($6.34M) Series A led by United Ventures. The company develops solutions for healthcare, public administration, and finance using synthetic data. More: - "Most organizations possess valuable structured information stored within their databases that cannot be used due to privacy protection. Creating synthetic data with generative AI solves that. The data Aindo regenerates behaves similarly to real data while fully protecting individuals' privacy," said the startup's co-founder, Daniele Panfilo.
- Aindo is one of a handful of generative AI startups that have raised new rounds in recent weeks, including Baichuan, Anthropic, Writer, Nexusflow, and Gizmo, among others.
- Consulting firm Gartner estimates that 60% of the data used in AI applications will be artificially generated by 2024, up from 1% in 2021.
- Grand View Research projects the global synthetic data market will be worth $1.89B by 2030.
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| 5 | | Fintech startup Plaid has appointed Eric Hart as its first CFO. Hart had previously worked for Expedia before joining Plaid. More: - Plaid initially connected consumer bank accounts to financial apps but has expanded its offerings to create a full-stack onboarding experience.
- Plaid almost merged with Visa for $5B before antitrust regulators halted the deal.
- After the Visa deal fell through, Plaid raised funding at a $13.4B valuation.
- Plaid expects to process 2B bank payments, doubling the previous year's volume and $10B in transaction value, focusing on faster, safer payments.
- The company noted that even with the CFO hire, they currently have no intentions of conducting an IPO.
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| 6 | | Vancouver-based startup Hiive has raised $4.2M. Uncorrelated Ventures led the funding round. More: - Hiive, founded in 2021, offers an automated marketplace for transacting secondary private shares, providing real-time valuations based on confirmed buyers and sellers, similar to public market methodologies.
- Hiive's platform caters to late-stage startups, offering a marketplace for trading private shares.
- The platform hosts over 570 companies with active listings, including Seattle-based startups Outreach, Icertis, and Convoy, and has more than 12,000 users.
- The funding comes amid a trend of tech companies staying private longer, increasing demand for share liquidity.
- The funding round value is $77M.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Don't settle for the sidelines. Participate in Sandhill Markets' auctions and bid on shares of pre-IPO giants like Stripe, Databricks, Anduril, and OpenAI.*
- AI for sports company SwingVision raised a $6M Series A led by Authentic Ventures.
- Payments infrastructure startup Finzly raised a $10M Series A.
- Gardenuity, a startup that focuses on customized gardening kits, raised a $5.5M Seed round.
- HealthCaters raises a €1.2M ($1.26M) Seed round to focus on doctor-less disease prevention.
- Final day to invest in LiquidPiston is 10/24. Become a LiquidPiston investor before it's too late.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
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Term of the Day Elevator pitch: An elevator pitch is a short story entrepreneurs tell about their business idea. Question of the Week What perks would convince you to return to the office? Join the conversation |
INSIDE STARTUPS LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) |
 | Sr. Analyst | | Nicolas S. is a Sr. Analyst at Inside, covering transportation and startup 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 startups. Follow him at @MobilityNerd. _________________________
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Robel Kelkile is passionate about all things tech, venture, and financial education. He has previously served both universities and state governments in their engagement strategy and tracking legislation. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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