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| Here’s a look at today’s Startups briefing. - Atom Bank raises $122M down round.
- Viome Life Sciences acquired Naring Health and its subsidiaries DiscernDX and Foodome.
- Cleaning robot startup Matic comes out of stealth with $29.6M funding.
We have also rounded up the top early-stage funding rounds of this week. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Atom Bank, a Scotland-based neobank, raised £100M ($122M) from recurring investors at a lower valuation. The round would value the company at ~$441.7M, down from its $530.8M valuation from Feb. 2022. More: - Despite the lower valuation, Atom has a quarterly run rate of over £100M ($123.8M) in annualized net interest income and more than £25M ($30.9M) in operating profit.
- The app-based bank claims 224,000 customers, a 2x growth for the fiscal year. The company says it has loaned over £4B ($4.9B) to homeowners in the U.K. and over £1B ($1.2B) to small businesses.
- BBVA, Toscafund, and Infinity Investment Partners invested in the round.
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| 2 | | VCs deployed $853M in early-stage North American startups this week between Oct. 28 and Nov. 3, per Crunchbase data. Biotech startups raked in 35% of the funding this week. AI, cybersecurity, and proptech startups nabbed 10%, 9%, and 9% of the financing, respectively. 
Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - Small molecule medicines biotech startup Terremoto Biosciences closed its Series B funding round at $175M. The investment came from EcoR1 Capital, Novo Holdings, Cormorant Capital, OrbiMed, and Third Rock Ventures.
- Open-source cybersecurity software developer Chainguard bagged $61M in Series B funding. Spark Capital led the round, with additional backing from Sequoia Capital, Mantis VC, Amplify Partners, and Banana Capital.
- Versant Ventures and a16z Bio + Health led a $60M Series A funding into small molecule therapeutics biotech firm Gate Bioscience.
- Airbnb spinout Samara bagged $41M in Series A funding led by Thrive Capital, with participation from 8VC, General Catalyst, SV Angels, and others. The firm is making prefabricated studio and one-bedroom units using "environmentally-considerate" materials.
- Procurement management software developer Oro Labs secured $34M in fresh funding. Felicis led the Series B round, with Norwest Venture Partners, B Capital, and XYZ Venture Capital participating in the round.
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| 3 | | Healthtech startup Viome Life Sciences has acquired digital health and wellness firm Naring Health, including its subsidiaries, health monitoring firm DiscernDX, and food science platform Foodome. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. More: - The strategic acquisition combines Viome's microbiome insights with Naring's multi-omics data to provide more comprehensive and precise personalized nutrition recommendations.
- Viome founder and CEO Naveen Jain said, "By acquiring entities whose visions align and complement ours, such as Naring Health, we're advancing our commitment to making unprecedented health insights and actionable solutions increasingly attainable to all and with greater accuracy."
- The acquisition comes two months after Viome raised a $86.5M Series C round from Khosla Ventures, Bold Capital, and WRG Ventures.
- Khosla Ventures had also backed Naring Health.
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| 4 | | Matic, a cleaning robot startup founded by former Google Nest engineers, is launching out of stealth mode with $29.6M in funding. The company uses 5-RGB cameras and neural networks for image recognition and decision-making. More: - The startup keeps all 3D maps gathered on the device without uploading data to the cloud.
- Matic's funds include a $24M Series led by former CEO of GitHub, Nat Freidman; CEO of Stripe, Patrick Collison; and Daniel Gross, co-founder of Cue.
- The startup previously raised a $5.6M Seed round in 2019 led by Nest co-founder Matt Roger, with participation from former co-founder of Angelist, Naval Ravikant; CEO of Square, Jack Dorsey; and CEO of Quora, Adam D'Angelo.
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| 5 | | Memo Therapeutics (MTx), a Zurich-based startup, raised a €26M ($27.6M) Series C led by Pureos Bioventures. The startup plans to use the funds to complete its Phase 2 clinical trials for an antibody that neutralizes BK polyomavirus infections in kidney transplant recipients. More: - "MTx has made great progress in translating its antibody discovery platform into promising clinical candidates. In particular, AntiBKV has the potential to transform the lives of patients, who currently have no other therapeutic options," said Veronica Gambillara Fonck, partner at Pureos Bioventures.
- The company has other candidate antibodies for infectious diseases in the pipeline, including cytomegalovirus and immuno-oncology targets in collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical.
- MTx has raised $86.8M since its inception in 2015.
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| 6 | | Los Angeles, Calif.-based cleantech startup Avnos is testing a new hybrid direct air capture pilot project near Bakersfield that can capture carbon dioxide and water from the air. Avnos' method requires far less energy than traditional DAC methods, which use heat-sensitive chemical solvents to capture carbon. The pilot project can produce five to 10 tons of water for every ton of CO2 captured. In contrast, traditional DAC methods consume roughly the same amount of water for every ton of CO2 captured. More: - The firm can operate in drought-prone regions as its technology produces water rather than consumes it.
- The test system has an operating capacity of capturing 30 tons of CO2 annually while generating 300 tons of water.
- Avnos plans to build a larger facility capable of capturing 300 tons of CO2 and 3,000 tons of water.
- Avnos hopes that its technology can help bring down the cost of carbon capture to $100 per ton by the early 2030s.
Zoom out: - The Department of Energy has pledged to invest $1B into projects that capture CO2 from the ambient air, of which Avnos has received $12M to design and install a carbon capture hub in Kern County, California.
- Avnos also raised $80M in capital from a recent funding round.
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- Subscription-based money management startup Monarch Money reported a bump in new users after Intuit announced it is discontinuing its personal finance app Mint.
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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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