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| Here’s a look at today’s Startups briefing. - IBM launches $500M fund for AI startups.
- Housing rental and property management startup Zeus Living shuts down.
- Luup raises ~$23.8M through a mix of debt and asset financing.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | IBM announced the launch of the Enterprise AI Venture Fund with a total of $500M for early-stage "hypergrowth" startups. The tech company has already participated in AI startup funding, including HiddenLayer's $50M round and Hugging Face's $235M round. More: - "AI is slated to unlock nearly $16T in productivity by 2030. With the launch of the IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund, we're opening another channel to harness the enormous potential of the AI revolution into tangible, positive outcomes for IBM and the companies we invest in," said the company's CCO and SVP of software, Rob Thomas.
- IBM released its Watsonx platform, which provides prepackaged neural networks for tasks such as code generation.
- The company also released an open-source AI model for satellite data analysis in collaboration with NASA.
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| 2 | | Housing rental and property management startup Zeus Living has reportedly closed operations, per The Information. What happened: The proptech startup catered to corporate workers looking for extended stays. Zeus Living leased homes and apartments, furnished them, and later sublet them to individuals. The firm informed all landlords through an email on Monday that it was "struggling financially" and would be unable to guarantee payments. Relevance: The real estate industry has suffered in recent months due to the rising interest rates. Zeus Living has raised $125M in total funding since its founding in 2015. The firm last raised a $55M funding round in Oct. 2021. Zeus Living reached a peak valuation of $205M four years ago. 
What the numbers say: Zeus Living's shutdown comes amidst a period that has seen the highest number of startup failures yet, per Carta. 543 U.S.-based startups have already shut down this year through Q3 2023. The number is higher than the 467 startup failures seen in 2022. | | | |
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| 3 | | Luup, a Japanese shared micro-mobility operator, raised ~$23.8M through a mix of debt and asset financing. Approximately $16.5M of the funds was arranged through a loan by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. More: - "Historically, cities in Japan have developed alongside major train stations, which has resulted in disparity of convenience as well as real estate value depending on the distance from the train station," explained the startup's CEO and founder, Daiki Okai.
- The company plans to double its number of available stations to 10,000 and triple its vehicle count to 30,000 by 2025.
- The new funds bring Luup's total to date to $84.1M.
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| 4 | | Africa's largest startup, Flutterwave, lost its CFO, Oneal Bhambani. The former American Express executive has decided to step down from the role "to reconnect with old friends and colleagues" in India. Bhambani's departure comes as Flutterwave gears up for an IPO amidst allegations of financial impropriety in Kenya. More: - Valuation of the African startup declined from the peak of $3B after the Kenyan High Court froze Flutterwave's bank accounts for allegedly flouting its anti-money laundering rules and operating payment services without the right licenses.
- The firm has raised $509M in total funding to date, the last of which came in the form of a $250M Series D round led by B Capital in Feb. 2022.
- Other notable backers of the firm include Tiger Global, Greycroft, and Y Combinator.
- Flutterwave counts Alibaba's Alipay, Uber Technologies, and Netflix as its most prominent clients.
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| 5 | | Ninety Eight, the organization behind Coin98 decentralized finance, raised a $25M fund for Web3 startups in Asia. Startups selected by the Vietnam-based fund would have support and access to the Viction Layer-1 blockchain infrastructure for low-gas-fee transactions. More: - In June, Ninety Eight launched the Vietnam Future Fund to help local Web3 startups navigate global expansion.
- 19% of adults of Vietnamese adults own a digital asset, per Chainanalysis.
Zoom Out: - Last week, Coin98 launched a decentralized app store using the NEAR Blockchain Operating System, providing access to Layer-2 ecosystems.
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| 6 | | Plai Labs, a startup founded by former MySpace and Jam City executives, launched an AI-powered short video clip generation platform, PlaiDay. The newly launched tool is built on Plai Labs' internal development platform dubbed Orchestra. The platform has limited availability through Plai Labs' Discord server but will be available to the general public soon. More: - The Culver City, Calif.-based startup raised $32M in seed funding earlier this year.
- Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by Coinbase, UTA, and Crush Ventures.
- Chris DeWolfe, the co-founder and CEO of social network MySpace and mobile game publisher Jam City, co-founded Plai Labs along with Jim Benedetto and Aber Whitcomb.
- DeWolfe noted that PlaiDay is able to incorporate personalized images for more realistic results.
- Plai Labs plans to launch free and paid subscriptions for PlaiDay.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Upway offers discounted e-bikes from top brands with a one-year warranty and 14-day returns. Buy your e-bike by Nov. 9 for a chance to enter a giveaway and receive your money back.*
- Facebook parent Meta is launching an AI-focused startup accelerator program in collaboration with Hugging Face and Scaleway. The accelerator program will take place at Station F startup megacampus in Paris, France.
- Astra secured a $13.4M debt facility from JMCM Holdings and Sherpa Venture Funds II. The debt will give Astra "time to raise additional liquidity through various capital raising and cost-cutting initiatives and strategic transactions."
- Fast delivery startup Getir acquired online grocery delivery company FreshDirect. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
- Visual workspace solutions provider Miro acquired the visual collaboration platform Freehand from Invision for an undisclosed sum.
- Bring your ideas to life in seconds. App, web, and UI design has never been easier with Uizard. You bring the ideas, AI does the rest. Sign up free!*
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Term of the Day Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is typically measured through surveys or feedback forms that measure the customer's perception of a company's products. Question of the Week What perks would convince you to return to the office? Join the conversation |
 | 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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