| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - Superpowered pivots to bot prompts.
- Used car startup Kavak is exiting Peru and Colombia markets.
- DeepL is set to introduce a voice interpreter in December.
We also rounded up the top early-stage funding rounds of this week. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Productivity app Superpowered, a startup founded in 2020, announced it is pivoting from an AI-powered notetaker for meetings to developing an API to let developers create a bot using just prompts. The company said it would keep working on the original product and hire someone to run it. More: - "Eventually, we got fascinated with this conversation problem. It's really hard to make something feel human. Voice assistants today are clunky and turn-based, we want to build something that feels human," said Jordan Dearsley, the startup's co-founder.
- Vapi, the new product, uses solutions Twilio for telephony, Deepgram for transcription, Daily for audio streaming, OpenAI for responses, among other external services.
- Superpowered has raised $2.1M and is backed by Y-Combinator, Kleiner Perkins, and Abstract Ventures.
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| 2 | | VCs deployed $646.3M in early-stage North American startups this week between Nov. 4 and Nov. 10, per Crunchbase data. AI startups raked in 16% of the funding this week. Healthcare, finance, and biopharma startups nabbed 10%, 10%, and 9% of the financing, respectively. 
Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - Financial services AI platform Black Ore secured $60M in fresh funding led by a16z and Oak HC/FT. General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, and others participated in the round.
- OrsoBio, a biopharmaceutical startup developing treatments for severe metabolic disorders, closed its Series A funding round at $60M. Longitude Capital and Enavate Sciences co-led the round, with additional backing from Samsara BioCapital, Eli Lilly, and NeuvaBio.
- Biopharmaceutical startup Forward Therapeutics raised $50M in Series A, led by BVF Partners, joined by RA Capital Management and OrbiMed.
- Automated healthtech solutions startup Eleos Health raised a Series B round worth $40M. Menlo Ventures led the round, joined by F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads, Arkin Digital Health, SamsungNEXT, and ION.
- Biotech startup Ascidian Therapeutics extended its Series A funding round by $40M. The capital came from Apple Tree Partners.
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| 3 | | Used-car startup Kavak is exiting the Peru and Colombia markets by the beginning of next year to focus on its domestic market of Mexico. Kavak cited the macroeconomic environment as the reason behind the decision. More: - The Mexican startup operates throughout Latin America, Spain, and several countries in the Middle East.
- Kavak, Mexico's first unicorn startup, expanded across South America last year.
- Kavak's South America head, Jaime Macaya, said, "We're finding our path to taking other markets to profitability, and I think that will take us a good part of the next three or four quarters."
- The firm had warned employees about a "challenging 2023" through an internal email, which also announced expenditure cuts and layoffs.
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| 4 | | Surglasses, a Taiwan-based startup working on an augmented reality surgical navigation system, raised a $6.5M pre-Series A round led by Taiwania Capital. The round included participation by 500 Startups, Integrated Capital, Wisdom Capital Limited Partnership, and Sustainable Impact Capital. More: - The company focuses on systems for orthopedics and neurosurgery.
- Surglasses plans to use the funds for accelerating research and development for Caduceus S AR.
- The company received its Class II medical device approval for its AR navigation system in Taiwan and 510(k) clearance from the FDA last year.
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| 5 | | Fintech startup EduFi raised a $6.1M pre-seed round led by Zayn VC. The Singapore-based company launched a loan platform and mobile app for students in Pakistan. More: - EduFi partners with 15 universities and has over 200,000 students on its platform.
- The company disperses funds to its users within 48 hours of an application.
- The round included participation from Palm Drive Capital, Deem Ventures, and Q Business.
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| 6 | | German language translation startup DeepL is gearing up to introduce its first real-time voice interpreter in December. The new voice interpreter service will automatically capture a speaker's words and transcribe them into text in another language. DeepL, which cemented its unicorn status earlier this January, will introduce the feature through its own app as well as integrate the service with other platforms, including Zoom. More: - Since starting in 2017, DeepL has now grown to include translation of 31 languages.
- The firm's paid version is used by over 20,000 clients.
- DeepL plans to open an office in the U.S. early next year, by January.
- Founder and CEO Jared Kutylowski said DeepL uses a contextual engine that works by analyzing entire paragraphs at once.
Zoom out: - The global market for translation services is projected to grow to $44B in the next decade, per Allied Market Research.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Bike Friday is on! Upway sells discounted e-bikes from top brands, rigorously inspected and certified by master mechanics. Get discounts of up to $1000 on a selection of e-bikes!*
- Lightspeed Faction, a newly formed joint venture between emerging VC manager Faction and Lightspeed Venture Partners, secured $285M in capital commitments towards its specialist blockchain fund.
- E-bike maker Rad Power Bikes is shutting down its retail store location in Brooklyn, N.Y.
- AI-driven robotics company Aigen closed its Series A round at $12M. ReGen Ventures, NEA, Cleveland Avenue, Incite, and Susquehanna Private Equity provided the funding.
- DeepInfra, a startup providing scalable and cost-effective infrastructure solutions to run AI models, emerged from stealth mode with a $8M seed round led by A.Capital and Felicis.
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Term of the Day Inferior good: Inferior goods are goods whose demand decreases when income increases, as opposed to normal goods whose demand increases when income increases. 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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