| |
| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 🔋 Battery startup ONE demoted CEO Mujeeb Ijaz to the CTO role.
- 🦄 Nine startups joined the unicorn board in November.
- 🚀 Mistral AI's valuation surged to $2B seven months after launch.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Battery startup Our Next Energy Inc. (ONE) demoted founder and CEO Mujeeb Ijaz to the CTO role. Board member Paul Humphries has succeeded Ijaz as the CEO. More: - The three-year-old startup is developing batteries that use lithium-iron phosphate chemistry technology (LFP) instead of the traditional nickel-based lithium-ion batteries.
- Ijaz voluntarily stepped down from the CEO role and will remain a vice-chairman of ONE's six-member board.
- Chinese group Wanxiang Group acquired Ijaz's previous battery technology startup, A123 Systems Inc., after it went bankrupt in 2012.
- ONE is looking to raise additional capital and claims to have a term sheet offered by investors.
- The firm is building a $1.6B manufacturing plant in Van Buren, Michigan, and has received $200M in state grants.
- British investment fund Just Climate was reportedly set to lead a $100M Series C round into ONE, which got canceled over differences in revenue projections.
- Due to the cash crunch after the failed round, ONE laid off 25% of its workforce, or 128 employees, last month.
|     | |
| 2 | | Nine startups joined the unicorn board in November, per Crunchbase. 
What the numbers say: The newly minted unicorns added $11.7B value to the unicorn board. Three startups belonged to the fintech industry, namely buy-now-pay-later startup Tabby with a $200M Series D round at a $1.5B valuation, business rebate management tool Enable with a $120M Series D round at a $1.1B valuation, and lending platform InCred which raised a $60M Series D round at a $1B valuation. Relevance: AI, cybersecurity, fashion, hardware, transportation, and Web3 sectors added one startup to the board each. Open-source large-language AI company 01.AI, smart-device maker Rokid, and fintech identity fraud and money laundering detection startup BioCatch were each valued at $1B in the most recent rounds. Blockchain messaging tool Wormhole was the highest-valued startup amongst the lot, raking in a $2.5B valuation at its $225M fundraiser. Smart car technology developer Xingji Meizu and tech-enabled sportswear brand Castore were valued at $1.4B and $1.2B, respectively. | | | |
| |
|
| 3 | | American cloud computing company Nutanix has acquired some assets and intellectual property of enterprise cloud software company D2iQ. Late last week, The Information reported that D2iQ, formerly known as Mesosphere, was shutting down and distributing assets to creditors. Nutanix has also hired some former D2iQ employees. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. More: - The company has struggled in recent times and laid off 13% of its workforce in Apr. 2020.
- D2iQ worked on Google's open-source server-management technology, Kubernetes.
- Google was reportedly looking to acquire D2iQ in early 2020.
- D2iQ had raised $250M from VC investors and reached a peak valuation of $775M at its Series D round in 2018.
- D2iQ was reportedly targeting a valuation between $250M and $775M at the acquisition.
- Per The Information, D2iQ had previously also rejected a buyout offer from Microsoft.
- Notable VCs that backed the firm include Khosla Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and T. Rowe Price.
| | | |
| 4 | | French AI startup Mistral AI raised €385M ($415M) in fresh funding. The firm was valued at $2B at the current round, seven times more than its previous valuation of about $260M from its seed round. Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round. More: - Salesforce, BNP Paribas, CMA CGM, General Catalyst, Elad Gil, Emerson Collective, Conviction, Bpifrance, and others participated in the round.
- Mistral AI raised a €105M ($113M) seed funding round six months ago.
- The company is building an open-source large language model AI to go up against offerings from rivals OpenAI and Google.
Zoom out: - Mistral's peer Perplexity recently bagged $70M in fresh funding at a $500M valuation from IVP and Bessemer Venture Partners.
| | | |
| |
|
| 5 | | ByteDance's TikTok is creating a new joint venture with Indonesia's ride-hailing giant GoTo Group. The firm will invest $1.5B for a 75% stake in the joint venture. The social media giant will merge its TikTok Shop business with GoTo's e-commerce unit Tokopedia. More: - The new venture will give ByteDance, the world's most valuable private startup, an opportunity to restart its Indonesian business and comply with local regulations that forced TikTok to separate its payment services from the social media platform.
- Tokepedia will first acquire TikTok Shop's Indonesian business for $340, after which TikTok will acquire the majority stake in the new venture, which has received approval from the Indonesian government.
- GoTo will not be required to fund the company in the future and still be able to retain and avoid dilution of its 25% stake.
Zoom out: - After the news was reported, GoTo's stock prices fell by 20%, the single biggest decline since its IPO in 2022.
- Investors seem concerned about GoTo's reducing prominence in the country's rapidly growing e-commerce market, which could have contributed to the fall in stock prices.
| | | |
| 6 | | Dutch aircraft startup Maeve Aerospace BV has started developing an 80-seater hybrid-electric aircraft dubbed M80. The firm claims the M80 will have a range of 1,482 kilometers (800 nautical miles) and 40% lower fuel burn than aircraft of similar configuration. Maeve expects the aircraft to enter service by 2031. More: - The Delft, Netherlands-based startup initially debuted with a fully electric 40-seater aircraft called Maeve 01.
- Maeve dropped the initial concept in favor of the new hybrid-electric solution.
- CTO Martin Nuesseler said, "A fully electric aircraft would only have worked with a performance level that would not have met market requirements."
- The new M80 aircraft is expected to reach the preliminary design review stage by 2026 and have a first flight at the end of 2028.
- The startup has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with an undisclosed airline.
- Founded in 2021, the startup has received backing from the Dutch government and the European Investment Council.
| | | |
| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Want to master Kubernetes? The Kubernetes Cookbook is a must-have guide to discover guidance on cloud architecture analytics, optimization, governance, and more.*
- British fintech startup SumUp bagged €285M ($306M) in equity and debt funding. The fundraising was a flat round, which helped it keep the same $8.5B valuation as its previous round from Jun. 2022.
- Aerospace startup HyperSpace Propulsion Inc. signed a letter of intent with Green 4 Maine LLC to build a manufacturing, operations, and space flight center at Loring Arch Hangar by late 2024.
- AI startup OpenAI hired WilmerHale attorneys Anjan Sahni and Hallie B. Levin to investigate the events that led to the ouster of CEO Sam Altman.
- AI company Razer Labs hired Meital Cohen as the company's new CFO. The news comes a month after the startup inked a $31.2M agreement with a global mining company.
- Bestselling book on alternative investing offers the first chapter free for a limited time. "Money Shackles" innovates the way you think about money.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
