Plus, Armada emerges from stealth with $55M capital
| For December 12, 2023 |  |
| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 🔋 Panasonic to buy battery materials from U.S. startup Sila.
- 👥 Carta's new report shows diversity trends in startups founded in 2023.
- 🤝 Docker acquires AtomicJar to increase its service offerings for developers.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Panasonic's battery division, Panasonic Energy, inked an agreement with U.S. startup Sila to purchase battery materials to be used in the next-generation EV batteries. Sila will supply silicon anode material to Panasonic, which it believes will help increase the range of its EV batteries. More: - The Japanese giant aims to increase the energy density of its batteries to 1,000-watt hours per liter (Wh/L), which is roughly 35% to 50% more than the 650 to 740 Wh/L range provided by current lithium-ion batteries.
- Silicon-based anode batteries are expected to boost the range of an electric vehicle by 20%.
- Sila will start producing the materials at its newly launched factory in Moses Lake, Washington.
- The startup received a $100M grant from the Department of Energy to construct the new facility.
- Sila also counts Mercedes as its customer.
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| 2 | | 53.4% of founders that established startups in the U.S. in 2023 were white, per a new equity report published by Carta. The current figure represents a slight uptick from 2022. 
What the numbers say: South Asian, East Asian, Hispanic, and Black founders accounted for 19.6%, 19%, 5.6%, and 2.7% of the founder population in 2023. The percentage of South Asian and Hispanic founders increased this year. Conversely, the percentage of East Asian and Black founders declined. Relevance: In the past two years, seven out of eight startup founders were men. This year, female founders have incorporated just 13.2% of the startups, down from 2022's share of 15.1%. In 2023, men constituted 86.8% of founders, hitting a six-year high. Where to see the impact: In previous years, education and consumer companies had a more substantial proportion of women than other verticals. However, this year, the number of female founders in both sectors has fallen to 18.8% and 18.3%, respectively. Healthtech emerged as the sector with the highest representation of women founders, with women comprising 22.3% of founders in the industry this year. | | | |
| 3 | | Software container technology firm Docker is set to acquire AtomicJar for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help Docker provide testing services on its platform. This move should help it step closer to its ultimate goal of building a comprehensive set of software building, testing, and deployment services for developers. More: - AtomicJar is the startup behind the open-source Testcontainers project that allows developers to test software components.
- Testcontainers was built on Docker's platform and was consistently one of the top 10 most downloaded applications.
- The application had nearly 600,000 downloads from unique IP addresses every month.
- The firm had raised $29M in total equity funding to date, the last of which came in the form of a $25M Series A round led by Insight Partners in January last year.
- All of AtomicJar's 19 employees will become a part of Docker's new testing division.
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| 4 | | Edge computing solution provider Armada emerged from stealth with $55M capital. The firm was valued at around $250M, per sources close to the matter. Armada offers real-time data processing and edge computing to oil rigs, mines, outposts, and distant battlefields. Armada's solution is built on top of Starlink, the satellite internet connectivity solution developed by Elon Musk's space firm, SpaceX. More: - The startup was co-founded by former DataRobot CEO Dan Wright along with Jon Runyan last December.
- Armada provides a weatherized mobile data center dubbed Galleon, which houses six racks of GPUs for running AI models.
- The startup has yet to generate revenue as its product is still in the proof-of-concept trial phase.
- The $55M total funding raised by the firm consists of a $40M Series A round led by 8090 Industries and a previously undisclosed $15M seed round led by Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Shield Capital.
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| 5 | | German supply chain optimization software maker Tacto Technology GmbH raised a $54M (€50M) funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. "The funding round confirms our product's strength and allows us to double down on helping our customers stay competitive amid ever-increasing supply chain complexity," said CEO and co-founder André Petry. Tacto will use the proceeds to accelerate product development and further develop its AI tools. More: - Tacto leverages AI to analyze key costs, identify areas for cost savings, and automate procurement workflows for small and medium-sized companies.
- Additionally, the platform helps organizations comply with various supply chain acts and ESG regulations.
- Petry claims that this approach helps reduce procurement costs by 10%.
- Existing investors Visionaries Club, Cherry Ventures, and UVC Partners participated in the round.
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| 6 | | The Swedish Energy Agency awarded a $8.4M grant to zinc-ion battery company Enerpoly. The startup will use the proceeds to establish a megafactory to manufacture zinc-ion batteries. More: - The Enerpoly Production Innovation Center (EPIC) is expected to have a final capacity of 100 MWh annually, making it the world's first zinc-ion battery manufacturing megafactory.
- Enerpoly has raised €12.6M ($13.6M) in total funding to date.
- Myland Chamoun and Dr. Samer Nameera co-founded the startup in 2018 and led it as its CTO and CSO, respectively.
Zoom out: - Enerpoly is insulated from supply chain issues and price volatility because the company's zinc-ion battery uses abundantly available and recyclable materials, such as zinc and manganese.
- Enerpoly's battery has non-flammable and non-explosive properties, which make it suitable for critical applications and densely populated urban areas.
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| 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.*
- Chinese chipmaker Changxin Memory Technologies is postponing its IPO plans due to volatile market conditions. Instead, it aims to raise fresh funding at a $19.5B (140B yuan) valuation.
- Essential AI, a startup founded by two co-authors of a research paper at Google, emerged from stealth with $56.5M funding. March Capital led the round with additional support from AMD, Franklin Venture Partners, Google, Nvidia, and Thrive Capital.
- DCVC led a $19M Series A round into thermal storage startup Fourth Power with participation from Breakthrough Energy Partners and Black Venture Capital Consortium.
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided a €1.7M ($1.83M) grant to Naobios, which it will use to support vaccine development.
- 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 | |
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