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| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 🤝 SoftBank Corp acquires a 51% stake in Cubic Telecom.
- 💥 Startup bankruptcies and dissolutions rise as funding slump continues.
- 👥 Incredibuild is laying off 20% of its workforce.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Japanese telecommunications and IT operator SoftBank Corp. acquired a 51% stake in connected vehicle solutions startup Cubic Telecom. SoftBank picked up the stake for €473M ($513M), which gave Cubic Telecom a valuation of €927M ($1B). Cubic Telecom will use the fresh capital to further develop the technology and the business. More: - Cubic Telecom's CEO Barry Napier, will continue to lead the company.
- SoftBank's SVP of global business, Daichi Nozaki, will join Cubic Telecom's board with two other representatives.
- In addition to the three, the board consists of Napier and three representatives from existing investors, including CARIAD and Qualcomm.
- The startup's connected car technology is currently incorporated in over 17 million vehicles across 190 countries and is linking 450,000 new vehicles each month on its platform.
Zoom out: - Cubic Telecom currently has a 7% to 10% market share of the connected cars in the world.
- McKinsey predicts that 95% of new vehicles sold by 2030 will have wireless connectivity.
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| 2 | | 543 startups have declared bankruptcy or shut down so far this year, per Carta data seen by Bloomberg. 
What the numbers say: 212 shutdowns occurred in the third quarter alone. The number of startup bankruptcies and dissolutions announced so far this year has crossed last year's tally of 467. What happened: Companies are struggling to raise money as the venture funding slump continues. As a result, startups have resorted to layoffs and restructuring operations to cut back on expenses. Companies that are raising funding have to contend with lower valuations. 19% of all rounds so far this year have been downrounds. The number of downrounds has increased from just 5% in 2021. Relevance: Only AI startups have been able to defy the VC funding dip and have raised $17.9B funding so far this year, more than any other tech category. | | | |
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| 3 | | Software compilation, testing, and development workloads Incredibuild is laying off 20% of its workforce, or 40 employees. Before the layoffs, there were 215 employees, of which 150 were based in Israel. 75% of the workforce being laid off will impact workers in the company's headquarters. More: - Incredibuild has raised $55M in total funding to date, the last of which came in the form of a $35M Hiro Capital-led Series B round in Jun. 2022.
- Insight Partners acquired a large stake in the firm in 2021 after investing $140M.
- "The purpose of the streamlining is to ensure continued long-term business growth while providing the best response to our customers and realizing the company's strategy for 2024," the company said in a statement.
- The firm provides a software building, development, and testing platform for video games, automotive, financial services, software services, entertainment, and embedded systems companies.
- A quarter of a million users across 2,500 global organizations use Incredibuild's platform.
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| 4 | | Mistral is in talks with investors to raise €450M ($487M) in fresh funding at a $2B valuation. €325M ($353.5M) of the funding will be in the form of equity, with the remaining €120M ($130.5M) in convertible debt provided by Nvidia and Salesforce. More: - Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly leading the equity tranche, contributing nearly €200M in capital for the current round.
- Mistral's three co-founders and other insiders, including chief advisor Cedric O, plan to liquidate their equity worth €1M ($1.1M) each in the current round.
- The French AI startup, founded by former scientists at Alphabet's DeepMind and Meta Platforms, had raised a $113M initial round earlier this June from General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Bpifrance.
- Mistral is eyeing a $2B valuation less than a year from its founding.
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| 5 | | Seismic Therapeutics, a biotech startup led by former Biogen and Amgen executive Jo Viney, raised $121M in Series B funding. The firm will use the proceeds to complete its preclinical research and commence Phase 1 trials of Seismic's drugs that are aimed at treating autoimmune diseases. More: - Seismic Therapeutics, which emerged from stealth in Feb. 2022, leverages machine learning to accelerate the development of small molecules.
- The startup has tripled in size since emerging from stealth and currently has 47 employees. It intends to hire a dozen more over the coming years.
- Bessemer Venture Partners led the round with additional participation from Codon Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, Gaingels, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GC&H, Google's GV, Samsara BioCapital, and others.
- Seismic will move out from its incubator space in LabCentral 238 in Cambridge's Kendall Square to a purpose-built lab in Watertown.
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| 6 | | Cybersecurity unicorn startup Wiz acquired the Israeli cloud-based development environment creation and sharing platform Raftt. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, however, sources estimate the transaction value to be in "tens of millions of dollars." More: - Raftt has raised $5M from Aleph VC, Cardumen Capital, and other investors and serial entrepreneurs.
- Wiz intends to absorb all of Raftt's employees, of which 10 to 20 will join the cybersecurity unicorn's R&D teams in Israel.
- Wiz has 850 employees, half of which are based outside Israel.
- Wiz achieved a $10B valuation earlier this year when it raised a $300M Series D round.
- The firm has crossed more than $250M in annual recurring revenue.
- This is Wiz's first acquisition since its launch more than four years ago.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - The Kubernetes Cookbook is your comprehensive companion equipping you with the knowledge and techniques to harness the full potential of Kubernetes.*
- Seattle Children's Therapeutics is spinning out a new biotech startup called BrainChild Bio to develop treatments for children suffering from cancer in the central nervous system. Seattle Children's has invested an undisclosed amount into the startup that should provide it with two years of runway.
- E-commerce brand aggregator and growth startup Society Brands intends to hire 70 more employees over the next two years.
- Lonestar Data Holdings hired Stephen Eisele as the company's president and chief revenue officer.
- AI-accelerating chip maker EnCharge AI raised $22.6M in a fresh funding round led by VentureTech Alliance and TSMC. Investors participating in the round include RTX Ventures, ACVC Partners, Anzu Partners, and Schams Ventures.
- Toast to 2024: Key affiliate marketing trends to help your campaigns start off on the right foot in the new year. Get the free report.*
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 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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