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Waze co-founder shares fundraising advice / Google invests $300M in Anthropic / Picnic lays off staff to extend runway

Plus: Structure Therapeutics raises $161M from IPO debut

Inside.com Part of   Network February 03, 2023

Uri Levine, the co-founder of Waze, advises startup founders looking for funding to do what he calls "The Dance of the Hundred Noes." He said that since VCs evaluate over a hundred potential investment opportunities in a year, they are bound to accept only a small percentage of the startups, which is "99% no for 1% yes." Founders should not take rejection personally, and they should approach 100 VCs at the very least, says Levine.  More: Levine recollects his time at Waze, which was rejected by multiple investors — Lightspeed Venture Partners turned down an investment opportunity at a $28M valuation — and almost ran out of cash in 2010.  He recommends that startup founders work directly with GPs rather than first-line analysts. Even if a venture firm declines to invest, he recommends that founders build a rapport with them, understand their expectations, and possibly get them onboard for the next funding round.  Levine advises founders to look out for "Key Investor Indicators" (KIIs) that indicate that the investor is likely to invest in the company.  KIIs that founders should look out for include investors discussing the deal, inquiring about other investors, reviewing the cap table, and offering advice on changes to the presentation.

Google invested $300M in Anthropic, a startup developing an intelligent chatbot that rivals ChatGPT. The move mirrors Microsoft's $1B investment in OpenAI three years ago.  More: Anthropic was formed in 2021 after Dario Amodei and other researchers left OpenAI over disagreements on the company's direction. The group thought that Microsoft's investment would take OpenAI towards a more commercial path and neglect the organization's original focus, which was to work on the safety of advanced AI. Google will require that the startup uses the money to acquire computing resources from its cloud computing division. Claud, Antrhopic's chat robot, has yet to be publicly released.

Picnic, the developer of a pizza-making robot, announced it is laying off an undisclosed number of employees to extend its runway. "Until the economic situation improves, we're slimming down and running as efficiently as possible without impacting our mission or our core business," said the startup's CEO, Clayton Wood. More: The company builds a robot that can complete 100 12-inch customized pizzas per hour. The startup has ~100 employees, per its corporate Linkedin profile. Picnic, founded in 2016, last raised a $13.8M venture round in Nov. 2022.  The startup's customers include the University of Mississippi and Ohio State University.

San Francisco, Calif.-based biotech firm Structure Therapeutics raised $161M from its IPO debut on Nasdaq. The firm sold over 10.74 million American depositary shares, priced at $15 each. Structure's listing is the third largest yet for a biotech startup in the last six months.  More: The firm, formerly known as ShouTi, develops novel therapeutics for treating metabolic and pulmonary diseases.  Structure previously raised $207M in venture funding. In Aug. 2022, it nabbed a $33M extension funding after the initial $100M BVF Partners-led Series B round in Oct. 2021.  Notable backers of the firm include Sequoia Capital China, F-Prime Capital Partners, and Lilly Asia Ventures.  Structure is listed under the ticker name GPCR. Zoom out: Two other prime IPO listings in the past six months are Third Harmonic Bio's $185M listing in September and Prime Medicine's $175M listing in October.

ValueBase, which works on software for land appraisals, announced it secured a $1.6M Seed round. The startup uses data from aerial photography and weather balloons to feed its algorithm. More: "If you understand that land is one of the key drivers of value, you don't necessarily need to crawl through people's windows and rifle through their house and take all these invasive pictures [for appraisals]," said the startup's co-founder, Lars Doucet.  Hydrazine Capital, the firm by Open AI CEO Sam Altman and GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen, led the round. The round also included participation from former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, CEO of Gumroad Sahil Lavingia, and On Deck founder Erik Torenberg.

Toggle, a startup that provides robots for construction companies, raised $3M on a Series A extension. The company's initial Series A funding round raised $8M and with this funding extension, it has now raised a total of $15M. More: Toggle will use the funding to increase the production of robots. The startup's value proposition lies in helping reduce the increasing costs in the construction sector. Supply chain disruptions from the pandemic, inflation, and higher labor costs have put pressure on construction companies' bottom line. To that matter, Toggle provides companies with robots that bend rebar, which is the steel skeletal reinforcement that all heavy construction uses.

Quick Hits: Businesses that combine their expense and travel management onto one platform are saving up to 25% on travel spend.* Israeli healthcare-focused venture firm Peregrine Ventures launched four startups through its Incentive incubator.  Triple Whale, a Columbus, Ohio-based analytics platform for Shopify merchants, secured $25M in Series B funding from NFX and Elephant.  Data lakehouse startup Onehouse secured $25M in Series A funding co-led by Addition and Greylock.  Aircraft manufacturing startup Pyka introduced its autonomous cargo aircraft, dubbed Pelican Cargo. The firm has raised $48.1M to date. The $100M Cronos Accelerator Program led by Cronos Labs launched its second cohort. Get convenient and affordable therapy now with 25% off your first month.* *This is sponsored content.

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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.  Martin Ruiz-Cantu is a Business Researcher at Inside.com. He has a Master's in Global Business and Finance from Georgetown University. He previously worked at HSBC and the World Bank. He is passionate about finance, startups and tech.   Editor Vibha Chapparike is a Freelance Writer & Editor at Inside.com. With her post-graduation in Management and Finance completed, Vibha is expanding her knowledge in venture capital, business, startups, and technology. She has had a career in public relations and communications. An ardent reader and writer currently residing in Singapore, you can follow Vibha on Twitter @VChapparike.

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U.S. unemployment hits 53-year low at 3.4% / Teslas now qualify for tax credits / Ford joins Formula One

Plus: Nordstrom stock surges after GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen acquires stake in the company

Inside.com Part of   Network February 03, 2023

U.S. unemployment hit a 53-year low at 3.4% as the January 2023 U.S. jobs report showed 517,000 new jobs were created. The number is well above the expected 187,000. More: It's the lowest unemployment figure since May 1969. The sectors that added the most jobs were: Leisure and hospitality — 128,000 jobs Professional and business services — 82,000 Government — 74,000 Health care — 58,000. Average hourly earnings increased by 0.3%, up 4.4% from a year ago. The unemployment rate for African Americans fell to 5.4%, while the unemployment rate for women stood at 3.1%.

The U.S. Treasury has changed the EV tax credit eligibility definition for SUVs, making Tesla and GM models eligible for $7,500. The decision comes as EV consumers and executives have recently expressed their frustration. More: The credits are part of the Biden administration's $437B Inflation Reduction Act. With the new rules, SUVs that cost up to $80,000 still qualify for EV tax credits, while cars have to be priced at $55,000 or less. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, recently expressed his frustration with the Treasury's rules on Twitter, while Ford and GM have also stated their willingness to lobby for the rules to change. GM and The Alliance for Automotive Innovation publically thanked the Treasury for implementing these changes in separate statements.

Ford has announced that it will join Formula One as a way of increasing sales and reaching customers. The announcement comes shortly after GM stated its plan to launch an F1 team. More: Ford will collaborate with the Red Bull F1 team to create hybrid-powered cars which have both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. These cars will be compulsory by the 2026 racing season.  The company likely plans to capitalize on the momentum that F1 has created in terms of viewership in the U.S. Netflix's "Drive to Survive" series proved to be a turning point for the sport, which soared in popularity shortly after the series debuted. The show follows the racers and team managers, showing their day-to-day life and the way they approach every competition. The U.S. hosts three F1 races: Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas. Ford first entered the sport in 1968 with Lotus. The automaker remains the third most successful engine manufacturer of all time in the sport, after Ferrari and Mercedes, even though it left in 2004.

Nordstrom stock surged after Gamestop Chairman Ryan Cohen acquired a stake in the company. Its stock's price rose by more than 20%. More: Cohen is now one of the largest shareholders of the company, excluding the Nordstrom family members. He is reportedly planning to propose cost-cutting as a first step for the company's management, something that other industries, such as tech, have been implementing for several months now. The news of Cohen's involvement comes shortly after Nordstrom posted disappointing holiday sales numbers that forced it to redraft its guidance for 2023. The executive is also known as the founder of Chewy.com, a pet health site.

California-based Patient Square Capital has raised $3.9B to invest in healthcare companies. The company manages $5.9B worth of assets. More: Patient Square Capital aims to invest in healthcare companies that work in creating therapies, medical devices, software solutions, and other products across different healthcare verticals. The firm has invested in companies such as: Access Telecare, Apollo Therapeutics, Eargo, Enavate Sciences, Hanger, and Kriya Therapeutics. The fund was backed by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices, health systems, consultants, private wealth platforms, and insurance companies. Patient Square Capital is based in Menlo Park, California. The company was founded in 2020.

Vince McMahon is open to leaving WWE if a serious acquisition offer is on the table, according to WWE CEO Nick Khan. A potential acquisition for the company has been reported for the last few months.  More: McMahon acquired WWF from his father in 1982 and transformed it into the world's most popular wrestling league, known today as WWE. He quit his position as CEO in June 2022 after reports came out that he had several affairs with his employees and paid them money to silence them. His daughter, Stephanie McMahon, served as Co-CEO with Khan until three weeks ago. Recently, reports of a potential acquisition by Saudi Arabian investors made headlines, but nothing has been confirmed by WWE. WWE's stock price rose 4% after Khan's statement.

Quick Hits Businesses that combine their expense and travel management onto one platform are saving up to 25% on travel spend.* Shell has reported its highest annual earnings ever, reporting almost $40B in revenue. The company has doubled its 2021 revenue which stood at $19B. ShopUp has raised a $30M funding round to help over 60 million people in Bangladesh have better access to food. The value of the average U.S. business, which surged during the pandemic, has dropped by 10%, according to a new report. Sdui has raised a $27.3M Series A to enable schools, children, and parents to communicate through GDPR-compliant tools.  Get convenient and affordable therapy now with 25% off your first month.* *This is sponsored content.

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Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

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