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| Hey Insiders, Today we are taking a look at AirDNA's acquisition of Arrivalist, the 76% YoY dip for Web3 startups, and carbon credit evaluator Sylvera's $57.2M fundraiser. Scroll down for some quick hits, and let us know what other content you'd like to see in future issues. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Denver-based short-term rental data provider AirDNA announced the acquisition of New York-based location intelligence company Arrivalist for an undisclosed amount. Arrivalist uses mobile location data to provide customer behavior based on their interactions with destinations. More: - Arrivalist's 25-person team and product will merge with AirDNA's existing data products.
- AirDNA was acquired by private equity firm Alpine Investors in March 2020.
- At the time, AirDNA had an all-time list of 85,000 customers in 65 countries.
- Arrivalist works with 200 travel marketers in 100 cities across 40 states.
- "From a culture perspective, the companies were both primarily bootstrapped, scrappy, have that culture of innovation," said AirDNA CEO Demi Horvat.
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What the numbers say: VCs deployed $1.8B into Web3 startups in Q2 2023, down 76% YoY from Q2 2022 when startups raised $7.5B, per Crunchbase. Despite the year-on-year dip, funding for the current quarter matched the preceding quarter, bringing the half-yearly total to $3.6B. The half-yearly total is still 78% down YoY compared to the same period a year ago. Relevance: Shariah-compliant crypto asset Islamic Coin's $200M round, LayerZero Labs' $120M Series B funding round, and Tools for Humanity's $115M Series C funding round were the three most prominent fundraisers in the sector in the recent quarter. What happened: The VC funding pullback has impacted the Web3 and blockchain industry the most as investors' interest in the domain waned due to bankruptcies and regulatory headwinds. However, prices of the two largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether, have increased 80% and 50%, respectively, so far this year. This could prompt investors to resume their investments in crypto startups. | | | |
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| 3 | | U.K. carbon data provider Sylvera raised a €51M (~$57.2M) Series B led by Balderton Capital. The startup offers evaluations for carbon investments and carbon credits for organizations. More: - Sylvera's clients include financial services institutions and government infrastructure providers.
- The company is seeking to expand to the U.S. and open a local office in New York.
- Other participants in the round include recurring investors Salesforce Ventures, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, and new entrants Fidelity Strategic Ventures, 9Yards Capital, and Bain & Company.
- The startup recently hired Serge Kruppa as CTO, who previously worked at Twilio and Checkout.com.
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| 4 | | Geoff Cook is set to take over the CEO role at weight loss startup Noom, with current CEO and founder Saeju Jeong transitioning into the executive chairman role. Cook's appointment comes as the behavior-based weight loss platform startup pivots to an obesity drug prescription platform. More: - Cook's appointment concludes the nearly year-long search for a successor, which started last October.
- Noom recently launched its obesity drug prescription service, dubbed Noom Med, for $120 a month, joining the likes of digital health peers Teladoc Health, Ro, and WW International, who recently started prescribing drugs for obesity, such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
- The New York-based startup was last valued at $3.7B in 2021.
- Noom has raised more than $650M from investors to date.
- It raked in $400M in revenue in 2020.
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| 5 | | AI-powered metaverse startup Futureverse raised $54M in Series A funding led by 10T Holdings with participation from Ripple Labs. The company was formed by merging 11 blockchain, AI, metaverse, and gaming startups. More: - Futureverse initially merged eight startups in late-2022, adding three more later.
- The firm laid off 20% staff during the restructuring process, bringing its total employee count to 250.
- The firm's key service offerings include an NFT token, FLUF World, and the mobile soccer game AI League.
- Futureverse intends to build the underlying metaverse infrastructure going forward.
- Co-founder Aaron McDonald is confident about blockchain's future potential, as he reckons the technology will gain prominence in giving users control over their digital identity and data.
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| 6 | | S!ng, an NFT and physical merch marketplace, announced it raised $2.66M through undisclosed investors. The Seattle-based startup enables artists to sell vinyl records, cassettes, notes, and other products embedded with a QR code and NFC chip that registers them as NFTs. More: - S!ng was launched in 2019 by Geoff Osler, who co-founded ClearSign Combustion in 2008, and Jim Harmon, who worked as an executive at Sabey Corporation.
- The startup plans to expand to other categories, such as sports and gaming.
- S!ng last raised a $265,000 round in May 2020.
- "We rode the craziness of the NFT boom about a year and a half ago. Up to the ceiling and all the way back down again," said Osler.
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- British carbon removal registry and science platform Isometric nabbed $25M in seed funding from Lowercarbon Capital and Plural.
- Wing Cloud, the maker of the open-source programming language Winglang, emerged from stealth with a $20M seed funding led by Battery Ventures, Grove Ventures, and StageOne Ventures.
- AI startup Jasper AI has laid off an undisclosed number of employees, per Business Journals.
- McKinsey inked a partnership with Cohere to provide AI solutions to its enterprise clients.
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INSIDE STARTUPS LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) |
 | 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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