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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - 🤖 Ex-IBM Watson head's chatbot startup nabs $60M
- 🧬 Biotech sector tops early-stage funding roundup this week
- 📈 Instacart's upcoming IPO listing
If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Elemental Cognition, a chatbot startup, raised $60M from undisclosed investors. The company was founded by the former head of IBM Watson, David Ferrucci. More: - Elemental is seeking to raise a total of $65.7M in the round.
- Launched in 2015, the startup uses natural language understanding to solve problems for the financial services and travel planning sectors.
- Its clients include Penn State University and Oneworld.
- Previous backers include Breyer Capital, Stanford University, and Bridgewater Associates.
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| 2 | | VCs deployed $590M in early-stage North American startups this week between Aug. 12 to Aug. 18, per Crunchbase data. 
Biotech startups raked in 27% of the funding this week. AI, energy, and healthcare startups nabbed 18%, 10%, and 8% of the financing, respectively. Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - Abcuro Inc., a clinical-stage biotech startup developing therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer, closed its Series B funding round at $155M. Redmile Group and Bain Capital Life Sciences co-led the funding round.
- Rondo Energy, a startup delivering zero-carbon industrial heat and power, secured $60M in fresh capital from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, SCG, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, Rio Tinto, Aramco Ventures, and others.
- Smart home energy startup dcbel raised $50M Series B funding from Volvo, Coatue, Real Ventures, Idealist Capital, and Investissement Québec.
- Nanoscale machinery company Aether Bio secured $49M Series A funding led by Natural Capital and Unless.
- IoT logistic solutions startup Nivriti Solutions Global raised $25M in Series B funding.
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| 3 | | Online grocery delivery startup Instacart is planning an IPO listing on the Nasdaq as early as September, sources informed Bloomberg. The firm will likely file the papers for the listing officially next week. More: - Instarcart's IPO listing was believed to be in the works after reports emerged last year that the firm had confidentially filed for a listing with the SEC.
- An earlier Bloomberg report noted that Instacart was planning to rope in Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan & Chase to assist with the listing.
- In October last year, CEO Fidji Simo announced the company had shelved plans due to "extremely tumultuous" markets.
- Instacart slashed its valuation earlier this year from $24B to $13B.
- The firm was valued at $39B at its peak in 2021 and has raised $2.74B to date from investors, most notable of which are Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management, and D1 Capital Partners.
Zoom out: - Instacart's IPO could pave the way for other companies waiting for the public market listing window to open, such as British chip design firm Arm.
- So far this year, companies have raised $14B through IPOs on U.S. exchanges, a fraction of the record-setting $241B raised during the same period in 2021.
Q: Do you think Instacart's and Arm's upcoming listing will revive the IPO market? Let us know here. | | | |
| 4 | | ProjectDiscovery, a cybersecurity startup, announced it raised a $25M Series A led by CRV. The solution searches for vulnerabilities in apps, APIs, cloud environments, and websites. More: - ProjectDiscovery claims over 60,000 community members use and contribute to its tools and 3,000 signups for its Cloud Platform.
- The startup was initially a side project, raising its Seed round in Jan. 2021. It has raised $28M to date.
- Other participants in the new round include Lightspeed, Accel, Mango Capital, and Point72, among others.
- The startup joins a sector that includes similar offerings, such as Socket, which raised $20M to detect vulnerabilities in open-source code.
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| 5 | | The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have issued key permits to True Anomaly. The defense-focused space startup will be able to proceed with its non-Earth imaging and in-space operations. More: - With the recent permits, True Anomaly will proceed with the launch of its two autonomous orbital spacecraft called Jackals next year.
- One Jackal spacecraft will hitch a ride on board SpaceX's Transporter-10 mission scheduled around Feb. 2024.
- True Anomaly opened a 35,000 sq. ft. spacecraft manufacturing facility dubbed GravityWorks in Centennial, Colorado.
- The startup, founded by former Space Force members, has raised $30M in total funding to date, including a $17M Series A round last year.
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| 6 | | Netherlands-based startup Mingle Sport raised a €1.25M ($1.35M) Seed round led by Rabobank. The app focuses on performance tracking for soccer teams. More: - Mingle Sport has a freemium model with premium features expected to launch by 2024.
- "We want to offer coaches and players a product for any team that wants to get started with sports tech. Not only top-tier amateur athletes but also regular athletes and enthusiasts. That's why we use devices people already own, starting with their mobile phones," said Nicky Rog, co-founder of the startup.
- The app launched a public beta in the Netherlands in the summer of 2022.
- Mingle Sport claims "thousands of teams" used the app over the course of the season.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - The AWS Cookbook — packed with practical insights and hands-on examples — is a must-have for your cloud toolkit.*
- British Standards Institution (BSI) launched a sustainability-focused accelerator in partnership with the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership (CISL).
- McLaren Applied's electric scooter unit Lavoie is looking to acquire bankrupt Dutch e-bike firm VanMoof.
- Business IT solution integrator Insight acquired British software development and digital services startup Amdaris for an undisclosed sum.
- E-commerce startup Workflow Labs secured $1.3M in seed funding from Emerson Group, Flywheel Digital, Tapas Capital, and Tacoma Venture Fund.
- IPOs are a rare chance to invest in VC-backed startups, but this AI company opened its round to retail investors. Invest and learn more about Jurny.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
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Term of the Day Hypergrowth: Hypergrowth is a phase of rapid expansion where companies scale at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40% or greater for more than a year. Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? Join the conversation |
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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