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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - Revel's $123M funding round
- DistroKid acquisition of Bandzoogle
- Fleet's expansion into Germany
We have also rounded up the top early-stage funding rounds of this week. If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Spanish digital car subscription startup Revel secured $123M (€115M) in fresh funding, which consists of €100M ($106M) in structured financing and €15M ($16M) in equity. KKR, Santander Consumer Finance, and others provided the funding. The startup intends to use the proceeds to expand its business. More: - Before the current round of financing, the firm had raised a modest €750,000 (~$800,000) three years ago, which it used to refine its business model.
- Using the learnings, Revel introduced a one-year subscription model, which is shorter than typical lease periods of three to four years and long enough to be more appealing than short-term rentals.
- Revel further sets itself apart from competitors by allowing users to swap between cars from its diverse options.
- Co-founder and CEO Enrique de Mateo remained discreet about sourcing vehicles, calling it "the secret sauce of how we do it."
Q: How crucial is it for early-stage startups to fine-tune their business model before seeking funding? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | VCs deployed $1.3B in early-stage North American startups this week between Sep. 9 to Sep. 15, per Crunchbase data. Data startups raked in 26% of the funding this week. Biotech, AI, and advanced materials startups nabbed 18%, 16%, and 15% of the financing, respectively. 
Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - TPG Growth invested $336M in Series B funding into data management startup Denodo.
- Prime Movers Lab led a $200M Series B funding round into lithium-sulfur EV battery and composites maker Lyten. Stellantis, FedEx Corporation, Honeywell, and Walbridge Aldinger Company participated in the funding round.
- AI data center chip maker Enfabrica secured $125M in Series B funding led by Atreides Management, with additional support from IAG Capital Partners, Liberty Global Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Infinitum Partners, and Alumni Ventures.
- ROME Therapeutics, a biotech startup making novel therapies for autoimmune diseases, cancer, and neurodegeneration, extended its Series B funding round with an additional $72M financing. Other participants in the funding round include Andreessen Horowitz, GV, Sanofi Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.
- Arialys Therapeutics, a biotech startup developing drug candidates for autoimmune neuropsychiatric diseases, launched with $58M seed funding from Avalon BioVentures, Catalys Pacific, MPM BioImpact, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and Alexandria Venture Investments.
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| 3 | | DistroKid, an independent music distributor, announced the acquisition of music artist website builder Bandzoogle for an undisclosed amount. Bandzoogle focuses on helping artists sell music, merch, and concert tickets without commissions and through subscriptions or virtual tips. More: - The website builder claims more than $100M sold in music, merch, and tickets across 60,000 sites.
- DistoKid has two million artists, distributing 30% to 40% of all new music globally.
- The distributor recently launched an iPhone app that enables artists to upload music, edit lyrics and credits, and check earnings.
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| 4 | | Evolectric, a startup focusing on conversion kits for truck fleet electrification, raised $15M from Seismic Capital. The company is seeking to reach 10,000 vehicle conversions through the onboarding of 100 garages. More: - "By focusing on existing vehicles, Evolectric avoids the supply chain, development, and validation bottlenecks. Scaling our electrification solutions ensures our customers can quickly meet their long-term zero-emission targets," said Evolectric's co-founder, co-CEO and CTO, Bill Beverley.
- Founded in 2019, the Long Beach, Ca.-based startup is Seismic's second portfolio company after game developer Game Cloud Network.
- Evolectric was accepted to the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator in Oct. 2021.
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| 5 | | Los Angeles-based startup Favs, which focuses on social media for close friends only, emerges out of stealth with $1M in pre-seed funding. The company was founded by Noah Misuhashi, a former Meta business engineer. More: - Favs plans to determine users' most likely close connections based on contacts and profile completion and provide a way to keep up with updates even when not using the app.
- "Users will not feel like there's nothing to do on day one, even if no one has joined," said Saba Karim, the startup's CEO and co-founder.
- The round included participation from Sunset Ventures, Kleiner Perkins' Scout Fund, Techstars CEO David Cohen, and Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes, among others.
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| 6 | | Workplace equipment, furniture, and electronics rental startup Fleet expanded into Germany. The company was founded in France in 2019 and expanded into Spain in 2022. "Having already made life easier for over 1,000 founders, CTOs, and IT managers in France and Spain, our German customers can now also benefit from our comprehensive offering," the firm said in a blog post. More: - Fleet reportedly generated "double-digit million" revenue last year.
- In addition to office furniture, computers, phones, and accessories, the firm also provides device management, user management, maintenance, repair, and insurance services.
- The expansion into Germany is part of its broader mission of becoming Europe's leading office furniture and electronics rental service.
- The firm's target market is small-to-medium-sized businesses with between five and 500 employees and limited to no IT departments.
- Fleet raised $45M through its second round of equity funding last year.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Hyperstack: Scale AI projects with NVIDIA GPUs. Enjoy per-minute billing. Secure your H100s & A100s today!*
- Accel and Tiger Global-backed Indian social media startup Koo is on the lookout for a strategic partner with a "distribution strength."
- Two venture-backed alternative meat startups, Hooray Foods and Nowadays, announced they are shutting down.
- Japanese handheld translation device maker Pocketalk Corp. intends to list on the Nasdaq in two years with a valuation target of $1B.
- A Delaware federal court rejected Parse Biosciences' motion to dismiss a patent-infringement lawsuit initiated by rival 10x Genomics (TXG.O) and Stanford University.
- Before launching your next influencer campaign, compare the latest cost metrics to your budget. Get the benchmarks in this blog.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
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16 | | Meet Our Fund 5, Building and Investing in AI | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
Term of the Day Customer relationship management: Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategy for managing a company's interactions with its customers or potential customers. Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? Join the conversation |
INSIDE STARTUPS LEADERBOARD (30 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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