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| Hey Insiders, Here are the latest stories: - Sojo Industries looking to triple revenue in 2023
- Defense hardware startup Castelion comes out of stealth with $14.2M
- Space tech startup Stoke Space bags $100M Series B to develop its first rocket
We interviewed Besart Çopa, the co-founder of shopping "super-app" Chestr.com, which aims to change the e-commerce landscape for Gen-Z. To learn more about his views on working for A16Z early in his career, competing with incumbents such as Pinterest, and AI's influence in tech, click here. Plus, we have also rounded up this week's top early-stage funding rounds. If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Sojo Industries, a startup that uses robotics for packaging beverage variety packs, is looking to triple or quadruple its revenue this year. The company's use of robotics to create variety packs helped it rake in just under $4M in its first year of operation. The firm is expecting to reach profitability by the second quarter of 2024. More: - Founded by Barak Bar-Cohen and Steve Rubin, Sojo raised a $4M seed round in 2021, followed by a $6.2M funding in 2022.
- Bar-Cohen was the COO of the antioxidant beverage brand Bai, which Keurig Dr. Pepper acquired for $2B in 2017.
- Rubin was formerly the CEO of container shipping giant Horizon Lines, which Matson Lines acquired for $607M.
- Sojo Industries is building upon the robotic production system that Bar-Cohen implemented at Bai to make variety packs.
- Sojo uses robotics from FANUC in their facilities that help load cans into variety packs, label the products, and track them through the distribution process.
- The firm is looking to raise between $10M and $12M next year to invest in robotics, mobile manufacturing, and general technology.
Zoom out: - Per research firm IRi, variety packs accounted for $3.9B of hard seltzer sales in 2021.
Q: What technological innovation has provided your startup with a competitive edge? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | VCs deployed $1.1B in early-stage North American startups this week between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6, per Crunchbase data. AI startups raked in 30% of the funding this week. Aerospace, energy, and healthcare startups nabbed 10%, 8%, and 8% of the financing, respectively. 
Stoke Space, Iambic Therapeutics, and Prins AI held the joint honors for raising the largest rounds this week, securing identical $100M Series B funding each. We have covered Stoke Space's $100M Series B round in detail in today's newsletter. Here are the other five largest rounds announced this week: - AI-powered therapeutics discovery platform maker Iambic Therapeutics, formerly known as Entos, closed its Series B funding round at $100M. Ascenta Capital and Abingworth co-led the funding, with additional backing from NVIDIA, Illumina Ventures, Gradiant Corporation, Nexus Ventures, Coatue, Sequoia Capital, and others.
- AI-powered digital identity technology company Prins AI closed its Series B funding round at $100M. AAB VC led the funding.
- Mach Industries, a defense tech startup developing unmanned aerial vehicles and hydrogen generation systems for the military, bagged $79M in Series A funding led by Bedrock Capital at a post-money valuation of $335M.
- Electric seaglider maker Regent bagged $60M in Series A funding. 8090 Industries and Peter Theil's Founders Fund led the funding round, supported by Japan Airlines Innovation Fund and Point72 Ventures.
- SaaS application observability startup Observe secured $50M in convertible debt funding to grow its sales and R&D teams. Sutter Hill Ventures led the funding.
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| 3 | | 
In an insightful interview with Inside.com, Besart Çopa, the co-founder and CEO of shopping "super-app" Chestr.com, shares his experience on everything from working at A16Z and Citibank, launching a successful company, fundraising, to managing your work-life balance. Here are some of the main takeaways from our conversation:
Asked about his experience at Andreessen Horowitz, he said, "The main lesson that I got from Andreessen is doing things in the highest quality possible."
When we asked him about the importance of launching an MVP quickly, Besart said, "I think some of the most instructive and unfortunate startup stories that early-stage founders should learn from are startups that raise a ton of money and were in beta for a long time and then when they build this multimillion dollar product, and it flops. I think you need to put the product in front of your potential customers as soon as possible."
Talking about competing with other companies and gaining market share, he said, "I think I would feel more threatened by early-stage startups rather than large companies. I think large companies have a lot of internal friction pushing features fast. I think another challenge that you see with, for example, Pinterest, since we have a lot of Pinterest users on Chestr, is that they were used for one thing, which is the creation of mood boards, but now they're trying to transition more into a shopping platform. There's so much resistance because their legacy users do not look at these social platforms as a place to press checkout or press buy." Watch the entire conversation here. | | | |
| 4 | | Castelion, an 11-month-old startup working on hardware for the defense sector, emerged from stealth with a $14.2M round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lavrock Ventures. The company was founded by former SpaceX employees Bryon Hargis, Sean Pitt, and Andrew Kreitz. More: - Specifically, the El Segundo, California-based company plans to supply rocket motors, low-cost avionics, and ultra-high-temperature ceramic matrix composite materials for companies building hypersonic missile systems.
- The startup has a special use permit for rocket testing outside the Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada.
- Other participants in the round include BlueYard Capital, First In, and Champion Hill Ventures.
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| 5 | | Vibrant Planet, which focuses on sensor data and analytics for wildfire prevention, raised a $15M Series A led by the Ecosystem Integrity Fund. The startup was founded by former Netflix executives. More: - Vibrant Planet has deployed its software for coverage of 7,800 square miles in the Lake Tahoe area.
- The company plans to expand to Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, and New Mexico.
- Vibrant was recently approved as a vendor for federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the Department of Defense.
- Wildfire prevention technology companies raised $400M in H1 2023.
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| 6 | | Electric Era, a company founded by former SpaceX employees, raised a $13M Series A led by HSBC Asset Management. The company focuses on EV charging stations at convenience stores. More: - The startup is planning to launch its first PowerNode EV fast charging stations at Plaid Pantry and Space Age Fuels stores in Portland, Oregon.
- The round included participation from Chevron, SQM Lithium Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, and Proeza Ventures.
- Including the new round, the Seattle-based startup has raised $20.5M since its inception.
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| 7 | | Space tech startup Stoke Space closed its Series B funding round at $100M. The firm will use the proceeds to develop its first rocket called Nova, and build launch infrastructure at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Stoke Space is targeting its first orbital test flight in 2025. More: - The fresh funding brings Stoke Space's total funding raised to date to $175M, including a $65M Series A round from Dec. 2021.
- Industrious Ventures led the funding round, with participation from Breakthrough Energy, Y Combinator, Point72 Ventures, NFX, MaC Ventures, Toyota Ventures, In-Q-Tel, the University of Michigan, Sparta Group, and others.
- The firm announced chemical company Linde plc's chairman Steve Angel as its newest board member.
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Term of the Day Bottom of funnel: Bottom of funnel (BOF) is a marketing term used to describe the last stage in a marketing funnel. 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.
Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, Security, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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