| Here’s a look at today’s Startups briefing. - Convoy sued by a former employee for allegedly violating the WARN Act.
- Solar startup Omnidian raises $25M.
- Yuga Labs awarded $1.57M in a BAYC trademark infringement lawsuit.
We also rounded up the top early-stage funding rounds this week. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Michael Pfingsten, a former employee of the recently shuttered organization Convoy, filed a class action lawsuit on Wednesday in a federal court in Seattle, accusing the trucking marketplace startup of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. The lawsuit alleges that Convoy terminated employees without providing them with advance warning of 60 days. More: - Convoy abruptly closed operations last week and laid off all of its 533 people, according to a filing submitted to Washington's Employment Security Department.
- The plaintiff is requesting the court to instruct Convoy to provide affected employees with 60 days of wages and benefits.
Zoom out: - Under the WARN Act, companies with 100 or more full-time employees are mandated to provide a 60-day written notice before layoffs, in the absence of which they need to give workers 60 days of severance.
- A "faltering company" can reduce its notification period, per the WARN Act, but the exemption does not apply to mass layoffs, only to a "plant" that is closing.
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| 2 | | VCs deployed $1.2B in early-stage North American startups this week between Oct. 21 and Oct. 27, per Crunchbase data. Biotech startups raked in 39% of the funding this week. AI, cybersecurity, and insurtech startups nabbed 17%, 7%, and 4.3% of the financing, respectively. 
Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - Aiolos Bio, a biopharma startup developing treatments for respiratory and inflammatory conditions, emerged from stealth mode with a $245M Series A funding round co-led by Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Forbion, and Sofinnova Investments.
- Genetics-based precision medicine biotech form Triveni Bio bagged $92M in Series A funding co-led by Atlas Ventures and Cormorant Asset Management. OrbiMed, Viking Global Investors, Invus, Polaris Partners, and others backed the funding round.
- Novel DNA-based medicines startup Rampart Biosciences raised a $85M Series A funding round led by Forbion. OrbiMed, RA Capital Management, and HealthCap backed the round.
- Managed detection and response systems startup Adlumin closed its SYN Ventures-led Series B round at $70M. The funding round saw participation from First In Ventures, Washington Harbour Partners, and BankTech Ventures.
- AI-powered data center optimization startup MangoBoost raised a $55M Series A funding round at a valuation of $300M, per TechCrunch. IMM Investment and Shinhan Venture Investment co-led the latest round.
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| 3 | | Omnidian, a Seattle-based solar asset management company, raised a $25M round of funding. The startup has a network of 200 solar system experts across 34 states and expanded to Australia in 2022. More: - The round included participation from new investor HSBC Asset Management and recurring investors Activate Capital, WIND Ventures, Avista Development, and Evergy Ventures, among others.
- Omnidian claims its network covers 93% of U.S. zip codes and focuses on residential and commercial installations.
- Investments in clean energy manufacturing have been reported to have reached $110B in the year following the Inflation Reduction Act.
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| 4 | | The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ordered Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen to pay $1.57M in damages to Yuga Labs for selling fraudulent versions of Bored Ape Yacht Club collectibles. District Court Judge John Walter also ordered the payment of $200,000 in damages involving cybersquatting violations. More: - The Judge determined that the defendants intentionally infringed on BAYC trademarks with the intent of profit, knocking Ripps and Cahen's argument that their NFTs consisted of satire and parody versions.
- The defendants had unsuccessfully attempted to get the case thrown out on Oct. 16 on the grounds of free speech under California's anti-SLAPP statute.
- Yuga's BAYC collection has reached $2.38B in trading volume on OpenSea since Apr. 2021.
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| 5 | | Anboto Labs, a Hong Kong-based startup, raised $3M to build a crypto trading platform that consolidates multiple exchanges and networks. The company is launching following an 18-month closed beta test, where it observed $4B in trading volume. More: - The round included participation from Cherry Crypto, Kronos Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Matrixport, and XBTO.
- The startup previously raised $1.9M through a pre-seed round led by Cherry Crypto.
- Venture capital investments in the crypto sector reached $1.93B in Q3, its lowest level since Q4 2020.
- "We have spent almost two years building Anboto, including throughout last year's bear market, and we remain confident in the broader adoption of crypto assets," said the company's co-founder Guillaume Forcade.
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| 6 | | AI startup Stability AI's general counsel Adam Avrunin and chief people officer Ozden Onder have reportedly left the firm, sources informed Bloomberg. The news of their departure comes barely two months after Stability officially announced Avrunin and Onder's addition to the team in a press release. More: - Both had joined Stability, the firm behind the image generation software Stable Diffusion, as the firm ramped up the company's growth and charted a path toward commercialization.
- This departure is part of a series of significant workforce changes the company has witnessed since the spring.
- Other recent high-profile departures include chief information officer Daniel Jeffries and head of research David Ha.
Zoom out: - Onder joined Stability from the mobile gaming studio Wildlife Studios, where he held the same designation.
- Avrunin worked at Zoom Video Communications Inc. and Splunk Inc. before joining Stability.
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- India's bike taxi startup Rapido is expanding its services, starting a cab service pilot in the city of Hyderabad.
- Lightship and Pebble have jointly developed a self-propelled, battery and solar-powered travel trailer called the Lightship L1 trailer.
- The Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Space Force have signed new cooperative research and development agreements with two Indian startups, 114AI and 3rd Itech.
- Global startup accelerator ZEBOX opened a new U.K. cohort of its program. The firm intends to bring in 10 startups working on AI, machine learning, quantum computing, and decarbonization.
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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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