| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 📝 Lufthansa signs MoU with German eVTOL startup Lilium.
- 🚫 Lami's acquisition of Bluewave falls through.
- 🚀 Tech veteran Vetri Vellore's new startup, Rhythms emerges from stealth.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft startup Lilium. The operational alliance covers flight operations and aircraft maintenance. Additionally, the German startup will provide crew for its six-seater electric jet and work on airspace integration and vertiport infrastructure. More: - The new MoU builds on an agreement signed in 2020 between the duo, which involved Lilium helping train pilots to fly its Lilium Jet.
- On Wednesday, Lilium commenced the production of the Lilium Jet in Wessling, Germany.
Zoom out: - Lufthansa has also inked an agreement with Lilium's rival Volocopter GmbH, which is building software for urban mobility.
- Delta Air Lines is purchasing electric jets from Joby Aviation and signed a $60M agreement last year.
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| 2 | | VCs deployed $907.9M in early-stage North American startups this week between Dec. 2 and Dec. 8, per Crunchbase data. Biotech startups raked in 26% of the funding this week. AI, cybersecurity, and software startups nabbed 13%, 10%, and 7% of the financing, respectively. 
Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - Seismic Therapeutic raised a $121M Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners with additional participation from Amgen Ventures, Gaingels, Alexandria Venture Investments, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Samsara BioCapital, and others.
- ARTBIO, a Swiss biopharmaceutical developing targeted alpha radioligand therapies, closed its oversubscribed Series A round at $90M. Third Rock Ventures and another unnamed healthcare fund co-led the financing, joined by seed investors F-Prime Capital and Omega Funds.
- Internal communications platform ContactMonkey closed its Series A funding round at $55M. The funding was provided by Updata Partners.
- App and software vulnerability data gathering platform ArmorCode bagged $40M in Series B funding led by HighlandX. NGP Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Sierra Ventures, and Cervin participated in the round.
- Sports memorabilia, luxury goods, and art products authentication solutions provider DUST Identity bagged $40M in Series B funding. Castle Island Ventures led the round, joined by Amex Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Airbus Ventures, 8VC, and others.
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| 3 | | Kenyan insurtech startup Lami Technologies' acquisition of competitor Bluewave has failed. Lami announced the acquisition in early 2022. However, sources informed TechCrunch that Lami only had a two-year strategic partnership with Bluewave that runs until Jan. 2024. The deal collapsed in August over disagreements over the deal terms and the acquisition price. More: - Adelaide Odhiambo, the founder and head of partnerships at Bluewave, told TechCrunch that Lami had laid out the groundwork for the acquisition.
- Odhiambo said, "Bluewave is relaunching to continue from where the company left off, and has signed partnerships with aggregators, including Mobile Network Operators and banks to distribute micro-insurance products in several countries within the East and Southern Africa regions."
- In Aug. 2022, Lami extended its seed round with an additional $3.7M funding led by Harlem Capital to further increase its reach in Africa.
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| 4 | | Embedded business finance solutions provider Liberis availed a $112M debt facility. HSBC Innovation Banking and BCI Capital provided the debt funding. Liberis CEO Rob Straathof said the funding will allow the firm "to serve thousands more business owners with fair and frictionless funding through our partners using our embedded finance platform." Liberis will use the proceeds to extend its reach in North America and Europe. Additionally, the firm will use the proceeds to enter new markets like Canada, Poland, and Germany. More: - The fintech firm leverages AI and machine learning-powered analytics to provide personalized, flexible finance solutions to small businesses.
- Liberis provides financing by partnering with acquirers, neobanks, e-commerce platforms, and financial institutions.
- The firm had financed 60,000 transactions worth $1.5B.
- The latest capital injection brings the firm's total equity and debt funding raised to date to over $700M.
- Liberis has raised equity funding from Barclays, Blenheim Chalcot, and FTV Capital.
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| 5 | | Real-time transaction intelligence fintech startup Spade has seen a "big year of growth" after finding its niche within the fraud detection space. The firm bagged $10M in Series A funding, which it intends to use to accelerate product development, expand outside the U.S., and double its workforce. More: - Flourish Ventures led the current round with additional support from Andreessen Horowitz, Gradient Ventures, Y Combinator, Dash Fund, and Everywhere Ventures.
- The company detects fraud by analyzing financial transactions in real-time.
- Spade claims that it can analyze transactions with 99% accuracy within 50 milliseconds, which is one-fifth compared to the industry average of 250 milliseconds.
- Clients, including Mercury, Sardine, Ramp, and Unit, have used Spade's solutions to increase fraud detection by as much as 15%.
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| 6 | | Vetri Vellore, a tech entrepreneur who previously founded Ally and Chronus, launched a new startup called Rhythms that wants to help companies improve their productivity. Rhythms emerged from stealth with a $26M seed funding round co-led by Madrona Venture Group and Greenoaks. The firm will use the funding to grow its team and launch a product in preview mode later this year. More: - Rhythms leverages AI to analyze a company's internal processes and recommends solutions to increase productivity.
- Founders' Co-op, Accel, and Cercano participated in the funding round.
- Vellore's previous startup, Ally, was acquired by Microsoft in 2021, while Chronus was acquired by a private equity firm in 2015.
- Vellore said that Rhythms will complement business suite products such as Microsoft 365, with which the company shares an "amazing partnership."
- Madhan Subhas and Hasan Kumar, former executives from Ally and Chronus, co-founded the firm with Vellore.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Want to master Kubernetes? The Kubernetes Cookbook is a must-have guide to discover guidance on cloud architecture analytics, optimization, governance, and more.*
- So far this year, VCs have invested about $7B in Indian startups, per market intelligence platform Tracxn. Funding has slumped 72% compared to the $25B invested in 2022.
- Pre-seed investor Zelda Ventures secured $33M in capital commitments towards its debut fund.
- Stellantis NV is partnering with modular battery-swapping solution startup Ample. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
- Toast to 2024: Key affiliate marketing trends to help your campaigns start off on the right foot in the new year. Get the free report.*
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 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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