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| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 🌎 Global sustainability funding in 2023 will likely match last year's tally.
- 📉 CB Insights values Figma's between $8.3B and $9B.
- 📊 ServiceTitan is gearing up to go public in 2024.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Venture funding for global sustainability startups will likely match last year's tally. Global sustainability startups have already raised $13.9B so far this year, closing in on last year's totals of $14.9B. U.S.-based sustainability startups have raked in $4.95B of this year's total funding. More: - Battery startups raked in the maximum share of the funding, with several startups picking up funding rounds of more than $1B.
- Notable battery startup rounds that closed this year include low-carbon battery manufacturer Verkor's $900M Series C and $2.1B debt funding, lithium-ion battery maker Northvolt's $1.2B convertible note round, and battery recycling firm Redwood Materials' $1B Series D fundraiser.
- Besides battery startups, investors were also keen on the carbon capture and sequestration sector.
- Several cleantech investors, including Lowercarbon Capital, Temasek, Khosla Ventures, TPG Rise Climate Fund, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, increased their dealmaking in the domain.
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| 2 | | Adobe called off its $20B acquisition of Figma due to regulatory pushback. Based on current metrics, CB Insights estimates Figma's valuation to be between $8.3B and $9B. What happened: Adobe announced its intention to buy Figma in Sept. 2022. The purchase price quoted meant Adobe would have paid a 44.4x to 50x multiple for Figma based on its reported annual recurring revenue of $400M to $500M for 2022. The transaction received pushback from the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission, who were concerned that the acquisition would stifle competition and drive up prices for product design services. Adobe saw "no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals" and decided to terminate the deal, for which it will be paying Figma a $1B termination fee. 
What the numbers say: This year, Figma looks set to increase its ARR to $600M. Figma's competitor, Canva, has a revenue multiple of 14.94x, considering its $25.4B valuation at a secondary transaction in Aug. 2023 and its expected ARR of $1.7B. Meanwhile, Adobe itself has a revenue multiple of 13.88x. Using the multiples of Adobe and Canva, CB Insights calculated Figma's valuation to be between $8.3B and $9B, less than half of the acquisition price. The calculated valuation is also lower than its $10B valuation from its last priced equity round in June 2021. | | | |
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| 3 | | ServiceTitan, a startup building software for home and commercial contractors, is gearing up to go public as early as the second quarter of 2024, sources informed Reuters. The firm hired investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to assist with the transaction. Specifics about the fundraising amount and the valuation sought are still being finalized. More: - ServiceTitan was last valued at $9.5B at its last Thoma Bravo-led funding round in 2021.
- The firm has raised $1.1B in funding to date, the last of which came in the form of a $200M Series G round in June 2021.
- Other notable backers of the firm include Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue, Dragoneer Investment Group, ICONIQ Growth, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and TPG.
- The Los Angeles, Calif.-based startup confidentially filed to go public in early 2022 but postponed plans after market conditions soured.
Zoom out: - Other startups waiting to go public include social media firm Reddit, cloud security company Rubrik, and healthcare payments firm Waystar.
- Stock prices of recent IPO debutants like Arm, Instacart, Birkenstock Holdings, and Klaviyo plunged significantly after their respective listings, prompting other startups to delay their IPO plans until market conditions stabilize.
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| 4 | | Cloud computing and data cloud company Snowflake acquired cross-cloud data collaboration startup Samooha for an undisclosed amount. Snowflake has received access to Samooha's data clean room offering, which will help customers share and gain insights from their and their partners' data. More: - Samooha's CEO Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan and co-founder Abhishek Bhowmick will join Snowflake along with 17 other employees.
- Samooha's no-code data clean room platform is built on Snowflake's platform.
- The firm had raised $12.5M since its founding in 2022 and was last valued at $40M post-money.
- Notable backers of the firm include Snowflake and Altimeter Capital.
- The Los Angeles, Calif.-based startup claims to have several healthcare, financial services, advertising, and retail Fortune 500 companies as its clients.
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| 5 | | British financial services company Revolut is pausing crypto services for business customers from Jan. 3, 2024 onwards. The pause is in response to the upcoming regulation changes in the U.K. More: - U.K.'s business customers will be unable to buy crypto assets from the Revolut Business platform, although they can still hold or sell crypto.
- This suspension of services won't affect Revolut's retail customers.
- The company assured its clients that it's actively working on aligning with forthcoming regulations and will inform customers once it has complied with the new regulations and is about to resume services.
Zoom out: - Earlier this year, the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority published new guidelines on advertising crypto to British consumers, which will come into effect on Jan. 8, 2024.
- The new regulations ban publishing misleading advertisements that inappropriately incentivize customers to invest.
- Additionally, ads should have prominent risk warnings; there must be a 24-hour cooling off period, and "refer a friend" bonuses are outlawed.
- Payments giant PayPal, ByBit, and Luno are also halting services until they comply with the new rules.
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| 6 | | Identity and access management cybersecurity firm Okta is set to acquire Spera, sources informed Calcalist. The transaction is valued between $100M and $130M. The final transaction price is contingent upon Spera reaching certain milestones. More: - Spera has raised $10M in funding to date, all of which came through a seed round led by YL Ventures earlier this March.
- The firm counts Google, Palo Alto Networks, Akamai, Zendesk, and Zscaler as a few of its most notable investors.
- Spera has developed end-to-end identity attack surface management, risk reduction, and identity threat prevention, detection, and response solutions.
- All of Spera's 25 employees will join Okta's R&D center in Israel.
- Okta has a market cap of $14B and reported $1.8B in revenue last year.
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- European food delivery company Delivery Hero is closing its tech hubs in Turkey and Taiwan. Additionally, the firm is laying off 13% of its staff, impacting its workforce in Berlin headquarters and global service roles.
- Former Tesla executive John Vo's new startup, Blue Innovations Group, launched a solar and electric-powered smart boat dubbed R30. The 30-foot boat costs $300,000 and has a range of 100 miles.
- Portable monitor maker Mobile Pixels has raised $8M from a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
- Madrona Venture Labs-spinout Strike Graph extended its $7M Series A round with an additional $1.5M from Madrona Venture Group, Information Venture Partners, and Rise of the Rest.
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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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