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| Here’s a look at today’s Startups briefing. - 🤖 BMW to deploy Figure’s humanoid robot in its U.S. factory.
- ⏸ Large startups have almost paused their investments in other startups.
- 🚤 Navier roped in Stripe for the pilot program of its hydrofoiling watercraft.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Figure inked its first commercial deal with BMW Manufacturing to deploy its humanoid robots in the latter's manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina. BMW will integrate the humanoid robots in the body shop, sheet metal facility, and warehouse in the next 12 to 24 months. More: - The exact number of robots to be deployed was not disclosed.
- Figure's CEO Brett Adcock said that BMW will initially start with a small number of robots and increase them if they meet performance targets.
- BMW's facility in Spartanburg currently employs about 11,000 people.
- Last year, Figure raised a $70M funding round led by Parkway Venture at a valuation north of $400M.
Zoom out: - BMW joins the likes of Honda, Hyundai, and Tesla, which have been experimenting with using robots to perform repetitive and dangerous tasks.
- Humanoid robots offer more flexibility than traditional robots as they can perform a broader range of services and learn to perform new tasks.
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| 2 | | Large startups are reevaluating their equity investment strategies, with most of them putting a pause on funding other startups in 2023, per CB Insights. 
What the numbers say: Bytedance, Stripe, and Flexport were all very actively investing in smaller startups in 2021. All of them have almost stopped their investments in 2023, participating in just two, one, and four deals, respectively. The only exception to the trend is Databricks, which participated in 10 equity funding deals last year, including AI search engine Perplexity AI's two funding rounds. The world's most valuable unicorn startup, Bytedance, has made 123 equity investments since 2018. Relevance: Out of the 1,200+ unicorn startups, about 24 have established their own corporate venture capital divisions. The list includes Databricks and Flexport. Nearly half of the CVCs were established by crypto firms. What happened: Larger startups are now under pressure to grow into their previous lofty valuations and have to contend with less capital available amidst the global funding pullback. | | | |
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| 3 | | Data platform LiveRamp acquired marketing data startup Habu. The transaction is valued at $200M, of which $170M is in cash, and the remaining $30M is in LiveRamp stock. The acquisition will help LiveRamp offer global data collaboration at scale. More: - Habu provides data clean rooms to customers, which helps them collate data from multiple companies and extract data while maintaining user privacy.
- The firm is expected to report $18M in revenue during fiscal year 2025.
- To date, it has raised $40M in total funding, the last of which came in the form of a $25M Series B round led by Snowflake Ventures in 2021.
Zoom out: - LiveRamp, which has a market capitalization of $2.4B, reported a $15M profit on $174M total revenue in the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year.
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| 4 | | Electric boat startup Navier will shuttle Stripe's employees from the outskirts of San Francisco to its office near Oyster Point as part of the first official pilot program for its hydrofoiling watercraft. Navier will be deploying the six-passenger N30 boat, which should be able to cut the commute time in half, lowering it from an hour to about 30 minutes. More: - The purpose behind the pilot program is to iron out the niggles before the company scales up and starts manufacturing larger vessels, including a 30-passenger model.
- Navier will also use the pilot program to refine its onboard systems, including automated collision detection and autonomous navigation technology.
- Founder and CEO Sampriti Bhattacharyya said, "Over the next few months, our goal is to identify the most critical commuting routes from Oyster Point and gain insights into commuter behaviors. This will help us fine-tune our services to alleviate traffic congestion in coastal cities while addressing issues like pollution and lost work hours."
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| 5 | | On-demand virtual care software maker 98point6 Technologies acquired asynchronous telehealth company Bright.md's remaining commercial assets, including 16 customer contracts and sales and customer success teams. While the financial details of the transaction were not revealed, sources informed Healthcare Dive that the transaction involved 45% cash and 55% equity. More: - The acquisition comes shortly after 98point6's pivot from care delivery to licensing telehealth software.
- After the pivot, Transcarent acquired 98point6's self-insured employer business, physician group, and software license for up to $100M.
- With the acquisition, 98point6 will be able to start offering asynchronous telehealth, giving its customers the option to interact with care providers through messages.
Zoom out: - A few months ago, Cigna's health services division, Evernorth, acquired the technology and clinical capabilities of Bright.md.
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| 6 | | Space module maker Gravitics, in-space mobility and orbital debris removal firm Portal Space Systems, and on-orbit satellite servicing spacecraft maker Starfish Space are three of the Seattle area startups that are set to receive a $1.7M contract each through the U.S. Space Force's innovation arm and venture fund SpaceWERX. Each firm will receive Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contracts that will be awarded through the 2023 SpaceWERX Tactically Responsive Space Challenge conducted in partnership with Space Safari. More: - SpaceWERX received about 302 proposals for the challenge.
- In addition to the three mentioned, 15 other companies will also receive contracts, including Agile Space Industries, Circle Optics, K2 Space Corp., PickNik, Space Rig Systems, True Anomaly, and Xtenti.
- The contract amount will be paid out over the course of 15 months.
- Col. Erik Stockham, director of the Space Force's Space Systems Command, said, "The TacRS Challenge SBIR Direct to Phase II contracts are going to propel the U.S. Space Force toward future responsive and dynamic space operations."
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- Atomico-backed German remote-driven car service startup Vay officially launched its commercial driverless mobility services in Las Vegas, around the University of Nevada and the Art District areas.
- European insurtech company Getsafe is broadening its scope with the acquisition of digital student loan platform deineStudienfinanzierung.
- Due to unfeasible operational costs, the camera equipment-sharing platform Gearo will discontinue services by the end of this March.
- 3D printing hardware firm Mehta Heino Industries Oy sold off significant intellectual property to Finnish health technology firm CurifyLabs for an undisclosed sum.
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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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