Monday, January 15, 2024

Carta's rivals benefit from its struggle / OpenSea's NFT trading volume slumps / Siemens buys fast charging firm Heliox

Plus, proptech startup ReAlpha to leverage ML to identify investment prospects

Inside Startups

For January 15, 2024

Here's a look at today's Startups briefing.

❗ Carta's competitors are benefitting from the startup's struggles.
📉 NFT startup OpenSea tumbled down the order in NFT marketplace rankings.
⚡ Siemens acquired DC fast-charging startup Heliox.

Thank you.

Karan
p/karan-chafekar

Carta's competitors are capitalizing on the struggles faced by the startup after it announced the closure of its secondary trading division due to the misuse of clients' information. The firm's competitors are experiencing a surge in new users. Rival Eqvista has seen a fourfold increase in potential clients and added a few hundred customers. Secondary trading service Augment's CEO Noel Moldvai claims that about 15% of last week's signups came from Carta.

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Carta offers capitalization table management and secondary share trading software to about 40,000 companies.
The firm reached a peak valuation of $7.4B in 2021.
In the first week of this month, software startup Linear's CEO Karri Saarinen accused Carta of using its confidential investor data to approach them about selling shares on the secondary market.
This accusation led to Carta shutting down its secondary trading business to maintain the trust of its client base.

NFT startup OpenSea has tumbled down the order in the global NFT marketplace ranking after being overtaken by new entrants like Blur, OKX NFT Marketplace, and Magic Eden, per Bloomberg.

What the numbers say: OpenSea's NFT trading volume dipped in recent times, causing it to lay off 50% of its staff in November 2023. Additionally, the firm faced heavy criticism for removing mandatory royalties for NFT creators.

What happened: CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer dismissed the low trading volumes, calling it "misleading." He believes that the trading numbers alone do not define success in the NFT industry. "One of the things we've been most excited about is not necessarily how do you drive the most volume, but rather, how do you build sort of the most compelling use cases for NFTs," said Finzer.

Relevance: The company is currently working on a 2.0 upgrade for the platform, which will improve the user experience and provide differentiation in NFT categories. OpenSea achieved a peak valuation of $13B during the crypto bull run of 2021 and early 2022.

German multinational conglomerate Siemens AG acquired DC fast-charging startup Heliox from private equity firm Waterland. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition will strengthen Siemens' existing eMobility charging product portfolio and increase its market reach in North America and Europe.

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With Heliox's acquisition, Siemens will be able to add new depot and en-route charging solutions for eBus and eTruck customers.
Siemens expects to scale production by tapping Heliox's industrialization capability, global sales network, and infrastructure.
In addition to DC fast charging products, Heliox also offered charger monitoring and energy management solutions.
Heliox installed its first charging networks for the e-bus fleet in Eindhoven in The Netherlands.
Over the past two years, the firm has built charging networks across Scotland and Maryland, U.S.

Proptech startup ReAlpha Tech Corp. is training its machine learning software to identify prospective real estate investment opportunities. As part of this transition, the company has quietly sold off its short-term rental properties. It aims to acquire properties recommended by its machine learning platform in the second quarter or later.

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ReAlpha is bolstering its technological capabilities by bringing more functions in-house.
The company increased its technology stack by acquiring data analytics and AI software firm Naamche and IT consulting and software firm Dublin IT for $40M last year.
The firm is currently integrating fractional investment solutions into its platform, which it secured after acquiring Rhove for $13M last year.
Last November, the company launched a software platform that uses AI to generate descriptions for short-term rental listings.

Genomics and precision health companies Illumina Venture Labs started operations in California, U.S., and Cambridge, U.K. The incubator focuses on early-stage genomics and precision health companies. The firm provides startups with advanced genomics laboratories and state-of-the-art life science technologies.

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In addition to direct mentorship, startups will also receive opportunities to partner strategically with Illumina and its portfolio companies.
Startups participating in the incubator program will get to leverage Illumina's R&D expertise and use its facilities for up to 18 months.
The new venture is part of the broader Illumina Ventures division.
Illumina's partner Ron Mazumder said, "Our facilities, mentorship, and investment model, based on both cash and in-kind contributions, are uniquely suited to the needs of startups whose value proposition is enhanced through substantial genomics and sequencing capabilities."

Japanese spacetech startup EX-Fusion is developing laser beam technology to address the rising space debris. The firm signed a memorandum of understanding with Australian space debris detection firm EOS Space last October.

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EX-Fusion plans to install a high-powered laser within an observatory operated by EOS Space.
The collaborative effort will initially focus on tracking debris measuring less than 10 cm.
In the second phase, the duo will blast the laser beams to slow the debris.
- The objective is to facilitate controlled re-entry of the debris into Earth's atmosphere, where it would burn up.
The firm will use diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers instead of the fiber lasers that are currently used.
EX-Fusion CEO Kazuki Matsuo said, "The power of a laser for destroying space junk is an order of magnitude lower than for nuclear fusion, but they share technical challenges such as controlling them via special mirrors."

Quick Hits:

Are you creating the unique user journeys your customers demand? You can by Mastering Personalization with AI.*
Avante, an employee intelligence platform startup currently working in stealth mode, raised $10M in seed funding led by Fuse Venture Partners.
AI-powered trip planner startup Steller raised $5M funding from Pioneer Venture Partners and other investors to launch a new collaborative trip planning feature called Trips.
Pan-African VC firm Norrsken22 is inviting applications for its eight-week accelerator program. Startups participating in the Norrsken Accelerator Program will receive an upfront funding of $125,000. Norrsken22 raised a $205M fund in Nov. 2023 to support African startups.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fined food box delivery startup HelloFresh £140,000 (~$178,523) after an investigation uncovered that it violated the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations of 2003. The investigation found that the company sent 79 million emails and one million SMS without proper consent over seven months.

*This is sponsored content.