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| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 🤝 CVC Capital Partners acquired online vitamins retailer Sunday Natural.
- 🥽 Global metaverse and AR/VR startup funding contracted sharply in 2023.
- ⚡ Electra raised €304M ($369.62) Series B round to expand its network of EV chargers.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Buyout firm CVC Capital Partners agreed to acquire online vitamins retailer Sunday Natural. Financial details of the transaction were not officially disclosed, but sources estimated the deal value to be about €800M ($875M). More: - The German firm offers over 1,000 nutrition and health products through its website, Sunday.de.
- Sunday Natural generated about €100M ($109M) in revenue in 2022 by catering to more than one million customers.
- The recent acquisition adds to CVC's growing portfolio of German companies, a list that includes perfume retailer Douglas, fleet services firm DKV Mobility, and protein powder and sports supplement firm Quality Group.
Zoom out: - Per another Bloomberg report from last week, Sunday Natural was initially looking at a price of €900M ($983M).
- Bridgepoint Group Plc and Partners Group Holding AG were also reportedly bidding for the company.
- Sunday Natural's founders started exploring sale options in April last year to take advantage of the high valuations in the sector.
- Founder Jörg Schweikart is expected to retain a significant stake and will play an active role in the firm's strategic development.
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| 2 | | VC investment for global metaverse, augmented reality, and virtual reality startups fell sharply in 2023 to $1.97B, per Crunchbase. 
What the numbers say: Global funding deployed in 2023 was a third of the $5.73B invested in the sectors a year ago. U.S.-based metaverse and AR/VR startups mimicked the global trend, with funding dropping from $1.96B in 2022 to $0.91B in 2023. Relevance: No rounds closed above the $100M mark in 2023. The largest round for a U.S.-based company was AR surgical image guidance technology maker Augmedics' $82M Series D round. What happened: Funding for the sector has declined after metaverse failed to live up to its initial expectations. Even AR/VR glasses sales have plummeted in the U.S. However, Apple's much anticipated Vision Pro headset is reinvigorating consumers' interest again. The industry could receive a boost if Apple's Vision Pro headset proves to be a hit. | | | |
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| 3 | | French location intelligence and traffic analytics startup Mytraffic acquired the geospatial intelligence platform Geoblink. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Mytraffic will integrate Geoblink's geospatial technology with its analytics platform to create a comprehensive suite of solutions. More: - Mytraffic helps retailers and real estate companies increase their performance by analyzing footfall and occupancy of commercial properties using geospatial data.
- The French startup has raised €43M ($46.9M) in total funding to date, of which €30M ($32.7M) came in the form of a Series B round led by AXA Venture Partners in November 2022.
- Geoblink offers actionable location insights to retail, FMCG, and real estate industries.
- Danone, KFC, Pepsico, IKEA, and CBRE are a few of its 150 clients.
- Geoblink had raised $7.3M in total funding to date, including a €5M ($5.4M) Elaia-led Series A round in June 2018.
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| 4 | | Dutch pension fund PGGM and Bpifrance's Large Venture Fund led a €304M ($330M) Series B funding round into French EV charging startup Electra. The firm intends to use the proceeds to expand its fast-charging network across Europe. Electra currently has 172 active charging stations and plans to add another 105. More: - Electra aims to add 15,000 charging points across 2,200 stations by 2030.
- The firm currently has charging stations across France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Spain.
- The company has partnered with Toulouse airport to install some charging stations there.
- Electra has developed a platform that shows the availability of charging stations to users in real-time and lets them reserve a spot in advance.
- Eurazeo, Serena, Rive Private Investment, and 574 Invest participated in the current round.
- Previous notable backers include EIP in Switzerland, RATP Capital Innovation, CDC's Banque des Territoires, Eiffel Investment Group, Allianz, and Altarea.
- The firm has over €600M ($654M) in capital in the last three years.
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| 5 | | British classroom notetaking startup Goodnotes acquired South Korean meeting summarization and whiteboard app maker Dropthebit for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will help Goodnotes expand beyond the education sector and venture into productivity tools for corporate professionals. More: - Dropthebit had created a meeting and video summarization application called Traw, which the firm will shut down in February as per the terms of the acquisition.
- All three co-founders of Dropthebit will be joining Goodnotes.
- Since its founding in 2020, the firm has raised funding of $1M and was initially planning to raise a Series A round before receiving the acquisition offer from Goodnotes.
- Goodnotes provides a digital notebook solution to more than 24 million monthly active users.
- In September 2023, the firm invested $1.9M in Korean digital stationary startup WeBudding.
- The firm had last raised a $6M funding round from Race Capital in 2020.
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| 6 | | German fintech startup Pliant extended its Series A round by €8M ($8.7M), bringing the total raised under the round to €33M ($35.9M). The firm also availed a €100M ($109M) debt facility from Varengold Bank. The firm will use the fresh funding to fuel growth in existing markets and expand into new countries. More: - The Series A extension funding came from Molten Ventures, which joins the initial round's existing investors, SBI Investment, Alstin Capital, and Motive Ventures.
- Pliant offers white-label credit cards, expense management, and payment automation services across 25 countries in the European Economic Area.
- Last September, the firm acquired Molten Ventures' portfolio company, Finance Friday, for an undisclosed amount.
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- Northvolt, the world's most valuable battery startup, is raising $3.4B in debt from the European Union and banks, including JPMorgan Chase. The firm will use the funding to grow battery production at its factory in northern Sweden.
- Education technology startup Praxis AI is one of the 15 startups joining Amazon Web Services' Education Accelerator. Each startup joining the 10-week accelerator program will receive AWS credits worth $100,000.
- AI startup OpenAI is launching a new set of initiatives aimed at curbing its products from being used for misinformation. OpenAI's new initiative comes ahead of the U.S. and global elections.
- Japanese AI startup Sakana AI raised $30M in seed funding at a valuation of $200M. Lux Capital led the round, with additional participation from Khosla Ventures, Sony Group Corp., and NTT.
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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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