| |
| Here’s a look at today’s Startups briefing. - 🤝 IAC sold off Mosaic’s app suite and intellectual property to Bending Spoons.
- 📉 Crypto startup funding slid by more than two-thirds in 2023.
- 👤 Alex Freedland returned as CEO at Mirantis.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Italian company Bending Spoons SpA is acquiring Mosaic Group's assets from IAC Corp. The deal includes only Mosaic's suite of mobile phone apps and intellectual property, not employees. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but sources claim that Mosaic was valued above $100M. More: - Mosaic's CEO Kathleen Barrett said, "This transaction is an opportunity for IAC to refocus its capital to better align with its future."
- IAC created Mosiac after acquiring app developer Apalon in 2014.
- In Q3, revenues at IAC's emerging and other divisions slumped by 12% to $158M.
- Mosaic's 330 employees will be laid off after the acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of the first quarter.
- Laid off employees will receive a severance pay of at least four months and their year-end bonuses, while U.S.-based employees will also get healthcare coverage for six months.
|     | |
| 2 | | Crypto startup bagged $9.5B in VC funding last year, falling by more than two-thirds compared to the previous year, per Pitchbook data seen by Bloomberg. 
What the numbers say: Funding continued to slide in the last quarter of 2023 despite a surge in Bitcoin prices. The slump in the last quarter can be attributed to the overall bleak outlook for the crypto sector after a jury convicted FTX co-founder Sam Bankman Fried of multiple fraud charges and Binance Holdings' former CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering and sanctions violations. Relevance: Another reason for the continued slump in VC funding is the mismatch of valuations expected by founders and investors. "You're not gonna be able to raise a seed round at a $20M valuation — that doesn't exist anymore," said Pitchbook's analyst Le. Where to see the impact: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 applications submitted by investment firms, including BlackRock, Ark Investments, Fidelity, Invesco, and VanEck, to offer spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Due to the SEC's approval and the vast reserves of dry powder available with investors, Pitchbook expects crypto venture funding to pick up pace in the first quarter of this year. | | | |
| A message from our sponsor, Calendly. |  | | 20 million people and 100,000 companies use calendly to power their scheduling. But did you know Calendly has a plan meant for teams? Teams that use Calendly are seeing: - 2x conversion rates (CallRail)
- +30% customer retention (Conductor)
- 75% faster time-to-interview (Base)
- 323% ROI (CI Assante Wealth Management)
How are teams getting these results? Here are 4 features Calendly users can't live without: - Embed: Schedule directly from your website.
- Routing: Qualify & route meetings to the right person.
- Workflows: Automate reminders, follow-ups & more.
- Integrations: Integrate with Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoom, & 100s more.
Start your free 14-day Teams trial | |
|
| 3 | | Co-founder and former CEO Alex Freedland is returning to lead the enterprise infrastructure startup Mirantis again as a CEO. Freedland is taking over from co-founder Adrian Ionel, who succeeded him in 2015. Meanwhile, Ionel will move into an advisory role. More: - Freedland emphasized that this was a planned transition driven by the board's desire to position the company for "the next phase of technical innovation and profitable growth."
- The firm has found success after pivoting away from OpenStack to becoming a developer-centric organization, developing tools based on Kubernetes and other cloud-native technologies.
- During Ionel's tenure, Mirantis acquired Docker's Enterprise business and team in 2019 for an undisclosed amount.
- Additionally, the company also acquired Amazee.io, Shipa, and assets of Kotena.
| | | |
| 4 | | Employee insurance benefits company Beam Benefits laid off 74 employees, per Coverager. This is the firm's second round of layoffs in 11 months after it laid off 50 employees last March. Co-founder and CEO Alex Frommeyer reportedly cited the macroeconomic conditions and the heightened interest rates as the reason for conducting the layoffs. More: - Beam Benefits initially started as a dental insurance brand 12 years ago.
- It rebranded from Beam Dental to Beam Benefits in 2022 to better reflect its expanded focus after adding vision, life, disability, and other medical plans.
- The company nearly quadrupled its revenue from 2019 and 2022 and expected to increase revenue by 40% YoY in 2023.
- Beam Benefits has raised $201M in total funding to date, the last of which came in the form of a $41M funding round last September.
| | | |
| A message from our sponsor, Placer.ai. |  | | 8 Retail Trends to Watch in 2024 2023 was another tumultuous year as inflation, high interest rates, and general economic headwinds continued to constrain consumer behavior. Still, this year also revealed many bright spots across various consumer-facing sectors, from retail to dining to advertisement to entertainment. Which of these developments are likely to shape the consumer landscape in 2024? Read the whitepaper to find out: - Why will events continue creating significant opportunities for their surrounding areas?
- How will placemaking impact everything from shopping center design to office space layout to retailer's product offerings?
- Where will dining and retail concepts focus their expansion efforts?
Read the white paper | |
|
| 5 | | Digital creative agency House of Poppins acquired specialist automotive and change management agency Y2Change. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Poppins will get access to Y2Change's clients, such as BMW Motorrad, Lotus, and RockarTech. More: - Y2Change founders Stuart and Nikki Hodge are set to join Poppins as senior vice president and vice president, respectively.
- Poppins CEO and founder Maani Safa said, "Poppins is now in a solid position to expand our strategic offering not just for our automotive clients but across the board and provide a truly end-to-end proposition, dedicated to the end customer and underpinned by outstanding technical, digital and creative talent."
| | | |
| 6 | | Textio CEO and co-founder Kieran Snyder is stepping down from the CEO role after leading the augmented writing startup Textio for nine years. Her co-founder and husband, Jensen Harris, will be promoted from chief experience officer to CEO. More: - Snyder will remain on the board while taking an emeritus chief scientist position.
- She decided to step down to take "some time to recharge."
- Founded in 2014, Textio utilizes AI and machine learning to remove language bias from job listings and performance evaluations, serving major customers such as Bloomberg, Cisco, Hulu, Oracle, Spotify, and Warner Music Group.
- Harris brings extensive experience from his 16-year stint at Microsoft and is tasked with taking the firm's newest product, Textio Lift, to the next level.
- To date, Textio has raised $42.5M from Industry Ventures, Operator Collective, Emergence Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Cowboy Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, and other investors.
| | | |
| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Develop AI tools from the world's best models, leverage any data source, and deploy for any internal or external use with MindStudio's no-code platform. Get Started.*
- Apple is holding settlement talks with chip startup Rivos Inc., which it sued in 2022 for taking proprietary information about chip designs.
- Italian startup healthcare My Memo started selling its automatic pill dispenser product in Europe. The firm has applied for FDA clearance to sell it in the U.S.
- The Israeli government is expected to launch a $53M fund to support tech companies that run out of capital amidst the ongoing war. The total assistance package is about to be $319M.
- Indoor solar cell developer Perovskia Solar is setting up a manufacturing facility in Switzerland.
- Smart investors are generating passive income by selling their shareholder voting rights. Register on Shareholder Vote Exchange to start earning.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
| Upcoming Events | | JAN
30 | | Join TruEra for an expert discussion about the impact of the EU AI Act on US and Canadian firms | | | | | | | MAR
7 | | Alternative investment assets to know in 2024. | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
| |
 | Calendly is your scheduling automation platform for eliminating the back-and-forth — and much more. | |
|
| |
|
| |
