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| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 🚚 New owner Flexport relaunched Convoy's digital marketplace
- 📶 Step-up multiples for startups raising Series A and Series B rounds increased in Q4 2023
- ⚔️ Raveendran insists he is still the CEO of Byju's after shareholders voted to remove him
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Flexport relaunched Convoy's digital marketplace less than four months after it acquired the latter's assets. The Convoy Platform connects shippers and truckers. More: - Global freight forwarding and logistics startup Convoy shuttered in November last year after it failed to find a buyer.
- The startup struggled with heavy debt, declining freight volumes, and dampened investor appetite.
- The firm was valued at $3.8B at its peak after raising a funding round in April 2022.
- Convoy's co-founder and former CEO Dan Lewis, now a technical advisor at Flexport, was "proud to see Convoy's technology platform and marketplace relaunch this week within Flexport," per his LinkedIn post.
- Lewis added, "We brought back some of the biggest customers, and on our first day live, we successfully dispatched almost 200 full truck loads to our driver network for them."
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| 2 | | Startup step-up multiples for startups raising Series A and Series B funding rounds increased in Q4 2023, per a new report published by Carta. 
What the numbers say: Startups raising a Series A funding round achieved a 3.2x jump in median pre-money valuation over their median seed valuations in Q4 2023. Startups raising Series B rounds witnessed a step-up of 2.26x compared to the previous Series A round valuation. While step-up multiples for startups raising Series A and Series B rounds increased, step-up multiples for startups raising Series C rounds continued to plummet for the third consecutive quarter. The step multiple for Series C startups was just 1.16x bigger than the median Series B. Relevance: Median step-up multiples for Series A startups reached the highest point since Q1 2022. This is largely due to a recovery in Series A startup valuations, which touched a median of $44M in Q4, the third-highest over the past four years. Median Series B valuations surged 11% QoQ to reach $100M in Q4. | | | |
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| 3 | | Indonesian online lending startup Julo is gearing up for an initial public listing. The news comes as the company reported a 73% jump in annual recurring revenue, reaching a $121M run rate in 2023. Julo is also in talks with investors to raise a pre-IPO round. More: - Julo provides online loans and payment transaction services to the middle-income segment in Indonesia.
- The company disbursed 7.3 million loans worth $454M in 2023, double last year's number.
- The company reported profit before tax in December and expects to be profitable on a net income basis this year.
- It last raised $80M in funding from Credit Saison in 2022.
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| 4 | | Byju Raveendran informed employees that he is still the CEO of Indian edtech startup Byju's, despite a shareholder group's attempt to oust him on Friday. The shareholder group unanimously voted to remove founder Raveendran, but whether the group represented a majority is in dispute, with one source claiming the combined ownership was more than 60% and others claiming it's less. More: - At an emergency general meeting (EGM), the shareholder group passed resolutions addressing governance, compliance issues, and financial management concerns and advocated for a reconstitution of the board.
- They also voted for leadership changes "so that it is no longer controlled by the founders of T&L [Think & Learn Pvt Ltd.]," the parent company of Byju's.
- Notable shareholders involved in the vote include Prosus Ventures and Peak XV Ventures.
- Raveendran dismissed the resolutions, arguing that the EGM lacked the minimum quorum, with only 35 out of the 170 shareholders present — representing just 45% ownership of the company — and failed to win majority support.
- The news comes amidst rising financial troubles at the firm.
- Its valuation dropped from the peak of $22B to about $25M at its latest rights issue offering, where it sought $200M from investors.
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| 5 | | DeepX is in the final stages of closing a $90M (120B won) funding round from investors. The AI chip startup is raising fresh capital to accelerate production and fuel global expansion, sources informed Bloomberg. More: - DeepX is developing semiconductors for data centers, robotics, and AI.
- Notable clients include Hyundai Kia Motors Robotics Lab and Posco DX.
- The South Korean startup has already received commitments of $45M (60B won) from Skylake Equity Partners and $22.5M (30B won) from existing investor Timefolio Asset Management.
- DeepX is in the final stages of discussion with another investor to raise the final $22.5M (30B won).
- According to sources, DeepX's valuation at the current round is about $525M (700B won).
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| 6 | | Data curation startup DatologyAI raised $11.65M in seed funding. The firm will use the proceeds to develop tools required to automate the process of building large training datasets used to train AI models. More: - The seed round was led by Amplify Partners, with support from Radical Ventures, Conviction Capital, Outset Capital, and Quiet Capital.
- Angel investors that backed the current round include Google's chief scientist, Jeff Dean; Meta Platforms' chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun; Quora's founder and OpenAI's board member, Adam D'Angelo; Cohere's co-founders, Aiden Gomez and Ivan Zhang; and Intel's former AI vice president, Naveen Rao.
- The San Francisco-based company has 10 employees.
- DatologyAI was co-founded by Ari Morcos, Matthew Leavitt, and Bogdan Gaza.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Discover the trends shaping 2024 and learn how trust will be the key to business success. Shape your strategy and get ahead with this latest report.*
- The Brandery accelerator's co-founder, J.B. Kropp, is set to succeed Pete Blackshaw as the CEO of Cincinnati's flagship startup support group, Cintrifuse. Blackshaw is stepping down after a five-year tenure to pursue new opportunities in the AI sector.
- EV startup Nio is downsizing its North American division by laying off 141 employees. While the company has seen a slight uptick in sales in the third quarter, its stock prices have plummeted by 78% from the end of February last year.
- MENA-focused VC firm Plus VC partnered with tech investment community builder Tawaref to expedite the business establishment process in Saudi Arabia.
- Indian healthtech startup Neodocs aims to conduct 100 million diagnostic tests over the next three years. The target represents a 400x increase compared to the 250,000 tests completed so far.
- Visa and Mastercard have come to a historic $5B settlement, marking a pivotal moment for small business owners. If your business accepts Visa/MC, Claim your share today.*
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 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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