| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 🧱 Mining startup KoBold Metals discovered a large copper deposit in Zambia.
- 🚀 Number of venture-backed startups surged to 54,000 in 2023.
- ⚙️ Astera Labs geared up for an IPO in March.
Thank you. Karan
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| 1 | | AI-powered mining deposits exploration startup KoBold Metals has reportedly uncovered vast copper deposits in Zambia. KoBold anticipates commencing copper production at the Mingomba mine within the next 10 years. KoBold compares the newly discovered mine to its facility in Kakula, which yielded nearly 400,000 tons of copper last year. KoBold believes the newly discovered copper ore has grades of about 5%. More: - KoBold leverages AI to search for copper, cobalt, nickel, and lithium deposits.
- The San Francisco, Calif.-based startup is backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, T. Rowe Price Group, Bond Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Equinor.
- Goldman estimates that KoBold might need to spend about $2B on building a new facility at the Mingomba facility.
- In addition to Zambia, KoBold is exploring deposits across 60 other areas across Australia, Canada, and the U.S.
- The startup spent about $100M on exploration last year and expects to increase that figure in 2024.
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| 2 | | 54,027 U.S. venture-backed startups raised VC funding in 2023, up from 50,759 in 2022, per data from Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Associated reported by WSJ. 
What the numbers say: The number of startups raising venture funding has increased yearly since 2010, when 12,522 startups raised funding. The number of venture-backed startups increased from 2022 to 2023 despite a slump in VC funding and an increase in startup failures. U.S. startup funding declined 29% from 2022 to $171B in 2023. Per Carta, 761 startups shuttered last year, 1.6 times more than the 467 startups that failed in 2022. Where to see the impact: Lightspeed Venture Partners' Guru Chahal expects the upward trajectory to dip next year as the number of startup failures increases and fewer entrepreneurs start companies. | | | |
| 3 | | Data center connectivity startup Astera Labs is gearing up for an IPO listing as early as March. The firm is targeting a valuation of $4B at its public debut. The Information reports that Astera Labs roped in investment banks Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase to help with the public offering. More: - Former executives of semiconductor company Texas Instruments established Astera in 2017.
- The firm provides AI-powered data center connectivity solutions to leading public cloud providers, including Amazon's AWS and Microsoft Azure.
- Astera Lab expects to report about $250M to $300M income in 2024.
- It reported a $50M income in the fourth quarter of 2023.
- Aster touched a valuation of $3.15B after raising a $150M Series D round in 2022.
- Notable investors that have backed the company include Fidelity Management and Research, Atreides Management, and Sutter Hill Ventures.
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| 4 | | Swedish electric motorcycle Cake has reportedly filed for bankruptcy, per Tech.eu. The startup had to shut down after failing to secure fresh funding. It could also not pay its 140 employees for the last pay period. More: - Since its founding in 2017, the firm has raised $74.4M in funding and developed five adult motorcycles and one children's bicycle.
- It has sold 6,000 bikes to date, catering to last-mile delivery and short-haul urban transportation needs.
- Last November, it signed a contract to deliver 1,500 electric motorcycles to Automotive Solutions SA.
- The company had previously said, "We know that we will not be cash flow positive until we sell 7,500 to 10,000 vehicles annually."
Zoom out: - Several mobility startups filed for bankruptcy in 2023, including Clevr, Volta Trucks, and Uno.
- The challenges in the industry persist into the current year, with British startup Trilvee also announcing its closure.
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| 5 | | Co-founder Tom Livne will likely step down from the CEO role at Verbit by the end of the year and transition into the chairman position. After stepping down, Livne will join Yaniv Jacobi's VC firm Orzyn Capital, which had backed Verbit in the early stages. More: - The AI-powered real-time transcription and captioning startup touched a valuation of $2B while raising a $250M Series E funding round in August 2021.
- Since its founding in 2017, the firm has raised $600M in total funding to date.
- Livne co-founded Verbit along with Eric Shellef and Kobi Ben Tzvi.
- Verbit has been on an acquisition spree but is facing difficulties in integrating the companies.
Zoom out: - Livne was a limited partner in Oryn Capital's second and third fund.
- While working as a CEO, Livne also began investing in startups, including Wix, Walkme, Kaltura, Hippo, Similarweb, IronSource, and Datadog.
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| 6 | | Zscaler's former COO and president Dali Rajic is joining cybersecurity startup Wiz in the same roles. Rajic's appointment comes as Wiz doubled its annual recurring revenue to $350M in 2023. Wiz aims to add 400 employees to its current 900-strong workforce across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Israel. More: - Wiz provides AI-powered cloud-based cybersecurity products with real-time threat detection and response to multiple cloud providers, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
- Wiz's CEO, Assaf Rappaport, said, "This is definitely a crucial part of Wiz beginning on our journey to becoming a public company and the cloud security leader. We're eager to reach the milestone of $1B as we look toward an IPO."
- The startup raised an upround last year at a valuation of $10B.
- Including last year's $300M round, the firm has raised $800M in total funding to date.
- Wiz counts Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Insight Partners as its most notable investors.
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- Sports virtual reality startup StatusPro raised $20M in fresh funding led by Alphabet's venture capital arm GV. Other investors participating in the round include Dream Sports, JDS Sports, and Wise Ventures.
- Symbiote launched the first cohort of its Web3 startup accelerator. Startups participating in the cohort include RWAs, Web3 security, blockchain-based payments, decentralized ID, and nodal infrastructure.
- Baby-tech startup Astarte Medical is reportedly shutting down, sources informed Business Insider.
- Apple is reportedly planning to acquire German advanced data anonymization platform developer Brighter AI.
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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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