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| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - 📣 Reddit plans to offer IPO shares to its most loyal users at the listing price
- 🤝 Havenly makes its third acquisition amidst a tepid M&A environment
- 🚀 Spacetech startup Astroscale launches spacecraft to survey space debris
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Reddit is offering 75,000 of its most loyal users a chance to buy the firm's shares at listing prices at its upcoming IPO next month. The move is unusual, as the privilege of acquiring stocks at listing prices is often reserved for institutional investors. Reddit has yet to determine how many shares it will set aside for its users. More: - The company hopes this move can build more loyalty as its most prominent users could make big gains on the shares if they rise after their debut.
- On the flip side, the move could backfire and possibly anger its most loyal users if Reddit's share prices plummet after the listing.
- Reddit is gearing up to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in March.
- The company was valued at $10B when it raised $410M from Fidelity Investments in August 2021.
- However, the firm's valuation target for the IPO debut is unknown as its valuation has fluctuated since its last fundraising.
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| 2 | | Interior design startup Havenly made its third acquisition, buying D2C home decor brand The Citizenry for an undisclosed sum. 
What the numbers say: The acquisition comes amidst a tepid M&A environment. Startup M&A transactions on Carta's platform dropped by 11% YoY in 2023, ending the year with 574 deals, per its State of Private Markets Q4 2023 report. A total of 145 M&A transactions were completed in Q4 2023, more or less in line with the acquisitions seen in each of the previous three quarters. While M&A activity declined, the dip was much more subtle than IPOs. What happened: The Citizenry's acquisition is part of Havenly's broader ambition of building a collection of tech and home brands that appeal to digital-first customers and the "next generation of shoppers." The Citizenry's co-founders, Rachel Bentley and Carly Nance, will join Havenly as president of The Citizenry and executive brand advisor, respectively. The firm last raised a $20M Series B round in June 2021. Relevance: Havenly has been on a roll for the past two years, acquiring D2C home furnishings brand The Inside in February 2022 and furniture brand Interior Define earlier this year. | | | |
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| 3 | | Three of the five startups joining Walt Disney Co.'s latest incubator program are working on AI. Disney has picked AI-powered music mixing startup AudioShake, AI text-to-speech voice generator ElevenLabs, and AI-driven prototyping firm Promethean AI to join the latest cohort. More: - The other two startups participating in the program are driverless delivery vehicle maker Nuro and VR-powered immersive sports-reality experience solutions developer StatusPro.
- Disney has been running the Accelerator program for the past 10 years.
- In addition to mentoring young startups, Disney sometimes also partners with them to produce products, like 2015's BB-8 toy droid.
- Fortnite video game maker Epic Games is the most notable firm to emerge from Disney's accelerator program.
- Earlier this year, Disney agreed to invest about $1.5B in Epic Games.
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| 4 | | Astroscale Holdings deployed its spacecraft aboard an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab USA Inc.'s launch facility in New Zealand on Feb. 19, aiming to conduct the world's first close-up survey of large orbital debris. The Japanese spacetech startup aims to inspect space debris and take measures to protect other active satellites in Earth's orbit. More: - As part of the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) mission, the spacecraft will closely survey the remains of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's upper-stage rocket left in 2009 at a close proximity of less than 100 meters (328 feet).
- If successful, the mission will serve as a stepping stone in Astroscale's long-term goal of deploying additional space debris removal vehicles.
- The firm raised $83.6M in funding last year at a valuation of $954M from Mizuho Bank, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., and the Development Bank of Japan.
- In the future, founder and CEO Nobu Okada wants to venture into the satellite servicing market, including refueling and repairing.
Zoom out: - The European Space Agency estimates there are 36,500 pieces of debris in space measuring more than 10 centimeters.
- MarketsandMarkets Research believes the satellite serving market will reach $5.1B by 2030.
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| 5 | | Augmodo, Ross Finman's new startup, is leveraging computer vision, AR, AI, spatial computing, 3D mapping, and data analysis to solve inventory problems in e-commerce grocery stores. The company has kept hardware costs to a minimum by repurposing dash cameras and latching them onto grocery store associates wandering the aisles. More: - Using this method, Augmodo can collect data about empty shelves and product availability more cheaply and efficiently than expensive purpose-built robot scanners.
- The company uses the data from the camera to build a digital twin of the store and map every item it has in stock.
- Eventually, the startup wants to create an AR device for shoppers to help them find products in a store or get deals.
Zoom out: - Finman's first company, Escher Reality, spun out from his alma mater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Niantic Labs, the company behind the location-based game Pokémon Go, acquired the startup.
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| 6 | | Health technology startup Fabric Labs Inc. bagged $60M in Series A funding led by General Catalyst. The AI-powered clinical and healthcare administrative work automation startup will use the proceeds to double its 130-employee workforce by the end of the year. More: - Fabric provides a telemedicine platform that streamlines patients' in-person and virtual visits.
- CEO Aniq Rahman said, "We have protocols that map to about 400 unique diagnoses."
- The startup acquired virtual care assistant maker Gyant to add chatbot functionality to its platform.
- Existing Fabric investors Thrive Capital, GV, and Salesforce Ventures participated in the round.
Zoom out: - Lead investor General Catalyst formed a new division, Health Assurance Transformation Corp., earlier this year.
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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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