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| Here's your daily Startups briefing: - 🤝 Redis acquired Speedb to further enhance its open-source database engine
- 💻 Brinc launched a new LiveOps platform to manage drone fleets
- 🚀 AI cloud startup Foundry emerged from stealth with $80M in seed and Series A funding
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Database unicorn startup Redis acquired open-source data storage engine startup Speedb for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help Redis further enhance its open-source database by increasing the speed of real-time data processing and lowering the latency in user experience. Later this year, Redis will integrate Speedb's storage engine into its open-source database platform. More: - Redis had already partnered with the Israeli startup, which powers its Auto Tiering feature available to enterprise customers through the Redis Enterprise and Redis Cloud offerings.
- The Auto Tiering feature helps move some of the data from the DRAM to flash memory, which in turn helps customers reduce their infrastructure expenses by up to 70%.
- Speedb had last raised a $4M funding round in 2021.
Zoom out: - Redis was valued at $2B when it raised a $110M Series G round led by Tiger Global in April 2021.
- It shelved plans to go public in 2022 after market conditions soured.
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| 2 | | VCs deployed $1.6B in early-stage North American startups this week between March 16 and 22, per Crunchbase data. Biotech startups raked in 49% of the funding this week. Healthcare, blockchain, and AI startups nabbed 16%, 7%, and 7% of the financing, respectively. 
Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - Precision medicine startup Mirador Therapeutics emerged from stealth with a $400M funding round led by ARCH Venture Partners. OrbiMed, Fairmount, Fidelity Management & Research, Sanofi Ventures, Point72, Boxer Capital, and others participated in the round.
- In vivo RNA technology biotech startup Capstan Therapeutics closed its Series B funding round at $175M. RA Capital Management led the round, with additional support from Forbion, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Mubadala Capital, Perceptive Advisors, and Sofinnova Investments.
- Engrail Therapeutics raised $157M in Series B funding to further advance its neuropsychiatric treatment through clinical development stages. F-Prime Capital, Forbion, and Norwest Venture Partners co-led the latest funding round, joined by RiverVest Venture Partners, Red Tree Venture Capital, Ysios Capital, Longwood Fund, Eight Roads Ventures, and Pivotal Life Sciences.
- Clasp Therapeutics, a startup developing immunotherapies to treat tumors, raised $150M in Series A funding led by Novo Holdings, Third Rock, and Catalio.
- Blockchain-based lending platform Figure Technologies raised $60M in Series A funding led by Jump Crypto, Pantera Capital, and Lightspeed Faction.
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| 3 | | Public safety technology startup Brinc debuted a new platform to manage and monitor drone fleets. The LiveOps platform boasts features such as live streaming, real-time maps, communications, and secure evidence storage. The introduction of the software expands Brinc's scope to support emergency response teams. More: - LiveOps is accessible through web browsers and is integrated with Brinc's current hardware, including the LEMUR 2 drone and Brinc Ball.
- The Seattle-based startup offers drones that assist first responders in dangerous situations.
- Its drones have an integrated cellular connection, a crash-resistant design that can break through glass, night vision, and an integrated microphone for communication.
- Additionally, the company offers a two-way communication device to negotiate effective resolutions and de-escalate threats during standoff situations.
- Since its founding in 2019, the startup has raised more than $80M from investors, including Index Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, and Next Play Ventures.
- Notably, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman was the startup's first eternal investor.
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| 4 | | Cloud startup Foundry emerged from stealth with $80M in seed and Series A funding co-led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Ventures. The startup was valued at $350M at the latest round, seven times higher than its valuation from last year. Foundry is developing a public cloud designed to handle AI and machine learning workloads. With the latest capital infusion, Foundry aims to scale operations, further develop its product offerings, and ink more strategic partnerships. More: - Other investors participating in the round include Redpoint, Microsoft venture arm M12, Conviction, and NEA.
- KKR, LG, Stanford, MIT, Lightspeed, and Pear VC are some notable early adopters already using Foundry's solutions.
- Former DeepMind employee Jared Quincy Davis founded Foundry and leads it as its CEO.
- The startup simplifies the process of configuring a public cloud environment for running AI models.
- Davis said, "We're building a new breed of public cloud, backed by an orchestration platform that makes accessing AI compute resources as easy as turning on the light."
- Foundry provides access to high-end chips, including Nvidia's H100 graphic card, which has about 80 billion transistors.
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| 5 | | Governance, risk, and compliance software developer Archer Technologies bought risk management technology startup Flisk. This marks Archer's second acquisition this year after buying Compliance.ai last month. The acquisition will help Archer enhance the current offerings and build capabilities in the risk management information system (RMIS) domain. More: - By bringing together risk and insurance management programs, the firm will be able to offer better risk mitigation solutions to its 1,300 global clients.
- Financial details of the acquisition transaction were not disclosed.
- Archer reported $220M in revenue in 2022, sources informed Reuters.
Zoom out: - London-based PE firm Cinven acquired Archer from Clearlake Capital Group and Symphony Technology Group last July.
- While the official transaction price was not disclosed, sources pegged the deal to be worth $1.38B, per Bloomberg.
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| 6 | | The Browser Company, the startup behind the Arc browser, bagged $50M in fresh funding led by Pace Capital, per TechCrunch. The company was valued at $550M at the latest round. Lead investor Chris Paik envisions The Browser Company becoming a browser-based operating system with web applications. More: - The latest capital infusion brings the firm's total capital raised to date to $128M.
- Notable backers of the firm include Next Play Ventures, Play Capital, LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner, Medium's Ev Williams, Figma's Dyland Field, Notion's Akshay Kothari, and GitHub's Jason Warner.
- Josh Miller, the former director of product at the White House and investor at Thrive Capital, founded The Browser Company in 2019 along with Hursh Agrawal.
- Miller and Agrawal had previously started conversational service Branch.com, which Facebook acquired in 2014.
- The company has yet to reveal plans for monetization of the platform.
- Beaker's Paul Frazee believes monetization is difficult without search deals and ads in search.
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- Customer service company Zendesk is set to acquire AI-powered customer experience solutions maker Ultimate. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
- Dutch online marketing company Flowboost acquired a 50% stake in link-building platform Backlink.nl for an undisclosed sum.
- Healthcare startup Babson Diagnostics aims to deploy its blood testing system BetterWay in about 100 retail locations across Austin and San Antonio by the end of the year, VP of business development Nicholas Turos told Axios
- Residential parcel delivery firm Pandion bagged $41.5M in Series B funding round led by Revolution Growth.
- Bill Gates-backed green cement startup CemVision raised a €10M ($10.8M) seed round from Polar Structure, BackingMinds, and Zacua Ventures.
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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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