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| Here's your daily Startups briefing: - 🚀 Stripe crossed $1T in total payment volume and turned cash flow positive in 2023
- 🏥 Foundation Health bagged $6M in seed funding amidst healthtech seed valuation rebound
- 🛡️ Cybersecurity decacorn Wiz is acquiring startup Gem Security for $350M
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Decacorn fintech startup Stripe crossed the $1T mark in total payment volume in 2023, as reported by the Financial Times. The payment value rose 25% compared to the previous year. The firm was "cash flow positive in 2023 and expects to be again in 2024," eliminating the need to raise additional capital from investors before its much-anticipated IPO. More: - About 10% of the total payment volume came from 100 companies that process over $1B each through Stripe.
- Stripe's annual sales from its revenue and finance automation services are expected to touch $500M this year.
- The payments processing startup is now valued at $65B.
- While the valuation is down from its peak figure of $95B, it is an improvement over its $50B valuation from last year.
- Co-founder and president John Collison said, "With the IPO, we're not in a rush. Businesses which are profitable have many, many more options than businesses which are dependent on outside capital."
- Last month, the startup gave existing employees a chance to dilute their holdings by facilitating a $1B employee stock sale.
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| 2 | | Healthtech startup Foundation Health raised a $6M seed funding round from Transpose Platform, Tuesday VC, Alt Capital, Box Group, Calm/Storm Ventures, Liquid Ventures, and other investors. 
Relevance: Foundation Health helps healthcare organizations launch their digital-first pharmacy and telehealth solutions. The firm will use the fresh capital to accelerate product development and expand its reach. What the numbers say: Foundation Health's new fundraising comes as the healthtech sector showed signs of recovery in the seed stage valuations in 2023, per Carta. Median seed stage valuations in the healthtech sector plunged 25% to $10.9M in the first quarter of 2023 before reaching a new record high of $16M by the fourth quarter. Despite the rise in valuation, the healthtech sector witnessed a 15.8% slump in seed deal count and a 26.9% dip in seed cash raised during 2023. The dip was gentle in the SaaS and healthtech sectors compared to consumer and fintech, which saw a slump of 64.9% and 65% in seed-stage cash raised, respectively. | | | |
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| 3 | | Cybersecurity startup Wiz is acquiring cloud detection and response platform Gem Security for $350M in cash. This is Wiz's largest acquisition to date and comes in short succession after its acquisition of cloud-based development environment startup Raftt last December for $50M. More: - The company claims to have an annual recurring revenue of $350M and about $900M in cash.
- Gem Security has raised $34M in total funding to date, the last of which came in through a $23M Series A round last September led by GGV Capital and supported by Team8 and IBM Ventures.
- Gem Security's three co-founders and all 70 employees will join Wiz's team.
Zoom out: - Wiz was in the news last week as it is looking to raise about $800M at a $10B valuation.
- The decacorn startup has raised about $900M to date from investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Greenoaks Capital Partners.
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| 4 | | Together AI doubled its valuation to $1.25B after raising a $106M funding round led by Salesforce Ventures. The cloud-computing startup will use the proceeds to lease more computing power from cloud providers and hire researchers to build new model architectures. More: - Founded in 2022 by CEO Vipul Ved Prakash and other co-founders Ce Zhang, Percy Liang, and Chris Re, the startup provides cloud-based access to Nvidia's graphic processing units to businesses looking to train and run AI models.
- Together AI's platform is used by 45,000 users from AI startups and multinational businesses.
- Coatue Management, Lux Capital, and Emergence Capital participated in the current round.
- The new round comes less than six months after it bagged a $102.5M Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins and Nvidia Corp.
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| 5 | | Mental health company Journey is acquiring Felt to revolutionize employee well-being and mental health support using AI. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition will help Journey increase its capabilities to provide emotional wellness support and provide personalized recommendations. Journey will integrate Felt's technology into its Proactive EAP platform. More: - Felt, formerly known as Mine'd, uses AI to gauge the compatibility between a user and a therapist by analyzing communication styles, personality traits, and values.
- Felt co-founder and CEO Aaron Albert said, "Joining forces with Journey enables us to leverage our AI-driven matching innovations on a larger scale, reaching more individuals through their extensive network."
- The startup last raised a $3.5M seed funding round led by Listen Venture two years ago.
- Meanwhile, Journey has raised $6M in total funding to date from Canaan Partners, Courtside Ventures, Betaworks, BDMI, and HealthTech Capital.
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| 6 | | Swiss edtech startup Avallain acquired educators-focused generative AI solutions firm TeacherMatic for an undisclosed sum. This strategic move will bolster Avallain's generative AI offerings for the education sector with additional cutting-edge products. More: - Avallain's products help educational institutions meet their academic, legal, and commercial requirements.
- Its most notable educational industry clients include Oxford University Press, Cengage National Geographic Learning, Cambridge University Press, Santillana, Klett, and Cornelsen.
- Avallain recently raised a €8M ($8.75M) funding round from Round2 Capital Partners.
- TeacherMatic empowered educators with tools to develop lesson plans, flashcards, and multiple-choice quizzes that align with the curriculum.
Zoom out: - In addition to this acquisition, Avallain has unveiled the Avallain Lab, an institute dedicated to advancing research in learner analytics, accessibility, and the ethical application of AI in education.
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- AI chip startup Cerebras launched its third generation AI chip called Wafer Scale Engine 3, with 125 petaflops of computing power. The startup plans to sell the new chips along with Qualcomm's AI 100 Ultra chips.
- Mahana Therapeutics, a startup developing digital treatments for patients with chronic conditions, acquired German digital therapeutic app maker HiDoc Technologies for an undisclosed sum.
- Energy supplier Ovo's former CEO Raman Bhatia took over the CEO role at British challenger bank Starling Bank. Bhatia succeeds interim CEO John Mountain, who took over the role after founder Anne Boden stepped down from the helm last June.
- Interlude, a lunar natural resources startup, emerged from stealth mode today with $18M in seed capital. The firm received $15M in capital through its most recent round, led by Seven Seven Six and supported by other investors, including Aurelia Foundry Fund, Gaingels, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Shasta Ventures.
- EV pickup truck startup Telo Trucks added Spero Ventures partner and Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning to its board of directors after raising a $5.4M funding round from Spero Venture and Neo.
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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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