Tuesday, May 28, 2024

OpenAI establishes oversight board / Hydrogen generation market to grow to $259B / Value of Spanish startups crossed the €100B mark

Plus, Cloover bags $114M seed funding round

Inside Startups

For May 28, 2024

Here’s your daily Startups briefing:

🕵️‍♂️ OpenAI established an oversight board to evaluate the safety protocols
📈 Global hydrogen generation market size is expected to grow to $259B by 2033
🇪🇸 Enterprise value of Spanish startups crossed the €100B mark in 2023

Thank you.

Karan
p/karan-chafekar

OpenAI has formed a new board committee to evaluate the safety protocols of its powerful AI models. The governance shift comes weeks after the company disbanded its internal AI safety team. On Sunday, two former board members, Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, criticized OpenAI's governance through a column in The Economist.

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The new board committee will conduct a 90-day review of the safeguards currently in place before giving a report.
OpenAI's rapid AI advancements have raised concerns about the technology's potential risks and the long-term threats of superhuman AI.
Recently departed employees, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and key deputy Jan Leike, highlighted that their teams were struggling for computing resources within OpenAI.
Last fall, CEO Sam Altman was briefly ousted over disagreements with Sutskever over the pace of AI development and implementation of safeguards.
The nine-person committee includes Altman, board chairman Bret Taylor, Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, ex-Sony Entertainment executive Nicole Seligman, and the new head of alignment science John Schulman, who replaced Sutskever.
It will also consult with external advisors with government experience, including former President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser Rob Joyce and former Justice Department official John Carlin.

Precedence Research expects the global hydrogen generation market size to grow by 5.75% CAGR to $259B by 2033.

What the numbers say: The global hydrogen market is currently worth $155.3B in 2024, of which the U.S. accounted for $19.1B. The growth rate in the U.S. is also expected to be about 5.7% CAGR between 2024 and 2033. Europe's hydrogen generation market is forecasted to grow at 5.12% CAGR to $42.2B in 2033. Latin America is expected to report the slowest growth rate of any region, predicted to grow at 2.22% CAGR to reach $8.1B in 2033.

Relevance: The Asia Pacific region bagged a 47.32% revenue share within the hydrogen generation market. The Asia Pacific region dominated the hydrogen generation market and is expected to show the fastest growth rate amongst all regions. The market in the region is projected to grow from $74.5B in 2024 to $137B by 2033.

The cumulative enterprise value of Spanish startups crossed the €100B ($108.8B) mark in 2023, according to a Dealroom report cited by Techcrunch. Spanish startups raised €2.2B ($2.4B) in VC funding through 850 funding rounds. While the tally was lower than 2021 and 2022, funding still remained above pre-pandemic levels.

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VCs invested €1.9B ($2.07B) in Spanish startups in 2019.
Spain has 18 unicorn startups valued at more than $1B.
While investment in late-stage startups remained "quiet" with only two mega-rounds, VC funding for early-stage startups, including pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds, set a new record high in 2023.
Last year's VC investment heavily favored climate tech, biotech, and clean energy companies aligned with Europe's strategic interests.

Berlin-based solar software and financing startup Cloover has raised $114M in equity and debt funding. Lowercarbon Capital led the seed round, with additional backing from QED and 9900 Capital. The funding will help advance Cloover's mission to install residential solar systems across Europe. The equity tranche will be used to ramp up hiring and sales, increase the distribution network, and accelerate technology development. The debt funding will be used to finance rooftop solar, storage, and heat pump system installations.

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Homeowners can avail of monthly subscription plans, which can help them finance their solar installer over a 20-year tenure.
The cleantech startup already operates in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
Cloover sees a large underserved opportunity in the European markets of Spain, France, and Britain, where it plans to expand operations soon.
Germany has made residential rooftop installations compulsory or new buildings and offers a sales tax exemption, which helps lower installation costs by 20%.

India's largest electric cab operator BluSmart plans to raise $300M over the next three years. BluSmart is raising fresh capital to increase its EV car fleet to 25,000 in the next three years. Part of the new funding will fuel BluSmart's expansion beyond Delhi and Bengaluru to other major Indian cities. The company is also launching services in Dubai next month, starting out initially with 100 Audi EVs, with plans to grow its fleet to 300 Audi and Tesla vehicles by year-end.

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The BP Ventures-backed startup aims to grow its Indian electric vehicle fleet from 7,500 cars currently to 13,000 by March.
BluSmart sources EVs from automakers like Tata Motors, BYD, SAIC's MG Motor, and Stellantis NV's Citroen.
Unlike other ride-hailing platforms, BluSmart owns and operates all its vehicles through long-term leases, aiming to deliver a premium experience that customers will pay more for.
The company expects to nearly double its revenue to $110M by March 2025.
BluSmart has raised $200M in total equity and debt funding so far.

Crypto hardware startup Ledger started shipping its Ledger Stax devices, a secure crypto hardware wallet with a curved e-ink display. Ledger designed the device in partnership with Tony Fadell, one of the main designers behind the iPod. Ledger will list the device on its website once it has completely fulfilled all its pre-orders.

Ledger announced the device 18 months ago, featuring a larger touchscreen than other devices in its lineup, such as Nano S Plus and the Nano X.
The startup faced difficulties bringing its device to the market due to challenges associated with producing curved e-ink displays at scale.
Ledger sold the device for €279 ($300) during the pre-order phase.
Ledger roped in consumer electronics manufacturing company Foxconn to produce the new Ledger Stax device.

Quick Hits:

Thinking about growing your business? We'll work as hard as it takes to make Ohio your competitive advantage.*
AI startup Anthropic hired Krishna Rao as its chief financial officer. Anthropic expects Rao to play a crucial role in advancing Anthropic's enterprise and global growth. Co-founder and president Daniela Amodei emphasized Rao's expertise in financial strategy, capital allocation, and scaling organizations.
Israeli startup Plastic Back partnered with Thai petrochemicals firm SCG Chemicals to turn recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC) waste into naphtha fuel for industrial use in Thailand. The startup turns discarded plastic from landfills into its original form of crude oil through a proprietary process.
Waukesha County Technical College announced the gALPHA and gBETA Applied AI Lab accelerator programs in collaboration with startup organization gener8tor.
India Accelerator launched the RUMS (Robotics, Unmanned & Space) accelerator program, to invest between $10M and $15M capital into early-stage startups working on unmanned aerial systems, counterdrone systems, ground robots, and space systems.

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