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| Here is your Monday Startup briefing: - 🚀 Metagenomi Technologies has filed for a U.S. IPO.
- 💼 Bumper, the car repair fintech, just wrapped up a €46M Series B funding round.
- 🎮 Gaming industry investments faced a major drop, particularly in late-stage funding.
Thanks for reading! Robel
p/Robel-Kelkile | |
| 1 | | Paris-based startup Nabla raised $24M in its Series B funding round. Cathay Innovation and ZEBOX Ventures led the round following a significant partnership with Permanente Medical Group. More: - Nabla's valuation now stands at $180M post-funding, potentially attracting additional investments from U.S. investors in this round.
- Nabla focuses on an AI copilot aiding medical professionals by taking notes and generating reports during consultations.
- The startup was founded by Alexandre Lebrun, Delphine Groll, and Martin Raison, with Lebrun previously leading Wit.ai, which was later acquired by Facebook.
- Nabla's AI technology uses speech-to-text to create detailed medical reports post-consultation, aiding both in-person and telehealth appointments.
- The company plans to enhance healthcare efficiency, allowing doctors to focus more on patient care rather than administrative tasks, positioning itself as a supportive tool, not a replacement, for medical professionals.
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In 2023, gaming industry investments, especially at late stages, experienced a significant decline, with seed to growth-stage funding hitting a multiyear low. While funding dropped substantially, major publicly traded gaming companies thrived, and hit games continued to perform well. More: - Global investment in gaming companies, per Crunchbase data, notably decreased in 2023, with a 79% drop from the previous year, and U.S. investment saw an even steeper decline at 86%.
- Major gaming industry players, like Take-Two Interactive Software, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and Sony, ended 2023 with soaring share prices.
- Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7B marked a significant event.
- Despite the downturn in funding for startups, successful games like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 achieved notable success, contributing to Nintendo's profitable year from its Mario and Zelda brands.
- Late-stage venture rounds of $100M or more were absent in 2023 for digital gaming companies, signaling a lack of interest from venture investors at that stage, in contrast to the more fluid capital flow in 2022 when companies like Epic Games and Thatgamecompany secured significant funding rounds.
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| 3 | | Bumper, a fintech facilitating split payments for car repairs, has completed a €46M ($50.3M) Series B funding round. The round was led by Autotech Ventures and attracted investment from Shell Ventures, InMotion Ventures, Porsche Ventures, and Revo Capital. More: - Bumper offers interest-free payment splitting for car repair bills, streamlining the payment process for car owners, and enabling dealerships/garages to offer digital payment methods to enhance customer service and business profitability.
- Serving over 5,000 dealers, including major brands like Volvo, Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen, Audi, JLR, and Porsche, Bumper has processed more than 500,000 car repairs across Europe, handling over 250,000 flexible payments in the last year alone.
- The newly acquired funds will support Bumper's expansion plans in key European markets like the U.K., Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland, building on their recent growth of 100% YoY in Gross Merchandise Value and an 80% increase in customer numbers over the last 12 months.
- The company has raised a total investment to €61M ($66.8M).
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| 4 | | Sarah Personette, who resigned as Twitter's head of ad sales after Elon Musk acquired the platform in 2022, has been appointed CEO of digital news startup Puck. She will fill the vacant position left by a former co-founder in May 2023. More: - Personette, who previously served in leadership roles at Twitter, Facebook, and media companies like Refinery29, brings experience in brand building and business reinvention to her new role.
- At Puck, Personette's responsibilities include expanding into new markets like fashion and sports business, developing live events, editorial franchises, and intellectual property.
- Co-founder and COO Liz Gough will continue leading Puck's advertising business while collaborating with Personette to execute expansion strategies.
- Puck, founded in 2021, has raised $20M in funding from investors like TPG, Standard Investments, and J. Rothschild Capital Management.
- The company generated $10M in revenue in 2023, with around 40,000 newsletter subscribers.
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| 5 | | Metagenomi Technologies, backed by Bayer Healthcare and Moderna, filed for a U.S. IPO. The move joins several companies preparing for a 2024 listing amid recent stock market rallies. More: - Founded by UC Berkeley scientists in 2018, Metagenomi focuses on genetic disease therapies, earning revenue solely from collaboration agreements, including one with Moderna.
- Collaboration revenue for the nine months ending Sept. 30 surged nearly three-fold to $32.36M, while the company faced increased losses, reaching $48.96M compared to $28.97M a year earlier.
- The Emeryville-based firm aims to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "MGX," with J.P.Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Jefferies as underwriters for the IPO.
- Metagenomi's IPO filing comes after it raised $275M in private funding just a year ago.
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| 6 | | United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket was successfully launched. The move marked a potentially pivotal moment, securing ULA's future and bolstering lunar exploration dreams with Astrobotic's Peregrine lander journeying to the moon. More: - The Vulcan Centaur rocket, powered by Blue Origin's BE-4 engines, took off from Cape Canaveral, separating its first stage and performing main-engine cutoff and subsequent burns to ensure Astrobotic's Peregrine lander reached the moon's correct trajectory by Feb. 23.
- Vulcan already has missions lined up, including Amazon's Project Kuiper deployments and multiple contracts with the U.S. Space Force (USSF), pending completion of its second certification launch, Cert-2, expected in April, carrying Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplane to the International Space Station.
- Astrobotic's Peregrine mission, originally awarded $79.5M by NASA, now stands at $108M, serving as a potentially significant step in private industry's advancement toward offering advanced space services.
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| 7 | | QUICK HITS - The University of Arizona announced a $1M contribution to a startup seed fund.
- Nuclear startup NuScale Powe cut almost half of its employees.
- Global startup investment dropped to the lowest in five years, but the surge in AI investment has gone against this downward trend.
- From AI Experimentation to AI-Driven Business. Join AI Lab as they discuss their 3-month journey to becoming pioneers with 1k+ customers. Register Now.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
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 | Writer | | Born and raised in the Bay Area, Robel Kelkile is passionate about all things tech, venture, and financial education. He has previously served both universities and state governments in their engagement strategy and tracking legislation. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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