| Here’s a look at today’s Startups briefing. - 🚀 Funding for African women-led health startups surged in 2023.
- 🦄 Unicorn minting rate slowed in 2023, with only 95 startups entering the club.
- 🥷 Antithesis emerged from stealth with $47M seed funding.
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | African women-led health startups raised $167M in VC funding in 2023, up 2,000% compared to the previous year, per a report from Salient Advisory commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 31% of the funding, or $52M, went to startups led solely by women. More: - Healthtech startups showed resilience to the VC funding dip, experiencing a much gentler dip of only 15% compared to the 39% decline observed overall.
- Notable women-led startups that closed funding rounds in 2023 include Kasha, Dawi Clinics, Chefaa, and Maisha Meds.
- Despite the surge in funding, African healthtech deal sizes contracted by 15% in 2023, averaging about $1.1M.
- Pre-seed and seed-stage women-led health startups raked in $4.8M and $32M of the total funding, respectively.
- Series A and higher startups bagged $99M of the funding.
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| 2 | | 95 global startups entered the unicorn club in 2023 by bagging more than $1B in valuations, per Crunchbase. 
What the numbers say: The unicorn creation rate in 2023 was the slowest since 2016. Most newly minted unicorns belonged to the AI sector, with 20 new entrants to the billion-dollar club. Fintech, cleantech, and energy sectors contributed 14, 12, and 9 startups, respectively, to the unicorn list. 41 of the new entrants were from the U.S., 24 from China, and three each from India and the U.K. Notable additions to the board include LLM model startup Mistral AI, chip architecture company Lightmatter, digitization platform MaintainX, BNPL platform Tamara, digital savings retirement platform Vestwell, snack delivery startup Snack Is Busy, crypto risk management startup Andalusia Labs, and employer healthcare provider EmployerDirect Healthcare. Relevance: Including the recent additions from 2023, there are now more than 1,500 unicorns globally, boasting a collective valuation of over $5T. Private unicorn startups have now raised more than $900B from investors. Where to see the impact: 10 startups exited the unicorn board via IPO, while another 16 were acquired. IPO listings decreased compared to 20 in 2022, while M&A activity increased from 11 from last year. | | | |
| 3 | | Automated software testing solutions startup Antithesis emerged from stealth with a $47M seed round from Amplify Partners, Tamarack Global, and First In Ventures. The startup was valued at $215M at the seed round. Proceeds from the funding round will help the firm grow its customer base, accelerate product development, and expand its workforce, especially the sales, marketing, engineering, and research teams. More: - The startup was founded by the team behind the distributed database platform FoundationDB, which Apple acquired in 2015.
- Antithesis' platform eliminates the need for manually creating software testing tasks as it can scan the software under development for bugs inside a simulated environment separate from the production environment.
- Notable large organizations currently using its products include Palantir, Ethereum, and MongoDB.
Zoom out: - The Business Research Company estimates the software testing solutions market to be worth about $55.98B.
- Major competitors in the space include Microsoft Azure, AWS, Qase, EvaluAgent, and Codegen.
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| 4 | | Cybersecurity startup Armis announced it is acquiring threat intelligence firm CTCI. The transaction cost is estimated to be less than $20M. With CTCI under its belt, it will be able to add predictive threat intelligence capabilities to its product lineup. More: - CTCI uses AI to lure hackers and decode their tactics.
- The firm uses this insight to fortify its defenses and preempt real threats.
- The CTCI acquisition will serve as a foundation for Armis' upcoming advanced early warning cyber intelligence system that notifies clients about emerging threats.
- The acquisition comes as Armis gears up for an IPO listing.
- It reported an annual recurring revenue of $100M at the start of last year.
- Armis was last valued at $3.4B when it raised a $300M funding round in 2021.
- The acquisition is part of Armis' broader strategy to expand its service offerings by acquiring smaller startups.
- Armis is also reportedly in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Silk Security.
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| 5 | | Areteia Therapeutics, a biotech startup developing novel inflammation and immunology therapies for severe asthma, extended its Series A round by $75M. The fresh capital adds to the initial $350M Series A round from 2022, bringing the total raised under the round to $425M. Areteia will use the additional capital to pursue clinical development of its late-stage lead drug candidate, dexpramipexole, in Japan and other key global markets. More: - Part of the proceeds will also be used to expand manufacturing activities and enhance life-cycle management.
- Bain Capital Life Sciences led the extension round, joined by GV, ARCH Venture Partners, Sanofi, Maverick, Capital, Access Biotechnology, Saturn Partners, and Population Health Partners.
- New investors Viking Global Investors and Marshall Wace participated in the round.
- Areteia's lead drug candidate is aiming to become the first oral therapy for patients with severe asthma, offering an alternative to injectable biologics.
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| 6 | | HR and benefits solutions HiBob acquired the British payroll automation platform Pento. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. However, sources estimate the purchase price to be around $40M. The acquisition will help the Israeli unicorn startup expand its product portfolio as it sets out to create an all-in-one HR software solution platform. More: - Pento has about 400 customers, of which 100 are common with HiBob.
- Since its founding in 2017, Pento has raised $54M from investors, including Seedcamp, The Phoenix Group/ LocalGlobe, General Catalyst, Avid Ventures, and Tiger Global.
- HiBob has raised $574M in funding since its inception in 2015.
- It was last valued at $2.7B in October 2023, when it raised a $150M funding round.
- The startup provides a platform that simplifies talent hiring, retention, and engagement.
- HiBob caters to about 3,500 global customers and reported $150M in annual recurring revenue for the past three years.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Visa and Mastercard have come to a historic $5 billion settlement, marking a pivotal moment for small business owners.*
- OpenAI's AI researcher and founding member Andrej Karpathy is leaving the AI startup to work on personal projects.
- Canva's chief financial officer, Damien Singh, has resigned from the role, concluding an eight-year stint at the graphic design firm. The firm is on the lookout for a successor to Singh.
- Former Apple engineer Zhang Xiaolang was charged with a single count of trade-secret theft for stealing the tech giant's proprietary information while going to a Chinese autonomous EV startup. Xiaolang was sentenced to 120 days in a minimum security prison.
- German startup campus Factory is shutting down its most prominent two locations in Berlin in April.
- Dive into advanced tips and tricks with the Kubernetes Cookbook. Get your copy, compliments of the cloud experts at DoiT.*
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 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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