Ex-Google researchers raise $8M / Median period between rounds increases / Meesho lays off 15% workforce

Plus: R2 gets $100M credit line from Community Investment Management

Inside.com Part of   Network May 05, 2023

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Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar, the authors of the seminal 2017 research paper that popularized the use of large language models in AI, have raised $8M for their new stealth-mode startup, Essential AI. Thrive Capital led the funding round, with participation from Conviction and angel investor Elad Gil, as the company aims to build software for enterprises to use large language models. More: The company aims to build software for enterprises to use large language models, which have powered generative AI applications such as ChatGPT. Other authors on the paper who have also left Google to start their own ventures include Noam Shazeer, who runs AI chatbot startup Character.AI, and Aidan Gomez, who founded large language model startup Cohere. Although there is not a lot of detail on the company, which is in stealth mode, it comes at a time when the founders left Adept AI, a company they also founded back in 2021 with a focus on neural network training.

What the numbers say: Per CBInsights, the median period between funding rounds has increased due to the macroeconomic headwinds. Startups are now taking 26 months between Series C and D stage rounds, nine months more than the previous period of 15 months. The extended fundraising period can be attributed to the VC funding retrenchment, due to which investors are taking longer to conduct thorough due diligence for potential opportunities.  What happened: Several startups that raised equity funding recently had to take valuation cuts. At the end of Q4 2022, median valuations of Series C rounds dropped 15% QoQ to $339.3M. Due to lengthened median periods between funding rounds and the possibility of having to raise a down round with a valuation cut, startups were instead raising venture debt — typically raising between 20% to 35% of their latest equity round.  Where to see the impact: Taking venture debt rather than equity funding helped several startups avoid layoffs and business failure. However, the situation was further aggravated by the collapse of startup venture debt provider Silicon Valley Bank in March earlier this year. CBInsights predicts this will result in a further slump in startup valuations, increase startup mortality, and intensify layoffs, especially in startups with high cash burn.

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Indian social commerce startup Meesho has cut 15% of its workforce, or 251 roles, in a bid to reduce expenses and achieve sustained profitability. Meesho, whose backers include SoftBank, Prosus, and Sequoia India, is targeting breakeven in 2023 and has recently trimmed its cash burn aggressively. More: The company offers an online platform for individuals to sell items while managing their backend logistics and tracking order flows.  This is the second round of job cuts at Meesho after eliminating about 150 roles a year ago. Those affected by the layoffs will receive one-time severance payments of 2.5 to 9 months, job placement support, and accelerated vesting.  Meesho, which is used heavily in smaller cities in India, grew by 10x from 2020 to 2022 and drove a merchandise value of $4.5 billion in 2022.

Community Investment Management provided a $100M warehouse debt credit facility to Latin American fintech startup R2. The startup aims to use the proceeds "to get to a new stage as a leader in embedded lending, reducing the financing gap for small and medium companies," per co-founder Roger Larach.  More: Fintech R2 provides revenue-based loans and lending infrastructure to SMEs. The startup claims to have disbursed nearly $20M to six million SMEs in the region.  R2 takes back part of the revenue as repayment towards the loans, helping the firm curb delinquencies. Notable clients include Clip and Frubana.  Zoom out: The slump in tech valuations and rising interest rates have made it difficult for companies in the region to avail credit facilities.  "Banks and underwriters serve small merchants even less" during economic downturns, giving R2 the opportunity to cater to the growing needs of SMEs in the region, says Larach.

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Sweetgreen's chief marketing officer Daniel Shlossman joined food-delivery startup Wonder as its first chief growth and marketing officer. Shlossman will be responsible for marketing, digital, partnership, product strategy, and customer experience. His appointment to the role comes as the startup looks to expand its restaurant kitchens with a new category of delivery kitchens called "fast fine."  More: Wonder already opened up one such kitchen in Manhattan's Upper West Side in February, with plans to establish nine more outlets across New York City.  The startup, which raised $350M at a $3.5B valuation last year, pivoted its strategy from movable kitchens to fixed locations at the start of this year.  "All the financial metrics—return on capital, profitability, our ability to scale fast—are much better with the fixed location model," said CEO Marc Lore.  Shlossman's chief marketing officer role vacated at Sweetgreen will be filled by co-founder and chief brand officer Nathaniel Ru.

French startup Green-Got raised €5M ($5.4M) in a funding round, with almost €2M ($2.2M) contributed by its community of customers through an equity crowdfunding campaign. The startup is a neo-bank focusing on climate change, ensuring that customers' savings and funds in their accounts are not invested in fossil fuel projects or other polluting industries.  More: Green-Got offers standard banking features, allowing clients to open an account through the mobile app and receive a debit card that works alongside Apple Pay and Google Pay.  The company offers no free tier and charges a €6 per month subscription model to hold an account, noting they already have 13,000 paid customers. This move comes at a time when many consumers, specifically Gen Z, are increasingly focused on the environmental impact of their spending and investments.

Quick Hits: The company behind these surgical robots is planning to list on Nasdaq. Last day to fund your investment is on 5/10.* Dutch software testing startup Instruqt secured €15M ($16.4M) in Series A funding led by Blossom Capital. This is the firm's first outside funding, as it was bootstrapped for the five years since its launch.  Seattle, Wash.-based data startup Genemod secured $4.5M in fresh funding co-led by Defy.vc and LDV Partners. The firm is developing a cloud-based platform for life sciences companies and researchers to manage data workflows.  Men's health-focused startup Bonatra acquired women's health and wellness startup MyAva for an undisclosed sum.  Brazilian payments solutions startup CloudWalk reached profitability in Q1 2023, reporting $11M in profits against $30M net revenue. CloudWalk's fiscal year revenues at the end of March topped $138M. Demo Divvy, get an Ember heated mug. Hot coffee and quick and easy expense management — get both when you demo Divvy.* *This is sponsored content.

Upcoming Events: May 08 - Inside.com Town Hall (Register Here) May 11 - Testing and monitoring large language models (LLMs) with TruEra (Register Here) * May 17 - Monthly Meditation guided by Nicholas Whitaker (Register Here) May 17 - Join Vanta's webinar to see Vendor Risk Management in action and learn about automating security reviews. (Register Here) * *This is a sponsored event listing.

Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot.  Robel is a writer for Inside.com. He was born and raised in the Bay Area but now lives in the Midwest. He is passionate about all things tech, venture, city, and state government, and in his free time enjoys outdoor activities including biking, hiking, and running. Editor Vibha Chapparike is a Freelance Writer & Editor at Inside.com. With her post-graduation in Management and Finance completed, Vibha is expanding her knowledge in venture capital, business, startups, and technology. She has had a career in public relations and communications. An ardent reader and writer currently residing in Singapore, you can follow Vibha on Twitter @VChapparike.

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Two scientists are placed in hibernation and should be awaken after three years. But when they wake up, it turns out that it has been fifty years, and they are the only two males in a new, underground society composed exclusively of women.

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Pepecoin Traders Lose Millions, Push Up Ethereum Fees

ALSO: Israel seizes Binance accts.., Alibaba builds on Avalanche and more |

May 5, 2023 The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day  Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here. Don't want this newsletter? Unsubscribe Welcome to The Node, a summary of the latest crypto news and why it matters.   In the news: PEPE meme coin traders are pushing Ethereum gas prices to 12-month highs. Israel has seized 190 Binance accounts tied to terrorist organizers. And Alibaba is providing metaverse-building services for Avalanche.   The takeaway: CoinDesk Insights Columnist David Z. Morris looks at the limitations of "BRC-20" tokens, a new Bitcoin-based token standard that is catching on despite its limited utility.   – Daniel Kuhn Reality Check Investors with shorts out on pepecoin (PEPE), the Pepe the Frog-themed token launched days ago on Ethereum that notched a valuation above $1 billion amid a trading frenzy, have lost millions as the meme coin's rally continues. CoinGlass data shows short sellers have lost $5.5 million on OKX, $2.2 million on Huobi, $3.6 million on Bybit and a few hundred thousand dollars on BitMEX – all exchanges which began offering PEPE futures in the past week. Retail traders be warned: the data also shows much of the token's circulating supply is held by a few early investors (meaning everyone else could become "exit liquidity"). The economic impact of PEPE isn't limited to day traders, as the meme coin mania has driven the average gas price on Ethereum to a 12-month high. Crypto Crackdown Israel has seized 190 accounts at crypto exchange Binance allegedly tied to terrorist organizations including Daesh and Hamas since 2021, according to never-before-published documents from the Israeli Defense Ministry's counter-terrorism division. "This is why our team collaborates with law enforcement, and leverages information that is only available to them," Binance said Thursday in a public response to Reuters, which first published the news. Binance's 700-member compliance team processes about 1,300 law enforcement requests per week, the company has said. Meanwhile, the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been cracking down on crypto ATMs across the country. CoinATMRadar counts only 17 crypto ATMs on the island nation, though the FCA said no licensed crypto company is permitted to offer this service. Heavy Metals and Metaverse Clouds Alibaba Cloud, the computing division of China's tech behemoth, has built a launchpad for businesses to deploy metaverses on Avalanche, the layer 1 blockchain. Named Cloudverse, the tool is designed to enable companies to customize and maintain "metaverse spaces." Avalanche will serve as the base tech for the digital spaces, while Alibaba, which is also hosting node services for Sui blockchain developers Mysten Labs, will provide the computing and storage, according to a statement. Elsewhere, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is now onboarding citizens and companies onto its upcoming gold-backed digital token. The novel token project was announced in April, and will launch on May 8 in an attempt to counter the country's infamous problem with inflation.  Sound Bites "We're not building yet another blockchain that basically looks and feels the same as any other blockchain."  – Mysten Labs CEO Evan Cheng, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover" The Takeaway: 'These Will Be Worthless'   A new frenzy is sweeping cryptoland – so-called "BRC-20s" are fungible tokens deployed on the Bitcoin blockchain, and some are beginning to see major market activity. The proposed new standard was introduced in March by a coder known online as Domo, and it has a lot of interesting potential. The main point of the BRC-20 experiment, enabled by new features introduced in Bitcoin's recent Taproot upgrade, is to see exactly what the new tech can do.   When I reached out, Domo generously recommended a few resources for techies who want to dig deeper on BRC-20s. This basic intro for builders explains how to deploy BRC-20s and discusses some of the broader questions yet to be resolved. This is a more in-depth technical rundown by Domo. And this is a video introduction by YouTuber pazNGMI, which includes info on minting and wallets. But Domo, and most other experts, have issued strong warnings against financial speculation in the new token format. In fact, just after the experimental standard was launched, Domo declared that "These will be worthless. Please do not waste money mass minting."   With a flood of new BRC-20 memecoins being traded for real money, at least some people are clearly ignoring that warning. And it's hard to blame them: in crypto, getting in first on anything new tends to be a decent strategy for speculators. So why would the first assets created with this exciting new technology be "worthless?" There are two prongs to the explanation. On the one hand, the BRC-20 standard is just a proposal at this point, and there's no guarantee it will be widely integrated into blockchain tools like wallets and exchanges.   Average users will probably have a hard time accessing BRC-20s for the foreseeable future. Wallets have to have special features to read ordinals, and even more special features to read the new BRC-20s. Indeed, standardization could be a long way off: the design of BRC-20 isn't necessarily finalized, much less fully vetted or adopted. In theory, there might be other ways to deploy tokens on Bitcoin, or further improvements to BRC-20 in its current form. If a competing or improved standard winds up being more widely adopted, the current wave of BRC-20s could become little more than digital museum pieces.   But second, and more fundamentally, it remains unclear just where the economic value of tokens issued on Bitcoin might come from. Despite borrowing their nomenclature from Ethereum's ERC-20s, BRC-20s cannot be integrated into smart contracts or decentralized finance (DeFi) across chains, and regardless, Bitcoin itself doesn't have DeFi features. Moreover, getting BRC-20s onto DeFi will likely involve bridges or other higher-risk structures. For now, this means BRC-20s also cannot serve as the backbone of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) or other more complex systems that would give them utility and value.    There's a much more immediate downside to BRC-20s current limitations, even for degens happy to play the decentralized Ponzi game of memecoins. The lack of DeFi compatibility means that BRC-20s can't benefit from liquidity provided by DeFi services like trading pools. So even pure speculation in the tokens may not have the frothy upside of a similar token issued on Ethereum. In fact, we're seeing that play out right now. A BRC-20 known as "Pepe" is among those now being traded by a few daring basement-dwellers. BRC Pepe and all the other BRC-20s that currently exist had a combined fully diluted value (FDV) of $137 million as of May 2. But there's also a "Pepe" memecoin on Ethereum, which was launched in April. Its FDV now sits at $1.2 billion.   In short, BRC-20s are a fascinating innovation with seriously interesting potential. But if you're looking for the lowbrow thrill of riding ephemeral pumps in animal-based casino tokens, it seems Ethereum should still be your home base.   – David Z. Morris  @davidzmorris david.morris@coindesk.com NEAR Foundation Launches NEAR Horizon   Though there have been recent signs of crypto winter thawing, developers have continued to make the most of the current builder's market. NEAR, in particular, has seen significant growth in new projects and increased adoption over the past year.   NEAR's expansion is due in part to some significant upgrades and announcements from its core team. Most recently, NEAR announced its transition to a Blockchain Operating System (BOS), an industry first that further establishes NEAR as the direct entry point into Web3. With the BOS, NEAR is no longer just a Layer 1 — it's the OS for an open web, free from the centralized platforms of Web2.   *This is sponsored content by NEAR Off-Chain Signals  Ethereum Developers In 'Final Stages Of Planning' Next Major Upgrade – The Defiant Developer Inserts 'Bug' in Bitcoin Ordinals—How Bad Is It? – Decrypt Bitcoin sales on Cash App surged to $2.2 billion in Q1, Block says  – The Block Bhutan Plans a $500 Million Fund for Crypto Mining in the Himalayas – Bloomberg (paywall) Crypto, influencers targeted in Kenya's new tax bid – TechCrunch CoinDesk is coming back to Austin for Consensus 2024. Get your super early bird tickets for the lowest possible rates and join us May 29-June 1, 2024. Get your tickets now. How to Cope Kudos for making it this far! On occasion, we'll give our loyal Node readers the opportunity to claim DESK, our social token, which is a mechanism for returning the value of engagement directly to the users who create it.  Claim 5 DESK The Node: A newsletter from CoinDesk Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here.  Don't want this newsletter? Unsubscribe. Copyright © 2023 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA See all of CoinDesk's newsletters | Manage subscriptions | Opt out

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Benadette Peters stars in this ironic film based on Tama Janowitz's best-selling collection of short stories that defined the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s

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