Seedcamp raises ~$180M for sixth fund / Ethernovia raises $64M Series A funding / Ripple acquires Swiss startup Metaco

Plus, Insurtech startup Obie raises $25.5M

Inside Startups For May 17, 2023

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1 Seedcamp, a European early-stage investor, announced it secured €166M (~$179.9M) for its sixth fund, the largest amount it has raised. The new fund comes 2.5 years after Seedcamp V, with the purpose of investing in innovation for the next 10 to 15 years. More: "Europe's needs have matured significantly, and it's now all about speed, coverage, and quality," said Seedcamp's founding partner, Reshma Sohoni.  The fund's liquidity providers include Reference Capital, Harbourves, Indeed's Paul Forster, Gumtree's Michael Pennington, and UiPath's Daniel Dines, among others. Previous investments by Seedcamp include video conference site Hopin, AI for health diagnosis company Viz.ai, and neobank Revolut.

2 What happened: Ethernet chip maker Ethernovia nabbed $64M in Series A from Porsche Automobile Holding, VentureTech Alliance, Qualcomm Ventures, and Western Digital Capital. The firm provides ethernet chips and software to connect the sensors and electronics to the central computer within EVs. The San Jose,  Calif.-based startup intends to use the proceeds to accelerate product development and build out its marketing, sales, and customer support division.  What the numbers say: Funding has declined for chip startups in the U.S. due to the venture funding pullback that has impacted all sectors. So far this year, chip startups in the U.S. have raised $262M from 17 deals. On the other hand, funding for global semiconductor startups has remained robust, raking in $2.3B from 168 deals. At the current rate, global funding will likely match or come just a "tick below" $7.9B total from 2022 at this year-end, per Crunchbase.  Where to see the impact: Despite the dip in the U.S., funding is poised to increase due to the introduction of the CHIPS and Science Act by the Biden administration last year. The Act has earmarked $50B for semiconductor chip manufacturing in the nation.

A message from our sponsor, TRUERA. ML Monitoring at Scale – the MLOps Perspective Ready to see what it really takes to monitor machine learning models in production? This in-depth webinar takes you up close and personal. Join TruEra on May 23rd as their Chief Scientist, Anupam Datta, and Biswajit Das, the former Chief Architect of the AI Platform at a large financial services firm, provide a real-life overview of the fundamentals of ML Monitoring. During the 60-minute webinar, they will cover: What is ML Monitoring/ML Observability? Monitoring best practices - going beyond uptime and retraining Key elements of an ML monitoring platform: scale, integrations, and enterprise readiness Case study: monitoring and MLOps in real life Live, practical run-through of how to identify, diagnose, and debug model issues in production Q&A with the presenters Date: May 23rd Where: Virtual event - Join from Anywhere Who should attend: Those who manage ML operations, data engineering, data science, or AI Register for free

3 San Francisco, Calif.-based blockchain firm Ripple acquired Swiss institutional digital asset management solutions provider Metaco. Ripple funded the acquisition with $250M cash on its balance sheet. The news comes as Ripple is fighting an SEC lawsuit that accused CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen of breaching U.S. securities laws by selling digital currency XRP without registering it with the regulator.  More: The acquisition will enable Ripple to expand its global footprint and product portfolio.  Garlinghouse claims that Ripple is in a strong position "to play offense" and continue to make strategic acquisitions despite the regulatory hurdles and prevailing market conditions.   Ripple was last valued at $15B at its most recent funding round.  Earlier this month, Garlinghouse told CNBC that the firm might have to spend $200M fighting the SEC lawsuit.  Zoom out: Ripple's acquisition of Metaco comes as several crypto companies have threatened to move operations outside the U.S. following tough enforcement actions taken by the SEC.

4 Insurtech startup Obie announced a $25.5M round led by Battery Ventures. The company insures $20B worth of property, up from $3B two years ago.  More: Obie focuses on landlords of small and medium-sized apartments, claiming to save them 25% to 30% on premiums versus other insurance companies. A graduate of Y Combinator, Obie last raised a $10.4M Series A in May 2021.  The startup partnered with 75 proptech companies, including Awning, Roofstock, Flock Homes, Baselane, and Marketplace Homes. "There are over 18 million residential real estate investors in the U.S., and more than 90% of them are small 'mom and pop' investors who spend over $60B a year on insurance premiums, so there's plenty of room for Obie to run here," said the company's co-founder, Aaron Letzeiser.

A message from our sponsor, WING VC. Meet the Best Companies in Enterprise Tech: Presenting the 5th Annual ET30 The Enterprise Tech 30, now in its 5th year, identifies the best companies in enterprise tech as chosen by an exclusive group of 96 venture capitalists across 74 firms. It serves as a platform for the tech industry to identify, learn about, and build relationships with today’s most promising private companies. This year’s cohort is unlike any of the previous four. In this report you can expect: Over two-thirds are new to the ET30. Nearly 30 percent of the companies on the list are in the generative AI category. Half are in the developer platform and tools category, an increase from years past.  Many span multiple categories, including security, fintech, and productivity tools. And, some of the previous year’s winners are seeing tremendous success: Of last year’s ET30 companies, one has been acquired (pending), and 20 have raised follow-on capital of $9.3 billion in total. Of the initial ET30 companies in 2019, the total valuation has increased by $264 billion since the 2019 report publication date. See The List

5 Quilt, which works on ductless heat pump systems, raised $9M in Seed funding led by Lowercarbon Capital and Gradient Ventures. The company uses AI to recognize heating and cooling patterns to maximize efficiency in the home. More: Quilt's CEO, Paul Lambert, was previously a director at Google's Area 120. The startup was also founded by former Googlers Matthew Knoll and Bill Kee. "At Nest, we reimagined the lowly thermostat to make homes smarter, more comfortable, and more efficient — Quilt brings that same innovative vision to heat pumps," said Nest Co-founder Matt Rogers, who participated in the round through his firm, Incite Ventures. Quilt intends to take advantage of incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides $10,000 in rebates and tax credits for heat pumps.

6 London, U.K.-headquartered money transfer fintech startup Zepz reduced its headcount by 26%. The firm laid off 420 employees, primarily from its customer care and engineering division, out of its 1,600-strong workforce. Zepz cited "workforce optimization" as the reason behind the move, helping the firm eliminate duplicate roles from its subsidiaries WorldRemit and Sendwave.  More: Zepz's online money transfer subsidiary WorldRemit acquired its African counterpart Sendwave for $500M in Aug. 2020.  At the time, the transaction gave the merged entity a valuation of $1.5B.  This is Zepz's second round of layoffs after it slashed its workforce by 5% in Jun. 2022.  Zepz CEO Mark Lenhard insists that the firm decided to streamline the organization rather than as a response to the macroeconomic conditions.  Lenhard added that the decision was "an important and necessary step in transitioning from two vast, segmented teams to one dynamic organization under Zepz."

7 Quick Hits: Hippocratic AI, an AI startup developing the safest artificial health general intelligence, secured $50M in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst.  NEA and Nava Ventures led a $19.1M Series A round into Union AI, an open-sourced startup that orchestrates AI and data workflows for businesses.  Wrangle, a startup developing productivity tools for remote workers, raised a $2M seed round led by Accomplice and Correlation Ventures, with participation from Bloomberg Beta, Eniac Ventures, and the Triangle Tweener Fund.  Visa selected seven startups for its accelerator program in Asia Pacific. The shortlisted startups were Dowsure, Doxa Holdings, Kadmos, Pi-xcels, Playbux, Transpure, and Twid.

Upcoming Events MAY 17 Monthly Meditation guided by Nicholas Whitaker Virtual Register Here MAY 23 In-depth webinar on ML Monitoring at Scale with TruEra Virtual (Register Here) MAY 23 Advance your security program and win more deals by joining this Vanta webinar Virtual Register Here MAY 25 Inside.com Book Club - Zero To One by Peter Thiel Virtual Register Here * This is a sponsored event

Knowledge Hub Term of the Day Venture debt: Venture debt is a form of non-dilutive debt financing used by startups, especially early-stage, to supplement their equity fundraising. Read More Question of the Week How do you approach networking, and what advice can you give others looking to build their professional connections? Join the conversation

INSIDE STARTUPS LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) 🥇 Michael Hoffman (48) 🥈 Mehul Kamdar (24) 🥉 Stephen Barr (20)

Karan Chafekar Analyst Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot.  This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike

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