Plus, recruiting startup SeekOut lays off 30% of its workforce
| For May 21, 2024 |  |
| Here’s your daily Startups briefing: - 🧑🏻🦽 The Lilac Review urged the U.K. government to radically improve business support services for disabled founders
- 🤝 CyberArk acquired Venafi for $1.5B to venture into the machine identity security market
- 🛰️ Indian startups are leveraging space tech data to boost agricultural yields and revenue
Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | The Lilac Review, an independent government-backed review in the U.K., highlighted the need to radically improve business support services for disabled entrepreneurs. The report estimates that creating equal opportunities for disabled founders could unlock £230B ($292B) worth of additional revenue across the country. More: - Key challenges identified include the inaccessibility of public services like HMRC and Companies House, as well as difficulties accessing financial services and funding.
- Additionally, disabled entrepreneurs face low approval rates for government grants due to lengthy application processes.
- The review recommends simplifying business support by involving disabled founders in program development and creating a centralized hub with tailored resources.
- Currently, 25% of the U.K.'s 5.5M small businesses are run by disabled entrepreneurs and contribute 8% of GDP.
- The research found that disabled founders are 400 times less likely to raise capital than their non-disabled peers.
|     | |
| 2 | | Cybersecurity giant CyberArk Software agreed to acquire machine identity management company Venafi for $1.54B. 
What the numbers say: The deal consists of $1B in cash and approximately $540M worth of shares. The acquisition price represents a 34% uptick over Venafi's $1.15B valuation when private equity firm Thoma Bravo acquired a majority controlling stake in 2020. The acquisition will help CyberArk venture into the growing machine identity security market and expand its total addressable market by nearly $10B. CyberArk's existing VC investors, including TCV and Foundation Capital, are set to receive a lucrative return through the exit. Relevance: According to Crunchbase, the deal is the largest acquisition involving a private cybersecurity startup this year. Cybersecurity M&A deals are poised to pick up this year, with several VC and PE investors highlighting the uptick in "chatter" about potential deals at the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco two weeks ago. | | | |
| A message from our sponsor, OUR SPONSOR. |  | | Join industry’s leading AI conference - free passes available! Ai4 2024 is the world’s leading gathering of artificial intelligence leaders in business. Jump on the opportunity to join… - 4500+ attendees
- 350+ speakers
- 150+ AI exhibitors
- 75+ countries
Act fast - passes are selling quickly. Don’t miss out on the epicenter of AI innovation. See the full agenda here.
Register Now | |
|
| 3 | | AI-powered recruiting startup SeekOut reportedly laid off 30% of its workforce last week. This is SeekOut's second round of layoffs in the past eight months. The layoffs aim to improve SeekOut's financial position, per a letter addressed to employees by CEO Anoop Gupta and CTO Aravind Bala. Going forward, SeekOut plans to prioritize fewer initiatives that have the most significant impact on its customers and business. More: - Last October, the startup laid off 7%, or 16 team members, of its 200-employee workforce.
- The startup entered the unicorn club in 2022 when it raised $115M in Series C funding from investors at a valuation of $1.2B.
- Notable investors that previously backed the startup include Tiger Global, GV, Madrona, and Mayfield.
- In 2022, the company claimed to have tripled its annual recurring revenue to between $25M and $50M.
- The company's fortunes dipped after the venture capital market tightened and interest rates surged in 2023.
| | | |
| 4 | | Indian agriculture startups are embracing space technology and big data to boost crop yields and profits for farmers. Agritech startups like Cropin are leveraging earth observation satellite data to provide valuable insights to farmers, such as optimal sowing times, weather alerts, and better use of irrigation and pesticides. More: - Google and Gates Foundation-backed Cropin claims to have digitized 30,000 farm plots across 244 villages in India.
- According to a recent study, the startup helped 92% of its customers increase yields by 30% on average and revenues by 37%.
- The company recently inked a major partnership with Amazon Web Services to use its satellite data to solve global food insecurity.
- SatSure uses satellite data for crop insurance and loan analysis, tapping into a $200B agricultural lending market with 70M farmer accounts in India.
Zoom out: - India has about 2,743 agricultural tech startups. Funding for the sector reached a record high of $1.3B in 2021. In 2023, startups in the industry bagged $394.4M and have raised $136.7M so far this year.
- The government is actively promoting the use of space technology in the agriculture sector and announced a $8.42M accelerator program for agritech startups in the 2023 budget.
- Per Deloitte, the use of satellite data for crop insurance and horticulture represents a $1.35B market opportunity over the next five years.
- The global space agriculture market is projected to grow from $4.99B in 2023 to $11.5B by 2032.
| | | |
| 5 | | Edtech startup Zen Educate has secured $37M through a Series B funding round to further expand into more markets in the U.S. and U.K. Zen Educate will also use the proceeds to launch new software products for school administrators, including a school workforce management tool. The British edtech startup also bought teacher staffing agency Aquinas Education, its second-ever acquisition yet. More: - The London-based startup is addressing the global teacher shortage crisis with an online marketplace that connects schools directly with teachers for full-time, part-time, and temporary roles.
- Zen Educate's data-driven platform uses algorithms to automatically match teachers and schools based on criteria such as location, skills, and preferences.
- By digitizing the process and removing intermediaries, teachers earn higher pay while schools save on the 35% to 38% fees traditionally taken by incumbent agencies.
- Zen Educate currently has a presence in five states in the U.S. and 11 regions in the U.K.
- Round2 Capital led the latest Series B round, joined by existing investors Adjuvo, Brighteye Ventures, FJ Labs, and Ascension Ventures.
| | | |
| 6 | | The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has sued fintech startup SoLo Funds for allegedly deceiving borrowers and illegally collecting undisclosed fees advertised as voluntary "tips" from customers using its peer-to-peer lending platform. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra accused SoLo of employing "digital trickery to hide interest and fees on its online loans" and running a "fake tipping scheme" that violated consumer protection laws. More: - Additionally, the agency claims SoLo misrepresented its no-interest loans and made false threats related to credit reporting.
- The lawsuit seeks monetary relief for affected consumers, financial penalties, and possibly additional civil penalties from the Atlanta-based startup.
- Started by Rodney Williams and Travis Holoway in 2018, SoLo Funds provided affordable credit to underserved Americans.
- The firm had raised $13M from prominent VCs, including tennis legend Serena Williams' VC firm Serena Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Alumni Ventures, and Techstars.
- It last raised a $10M Series A funding round in 2021.
- Last year, the startup claimed to have 1M registered users and more than 1.3M app downloads.
| | | |
| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Thinking about growing your business? We'll work as hard as it takes to make Ohio your competitive advantage.*
- Military defense startup Anduril is looking to raise $1.5B from VC firms at a valuation of $12.5B. Sources told The Information that the company doubled its revenue to about $500M last year. The new valuation sought is about 47% higher than its $8.5B at its last funding round from a year and a half ago.
- A Singapore court approved merchant commerce startup Pine Labs' request to shift operations to India. The startup offers cloud-connected point-of-sale machines and other products to merchants. Pine Labs will merge its local entity with its Indian unit and transfer all assets and properties to the newly formed entity in India.
- TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, acquired Chinese earphone maker Oladance for $50M. The move should help ByteDance venture into the wearable device market. The Chinese tech giant is keen on exploring new hardware categories, following in the footsteps of American social media rivals Snap and Meta Platforms.
- Web3Go has rebranded itself to DIN, an acronym for Data Intelligence Network. The new name better reflects the company's transition from a blockchain data startup to an AI data pioneer. DIN recently debuted its first AI data collection node infrastructure called xData.
- British drug discovery startup LabGenius bagged £35M ($44.4M) in Series B funding. Pharma giant Merck's venture arm M Ventures led the round, with additional support from Octopus Ventures, LG Corp, Atomico, Kindred Capital, Lux Capital, and Obvious Ventures.
*This is sponsored content | | | |
 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Karan Chafekar | |
| |
 | Apply today for a complimentary pass or register now for 41% off final prices. | |
|
| |
