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| Here's a look at today's Startups briefing. - Utherverse looking to raise $1.235M through a crowdfunding platform.
- Databricks acquired enterprise data startup Arcion for $100M.
- WordPress' parent company acquires Texts.com for $50M.
We spoke with Anada Lakra, the co-founder and CEO of BoldVoice, a Y Combinator company that helps immigrants learn English with the help of Hollywood acting coaches. She shared many valuable lessons in this interview, which you can watch here. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Metaverse startup Utherverse is looking to raise $1.235M through its crowdfunding campaign on the Republic platform. The firm was reportedly valued at $77M and recently raked in more than $77M in revenue. More: - Investors already committed to purchasing shares worth $100,000 before the launch of the fundraising campaign.
- Individuals participating in Utherverse's crowdfunding campaign will receive early beta access, VIP access to the platform, and access to UtherTokens.
Zoom out: - Utherverse's crowdfunding campaign comes amidst a VC funding drought for metaverse startups.
- VC funding for metaverse startups dropped more than 70% from $1.9B in Q4 2022 to just $526M in Q1 2023, per Crunchbase.
- Investors' appetite for metaverse startups has faded, with only one startup able to raise a mega funding round of more than $100M in Q1.
- AR-powered car buying platform Impel landed a $104M round earlier this January.
Q: What are the common challenges startups encounter when raising capital through crowdfunding platforms? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | Databricks is set to acquire enterprise data company Arcion for $100M, CEO Ali Ghodsi told CNBC. 
Relevance: This is Databricks' second large acquisition in four months after it acquired MosiacML for $1.3B in June. Arcion's acquisition will help Databricks easily sync data from software platforms like Salesforce, Workday, and Oracle. What happened: Databricks is one of the most valuable private companies in the world and was last valued at $43B at its $500M Series I round last month. Databricks had participated in Arcion's $13M Series A round in Feb. 2022. Per Pitchbook, Arcion has raised $18M in total funding to date and was last valued at $65M. Why it matters: Databricks' acquisition of Arcion comes amidst a subdued M&A market. M&A transactions have not picked up like initially expected despite the challenging fundraising environment, lack of exit opportunities through IPO, high interest rates, and economic volatility. Only 629 M&A transactions involving VC-backed startups have been completed in the first nine months of this year, per Crunchbase. In comparison, 919 M&A deals were completed at the same time last year. | | | |
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In a great conversation for Inside.com, Anada Lakra, the co-founder and CEO of BoldVoice, a company that helps immigrants speak English better, shared invaluable lessons on her story as an immigrant, studying at Ivy League universities, joining Y Combinator and how her startup is helping improve the lives of immigrants who live in the US. Here are some of the main takeaways from our conversation:
Asked about the impact of BoldVoice, she highlighted the fact that "Speaking issues hurt immigrants' chances of getting hired by 20%, making it a critical issue for both job-seekers and employers."
When asked about how BoldVoice acquired its first users, Anada said that the team was "Grassroots in its approach, writing Reddit blogs, speaking with people face to face, and asking fellow Y Combinator entrepreneurs about their opinion, since many of them had an immigrant background."
Anada also shared that "in addition to helping users get hired, the app has helped them in their social life as well, which is very rewarding." You can watch the full interview here. | | | |
| 4 | | WordPress' parent company, Automattic, announced the acquisition of the all-in-one messaging app Texts.com for $50M. Texts combine messages from apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and Discord into a single inbox. More: - In March, Automattic acquired ActivityPub, a plug-in enabling bloggers to join distributed networks such as Mastodon.
- Automattic's best-known acquisition is its purchase of Tumblr from Verizon Communications in 2019.
- "I like to pick areas I feel are so fundamental to the human condition that I can work on this the rest of my life. Self-publishing, commerce, and messaging cover a good chunk of all human activity, and they're also three areas where I think an open-source solution is necessary for the long term," said Automattic CEO Matt Mullenwe.
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| 5 | | Nvidia participated in South Korean generative AI startup Twelve Labs' $9.7M pre-Series A. The round included participation from Samsung Electronics and Korea Investment Partners. More: - Twelve Labs focuses primarily on AI models to understand video content.
- The startup began with a $120,000 investment from Techstars in Jan. 2021, followed by a $5M round led by Index Ventures and a $12M round led by Radical Ventures.
- The investment follows Nvidia's participation in Adept and Inflection AI's Series B and Hugging Face and Cohere's Series C.
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| 6 | | Los Angeles, Calif.-based baby products startup Hello Bello filed for bankruptcy on Monday. The firm has declared assets and liabilities worth $100M each in the bankruptcy filing. PE firm Hildred Capital Management has offered to bring it out of bankruptcy, extending a lifeline that values the firm at $65M. More: - The startup – founded by actress Kristen Bell and actor Dax Shepard in 2019 – had been struggling in recent years due to high shipping and production costs.
- Hello Bello tried to lower costs by building its own diaper production factory in Texas. However, this move exacerbated their financial strain and did not yield cost savings quickly enough to counter the challenges.
- According to the bankruptcy filings, Hello Bellow owes its largest creditor – a tissue products supplier – about $22M.
- Hello Bello's CEO Erica Buxton said, "Given macroeconomic trends, including inflation and increased shipping costs, we believe that this course of action is the best path forward to ensure that Hello Bello continues to bring families the highest quality and most environmentally friendly products at affordable prices."
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| 7 | | Klu, a large language model platform for building and evaluating AI applications, raised $1.7M through a pre-seed round led by Firstminute Capital. The startup develops products such as Klu Studio for quick prototyping and Engine for accessing models such as GPT-4 and Llama 2. More: - The round included participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Atomico, and Craft Ventures.
- Klu launched its closed beta in March and has 500,000 requests per week from B2B companies such as Colab, Productlane, and Zavvy. The company claims a weekly growth rate of 10%.
- "The layoffs of late 2022 shifted modeling work from data scientists to product teams consuming AI APIs," said Klu CEO and co-founder Stephen M. Walker II.
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- Healthcare startup Carbon Health reportedly posted an EBITDA loss of $84M in H1 2023, per The Information. The startup was able to bring down its average loss per patient visit from $105 last year to $63 in Jan. 2023.
- San Francisco, Calif.-based Crusoe Energy Systems availed a $200M debt facility from VC firm Upper90 to purchase GPUs.
- Indian edtech startup Byju's CFO Ajay Goel resigned from his role. Goel will depart after completing the audit formalities for the financial year ending Mar. 2022.
- Former J.P. Morgan executive Jeremy Balkin's instant refund startup TodayPay emerged from stealth today.
- New York City-based women's healthcare startup August is raising a bridge round from existing backers.
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Term of the Day Capital expenditure: CapEx is the spending by a company for the acquisition, improvement, or maintenance of long-term assets such as buildings, equipment, or land Question of the Week What's one tool or app that has significantly made your life easier at work? Join the conversation |
INSIDE STARTUPS LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) |
 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot.
Nicolas is a Sr. Analyst at Inside, covering startups and transportation trends. He is an avid map maker and data nerd. Nicolas has worked in the shared-scooter space, as well as advised e-bike and moped start-ups.
Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, Security, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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