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So fun, bumping into some of you earlier tonight in Woodside, Ca.!
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Amazon agreed today to pay a civil penalty of $25 million to settle federal charges that it kept sensitive information collected from children for years, including their precise locations and voice recordings, in violation of a children’s online privacy law. The New York Times has more here.
With traffic fatalities soaring, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today proposed requiring all new cars and trucks to have automatic braking systems that can prevent collisions. It is proposing that all light vehicles, including cars, large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, be equipped to automatically stop and avoid hitting pedestrians at speeds of up to 37 miles per hour, as well as that they be able to brake and stop to avoid hitting stopped or slow-moving vehicles at higher speeds. The New York Times has more here.
Oh, thank God.
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Horizontal SaaS vs. vertical SaaS - which flavor of SaaS do you prefer? Allied Advisers updated their Flavors of SaaS report comparing horizontal and vertical SaaS companies. Horizontal SaaS boasts a larger TAM, but vertical SaaS can be more profitable and capital efficient and better suited for middle-market funds. Building a vertical SaaS company presents opportunities for sector leadership. In today's capital efficient environment, vertical SaaS companies offer compelling opportunities for investors and buyers.
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| As Part of AI push, Chinese Tech Giant Baidu is Now Rolling out an AI Venture Fund |
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Here comes yet more money for AI startups. Today, the Chinese search giant Baidu announced that it plans to establish a venture fund with 1 billion yuan ($145 million) to back start-ups focused on content generated by artificial intelligence applications.
Reuters, which reported the news earlier, said the company will also launch a competition for developers who build applications off its ERNIE large language model (LLM) or integrate the model into their existing products.
Baidu appears to be stealing a page from the playbook of OpenAI, the San Francisco-based company that's been taking the world by storm and that first set aside $100 million for an OpenAI Startup Fund in 2021. (Per a recent filing, that fund subsequently grew to $175 million.)
Still, the two companies are hardly alone in wanting to fund startups that could become customers or even eventual acquisition targets.
More here.
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GetYourGuide, a 14-year-old, Berlin-based marketplace for finding and booking tourist, travel and other experiences, has raised $85 million in Series F funding and secured a revolving credit facility of $109 million. Blue Pool Capital led the equity round, with KKR and Temasek also participating. UniCredit led the credit facility. The round values the company at $2 billion, which is twice where it was value during its last funding round. TechCrunch has more here.
Hostaway, an eight-year-old Toronto startup that provides software that hosts can use to manage vacation rentals across different channels, raised a $175 million round. PSG Equity was the sole investor. The company has raised a total of $178.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Lightmatter, a six-year-old Boston startup whose semiconductor technology can connect chips by translating electrons to photons and back again, raised a $154 million Series C round, tripling its previous valuation. Investors included Fidelity, SIP, Viking Global Investors, and GV. The company has raised a total of $267 million. Reuters has more here.
Magic, a five-year-old startup that provides non-custodial wallet creation software that companies can use to onboard customers to their web3 services, raised a $52 million round led by PayPal Ventures, with Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone, and Volt Capital also contributing. CoinDesk has more here.
Measurabl, a 10-year-old, San Diego-based outfit developing a platform for environmental, social and governance (ESG) data in the real estate space, says it has raised $93 million in Series D funding co-led by Energy Impact Partners and Sway Ventures. Founder and CEO Matt Ellis was previously a director of sustainability solutions at CBRE, the commercial real estate services and investment firm. TechCrunch has more here.
NomuPay, a two-year-old Dublin startup handling cross-border payments that was formed by Finch Capital through its 2021 acquisition of various Wirecard assets, raised $53.6 million in capital (a figure that also include the cost of acquiring the aforementioned assets). The money came from Finch Capital as well as Outpost Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Runway, a five-year-old, New York–based startup that lets customers generate video from text descriptions using AI it pioneered and which closed a $50 million round at a $500 million valuation back in December, is reportedly raising $100 million in Series D funding at a $1.5 billion valuation, with Google as a participant. The Information reports that Google has been making such investments directly off its balance sheet, offering AI startups a combination of cash and Google Cloud credits in exchange for equity. More here and here.
Strive Health, a five-year-old Denver startup that helps providers and patients manage chronic kidney disease, raised a $166 million Series C round led by NEA, with additional participation from CVS Health Ventures and previous investors CapitalG, Echo Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, Ascension Ventures, and Redpoint. The company has raised a total of $386 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Atly, a four-year-old Tel Aviv startup that allows users to create their own community maps, raised an $18 million round. Target Global, Tal Ventures, and FKA Brands participated in the financing. TechCrunch has more here.
CleanJoule, a Salt Lake City startup that is seeking to develop a carbon-friendly biofuel for commercial aviation, raised a $50 million round from Indigo Partners, GenZero, and Cleanhill Partners as well as three airlines – Frontier Airlines, Wizz Air, and Volaris. More here.
Deep Sentinel, a seven-year-old startup based in Pleasanton, Ca., that provides home security through the use of high-definition cameras, AI, and human intervention, raised a $15 million round led by Intel Capital, with additional capital provided by Shasta Ventures, Slow Ventures, UP2398, and Jason Calcanis's The Syndicate. The company has raised a total of $38.4 million. More here.
MediView XR, a six-year-old Cleveland, Oh., startup that is working to make augmented reality available for medical procedures, raised a $15 million round. Investors included the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic, GE HealthCare, JobsOhio Capital Growth Fund, Inside View Investments, and KKVS Syndicate. The company has raised a total of $29.4 million. More here.
Neat Burger, a four-year-old London vegan fast-food chain, says it raised an $18 million Series B round at a $100 million valuation. B-Flexion was the deal lead. Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, an earlier backer in the company, also participated along with other investors. Vegconomist has more here.
Prognos Health, a 13-year-old New York company that operates a marketplace with health data on 325 million de-identified patients, raised a $23 million round co-led by Marshall Wace and Safeguard Scientifics, with Cigna Ventures, Hikma Ventures, Hunt Holdings, Labcorp, Maywic, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, and Red & Blue Ventures also piling on. The company has raised a total of $66.5 million. More here.
Vartana, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that provides B2B sellers with tools to manage tasks such as contract tracking, raised a $20 million Series B round led by Activant Capital, with Mayfield and Audacious Ventures also chiming in. The company has raised a total of $39 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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Alcion, a one-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, Ca., that provides Microsoft 365 administrators with a platform to protect against ransomware, malware, corruption, and accidental data loss, raised an $8 million seed round from angel investors such as Walden International's Lip-Bu Tan and DataRobot's Debanjan Saha. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Dock Health, a three-year-old startup based in Great Barrington, Ma., that has built a HIPAA-compliant workflow management platform for the administrative side of care delivery, raised a $5 million round led by MassMutual, with DaVita Venture Group and previous investor August Capital also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $10.6 million. More here.
Proxima, a San Francisco game studio whose games are intended to serve as a platform for players to create their own communities, economies, and creations, raised a $1.6 million pre-seed round led by London Venture Partners, with Konvoy Ventures, Progression Fund, and Valhalla Ventures also anteing up. VentureBeat has more here.
Violet Therapeutics, a two-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that's developing technology to understand how different cells interact with one another in order to address neuroinflammation and its role in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, raised a $10.6 million seed round co-led by Dementia Discovery Fund and UTEC, with Ono Venture Investment and previous investor Mass General Brigham Ventures also chipping in. CityBiz has more here.
Zeliq, a French startup that claims to automate the customer acquisition process for sales teams, raised a $5.3 million pre-seed round. Resonance was the deal lead, while and joined by Pauline Boucon Duval, Obratori, and + BAs also took part. More here.
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HighLight Capital, a Shanghai-based venture capital firm, is looking to raise between $650 million and $700 million for its fourth U.S. dollar fund, after closing its fourth renminbi fund at 3.1 billion yuan ($437 million) last month. The fourth U.S. dollar fund is targeting a close by the third quarter of 2023, according to the firm's founder. Nikkei Asia has more here.
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Elon Musk goes silent on Twitter while visiting China. 😱 It's his longest hiatus on the platform since June of last year.
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ZipRecruiter, the Santa Monica, Ca.-based job posting site, is eliminating about 20% of its workforce and giving its top executive a pay cut as it retrenches amid a broad slowdown in hiring. The company plans to cut about 270 roles, according to a filing Wednesday, in response to “current market conditions.” Bloomberg has the story here.
Blockchain analytics platform Nansen said it is laying off 30% of its workforce, citing broader difficulties in the crypto market. Accel, GIC and Andreessen Horowitz are among those to have backed the company, according to its website. Bloomberg has more here.
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Seed startups pile up. According to Crunchbase analysis, there are now more seed-funded companies in the pipeline than ever, and they’re all competing for investor attention as they seek to raise their Series A rounds. Around 2,000 companies that raised an initial $1 million seed in 2021 have yet to raise post-seed funding, Crunchbase data shows. Another 2,400 companies that raised seed funding in 2022 will be competing for that next round. More here.
A snapshot of what's happening on L.A.'s startup scene, according to Carta.
Soaring API pricing by Reddit is turning off customers.
AI is writing code now. For companies, that's good and bad.
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