Cashify, an Indian marketplace for gadgets trade-ins and buybacks in India, raised $90M, led by Prosus Ventures and NewQuest Capital Partners. The Series E round was also supported by Paramark Ventures and existing backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Blume Ventures, and Olympus Capital. More: - The seven-year-old company saw its valuation increase by a factor of 2.5 with the latest capital injection since its Series C funding.
- The cash also brought Cashify’s funding raised to date up to over $130M.
- The company’s gadget resale platform operates on two tiers:
- Users can sell and buy used smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets from one another.
- Additionally, the startup works with Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Samsung to repair and refurbish devices from those brands.
- Beyond its app and website, the company is active in 120 stores in 65 cities in India. It wants to bump that figure to 200 cities this year and increase its presence in the UAE, Turkey, and Bangladesh.
- To date, the startup reports that sales of smartphones make up 90% of its revenue.
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Parisian VC outfit Breega has raised a new fund with $262.5M (€250M) to push past the seed stage into Series A+ investments. The funds will be distributed to at least 20 companies. The firm also opened up an office in Barcelona, adding to its London- and Paris-based presence. More: - The latest vehicle is Breega's fourth since its founding seven years ago and includes as LPs: European Investment Fund, Bpifrance, Group Crédit Agricole, Amundi, LCL, Isomer Capital, and several unnamed European entrepreneurs.
- It also brought Breega's AUM to over $525M (€500M) and will continue the firm's focus on fintech and insurtech companies with individual investments in other domains.
- With a portfolio full of European scale-ups, including Moneybox, Cuvva, Coverflex, and Libeo, Breega gained prominence following the close of its second seed fund, raised just under a year ago at $115.5M (€110M).
- It implemented a so-called "Scaling Squad" to help its young investments thrive, a strategy that has shown itself to be eminently successful.
- To date, Breega has backed 70 portfolio companies across seven countries.
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 A message from BAMBOOHR Optimizing Compensation for Shared Trust It often takes a major disruption like the events of 2020 to highlight areas where the employer employee balance is more precarious than most people suspected. In this case, the disruption led to a free fall in retention we now call The Great Resignation—in November 2021 alone, more than 4.5 million U.S employees left their jobs. Understanding how these factors affect your employees’ productivity and your organization’s retention rate is essential for nurturing the effective partnerships you’ve built, not to mention growing into a better future together. Let’s explore how trust is built between employer and employee and what it needs to grow stronger in spite of today’s challenges. Download the Guide
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San Francisco is clawing its way back after the tech exodus rocked the city's startup scene, reports The Information. Hacker houses are beginning to pop up again, and while the startup enclave South Park still has many vacancies, a hub for venture capitalists recently opened in the Presidio. More: - Between 2020 and 2021, San Francisco's population fell 6.7%, with almost 59,000 residents departing, the largest drop for any major U.S. city in that time period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
- In Q1'22, office vacancies reached a high of 21.7%. That represents 18.7 million square feet of office space going unused, including 5.3 million that are leased but sitting vacant.
- Meanwhile, the New York tech scene recovered more quickly than San Francisco's, with more people moving to Manhattan in 2022 than before the pandemic.
- In comparison, there are currently around 842,754 residents living in San Francisco as of the beginning of 2022, down less than 1%, or about 6,700 residents, from pre-pandemic levels.
- New York-based startups raised as many Series A deals as their San Francisco counterparts last quarter, according to data compiled by Canvas Ventures, for the first time in history.
- Nevertheless, the Bay Area accounted for about 40% of total U.S. VC deal value in the same time frame, or about $28B, according to PitchBook.
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U.K.-based buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) startup Playter has raised $55M in fresh debt and equity led by Adit Venture Capital and Fasanara Capital. Fin Capital, Act Venture Capital, and 1818 Ventures also participated in the round. More: - The funding, the exact mix of which was not disclosed, came rapidly on the heels of Playter’s $1.7M Seed round in March 2022.
- Instead of targeting consumers, as is the case for most BNPL outfits, Player offers its services for B2B SMBs.
- Specifically, it targets payments for professional services and offers credit lines of up to $366,000 (£300,000) with no interest costs or revenue sharing, with a subscription fee starting at $671 (£550) per month.
- Beyond the ease of completing payments offered by the platform, the BNPL setup enables companies to take advantage of annual software discounts.
- The company claims growth to have been over 1,000% in scale and revenue for the last few months.
The wider lens: - B2C-focused BNPL operators, such as Sweden’s Klarna, have recently come under suspicion on the basis that their offerings trick users into thinking that purchases are cheaper than they actually are.
- Moreover, as interest rates rise, the tight margins faced by companies reliant on debt funding to support their sales will get even slimmer.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 AI/ML - Sanas (Paris, Texas), AI voice technology to filter out accents: $32M A from GV, et al.
Biotech/Health - Florence (Atlanta, Ga.), clinical trial software: $27M C-1 led by Insight Partners.
- AiVF (Tel Aviv, Israel), end-to-end IVF journey: $25M A led by Insight Partners, participation from 166 2nd.
- Gemelli Biotech (Los Angeles, Calif.), precision diagnostics for gastrointestinal diseases: ...
Want to read about all of today's funding in one place? The funding roundup is only available to free users on Mondays and Fridays. Upgrade to Inside VC Premium for either $10/month, or $100 billed annually, to receive the full list in every issue! For a limited time, we are offering a 14-day free trial. Click here to sign up! | | | |
Quick Hits - During uncertain times, customer-centric businesses stay afloat. Find out why in this deep dive.*
- MetaCompliance, a California-based provider of a security and compliance training platform, acquired Moch, a Copenhagen-based cybersecurity and compliance provider, for an undisclosed sum.
- Dentsu Group, a Japanese conglomerate, acquired Pexlify, a Dublin-based Salesforce consultancy, for an undisclosed sum.
- Alibaba is pushing deeper into South Asia by targeting a wide range of consumer goods in addition to entertainment offerings. Through the acquisition of e-commerce operator Daraz, Alibaba has expanded to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Myanmar.
- MasterClass has cut 20% of its workforce, affecting 120 people across all teams with the exception of C-suite executives. Employees will be offered 11+ weeks off severance pay and the chance to extend options.
- Roxe, a blockchain payments infrastructure company, will merge with SPAC Goldenstone Acquisition to enter the Nasdaq with a $3.6B valuation.
- Concerned about your SME’s security? Discover what a Zero Trust strategy entails — and how to use it to your advantage.*
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Inside VC's writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master's degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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