Indian edtech unicorn UpGrad Education bucks the funding trend by raising $225M at a $2.25B valuation. The massive up round included James Murdoch's Lupa Systems, Educational Testing Service, Lakshmi Mittal, Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Temasek. More: - According to an internal source, The funding round is set to increase by a further $100M during a second close at a higher valuation.
- UpGrad offers an up-skilling platform targeting older customers with degrees and the beginning of their careers behind them.
- It also caters to younger customers seeking a leg up in the tests to get into India's elite engineering, medical, and business schools.
- Such companies have fared better in the pullback within the Indian edtech domain, which has seen companies in the K-12 segment instituting painful cuts and even shutting down entirely.
- Founder Ronnie Screwvala, who built and sold to Disney a cable-TV company in the '80s, says that his company is targeting $500M in gross revenue by the year ending in March 2023.
- Beyond that, it plans to undertake an IPO in the next two years.
- With growth in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Middle East, the company anticipates 3 million paying users in the next year.
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Sequoia publicized three presentations on weathering the crisis prepared for its portfolio companies. The advice follows on the heels of the storied VC firm's latest note to startups warning about the forthcoming economic crunch and the need to avoid the "death spiral." More: - Forecasting and Scenario Planning
- Now that investors have pivoted to a "risk-on" environment, they are no longer interested in story-telling and metrics but rather hard financials.
- The same is true of customers, whose capital companies now need to grow and solve problems.
- In order for startups to reach a free cash flow environment capable of sustaining themselves in a tougher macro climate, they need to adapt to reality by understanding new constraints on consumer spending habits, external funding, and the need to restrict their own spending.
- Extending Your Runway
- Companies need to be honest about their cash balance (funds on hand minus debt) and their monthly burn.
- Once they have determined their runway, they should anticipate ways it can be increased, or in the worst-case scenario, be shortened.
- In order to determine how much runway is necessary before raising more external funding becomes unavoidable, companies need to consider the milestones they need to reach before taking on more equity or debt.
- Most founders think they need less runway than is actually the case.
- Leading in Uncertain Times
- Founders used to heading companies in easy business environments must pivot to new tactics during crunch times.
- Their success in this will define whether their company is able to establish a culture capable of adapting to challenges.
- By transitioning from a team of leaders to a leadership team focused only on the business essentials and forecasting accuracy, companies can build trust and capitalize on strong communication.
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Smartphone-producing startup Nothing has clinched a $200M investment from GV, EQT Ventures, and former Apple designer Tony Fadell. The company, run by smartphone brand OnePlus founder Carl Pei, intends to crack the market dominated by Apple and Samsung. More: - The funding comes as $144M in equity funding and a $65M revolving line of credit from its sales partners
- The company is working with Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Flipkart in India to distribute its maiden device, Phone (1), when it debuts.
- The company has a 330-strong team and runs its supply chain and hardware from Shenzhen, China, with other offices spread throughout Europe, India, Taiwan, and California.
- Since the product went live in August, it has also shipped 530,000 units of Ear (1) wireless earbuds, portending good fortunes moving forward.
- Still, suppliers wary of hardware startups have already tried to pump the brakes on the company.
- After ordering 700,000 screens, Nothing was able to boost that figure following a funding round and Ear (1)’s successful launch.
Flashback: - This is not the first time a startup has taken on the smartphone market.
- For example, Andy Rubin, co-creator of the Android mobile operating system, tried to carve out a segment of the market with his startup Essential.
- After raising $330M, the company shut down in 2020 after its 2017 smartphone launch and sold fewer than 100,000 units in its first six months.
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DataStax, a provider of serverless database services, raised $115M at a $1.6B led by Goldman Sachs. The valuation is a 33% premium over a round completed just a year ago. Participation in the round also came from RCM Private Markets, EDB, Crosslink Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, OnePrime Capital, and others. More: - Founded in 2010, DataStax is headed by Chet Kapoor, a veteran of API company Apigee who was brought on in 2019.
- Kapoor brought on former colleague Sam Ramji as CSO and promptly acquired Kesque, among other companies, before rolling out Astra, a serverless database built on top of Cassandra and Astra Streaming.
- The duo claims that the company could someday reach $1B in annual revenue.
- The company announced 350% year-to-year sales growth after its first quarter this year.
- DataStax’s reliance on an open-source platform is intended to give it exposure to the type of innovation that happens in coder communities.
The wider lens: - The funding round comes as data companies are struggling to attract investors. According to Crunchbase data, this year has only seen $1.5B deployed over 61 deals to the sector, compared with $4.7B in 168 deals last year.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - Mosaic Biosciences (Boulder, Colo.), protein and antibody discovery company: $11.4M led by Telegraph Hill Partners, participation from Dan Mitchell, et al.
Blockchain - NFTPort (Estonia), NFT infrastructure: $26M A led by Taavet+Sten, Atomico.
Cybersecurity - GreyNoise (Washington, D.C.), internet scanning traffic analysis for threat comprehension: ...
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Quick Hits - Trying to deliver on big expectations with a small team or budget? Use this worksheet to learn how you can do more with less.*
- Lee Fixel's Addition is seeking to raise a fresh $1.5B fund for its Asia-targeted multi-stage investment strategy. The firm's fourth vehicle comes just a year after it pulled in $1.4B for its third.
- Berlin-based Project A Ventures raised its fourth fund at $375M, the 10-year-old firm's largest to date. The new capital brought its AUM to $1B as it pursues a pre-seed to Series A funding strategy focusing on B2B and B2C companies.
- Wealthsimple, a Canadian fintech company with a $4B valuation, has cut its workforce by 13%, affecting 159 employees. It will return to its core products, moving away from P2P payments and tax/merchant services.
- Food Rocket, a U.S.-based grocery delivery platform, is now considering an IPO after adding Guillaume Leger, the former CFO of Hong Kong Citigroup, to its board.
- Microsoft will buy NYC-based cyber threat analysis provider Miburo for an undisclosed sum.
*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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