Hi Inside Community, Today we hosted one of our best AMA interviews yet — this time with Jason Fried, the founder and CEO of 37signals. (You’ve probably heard of his products Basecamp and HEY, if you haven’t used them yourself.) Jason is a founder and executive with more than two decades of experience, making this a golden opportunity to ask him about his work with startups, product, and everything else he has done along the way. The AMA kicked off at 11 a.m. PDT, and it’s already packed with insights and answers. —The Inside Team | |  Karan | |
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In the first seven months of the year, venture-backed startups in the U.S. secured $15.9B in debt funding across 321 deals. During the same period last year, the debt funding totaled $13.3B across 320 deals, indicating the change in the fundraising landscape this year. More: - In July, U.S.-based startups raised $1.4B in debt funding, almost double the $824M raised in the same month last year.
- The largest debt financing deals this year include Freepoint Commodities’ $2.6B funding, EdgeConneX’s $1.7B debt deal, and Liquidity Capital’s $725M debt fundraise.
- An increasing number of early-stage companies are leveraging debt financing, according to Miguel Fernandez, CEO of alternative financing firm Capchase, which itself raised $400M debt in July.
- Venture debt is popular with fintech companies, especially with startups that provide alternative or revenue-based financing options.
- As venture funding becomes scarce and founders are forced to take a valuation hit at equity fundraises, debt and alternative financing are becoming more popular, per Fernandez.
- Non-dilutive debt financier Hum Capital has provided venture debt to over 165 startups in the last quarter, a significant rise from less than a dozen in the preceding quarter.
- Today, German digital identity provider IDnow received $60.8M (€60M) debt financing from BlackRock to scale its organization.
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Startup accelerator Y Combinator cut its summer cohort by 40% compared to its winter program. The accelerator is funding and training about 250 companies this summer compared to its winter batch, which graduated a record 414 startups. Y Combinator increased the number of startups it trained and funded in summer 2020 when it shifted its program from in-person to remote. More: - Y Combinator had 175 companies in its summer 2019 cohort.
- The accelerator also recently increased its investment amount for new startups from $125,000 to $500,000.
- Y Combinator spokesperson Lindsay Amos said the firm reduced its batch size due to macroeconomic conditions and the realities of returning to in-person gatherings, not in response to prior criticism.
- The accelerator had previously been criticized for having grown too large.
- According to data from KPMG, investments in U.S. startups fell 23% in Q2 compared to last year.
- VCs expect funding to decline further in the second half of the year.
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 A message from WIND RIVER Can the VxWorks real-time operating system fill your embedded system needs? A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system with two key features: predictability and determinism. In an RTOS, repeated tasks are performed within a tight time boundary, while in a general-purpose operating system, this is not necessarily so. Predictability and determinism, in this case, go hand in hand: We know how long a task will take, and that it will always produce the same result. - Determinism: Repeating an input will result in the same output.
- High performance: RTOS systems are fast and responsive, often executing actions within a small fraction of the time needed by a general OS.
- Safety and security: As RTOSes are frequently used in critical systems, such as robotics or flight controllers, they must have higher security standards and more reliable safety features.
- Priority-based scheduling: Actions are scheduled according to their assigned priority; the most important tasks come first.
- Small footprint: Versus their hefty general OS counterparts, RTOSes weigh in at just a fraction of the size: Windows 10, with post-install updates, takes up approximately 20 GB. VxWorks, on the other hand, is measured in the low single-digit megabytes.
In this webinar, we'll go through some of the features of real-time operating systems that can revolutionize your embedded development process, and make sure that an RTOS is the right solution for your use-case. Watch Now
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Lockheed Martin increased the size of its venture fund to $400M, with the increased funds letting it continue backing early-stage startups working on advancing defense technology. The fund size was $200M earlier, which the firm had launched in mid-2018, per Crunchbase. The increased venture fund tranche is funded by earnings from the company's profitable exits, including Aeva, IonQ, and Terran Orbital AI. More: - Since the launch of Lockheed's venture arm in 2007, the firm has backed over 70 startups, with the most prominent startups currently in its portfolio being AyarLabs, CalypsoAI, Hidden Level, Lightmatter, and Mythic.
- So far this year, the firm has invested in 11 firms in the fields of quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, and space services.
- The fund will allow the aerospace and defense company to back companies across AI, autonomy, robotics, cyber security, manufacturing, propulsion technology, space technology, synthetic biology, quantum computing, and other domains.
- Last year, the firm screened over 1,000 companies before narrowing down its list of potential investments.
Zoom out: - Boeing and Raytheon Technologies are other aerospace and defense organizations that have established their venture divisions dubbed HorizonX and RTX Ventures, respectively.
- Boeing took a 20% stake in AEI HorizonX fund, after spinning off HorizonX to AE Industrial Partners.
- RTX Ventures invested in hypersonic aircraft startup Hermeus in May.
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Insignia Ventures Partners, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, has raised $516M for three funds focused on early-stage technology startups in Southeast Asia. The firm said it would aggressively explore opportunities in web3, climate tech, healthcare, and agriculture. The $516M is spread across three funds: $388M for its main fund IVPF III, $28M for an Entrepreneurs’ pool that invests alongside the main fund, and $100M for Annex Fund I. More: - LPs in the new fund include sovereign wealth funds, foundations, university endowments, and family offices from Asia, Europe, and North America.
- Some notable Insignia investments in Southeast Asia include auto retail platform Carro, Indonesian digital investment platform Ajaib, AI for business intelligence company Appier, and Indonesian tech giant GoTo which went public this year.
- Insignia said this fund, like its prior funds, was oversubscribed and reached its hard cap for LP commitments.
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 A message from PERCENT Trying to find sizable returns in this volatile market? Percent gives accredited investors exclusive access to the $7 trillion private credit market, letting you invest like hedge funds and pension plans. What is Private Credit? An asset class involving investments in private loans and debt financing. Investors loan money to companies, receiving interest in return. Investing in these deals means the chance to earn high-yielding interest. Percent investors have unprecedented access to different types of debt financing, including: - Non-bank lenders’ small business and consumer lending portfolios (receivables, merchant cash advances, installment loans)
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Why Percent? They offer up to 18% APY, with an average maturity of 9-months. Plus, deals are largely uncorrelated from the stock market. Ready to learn more? Download our factsheet and find out if Percent and private credit are right for your investing goals. Download Here
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VMG Catalyst announced it has closed a $400M Fund II, bringing the total capital raised across its two funds to $650M. The fund will focus on retail tech in alignment with VMG's thesis that innovative software and sophisticated supply chains will define the next generation of leading brands and retailers. VMG was founded in 2019 by Carle Stenmark, Brooke Kiley, and Jeff Truong. More: - VMG has invested in 22 companies to date across all investment stages.
- Some of the firm's portfolio companies include mobile messaging platform Attentive, grocery delivery service Weee! Grocery, headless commerce platforms Shogun and Swell, financing provider Ampla, and e-commerce analytics platform Daasity.
- In addition to its Fund II, VMG launched its inaugural Commerce Council. The council includes seasoned founders, operators, and digital leaders from consumer brands.
- The council would make investments in companies alongside VMG's Fund II.
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Aisera, a predictive AI and automation platform for customer service, IT, sales, and operations, raised $90M from the Series D funding round. The funding was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Thoma Bravo. Aisera intends to use the proceeds to scale the organization, build out its go-to-market strategy, accelerate product development, increase R&D, and back sales and marketing efforts. More: - Notable investors backing the current financing include True Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Zoom Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank, amongst others.
- Aisera reported 300% YoY growth and increased its customer base to 75 million users.
- Grant Thornton, Zoom, McAfee, and Workday are a few of its prominent clients.
- The recent funding brings the firm’s total fund raised to date to $164.5M, per Crunchbase.
- Icon Ventures led the firm’s $20M Series C round in Dec. 2020.
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- Pitchbook predicts an increase in biotech SPAC mergers, at least three VC firms becoming registered investment advisors, and a rise in U.S.-based investors investing overseas in the U.S. Venture Capital Outlook report.
- Binance co-founder Yi He will lead the firm's venture capital arm Binance Labs, which is one of the largest crypto-focused venture firms with assets under management totaling over $7.5B.
- BitValue Capital launched a $100M venture capital fund with a focus on backing gaming studios, metaverse, GameFi, NFT, DeFi, and other web3 startups.
- British battery tech startup Nexeon, which develops silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries, secured $60M in funding led by Ingevity Corporation.
- French crypto hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger is looking to raise over $100M in a new funding round. The firm is expecting its valuation in the new round to be higher than its last $1.5B valuation.
- ARCH Venture Partners and Human Capital co-led a $50M Series B funding round into Homeward, a San Francisco, Calif.-based startup that is improving primary care access in rural areas.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. Vanessa Omeokachie is a Researcher at Inside. Her interests include finance, tech, and startups. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending music festivals, and traveling. | | | | 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. | |
For nearly 35 years, VxWorks has been used to ensure the security, safety, and reliability you need to design and build mission-critical embedded systems that simply must work.
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