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| Hey Insiders, Today we are taking a look at Robinhood's acquisition of X1, Acryl's $21M funding round, and the reason behind Pillow's shutdown. We have also rounded up the top early-stage funding rounds of this week. Scroll down for some quick hits, and then let us know what other content you'd like to see in future issues. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | Robinhood is planning to acquire credit card startup X1 for $95M. X1 issues income-based credit cards with rewards and single-use credit cards. More: - The deal is expected to be completed in September.
- On July 18, X1 reported $50M in monthly volume, expecting to reach $1B in annualized spend by the end of the year.
- X1 said it had 500,000 people on its waiting list in 2022.
- The credit card startup follows Robinhood's acquisition of newsletter MarketSnacks in 2019, crypto exchange Cove Markets, hiring firm Binc, and shareholders' platform Say Technologies in 2021, and U.K. crypto exchange Ziglu in 2022.
NOTE: Inside.com founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Robinhood. |     | |
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VCs deployed $812M in early-stage North American startups this week from June 19 to June 23, per Crunchbase data. Mining startups raked in 24% of the funding this week. Biotech, IT, and healthcare startups nabbed 18%, 14%, and 8% of the financing, respectively. Here are the top 10 largest rounds announced this week: - Berkeley, California-based mining startup KoBold Metals, which leverages AI for battery mineral exploration, cemented its unicorn status with a $195M funding round led by T. Rowe Price. Existing backers Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Bond participated in the current round. The firm was valued at $1.15B.
- Alamar Biosciences and Frazier Life Sciences formed a new biotech startup called Attovia Therapeutics to focus on immune-mediated disease and cancer treatment biotherapeutics. The firm launched with $60M Series A funding led by Frazier, with participation from venBio and Illumina Ventures.
- Computerized maintenance management systems developer Limble nabbed $58M in Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management at a $450M valuation.
- San Francisco-based cloud startup Render closed its Series B round with $50M in funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the current round, with participation from existing backers General Catalyst, South Park Common Fund, and Addition.
- Delve Bio, a startup developing metagenomic sequencing for infectious diseases, emerged from stealth with a $35M Series A round led by Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund II. Section 32 and GV participated in the round.
- Oncolytic virus startup Calidi Biotherapeutics raised a $25M Series B funding led by Jackson Investment Group.
- Kleiner Perkins led a $25M Series B funding round into AI-powered video creation platform Captions. Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel participated in the funding round.
- Vehicle-secured credit card platform Yendo closed its Series A funding round at $24M. FPV Ventures led the funding round with participation from Human Capital and Autotech Ventures.
- Real-estate investing integrated technology provider Picket announced a $20M Series B funding round led by LL Funds.
- British voice AI startup ElevenLabs raised $19M in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Freidman, and Daniel Gross.
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| 3 | | Acryl Data, the company behind the open-source data project DataHub, announced it raised a $21M Series A led by 8VC. The startup works on a cloud data management platform that enables central controls across the decentralized data stack. More: - DataHub is used by companies such as Pinterest, Optum, and Stripe.
- The startup's cloud product clients include Zendesk, Notion, Riskified, and MYOB.
- The round included participation from the CEO of Vercel, Guillermo Rauch, and Sherpalo Ventures.
- The company previously raised $9M in 2021 from 8VC, LinkedIn, Insight Partners, and BossaNova Investimentos.
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| 4 | | Accel India-backed crypto startup Pillow will cease operations by July 31, citing regulatory uncertainty. The company was headquartered in Singapore but was founded and operated primarily in India. Crypto startups have found it difficult to continue operations in India after its central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), pushed lenders to stop engaging with crypto startups. More: - The crypto investing platform allowed users to invest in Bitcoin, stablecoins, and altcoins for up to 18% returns.
- As the crypto markets started to drop, the firm lowered its returns to 14%.
- Pillow had raised $21M from investors to date, the last of which came through an $18M Series A funding round last October.
- In addition to Accel, the firm was also backed by Quona Capital, Elevation Capital, and Jump Crypto.
Zoom out: - Pillow's rival decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, Flint Labs, shut down last month, citing regulatory challenges and "negative market sentiment."
- The RBI suspended UPI support for Coinbase less than four days after its trading platform launched in the nation.
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| 5 | | On Friday, the U.K. government announced the creation of a £21M ($26.75M) fund for artificial intelligence tools to be applied to the National Health Service. "The use of AI decision support software in the initial stages of stroke care means patients get interventions quicker, reducing the likelihood of disability and saving the brains," said the national clinical director for stroke medicine at the NHS, Dr. Deb Lowe. More: - The U.K. government previously set up a £100M fund for startups to develop AI applications for healthcare and education, among other areas.
- The agency is seeking image recognition tools that diagnose heart conditions, cancer, and strokes.
- NHS Trusts would be able to apply for the use of any AI diagnostic model that would justify the spend, according to the agency.
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| 6 | | Lithuania is building a €100M ($109.6M) tech campus in the capital of Vilnius as it sets its target to become Europe's major tech hub. The 55,000 square meters (592,015 square feet) campus is set to snatch the title for Europe's largest tech hub from Paris' Station F. More: - The tech campus, called Tech Zity, will house 5,000 workers and likely open in 2024.
- The Lithuanian government has decided to capitalize on the growing number of startups in the region and published a €13M ($14.1M) open tender earlier this March to entice an "internationally acclaimed startup accelerator" to set up shop in the nation.
- Notable startups from the region include used clothes marketplace Vinted, which is raising $562M at a $4.5B valuation, and NordVPN, valued at $1.6B last year.
- €30M ($32.7M) has already been committed to Tech Zity, 80% of which was given by Vinted's co-founder and COO Mantas Mikuckas, with the other 20% coming from Tech Zity founder Darius Žakaitis.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Combine traditional project management with your docs, knowledge base, and AI.*
- Amazon earmarked $100M towards the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, a fund designed to help AWS customers ideate and launch generative AI products and services.
- Andreessen Horowitz and Shield Capital co-led a $16M Series A funding round into satellite bus manufacturing startup Apex Space.
- Seattle-based booking, payroll, and tax workflow products maker Heard secured $15M in Series A-2 funding led by Headline. GGV, Footwork, Founders Co-Op, Act One, and Heron Rock participated in the funding round.
- German space startup Atmos Space Cargo closed its oversubscribed seed round at €4M ($4.3M). High-Tech Gründerfonds and the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund led the round, with additional backing from Seraphim Space, E2MC, Ventis, and another.vc.
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Term of the Day Commercial real estate: Commercial real estate (CRE) is property used to generate profit through capital gain or rental income. Question of the Week How do you feel about the phrase "The customer is always right"? 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. | | This newsletter was edited by Beth Duckett | |
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