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| Hey Insiders, Today's newsletter covers: - 📉 Dip in U.S. investments in Chinese startups
- 💰 Hive AI's upcoming $200M funding round
- 🤝 Serve Robotics reverse merger and $30M pre-merger round
We have also rounded up the top late-stage funding rounds of this week. If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Karan
p/karan-chafekar | |
| 1 | | U.S. venture investors have participated in 94 Chinese startup funding deals so far this year, putting it on track to touch the lowest tally in the past five years. Investors had already reduced their pace of funding in anticipation of the new executive order, which President Joe Biden signed on Wednesday. U.S. investors have led or co-led only $2.8B worth of deals in Chinese startups this year. More: - U.S. investors participated in deals worth $3.2B last year, about one-third of the $10.1B worth of deals participated in 2021.
- The most active U.S. investors, GGV Capital and GSR Ventures, have drastically scaled back their participation in Chinese startup deals to just four and three so far this year, respectively.
- Since 2021 GGV and GSR have made 75 and 36 investments, respectively.
- While investments from U.S. investors have dropped, domestic investors have helped stabilize the VC funding in China.
- In Q2 2023, Chinese startups raked in $11.2B funding, higher than the previous quarter and the same quarter last year.
Zoom out: - The Asia region witnessed a 50% drop in VC funding in the first half of the year.
- The slump was more pronounced for India and Israel, with China being the only outlier in the region to defy the VC funding pullback.
Q: What impact will the new executive order have on Chinese startups? Let us know here. |     | |
| 2 | | VCs deployed $1.1B in late-stage and beyond global startups this week between Aug. 5 and 11, per Crunchbase data. 
Biotech startups raked in 52% of the funding this week. Cybersecurity, proptech, and analytics startups nabbed 14%, 9%, and 4.8% of the financing, respectively. Here are the top five largest rounds announced this week: - Elon Musk's brain-computing interface startup Neuralink Corp. secured $280M Series D funding led by Peter Thiel's VC firm Founders Fund.
- RNA therapeutics biotech startup ADARx Pharmaceuticals raised a $200M Series C funding round co-led by Bain Capital Life Sciences and TCGX. Blackrock, Invus, T. Rowe Price Associates, Lilly Asia Ventures, and others participated in the round.
- Brazilian residential real estate marketplace Loft Group raised $100M in fresh funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Altimeter, Citi Ventures, DST, Fifth Wall, GIC, and others.
- Resilience has raised $100M to scale its cyber risk analysis platform. The round was led by Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions, with participation from General Catalyst and Founders Fund.
- Gene therapy biotech startup Neurophth Therapeutics closed its Series C+ funding round at $95M. Yangtze River-CMB International Industry Fund, Wuhan Optical Valley Financial Holding Group, Wuhan Hi-Tech Holding Group, Hubei KTLC, and Guangzhou Jinkong Fund co-led the financing.
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| 3 | | AI-powered digital content moderation startup Hive AI is looking to raise $200M in fresh funding. The firm is targeting a valuation close to $4B, nearly twice its previous valuation of $2B in 2021. More: - The San Francisco-based startup helps customers identify and block unwanted content.
- Another use case of the platform includes identifying fake listings on e-commerce and real estate sites.
- Notable clients using its platform include Visa, Netflix, and Reddit.
- Hive raised $85M at its last funding round in 2021 from Glynn Capital, General Catalyst, Tomales Bay Capital, and Bain & Co.
Zoom out: - Hive's fundraising effort coincides with investors' heightened enthusiasm for AI startups, which raised $25B in H1 2023, nabbing 18% of the global funding.
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| 4 | | Nvidia and Uber-backed autonomous food delivery robots maker Serve Robotics completed a reverse merger with blank check firm Patricia Acquisition Corp to go public. Additionally, the firm raised $30M led by Uber, Nvidia, and Wavemaker prior to the merger. Serve Robotics will use the proceeds to expand into new markets in the U.S., accelerate product development, and scale its autonomous robot delivery fleet. More: - The Los Angeles-based startup spun out from on-demand delivery company Postmates after Uber acquired it for $2.65B in late 2020.
- Per regulatory filings seen by TechCrunch, Uber and Nvidia hold 16.2% and 11% stakes in Serve Robotics, respectively.
- Uber inked a commercial agreement with Serve Robotics to assign up to 2,000 robots for Uber Eats deliveries.
- Per co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani, the firm has seen a 30% MoM growth in delivery volumes in the past 18 months.
Note: Inside.com CEO and founder Jason Calcanis is an investor in Uber. | | | |
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| 5 | | Singaporean immersive entertainment firm Neon is in talks with investors to raise a $200M funding round, sources informed Bloomberg. The deal terms and size could change as negotiations are still in the early phases. Last year the firm bagged S$150M ($115M) from Singaporean state investment firm Temasek's subsidiary 65 Equity Partners. More: - The firm was established in 1956 as Cityneon and provides immersive experiences and exhibitions.
- Neon raised S$5.3M ($3.9M) when it went public in 2005.
- A consortium led by Hong Kong businessman Johnson Ko and Cityneon executive chairman Ron Tan took the company private in February 2019 in a S$318M ($236M) deal.
- Neon secured S$235M ($175M) from Pavilion Capital, Temasek's Seatown Holdings, and Singapore's Economic Development Board's investment arm.
- Other notable backers of the firm include Citic Capital and Qatar's Doha Venture Capital.
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| 6 | | Today's Funding: Data - Data visualization startup Virtualitics nabbed a $37M Series C funding, bringing its total capital raised to date to $67M. Smith Point Capital led the current round with participation from Citi and The Hillman Company.
Energy - German sustainable energy startup NeXtWind secured $750M from its second round of financing. Sandbrook Capital, Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), and IMCO provided the funding.
- Portugal-based renewable energy company REGA Energy Group raised €60M ($66.2M) in additional funding from existing investor SWEN Capital Partners.
- Fusion energy startup General Fusion raised $25M (CA$33.5M) in Series F funding from BDC Capital and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC.
PropTech - Real estate title verification solutions startup Flueid extended its Series B round with $12.5M in additional funding, consisting of a $10M equity tranche led by Aquiline Technology Growth and a $2.5M debt financing from Eastward Capital Partners. The round is an extension to the firm's $20M Series B round from October 2022.
Retail - Wellington Management and ArcTern Ventures co-led a $30M Series E funding round into branded resale solutions startup Trove. Mitsui Fudosan's CVC Fund, G2 Venture Partners, Prelude Ventures, and others participated in the funding round.
Social Media - Dining and nightlife experience-sharing video platform Atmosfy announced a $12M seed funding round led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Palm Tree Crew Investments, Streamlined Ventures, Industry Ventures, Canaan Partners, Village Global, and Progression Fund.
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- 3D display hardware startup Leia Inc. acquired Dutch display technology company Dimenco for an undisclosed sum.
- British digital bank startup Starling is planning to expand operations to the Asia-Pacific region. This will be the Goldman Sachs-backed digital lender's first expansion outside of Europe.
- Blackstone-backed Dutch solar mounting firm Esdec Solar Group has roped in banks JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to assist the firm in its initial public listing. The firm is targeting a valuation of $5B.
- American Gene Technologies spinout Addimmune is set to go public via a SPAC merger with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp. III.
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Term of the Day Bridge financing: Bridge financing rounds are defined as interim financing that a startup raises between two rounds of financing. Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? Join the conversation |
INSIDE VENTURE CAPITAL LEADERBOARD (30 DAYS) |
 | Analyst | | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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